Sunday, September 7, 2014

Intermedia Art and How I Understood It

What I took from Stephen Foster's explanation of intermedia is that something is intermedia if it makes a political statement and generates thought while combining many different art forms.  I'm still not convinced this is exactly what he meant in this article, but it's what I used as my definition of intermedia when looking for an example to add to my post.  

In my search for intermedia artwork, I came across an article about a college senior, Emma Sulkowicz, who is currently doing a performance art piece, combined with some studio work for her senior thesis.  The piece is called Mattress Performance: Carry That Weight.  Its focus is on the struggle that she has felt since being raped during her sophomore year of college and her alleged rapist remaining at school with her.  She has talked about this publicly and has joined others in taking action against the mishandling of rape allegations at her college.  As Sulkowicz explains in the video at the top of the article, mattresses are usually found in someone's bedroom, part of their private area where they can escape the world.  However, by talking about her rape and taking action against rapists, she brought her private life (the mattress) into the public.  Sulkowicz is also doing a studio installment that will complement the performance art aspect of her senior thesis.  

Sulkowicz is combining wall drawings/writing with a performance piece, both working together to make a strong political statement on the need to more successfully and consistently try and punish rapists.  I think Mattress Performance: Carry That Weight is a perfect example of what I understood to be intermedia from Foster's article.  

Here is the link to the article and video about Sulkowicz's artwork: http://news.artnet.com/art-world/columbia-students-striking-mattress-performance-92346

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