Rachel+Fishman

Examples of Recontextualization

Recontextualization Project#1 Project #2 The Old Musician by Edouard Manet (from the National Gallery) cinemagraph#1 cinemagraph#2

The Old Musician-- Edourard Manet (1862)

“The Old Musician” by Edourard Manet is a rather large painting which depicts very different types of people, but who have at least one thing in common: they are outcasts in society. Though the setting seems quite vague and unclear, it is apparently is set in the outskirts of Paris. And although the scene looks rural, it is actually a city-scape, for the scene is set during the time of the denitrification of Paris. The characters within the painting are said to be modeled of real people, and they are not from Manet’s imagination. For example, the musician was a leader of a local band of gypsies who earned his living as an organ grinder and an artists’ model. The character wearing the top hat was apparently a ragpicker and ironmonger. On his right stands a “wandering Jew.” On the very left, a gypsy girl holds a blond baby. None of these characters would interact with each other in Parisian society of the 1860s. Still, the artist pushes them together in the foreground. And though the characters seem very physically close, they do not interact with each other, and a very distant from each other at the same time. For this conveyed feeling, of some other reasons, the painting is famous.

Also, the artist uses a palette knife for this painting, a technique which I think adds to the effect of careless purposefulness, but with a sense of definite intention. This adds to the general feeling of the painting: that things were just “thrown together.” Manet uses broad brush strokes, avoiding a photographic look. He was known for this brush stroke which slightly resembled early impressionist work, so much so that he earned the name “Reluctant Father of Impressionism,” even though he was not technically an impressionist.

I want to recontextualize this painting by comparing it to cliques in high school. Specifically, in a modern context, this painting reminds me of the cafeteria tribes/ lunch room scene in Mean Girls. Mean Girls is a teen comedy film by Tina Fey in which the Queen Bees of a high school- a group of four girls- rule the school. They are at the top of the social ladder, and everyone else is considered to exist subserviently below them. Everyone else is an outcast to the group at the top. In this lunch room scene, Janis informs Cady of all of the different cliques and maps out the tables of where they sit. This scene demonstrates that not only is everyone an outcast to The Plastics (the mean girls), but there is also a disconnect between the cliques, suggesting that they are even outcasts to each other. There is a parallel between this and the overall sense of “The Old Musician.” I think I will try to recontextualize “The Old Musician” so that each character resembles a character from Mean Girls, showing and juxtaposing their interconnectedness with the lack of connection in between the characters of Manet's painting.

Sources: __ [] __ [|__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ_qXmxdgGM__]



Video Project: What would Krauss' thesis be, and how would it differ, if she were writing this article in 2015? I think her thesis would change because there is so much more video media now. I think when she wrote this piece, she was not only trying to tackle convincing her audience that video art is indeed art, and her thesis about narcissism. I think if she wrote her article in 2015, she would be able to focus more on convincing her readers of her thesis rather than convincing them she has a basis for claim: that video art is even art in the first place.

Video Exercise media type="youtube" key="DFxy4MAAF6c" width="560" height="315"

Counter-Monument Response: Reading this article was extremely interesting. I was very surprised that I was familiar with so many of examples of counter-monuments. I guess because I never knew the term "counter-monument," I always considered these monuments normal or traditional monuments. I noticed that a lot of the example counter-monuments commemorating WWII. In 8th grade, I went on a class trip to Berlin, and there were many monuments everywhere. I think a lot of them would be considered counter-monuments. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was referenced several times. "Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe similarly invites visitors to touch its surfaces, even to run between its stelae of climb them." Its true! I even did that with my friends, and I remember our tour guide telling us that it was ok and even encouraged. There is no title on this memorial anywhere. There's extremely beautiful and amazing museum under it, like the article talks about. I also especially interesting the Monument against Fascism- how interesting to have a monument that slowly disappears and also hides the vandalism (that was invited) in time, over time. There was another monument I remember from my trip to Berlin that wasn't mentioned in the article, but I think it would be considered a counter-monument. Its called Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted under Nazism. Its just a giant metal box in the middle of a park in Berlin. It totally opaque all around, except for a small window. You can only see whats inside if you go look through the window: its totally dark and empty except for a screen playing a long video on replay of two men making out. Here's a picture of me at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe:

April 7-14 Visit the national mall, take pictures of possible sites (include selfie), home work- 3 sketches/ideas with descriptions- post results to wiki, also, response to reading posted to wiki.



April 14 Intro to Sketch-up, export and composite with photoshop, work day, 1 on 1 discussion of ideas, and reading discussion

Monument video: (also embedded on my monument page) media type="youtube" key="_SVqSjOog14" width="560" height="315"