Art Journal

Power & Gaze

Gaze & Power 8/29

Not only was The Birth of Venus by Botticelli a magnificent canvas showcasing a mythological scene and fit for a country villa, but it also showcased the first figure of a nude female in full size. This has not been done since the times of antiquity. Looking at the composition of The Birth of Venus painting, we notice the nude figure of Venus in the central position. She stands on a large scallop shell covering her breasts with her right hand and her left hand and long hair cover her genitals.

This sexualized painting falls under the principle of power and gaze which are two of seven elements that Duncum claims make up visual culture. Venus was the Roman Goddess of love, beauty, prosperity, sex, and many other attributes related to love. With Venus being the subject of this painting the male gaze is prevalent as she herself represents beauty, love, and sex. The artist made the artistic decision to sexualized the subject. On the left of Venus are two figures in the air, busy blowing towards Venus. They have been identified as the Greek god Zephyr, associated with the west winds. He was one of the gentler winds, associated with the beginnings of Spring. They are placed above her in the composition, signifying their power or higher status over her. Furthermore, they seem to be gazing and almost mesmerized by Venus.

I never knew that all of those traditional still life paintings of fruit, cheeses, and bottles are a representation of a simple, yet fruitful life. They are merely symbolism and an indicator of how an individual lives their life. If you examine each element closely, you can start to piece together a narrative about an individual or situation.
The #notabugsplat piece made me emotional. The U.S. military has been using drone technology to watch, monitor, and fire missiles at people on the ground, killing thousands of innocent people including children. The photograph is taken from an aerial perspective which is the same perspective as a drone. The perspective impacted me emotionally; it made me think, if a pilot saw a giant image of an innocent child on the ground, would they strike?
Photographs are proof of an event or of existence, they capture people and places in time. For instance after the holocaust, survivors sent photographs of themselves as an affirmation of existence. People say you can’t relive memories, but photographs are physical evidence of a moment.

Practicing Looking 8/31

The connotation of this image, or the cultural/societal meaning is that we are interconnected with earth and all living organisms. The denotation or literal meaning is that our neural network is so complex that its comparable to the root network of plants.

Autoethnography 9/19

History and related stories gives us a very clear picture of how the various aspects of society such as technology, governmental systems, and even society as a whole, worked in the past so we understand how it came to work the way it is now. A lot of us share similar experiences therefore we can relate to the stories we hear from others. I am from a super small town in Ohio. I can recall an instance from my first week at CSU, I randomly met another guy from my hometown which never happens. We talked about how lame Ohio is and bonded over some of the things that Ohio has to offer like Cedar Point amusement park and Ohio State Football. This experience really made feel more comfortable being a freshman on a big campus.

Power, Gaze, Gender 9/21

One thing that shocked me about this reading was the guerrilla girls running a survey which resulted in less than 3 percent of artists shown in art museums were women while 83 percent of the nudes displayed there were female. That just shows hoe prominent men are in running the art world. Another insight was the edited picture of Justin Bieber and Ellen. Although it was a meme and she is much more famous than him, he seemed more powerful in the photograph because he was half naked and likely photoshopped to look more muscular and masculine. My last point is more of a question, if the male gaze is the perspective in most movies, do you think this could be responsible for gender norms?