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.¹  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 Reading:
 ¹ - UPDATE  Rutgers webcam spy Dharun Ravi sentenced to 30 days,  May 2012 
*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.

The Wanderer: An Old Path to Renewal

A few days ago I did myself the therapeutic favour of visiting an old friend and explorer, Colette Garrick, owner of THE WANDERER* - a peaceful and alluring  haven of colour, art, ancient metals and jewels, pottery,and crystal wonder.

She - a beautiful, inquisitive, and generous spirit.  For years, Colette's nomadic journeys have sparked local interests in the decorative pieces and amulets she collects from cultures around the world; hence 'the wanderer'.

When I was in high school I spent so much time here, and also spent much of my student fortune on crystals and silver rings that I collected seemingly by the pound.  

Having lived away for so long now, I've drifted far from so many aspects of my past.  It was truly a soulful treatment to pass through these gates again, and I walked out with a spirit quartz (from South Africa) and a colour treated Aqua Aura - scintillating stones believed to be imbued with the energy of peace, purity, and community...to keep clear the channels of creativity. Score!

The extra treat was this painting by Kacey Ferguson.  I HAD to get it.  His technique is incomprehensible, but it was his imagination I found to be absolutely irresistible.

I learned too that Colette grew up under the thumb of the recently deceased Albert Huie (1920-2010), known as the "father of Jamaican painting".  She shared a cathartic goodbye/thank you letter she wrote after his passing, which brought to life a couple of odd memories I had of him: his smooth knocked knees always revealed by his long working plaid shorts, and

the pronounced angle of his right forefinger knuckle - made permanent from years of pressing the paint brush to the canvas.


I didn't know him well, but I did spend 1 year of my life sitting for him every Saturday when I was 18.  Me, a figdety troublesome subject who refused to remove my panties, and him a jovial and patient older artist excited by youthful energy, yet unrushed by it.

I wanted to share this some time ago, but I decided against it after hearing of his death. And, well, there was great trepidation about posting the nude too - though Huie's impressionistic nudes have always been celebrated here.  

Anyway, dear Colette furrowed those distinctively arched brows of hers and instructed I post away.  And as another friend added, "If you are feeling like you want to put the Huie paintings up on your blog, don't let your tits get in the way. :-)" Haha - thanks Justin! Here goes:

Albert Huie nude and portrait

*If you're ever in Kingston, Jamaica, you must visit THE WANDERER:

3 Queensway, Kingston 10, Tel. 876-926-6071

Also hit the link at the top for a YardEdge interview with Colette. 

NB. Photographer of Huie pic unknown.