art portfolio — Brianna Harlan

Research Survey

Name

First Name

Last Name

Title

Type of Practice

The key components of subverting spaces and systems that I value most are:

An example of a project that subverts systems and space successfully is:

An impact or action I have seen come out of subverting systems and spaces, positive or negative, is:

Subverting systems/spaces [can / cannot] be a real driver of change for reimagining the future. The barriers are:

FURTHER THOUGHTS

Brianna Harlan

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS

I have always thought in gray spaces, much to my anxiety’s chagrin, and that is why being a creative appealed to me. It is there where the most potential lives. Coming from a marginalized community, I believe that people that are burdened with layered disadvantages have to think creatively to survive, often making “something out of nothing” or using what they are given to serve the purpose they actually need fulfilled. In most public and institutional spaces there is someone trying their best to simply exist in reasonable comfort within the confines of institutional culture and general social norms. This is because institutional and social standards have been dictated by such a narrow scope of the world, permeate into every aspect of our lives, and are slow to expand—especially across generations.

This effort is beginning to be formalized as a discipline in art practice. Many contemporary artists are proving Socrates wrong. They aren’t making something representational of an existing function or object. They are creating from the lack and breathing new life and methods into spaces where it doesn’t exist, adapting it to locations, cultures, communities, and resources. Socrates assumed that the first version of each object or job was the purest form to fulfill the expressed need; when historically the needs have been communicated by wealthy white men, it is not God who adds what the rest of the population requires, but the creativity and craftiness of the people— those who work in the divine out of necessity.

To consider Lacan, if seeing the self outside of the body shapes identity, how does the individual process their idea of their (mirror) self when the images of people who share their physical traits do not affirm them in healthy and satisfying ways? The work done in gray spaces is seen as essential to the artists doing it because it has the potential to serve those who have been left out. Who better than individuals who have made creativity with people in mind their career focus? And that will work collaboratively with people as much as for them! If the artist was nothing but the holder of a mirror, an accurate and nuanced reflection is still something that is needed. Also, to follow the logic of Marx, new tools lead to new needs. Those needs are layered in ways that create waves of adaptation for the communities that those tools refuse to consider. The combined effect of these internal and external conflicts between self with self and institutional/social accommodation causes a dissonance that has led to extreme feelings of isolation and disconnection. There must be activities to at least soothe and support communities. Many of these activities have happened informally through creative efforts and community gatherings. Contemporary art seems ready to recognize this as a way of making. Conceptual art helped set the stage for work that is in large part immaterial.

This research on creativity in gray space is one of my main areas of interest for all of the reasons above and for reasons I am still figuring out. I do not believe it can be defined. It is a nebulous concept and that is essential to its effectiveness. In the artist interviews adaptability, reflection/accountability, and innovation were reoccurring themes. Values of this practice, barriers, boundaries, and methods for accountability are important to discuss so that creatives are not constantly working on square one. Many people are struggling within institutions, the same ones that give artist grants for project, to communicate the value over the risk for this type of work. Many creatives are working so hard to have their work validated and funded that critical discourse and research into best practices, existing methods, and inherent pitfalls/problematic trends aren’t always done. As a young artist doing this work, there are lessons I learn as I meet artists that have gone through so much trial and error. Their wisdom humbles me.

The point is not to box in creativity in these gray spaces. It is to illuminate the existing efforts and what we have learned so far and what we will learn as we continue. If conversation around this work only serves as a mirror for something that is shifting, situational, varied, and never stagnant, that is still needed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arenyeka, Omayeli. “How to Think Differently about Doing Good as a Creative Person.” – The Creative Independent, 2018, thecreativeindependent.com/guides/how-to-think-differently-about-doing-good-as-a-creative-person.

Artist Interviews: Gregory Sholette, Jecorey “1200” Arthur, Heather Hart, Darrick Wood, Cynthia Brown, Chloё Bass, Hannah Drake, Shani Peters

Bhan, Gautam, et al. The Routledge Companion to Planning in the Global South. Routledge, 2018.

“Book X: The Recompense of Life.” Republic, by Plato and Benjamin Jowett, Chartwell Books, 2019.

Burton, Johanna, et al., editors. Public Servants: Art and the Crisis of the Common Good. MIT Press, 2016

“Chapter 1: Commodities.” Karl Marx and Frederick Engels; Selected Works in One Volume, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, International Publishers, 1968.

Duncan, Carol & Wallach, Alan. (1980). The Universal Survey Museum. Art History. 3. 10.1111/j.1467-8365.1980.tb00089.x.

Forbes, Destinee. “Art & Pedagogy at The LP: Creating Frameworks of Understanding and Being for Cultural Organizing.” The Laundromat Project, 22 Nov. 2019, laundromatproject.org/art-and-pedagogy-creating-frameworks-for-cultural-organizing/.

Lacan, Jacques, and Bruce Fink. Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English. W.W. Norton, 2007.

Marina Naprushkina, “Author Archives: Marina Naprushkina” http://neuenachbarschaft.de/author/marinanaprushkina/

Schmidt, C. U. (2019). Everybody Counts: The Aesthetics of Production in Higher Artistic Education and Performance Art Collectives. . Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet.

The Black School, “Process Deck” a tarot-style interactive methodology tool for brainstorming and designing creative activism projects. https://theblack.school/shop/process-deck/

Yiftachel, O. 2015, From Gray Space to Metrozenship: Reflections on Urban Citizenship, IJURR (International Journal of Urban and Regional Research), Vol 39: 4: 726-737.

The State is Not A Work of Art
https://www.kunstihoone.ee/en/programme/the-state-is-not-a-work-of-art/

CREATIVE TIME: SECTION ONE: MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
In an age of total surveillance, in which freedom of expression is increasingly under threat, what new forms of journalism can we imagine for communities to actively engage with each other? How are cultural practitioners reshaping media environments in a historical moment of low trust in institutions globally? In this section, we address the impetus to forge connections and solidarity structures, as well as the necessity of supporting those who explore controversial ideas and challenge conventional wisdom. 11:10AM-11:40AM
CONVERSATION Tsige Tafesse + Stephanie Dinkins