Youthful Heroism Dressed in Pink

 My relationship with cancer is for the most part a repressed one.  I have it in my family; my grand-aunt, grandmother,  and other relatives had it, my father battled it for years, as well as some very significant friends of mine.  But, for the first time actually, I am acknowledging publicly that I've never really ventured into a real conversation about this neither with friends or family.  The platform just hasn't yet appeared to explore how I feel about it, how it concerns me, or influences my lifestyle choices, etc - and I don't even know the reason why - which on my worse days I judge quite harshly. I seem to face-off and blurt out all manner of things - but alas - this silent Machiavellian disease is a mum subject for me and I'll dare say for my loved ones too.   And while the title features the word 'heroism' - I must admit, this is as far as my valiant efforts will take me today, until I can rap on the door of this topic again with pink ribbon waving high. Til then, I wanted to do something here in the last days of this very important month, to share two somewhat related things I recently came across that inspired me and why.  

All stories from anyone whose life has been touched by cancer are rife with episodic or spasmodic, maddening reports of impossibly persistent fortitude in fighting it, or in soldiering on when it has robbed us of our cherished friend, cousin, sister, mother, brother, father, or child. There is always inspiration to be found in recounts of caregivers or receivers during this illness and its trying treatments; but there is also the most incomprehensible force of energy to be gained from any simple triumphant report over the powerlessness this disease seems to fabricate.

There are, in my estimation, two such examples below - each infused with beauty, a touch of the silly, with brilliant simplicity fused with complex imaginative victories...over what is, well...definitively destructive.  Art is creative, as is science, and the greatest abandon in creativity is often expressed youthfully - which has always been symbolised so perfectly by the pink ribbons we see everywhere during Breast Cancer Month. So while not directly related to breast cancer - I hope you see the connective tissue of these youthful forms of heroism.


Dedicated to us all - may we always imagine our way past the impossible. 

The Women Project::::by JR - 2011 Ted Prize Winner

"Women Are Heroes"

Website

Synopsis Excerpt: The Women project wants to underline their pivotal role and to highlight their dignity by shooting them in their daily lives and posting them on the walls of their country.

On the other hand, by posting the same images of these women in Western countries, the project allows everyone to feel concerned by their condition and connects, through art, the two different worlds.

Kenya, South-Sudan, Sierra-Leone, Liberia

"Could cancer be caused by the body's own repair system going awry?"

:::::::by Eva Vertes, a fresh faced 19 year old at the time of this talk, shows her genius creative curiousity in exploring how to cure cancer

Website for Molecular Biology, Princeton University

Eva Vertes is a microbiology prodigy. Her discovery, at age 17, of a compound that stops fruit-fly brain cells from dying was regarded as a step toward curing Alzheimer's. Now she aims to find better ways to treat -- and avoid -- cancer.   She asks this and other breathtaking questions in her conference-closing 2005 talk. Her approach marks an important shift in scientific thinking, looking in brand-new places for cancer's cause -- and its cure. Her ultimate goal, which even she calls far-fetched, is to fight cancer with cancer.

       

                     

                   

 

                    

Some talk about a new project ...'BRANDED'

So finally - a chat about the creative part of the journey - or at least, the current inspiration for my artistic trippin'.  I know it seems like I've been vacationing and getting rewarded for it - haha.  But the truth is my last couple of trips to Jamaica have mainly been about work, work-work-work.  I have 3 new projects slow roasting on the burner now  - but the higher fire is under a series called BRANDED...therefore I AM which I started in the early Spring of this year.  

I've had a couple of delicious 'AHA' moments over the past year and a half regarding the use of social websites, and the maddeningly-genius-connectivity-of-a-near-socio-psychotic-reality that bothered the heck out of me but didn't seem to bother as many other people as I'd thought!  Of course I'm a player and therefore a part of this online global community shift, so it feels oddly dissociative to criticize the mediums that I use on a daily basis - but, my fascination with human complexities and my studies in psychology just dragged me into this analytical and critical discourse - and naturally I had to figure out how to create work out of it.  Hence the first 'exile' image of the series that I posted back in April:

BRANDED - Fool In Exile

BRANDED... is in essence, a rudimentary representation of the seemingly open and sophisticated, yet phatic self-branding we often create on social websites. It is comprised of a series of location portrait and nude photographs showing aphorisms or phrases on body painted subjects; a video short; and an interactive installation (a secret until showtime);  all serving as observations or portrayals of private thoughts and social fears of rejection, isolation, or persecution, - or conversely - social wishes of mass acceptance, popularity, power, and influence.  BRANDED... however, is raw on purpose. I don't want to create polished imagery because I want to test our senses to see if a crudely created image can still be visually, psychologically, and emotionally tangible. And, in this mass intangible coming together there seems to me to be a new collective isolation which begs at the very least, for some mental masturbation on the matter!

I have interviewed a number of people so far for this work, and in so doing I've been inspired to conduct a full scale survey on the usage habits of social websites (which will take me back to my school days when I had to do surveys for my social psych papers - ahhhh!).  It's so fascinating how we all have deeply rooted ideas about our identities and character traits, and how sharply these ideas sometimes contradict our online (onstage) personas.  And what I've found even more interesting is how some of us seem to need to express these altered parts of ourselves to jumpstart or finish our days!  But sadly, if we're not careful, we can be 'outed' but not-so-friendly 'friends'.

BRANDED - Beautiful Mistakes

Just a few days ago it was reported that a young man, shamed in the virtual world by his roommate, shared his last words on Facebook before jumping off the very real George Washington Bridge in New York.  And I just heard on the news this week that the first US internet withdrawal clinic (requiring physical check-ins, as opposed to that of virtual clinics -  a sardonic  contradiction) just opened up in Washington!  Actually the nation with the second largest web user population of 94 million*, China, beat the USA (the largest user pop) to this back in 2005, with the opening of a Web Addiction Center for children and young adults - after government officials  cited concerns that the internet was "eroding public morality". And speaking of that - don't you  find it troubling that face-to-face contact has not only decreased as a result of our online social lives, but with the acceptability of our web/iphone/bberry-time demands, many of us actively create that decrease in our scheduled time for hanging out with our friends?  Will the norm of staring into screens make us socially enept?  I kind of think so.  And as a friend of mine noted, and aptly too, even when we are in each others company - the unspoken understanding is that at least 50% of that time will be devoted to staying connected on our devices while chowing on brunch or in the theater watching a flick! 

I just stumbled upon yet another by-product of this phenomenal shift on the BBC news site where the new business concept of friendship rental services are now popping up in several countries - where, yes guys, people are renting 'friends' so they can have company in their actual lives since their real friends are too busy to go to the movies or check out a new restaurant, etc; like online dating if you will. Now some of you may say, 'that's never gonna take off' - 'those people need to get a life' - 'that shit is for looo-sers'; not far from the general protests to social websites in recent years too, until one by one...we conformed.  The point is - this is not my imagination (well duh Berette!)- the virtual world is so close to really taking over that  I have to ask if this 1984-BigBro-touchless-life-of-staring-into-lit-screens is really the way to get closer or to keep in touch (as we ironically justify it)??? Do we want to live in the matrix; I mean really? And though it may seem like it, no, this is not meant to be a seditious plea against the advertising mecca** of Facebook and the like; I mean, maybe all the entertaining online bonding and networking benefits outweigh the unfortunate  community expropriations*** - who knows? I'm just inspired to examine its effects, on me, my relationships, and social behavioral changes in general - for the good and for the bad.  And where Facebook is concerned, how can one effectively speak out against the Goliath of middle and upper class conformity of 500+ million??!!

BRANDED - Signs of Success

Where ever one stands on this topic (which may soon spark sensitive reactions in proportions akin to the other hot topics like religion, politics, and sex)the newly released film "the social network" from the brilliant mind of Aaron Sorkin, has really put the topic on the big thinking table now, which kinda feels like a notarization of my artistic response - heehee - so I am thus, in a rush to share this with you, on my blog, before the tangible gallery exhibit.  And, um, to the first obvious counter response here - touché.

BRANDED - Running for Stillness

 


More Fun Reading:
 

*Wired Magazine, Beijing Clinic Treats Web Addicts, July 3rd, 2005
**Bloomberg Businessweek, How Facebook Sells Your Friends, Sept 24, 2010 
***Net Addiction Souces



 © BRANDED (...therefore I AM)  in name, concept, and imagery are the copyrighted property of Berette Macaulay/SeBiArt.  All rights reserved.

SeBiArt upcoming show dates

Hey Jamrockers and New Yorkers,

I have a couple of shows coming up in both spots - soooo between the lot of you, some of you in either place should be able to check my work out on one of the dates!  Ha - mouthful!  I'm still high on back painkillers okay.   :)


Okay so first there's the JCDC/NGJ Traveling Showcase featuring all the award winning works from the National Visual Arts competition. And yep-yep - my award winning Liquid Trees image from this summer will be featured! HellZ-yeah! So if you missed it at the National Gallery - check it at one of these spots.

See Details here (click image for larger view): 

Next up is Critical Mass, a group exhibit at HeadQuarters Gallery in TriBeCa, NYC.  The event will be hosted by Art for Progress, featuring original works by 16 artists and curated by Natalie Kates.  All works will be for sale through the gallery and will be up for only two days!  

Details here (click image for larger view):  

As for my current creative efforts(funny that I rarely discuss my actual day-to-day-creative-work-life on my blog...I wonder why that is...hmmmmm....chin scratch...ANYhoo), I've been working on a series called BRANDED since the Spring.  Gonna dive into that in my next jotting.