Peaceful+Hope+-+Yun+Bai

=**Peaceful Hope by Yun Bai**=

This image is obtained from the Brooklyn Museum's official [|website]

Title: Peaceful Hope Artist: Yun Bai Date: 2006 Period: Contemporary Country of Origin: China Cultural/Ethnic Affiliation: Chinese Medium: Mixed Media (pornography magazines, marker, acrylic, and resin on masonite) Dimensions: Unknown Museum/Collection: Brooklyn Museum Accession Number: Unknown Current Location and Manner of Display: [|Brooklyn Museum's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art], Brooklyn, New York Provenance: Unknown
 * Artwork Identification**


 * Introduction**

As a contemporary feminist artist, [|Yun Bai] works with explicit materials to create messages of female empowerment in her work. One of her most well-known and intriguing bodies of work is her series of //Porn Flowers .// The various paintings use pornography magazines to generate unassuming images of flowers. The crude nature of the pornography is juxtaposed with Bai's graceful line work, and from a distance, the erotic imagery is imperceptible. The flowers appear to be innocent and charming, but upon closer inspection, female body parts emerge and the viewer is given a completely different experience. Bai draws her inspiration from working in the adult entertainment industry during college. She was in desperate need of an income to finish her college education and after her parents were forced into filing for bankruptcy, she decided to make her earnings as an exotic dancer. This left her feeling objectified, so she decided that she would label herself as a flower and that "all women are flowers" (Yun Bai, 2011).


 * Descriptive Analysis**

At first glance, Yun Bai's //Peaceful Hope// is a beautiful painting of delicate flowers. The flowers are pushed into the foreground by the saturated block of teal existing as the background. The solid background is contrasted with the unique texture of the flowers, which are created with marker, acrylic, and pornography magazines. The fragile branches lead the eye from the top left corner of the composition to the bottom, where the eye is then guided up to the top right corner. The center of the painting is left bare, with only the teal background showing. This blank area gives the eye a place to rest while it is framed by the branches and flowers. The flowers are closely grouped together on the right side of the painting, while the left side remains more subtle with only a couple flowers to balance the composition. Bai primarily uses flesh tones when embellishing her flowers, which further emphasizes their pornography origin. She uses green, violet, orange, pink, peach, yellow, and slight variations of each color for the flower petals. In this particular work, she not only uses flesh tones to illustrate the flowers but black is also widely used throughout the composition. The flowers resting at the bottom right are primarily created from the pornography magazines and the female body is clearly visible. The forms are particularly organic and not one straight line can be found in the painting. Bai's elegant brushwork flows across the canvas and the colors dance across the flowers. In the three works below, her varying approaches to each //Porn Flower// painting can be seen.

//Healing Wonders//, 2006 [|

//I won't give up on living a glorious dream, 2006// [|

//Beautiful Hoe Garden, 2003// [|


 * Formal and Contextual Analysis**

Bai's personal life and background has had a profound effect on her body of work. Around the age of four, Bai's Mother enrolled her in a traditional Chinese brush painting class where she vividly remembers painting subjects such as pandas and bamboo. She also practiced calligraphy with her Grandmother, which is where she gained her affinity for the brushstroke. At five years old she moved from China to the United States where her disciplined upbringing was maintained with piano lessons, ballet school, martial arts, and a wide variety of extracurricular activities. It was not until High School that Bai began to embrace her free-spirited side and found her niche in the art world. After High School she moved to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue a Bachelor's in Art at Agnes Scott College. During her college years, Bai's relationship with her first love ended, and shortly after, her mom was diagnosed with cancer. Not long after that, her parents filed for bankruptcy and she was left trying to find a way to complete her college education. Imagining that the life of an exotic dancer would not only pay her tuition, but that it would also be full of glamor and excitement, Bai began working as an adult entertainer. She soon found out that the life of an exotic dancer was anything but glamorous. The men were appalling in their behavior, and they called her a whore solely because she would not sleep with them. In a 2007 interview, Bai expressed the day-to-day hardship she endured during this period: "It was one of the toughest times in my life. I would get about 3-4 hours of sleep every night, go to school, do an internship, work study, and go to work. I've always had short hair, and so I became the "male asian fantasy" acting submissive...bought a long black wig...dressed as a little china doll and had an identity crisis" (White Hot Magazine, Interview with Yun Bai, 2007). Finding solace in knowing that her employment was only temporary, she rose above the pain and graduated in 2001. In the interview, Bai states that she knew one day her art would reflect her experiences, and later on, she had the visualization of the //Porn Flowers: "//I was sitting in my room one day, and I got bored with oil painting. I didn't know what conceptual art was, or how to convey a concept so I thought, bam! I'm gonna make flowers out of porn because that's what I am. I am a flower" (White Hot Magazine, Interview with Yun Bai, 2007).

Flowers and floral motifs first appeared in traditional Chinese painting as far back as the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C (Goody, 1993, p. 256). As centuries passed, flower painting became incredibly popular, particularly amongst Chinese courtesans. The popularity of flower painting amongst these women is subject to many debates. One theory states that the demanding technical training for landscapes and portraits could not be attained by the courtesans, while another theory suggests that the private, secluded world of a courtesan provided limited subject matter. Some also believe that the courtesans likened themselves to flowers, particularly the orchid, because they too were rare beauties. This comparison between woman and flower is similar to Yun Bai's //Porn Flower// concept. The Chinese courtesans were held in high esteem, and ancient poetry compares them to the fragility and purity in seclusion of the orchid (Weidner, 1990, p. 91). They wore fine jewels and beautiful clothing, and they asserted the skillful art of entertaining. Courtesans were not only painters but also musicians, poets, dancers, and talented conversationalists (Weidner, 1990, p. 82). This was during a time when education remained a luxury for even the most capable women, and a well-rounded courtesan further ensured her financial security.

Bai's work revolves around overcoming life's hardships and making the best out of any situation, and the courtesans chose to use their sexuality as a way to improve their quality of life. These women were not viewed as victims, but rather as exquisite entertainers. They had control over rooms filled with people, and they too can be seen as figures of female empowerment.


 * Personal Interpretations**

What I enjoy most about Bai's work is the message that she communicates. The //Porn Flowers// are meant to convey strength, hope, courage, healing, and most importantly "enthusiasm for the future" (Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 2011). She was faced with an incredible amount of adversity, but she was able to step out of the shadows and create something beautiful from her experience. I appreciate the fact that she gives positive and encouraging titles to her artwork, such as //I won't give up on living a glorious dream// and //Healing Wonders.// It is a reminder that we must not give up and that misfortune is only temporary with a brighter future ahead. Just as the crude pornography transformed into elegant flowers, each individual in the face of difficulty will become stronger when the affliction has passed.


 * References**
 * **Online Sources**
 * "Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art." 2011. [|http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/about/index.ph]
 * Official website for the Brooklyn Museum's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. It is dedicated to the promotion of feminist art and offers links to the exhibitions, artist databases, and events.
 * White Hot Magazine, "Interview with Yun Bai." 2007. [|http://www.whitehotmagazine.com/articles/yun-bai-aka-yunny-bunny/323]
 * An interview with Yun Bai in which she discusses her personal life and the concept behind the porn flower series.
 * "Yun Bai: Progressive. Passionate. Provocative." 2011. [|http://www.yunbai.com]
 * Yun Bai's official website with information about the artist, portfolio, exhibits, and press coverage
 * **Printed Sources**
 * Barlow, Tani. //The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism//. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.
 * Barlow explores the attitude towards women in twentieth-century China. She uses a range of feminist theories and psychoanalysis to identify the source of gender discrimination.
 * Goody, Jack. //The Culture of Flowers//. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
 * Goody delves into the significance and impact that flowers have across all cultures from ancient to modern times.
 * Jie, Tao, Zheng Bijun, and Shirley Mow. //Holding Up Half the Sky//. New York: First Feminist Press, 2004.
 * Written by female Chinese scholars, this book identifies the past and current issues women face in China.
 * Rosenlee, Li-Hsiang. //Confucianism and Women//. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006.
 * Rosenlee takes an in-depth look at the attitude toward women through Confucian thought.
 * Weidner, Marsha. //Flowering in the Shadows//. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.
 * Weidner investigates the importance of Chinese and Japanese female painters from history.

**Lesson Title**: Issues in Art **Grade Level**: Upper level high school, only with the parents permission by making the lesson available for them to observe and approve.
 * Time**: 1 week, five 50 minute class periods.

This lesson meets the following National Standards and Benchmarks for Arts Education VA 9-12. 1 Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes (1&2) VA 9-12. 3 Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas (1&2)
 * Standards and Benchmarks**:

This lesson meets the following National Educational Technology Standards for Students 1. Creativity and Innovation: a, b, c. 2. Communication and Collaboration: a, b, c 3. Research and Information Fluency: b 4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: a, b, c, d 5. Digital Citizenship: a, b, c

**Central Concepts**: Representin' which means to bring clearly before the mind. Students can be taught that through a portrayal or exhibit of art they can represent their ideas in a visual way.

Empowerment is to promote the self-actualization or influence through the gain of authority or legal power. This translates to individual empowerment and how standing up for yourself can be a beneficial skill to students who will soon be going out into the world. Their voices are just as important to be heard, this way they can use art to form a positive experience with showing their passions.

**Lesson Activities**: 1. Group Brainstorm- 15 minutes Having the students get into groups to share and talk about different types of oppression and gender discrimination to build theories for their artwork project and brainstorming symbols to represent it. Expanding on the issues and exploring other issues that may be happening in different cultures around the world by bouncing ideas off of their peers. One member from each group will be asked to record the topics disucussed.

2. Past to Present Lecture- 20 minutes May need to re-title the activity Through a powerpoint presentation, give the students examples of issue based art that relates to gender roles, socioeconomic status, religion, and sexual orientation. (open to all different kinds of oppression on an appropriate level)

3. Magazine Scavenger Hunt- 20 minutes Have students get on a computer and search through magazine websites with online books to find images that they believe convey a issue in today's society that they would like to empower. As a class we will visit the computer lab or library where the students will collect their images and print them out in color copies, they will be asked to start this in the previous class so this time should be used more to make final decisions and meet one on one with the teacher for questions.

4. Creation Studio- 2 class periods <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Have the students create an original work of art incorporating clippings from the printed magazines and acrylic paint, based on a very serious topic that they believe is important in today’s society. They will also use this time to document their work when it is complete and form a powerpoint presentation to display their work to the class as well as discuss their issue.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">5. Powerpoint Presentation- 2 class periods <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The students will use the photos they chose online and their finished work of art to put a power point presentation together to talk about their issue. With the two days provided the students will present their projects in front of the class explaining why they chose their photos and the formal choices they made to complete their work of art.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Students will have their ideas approved before they start the creation process and then when their artwork is completed it will be submitted for grading. The students artwork should be graded on their ability to create a successful artwork that conveys a issue that they feel is relevant today. They should have some incorporation of printed online images as well as a proper application of acrylic paint. They will also receive points for creating a powerpoint and presenting it to their classmates.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Assessment: **