"Ways of Seeing" By John Berger

The other week I read a book by John Berger... and this is what I had to say about it...

In the book “Ways Of Seeing”, John Berger writes about how men and women differ in the sense that men have a more superior role than the female. Women are born into and expected to conform to certain expectations, furthermore men have imposed these expectations.
In link to John Berger’s suggestions, a writer, Janet McCabe, wrote a book that centres on how television and literature audiences respond to that media and what they find pleasurable. In McCabe’s book she has quoted Modleski and Radway’s works on female audiences and noted that many women have fantasies about being a naïve heroine that will be swept away by a dashing, male hero. The popularity of these tales insinuates that women want to have a submissive role and that looking a certain way will be more enticing to the said hero.

Women feel like they are always being watched, judged and criticised and what a woman thinks she looks like isn’t always how others perceive her. The female has been taught and persuaded from childhood that she must continually watch and survey herself and whatever the situation, women are always wondering/thinking how they are being perceived (at face value). Berger also writes about how it’s of crucial importance how a woman is seen to a man. But I do not agree, why should she only survey herself for the importance of others but not to satisfy ones self?
Ideas, perceptions, expectations and what is seen as being beautiful is continually changing over time, but beauty is still valued highly by both men and woman.
Radway suggested that romantic literature (and other media portrayals) would facilitate certain expectations and reinforce the idea of how women should be seen.
Berger also says that women behave and present themselves in a way that they think will be attractive to men and also that a woman’s idea of success is being able to draw a man to her thus having a brilliant marriage and a family.
As a woman, I believe more women have a wider view on what success is. If a woman has brains, beauty, a job that pays well and a great social life but no man, Berger is saying that woman are not truly successful but whose to say that she does not feel whole, and is feeling complete the same feeling as success, I think so.
Men form their opinions of women before they know them (judging a book by its cover) thus deciding how they should be treated, although women themselves decide how they want to be treated and they do this by letting people see what they want them to see.
The way women behave is seen as being their character e.g. a joker, angry etc. Men, on the other hand are allowed to have single emotions that are relevant to a short period of time and that do not categorise them.

In my opinion, first impressions are always important and we are all guilty of judging someone by what we see on the outside; some more than others. I believe that women are the harshest critics in today’s society.
Berger says that men categorise women but do women also categorise themselves? One argument could be that men only categorise women and not themselves because women are seen as being more complex and men are ‘simple’.
Nevertheless, in “Ways Of Seeing”, men are thought to be the surveyors and women the surveyed. Men look at woman whilst they are aware of constantly being looked at. Women view themselves from what they think is a male perspective and women therefore, like men, make themselves something to look at thus creating oneself into an object rather than a whole person.

Photographs from the galleries

Motiroti

Video stills...

Clothes For Living and Dying

Thats all folks.

My day

Today I went to the Bradford Impressions Gallery... After driving round for over an hour we finally found it. There were two exhibitions on. The first one was called "Motitroti" and I quite liked it. I never really understand what video installation art is all about but I sat for ages watching each one until I understood at least one tiny detail. The main points that came across in the video's were all about different races and cultures. There were three main countries the video's were set in... Britain, Pakistan and India.

• Race
• Gender
• Culteral Politics

Where are we from? Does it really matter? Everyone is the same. But people are not the same. Does it matter if some people are white or black or brown? Is every single person supposed to be treated the same? They say we are but then why aren't we? Why do we have different realtionships between different people?

I wondered about these questions when I was sat.

When it comes to race and people of a different culture I really feel like people find it so challenging, but why?

"A completely new process of working with instituations giving the museum and it's audience a different perspective."

It is not simply a case of elaborationg a project and presenting it to a ready and waiting audience for 'consumption'. It is Motiroti's concerns that invitation to participate is open to all.
The world was dramatically altered after the events of 9/11. There is an ever increasing Islamaphobia and fear of 'the foreigner'. Motiroti produces work which challenges these enduring stereotypes, unpacking cultural identities, and highlighting commonalities shared by different communities.

Second exhibition:
Margareta Kern - 'Clothes For Living and Dying'

Margareta explores the roles that clothing plays in two rites of passage, graduations and funerals.
In the gallery, the photographs had been set out where one half was depicting young woman who had recently graduated from secondary school, in their homes wearing dresses made by there mother.
"Their outfits are based on images, found in fashion magazines and on the internet, showing celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Keira Knightly dressed for the red carpet."

The other half was old woman in clothes which I thought they would wear to a funeral?
"Clothes for Death was inspired by a relatively unkown custom amongst a number of Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian woman who prepare clothes in which they wish to be buried."

I thought this exhibition wasn't very exciting and the photographs of the girls were abit bland... It's just a matter of opinion.
I felt like it could of been set out more creatively instead of, a young girl in a graduation dress, another girl in a graduation dress etc and then an old woman, another old woman.

Anyway moving on..

I then went into Leeds Centre... I know there's an exhibition on at Leeds Uni but I have no idea how to get to it?

I went down to Leeds Art Gallery... How dull was that! The most exciting part was coming out and seeing a little girl practising her Irish Dancing and then there were two random teeenage boys dressed up as pirates? ha.

Anyway, I saw a sign in the Gallery that said 'Rory McBeth' but again I couldn't find anything of his stuff? There was also an exhibition on called "Rank".. It was abit random really.

Anyway thats all I had time for .. I'll post up some photographs of the work later.

Argh

I hate this stupid course. I want to drop out out out out !!

More of the Sculpture Park

After I had been to see the exhibition I decided to explore the grounds more and look at the art thats always there and started to think about how different it would make the scenery look if my work was there instead. Or maybe how it would change my work...

The sculpture park is used by such a huge varity of people my work just would not be appropriate there. For instance lots of families go on day trips there and even school children go on trips to see the art.

Scultures around the grounds:

'Deer Shelter'

Random sculptures

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Today was a nice day so I headed upto the Sculpture Park.

When I had looked on the internet at what exhibitions were on there wasn't really anything that I thought I'd be interested in but I went anyway because Its better than nothing.















When you first walk in the door on the wall is some work and sculptures by Sophie Ryder and other artists. She works with poses, refelcting the bodies most immediate reflexes and needs, range from the seeking of shelter and repose, to mementary expressions of raw energy.




These sculptures were probably as small as the palm of my hand. They were set in Bronze. This set are named "Kneeling" - a figure curled in a pose that portrays the bodies most basic way of protecting itself or seeking comfort.





Some of Isamu Noguchi's work for sale:

So I got there and there was an exhibition on by Isamu Noguchi he had alot of sculpture work which was quite good really.. I'm not really into sculpture that much but his thinking behind it got me. He created abstract work. Toward the 1040's he had published two essays concerning the power of meaningful aesthetic experiences on the human psyche; how objects and environments could improve the lives of individuals and communities.

Noguchi wrote that his work may have been inspired by childhood memories and paper folding in Japan.

Some of his work at the exhibition was sets from theatre and dance productions which were brilliant. It included "Night Journey" and "Judith". Some were stone, some were bronze, some were marble and some were wood. I thought this showed his ability to work with materials.

He also had alot of paper sketches of work that would later become enlarged sculptures.

Noguchi said "if the world were to survive, sculpture had to be an important part of the living experience and not just for collectors to buy."

:[

Can someone please give me some words of inspiration?