The New Paltz Oracle, Volume 82, Issue 22

Page 20

10B Â | Â ARTS Â & Â ENTERTAINMENT

The  New  Paltz  Oracle

ART FEATURE

Virgin Vandalism on Humanities STUDENT STENCIL PORTRAIT DRAWS CRITICISM AND CONFUSION

By  Rachel  Freeman Copy  Editor  |  Rachel.freeman17@newpaltz.edu

Controversy  hit  the  front  of  Humanities  in  the  form  of  a  skeletal  Virgin  Mary,  drawn  by  third-­year  transfer  English  major  Aaron  Kravig. Kravig  created  the  stenciled  image  as  an  as-­ signment  for  Amy  Kesselman’s  Women:  Images  and  Realities  class.   The  assignment  was  to  come  up  with  a  liberating  action  that  pertained  to  ev-­ erything  he  had  learned  about  Women’s  Studies.  It  needed  to  be  something  he  would  never  have  done  in  the  past,  had  he  not  gained  knowledge  throughout  the  course. Âł<RX JR RXW DQG ÂżJXUH RXW ZKDW \RX ZDQW to  do  and  you  take  direct  action  against  what  you  feel,â€?  Kravig  said.  â€œAll  of  the  ways  that  you  learn  about  how  women  are  oppressed  system-­ atically  by  society  that  are  so  subtle  and  they’ve  just  been  here  forever.  It  takes  understanding  and  necessity  to  realize  things  like  that.â€? The  general  idea  for  the  image  was  inspired  by  Banksy,  who  Kravig  had  taken  a  great  inter-­ est  in.  He  began  looking  at  his  work  and  saw  the  UHFHQW ÂżOP DERXW KLP .UDYLJ IRXQG KLPVHOI PR-­ tivated  by  the  ideas  portrayed  in  Banksy’s  art. “I  really  like  how  his  art  just  has  very  clear  messages.  They’re  often  of  great  political  impor-­ tance  and  they’re  relevant,â€?  Kravig  said.  â€œThey  use  effective  illusion  to  things.  They  use  stun-­ ning  imagery  in  composition  of  different  things  in  subversive  ways  that  people  can  interpret  in  a  lot  of  different  ways.â€? However,  the  idea  for  the  actual  image  formed  while  Kravig  was  reading  â€œThe  Dyna-­ mo  and  the  Virginâ€?  by  historian  Henry  Adams  in  his  American  literature  class.  According  to  .UDYLJ WKH UHDGLQJ LV HVVHQWLDOO\ $GDPVÂś UHĂ€HF-­ tion  on  attending  the  Worlds  Fair  in  1900  and  seeing  the  dynamo,  a  giant  electrical  generator.  Adams’  critique  and  feelings  on  it  were  that  he  was  â€œviewing  this  giant  sexless  sort  of  entity,  this  being  that’s  neither  male  or  female.â€?  This  rep-­ resents  the  social  normality  of  America  that  has  grown  from  the  Puritan  foundations  and  roots,  said  Kravig. $GDPV DOVR UHĂ€HFWV RQ WRXULQJ WKH FDWKHGUDO of  Notre  Dame  at  Chartres  and  despite  being  a  Puritan,  contemplates  the  â€œexpanse  of  grandeurâ€?  RI WKH FDWKHGUDOV DQG KRZ WKH SRZHU DQG LQĂ€X-­ ence  of  the  Virgin  is  really  the  force  that  built  these  cathedrals.  â€œIt’s  her  image  that  is  at  the  very  center  of Â

it,  that  gives  people  the  comfort.  So  basically,  I  wanted  to  just  make  something  that  would  sort  of  express  all  of  that,  something  that  would  ex-­ press  also  all  of  the  things  that  I’ve  learned  in  the  course,â€?  Kravig  said.  â€œLike  how  fucked  up  the  world  we  live  in  is.  Advertising,  media,  society,  just  turns  women  into  a  thing,  an  object,  an  illu-­ sion  and  when  you  do  that,  if  you  make  a  woman  less  than  a  human,  then  she’s  a  chair  or  like  sun-­ glasses  and  you  can  break  those  and  they’re  dis-­ posable.  There’s  like  900  of  them,  they’re  all  the  same,  it  doesn’t  matter.â€? Kravig  knew  that  he  wanted  the  skeleton  Mary,  but  was  unsure  of  how  he  wanted  to  ex-­ press  the  rest  of  it.  He  arrived  at  the  answer  upon  looking  at  a  Saint  bracelet  and  focusing  on  the  sacred  heart.  During  this  time,  Kravig  was  con-­ stantly  listening  to  Ke$ha  and  changing  every  â€œSâ€?  in  a  name  to  a  dollar  sign,  which  came  into  play  as  well.  â€œI  was  sitting  around  for  like  two  months  trying  to  think  about  how  to  express  these  com-­ plex  ideas  in  an  image  and  then  it  just  came,  the  toxic  green  backwards  dollar  sign  starbursted  in  place  of  the  sacred  heart,â€?  Kravig  said.  â€œIt’s  perfect  because  the  sacred  heart  of  Mary  is  what  symbolizes  divinity  of  God  and  the  holiness  and  her  immaculateness,  so  if  you  take  the  light  of  God  and  that  divinity  of  being  and  put  it  in  terms  of  dollar  bills,  it  leads  to  some  pretty  interesting  contemplations  on  things  I  think  and  that’s  the  point  of  it.â€? However,  the  completion  of  the  image  was  QRW ZLWKRXW GLIÂżFXOWLHV .UDYLJ EHJDQ LQ WKH morning  and  narrowly  escaped  through  the  side  door  he  had  propped  open  with  cardboard  after  ZRPHQ LQ WKH $GYLVLQJ 2IÂżFH VDZ DQG FDOOHG security.  He  then  returned  to  the  building  a  few  QLJKWV ODWHU WR ÂżQLVK WKH VWHQFLO .UDYLJ EHOLHYHV that  Maintenance,  Grounds  Management  and  Se-­ curity  have  not  given  up  on  removing  the  image  though,  as  it  has  become  noticeably  lighter. “Spray  paint  can’t  be  removed  without  pressure-­washing,  sand-­blasting,  some  kind  of  acid  treatment  or  more  paint,â€?  Kravig  said.  â€œIf  you  look  at  it  during  the  day  when  the  sun  hits  the  side  of  the  building,  you  can  easily  see  these  little  trails  of  the  pressure-­washer  stream  where  they  pointed  it  at  a  place  on  the  wall  next  to  the  print.â€? While  security  involvement  was  somewhat  inevitable,  as  Kravig  did  not  receive  permission  to  design  the  image  on  Humanities,  the  con-­

The  skeletal  Virgin  Mary  in  front  of  Humanities.                          PHOTO  BY  LAURA  LUENGAS troversial  nature  of  the  stencil  brings  about  the  question  of  whether  such  effort  would  have  gone  into  erasing  it  had  it  depicted  something  else.  .UDYLJ EHOLHYHV WKDW WKH FRQWHQW ZDV GHÂżQLWHO\ a  factor  since  the  ambiguity  of  the  image’s  mes-­ sage  could  potentially  be  offensive. “I  think  that  for  the  most  part,  they  were  more  unsure  about  its  potential  for  controversy,  considering  the  incalculable  variety  of  interpre-­ tations  that  can  be  drawn  from  it,  which  is  an  ele-­ ment  that  I  had  intended  and  striven  for,â€?  Kravig  said. Student  responses  to  the  piece  have  varied,  many  being  unsure  of  the  idea  behind  it.  Second-­ year  student  Nicolette  Glebatis,  a  member  of  the  Campus  Crusade  for  Christ,  did  not  feel  offend-­ ed,  but  rather  confused. “Is  it  art?  Is  it  vandalism?â€?  Glebatis  said.  â€œI Â

Thursday,  May  12,  2011

don’t  know  what  to  make  of  it  because  I  know  nothing  about  the  intent  of  the  artist,  but  I’d  hope  there  isn’t  a  negative  message  behind  it,  as  Mary  LV D UHYHUHG ÂżJXUH WR PDQ\ &KULVWLDQV ´ Second-­year  art  history  major  Matt  Mos-­ cowitz  agreed  that  the  Virgin  Mary  should  not  be  attacked,  but  enjoyed  the  imagery  of  it  and  the  appeal  of  street  art.  However,  he  was  â€œnot  in  the  least  bit  surprised  that  it’s  tried  to  be  erased.â€? Kravig  said  he  experienced  mainly  positive  reactions  when  sitting  away  from  it  and  watch-­ ing  people  come  up  to  examine  the  image,  but  regardless  of  people’s  responses,  Kravig  felt  that  making  the  piece  was  â€œvery  exciting.â€? “It  was  liberating.  My  whole  life’s  a  liberat-­ ing  action.  I’m  a  very  liberated  person,â€?  Kravig  said.  â€œI  have  a  lot  of  passions  and  I  follow  them,  so  I  had  to  do  something.â€?

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