Art

Lecture on the topic.

What do humans need to survive? What kind of objects have humans created to help them survive? What is the relationship between art and basic human survival?  

· FOOD 

· The procurement of food remains essential to our survival; however, how we serve food to our family, clan, or tribe conveys ideas of who we are and where we came from.  For example, American Indian/Canadian Aboriginal tribes, such as the Haida, Tlingit, Kwakwaka'wakw, and many other tribes of the Pacific Northwest, hold yearly  Potlatch  ceremonial feasts during which the host gives away or destroys items to display their wealth and perhaps gain further prestige within the tribe.  

· Food is served in extravagantly carved Potlatch feast bowls generally depicting the clan and moiety of the host family, such as the Beaver Feast Bowl pictured below.  The bowls remind the guests who the host is and to be thankful for their generosity.

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· In contemporary society, food and art is all the rage and has taken over our lives! 

· First, look at all the chef/cooking shows on TV & how they emphasize plating skills = we eat with our eyes first!  If it looks good, chances are, it's delicious.  If it doesn't look appetizing, we may probably won't take the chance to find out if it's yummy or not. 

· Which dish would you rather eat?

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· What does sharing what we eat, where we eat it, and who we eat it with say about us? 

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· SHELTER: Potlatches are/were generally held in clan houses, which are/were decorated with elaborately carved crest poles (depicts the clan/moiety lineage), such as the examples below of a Haida clan meeting house:

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· The ways in which our homes are constructed is also paramount to the theme of Shelter.  Since 1972 New Mexico architect Mike Reynolds has been constructing Earthship Biotectures, which are sustainable houses made from only recycled materials, such as tires, beer cans, soda bottles, and soil.  There's a 2007 documentary about his movement, Garbage Warrior, which I highly recommend.  There's also a short BuzzFeed video: 

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· Our homes are where we feel most comfortable and safe, and how we decorate our homes says a lot about who we are. Two contemporary artist's used the home as the setting for their collages:   

· In 1956, British artist Richard Hamilton created the first Pop Art collage.  Using images collected from American magazines, Hamilton critiqued American materialism & consumerism, as well as a preoccupation with "keeping up with the Jones'" in his Just What is it that Makes Today's Homes so Different? So Appealing?  Note that Hamilton's collage is about more than just a domestic interior/shelter; he includes references to food (the canned ham & the Tootsie Pop), as well as a few of next week's themes: social class, gender and race.  Remember, an artwork is always about more than one theme and we have to practice our critical thinking and observation skills.

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· Martha Rosler, an American artist, similarly used collage and images from American magazines in her series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, which juxtaposes American domestic interiors with images from the Vietnam war. Rather than merely a critique of American materialism, she criticized America's intervention in Vietnam and the American population who passively watched images from the war every evening on the nightly news (Vietnam is sometimes referred to as "the living room war" because of the constant coverage of the carnage) from the comfort of their luxurious homes.  More than just about the Domestic sphere, Rosler's work is also about Protest, Conflict & Resistance, Gender, Race, etc.:

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