Aspies For Freedom

Does "perfect cage" refer to the metaphore of being traped within your own body or the cage of the world around you?

I used drawing as a great solace. It got me past a couple of bad times. I even got one peice exibited in the Royal College of Art, I have not drawn in ages, thanks, I am off to sharpen my old graphite sticks. :smile:

Hannah, your artwork has been censored on other sites previously, so I think you may have had an idea of the reaction it would get.
Also we only requested that 2 images out of 10 be removed.

We do not appreciate being told to 'go and rot in hell' following a polite pm, and also your use of copyrighted words from this site used out of context on another site in order to stir up hateful comments towards us.

Can you understand that while you have feelings, we are human and have feelings too?

Hannah, Here's my two cents as a viewer. I liked your work. I don't know alot about art but your images reminded me of Freda Kahlo's paintings. I wouldn't choose to have a Freda Kahlo hanging in my living room though. I do think they took up too much space on this site. It might be better if you put such images in an attachment or link with a statement to warn people that they might find the images disturbing. That way people could have a choice about whether they wanted to view them or not.

Now, having written that, I have to edit this because I saw that someone else has made the same suggestion elsewhere in this forum, and it doesn't work because children might view the images.

Well, I have an observation. The fact is that the power or social impact of your art occurs because it is likely to shock viewers or be censored in forums such as this. The censorship is part of the relationship between your work and the viewer, isn't it? That is what the images are all about. They speak out against the sanitization or silencing of emotional pain. Given that it is censorship that gives the images such power, it is not logical for you to complain that these images were censored.

A bit off subject but:

I understand what you mean, I recently went to see the Frida exhibition at Tate Modern in london, and standing in one room containing Henry Ford Hospital, A Few Small Nips, My Birth and My Nurse and I (which I'd not previously found particularly disturbing but which was in asociation with the others) was one of the most distressing experiences of my life. But most of Frida's paintings are full of beauty and feeling, and show her ability to overcome the pain she experienced in her life (something I suspect from other people's comments Hannah doesn't yet feel able to do -- I've not seen Hannah's picutres) I'd willingly have most of Frida's self pratraits on my wall and DO have What the Water Showed Me as my screen saver.

Anyone who doesn't know these picutres will find them at

http://www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo/resou...tions.html

I only really know about her because I saw the movie of her life. It seems to me that she did not "overcome" her pain. She lived with it.  At the end of the movie she gets her first exhibit in Mexico City and her famous painter philanderer husband is very affectionately giving a speech to talk about her paintings to the people and then she comes in being carried on her death bed literally by about six male working men and as they carry her into the room she breaks into her husband's speech by saying something like, "Oh shut up you sexist ***."  It seemed to me that her pain racked body represented the revolution. It was all very symbolic, but I do remember that she never actually overcame her pain but lived with it and created these beautiful yet disturbing images of that pain to express the truth of what was happening politically in a highly censored era.

I saw the biographical film too, it was very good, and moving.

Yes, it was beautiful cinematography wasn't it? I loved the colors of Mexico City in the movie. In one of the features on the dvd someone says that those are authentic colors of Mexico City.

One of her self portraits -

I think we are probably talking about two different forms of pain. I was referring to emotional pain rather than physical. Although I think she did overcome the physical pain in that she retainted a lust for life even when severely physically incapacitated, she did continue experience it. However the all-consuming emotional pain and a sense that she could not overcome her physical pain, which dominated her life at times in the late 1930's was not a feature of her life in the 1940s, and is not reflected in many of her paintings, I still feel that the orwhelming majority of her painting are in no way disturbing (although some of the most important and meaningful are). Anyone who hasn't seen the film should, it is amazing.

lovely picture amy posted, which reminds me that there has been discussion of mono-eyebrows on the neanderthal thread recently, its interesting that although Frida almost invariably painted herself with a very strong mono-eyebrow it was actuall nothing like so marked in real life! See the lovely pictures which Nikolas Murray and Imogen Cunningham took of her.

Amy you've editted your last posting! But I like that portrait too, probably more, and incidentally its less painful....

I had too, it came out a lot bigger than I thought, and would take ages for people on dialup to see! That one is nice too though.

What is the significance of the mono-brow?

I don't think it had any significance, she just had one. She often referred to herself as being ugly, but she was not, she was very beautiful, and saw the monobrow as being one of her uglier features. There was a fresco in the Tate exhibition 'frida very ugly' which had a prominent mono-brow but which looks very beautiful.

JSL, unfortunately you have missed the exhibition, it ended on 9th October, a great pity. But perhaps you will have a chance to see the new Rachel Whiteread installation, I think that she is an amazing artist, I also like Rothko. Your mention of catching the train to London Bridge reminds me that the first time i went to the old Tate (now Tate Britain) in the mid 70's I caught the train from Croydon to London Bridge and walked along the South Bank, past the recently closed powerstation, I remember thinking what a monumental builiding it was, little did I realise that 30 years later it would house the very art collection I was on my way to see!

oh I was thinking of going to see the white cardboard boxes too, JSL. I've heard ever such a lot about the new exhibition.

Stella