Comprehension Through Conversation

Intro and Thesis: With my project I wanted to showcase many voices at the same time. I decided to make three collages out of words from the books we read and the stand-up specials we watched throughout the semester. The three collages I made are based around the themes of motherhood, gender, and societal expectations of beauty. We have preconceived notions about these themes because of the way we were taught to look at them by society. In my project, I argue that only through candid conversation about neglected aspects of humanity can we allow true understanding to take shape. Society may try to construct a singular consciousness, but if actual people have actual conversations, then comprehension and tolerance between even the most different people is possible.

Poster 1: Motherhood

Poster 2: Societal Construction of Beauty

Poster 3: Gender

What I Did (Process and Structure): I started my project by figuring out which authors I was going to use for each theme. I used Poehler, Fey, and Wong’s books for the theme of motherhood; Branum’s book, Holmes’ book, and Gadsby’s stand-up special for the theme of gender; and the books of Poehler, Fey, Branum, and Kaling for the theme of societal expectations of beauty. After separating these seven authors into my themes, I re-read the authors’ material and cut out sections of their writing that fit into each respective theme. Once I had enough material, I collaged the sections of writing into images that I drew on large posters. There’s an image of a pregnant woman for the motherhood collage, an image of a woman looking into a mirror for the beauty standards collage, and standard representations of gender in a thought bubble for the gender collage. All that was going through my head as I thought about my project was the concept of ideas taking shape. I was obsessed with making a visual representation of stories combining to form a cohesive whole. By bringing all of the selected material from each different writer together, I made a unified picture out of all of the stories.

So What?: I took a lot of inspiration from an anonymous coalition of female artists called the Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls made intriguing and often shocking posters to bring awareness to gender and race discrimination in the art world. I wanted my posters to make an impact on people who saw them. Similar to the Guerrilla Girls’ posters, my posters are a commentary on issues of exclusion within society. The stories I showcase on my posters (miscarriages, hate-crimes, shame over physical appearance, etc.) are typically excluded from everyday conversation. Because I put the stories on display rather than refusing to acknowledge them as much of society does, I proved that these stories are necessary to the public consciousness. Though it sounds like an exaggeration, communication and the sharing of stories is so important to the existence of humanity. The collaged stories symbolize the many conversations that allow understanding to form.

What Surprised Me and What I Learned: I was surprised by how many similarities I saw in the stories of all of the authors. It really opened my eyes to the comfort shared experiences can bring to people. It’s clear, though it may sound trite, that we are all so much more alike than we are different. I essentially made the authors I chose have a conversation by gluing their stories together and, through this, I learned that conversation is even more important than I originally thought it was. Conversation is, in fact, key to connection and human life itself.

My Favorite Part: The part I enjoyed the most about this project was drawing the images and collaging the sections of text. I liked challenging myself to find creative ways to represent the themes, and I’ve always loved making art. My favorite poster is the one with the theme of beauty expectations. I think this one is striking and beautiful, but also unsettling. 

I've really enjoyed our classes this semester, and I hope everyone has a great summer!