Bon
à Tirer Introduction
and Acknowledgements
The editorial
board is very happy to introduce the fourth issue of the Department of Visual
Arts’ student-run journal, Bon à Tirer: The Western Undergraduate Journal of
Art History and Visual Culture. This year’s contributors investigate a wide
array of art historical and contemporary issues concerning visual culture.
In this issue, Jonathan Forani looks at
six photographs of the American war in Iraq and critiques the way images were
used both to support and counter U.S. government myths about military heroism,
which were often constructed at the expense of representing the suffering of
Iraqi civilians. Using the
research and images of graffiti he acquired while on a Spring 2010 trip to
South-Central Mexico, Michael Sattin offers an
anthropologically-inflected analysis of the cultural significance of graffiti
in Mexican youth culture. Rebecca Shurvin investigates the factors that have contributed to the continued success and longevity of an American feminist art group in Guerrilla Girls: From the Jungle to the Streets of New York City. Lastly, Jessica Davis examines the decontextualization and commodification of archetypal serial killer Ted
Bundy by popular media, and the way this dissociation of Bundy from his
horrifying actions and their relation to broader societal issues like misogyny
enabled the subsequent popular culture consumption of his image.
In Divine Landscapes: The Style of Albrecht Altdorfer, Brad Morosan explores the social, cultural and political landscape of sixteenth-century Germany, and how it influenced the stylistic development of German Renaissance artist Albrecht Altdorfer.
Nicole Borland looks at two controversial American photographers who sought to promote art that was both visually appealing and politically poignant in The Culture Wars: Aesthetic and Anti-Aesthetic Reconciliation in the Work of Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe.
The editors
would like to thank a number of individuals and groups who have lent their
time, energy, and support to the creation of this issue. We extend our sincere
gratitude to the Arts & Humanities Student Donation Fund Committee for
their careful consideration of our proposal and for the funds to publish this
year’s issue. Our thanks also go to Professor Cody Barteet, our faculty
supervisor, and Professor Kirsty Robertson, who
initiated the journal. Thanks are also due to Andrew Gugan and Marlene Jones for their assistance with advertising the publication, and to
the professors who promoted the journal to their students and encouraged
submissions from students of diverse academic backgrounds. We are also very
appreciative of Andrew Gugan’s assistance setting up
the new website, and his technical help with the online publication.
Most
importantly, thank you to the writers whose hard work is featured in this
year’s journal. Your unique arguments, compiled together here, create a very
strong voice that speaks to the high level of scholarship maintained in our
department and the University at large. The editorial board has sincerely
enjoyed and learned from engaging with each paper included in this year’s
journal, and we are very pleased that this publication will enable you to share
your academic insights with a wider audience.
Bon à Tirer Editors-in-Chief, 2010/2011 |
