Adderley Lecture

This years Adderley lecturer was Xenobia Bailey. The Adderley lecture was started in 1995 in honor of Tyrone Adderley and helps bring African American artist to Massart. Bailey in a funk inspired fiber artist dealing with traditional women's work and the transformation into fine art. She mainly crochets her vibrant design packed work. This is clothing not for the simple and basic dressed woman it is for the woman who wants o wow the world. the woman who wants a one of a kind that makes everyone have their eyes on her. Bailey shows a strong connection to the identity of ancient Africa in her work titled "Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk".

Eventhough she has taken designs from a Navajo basket weave the designs come together with the shape and colors that of a true African identity. She first started this process by making hats. When she first started making hats she didn't know what it would be in the beginning. She would start and let it become what it was meant to become then she would name the project. These projects were created by first crocheting a kuffi like shape and then sculpting it at the end. To finish the hat she would laquer the outside. To go with these hats she started to create her own earings to match her wonderful creations.


When Bailey started to make garments she used patterns from exteriors of homes. These garments are able to be machine washed and dryed and are very durrable. they are meant to hug the body and are easy and comfortable to wear. it is from the garments she moved to making Mandalas. she considers her mandalas to be extremely primal and close to nature. She has one of her mandalas at the Americn Embassy in Ghana and she has even advertised Absolut with her vibrant cricheted creations. One of the most deeply moving pieces was the cotton picking bag that was then made into a memorial for her friend who died in 9/11 and had helped install all of her work.

While making her mandalas she started adding records into the circles. She would take the title of the song and make it the title of her work. These mandalas than became mditation and prayer rugs. She also create vinettes with varius elements that become one. She combines her rugs, mandalas, hats, earings, and garments to make an installation. These have to do with nature and identity. examples of these vinettes are "Sister Harvest" and "Sister Paradise". To keep her inspiration coming she likes to go for walks inboth Prospect park in Brooklyn and Central Park in Mahattan. She gets insiration and vitality from the interweaving and interconnection of the branches of the trees.

All together now, all together now...

For the final push for this class I have chosen to go along with my last subject of perfection. I want to go along with the ideal beauty and portray it from ancient times to now. I want to show the differences from the vuluptious bodies of ancient greece to the natural bodies of the 1960s and 1970s. I want to show how women would look if we would keep on the track we are on. I want to see the transformation through time. Maybe it would be more of how fashion has shaped our bodies through the ages.

I'm going to portray this project throught either book form or a simple display along the wall similar to what I did with the pictures of Arnold. I want to go in with pens, embroidery, and even cut outs. Maybe start off with a solvent transfer and go from there. I want to portray a idea that every one knows about today; how fashion and media maybe not directly but idirectly affects how we see and portray ourselves. We have the freedom to be who we want to be not what our culture expects of us.

phase 3

For my third project I am doing a journal with a not nice saying it it. I believe my idea for my projects are not a lot about celebrities and perfection but more about what people will do to their minds and bodies to try to keep up with the crowd. I had visited some sites for Pro Anna and let me say I was frightened. Girls would tell other girls how to stay skinny and what to do to resist urges. I thought this was very unhealthy especially for girls who are teenagers where weight starts to really become an issue. I thought what are these girls thinking in their minds are they too fat. A lot of girls find ways to show their progress of become skinn so they know how much more they need to do.

My project is going to be slightly different than a diary of someone who is striving to be skinny. Mine is going to be someone stuck on one thought and reiterates that thought through out their journal. I have a small black book that I plan to fill out in very nice cursive, since I have good handwriting. I hope most people will think it is a nice diary but when they start reading it hopefully it will frighten them or more likely think the person who wrote it was sick. I notice in this class and my other classes, that I am started to work with more darker ideas when it comes to my work. The interesting part is I came from a great family, sure there were difficult times but my family showed me love and affection and strive to make sure got an education.

phase 2

Going along with perfection I move onto the women. To me, women strive to be this stick that men flaunt around with. We look week like we will faint at anytime. When we start starving ourselves not because we don't have any food but because we want to look skinny there is a problem. When we start looking like victims from the Holocaust there are some issues we need to deal with. We have become insecure with ourselves and our bodies.



The images that we see today show that you need to be thin with no imperfections. You can't be that traditional girl that is average with a normal body that eats healthy. It is like we only see the two extremes people who are really thin or people who are really big. We have become fascinated with people weight and their battles with their image. We are constantly bombarded by shows who show what celebrities do or shows that show people who have gotten gastric bypass. What happend to eat right and exercise. I don't like going to the gym but i at least walk everywhere.


Girls today are looking up to people who are insecure in their own bodies that they could not possibly be able to show what normal is. Why is it that we strive to look so thin? Why do peope only seem to say you look great afteryou have lost some weight. We are getting mixed feelings from our culture around us. We are bombarded with images of the thin and the big but where are we? Where is the normal woman? The scary part is girls are starting to do unhealthy things at a younger and younger age. Kids are starting to diet, diet what the fuck. We know most people ose their baby fat when they get older. To diet a kid is like getting them ready to be the stick figure that we see.

The project for this phase is a semi installation. I have been experimenting with sound studio and I am planning to create some audio to go with the installation. I will set up a wall mirror (one where you can at least see from the torso up) and have my audio play as you walk by. I hope to have the viewer come up and stand and listen. I want them to hear what many people keep locked up in their mind. The little voice behind us in our culture.

This some shit people can find on the internet!!! :

http://www.theskinnywebsite.com/site/
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1081711
http://www.geocities.com/haven_of_the_delicate_sylph/index.html

phase 1

My first phase of this project is dealing with the idea of perfection in men. It isn't just women who strive to find perfection in their bodies, men do it just as much whether they want to admit it or not. Of course when your job depends on showing off an amazing body you do whatever it takes to keep it in that shape. But we all know someone who is older can not have the amazing body that they had when they were twenty when they a hell of a lot older, well maybe with a diet, created by a nutritionist then cooked to perfection by a personal chef and then a crazy finatical trainer to whoop their ass into shape.



We would all be tight and buff if we had the time, energy and resources to do so. Why do men feel inferior when they are lazy couch potatoes who sit on their ass eating greasy food saying that they could look like those male fitness models if they wanted to. Some do strive and succeed in becoming the next fitness model but as we all know you have to start off with the right genetics. Sometimes we just don't realize that we can only make our body go so far. Some people, know matter what they do will always have a bigger shape then skinny people.



I got a little off track, men who strive for perfection. where do they find the model to base perfection off of? Do they go around looking in every book to see what is perfection? My guess is they open up the next magazine and see a model (whose job is to look amazing) and say I need to look like that. But why do some do this and others don't because hell some of us can say fuck perfection, I am happy eating what I want and exercising when I feel like it. We weren't made with two feet for nothing. Just using your body to get from point A to point B should be enough to keep you on track.


On to my project for this phase. I am going to make emulsion lifts of who other than former gym rat Arnold hmself and use them to incorporate into a book of some fashion. I would like to add maybe some writing or drawing on these lifts to add some dimension and meaning to the piece. I was thinking to show transformation from a sculpted man of perfection to the slightly out of shape man he is today, the Governator.