guitar "hero", "hot bod", and ad-ing it all up

Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, 1988

This is probably my favorite of Mapplethorpe's pieces, done shortly before he died.

It screams Hamlet and is just so personal and sad.

Lucas Samaras, Photo Transformation, 1976

This week's lecture was really interesting in how Kip went about introducing "The Body" in art. I had some prior knowledge of some of the art and artists talked about including the work of Mapplethrope (including watching a documentary on him the 1990 court case that attempted to deem his work "obscene"), Andres Serrano, Carolee Schneenan (whose scroll piece is probably one of my least favorite things to look at ever), and Chris Burden. Some of the new artists that grabbed my attention included: Joel Peter Witkin who I'd probably actually almost like except for the fact that he works with the deceased...not really cool in my book. I would be fine (not completely but ok with) if my body was donated to science or Bodyworks or something but to do what he does... just not really there in my ethics book. Though I must say in researching him on google images I am digging his take on The Raft of the Medusa. I liked the concepts behind James Luna's work it really makes you think about how sucky it would be to be treated like a novelty, it's like people are screaming "you are not the same as me" when they do that and it's really sad. I liked Lucas Samaras and his polaroids especially because of my loves for: 1. polaroid and 2. imperfections in film. Tehching (Sam) Hseich definitely won in terms of what I thought about most since. I really really really could never do that. I am so tangled up in my own head as it is that I know I would become severely depressed and definitely crazy. His pieces are very interesting but I just can't even fathum it. I wonder what he's like socially now... disjunct I'd think. The ads were really interesting as well and the racist under(and over)tones of some of the things discussed makes me a little happy that American's have come quite a distance, though its just crazy thinking about how much it still goes on. Overall I really did like the lecture for the subject matter and intelligence behind it but really I've felt pretty lousy since. Just kind of disgusted with the human race a bit. :/