Last week I finished that Art and Society project, where I needed to link two pieces of seemingly unrelated art between 200 years, with six historical point connecting them. My instructor said it took him fifteen minutes, so I thought it might take me thirty, but it actually took six hours. Just didn't know how to approach it. First I attempted to look up indirect influences between ancient and modern art, and found out that Pablo Picasso was deeply inspired by African masks, and this developed into him spearheading the Cubist art revolution, one of the largest shifts in artistic history.
So I thought this was amazing, as Picasso's inspiration gave me a starting point of 7000 BCE, well surpassing the 200 year requirement between only my first and second examples. Besides, I was greatly intrigued to learn that arguably history's greatest artist shared with me a fixation on African art.
From the man himself, in reference to his first experience with African art: "And then I understood what painting really meant. It's not an aesthetic process; it's a form of magic that interposes itself between us and the hostile universe, a means of seizing power by imposing a form on our terrors as well as on our desires. The day I understood that, I had found my path."
I feel you man.
His first cubist example, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon even featured three women donning African masks:
But from here I didn't know how to take things, so I researched cubist architecture, cubist literature, cubist photography, as well as an extensive list of cubist artists, just looking for a lead.
Eventually I got smart and just looked up current African artists and attempted to find someone with a style similar to cubism.
Wound up with Ibrahim el Salahi, who spearhead African Modernism, which evolved through Cubism-Dadaism-Surrealism, and he even shares an inspiration with Picsso.
Some examples of his work:
So hopefully that takes.
My brother had an interesting class recently.
He was attending an Anthropology lecture of about 600 students. The instructor (Edward Hedican) was a substitute, as the regular professor couldn't make it.
This instructor spent the first segment of class advertising his books on Amazon after absentmindedly leaving a student's personal email address on the projector behind him. As the class continued, he stated that he would not be able to cover all the course material, as he did not have enough time despite having spent the first half hour of class advertising his own work.
When he eventually progressed to the course material, a student raised his hand to ask a question. The professor replied that he did not appreciate this students "competitiveness".
Apparently this student sneezed partway though lecture and Mr. Hedican took it upon himself to pause his lesson and glare at this individual.
As class moved on, Hedican called out this same individual for chewing/playing with gum. At this time, the student explained that he suffered from anxiety and used chewing gum as a way of coping (probably for dealing with being accused of competing with the instructor, being glared at after sneezing, and being called out for an insignificant action in front of 600 students). Hedican then questioned if this student was even enrolled in the program. When the student began exhibiting signs of anxiety, his Educational Assistant stepped in to help him, and at this point Hedican addressed the EA as his "handler" and made a request to "control him".
At this point, the student and EA exited the room, as well I hear, another student who began crying.
In response to this, another student rose to exit the room. Hedican said, directing to her "I didn't realize class was over".
She said "It is to me" and continued to call him out on all his abusive behaviour toward his own students.
Supposedly her video was taken down. Here's an intact one I found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njaVTCyG76c
The video starts with some applause implying that she had already made the first segment of her speech. She continues to make two more, each receiving a round of applause. After this, approximately 550 out of 600 students left class.
Hedican has been placed on suspension while the situation is being investigated.
But it's a big deal. Hear are some major news outlets speaking on it
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/guelph-professor-edward-hedican-anxiety-student-anthropology-1.4492976
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/professor-suspended-after-allegedly-mocking-student-with-anxiety-1.3763119
http://www.lfpress.com/2018/01/17/university-of-guelph-suspends-professor-for-allegedly-insulting-student-with-severe-anxiety
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