"Identity" By Jean Claire; 2008; Scanned objects
Jean Claire's piece Identity is a collection of scanned objects onto a single piece of paper. Every object that is included are highly personal, and reflect the artists Identity. Some of the objects include a credit card and drivers license. These objets reflect who the artist is in the eyes of her home country of the Philippines. This artist was clearly motivated to make a statement about how she is viewed in the eyes of her government, and asking the question of if we can be defined by a few pieces of paper and plastic.
A credit card is a symbol of how responsible a company believes you are through a measure of a credit rating. The symbol of the credit card shows how she feels she is seen. She may believe that such an object defines you in a way that you are transformed into a number apposed to an individual person. The artist may have included a credit card to comment on how she is not a number, but in fact she is a human with thoughts and emotions and cannot be judged by a number.
A drivers license is what you use on a regular basis to prove your identity. To the government a drivers license is what gives you identity in everyday life. You use a drivers license to purchase things such as alcohol and tobacco, and it is used to prove to police you are the person you claim you are. This use of a drivers license may be saying that she cannot be defined by a few basic bits of information and a picture.
This artist was clearly motivated to make a statement about how she is viewed in the eyes of her government and companies, and asking the question of if we can be defined by a few pieces of paper and plastic. How do we define ourselves? is it by what we are, or is it by what the government says we are.
A credit card is a symbol of how responsible a company believes you are through a measure of a credit rating. The symbol of the credit card shows how she feels she is seen. She may believe that such an object defines you in a way that you are transformed into a number apposed to an individual person. The artist may have included a credit card to comment on how she is not a number, but in fact she is a human with thoughts and emotions and cannot be judged by a number.
A drivers license is what you use on a regular basis to prove your identity. To the government a drivers license is what gives you identity in everyday life. You use a drivers license to purchase things such as alcohol and tobacco, and it is used to prove to police you are the person you claim you are. This use of a drivers license may be saying that she cannot be defined by a few basic bits of information and a picture.
This artist was clearly motivated to make a statement about how she is viewed in the eyes of her government and companies, and asking the question of if we can be defined by a few pieces of paper and plastic. How do we define ourselves? is it by what we are, or is it by what the government says we are.
"Jean Claire A. Dy would like nothing more than to retire in a bamboo house complete with the traditional Filipino “banggera,” standing on a cliff in some coastal community, with the sea breeze on her face and the sun on her back. But, since she’s not getting any younger and needing to save for that bamboo house, she is contented with dwelling in what she calls a “feminine elsewhere.”
Most of her waking hours are spent traversing different realities as a teacher, journalist, visual artist, travel writer, performance artist, creative writer, New Media evangelist, sometimes a fortune teller when her friends need sound advice, and even to some extent a fashion ethnographer. Just recently, she realized that all these roles lead to her being an interdisciplinary artist who is constantly trying to integrate/use New Media tools in her works.
She dabbles in anything New Media and is currently interested in integrating different art forms using New Media. (As “Interactivity” is her favorite word these days.)
She is currently working on her first collection of travel essays, her first solo exhibition of installation art pieces with birdcages as central material and her first set of solo performance art pieces.
Claire practices Yoga and Tai Ji and has studied a bit of Orissi and Bharatanatyam. Presently, she is interested in Contemporary Dance and Noise Art.
She dreams (honestly) of a better world (although she thinks Utopia is an illusion), where Patriarchy does not exist, where women and children do not have to bear the brunt of violence and war, where everybody can have same access to education and the basic human rights, where religion and all other Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) aren’t as powerful as they are. And so on and so forth."(4,Odissi)
Most of her waking hours are spent traversing different realities as a teacher, journalist, visual artist, travel writer, performance artist, creative writer, New Media evangelist, sometimes a fortune teller when her friends need sound advice, and even to some extent a fashion ethnographer. Just recently, she realized that all these roles lead to her being an interdisciplinary artist who is constantly trying to integrate/use New Media tools in her works.
She dabbles in anything New Media and is currently interested in integrating different art forms using New Media. (As “Interactivity” is her favorite word these days.)
She is currently working on her first collection of travel essays, her first solo exhibition of installation art pieces with birdcages as central material and her first set of solo performance art pieces.
Claire practices Yoga and Tai Ji and has studied a bit of Orissi and Bharatanatyam. Presently, she is interested in Contemporary Dance and Noise Art.
She dreams (honestly) of a better world (although she thinks Utopia is an illusion), where Patriarchy does not exist, where women and children do not have to bear the brunt of violence and war, where everybody can have same access to education and the basic human rights, where religion and all other Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) aren’t as powerful as they are. And so on and so forth."(4,Odissi)