f i b e r t i g e r

I finally have a new website for work:  www.meenasatnarain.com

Oh my, what a month March has been and April is no kidder either!  School is progressing rapidly.  Currently in depth with thesis writing and making work, some of the process I will share shortly and the rest can be seen in person during the MFA thesis exhibition which opens in a little over a month.

As I am working with some themes of language and materiality, just want to share some images from the Continuum studio class taught by Catherine D’Ignazio and Daniel Howe during my first semester in Fall 2007.  This was an exercise in making impromptu work.  The first picture shows an embodied and re-fragmented poem displayed on my hand that kept flying away in the wind.  The second photo is a favorite, which shows various hands attempting to keep the words at bay.

photo credit:  Yan Da?

photo credit:  Yan Da?

hey, does anyone know of a website that displays various Maori kites?  not really part of my immediate research but i think they’re interesting to look at.

A few years ago when I was going through the thesis process for art education, I made a time-based sculpture called Soluble Inklings (2004) for a show called Praxis in Practice.  It was in the gallery for two weeks.

Materials:  computer paper, rag paper, printer ink, pen ink, India ink, alcohol, water, plastic jars.

My use and treatment of very specific ink and paper materials validates the metaphorical relationship I was making between the tangible process of writing and the abstract process of reflection.  In another way:  black ink that diffuses through water looks amazing, but there was also a reason behind my methodology.  In one of the large jars I had the literature review of all the theory that influenced me as an educator, printed out, and cut into strips.  In the other jar, I transcribed an audio recording of my late grandfather who was a rice farmer talking about this winding journey that he had taken in order to find gold when he was my age at the time.  I wrote the narrative by hand starting at the perimeter of a big sheet of rag paper and spiraled the text inward, so it was one continuous line to snip and roll into a ball.  My grandfather’s retelling of the journey was perhaps 50 years displaced in time, but his memory was super sharp as he talked about the people and places he met along the way.  This was a simple gesture of a piece, but it is in close proximity to my heart and I believe reveals my mark as a maker.

I’m reminded of this piece as I’m currently sorting through influences of sentences that I need to piece together somehow and make into one narrative document that is “Digital + Media Thesis.”  I’m up for the task BUT can I say - computer notes, underlined notes in books, website bookmarks, sticky notes of sentences - feels like grasping for ticker tapes in a parade sometimes (if i only knew what that felt like!)  I guess that’s better than stumbling around and groping for things in the dark, which thankfully this does not feel like.

I was reminded today of something horrific I once saw when walking down the street near Washington Square Park around 5 years ago.  I was walking to class and entered upon a small gathering of people looking upward.  A few stories above was a child in a light dress frantically banging her fists against the window.  It appeared like she was yelling, though we couldn’t hear her, and at times she even pushed her little body violently against the glass.  Her manner of dress and even her hair reminded me of the 19th century.  The room she was in was lit by a lamp with a warm glow.  Memories of this experience seem to shift to more of a painterly direction as time goes by and these days I see the cool colors of the dusk and the pale of her slight being more than anything else.  There was only so much of this scene I could witness back then and I walked away, never knowing what truly happened, but get chills whenever I think about it.

Two quotes that are tickling me right now:

“All the things you always wanted, you know… because you don’t have it and you want it so bad, you can see it in so many flavors.”
-Pharrell Williams

“You always have to be shifting what your idea of beauty is to make your life wonderful. I think in your private life you’re supposed to make it like a paradise garden.”
-Kiki Smith

When I was teaching in Brooklyn, I dreaded 6th period classes the most (6th period in this school was after lunch, the longest period of the day, and statistically had the most fights).  But one semester in 2007 I had a group that I simply loved.  Don’t get me wrong, they were still saucy teenagers, but could make me laugh in a kind of amazing way.  We had good times.  I even made them a mixtape once!  Before you call me a total sap, it was in conjunction with a project we were doing for Black History Month where they chose an artist (historical or contemporary) from the visual, performing, or musical arts and create collaged drawing portraits.  We savored the experience, with the project lasting a few weeks.

Here is the playlist I found the other day of the musical artists being portraited in that class and the tunes meant to inspire.  Since we’re on the internets, I’ve linked up them up to youtube videos (in the classroom, I only played clean versions).  Enjoy.

1  Jimmi Hendrix - “Purple Haze”
2  Beyonce - “Upgrade U”
3  Beyonce - “Crazy in Love”
4  Billie Holliday - “God Bless the Child”
5  Billie Holliday - “The Very Thought of You”
6  Lil Wayne - “Get Your Shine On”
7  Pharrell Williams - “Rock Star”
8  Pharrell Williams - “Drop It Like It’s Hot”
9  Tina Turner - “What’s Love Got to Do With It”
10  Tina Turner - “Proud Mary”
11  Jimmi Hendrix - “The Star Spangled Banner”

On a break from writing my thesis, I decided to play with the two images from the last post.  Here are the “bad habits” again with Photoshop’ed images from Google.  Silly goodness with spools, an Arduino Lilypad, a Mac Book Pro, and a peacock feather!  In a bizarre way, the girl’s hand seems to be made for that pink spool - makes more of a sound context for those random punctures of the original image.

These two scans are from an Indian “Bad Habits” compilation poster that I found in New York a few years ago.  I think they’re funny because currently at RISD, I’m not taking heed like the females in the images - so hopefully I won’t hack an iron while it’s still plugged in or mistakenly use an awl on my hand in the woodshop anytime soon!  Yikes.  The texture of the wood and the folds of the clothing are so stylized, it’s great:

I’m reminded of a book that was published a few years ago, “An Ideal Boy:  Charts from India.” From Amazon:  “An Ideal Boy is a uniquely illuminating and hugely entertaining survey of a fascinating Indian phenomenon - Charts. These charts cover every imaginable subject and are found everywhere throughout India - from road-side booths to large shops. Intended primarily as educational material, they also act as guides to morality and correct social behaviour and offer marvellous cautionary tales. Fascinating both visually and as sources of information they are an everyday part of Indian life yet to the outsider they are startling.”