Johnson Museum Field Trip

1. Type A: Barrier

This piece to me, is based off power and how our world is based off how power-hungry we are. The description bases a lot of it's meaning through government and male competition. This to me symbolizes male suppression and how men in society are taught to protect their wives, make lots of money, be the strongest, and be the best. Men are then unable to break this barrier and do what makes them truly happy because society makes fun of happy men, they consider them to be flamboyant and having low testosterone. These concrete sculptures are white and tough, which is what the ideal man is. They also must protect: their country, their lives, other people's lives. They are also a form of construction (changing or building something new), while everything changes around men (women empowerment, racial acceptance), men stand their ground and make sure everything is under control. This is a very powerful pice, which sums up a lot of american historical history and emphasizes that this in fact is a man's world, but I hope that it also means it doesn't always have to be that way, which is why their are spaces in between.


2. Cinemania: Harun Farocki and Holly Zausner

This piece was so much fun to watch representing the factory struggles and major industry periods in life. There are 12 televisions lined up by date. In this piece the people seem to be struggling because they all are in an economic crisis at some point/points in their lives. Their are different countries so it seems to be indicating that these struggles occur everywhere all over the place and people react the same: walking fast, into their factories with large fenced in areas or walls. In each of these videos there is a sense of barrier, they are struggling workers trapped in the economic system created by man. There are a couple videos with bikes in the indicating farther/quicker ways and routs of travels. They also portray the working women, in the earlier films the women are maids and housewives and in the later decade of films the women are shown in more business attire.