Post-College Break

Dana & Legos, 2009

I have been so remiss in updating this blog the past couple of months. I had planned to transfer to another blogging site, like Wordpress or Tumblr, because I'm not particularly fond of the look of blogger; but that, too, has been put on hold.

I want to give a quick update on some recent events. I graduated from college...which was, ya know, a pretty big deal. Since then I've been collecting myself, taking a bit of a break and beginning the job search. 

However, I have a photograph in a show! "Dana & Legos" was accepted into the "Glimpses in Time" show at the Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland, CA. It's currently on display all through the month of July. If you live near Oakland, or are passing through, be sure to check it out!


In a recent review of the show, I was (very) briefly mentioned. Check it out here.

Joyce Gordon Gallery is located at 406 14th St., Oakland, CA. 94612.

elisetanner.com/complete/again & the CCC BA Exhibition

First, I know my website has been up less than six months, but I've already redesigned it. I have it up now, although I think some more changes will eventually be made. The main reason for the redesign is the inclusion of my new project, IN/VISIBILITY.

Check it out: www.elisetanner.com

I technically started IN/VISIBILITY last October, but it's something I've been thinking about on many levels for at least a year. I knew it was going to be a challenge both technically and conceptually (and it most definitely has been), but I'm proud that this is the capstone of my undergraduate education. All of the women who participated in this project are inspiring individuals who could teach us all a thing or two. I intend to continue with this project, starting up again in about a month once all of the graduation/job searching has died down a little.

Second, I should have posted about this weeks ago, but I'd like to announce that two of my diptychs from the IN/VISIBILITY project are on display for the month of May 2010 BA/BFA Senior Photography Exhibition.

The opening is this Friday, from 4-9PM at 1006 S. Michigan Ave. Be there, or be square.

A Midterm Project With a Profit

My Website Publishing II class has collaborated to create a unique Midterm project. Each student was assigned to create his/her own website meant for selling one's photographs. The purpose of the assignment was to learn how to make a website in Flash. But it doesn't end there. Our teacher, Jennifer Keats has made a website to link to all of our websites. The next step is to promote the project by any means possible. As a class, we will be keeping a tally of how many prints each of us is able to sell by the end of the semester.

Here is the project: The Schoolyard Project

And here is my website: Buy My Photographs

For this assignment I've selected six images from the Dana series. Each are printed 8"X10" on Digital Archival paper in editions of 10 and priced at $25 (shipping included).

Gender Testing in Sport: A Case for Treatment?

I don't know about you, but I'm a huge fan of the Olympics. I've been watching the Vancouver Olympics as often as possible this past week.

With that said, I've just read an article about gender testing in professional sports, including the Olympics. This article is a response to the plight of Caster Semenya, the South African 2009 World Champion in women's Track & Field who was accused of being a man and subsequently forced into extensive gender testing to determine if she would be allowed to remain the world champion. Since this incident, gender testing of women (and only women!) in sports has become a hot button issue.

Here's the article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8511176.stm

And here's a few facts I'd like to pull from the article:
1. Only women have ever been required to have gender testing.
2. In 1966, gender testing became a requirement for women to qualify for international sporting events. For the first couple of years, this was done by extensive physical examination of each female athlete by a panel of doctors.
3. In 1968, they switched to a chromosome test, that eventually proved to have a 20% false positivity rate.
4. Mandatory genetic testing was practiced until the year 2000. That's 46 years of forced genetic testing of female athletes.
5. "The medical profession and international sporting bodies term most gender ambiguities as disorders of sex development."
6. Today, the International Associations of Athletic Fields (IAAF) is seriously considering reinstating mandatory gender testing of female athletes.
7. The IAAF is also considering making any gender ambiguous female athletes who want to compete required to have surgery to correct the ambiguities.

My Response
This is pure discrimination against Intersex people and Women. I'm so outraged by this.

They justify targeting women for these tests by saying that "there is no advantage to a man with less testosterone, only a woman with more testosterone." Scientifically, that may be correct, but socially this is a direct reflection of the inferiority of women in the eyes of the world.

My friend and fellow artist, Rachel Bruce, remarks "One way or the other, strong women can't be strong without getting tested to compete in sports...Testosterone or not."

They talk about "correcting" and "fixing" and "changing" these "gender ambiguous" athletes as a way of "fixing" the "problem"? The belief that Intersex people need to be "fixed" is unbelievable narrow-minded and downright prejudiced. The fact that the International Olympic Committee is even considering making it mandatory for women to not only have gender verification testing, but also surgically change their bodies in order to qualify for competition (in the case that any gender ambiguity is discovered) is absolutely appalling.

If you have any thoughts on the issue, please leave a comment.

Dawoud Bey at the CAA

Dawoud Bey, one of Columbia College's most successful teachers in the photography department, was selected as this year's Keynote Speaker at the 2010 College Art Association Conference, held February 10-13th here in Chicago. I was unable to attend, unfortunately; but Bey has posted to his blog a transcript of his speech. After reading through it, I feel hopeful but still grounded. Bey does an excellent job of addressing the role of teachers in students' lives. Specifically, he asks educators to encourage their students to make work grounded in our society, not just in Art society, and to think holistically. He also talks about the importance of history, and how educators should constantly tie students' to their predecessors, to learn from them and realize the role they play in contemporary art. I am in total agreement with these statements.

"Those of us who are writing, teaching and otherwise shaping and presenting past and present history need to be mindful that history traditionally has always been a place of selective exclusion as much as it has been a place for selective inclusion masquerading as historical fact. I was reminded of this not too long when I found myself at dinner with a couple of young curators and their patrons. None of them knew the work or name of a single black artists that I asked them about, all of whom I confess had emerged before the 1990s. None of these rang a bell for these young art historians and museum workers who are charged with mounting exhibitions and writing publications that document the expressive work of our time. And these were not obscure or marginal names...to me anyway. If one is going to do this work, one has to be willing and able to do the serious job of excavating history, not merely recognizing the already recognized and hitching your wagon to them. There are still histories waiting to be told and written, and the subjects are indeed hiding in plain sight. One has to believe that the work of bringing others into the center of the discourse truly matters."

To read the rest of this wonderful speech, check out Bey's post here.

The Best Speech I've Ever Heard on the Rights/Issues of Transgendered People

Dec. 10, 2009 - United Nations Panel Discussion on the topic of: Opposing grave Human Rights Violations on the basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

elisetanner.com/complete

At long last, my website is up and ready for viewing! I designed it and built it myself.

Please check it out. Feedback on user-ability is much appreciated.

elisetanner.com