Category: Art

Am I Not A Man And A Brother?

I was reading some American History and came across the following phrase from the abolitionist movement: ‘am i not a man and a brother?’

For some reason the phrase really captured my imagination. I found a decent explanation on this site.

The first and most identifiable image of the 18th century abolitionist movement was a kneeling African man.

Members of the Society of Friends, informally known as Quakers, were among the earliest leaders of the abolitionist movement in Britain and the Americas. By the beginning of the American Revolution, Quakers had moved from viewing slavery as a matter of individual conscience, to seeing the abolition of slavery as a Christian duty.

Quakers, who believe in simplicity in all things, tended to view the arts as frivolous; but when the Quaker-led Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade met in London in 1787, three of its members were charged with preparing a design for “a Seal [to] be engraved for the use of this Society.”

Later that year, the society approved a design “expressive of an African in Chains in a Supplicating Posture.” Surrounding the naked man was engraved a motto whose wording echoed an idea widely accepted during the Enlightenment among Christians and secularists: “Am I Not A Man and A Brother?” The design was approved by the Society, and an engraving was commissioned.

The design was symbolic both artistically and politically. In addition to evoking classical art, the figure’s nudity signified a state of nobility and freedom, yet he was bound by chains. Black figures, usually depicted as servants or supplicants, typically knelt in the art of the period, at a time when members of the upper classes did not kneel when praying; this particular image combined the European theme of conversion from heathenism and the idea of emancipation into a posture of gratitude.

Josiah Wedgewood, who was by then a member of the Society, produced the emblem as a jasper-ware cameo at his pottery factory. Although the artist who designed and engraved the seal is unknown, the design for the cameo is attributed to William Hackwood or to Henry Webber, who were both modelers at the Wedgewood factory.

In 1788, a consignment of the cameos was shipped to Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, where the medallions became a fashion statement for abolitionists and anti-slavery sympathizers. They were worn as bracelets and as hair ornaments, and even inlaid with gold as ornaments for snuff boxes. Soon the fashion extended to the general public.

There’s some obvious connections to several aspects of our lives today.

Form Follows Function

‘Form follows function’ is a principle associated with modern architecture and industrial design in the 20th Century. The architect Louis Sullivan created the maxim while figuring out principles for the construction of skyscrapers.

Form follows function, as Sullivan defined it, states that the shape of a building or object should be predicated by or based upon its intended function or purpose. With buildings, that means/meant that there is a relationship to the human beings inside, the earth, the sky, and the surrounding air. I think certain applications exist toward the creation of dances. According to Sullivan:

“It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,
Of all things physical and metaphysical,
Of all things human and all things super-human,
Of all true manifestations of the head,
Of the heart, of the soul,
That the life is recognizable in its expression,
That form ever follows function. This is the law.”

Sullivan was the teacher of another famous architect – Frank Lloyd Wright. The statement above comes from “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered”,” published in Lippincott’s Magazine (March 1896). You can see the entire article here.

Online Dance

There was an immense amount of theory developed in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s on the phenomena of sit-specific dance… I know, I had to learn some of it in both undergrad and graduate school.

Am I the only person who thinks that online dance is a form of site-specific performance? Why does it seem that dancers aren’t considering this location as impacting the reception of their work?