charlotte moorman is known by most as "the topless cellist" after she was dragged off by police during her performance of her opera sextronique and she was convicted for public indecency. she was a badass avant-garde artist who changed the canon of both the music and art world forever. she used her body as a medium in the time of the second wave of feminism when many condemned her for exposing herself for the sake of a man's vision (nam june paik). however nam had little to do with it, or at least receives more credit than he should. charlotte explored ideas of revolutionizing music and television, and using it to reach as wide of an audience as possible. she appeared on nbc dressed as she is above, and prides herself on being the first to appear fully frontally nude on network tv. her legacy had an enormous impact on the art world, having been responsible for creating a site for avant-garde artists to meet and share and showcase their most experimental and chaotic works for the first time. all aspects of her were accessible to both artists and the public.

many criticized her as a young harlot from arkansas too eager to take her clothes off at the drop of a hat. however it's more than apparent that she was an avant-garde visionary artist. i'd say she was before her time, however i feel that she was exactly what the art world needed in that time. she embodies mcluhan's idea of the global village in her utilization of technology such as tv broadcasts and television sets, and the mediumship of her body both physical and politicized. her work created an impact that has lasted through time, despite having not physically produced a lasting body for it such as a painting or sculpture.

preparing for a gallery becomes a part of the performance of any work you are exhibiting. some of us scrubbed at our picture frames and glass until they were close to spotless, and others chose to leave them scuffed and imperfect. they were ordered deliberately, after switching each picture around, seeing the conversation they created between images. our magazines were left in the middle upon two pillars. i thought our gallery to be extremely personal, richly emotive. there was a lot to be gleaned and seened in every set of images, and even moreso in the books. i was thinking a lot about all the effort it would take to put together a high-end gallery. all the cleaning, the heavy lifting, writing and printing things out, networking. it's so much work, but in the end it is worth it i guess. though i wouldn't mind a gallery in a more accessible, fucked kinda place like a cave, or someone's shitty grimy art house, or under a bridge, or on a roof, i don't know. that would be hella stylish.

https://soundcloud.com/user-558313407/my-ass

john cage wrote a silent orchestral piece and he also said "one must be disinterested, accept that a sound is a sound and a man is a man" (119). i had him in mind when i put this piece together, along with some songs stuck in my head. i was interested in the idea that sounds are constantly occurring, absolutely all the time every single second, and at the same time sounds are happening in my head, in everyones heads, that we cannot hear. thoughts that pass, words that stick out, songs that get stuck, ESPECIALLY when one is as ~DISINTERESTED~ and ALOOF as john cage, with his cowboy ass name. i entered the Garage Band and pretty much played whatever i was thinking of at the moment, whether that meant a solid tune or an impulsive smashing of the keyboard.

how about that rashaad newsome

newsome's work had been one of the first multisensory mixed media art installations i'd seen in my short lawrence career. it was very striking!!! from the explosive blooming radial image compositions, to the hypnotic thrumming latin-chanting/beats in the background, it was impossible not to devote complete attention to his art. 

i was really fascinated by his use of iconography, especially in the emblems and symbols of power. i love the idea of recreating emblems with historical significance with more modern images that possess their own sociocultural significance. that might be my favorite part of his breadth of works, that keen attention to the meaning attached to symbols, and how he uses and recreates them.

Rashaad Newsome (American, b. 1979). Status Symbol #20, 2009. Collage on paper, 30 x 22. 

for another class i was asked to comment on the dichotomy between masculine and feminine qualities in newsome’s work. i felt that a lot of his depictions of gender, at least in his royalty works, showed acknowledgement of historical symbolism; beautiful women as icons of power, wealth, desire, queenhood, attractive disembodied limbs, et cetera. however in his other works, gender is represented in a more fluid, modern light. in a number of his performance pieces newsome includes elements of vogue dancing, a mode of artistic expression birthed from primarily queer/POC communities. he reflects this in his art.