Midterm

Question 1

Haida

Answer 1

From northwestern North America

2 moieties (subgroups) eagles and ravens, assigned at birth based on the maternal side.

Economics based on fishing and hunting

has a class system (chiefs being the highest and slaves being the lowest)

Each lineage functioned independently of the others in matters of war, peace, religion and economics.

Question 2

Moieties

Answer 2

refers to different subgroups in Haida

the two different moiesties are eagles and ravens

Question 3

Haida Longhouse

Answer 3

the Haida lived as a community in the longhouse

they mostly spend time outside however, they will sleep in different areas of the longhouse

Question 4

Be able to talk about Bill Reid’s work in relation to Haida myths and worldview.

Answer 4

The Raven and the First Men:
shows the origin story of the Haidan people where the Raven allows the first people to come out of the clam shell. Is a large scale

Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Black Canoe:
also very large and has an array of mythological characters from Haidan culture. It carries the Raven who is the “trickster” of Haida mythology, the mouse woman, the grizzly bear, the bear mother and the bear cubs (good bear and bad bear). and other animals along with a human shaman, who is the focal point. The significance of the passengers which is the balance of nature. They are all different but must work together to steer the boat. The trickster is steering the boat as it is supposed to represent the unpredictability of life.

Question 5

Dogon People

Answer 5

People from Mali that live in tight knit communities. Believe in taking care of the Earth which is shown in the houses that they built that only use Earth materials and disintegrate into the Earth.

Question 6

Sympathetic Magic

Answer 6

The principle that “like produces like” For instance whatever happens to an image of someone will also happen to them

Question 7

Dreamtime

Answer 7

the beginning of time, the dream stories are stories that were passed down and there were paintings made in order to show were the food of the land are

Question 8

Dogon Cliff Dwellings

Answer 8

Built in relationship with the natural rock formations of Mali and they are also made of the same materials as the cliff. They are made out of earth clay and straw, which allows it to deteriorate and return to the earth.

Question 9

Toba Batak House

Answer 9

The house is seen as a transformer that tames the terrifying vastness of the universe and at the same time inflates human concerns with cosmic grandeur. The house echos the human body with stilts as legs the roof as the head and the trapdoor entrance as the navel. The house is pegged together and it sits on rocks and it is raised up to keep they away from insects. This house and others by this clan is covered with painted patterns and guardian figures for fertility and protection.

Question 10

Bamana People

Answer 10

The largest Ethnic group from mali. They are mostly farmers and they are from western and central Mali.

Question 11

Chi wara

Answer 11

a dance headress that is used for a ritual dance performance of the story of the Bamana People who believed that their god came down to show them how to use a hoe.

Question 12

Popart

Answer 12

drawing and making things drawn from popular and commercial culture

Question 13

Postmodern Architecture

Answer 13

A style of building design that emerged in the 70s and 80s as a reaction against the dogmas and ideas of modernism and international style. Has different types of references and spaces. “less is a bore”

Question 14

Baroque Art (Europe)

Answer 14

highly ornate and elaborate style of architecture, art and design that flourished in europe.

Question 15

Vanitas

Answer 15

The permanence of all things and the inevitability of death

Question 16

Coricancha (Qorikancha)

Answer 16

In Cuzco, Ecuador where the Inca produced small objects such as maize and animals that would please the Sun God Inti and produce a good harvest

Question 17

Ukiyo-e (Floating world)

Answer 17

Ukiyo-e means pictures of the floating world. Has the idea of the transience of life and the depictions of the beautiful things in life (eating, drinking and being merry)

Question 18

Shunga prints

Answer 18

From Japan. Translated as spring pictures and they provocatively depict erotica. The poem of the Pillow contained several prints considered to be Utamaro’s finest shunga works.

Question 19

Odalisque

Answer 19

A female slave in an oriental harem. it was adopted as a subject by a number of French artists in the 19th and 20th centuries most families by Ingres, and was usually shown nude or semi-nude reclining in a voluptuous manner.

Question 20

How non-western cultures have used sympathetic magic in conjunction with specific objects to secure the food supply or guarantee fertility. Be able to cite 2-3 examples covered in class or the readings that demonstrate this.

Answer 20

1. Witchetty Grub Dreaming, Paddy Carroll Tjungurrayi is a kind of contour map with symbols indicating the location of precious food and water in central Australia. It shows the the source of the ancestor grub and the squiggled lines represents other grubs, an important food source, beneath the ground, symmetry suggests the balance of the cosmos and the ancestors providing sustenance for humans.
   2.

Question 21

What a potlatch is, and be able to cite an object used in or that houses a potlatch.

Answer 21

A potlatch is an important ritual feast where the most powerful people of the Native Americans of the Northwest Coast gave the most lavish feasts and gifts. This made the guests acknowledge their superior status by eating the food and accepting the gifts. An object used is the serving dish. One example is the Stan Wamiss, Halibut Feast Dish. They are traditionally seen as carved animal forms with patterns on it. The Halibut Feast Dish is a fish and the fish’s eyes are emphasized.

Question 22

Be able to talk about three very different examples of domestic shelters from my lectures or the book (where they are, who uses them, and anything of geographic or cultural significance).

Answer 22

1. Habitat by Moshe Safdie which features many squares of buildings, that house residents, that connect to each other. This is used in western art and is a way to conserve space.
2. Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. In Pennsylvania. Uses materials from the site and is built so the waterfall can be integrated into the house and it is like the person who is living in the house is in nature, especially since they can hear the waterfall. The exteriror and specifically the windows are based on asian architecture.

Question 22

Who Chi Wara was, and how and where and for whom this story relates to food.

Answer 22

The Chi Wara is a legend from the Banma people and it was a legendary hero who is half human and half antelope. They believe that the Chi Wara came down to the Earth to teach the people how to use a hoe. This relates to food as they believed that the Chi Wara helped them get food, and they do a dance ceremony with a Chi Wara headdress. They reenact the story and they dance with the headdress on the head (two male dancers, one being the male and the other being the female), in order to pray for a successful harvest.

Question 23

Be able to talk about three very different examples of commercial architecture from my lectures or the book (where they are, who uses them, and anything of geographic or cultural significance).

Answer 23

1. Louis H Sullivan, Forms follow function, meaning that buildings should not be shaped due to preconceived ideas, uses steal frames. Is very decorated
2. Seagram Building in New York, international style, bare building of steel and glass, self-contained and with controlled access which could be seen in the world’s largest cities. The unadorned simple geometric form will fit everywhere and emphasizes that less is more.
3. Bank of China, Hong Kong, by M. Pei and partners. Designed around triangles and diagonal lines and has a massive atrium and is away from the glassy and plain international style. Massive columns and shapes the skyline.

Question 24

Be able to compare and contrast an example of a “primordial couple” (from my lectures or the book) in relation to a more secular image of sex/reproduction.

Answer 24

1. Masaccio. The expulsion from paradise. Body language suggests shame after eating the apple, social commentary that has to do with recognizing the problem with their nakedness, as they are shown ashamed from covering themselves up. they are also the same size and statue as well as the Dogon Primordial couple.
2. Dogon Primordial couple, Mali Africa. Two figures male and female who are equal and has bilateral symmetry and shows their different roles on their back (woman is holding child and man is holding an arrow) They are not ashamed from being naked

Question 25

Be able to talk about the objectification of female bodies by male viewers in relation to 2 or more artworks discussed in my lectures or the book.

Answer 25

1. Edward Manet. Olympia. Historically paintings of Odalisque were made for 19th C men. They were the privileged audience for such pictures, as viewers whose gaze completed the sexual exchange implied in the painting. This painting breaks the mold as the girl painted in the picture is looking at the viewer and still has the power in the situation. She is also covering herself up, showing how she is still in power.
2. Barbara Kruger. Untitled (Your body is a battleground) the work is drawing upon the history of the male gaze and it seems she is addressing a female viewer, as there is a woman shown on the artwork and also because of the political things happening at the time such as right-wing people were criticizing how the human body was bring portrayed in art in terms of queerness and female representation. It is a way to call out to the viewer to take control of their body.

Question 26

Dikenga Cosmogram

Answer 26

Perpendicularly-bisecting lines are surrounded by a circle in a form that signifies the lifecycle of a person using the metaphor of the rising and setting of the sun. The horizontal line called the Kalunga also distinguishes between the human and spirit world, or the heaven and the sea. The crossroads, the point where the two lines intersect, is the site of human communication with the world of the spirits.

Question 26

Kongo

Answer 26

The origins of the Kongo people began when Ne Kongo came down fro mheaven bearing the first healing medice called a nkisis

Question 27

Nganga

Answer 27

A shaman type figure, a ritual expert
In Cuba, they are the clay pot or iron cauldron that hold the offerings

Question 27

Nkisi Nkondi

Answer 27

Container filled with sacred medicines that unites healer Ne Kongo’s with the ancestor world. to make one a carver begins by sculpting a human or animal figure with a cavity in the abdomen, the a ritual expert completes the work by placing ingredients with supernatural powers on the object and in the cavity provided. He activates the figure by breathing into the cavity and immediately seals it off with a mirror. Nails and blades are shoved into the object.

Question 28

Palomonte (Palo Monte Mayombe)

Answer 28

Palomonte is a religion that is divided into different traditions including Mayombe, Monte and Palo.

Question 29

Santeria

Answer 29

An african religion that developed in Cuba

Question 30

Orishas

Answer 30

Santeria and Palo monte mayombe, Deities coming from Yoruba, Fon and Edo religious practices. there are three categories: Primordial divinities, defined ancestors, and personified natural forces, 400 + 1 orishas or they can’t be counted.

Question 31

Sarabanda (oggun)

Answer 31

The strongest spirit of Palo Monte. Is a Ngang and is considered a great warrior, the owner of the lands and the owner of iron and the metals.

Question 32

Oshun

Answer 32

An orisha, a spirit, or a goddess that reflects one of the manifestations of the Yoruba Supreme being in the Ifa oral tradition in the Yoruba based religions of West Africa. She is one of the most popular Orisha. She is the goddess of female sensuality , love and fertility, she is often shown in yellow and surrounded by fresh water.

Question 33

Be able to discuss how African diasporic spiritual and cultural traditions can be seen in contemporary artists work like Jose Bedia, Ana Mendieta, and David Hammons.

Answer 33

1. Iron Flies, Jose Bedia. An intense sword that shows the strength of kongo warriors, has the aprenda or the nganga with sticks in it. The figure himself is abstracted and has knives which shows the strength of kongo warrior and propellor blades that has to do with industry. It also has the crossroads showing the railroads and other railroads such as the underground railroad.
2. Ana Mendieta, shows the african practice of the importance of the material world as she has art works of her body that are of sticks and flowers and uses a lot of the earth in her art.. For example. the Olokun-Yemayas, goddess of creation who is a virgin mary like figure which she uses the earth to leave an imprint of a body.
3. David Hammons. Untitled (Night Train). liquor bottles in a shape of the circle which is like the Dikenga Cosmogram, it is on top of a pile of coal which is an illusion of train, which is popular in african american culture. Working on the railroad is something that enslaved people did and the underground railroad.

Question 34

Know something about Joseph Beuys and his work.

Answer 34

Is known from social sculpture, the society we produced is a type of art making and uses teaching in his art work. Uses a lot of animal fat and felt, which has to do with his origin story which says that his airplane got shot down and the local people got his body temperature up by using animal fat and fur
1. Explaining pictures to a dead hare. He was talking to the dead rabbit and no one could tell what he was saying but he was having an intimate teaching moment with the rabbit
2. I like America and America likes me. When he was in a gallery with a Coyote and wears a felt fabric and has a cane. A Coyote is important to Native American tribes which goes back to his origin story.