This course explores the ways in which objects and material culture embody personal narrative. Moving back and forth from ephemeral traces of events and experiences to the culturally invested luxury goods that create legacy to the objects that facilitate daily life, this class will use, as its primary references, examples that draw from queer and African American cultures to underscore the potential of objects to tell the stories that not only reflect majority traditions and experiences but those of the disenfranchised, the details of whose lives are often obscured. In addition to readings that will provide background for class discussion, student will be asked to play the roles of detectives, archeologists, and curators at various sites around New York City. Each student will also be asked to create an annotated material record that reveals the public and private lives of one individual. That record may consist of texts, objects or any variety of media chosen or designed by the student. This blogs serves as an archive for the work done in the context of this course and related materials that become relevant to this exploration.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Another piece from the New Museum's 1993 exhibit was a video by Sadie Benning. Filmed when she was in her teens by a cheap Fisher-Price camera, the story follows her struggle as a dyke and finding herself in a very raw way.

"It wasn't love"

"Benning illustrates a lustful encounter with a “bad girl,” through the gender posturing and genre interplay of Hollywood stereotypes: posing for the camera as the rebel, the platinum blonde, the gangster, the '50s crooner, and the heavy-lidded vamp. Cigarette poses, romantic slow dancing, and fast-action heavy metal street shots propel the viewer through the story of the love affair. Benning’s video goes farther than romantic fantasy, describing other facets of physical attraction including fear, violence, lust, guilt and total excitement. As she puts it, “It wasn’t love, but it was something...” It was a chance to feel glamorous, sexy and famous, all at the same time."

http://www.vdb.org/titles/it-wasnt-love

I couldn't find the full film but there is a short clip on the link above.
There is something very captivating about the short film if you can find it.

-Isabella C.
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