Lecture #2: JUSTINE KURLAND

Before I begin my review, I'd like to say that I love that all the visiting artists so for have, "dealt with feminist issues." All the "girlhood topics," HAVE been different from the many white male lectures I always and regularly attend. Don't get me wrong here: I love men. But seeing that ALL of my teachers, except for two (Vita and Amanda), have been male for every single one of my classes, for every single year, for over the past four years of my college education here at VCU, that it's nice and a bit refreshing, if I dare say, to see and hear about work from a female perspective.

So thanks Paul for the diversity in the lectures.

Enough moaning...

In some ways I wish my meeting with Justine Kurland could have occurred before seeing her lecture, because then I might have been a bit less nervous/anxious/terribly scared to talk to her. After hearing Justine discuss her work, I realized, not that I didn't already assume, that a successful Yale photo graduate was going to be very intimidating to talk to about my own half-developed, not completely finished work. But I thoroughly enjoyed her lecture and the ease in which she talked about her work. Her images are truly magical, like a fairytale world of women not chained down by commercialism or materialism. Their like little Gardens of Edens - without Adam.
I appreciated that she showed several images from every body of work she created - it was great to see the progression between each series and the similarties and differences within them. I found it interesting that when Justine created a body of work that steered away from the female fairytales, like the Communes and Rennaissance people, she would immediately go back to them, as if to recover her lost Utopia.
I related to Justine's series of teenage girls. Even though some of the images were only displayed for a few minutes, I could recognize and point out things I use to do when I was younger. There were images where girls were bicycling with their feet, braiding hair, and drawing letters on backs, (which I had wanted to believe they were doing, and was excited to hear that that really was what they were doing.)
It was interesting to hear Justine talk about exploiting the people in her images. That she falls in love with her subject matter- she loves them, yet exploits them, because she loves them. In many ways I feel it would be natural to want to protect the things you love, to shield them, hide them from the world, not expose them to the world. It's such a strange thing to think about, to take something you care dearly for and exploit it. But it is also a very passionate way of expressing your love for something - that you care for it so much, you have to show it to the world, search for it, live it, and make work about it.

November Lecture #1: Midge Potts

This month, Midge Potts was invited by VCU's Queer Action group to lecture here at the school. Midge, now popular for her protests and super-leftist political beliefs, originally became known for her 2006 political campaign for Congress in Missouri under the Republican party. Midge Potts stood out from the other candidates for many reasons - she made all of her campaign signs out of cardboard, dumpster-diving for all the materials, handmade all of her pins from old bottle caps, and even wrote her own press releases - But the biggest difference between Midge and the other potential congressmen was that she was a transgender candidate, not a white male.
Midge's campaign was, "Transcending Traditional Politics." She knew that many people would not take her seriously, and that the best way to be heard and get publicity was to play up her gender identity. Even though Midge felt her running for Congress was a bit of a stunt, she was/is really serious about politics and her beliefs. Though she mostly associates with the Green Party, Midge ran as a Republican because she believed it was the only way she would make herself known. Missouri is rather conservative - no one even really looks at any other candidates besides the Republican ones, and the Congressman she was running against had been re-elected before. In order to be known, Midge had to be in the same party to recieve a bit of attention.
Even though Midge lost, she came in third with 4,275 votes - 8% of the votes. Now Midge Potts works for CodePink, an organization of women for peace, where she became famous for interrupting Valerie Plame's testimony before the House. The video circulated through the media and landed her an interview on CNN. She has been jailed 6 times for Civil Disobedience, and has only had a couple issues with the police accepting her transgender lifestyle. At first, the government booked her in the Mens side - aggressively searching her by male police officers, and placing her in a cell with other men. Now after having been arrested a few times, Midge is given the respect she deserves, and is placed with the women and sometimes given her own cell.
The lecture was incredibly interesting. When Midge spoke, she seemed a bit out of it - A bit air-headed? Tired? Even drunk, perhaps? She'd forget where she was going, stop mid-sentence for longer then neccessary... but what she had to say was incredibly intelligent - she knew a lot about politics, the current state the government was in, and had very strong beliefs about how to make a positive change. She was able to laugh at herself, joking about her lifestyle, which showed confidence in her ability to be an influential/distracting aspect of our political system.