 |
This summer, we were each challenged to make art for a multi-media performance
around a personal theme or something about gender, identity, history or myth that
intrigued us. We discovered that we each had the capacity to dig deep and create
individual and collaborative expressions that mattered.
Here are some of our creations. We hope they lead you to get active in raising your
own voice. What art would you make? Why? Write us and show us.
To read more about the True Body Project, ArtWorks and the staff for the Summer of
2006 True Body Project, visit
www.truebodyproject.org.
A special shout out goes to Jelly Terkleson and Aralee Strange for still photography
and to Mandy Carver and Imani’s dad for videography.
|
|
|
|
|
Alaina Wander was born on November 23, 1990 in Cincinnati,
Ohio. She is a sophomore at Clark Montessori. She thanks
Alexa Glaser and her entire cast for help with her film.
Also thanks to RED for donating our camera.
Balance
- Short film
I wanted to do a piece that allowed you to see a person
living two lives. I believe that as human beings we are
always afraid to show the people around us all of who
we are. We show one side of ourselves to one group and
a different side to another. We quite literally
|
become two people.
Many times we can’t even see that this is happening. In
my film “Balance” I show a girl who at first seems like
she lives a very innocent, child like life. But then as
she is sitting with her friends she starts to remember
the night before where she was surrounded by people who
were drinking, smoking, and having sex. Neither life is
a lie. They are both part of who she is.
My life is spilt in its own ways. That is how I came up
with the idea. I always feel like I am changing depending
on where I am. I have this balance but I’m always afraid
of the moment when that balance will change and I will
become only one thing.
|
|
 |
 |
Attie James was born in Cincinnati,
Ohio on October 10, 1988. She is 17 years of age and currently
attends Seven Hills High School.
Perplexed Universe - Collage
I was inspired by an article Stacy read to us about honor
killings and honor suicides in Batman, Turkey. Through my
art I wanted to portray the many burdens and hardships that
women have to carry all around the world. The saran wrap
symbolizes suffocation and constriction. Many women try
and want to break away, but various cultural and religious
barriers greatly inhibit women from finding meaning and
worth in themselves and in their lives. |
|
|
Carlie Barrett will
be a senior at Cincinnati Country Day School this fall.
Eye Candy - Candy-Wrapper Dress, Sketches
I was looking through a magazine when I saw a picture of
a bunch of candy wrappers. I started thinking “Oo I like
that one. That one is pretty” and “Ew that’s ugly. I bet
it’s gross.” I realized that is how not only men but also
a lot of women look at other women.
We are constantly deciding whether candy is worth eating
or women are worth meeting from what they look like on the
outside. People like different types of candy as well as
different types or looks of women so I decided to mix the
two and create “brands” of women. For my project I am using
magazine cutout women and layering candy wrappers on them
to create their clothes. From the picture I tried to |
imagine their personality
and from that pick a candy that seemed to suit that. For
example I used Juicy Fruit on the woman who looked really
content and cheerful because the wrapper was colorful and
whimsical. I am also creating a life-size, potentially wearable
dress made out of the Twix wrapper design.
In the beginning I wanted to use all shapes and sizes of
women but as I looked through piles of magazines I noticed
that every women seemed to look perfect (with the exception
of the “before and after” articles). Although I was first
annoyed with this, I realized I could incorporate the abundance
of thin, model-like women into my project. I began to see
them not only as brands of women but also eye-candy. We
are constantly bombarded with images of “the perfect body.”
We see this image as sweet, perfect, goodness; like candy.
|
|
Denesha Smith is
18 years old, a Virgo, graduated Purcell Marian High School,
and will attend Xavier University in the fall.
The Mask
- Spoken Word
I was interested in showing how a girl has many different
sides, |
including The Good Girl, The Bad Girl, The Hidden Girl, The Lost Girl and Chameleon Girl; all of
which make up The Beautiful Girl. I wanted to create a piece that every girl and woman can relate
to, showing us that no matter how many personalities, roles, or layers each of
|
us might have, it
adds up to one thing: that we are beautiful, complex people.
I choreographed the work to include several of the other
True Body teen girls.
|
|
Grace Montgomery
is 17 years old and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has recently
graduated from Walnut Hills High School and plans to attend
Guilford College in the fall.
Art Thou That? - Sculpture, fiber bracelets
Myth is identity, whether or not you choose to accept it.
Stories could be the answers to our questions about our
births and beginnings. Because there is no way to prove
them and they can be challenged, the power of your own belief
strengthens their truth. Myths are meant for us to identify
them; we see our own journeys mirrored in |
the tales we love
and stories of heroes we aspire to be. The characters of
myth are everything we want to be – or everything but: the
trickster; the clever underdog; a vengeful goddess.
Here I have presented questions related to myth, both personal
journeys and larger cultural ideas. I want to connect people
with the powerful, timeless ideas expressed in myth. These
questions can be asked at any time, in any place, of anyone.
Through myths, we come back to ourselves by examining our
histories and how each of our journeys is interconnected.
|
|
|
|
Kathleen Disimile
is 16 years old and will be in the 11th grade in the fall.
She will be attending School for the Creative and Performing
Arts for the third year now.
Chaos of Creation - Poetry, collage
My daily goal in life is to “inspire the life of a child.”
It was on a Dove chocolate candy wrapper back in 8th grade.
And I’ve had it filed away in my brain ever since. What
I mean by this is I hope I touch your heart and inspire
you with my writing, art etc.
All the writing that I will be reading and all the art that
will be on display is about my struggles. All of it has
to do with what I battle with day in and day out. I hope
to help people with what I create. |
|
Lily
Raphael is 16 and attends Summit Country Day School.
Permanent Space: An Impermanent
Afterthought - Monologue
In summary, my monologue deals with how it feels to be left
behind while other people or things that you care about
have moved on/are gone. It is done from the perspective
of a sculpture, who is cannot die and will withstand time
for years and years to come. She is extremely unhappy with
this idea, and to ease her nostalgia of Greece and time
spent with her sculptor, she tries to latch onto an art
museum |
passerby. She tries to persuade the stranger to stay with her or let her go with him, because she
thinks that that would make her mortal. The sculpture will be the main focus, but in the background
will be other girls in different sculpture-like poses upon pedestals and a series of photos of the
main sculpture projected onto the screen behind the set. The photos will be of several different
positions the sculpture is in, and will fade from one picture to the next. At the end of the monologue,
when all of the lights have gone down, a verse about impermanence, permanence, and the space between
will appear on the screen.
|
Lisa
Tompkins is a recent graduate of Milford High School and
will be attending DAAP in the fall.
Divorce - Animation
My project stemmed from our "eaves dropping"
writing prompt where I overheard an obnoxiously-in-love
couple sitting in the corner. I heard only a snip of their
conversation, but what stuck with me was the line "I
like us..." Thinking of the phrase "we just
matched" or "we just clicked", I started
to imagine two physical bodies actually 'clicking' together
in all |
of the natural
spaces. Neck to neck. Rib to rib. Then I thought of the
body part that is widely known for connection - the hands.
I was surprised with the reoccurring topic of relationships,
separation, and divorce in all of the girl's conversations
and thought it worth wild to developed into artwork. This
animation is representing and simplifying all of the stages
that play a part in the rise and fall of a relationship.
When coping with any change in a relationship be it friend,
love, or relative I have found it hard but essential to
simplify and then deal. |
Mallory
Matson is 16 years old and attends Mason High School.
Remembering
Myself - Original Lyrics
“I Remember Myself” was written on a muggy summer day in
July when I was starved for inspiration and stressing to
find words that seemed almost too personal to place. Digging
deep, I soon found the core of the lyrics I was so desperately
searching for. Remembering myself, remembering my body and
my heart and my head growing and |
learning and struggling to find my own beauty in a world that was so constantly telling
me that I wasn’t good enough. Weather through the media or a broken heart, it just seemed
that I didn’t add up to all that the world was demanding me to be. This song tells the story
of looking back and remembering myself as a girl, a teenager, a young woman. My own unique
story through the world that I hope every girl can relate to through her own personal journey.
The pain and heartache, the fear of being alone, and the strength you find when you realize
that you are good enough. That you are beautiful, all on your own. |
Rachel
Williamson is an 18 year old graduate of Norwood High School.
She plans to attend Xavier University in the fall majoring
in French
I am the
abuser, I am the abused - Mixed media
Due to my absence from the actual performance, my work must
be autonomous. It stands alone on a table in eight pieces.
The theme, why people fight, violence in our world, fighting
the good fight, and abuse, is looked at from two perspectives,
that of the aggressor and of the victim. Each of the eight
pieces can stand alone and be understood, however, to fully
grasp all of the ideas, it is best to experience all eight.
Each piece acts as a “station” which is divided into three
parts. the stations are set up with one large picture, a
set of headphones that feature 30-45 second audio clips
of monologue, and in the middle, a smaller article. That
middle piece may be a single sentence written to tie in
the picture and the |
monologue,
or it may be an interactive piece, intended to be touched
or smelled.
The intent of the piece is to help the viewer experience
the smell of the fight, the feel of the fight, the fear
of the fight, and the strength of the fight, while being
educated on abuse. There is something intrinsically human
about violence, but many people have never been in a physical
fight (which is probably a good thing) and have no idea
what abuse is all about. Many people experience abuse and
never speak out. Some of the viewers may have been the abuser
or the bully at some point in their lives and do not know
what it is like to be beaten. For this reason I put the
work into the two perspectives of the aggressor and the
victim. The abused can see through the eyes of the abuser
and vice versa and those who have never fought can experience
both for the first time. |
Susan
Cunningham is 16 years old and goes to Walnut Hills High
School
I’m Weirder Than
You - Monologue
I was inspired by those long-winded slurred philosophical
ramblings that come in the middle of the night when normal
people are sleeping. I was inspired by the twisted minds
that invented Sudoku. I was inspired by the unusually dressed
darklings and oddlings that leer from the back corners of
high |
schools everywhere. To be honest, I was inspired by the great motivation of running
out of time. It was close to our performance and I didn’t much know what to do, so I
just sat down and started writing and this was the result, and now I feel inspired.
It is a monologue on weirdness and being off the social norm to one degree or another,
and how it affects people’s outlook on life, from trying to conform to isolating
oneself to rebellion to cynicism and acceptance.
|
Tamika
Thomas was born on May 8, 1986 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She
graduated in 2004 from the School for the Creative and Performing
Arts (S.C.P.A.) and is currently a freshman at Ohio State
University.
Dreaming
Just to Face Reality - Spoken Word and “Commercials”
For the True Body Project performance, I wanted to create
art that would show others that I have a voice and the strength
to stand amongst others to reveal my perspectives on life.
Therefore, I chose to do a spoken word piece. I was inspired
even more to do |
poetry for the mass media performance after I met a woman by the name of Dorit Cypis
who spoke on seven components that are involved with the human body as well as how
they reflect on the things that take place in the world. Those seven components were:
myth, memory, history, fantasy, dream, family, and desire. I felt that Dorit made
very relevant points on how these seven concepts are influential in the world, so I
based my poetry piece off of these concepts.
|
Imani
Sherman is a sophomore at Walnut Hills High School.
What to Fear
- Spoken Word and Dance
Inspired by Marianne Williamson, Nelson Mandela and Akeela
and the Bee, I have created a performance that questions
fear. The quote I based my performance off of explains what
people really fear, why, and what they can do about it.
I have created a monologue that goes through the thought
process of |
a persons mind when they try to conquer fear of themselves. I have also created a
movement piece, a dance that incorporates all the things that the monologue is
speaking. The two dancers are doing the same movement because they are the same
person. The dance shows a girl trying to look at herself in the mirror and in the
end she finally does. As you watch the dancers, try to find out who is the girl and
who is the reflection in the mirror.
|
|
|
