At first, before I did read the readings and watched the lecture, I was thoroughly confused as to what was going on in Cut Piece and found myself cringing at many of the parts. I thought this was some sort of experiment that Ono was a part of. However, after reading the required texts and viewing the lecture, I got a better sense of what was transpiring. The process was that Yoko Ono would just sit on stage and participants from the audience would just come up and cut away certain pieces of her clothing at their own discretion. This eventually progressed to the point in which Ono was almost tripped away of all her clothing. Yoko was involving her audience in her art and probably wanted to see how far people would take advantage of her selflessness.
Lianne George’s article “Why Are We Dressing Our Daughters Like This?” (2014) focuses on the societal issue of an increasingly earlier development of young girls. George states that companies facilitate this early development by producing adult like goods for children that push an adult mindset and behaviour. Through the use of various examples George argues that this trend is ill advised and should not be continued.
She begins to tear strips of the wallpaper and continues to do so all night until morning yards of the paper are stripped off. Her sister-in-law Jennie offers to help, but at this point the narrator is territorially protective of the wallpaper. She locks herself in the room and is determined to strip the wall bare. As she is tearing the wallpaper apart she sees strangled heads in the pattern shrieking as the wallpaper is being torn off. At this point, she is furious and even contemplates jumping out the window, yet even in her euphoric state, she realizes this gesture could be misinterpreted.
The unveiling of a piece of artwork symbolises the gradual revelation of the girl’s feelings. At the beginning of the text she seems to have no emotions, “Live. Survive. They’re the same thing” and “she thought the thoughts of a machine.” She is portrayed as robot-like and is not in possession of feelings or vulnerability. However, over the course of the story, she progressively gives in to her overwhelming, pressing emotions. “She took off her watch and bikini and lay in the sun” and “She ran naked down to the water.” This can be perceived as the beginning of the exposing of her emotion; her nakedness introduces a sense of vulnerability, a quality not associated with machines. In addition, the leaving behind of her watch reinforces the idea of the deterioration of her ‘robotness’. The watch is a symbol of time and regulation, the girl choosing to abandon it, represents her no longer needing to rely on regulation and control. By the end of the story, her true emotions had surfaced, “No, you old bitch” and “She cut through the water and filled up cold with anger”. She is no longer machine–like and automatic. This final display of emotion is represented through the uncovering of the artwork. The man whom is uncovering the piece symbolises the mother. It essentially was the girl’s mother who filled her daughter’s head with her “stupid, recurring statements” and as a result, emotion. Furthermore, the exposure of her emotions coinciding with her death implies that, although emotions are stereotyped as something beautiful to share, her emotions were engulfing and devastating. In conclusion, the disintegrating of her ‘robot-like’ armor is represented through the uncovering of a piece of artwork.
Pop Art was a Modern art movement that emerged durring the mid-twentieth century in both England and America. It first began to gain recognition in the early 1950’s, after about twenty years of Abstract, as artists altered their attention and looked to change. In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Pop Art became much more popular to the general public and successful for the movement’s artists due to the world growing tired of the repeditive forms of Abstract. Found in the Menil Collection, Seated Woman and Lavender Disaster are two examples of Pop Art. The comparison of these two pieces shows although they differ in medium and subject matter both Seated Woman and Lavender Disaster share common underlying themes possesed by all Pop Art.
Berry, Hannah. “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual.” The Norton Field Guide to
Cindy Sherman is a female artist who was born in 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey which is located just outside of New York City. Unlike most artists Sherman did not grow up interested in art, in fact she did not really explore and discover her love for art until she was in college and enrolled at State University College at Buffalo. One day when Sherman was painting she discovered that she felt trapped by painting and wanted her work to be more than just a picture, so instead of painting Sherman got into photography. Sherman’s’ photographs were very unique, Sherman would take pictures of herself and became known as Untitled Film Studies. Even though all her photographs were of herself, Sherman would play a role or dress up and seem to be someone other than herself. Every photograph by Cindy Sherman would be labeled as “Untitled” with a number next to it, this depersonalizes the photograph.
With African Americans being apart of the fashion industry, they faced many hardships. However, they created a distinctive voice in the history of fashion. Throughout the early twentieth century, Blacks designers influenced the fashion industry in America, having, “a system and structure for maintaining their particular type of fashion.” African American fashion was very popular and caught the attention from the media. Department stores held successful fashion shows, screened fashion movies, and staged fashion pageants. Fortunately, African Americans were allowed to attend these events, yet they were not welcomed. Fast-forward to today, the fashion industry has opened up several doors for African American designers, stylist, and models. However,
cut from a different clothe, and her father wanted to make sure that everyone in town
Rhee, J. “PERFORMING THE OTHER: YOKO ONO'S CUT PIECE.” Art History. 28: 96–118. (2005). Print. 30 Apr. 2014.
Frances Cleveland was not the only style icon that came out of the white house. Jackie Kennedy was notoriously known for her sense of fashion. She “was one of the defining fashion trendsetters of the 1960s. American women eagerly sought out the famous ‘Jackie look,’ and department stores scrambled to produce affordable imitations of her sleek, classy dresses"(Andrews, 2014). Like Lady Cleveland, the public was very much in love with everything about her.
I understand where Dave Barry’s points and assertions on how women view themselves in a different and perhaps a problematic way. However, I believe there is a fine line between dressing up for someone else and looking good for your own enjoyment. If I wanted to dress up and look good, I wouldn’t be doing it for another person or to ‘fish for some man’s compliments’. I would be dressing up because I felt good on that day and my outfit should demonstrate that. Additionally, perhaps the reason many women, and some men, like to pay close attention to the way they look is due to fear of being judged and outcasted from our functional society. This fear can be demonstrated by several movies and even comments by celebrities on social media. For instance,
David Frankel’s 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada features many examples of the concepts found in the realm of business management. In my paper, I will note and expound upon some of them.
Pass, V.R., 2011, Strange Glamour: Fashion and Surrealism in the Years Between the World Wars, University of Rochester.
Introduction Historically, multiple styles of dressing have been created during the last several decades, which played an important role in modern fashion in the UK. Everyone has a different and unique dressing style in their everyday life. Some styles are influenced by vintage styles which are attributing to the deep effects of old vogue, and another group of dressing styles are inclined into the fresh element. Despite those different styles, some of them have even evolved into the milestones in fashion history. To start this essay, it will introduce the evaluation of the first significant revolution of dressing style in the 1960s.
The aftermath of World War I led America to the glamorous era of Flapper girls, jazz, and freedom, also known as the 1920's. This decade of giddy optimism brought on by the end of the war and the booming of the Stock Market ushered a direction away from the prim and modest women of the past. However, it wasn't just the roles and morals that became more relaxed, but it was also ladies' fashion and makeup that evolved. Fashion trends influenced theater, films, literature, and art and cosmetics gave beauty inspiration for today's makeup industry. Women were more confident and imbued with youthful vitality which they expressed with the fabulous style of the 1920's. The eye-catching fashion of the "The Great Gatsby" generation is the foundation of today's style. No other period in history was remembered the way the 1920's were thanks to the dazzling clothes, innovative cosmetics and freedom brought to women.