Power

9-11 Memorial Encounter

Protector 841 with Wonder Woman shadow. Artist: Linda Stein. Leather, metal, mixed-media; 78 x 56
Protector 841 with Wonder Woman shadow. Artist: Linda Stein. Leather, metal, mixed-media; 78 x 56

Running Away/Against Biopolitical Tattooing

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York City left an indelible mark on the art of Linda Stein. Desperate to get away from the raging flames, black smoke, suffocating dust, and cancerous debris, New Yorkers frantically ran for cover during the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers. Over 3000 people lost their lives that day. Stein recalls her experience of running during 9/11. It was during this time that the notion of and the “need for protection” came to the foreground and began to imbue her most recent body of work (Peck, 2016).

ACTIVITY OVERVIEW: Visit the 9/11 Memorial. 2. Create a visual essay. A visual essay can be composed of one or more images. 3. Share image with colleagues and use your visual essay(s) in subsequent Stein Institute workshops throughout the week.

PROCESS: Artistic responses to 9/11 are diverse. The images range from introspective reflections to abstract images to horrific visual representations of the 9/11 events. For this encounter, we will be visit the 9/11 Memorial. Using your camera, smart phone, or sketch pad, capture images, sounds, and sensations of the museum outdoor space, the people, the memorial, the gift shop, and/or the surrounding city space. Will your work be an introspective reflection (image and text or text only), a critique, an abstract photo or image, a “realistic” rendering, or collage?

What are some of the topics or visual representations associated with the 9/11 events that interest you and why? The questions below are meant to guide your reflection. Feel free to create your own critical question(s), reflections, and images based on your impressions of our field trip to the 9/11 Memorial and conversations surrounding Stein’s Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females.

CENSORSHIP: Where in the 9/11 Museum (if at all) are the images and narratives of the people running of or jumping off the towers (see Richard Drew)? Why did the Pentagon censor images of US soldiers’ coffins returning from Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, following 9/11?

ETHICS: What are the ethics involved in maintaining a museum shop that sells memorabilia (or trinkets) of the most devastating terrorist act in the history of the U.S.? Whether positive or negative, reflect on the issue, make your case, and support with images and discussion. WHY do we need a 9/11 memorial? Who benefits? Why is a 9/11importnat to families that lost loved ones, New Yorkers, and the world?

SELFIE: Take a Selfie at the 9/11 Museum outdoor space, the museum/memorial, the gift shop, and/or the surrounding city space. What do you want to communicate with this image?

CURRICULUM & PEDAGOGY: The purpose of the curricular encounters with the art exhibition Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein (H2F2) is to (re)imagine what global citizenship can be, and to highlight the role of art and education toward social justice. Take photos or images that (re)imagine global citizenship as social justice.

RESOURCES:

  • Agamben, G. (2008, June). No to biopolitical tattooing (Trans. S. J. Murray).
  • Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 5(2), 201-202; Danto, A. (2005). 9/11 Art as a gloss on
  • Wittgenstein. ArtNet. Peck, S. (2016). Affect: Interview with Linda Stein [Unpublished]. New York, NY.
Download 911 Memorial Encounter in PDF

Power

Ten Heroes
Ten Heroes 859. Tapestry by Linda Stein. Leather, archival pigment on canvas, fabric, metal, zippers; 56 x 61 x 2 inches; 2016.

OVERVIEW

Power Encounter involves discussion about (dis)(em)power(ment). In this encounter, students will look at artists who are connecting to themes of power and narrative and make art that re-imagines new narratives of everyday heroism.

PURPOSE

Artist Linda Stein creates tapestries and sculptures that incorporate superheroes and fantasy icons that are juxtaposed with real-life female heroes.  In her series entitled Holocaust Heroes Fierce Females, Stein’s intent is to exemplify women’s heroic acts of rescue and protection during the time of the Holocaust. In her series entitled Fluidity of Gender Stein creates wearable, androgynous sculptures that enable viewers to try on new personas or avatars. In this encounter students will be introduced to other artists, who are Stein’s contemporaries, Chitra Ganesh, and Ivan Velez Jr. who also use comics in their artwork.

Given that images transmit a range of social and cultural values that privilege and exclude others, this encounter aims to create the capacity for imagining and envisioning new narratives and new realities that challenge dominant narratives. This encounter also aims to develop personal strategies for understanding cultural dynamics that include the diversities, ambiguities and complexities of power and identity construction that can be applied to communicating and teaching students about such topics in a developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive manner.

LEARNING GOALS

  • Through observation and discussion, students identify, analyze, investigate, and reflect upon issues related to power and heroism in the context of everyday experience.
  • Drawing upon everyday experience, students create, tell, or reveal personal narratives that tell a story of heroism.
  • Through engagement with artists who use comic imagery, students envision their empowered self as an upstander on an everyday basis, in this particular case by finishing the statements: “I am an Upstander for  ___________. Or “I am an Upstander when  ___________.

ACTIVITIES and DISCUSSION:

  1. Empowerment Tapestry Activity (PDF)
  2. Diagram a Superhero Activity (PDF)
  3. Videos and Discussions Activity (PDF)
  4. Self as Superhero Activity (PDF)

RESOURCES:

  1. Toku, M. (2001) What is manga? The influence of pop culture in adolescent art? Art Education, 54, 11-17. http://www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/Articles/toku/Toku_what%20is%20manga_.html
  2. McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding comics [the invisible art]. New York : Harper Perennial (View PDF)
  3. Berkowitz, J., & Packer, T. (2001). Heroes in the classroom: Comic books in art education. Art Education, 54(6), 12-18. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3193910?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
View Power Encounter at Stein Studio & Gallery View Comic Power Encounter Lesson Plan

Hero

An encounter with H2F2, called The Hero Around/Within Us, involves creating a graphic novel/cartoon that incorporates self-narratives of real and/or imagined experiences. Begin by viewing the Eleven Heroes Sculptural Tapestry by Linda Stein and click on the faces of each hero to learn about the Hero. From reading the essays in the 2016 H2F2 book or from your own research on each of the heroes (see links on the Leadership encounter to begin research), and looking at the Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females tapestries, one can learn about the lives and actions of the women, and the context of their lives. Add to, as well as, respond to the interactive prompts overlaid on the digitized tapestries, to explore Stein’s use of feminist pop culture and religious icons such as Wonder Woman, Kannon, and Mononoke—who personify the values of empowerment, strength, justice and protection. In this H2F2 encounter, answer the following questions: What can I do, personally, to confront violence? What experience(s) and interaction(s) have I had that have shaped a decision in my life? Who are my heroes? How can I learn from my hero role models and their values? Further, reflect on people who have demonstrated actions of protection, equality, and justice. Identify people that embody actions (large and small) to help others. Imagine the heroes and icons in Stein’s artwork as animated and conversant life guides, shamans, or protectors. Compose a graphic narrative by any means (drawing, collage, computer) that portrays a problem that needs to be solved, which can be based on social injustice experienced or witnessed. Post your graphic narrative onto your blog or a course blog provided by your teacher. We invite you to post the hyperlink to your graphic narrative in the comment area below by logging in to H2F2 website.

Example:

Heroic Tapestries Ruth Gruber 805 2014

Heroic Tapestries
Ruth Gruber 805
2014
fabric, archival pigment on canvas, leather, metal, zippers
5 ft. sq.

Click here to see image detail

Click here to interact with Heroic Tapestries: Ruth Gruber

Resources