Today, artists work in a globally influenced and culturally diverse world, and the artworks they produce are created through advancing technologies and evolving studio practices. Much like a mirror, contemporary art has the ability to reflect a unique perspective within a particular point in time, and it is important to look at art through this lens because it can embody a variety of perspectives on identity, values, and beliefs.
The objective of this assignment is to analyze the major question in the course which is,
In what ways do contemporary artists reflect our culture and society?
TERM PROJECT | ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS: For your
Term Project | Essay
you will identify a current cultural or societal theme and then select
5 contemporary artists that, in your opinion, reflect that theme within their artworks.
You should include 4 artists from the
Art21 Artist Database
Links to an external site.
and 1 that you have found through outside research. Once you have selected your artists you will write a curatorial essay. The required word count for the essay is 2,000 – 2,500 words. This assignment has a pre-writing outline below and the opportunity for drafts, edits, and a final revision. The essay is just one component of the Term Project, combined the essay and PowerPoint are worth 500 points – which is 50% of your course grade.
How does one create a successful Term Project you ask? Good research is key! It is important to include high-quality researched information in your Term Project, so you should collect a minimum of 6 scholarly sources, these sources should be from journals found through FSU library e.g. J Stor, EBSCOhost, etc. and art publications like Art Forum, Art in America, Hyperallergic, Leonardo, and BOMB Magazine, etc. You may also include more sources as supplemental research – but this is not required. Again, you may include more than 6 sources but points will be deducted for less than 6 scholarly sources total.
**IMPORTANT: Art21 is not considered a “scholarly source” – so it can not be included within your Term Project sources.**
Term Project | Essay + Checklist:
·
Voice: Your entire essay should be written in the objective
third-person
point of view. No first or second-person language
·
Word Count: 2,000-2,500 words
·
Cover Page: (CMS Formatting)
·
Headers: Your last name and page number in the top right corner (CMS Formatting)
·
Footnotes: Use Chicago Manual of Style [CMS] citations, using numbered footnotes, not parenthetical
·
Titles: (of artworks) Should be in
Italics
·
Outline: Follow the writing outline located in the assignment directions (
Link
) Your paper should consist of
8 paragraphs…
·
·
· Paragraph 1 | Intro
· Paragraph 2 | Background + Exhibition Theme/Support
· Paragraph 3 | Body + 1st Artist/Artwork
· Paragraph 4 | Body + 2nd Artist/Artwork
· Paragraph 5 | Body + 3rd Artist/Artwork
· Paragraph 6 | Body + 4th Artist/Artwork
· Paragraph 7 | Body + 5th Artist/Artwork
· Paragraph 8 | Conclusion
·
Grammar: Please also be sure to proof-read for grammatical and writing convention errors. Avoid ‘filler’ sentences – these are repetitive sentences that are simply reworded and provide no ‘new’ information.
·
Bibliography: (CMS Formatting) A bibliography lists all of the materials you have consulted in preparing your essay whether or not you have actually referred to and cited the work. Must include at least
6 quality sources – use all six of your sources from the Annotated Bibliography as support for your writing. Also, be sure to include a regular bibliography (
not an Annotated Bibliography) at the end of your essay.
·
Upload: Acceptable file formats for this assignment are PDF only.
Term Project | Essay + Suggested Writing Outline:
–> Create an interesting title for your exhibition
–> Introduce the exhibition (Intro | Paragraph 1)
Creatively state the issue you trying to bring to light through this selection of works. What ideas do you hope to communicate with this exhibition? Why is it relevant? Name the artists you have curated into your exhibition. You can include a story or facts on the topic to get the readers’ attention; this will draw them in and create a curiosity about the works included. Finish with a thesis sentence that tells your reader the focus of your show. Keep it in
third person voice throughout the paper!
–> Give background (Body | Paragraph 2)
State how you went about choosing each one and be clear about the common thread that connects each artist you have selected. Discuss the impact this exhibition may have on the public.
–> Intro the 1st Artwork (Body | Paragraph 3)
(a) Introduce the artwork.
(b) Give your interpretation of the work [third person voice]
(c) Point out how it mirrors your theme.
(d) Transition to the next artist.
–> Intro the 2nd Artwork (Body | Paragraph 4)
(a) Introduce the artwork.
(b) Give your interpretation of the work [third person voice]
(c) Point out how it mirrors your theme.
(d) Transition to the next artist.
–> Intro the 3rd Artwork (Body | Paragraph 5)
(a) Introduce the artwork.
(b) Give your interpretation of the work [third person voice]
(c) Point out how it mirrors your theme.
(d) Transition to the next artist.
–> Intro the 4th Artwork (Body | Paragraph 6)
(a) Introduce the artwork.
(b) Give your interpretation of the work [third person voice]
(c) Point out how it mirrors your theme.
(d) Transition to the next artist.
–> Intro the 5th Artwork (Body | Paragraph 7)
(a) Introduce the artwork.
(b) Give your interpretation of the work [third person voice]
(c) Point out how it mirrors your theme.
(d) Transition to the conclusion.
–> Conclusion
Restate the issue you are trying to bring to light through this selection of works and how they reflect the times we live in. State why you feel that these particular works shown together reflect a unique cultural perspective.
Term Project | Essay
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Term Project | Essay
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Criteria |
Ratings |
Pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeExhibition Title Student develops a creative title for their proposed exhibition. |
40 pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeIntroduction Student communicates arguments central to the question, “In what ways do contemporary artists reflect our culture and society?” and effectively introduces the theme and artists. |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeThesis Communicates the theme of the exhibition using a well developed exhibition title and thesis statement. |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeArtist Research Student discusses relevant ideas surrounding contemporary art practices from books, professional art publications, and peer-reviewed journal articles making strong connections between the artist and theme. At least 6 sources are cited. |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeInterpretation Student interprets a variety of artworks within a cultural context through critical essay writing. |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeEvaluation Student demonstrates the relevance of conceptual themes within the conclusion paragraph and clearly states why they feel these works should be shown together to reflect a unique cultural perspective. |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeCitations Proper use of CMS formatting and citations in the Exhibition Proposal Essay. |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeGrammar The student communicates arguments central to the major question, of the course using clear, coherent prose that utilizes the conventions of standard American English. |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWritten Organization Organizes and structures the essay in a logical order. Well-developed transitions between main ideas. Use of pre-writing outline is evident. |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeCritical Thought Demonstrates a cultural, artistic, or philosophical approach to analyzing the nature of social responsibility within a curated art exhibition. |
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Total Points: 400 |
Sinking in Your Anthroposphere
First and Last Name
IDS 3167: Contemporary Art as a Mirror
Date, 2020
Last Name 1
As humanity continues to make technological and capitalistic developments, questions
surface if societal advancements are worth the hindrance to the natural world. Dr. Michael
Renner discussed in the State of the World 2015 : Confronting Hidden Threats to Sustainability
that while sustainability and environmental conservation are widely talked about, taking action to
conserve is a rarer occasion. There has been exponential growth in scientific research, but the
environment’s resources are still seen as expendable products.1 Anthroposphere refers to the
environment modified for human activity. Emily Brady in Aesthetics of the Natural Environment
discusses how humanity can/should culturally integrate in nature without one or the other
dominating in value and respect. Aesthetics of the environment differ from cultural art in that
nature is infinitely changing and is not confined to a frame or a gallery space. The more the
environment is explored, the more it can be appreciated.2 The exhibit, Sinking in Your
Anthroposphere, explores how the rise of human-made technology and structures damage the
environment around us. The exhibition will take place at The Wildlife Conservation Society’s
Center for Global Conservation in New York City. Artists Mel Chin, Lynn Hershman Leeson,
Sam Lewitt, Minerva Cuevas, and An-my Lê utilize various artistic materials and techniques to
investigate how an advancing society creates tension in the depleting natural world.
Each of the exhibit’s artists showcases relationship aspects between humans, technology,
and the natural world. Mel Chin treats his art as scientific exploration, using foliage to restore
impacted land, also known as green remediation. Lynn Hershman Leeson brings light on a
1 The Worldwatch Institute. State of the World 2015 : Confronting Hidden Threats to Sustainability, 4-17. Edited by
Lisa Mastny. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015.
http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=973861&site=eds-
live&scope=site.
2 Emily Brady. “Culture, Art and Environment.” Aesthetics of the Natural Environment, 55-67. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2003. Accessed June 6, 2020. doi:10.3366 /j.ctvxcrg5h.7.
Last Name 2
different characteristic of the exhibit’s message; she uses interactive video installation to expose
how technology inflicts violence on the self, the environment, and its incorporation into daily
lives. Sam Lewitt’s work, an investigation on how technological, corporate systems communicate
and are used, is surrounded by a garden to further contrast systems of technology to
environmental ecosystems. Minerva Cuevas uses branded tomatoes to stare at corporate greed
that has terrorized indigenous groups and the land they resided on. Finally, An-My Lê’s
photography witnesses how the military takes control of the world’s peaceful landscape and
seascape. All of the work featured will help spread awareness on the environmental
consequences for current societal advancements. Sinking in Your Anthroposphere will reside in
The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Center for Global Conservation. The exhibit’s location goes
hand in hand with its plea for conservation. The building is located at the edge of The Bronx
Zoo, uses half the energy of a typical structure of the same size, and obtains the Gold level of
LEED Certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). It is incorporated within
the surrounding natural topography, utilizes the natural light it faces and maintains a green roof
featuring microturbine plants that generate electricity to maintain the building’s temperature.3
The WCS’s Center for Global Conservation is a perfect example of how humanity can restore its
relationship with the environment it is actively destroying.
The first piece of the exhibit is Mel Chin’s active Revival Field (1990-ongoing) replica.
Chin worked with agronomist Rufus L. Chaney to combine art and science, arraying
hyperaccumulators, or plants capable of drawing heavy metals out of the soil and then turning
3 “WCS Opens Center for Global Conservation”. WCS Newsroom. Wildlife Conservation Society, October 9, 2009.
https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/6043/WCS-Opens-Center-for-Global-
Conservation.aspx.
Last Name 3
them into usable, profitable ore.4 The circular garden is separated into four sections of growing
plants. The piece is an attempt of green remediation to cleanse the Pig’s Eye Landfill in St. Paul,
Minnesota. The most compelling aspect of Chin’s work is not his artistic expression, but how
Revival Field made a positive impact on science and the environment. In a conversation with
curator and editor Zoë Ryan, Chin details how by approaching the project as a work of art rather
than a scientific experiment, they could create the first replicated field test in America. Before
the piece, there was no prior evidence, other than laboratory tests, that the plants could clean
sites with contaminated heavy metal.5 The exhibit will feature a replica of Revival Field that
simulates the hyperaccumulators in action. Chin’s work is the perfect example of how art can be
used not only to raise awareness of society’s negative impact on natural ground, but also how to
reverse the damage.
The next piece in the exhibition is Lynn Hershman Leeson’s America’s Finest (1994-
1995). Leeson, a pioneer for intertwining innovative technology with art, explores humanity’s
simultaneous role as a violator and a victim in technological advancements. As society continues
to develop, it faces the consequences of its environmental and sociological damage. Art critic
Abigail Solomon-Godeau in The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman-Leeson describes the
installation piece as a rifle that the spectator uses to focus on an image of herself via the
periscopic sight and a mounted video camera. The viewer watches her image against a series of
still photographs that display graphic images like violence or warfare. Gunfire and other sound
effects are heard, making the piece a sensory explosion.6 The piece examines a violent
4 Zoë Ryan, Mel Chin. “A Conversation With Mel Chin”. Log, no. 8 (2006): 60. Accessed June 6, 2020.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41765589.
5 Ibid., 62.
6 Meredith Tromble and Lynn Hershman, The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson : Secret Agents, Private I
(Berekley, CA: University of California Press, 2005).
Last Name 4
relationship between a photographer and her subject, even integrating the use of an M16 war gun
to drive the depiction of brutality. While Leeson is not directly concerned with environmental
impact, the alarming interactive nature of Leeson’s video art implies a concerning reality of the
abundance of technology.
The next artist on display is Sam Lewitt, with a new iteration of his installation piece
Less Light Warm Words (2016). The work was initially introduced at the Swiss Institute in New
York (an earlier version being More Heat than Light (2015) at the CCA Wattis Institute for
Contemporary Art in San Francisco), where draped circuits with attached sensors create a
vacuum of intense heat. ARTnews Senior Editor Alex Greenberger explained in his article “Short
Circuit: Sam Lewitt Turns Up the Heat at the Swiss Institute” how the circuits are meant to
regulate temperature but make the space sweltering when placed in a large vacuum container.
The circuits are etched with manufacturer phrases translated into images.7 Lewitt’s work often
explores how the exchange of information with capitalist structures, such as printmaking or
currency.8 Lewitt describes the system as “an ecological object” that fluctuates the temperature
after “register[ing] your presence in the space as a sort of environmental disturbance”.9 In
Sinking in Your Anthroposphere, a smaller version of Lewitt’s room will be surrounded by a
garden to further Lewitt’s exploration of the artificial ecology of technology. Spectators will have
the opportunity to walk through the garden into an enclosed room of Lewitt’s circuits. Along
with hinting at the inhabitable systems of technology hidden within the United States’ growing
7 Alex Greenberger. “Short Circuit: Sam Lewitt Turns Up the Heat at the Swiss Institute.” ARTnews. November 18,
2019. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/short-circuit-sam-lewitt-turns-up-the-heat-at-the-swiss-institute-
6497/.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
Last Name 5
capitalistic society, this piece also correlates to the exhibit’s effort to recognize art stripped of
traditional creativity and yet rich in functionality.
Minerva Cuevas is also featured in the exhibit, and for a good reason. Cuevas, a
conceptual artist, based in Mexico City, has been recognized for her many efforts to support her
community and critique capitalist greed. Sinking in Your Anthroposphere features one of
Cuevas’s activist works, Del Montte (2003-ongoing). The piece was originally tied to the Del
Montte Campaign (2003-ongoing) collection, which was a response to the exploitation of natural
resources in Central and South America by corporate businesses.10 It consists of a billboard-sized
mirror and adjacent stacks of altered canned tomatoes. The altered logo reads “Pure Murder”,
and the company Del Monte Foods is changed to Del Montte after a former president of
Guatemala, José Efraín Ríos Montt, who is known for asserting brutal dominance over
indigenous people.11 Cuevas concentrates on everyday items, such as a can of tomatoes, and
alters its presentation to indicate capitalism’s colonial nature. The altered label blends into the
product on display, which parallels the secretive wrongdoings of capitalistic companies that hide
behind seemingly family-friendly brands. Cuevas brings a unique angle to this exhibit, depicting
a part of the natural world, tomatoes, to allude to the damaging effects of capitalism. Del Montte
raises awareness for a global issue and encourages the audience to consider indigenous
exploitation as a threat to the world’s natural environment.
The last artist featured in Sinking in Your Anthroposphere is An-My Lê with her
photographic work, Offload, LCACs and Tank, California (2006) from her series Events Ashore.
While many of the other artists’ works in the exhibit are composed of physical installations, Lê’s
10 Noah Simblist. “Igniting the Archive.” Art in America, January 23, 2018. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-
america/features/igniting-the-archive-63323/.
11 Ibid.
Last Name 6
piece is a single photograph. However, the scene depicted perfectly represents the awareness
Sinking in Your Anthroposphere is hoping to spread. Lê captures the US military working on an
otherwise empty shore. While Lê is interested in photographing several facets of war, Vietnam,
and the United States, this particular image encapsulates humanity’s mark on the natural
landscape. During a conversation with Brian Sholis, when asked about her photography on
returning to Vietnam Lê remarked, “I think I was responding to the inextricable link between
labor and nature in this agrarian culture, the multiple histories embedded in the Vietnamese
landscape…I could see parts of the past or imagine the future without denying the present.”12
While not displaying human acts of environmental destruction, such as deforestation or oil spills,
Lê questions the subtler moments when the viewer’s presence slowly wreaks havoc on the land
one roams. The sea and the sand are bright, yet the colors are muted. The military machines and
the paths they created look dark and dirty. The contrast between nature and the military implies
the harmful effects the developing world has put on nature. As the military is often associated
with advancing technology and violent wreckage, Offload, LCACs and Tank, California is the
ultimate piece to reveal a moment when the exhibit’s concerns were photographed. Lê explained,
“I love the openness of the land and worry about how we’ve built our lives upon it, how little we
maintain it, and how we assault it.”13 The piece will be placed against a bare, stark wall allowing
the audience to be drawn into its imagery and letting the work speak to the growing
environmental destruction society allows to occur.
12 Brian Sholis. “An-My Lê Seeks Complicated Beauty in Landscape Photography.” Art in America, March 3, 2020.
https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/interviews/an-my-le-interview-complicated-beauty-landscape-
photography-1202679272/.
13 Ibid.
Last Name 7
The Sinking in Your Anthroposphere exhibit will feature the works of innovative,
thought-provoking artists Mel Chin, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Sam Lewitt, Minerva Cuevas, and
An-my Lê and will be located at the inventive, admiral WCS’s Center for Global Conservation in
New York City. Both the exhibit and location provide grounds for a conversation on how a
population takes advantage of the natural world. Rather than focusing on one specific
environmental issue, each artist offers a new lens for reflecting on society’s strained relationship
with nature and technology. Lynn Hershman Leeson’s and Sam Lewitt’s art questions the
acceptance of advancing, potentially weaponizing, technology culturally. Lewitt examines this
idea through technological inventions, while Leeson demonstrates the individual’s threatening
role. Minerva Cuevas’s piece focuses on capitalism’s fault in overusing natural resources, and
subsequently, the indigenous people who lived on the land. An-My Lê exposes how the
military’s effect on the environment goes unnoticed. Mel Chin’s piece sends out encouragement
for the future of art, technology, and nature as his piece centers around the use of plants to clean
contaminated land. When these artists’ works are united, an urgent call to action is delivered. By
critiquing the negative implications of capitalistic technology or encouraging the restoration of
environmentally impacted land, Sinking in Your Anthroposphere opens the door to finding
solutions for humanity’s overbearing dominance of the environment.
Last Name 8
Bibliography
Brady, Emily. “Culture, Art and Environment.” Aesthetics of the Natural Environment, 55-67.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003. Accessed June 6, 2020.
doi:10.3366/j.ctvxcrg5h.7.
Dietz, Steve, Howard N. Fox, Jean Gagnon, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Robin Held, Lynn
Hershman, David E. James, et al. The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson : Secret Agents,
Private I, 132. Edited by Meredith Tromble. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db
=nlebk&AN=295154&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Greenberger, Alex. “Short Circuit: Sam Lewitt Turns Up the Heat at the Swiss Institute.”
ARTnews, November 18, 2019. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/short-circuit-sam-
lewitt-turns-up-the-heat-at-the-swiss-institute-6497/.
Ryan, Zoë, and Mel Chin. “A Conversation With Mel Chin”. Log, no. 8 (2006): 60-62. Accessed
June 6, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41765589.
Simblist, Noah. “Igniting the Archive.” Art in America, January 23, 2018.
https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/igniting-the-archive-63323/.
Sholis, Brian. “An-My Lê Seeks Complicated Beauty in Landscape Photography.” Art in
America, March 3, 2020. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/interviews/an-my-le-
interview-complicated-beauty-landscape-photography-1202679272/.
Tromble, Meredith, and Lynn Hershman. The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson : Secret
Agents, Private I. Berekley, CA: University of California Press, 2005.
https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db
=nlebk&AN=295154&site=eds-live&scope=site
The Worldwatch Institute. State of the World 2015 : Confronting Hidden Threats to
Sustainability, 4-17. Edited by Lisa Mastny. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015.
http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=973861&s
ite=eds-live&scope=site.
“WCS Opens Center for Global Conservation”. WCS Newsroom. Wildlife Conservation Society,
October 9, 2009. https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-
Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/6043/WCS-Opens-Center-for-Global-
Conservation.aspx.
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