• Describe what you tried to do
  • I didn’t change my clothing style, instead I went to salon and had my hair dyed. I never dye my hair before, so I was thinking this project can be one of the reason to change my hair color.
• What were their reactions to you? What did they think your name was? Your major? Did you find them responding to you differently than people ordinarily do?
  • So my girlfriend first reaction was shocking and couldn’t believe that I dyed my hair. She never expect I would do something like that because I told her my parents would not allow me to dye my hair, but the result turned out to be both my girlfriend and my parents were pretty like my hair. Some of my classmates thought I was one of the member of korean idol. They all assumed my major is something related to fashion. Yes, I found people react to me differently after I dyed my hair, they all thought I was an idol from korea.
• Your conclusions about the experience
  • I never thought I would look good with a white hair, but turn out that a lot people said that me with white hair is more stylish than with black hair. So I am really appreciate this project to let me do something I would never thought of before.

• 

• Exhibition Information:
  • Artist: Benjamin KaiTa
  • Media: Painting
  • Gallery: Dennis W. Duizi Gallery
• About the artist:
  • LBSU undergraduates Benjamin Kaita is currently in the program of BFA of drawing and paiting
• Formal Analysis:
  • This art piece is a collection of 4 different pieces of painting. The colors of these 4 paintings are mainly black and white. Each pieces has different focus, for the first one from the left, the main foucs is the fence, for the second one, the kid is the focus, for the third one, the horse is the focus. The colours of black and white make the painting more appealing.
• Content Analysis:
  • The art piece presents the pshycological of spaces and caring about the environent. For the first one on the left, it presents a story of a kid sitting alone at the fence, and move on to the second painting, it shows that the kid is having fun at an arcade. And since then, the kid has a special relationship whith horses. And as you can see from the last one, after he has the special relationship with horses, his life started to have colors.
• Synthesis:
  • This piece of art is able to relate to my childhood, the kid in the art reminds me of myself at the young age. My life used to be boring, dull and monochrome, but I met someone who completely changed my life, she brought colours to my life, she brought to my life. This piece of art just like an mirror that capable of present my life journeys of my young age.

• Why did you choose this idea?
  • The reason I chose this idea is because coronavirus happened in China and it already affect plenty of people which resulted in most Chinese who in foreign countries are undergoing discirmination.
• What did you hope to communicate?
  • As a person, I don’t want others to discriminate me just because of the virus that happen in my country. As a Chinese, I don’t want people to make joke of our national flag by putting the image of virus on our national flag. Although we know this virus is horrifying, yet there is no reason to against chinese, aviod interact with chinese.
• How successful do you think you were?
  • To be honest, I was totally failed. Take myself as an example, when I go to target with a mask on, most of the people are staring at me and kind of stay away from me. I know what they are concern, but it isn’t a good reason to discriminate someone who is completely have nothing to do with coronavirus.
• What would you do different if you did it again?
  • Honestly, I don’t think i will change anything because through out this activity, I realize for most of the people, they concern themselves first. I am not saying that they are selfish, but this is just human nature.
• What is another idea you might explore through “shocking art”?
  • My another idea is although this happened in China but I really hope we as all the people in the earth should try to tackle this problem together instead blaming and discriminating chinese.

• Why did you choose this story?
  • The reason I choose these photographs as my story because we see homeless everyday, and for most of the people, they chose to ignore them. However, through this activity of taking photos of them, I felt like I started to be curious about their life, their story and the environment they live in.
• How do you think you did?
  • To be honest, I felt like I did not do well on this project. Although I took a lot of photos of them, but I did not have any conversation with them. I could not tell the story behind them just by looking the photos.
• Which image do you think is the individually “best” image in your story?
  • The second image I think is the best image in my story. The second image presents a story of a homeless person waiting for signal light to cross the street. This image is the best because this homeless person was really touched because I never thought a homeless person who has nothing in their pocket still show the basic manner when they crossing the street.
• Does your photostory contain an image that you think is not, by itself, a “great” image, but that is nonetheless important because it helps to tell your story?
  • All 6 images are great image by itself. They all tell their stories in their own ways.
• What would you do different next time?
  • For the next time, I would try to communicate with the people in my photo and try to write out some story or inside feeling from themselves.
• Are there other Photo Stories you might like to tell?
  • Honestly, no. Because all the other photo in my phone is either photo of myself or the food that I really like.

• Was it fun? Was it frustrating? Do you like to draw? Will you ever try again?
  • I was having fun the whole time while I was doing this assignment. Personally, I don’t really like drawing since I am not good at it, and I feel like it is kind of waste of time. However, this assignement totally changed my mind, it made me feel curious about drawing and I definitely will try this again!
• Do you think if you practiced for 100 hours, or 1,000, that you would get a lot better?
  • Ofcourse I will get a lot better if I practice for 100 hours or 1000 hours. Just like playing basketball, the more you dedicate to pratice, the better player you become to be. ( Mamba Mentality #24)
• What is your major? Can you think of any ways that simple sketching of some kind could be useful in your major?
  • My major is economy. Hmmm, honestly I don’t really see there is any connection between art and economy. If I have to name one connection between them, then It has to be the graph we learned in class. Graph can simply tells the economic trends of one society.
• Is Drawing a Language? Can drawings say things that are hard to say with words?
  • Drawing is definitely a language. Take gift card as an example, the word “love” is pretty hard for a lot of people to say to their parents. Therefore, a lot of people rather drawing a hear to symbolize the word “love” when they trying to express their inside feeling to their parents.

• Discuss the Form, Aesthetics & Content of your art
  • Formal qualities – our piece of art is small in size, dense red in color, smooth texture and simple art.
  • Aesthetics – This piece of art makes people feel depress since it is singled out from the bush, and you can tell it can away from the root which means it is gonna die soon. However, from the picture, you can tell the flower is still in a healthy color although it is going to withered soon.
  • Content – This art presents an idea of the power of nature. Although the flower is singled out from the bush and it is going to withered soon, yet it still shows the life’s stubborness.
• Was your Art, Art before you put a rectangle around it? Why or why not?
  • It was art before we put a frame around it. The only reason why we put a frame on it is because this can highlight the art of nature. It was art because it shows the power of nature, and the action that we put a frame around it only a manifestation of life’s stubborness.
• Will your Art be Art after the rectangle is gone? Why or why not?
  • It would still be art after the frame is gone because the flower is still going to be there and it will continues its life-cycle. It will be withered and become fertilizer for other flowers, and this presents the nature. And nature is always been art.
• Does art reside in the body of the object? So that some objects are art and some objects are not art? Explain. How do we know which objects are art and which are not?
  • Art reside more than in the body of the object. Art can be a spirit, an idea or a meaning. Personally, everything is art as long as you consider that thing or thinking is useful, beatiful and meaningful.
• Can art be something other than an object?
  • Ofcourse, art does not have an object, it can be an idea. Art can be also in a form of action, like singing or dancing.
• Does art reside in the experience of the viewer? So that it isn’t an object per se, but a way and a choice of taking the time to have a viewing experience? Explain
  • Art does reside in the experience of the viewer. The premise of an object or an idea to be art is to have connection between the viewer. If a piece of art does not have any connection between viewers, that piece of art might not seemed to be an art to those viewer. Art is depends on viewer’s intrepretation.

• How did you feel performing Maintenance Art in the area around the USU?
  • At first, I felt a little bit embarrassed from strangers that they gave us a look of what they were doing here. Besides the emotions, the sculpture was really enourmous and big, never expected it was this big.
• How are Mierle Laderman Ukeles cleaning the steps of an art museum and Richard Serra flinging molten lead against the walls of an art museum different? How are they the same? Are one or both “art”? Are one or both “not art”?
  • In my opinion, Miele Laderman Ukeles behaviours is more like a normal action that people can do in dailylife, on the other hand, Richard Serra’s action requires more technique and instrucment to finish it. Moreover, both of them count as art to me since both of their action have a intentions behind it. Although cleaning is not regard as art to a lot of people, yet everything has a deeper meaning and intentions behind it count as art to me.
• Was Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Maintenance Art performance at the Wadsworth Atheneum “art”? Did the fact that her performance was at an Art Museum make it art? What if instead, she had simply gotten hired as a janitor at a factory somewhere and performed that job for 6 months? Would that have been art? What makes an act “art” or “not art”?
  • Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s maintenance is considered art as it perfromed a deeper meaning behind it. To be honest, ofcourse the fact that she performed the maintence at Art Museum made it more like a art action, but the meaning behind it, the meaning of cleaning creates something beautiful, is the real reason of it considered as art. If she got hired as a janitor and performed for 6 months, the action she took still considered as art since she has intention behind the cleaning. To me, anything can be art as long as it has deeper meaning, something that express an idea can be art.
• Is an object or an action Art or Not Art because of some intrinsic property of the medium? Or because of the intention of the person performing it? Are all paintings on canvas art because paintings on canvas are exhibited in art museums? Is all house painting not art because we don’t exhibit painted houses in art museums? Can a painting on canvas ever be not art? Can painting a house ever be art?
  • Anything can be considered as art no matter what medium is being used. The location of where the art present isn’t important when we consider the object is an art or not. and YES, house painting is also considered as art. Take Bejing China as an example, a lot of old house are protected since they could tell the lifestlye, history of China.
• Has Mierle Laderman Ukeles, or Jennifer Lopez, made you think differently about “Women’s Work”? Is “Women’s Work” ever art? If yes, when? If no, why not?
  • I do not think both of them have made me think differently about the concept of women’s work. Women’s work is always considered art to me personally since they have intention and meaning behind it. Just like the old sayings, every action has a reason and meaning and these meaning or reason makes things to become beautiful, important and precious.
• In class we discussed the woman who cleaned Donald Trump’s Star on Hollywood Blvd. Whose Star would you get down on your hands and knees to clean?
  • If I have to knee down and clean on star on Hollywood, it would be Donal Trump as well. Although a lot of people don’t like him, yet to me his bussiness skill always impressed me.

• What was the experience like?
  • Creating an own finger printing is a unique experience to me, I have never done this before and I was really excited about it. At first, I had no idea of what should I do, but the moment when I put my hand on the paper, all the inspiration came up.
• Was it easier, harder, or different than you expected?
  • Before I started the painting, I thought the assigment would be pretty easy. However, when you finally started to paint, I had no idea what should I do. Besides, while you I was painting, I always doubt myself that the whole image does not look good. So my answer to the question is it was harder than I expected.
• How was the experience of making a painting with no subject? Confusing & Frustrating? Liberating & Inspiring?
  • It was kind of frustrating to make a painting with no subject since you have nothing to use it for reference. Moreover, you have no reference to track your process.
• How does this compare to other paintings you have seen?
  • I would say this painting is completely different to other paintings I have seen. This painting contains all my thoughts, ideas and emotions. Similiar to other paintings, each work is unique and so is mine.