Week 2 – Artist – Tom Sachs & Johanna Fateman

 

1. Compare and contrast – discuss how each artist works. Can you characterize any core ideas or concepts or working processes for each artist? Give examples of some of their work and describe what you think they are trying to say with that work. How do zines fit in with their work? What does their work mean to you? Does it strike a chord with you? Or is it too different from your life experience to relate to? Or is it a different that affords you the chance to think about things you haven’t thought about before?

Johanna Fateman - she seems like a free soul that brought attention to girl power, her work seems more like hobbies as she moved from one to the next and never really seeing one through for a long period of time. She showed her beliefs through writing, music, and as a producer. Although she did change her job she still showed the same message that women matter. ArtaudMania!!! The Diary of a Fan was the first piece of work where she was openly able to express everything she wanted as it was written from her point of view and no one else cowrote it.  Five of her songs were about the struggle for woman's equality. Most of all her work involves women as the center of attention. She used her zines to get her message out to the public and to those who had similar beliefs. Looking at today's society where woman's right is still a hard type, it makes me think how hard was it back then to become successful when she had she strong ideas for that generation. Her work still connects to me because I constantly see my brother being favored by my parents because he's a boy, but they don't see all the responsibility they had put on me at the age of 16 and he's 18 now and still doesn't have half of that responsibility. 

Tom Sachs - his work involves making things that are no longer in need into something that can be seen as needed,  all his zines are about his work and for the community and also a distraction from life while he works. Some of his work includes Cinderblock (windowed), Icemaker, Doctor, Akujo, etc. These are all objects that one person would consider trash while another might think it's a treasure. Such as the Cinderblock (windowed) which is literally a cinderblock with wholes. His work shows that nothing is ever trash. His zines describe his work and what they mean to him and his thought process. Sadly his work has no impact on me because I don't like things that take up space that need to be kept. I personally like to live minimalistic life so when I consider something trash that's where it goes rather than take space and collect dust.