Byebye now

So, to sum things up very briefly… this was definitely one of my favorite classes of the semester. Honestly when I first registered I had no idea what I was signing up for and it wasn’t until the first day of class that I realized it was an Anthropology of Art class and I was stoked!

We have covered so many interesting topics this semester and I truly enjoyed each day with presentations because I think we all picked really great things to share. These presentations also opened my eyes to multiple art forms I was either unaware of or had very little knowledge of.

My final project for this class was my favorite project of the semester because I think it’ll be something I will focus my studies on in the long term. I want to say thanks to everyone for being such a supportive and open-minded class with great insights. Also thank you Rebecca for making all the learning experiences in your class so fun and active, I’m really looking forward to having another class with you next semester. Yay!

I hope you all have awesome adventures during break!

Sierra J

Ayahuasca Art: Our Window into the Spirit World

Before beginning my project I knew that I wanted to do something that was related to psychotropic plants, and that’s how I ended up mainly focusing on ayahuasca art. Besides just looking at beautiful artwork I wanted to gain a better understand of what an ayahuasca experience is like and what these art pieces mean to the artist who created them. An ayahuasca experience is an extremely personal one so I think that the art that is developed from it reveals a lot about the artist at a very personal level. One of my favorite areas of research pertains to plants, and especially psychedelics. I love the mystery that the hold and the effects they have vary from person to person. I’m also very interested in shamanism and the role they play as spiritual guides for the individuals who want to under-go a spiritual quest.

In my research I first began to look into the main components of ayahuasca as well as where the plant come from and when it was first used. The Latin name for the ayahuasca vine is Banisteropsis caapi, meaning “vine of the soul”, and can be found in varies Amazonian regions. It’s mainly used in Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, and Brasil. The first Westerner to discover the plant was an English ethnobotanist named Richard Spruce. From then on people of than the indigenous cultures of the Amazonian region began to take interest in the vine and its effects. In preparation the ayahuasca vine must be boil with a type of plant that contains DMT (dimethlytriptamine), once ingested the ayahuasca (which is an MAOI inhibitor) allows the DMT to release in the brain which causes it’s psychedelic effects.  From there I began to examine different experiences people/artists had with ayahuasca. I found that during this experience you are no longer at a conscious level, but a sub-concious level and that the experience people have are extremely real and life-changing. Then I began to look into how these life-altering visions are displayed in art. I read many interviews with visionary artists and learned that many pieces are direct illustrations of what one of their visions were like. One well-known visionary artist that I researched is Alex Grey, his artwork is amazing and very anatomically detailed. He first began to use this style after a vision he had where he was standing in front of a mirror and all of the sudden his whole body filled with light and he turned transparent. I found that all these artists shared similar motives behind their artwork. Each one felt that growing and learning from past experience is extremely important and that you can’t run away from your fears, its best just to face them. Also the relationship humans have with the Earth is commonly depicted in ayahuasca art.

If I were to continue this project I would want to go more in-depth of the shaman’s role and figure out exactly what it takes to become a master of the spirit world. Shamans have an intense relationship with plants which I think is phenomenal. They’re basically living Bontanical Encylopedias and a lot of their knowledge that has been passed down for years are being lost. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to travel to South America and possibly find some sort of project on the lines of preserving their skill and knowledge.

Everything is Connected

Prior to my trip back home to Fresno for Thanksgiving my Dad told me about a project that he had been working on in the back yard of my family’s home where  he, my mom, brother, sister, and grandma live. My entire life I’ve lived in the country, which I think is an amazing place to grow up, and my family has always had a giant yard to do whatever in. My dad is an extremely creative man; before he became a teacher he was a carpenter for many years and still practices carpentry as well as landscaping all the time. The man honestly can’t stop coming up with new projects to build in and around the house.  During the months I was away from home (prior to Thanksgiving) he told me about his current project in the backyard. When he first explained to me that he was building a “giant doorway” in the backyard, I didn’t exactly know what he was talking about, but I thought that it sounded cool and I was excited to see it. Sure enough when I come home my Dad had literally built a giant doorway in a garden area that he had also landscaped in the backyard. This doorway is giant! It stands 12 ft tall, and 6 ft wide, the door itself is 4 inches thick. Standing in front of it I felt like I was at the entrance of a medieval castle. And that wasn’t it! When you opened the door you enter into a ring of twenty-one redwood trees that he had planted as the inner circle, and in the middle of the circle he had placed a fire pit. There are two more rings of trees that he planted outside the inner ring. Right now the redwood trees are only a couple years old so they’re not that big, but around 50 years from now there’s going to be an awesome mystical mini forest in that backyard.

There are other times when I consumed art that I could’ve blogged about, but this structure and beautiful garden/forest area that my dad built is art that definitely meant most to me. I have truly been blessed with amazing parents who strongly encourage creativity, and not only encourage it but they both lead very artistic lives. When my dad was showing me the doorway and fire pit circle he built he explained to me that he had planted 21 trees on the inner circle for a reason, he said, “They stand for a philosophy that you will follow your entire life.” At first I didn’t quite understand his riddle or what he was getting at, so he left me to ponder on it for a day without any hints. On my last day home he began pointed at different trees and telling me a letter that each one represented. I began to piece together some of the letters and finally it dawned on me that the 21 trees stood for the tattoo I have on my left shoulder, which I designed and reads “EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED” in a full-circle. Knowing that he built this beautiful forest area with me in mind made me feel extremely special and loved. He also gave my tattoo even more meaning because now it holds a strong symbolism to this little forest at home.

The Social Lives of Objects

When I think about the social lives of objects I think about what one particular object can mean to a certain group, and how it can change from culture to culture across the globe. I also think of all the little things that we use in our everyday lives that singled out could show a lot about an individual. For instance, clothing. Clothing is an object that we are able to have a lot of freedom with, and every morning when we get dressed we have a little time to “make special” when we piece together our attire for the day. Some people don’t find the event of getting dressed a special or exciting thing, but others put more effort. Some of the objects that we chose to wear are small representations of who we are.

There are also objects that are significant to an entire community. I’ll use the American flag as an example. The flyin’ stars and stripes is an image that can be recognized globally. It stands for a nation and its entire history.  It is displayed all across the world as a representation of the USA. To Americans this image may be comforting and hold a sense of nationalism; to others in the world it may mean something else.  The American flag is a common symbol that has be used in art to still represent the USA, but with a different twist. There is a lot of political art that has been created with the American flag from artists displaying how they feel about the USA.

This is a photo created by Dread Scott in 1989 was extremely controversial. This was on display in the School of Art Institute of Chicago. He placed the American flag on the floor leading up to a book where viewers were encouraged to write their answer to the question, “What is the proper way to display a US flag?”  On the wall just above they book there is a photo of South Korean students hold up anti-America signs and burning the flag. So here we have a symbol that is known across the world, but obviously doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Congress members were outraged by this display, while Scott is proposing a serious question.

Ethno-aesthetics and Dance

In the beginning of the article the author, Joann Kealiinohomoku, explains how anthropologists see dance as something that can directly represent a culture. Western scholars disagree with this, they do not believe that dance should be seen as something that represents a specific culture. She explains that as she researched the history of dance and how it came about she found many contradictions and no real answers.

By explaining the term primitive, the author notes that this term should not be confused with primeval; we can see that there is no real evidence of a primitive dance, but only dances that can be performed by primitive people. As for primeval, it is hard to say anything about primeval dance because we know close to nothing about it. According to Sorell primitive dances have no technique or artistry. He says that they are “disorganized and frenzied, but they are able to transform feeling and emotions into movement”. He also states that primitives do not know the difference between symbolic dancing and concrete because they dance for any occasion. This statement can relate to ethno-aestheticism because by researching the meaning of a certain dance to a specific culture you can learn how that culture may have viewed the world and what things in the world they hold most important to them. At the same time, Sorell said that primitive people may dance for any occasion so this makes ethno-aesthetic analysis difficult because they might not be any reasons for doing a certain type of dance, it might be performed just for the sake of dancing.

Focusing on the ethnologic branch of dance we can see that each dancer has their own reasons for dancing and that we must take the dancers biased into consideration when analyzing a dance. Different people play different roles within the dance and it is important to recognize that.

According to Sorell a “folk dance” is one that has not been mastered or “refined”. It is a raw dance that has not been perfected. Others argue that folk dance may be the kind of dance that was performed during the time primitive man was evolving into civilized man.

With all the arguments brought up in the article, they go to show how important ethno-aesthetics are. To better our understanding of a dance, whether it be primitive, folk, or ethnic, we must attempt to share the same cognitive map as the dancer. Ethno-aesthetics can be used to our advantage in these studies and reveal a better and complete understanding of dance.

Ethno-aesthetics

Definition: Ethno-aesthetic analysis is used when trying to understand art done by indigenous people, by looking at the art within its context. To do this successful using cultural relativism is key; we must look at art under its own terms rather than placing it under western values.

We discussed multiple areas in class that should be kept in mind when conducting an ethno-aesthetic analysis. We must look at art as the indigenous people who created it do. Here are a few examples of how indigenous people see art:

-          Art is sacred

-          Art is community based

-          Art/artists are not “above” society

-          Art is useful and beautiful

-          Art must be understood within its cultural context

-          There is little/no pressure for creation

When we look at art we can possibly be assuming the stability of an object. Ethno-aestheticism can help us to have a general understanding of art, but we must take into consideration the flaws that may happen when analyzing art. The meaning behind pieces can be lost and not accounted for once the art is displayed in a gallery or in a museum because it takes away the social aspect. Also a lot of art that is created strictly for tourism is derived from these original pieces that hold great significance, but once recreated for tourists it is not the same. Indigenous art is usually strongly tied with a specific place where the meaning, or stories, behind the art were created. In western art we do not go through this same process, our art usually are byproducts of a manufacturing process.

By studying the ethno-aesthetics of a piece of art we can grow closer and have a better understanding of a culture. The Calavera Revolucionaria is a great example by Jose Posada that we looked at in class. After reading the ethno-aesthetic analysis of this piece I have gained a better understanding of the artist and exactly what he stands for. There is a lot of information to focus on in this kind of analysis. We’re not only looking at an image, but diving deep into it and also its cultural representation. Calavera Revolucionaria is an image of a female calavera riding a horse and swinging a lasso over her head. That is the main gist of the image, but after reading the article it is obvious that a lot of detail, that may normally go unnoticed, was put into this image. Posada is known for his artwork and it relation with the revolution in Mexico. This image was a very strong one for its time and represented the things that Posada saw in the world around him. He was living in a time of great political unrest and in a social revolution. He depicts these things within his artwork, and from understanding that and the representation of the images he creates we can learn a lot not only about him, but the time the pieces were created, and his culture.

Religion and Art

In Chapter 3 Layton begins to explore Australian Aboriginal art and its link to religion. Through studies of Australian Aboriginal peoples Durkheim coined the term totemism (which links and organizes the animals and natural world). He noticed that two things that were similar, but at the same time very different, was also noticed by these groups of people, and they found importance in them. Having dual oppositions (such as day and night or sun and moon) gave a division to a society. Each totem has significance to a specific group of people, when looking at this on a larger scale Durkheim and Levi-Strauss were able to see that each group had a specific identity within the wider society. Tribes would create figurative representations on ceremonial objects which would represent their beliefs. Different objects have different meanings, and depending what art is created on them that may also alter the meaning/power of a piece. Durkheim believed that the symbols created in Australian Aboriginal art was created with a ‘sense of power’. Since the art is heavy with geometric forms such as arcs, triangles, dots, circles, and straight lines this would be a depiction of a totemic relationship, not necessarily a recreation of a plant or animal.

Each clan within the Yolngu people, from South America, uses a particular design that is unique to each clan. With each clan using a different design (including semi-circles, and diamonds), these designs may also be used during ceremonial practices when members paint their bodies, this is a depiction of a totemic ancestor. The Yolngu people display different experiences that are particular to their culture within their art. During funerals certain imagery is expressed in painting. This is similar to what we saw in the Waiting for Harry film. The art that is done during rituals such as a funeral are not just depictions, that hold significant ritual power that is very important to the culture.

Through these examples we can see that art is vital in spiritual experiences. It incorporates animals and other symbols within a culture. Art can provide us with visual evidence of a culture and how they interpret the world around them.