The piece I chose is titled No. F and was created by Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese born artist in 1929.  This painting was created in 1959, right after Kusama had left Japan and moved to New York City because of her attraction to the social freedom and teeming postwar art scene.  The notion behind this painting can be seen in a series of her painting called “Infinity Nets” where she is displaying infinite repetition and infinite space.  Kusama used a hint of minimalism with her all white expansive canvas however put a twist on it and made it more personal by using intricately webbed, thick, impasto (the process or technique of laying on paint or pigment thickly so that it stands out from a surface) in order to show her own experiences through the painting.  The experiences she is allowing people to feel through this piece are childhood and now adulthood challenge with hallucinations.  As I looked at the piece from different angles you can really see the paint protrude from the painting.  This painting reminded me of my ceilings in my room, I’m not quite sure what the name of the material used for the ceiling is called but it has similar bumps and ridges just as Kusama’s painting.  And when I stare into the ceiling for longer than 60 seconds, it begins to move as if it somehow became it became liquid and as your eyes focus on one spot, your peripherals see nothing but this white rigidness as if there was no end to it, as if it were infinite.  I think that is the feeling that Kusama is portraying through No. F.  You are surrounded by infinite space.

I think Manifestos use radical language to convey messages and to grasp readers’ attention. Manifestos are normally created for a revolutionary cause, most times if an injustice has been done to them or to their society, they proclaim through writing radically. In the readings, The Black Panther and SCUM Manifesto, due to the injustice caused by the political system and effects of colonialism, most writers felt that the only way to speak their mind and convey their anger and wishes was through writing manifestos. As we can see, in “The Black Panther” reading, this was during the Civil Rights Movement and in the “SCUM Manifesto” was for women empowerment. People’s attention is mostly captured by this kind of language because it appeals to how they feel about the current societal issues and how they can resolve these issues with regulatory systems which provide everyone with great hope for a better future. Manifestos are created with demands that deals with extreme point of views, to represent and help people who share the same sentiments, encouraging them to stand together and that with their strength great changes can happen. I think people that write radically, expects great change and seeks to be activists to represent these changes, which makes Radical Language an effective device used in writing.

D.Ramratan

Girl before a Mirror 

Can Wang

First, I want to talk about the picture of the painting, the painting is kind of mix of lines, stitching patterns and distortion, the overall tone is dark. The background is with a pair of Arab-style diamond-shaped mid-dotted, which is repeated and makes the whole picture look a little like Oriental Indian feeling. The girl’s face, chest, buttocks and mirrors are used with smooth round line, the girl’s arm, the hair is soft. The picture is red, yellow, purple-based, half bright: that is the girl’s youth; half is sad: it is unique youth scars. Bold lines to depict a girl is rare, but it can also add a little of the Spanish wildness.

The main picture is a blonde girl, her two hands are on the both sides of the mirror. At the time, Picasso’s paintings have utilized the light in the face, from different angles presented by the different colors. The gentle and bright sunshine of afternoon came from outside the house, the girl’s half of the face seems to be infected with the sun’s halo, bright yellow and with a little reddish. Because of the strong light, the color of her face in the mirror shows some dark, and the rose color, and that may be a careful makeup. What a bright sunshine, What a beautiful afternoon, the girl’s mood must be very happy. But the appearance of the painting shows a little sad feeling. The background of the mirror is no longer happy bright yellow, instead of a melancholy cool tone – purple; girl’s eyes did not look directly at the mirror, but glanced to the side; her eyes are filled with sadness instead of naive, even the eyes of the faint light halo seems to be the tears on her face; her slightly tilted nose seems to be angry.

The picture is painted with a girl full of rich feelings, but she seems to be the shadow of the painter himself. The mirror is a magical thing, it can reflect itself, it can make people see the most real oneself, it can make people see their own heart. Exactly is what the painter is, he is looking for a breakthrough in the life of the export, the outside world is as the same sunshine of the afternoon, colorful, but which is what he really want, is the extremely luxurious creation? he did not want anything, those halo, those substances, or those praise. He wants freedom, you can enjoy the beauty of tear for this freedom, for this innate wild, he can ignore all the criticism of the outside world. As the girl in front of this mirror, no one can give what she wants, even this cluster of bright sun can not give her. Only the freedom can rule her world.

The SCUM Manifesto and The Black Panther Party use diction in their writing to help others understand their point of view when explaining their desires and mindsets to society and attempting to defeat the the norms. The radical use of language helps the  reader understand the tone and the intensity of the writer’s thoughts. Since the audience cannot physically hear the tone that the writer is expressing, the language is used to express it instead. The main points the writer is trying to get across are now more enforced by the tone of the passage.  Manifestos are written for the intent to spread a point across and to relate back to an audience. A manifesto is usually described as something used to persuade a group of people to believe in a certain idea or point of view but manifestos usually assist in relating back to an audience that has similar mindsets. They help to create a comfortable atmosphere for people who believe in things outside of society’s norms and to help them understand they are not alone.Inflicting change can be difficult however, and that is why radical language is so necessary. Manifestos aren’t very common but they are a stepping stone of creating change and radical language is a necessity to begin that change.

It was heavy raining yesterday. Although the weather was bad, I visited MOMA. It was surprising that there were more visitors than before. I often go to MOMA because I like the modern art. To be honest, I have only some knowledge about MOMA because I took the art history class and I did study a lot. By the way, yesterday was a little bit different. I mean whenever I visit MOMA, I just enjoy watching arts. However, at that time, I should find the art made by an artist from outside Europe and the United States. It was not easy to find it. The modern art has been popular in Europe and the United States. I think arts made by artists from Europe and the United State accounts for more than 85% in MOMA. I found many artworks from Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and so on. Only one art caught my eyes and made me watch it more than 10 minutes. That is “Chit Chat” made by Tala Madani. She was from Iran. This art was made in 2007. This is a video art running about 3 minutes. According to MOMA, “Chit Chat” is silent, stop-motion animation video consists of over two thousand painted images per minute. I’d like to tell what I felt watching this video art. Two men look like having an argument about something. There is the third person who wants to get into this argument but he can’t. Background color has changed into a dark and the third person has disappeared with an astonished face. Dark color and ugly face mean that they have a fight. Also, disappearing the third person says that two men don’t care about other people around them. Two men keep arguing each other. They sometimes look a gentle face and one person gets his hand into his mouth. After that, they are vomiting and their face changes into a red face. It looks like they are getting pain. Vomiting color is yellow and then accumulated vomiting has changed into the third person. He shows up again but he looks like a devil, not a human. So, two men are surprised. The third person is disappeared again. Two men keep vomiting. At that time, it changes into many people. They are watching two men and two men recognize them. However, people look like angry. Why do two men vomit? I guess they speak bad words to each other. Bad words make each other dirty. It seems like they eat dirty ones so they feel queasy. And their words are harmful and uncomfortable to other people around them. That’s why the third person shortly looks like the devil and later other people get angry. Of course, two men have their own issue to figure it out. However, they should not do damages to other people. It tells that we need to each other even if they are directly not related to us. We live together. I didn’t try to understand what the artist talk about with this art. I just feel what the art shows to me. Everybody can have different responses and various views of the same art. The literature is same. Sharing ideas, we can know how people have different ways to think. It helps us to understand each other. In fact, the art itself is a mediator to link us.