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Assignment #3 might be simultaneously the easiest and most important of the assignments in this online class

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Assignment #3 might be simultaneously the easiest and most important of the assignments in this online class. There is no artwork to be made here, no writing assignment due. But careful attentiveness to this series of websites and images will make a significant impact on your final project.

As our last prep for the final project, we want to take an extended look at one of the most important U.S. artists using self-portraiture, Cindy Sherman. Please read/view the following links with careful attention to the details of Sherman’s work and how you might use these techniques in your own final project.

First, please read the press release for Sherman’s retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA): https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_389368.pdf?_ga=2.79223828.1015981419.1609509298-1879299177.1578856185.

After you’ve finished reading, begin to explore the Sherman retrospective here (see especially the links for the audios, photographs, and installation views near the bottom of this page): https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1154. 

Finally, read this article (with accompanying images) from Hyperallergic (Note: Hyperallergic is a great website if you want to continue to keep up on what’s happening in contemporary art!): https://hyperallergic.com/303445/a-touch-of-autobiography-in-cindy-shermans-new-classic-hollywood-portraits/.

PLEASE SEE THE PROJECT ASSIGNMENT BELOW

NO LATE PROJECTS WILL BE ACCEPTED. SO PLEASE MAIL IN PROJECT EARLY IF DONE IN ADVANCE. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!

For your final project, you are asked to create an  “Exhibit” of 10 new photos taken by you specifically for this project, borrowing from or being inspired by the projects of Kat Bawden, Jo Spence, Cindy Sherman, and other artists you’ve studied this semester. It should be your most cohesive, creative, and compelling new artwork of the semester. The project must not contain photographs you have taken prior to January 4, 2021.

In addition to your catalog of photographs, you are required to write an approximately 250-to-300 word preface or introduction to your photographs. This introduction should situate or explain to a viewer of your photographs the background of your project, what you hope to accomplish or achieve with the particular photographs you selected, and why you chose these particular photographs as the final ones for your catalog.

Your catalog should display your cohesive vision for your series of portraits/self-portraits. It should show a both a compelling theme and a unique subject matter. Potential themes/subjects might include your life during COVID-19 (in the spirit of Kat Bawden’s artwork), struggles with an illness that you have been dealing with (in yourself or a close family member), as in Jo Spence’s work — this could included, for example, your inability to see a close family member due to COVID-19 self-isolation and the psychological effects of so many months of social distancing. Or you might, instead, try to create a series of new characters who you document in a series of unique self-portraits in the style of Cindy Sherman. What I am looking for is a unique theme/subject matter that you can capture in a series of 10 new photographs taken exclusively for this project (again, no photos take before January 4, 2021 can be used in this final).

For an example of what an artist’s preface to a catalog of photography might sound like, please read the preface at this link.

And to learn more about artists’ statements, please see this guide from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The final project is worth 50 points (thus, 1/2 of your final grade in this class).

NOTE: The project file can be a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file. (.pdf files are often the best because they hold all text and photographs in place after being sent — to learn how to turn a Microsoft word file into a .pdf, read this.). Include your final name in the title of the file, ex. “Nowak Final Project.pdf.”