Chronicle The CNM
Volume 20 | Issue 13
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PHOTO BY MELISSA SHEPARD
September 9-22, 2014
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Student art vandalized at Main Campus By Rene Thompson Guest Writer
Students in the CNM art department learn lessons about all sorts of things that have to do with the art world, but for Fine Arts major Hannah Mora, she ended up learning that one’s art can be violated and vandalized, even when displayed right here on CNM’s main campus. Mora said that the installation she made depicting Wonder Women at the end of the summer semester in her Art Practices I class was vandalized, as it was displayed in the front of the MS building, which had a sign that read ‘I’m a woman, not an object.’ Mora said her art was up for a week before it was damaged and picked up in pieces by her instructor Bonnie Stipe. Mora said that it was clearly not damaged because of inclement weather from that week. “It looked like someone ran and tackled her, also the way her arms were bent showed someone had put a lot of weight on the piece. “I just have a feeling that a person did it. I’m actually kind of surprised by the whole thing because this is college and we are all adults. To have this happen at a college is just shocking and it shows the mentality some people have coming into this school and it’s pretty sad,” Mora said. It took more than 24 hours to make the rendition of Wonder Woman casting her own body, as well as being able to withstand the elements, she said. The large wooden blocks within the feet and legs that were drilled into the platform were split in half, she said. “It took three hours just to tape up my body, and it took about another hour just get myself out. I specifically made it heavy on the bottom so it wouldn’t be blown over, and I covered it in enamel, so I made sure it would definitely stand up against the weather,” Mora said. The assignment for the instillation that went up two weeks before the end of the semester was to show symbolism through chosen words, she said.. Other students pieces included words such as ‘Just Breath’ on the KC hall walkway that was being newly renovated for asbestos issues, or another that wrote out ‘Grass’ on the astro turf like lawn outside of the SRC, she said. Mora also said that she was kind of glad the vandalism happened and is curious to ask a few questions of whoever allegedly vandalized her art piece. “If it was someone who did it, I would like to meet them and ask them why, because I am really curious as to what my piece did to them that made them want to destroy it; that they had these feelings toward it? Honestly would you do this to a real person? And why were you so quick to destroying my piece without really thinking whose it was and what I really put into it. Either way, I’m kind of glad it happened because it just proves my point and thank you for making my piece more successful,” she said. Mora, who is also a student employee in the TRIO office, as well as an avid cos-player and
costume designer, said she was trying to portray a message that all people deserve respect. “It’s actually really funny because the whole point of my piece is that wonder woman is a symbol for all women, because she was really the very first female super hero in the 1940’s and all for women power, love, peace, and she really stood for what women are trying to do today, which is to be more independent,” Mora said. It was not just about women equality, but that everyone deserves to have respect no matter what they do, who they are, or what they aspire to be, she said. In the cos-playing world that not everyone is treated fairly who do cos-play at conventions, and that everyone should be able to dress up like their favorite characters the way they want to without being treated badly for it, she said. “Having someone tell you that you are wrong for wanting to play the characters you love and look up to is not a very good feeling, and that is what I was trying to get across, is that people need to respect people, and that is why the wonder women piece was like a blank canvas, meaning anyone could fit into that costume,” she said. Many people at conventions PHOTO COURTESY OF FACEBOOK are treated badly because their body types do not fit what people Artist Hannah Mora strikes a pose with her art piece before it was think the character should look vandalized. like and that many people defer “The funny thing is that my piece is an object, from dressing skimpy because of comments and but what it does symbolize is exactly what was done worse, she said. to my piece, so if it was someone who did it, they That is the reason why she does not wear cerjust proved my point,” Mora said. tain costumes, because in the end it is sometimes just The damage done and the criticism the piece not worth all the negative attention it can sometimes has gotten, Mora said is something all artists or even bring, she said. cos-players have to deal with and that there will “There are many people who will disrespect you always be someone there who puts you down for when you’re in that costume. They call you names, what you do unfortunately, Mora said. they touch you, they harass you; they do all these She learned from a very young age that if somethings to you at a con and it happens multiple times,” one wants to be an artist they cannot let others dicMora said. tate what they do and that artists cannot compare It is body shaming in essence that she is against, themselves to others if they want to make it in the and whether someone is a man, woman, big, small, art world. or in a costume, that they should not be made to feel “You just have to brush it off like water off a bad about what they look like, who they are, or what ducks back, because someone is always going to go they happen to be wearing, she said. out of their way to make you feel awful about your She actually appreciates the experience piece, and you can’t let it bother you,” she said. of what happened to her art piece because it brought the issue and the meaning behind her piece more to the surface than she had ever hoped, she said.
BACKGROUND IMAGE COURTESY OF MILITARYMODELLING.COM