Vita Bella! Fall 2012 by Vita Bella!

VitaBella opes

LIVING THE

Beautiful Life AT YALE

VOL. 2 ISSUE 1

FALL 2012

Dreams

Inside:

THE HUNT OF THE UNICORN pg. 15 YALE WILL PAY YOU TO GET NUDE (BUT NOT NAKED) pg. 28

New Haven feature

VitaBella! VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1 FALL 2012

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Shira Telushkin

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Mckay Nield

LAYOUT & DESIGN Julia Cortopassi Michelle Korte

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Susannah Benjamin

ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Casey McCarthy

FEATURE EDITORS Claire Zhang Aaron Gertler

BUSINESS MANAGER Obaid Syed

EVENT MANAGERS Eden Ohayon Alana Thyng

FICTION EDITOR Rebecca Zhu

Special Thanks to Creative and Performing Arts Award Pierson College of Yale University This magazine was made possible through a generous grant from Campus Progress 2 |Fall 2012 Vita Bella! 2 Fall 2012 $ Vita Bella!

Letter Editor from the

was curled up on my family’s forest green couch, when suddenly everything: the way my backpack sagged to the left, the fading outside light, the smell of the old book I was reading, the swell of my siblings' laughter in the next room…everything was suddenly so beautiful, almost painfully perfect. We all carry moments. Moments and memories where we, for a vivid instant, understood the vast gloriousness and beauty of this world. Something overwhelmed us. Made us almost burst with the task of appreciating such infinite beauty. Maybe it was a poem, a piece of music, a friend. Maybe you were alone. Maybe the feeling vanished. Every semester, Vita Bella! strives to capture those moments. Today, I ask you to pause and remember. Think of a time, a place, a person, an action—a tangible memory that forces you to smile, or reclaim that moment of awe. We believe in the truth of these moments. This issue of Vita Bella! is dedicated to Hopes and Dreams. To the space that houses myths, legends, imagination, and desire. Throughout these pages we celebrate the firemen and ballet dancers who inspire childhood fantasies, the builders of objects and the makers of dreams, the ethereal beauty of the unicorn, and the transformation of our very bodies into art. We celebrate the yet-unrealized-hope, the realm that hovers just beyond the possible. Vita Bella! is a hope, a belief, a demand. Vita Bella! is the question: Will you be consumed by beauty?

hira Telushkin EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Welcome to the

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Hopes &Dreams

issue

A PERFECTLY GOOD TABLE Eden Ohayon

CLASSICS CORNER: WILLIAM MORRIS Isadora Italia

A TAPESTRY CEILING Mary Mussman

SANDALS VS POINTE SHOES Claire Zhang

BEYOND THE TRUCKS Sam Greenberg

THE HUNT OF THE UNICORN Susannah Benjamin

THE MAKINGS OF A DREAM Benjamin Wolf Telsuhkin

YALE WILL PAY YOU TO GET NUDE (BUT NOT NAKED) Shira Telushkin

ON THE WALLS OF BATHROOM STALLS Rebecca Zhu

MODERN FASHION: REARRANGING ICONIC HOUSES Lillian Crabb

New Haven feature

Ten Thousand Villages

f you don’t have time to make a gift by hand, you can still give something handmade! My favorite place to shop for birthday or holidays gifts is Ten Thousand Villages, on Chapel between High and College. They exclusively sell fairly traded goods hand-crafted by artisans from around the world. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution and mass-production, it’s near impossible to know exactly how an item was made or where it came from in America. With every purchase at Ten Thousand Villages, you’re given a detailed printout that describes your purchase, the person who made it, a little bit about their craft, and what the object signifies to the artisan. And, perhaps best of all, you can rest assured knowing that the person who made the item will receive the profits—in fact, everyone who works retail at their stores is a volunteer. Everything in the store is reasonably priced and absolutely stunning. Last year, my best friend gave me a friendship candleholder hand carved from soapstone by an artist in Kenya. Among about a thousand other things in the store, I’ve had my eye on a Phoenician glass carafe from the West Bank. You can find things here that you won’t be able to find anywhere else, throughout most of the world. And they’re all in one place. It’s ethical shopping you can feel good about.

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A Perfectly Good Table BY EDEN OHAYON

y mom was the art teacher at my elementary school. In addition to introducing us to the beauty of Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Georgia O’Keefe’s flowers, or showing us how to draw horizons, (guiding our hands along a path until we reached the vanishing point), she was also the one who walked us through the projects we’d bring home to mom or dad or grandma; cornhusk dolls and handprint turkeys on Thanksgiving, ceramic sculpted holly dishes for Christmas, a menorah crafted from painted blue woodblocks and nuts and bolts for Hanukkah. The list goes on and on. And each year, without fail, she would put all of my creations from the years that came before on display among the other, more elegant holiday decorations. My cornhusk dolls earned their place on the mantel, and my wooden menorah was lit among those that had been in the family for generations. My mom, being the craft master that she was, always kept a home full of supplies—scissors, glitter, glue, pipe cleaners, and a thousand colors of paint all at my disposal. I’d make figurines out of empty toilet paper rolls and construction paper, adorned with sequins and googlyeyes, for every occasion: princesses, witches, ghosts, leprechauns, genies, penguins, pumpkins. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of myself than when I handed my mom her gift on Mother’s Day, 1999. I’d painted a small strip

of wood light blue and hammered four long nails into it: a coat rack. Though it wasn’t strong enough to hold heavy jackets, it remained in our hallway for more than a decade as a place to hang scarves and gloves. I’d made it on my own and I’d made it for her. The summer before high school, I felt that I’d outgrown my room. The lavender and green color scheme, the floral print, the bunk bed—it all reminded me of the girl I’d been, not the person I was hoping to become. I asked my mom if we could redecorate and she embraced the idea with enthusiasm. My head flooded with the infinite possibilities ahea, with images from The Rolling Stone and movie stills, old photos from the sixties. Soon after we’d begun, however, I sensed that some of my grander ideas would never be realized. But my mom would always make it work. Instead of damask flocked wallpaper, for example, covering an entire wall, she’d find some scraps, cut them into three matching pieces and put them in frames she’d bought at the thrift store. Then there was the table. The bedside table that had once matched my purple and green room stuck out in its new mauve setting. I wanted to get rid of it. I wanted something dark: black. “We can’t waste a perfectly good table,” my mom said, “But we can turn it into the one you want.” Together we sanded it, primed it, and painted it black. I bought new hardware, two blown glass knobs that

would replace the old ones. And on top she layered mirror beneath glass, which she had gotten custom cut to fit. I took a step back to look at the result—it wasn’t the same table. And it looked better than anything we could have bought, and somehow better than what I envisioned. She taught me how to make it mine. When I moved into my first home away from her, a house on Dwight Street, I had an empty room to call my own. Again, I deluded myself with possibility, letting myself dream of the interiors featured in magazines and Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon. I had this image of what this space could be, and I worked relentlessly to actualize it. I knew I’d never find the furniture pieces exactly as I’d imagined them in any store, so I created them from skeletons. I sifted through Craigslist and the Salvation Army until I found something I could mold into what I had in my head—a discarded desk, dresser, a wooden chest, all of which I married to the awe-inspiring power of wood stain (my new best friend). I made a headboard from drapery and a curtain rod, an earring holder from screen door material and a hand-carved frame I’d picked up in Jerusalem. And slowly, over the course of the semester, I’d created my room, a space of my own entirely. Of course the reality of it didn’t quite match my expectations. It didn’t look like I had pictured it, exactly. But it was as close as I could come. Everything had been inspired by a perfect image, customized by my two hands, guided by my mother’s. She taught me how to see something for what it could be and instilled in me the belief that I could make it so. Now, when I walk through a space, I don’t see what’s there, but what’s possible.

lassics

Corner

“Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

William Morris

illiam Morris (1834-1906) was a man of incredible creativity and endless energy, who had noble hopes for art. He believed that art and life were inextricably linked—and that in reforming art and design, one could reform society. The Industrial Revolution had already taken hold of Britain by the time Morris was born in 1834, and he was always acutely aware of its negative effects on living and working conditions. His disdain for capitalist greed and mass production fueled a passion for art of the Gothic era and the ideals of medieval society. Art critic John Ruskin’s writings on the social and moral basis of architecture influenced Morris significantly, and he yearned for a return to artistry, craftsmanship, and thoughtfulness in art and design. Morris was not alone in this sentiment, and in 1861 he founded with some friends the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., an associate of artist-workmen whose goal was to create handmade, medieval-inspired products for the home. The firm was run as a collaborative, with artists such as painters Ford Madox Brown and Edward Burne-Jones providing wallpaper, furniture, metalwork, jewelry, and textiles designs for skilled craftsman to then produce. This reclaiming of the preindustrial ethos, and newfound appreciation for the decorative arts, became known as the Arts and

BY ISADORA ITALIA

Crafts movement during the second half of the century. The belief that art and social reform were one and the same was a constant driving force present in all that Morris did. In 1875, when the firm came under his sole proprietorship as Morris & Company, he began experimenting with vegetable dyes, a revolutionary departure from contemporary synthetic methods, representative of a continuing desire for society to turn back to more organic production. His reformation efforts took place within the political arena as well—he joined a Democratic Federation, preached socialist ideologies, led a banned demonstration to Trafalgar Square on ‘Bloody Sunday,’ and edited The Commonweal, a publication of the Socialist League. The various lectures and writings of William Morris attest to his steadfast convictions, and allow us to see that none of his roles were played to disparate ends. William Morris was a true visionary, a unique thinker who viewed the whole man-made environment as art. In a talk originally delivered in February of 1880, he stated, “If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” His belief that the home is both a total work of art and a place in which reform can take place, is a timeless and universal one— relevant to this day. 5

To know with surety

New Haven feature

In the moment when all is suspense – When the music stops, When a drop of water is about to condense, Embrace the pause.

Envelop it, embrace it, Subsume yourself in it. And in the scintilla of time Before time resumes, In the gloaming before the darkness, You will be You are Timeless. – SCOTT REMER

a tapestry ceiling

That was the only way to describe the sky. You couldn’t unsee it as a ceiling covered by a black velvet carpet, holes of stars poking through, light pollution from the inlet coming in across the horizon like an aurora. We had snuck out to feel the salt waves against the soles of our feet and the sand falling through our fingers, leaving the BEWARE OF JELLYFISH sign unheeded to talk of things that sting the body electric, so to speak, like love and people far away, and it was as if we were blessed by a God whose existence had never mattered – the uncertainty was part of the blessing. She asked me to sing, so I poised a song of sycamore nighttime love against a French lullaby that tells of wolves and silence, and only when flashlights shined over the beach and into our eyes did we arm ourselves with handfuls of sand and run barefooted back inside. – MARY MUSSMAN

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Svs.andals Pointe Shoes Claire Zhang investigates young ballet dancers’ passion for their painfully beautiful craft

PHOTOS BY JULIE REITER

n 2010, a crazed ballet dancer stabbed her understudy right before show time, declaring madly that it was her turn – fictionally, of course. Black Swan presented to audiences everywhere the dark side of ballet, a dizzying world of throwing up in the bathroom, self-harm, competitive backstabbing, lecherous directors, overbearing mothers, and psychotic perfectionism. There is the widespread conception of ballet as a breeding ground for body image and self-esteem issues. At New Haven Ballet, the ballet dancers have seen the movie. It’s a cool movie, they will agree, but insist their experience is nothing like the grim one portrayed by Natalie Portman. For them, rehearsals and practice are fun. I drop by while their practicing for The Nutcracker, which opened at the New Haven Shubert Theatre in December. Rehearsal is bustling. The soldiers shoot rifle props, the Nutcracker Princes brandish swords, the baby mice piggyback on the older mice, who in turn run around with a giant cardboard cheese prop. (“The cheese! The cheese! Oh no! Get it!” Jared Redick, artistic director of New Haven Ballet, narrates). Giggles are plentiful: “Crying, crying for the Mouse King – not laughing!” Redick says to the little mice, only to be greeted by a swell of laughter. They struggle to hold their feigned sad faces. “Crying! Crying!” they repeat. In talking to the dancers, what’s most astonishing is how at such a young age they have nonetheless found such intense love. “Ballet is my passion. I could do ballet every day, every 7

New Haven feature hour of the day and I wouldn’t be tired,” said Loeke Sanders, 13, from Belgium, playing a harlequin doll, echoing a sentiment many shared with me. Parents backed up this attitude. “[My daughter] actually teaches me some of the moves at home. Most evenings, we have to have kind of a talent show, because she turns the ballet music on and twirls around the house,” said Tracy Van Oss, mother of a seven-year-old dancer and a professor at Quinnipiac University. It’s difficult for the dancers themselves to express what precisely brings them such joy; Loeke told me I’m not the first to ask her (“and I just don’t know!” she said). Perhaps most obvious is ballet’s beauty. Their movements are all so springy, nimble, and light. Sarah Marsland, 12, and holding four parts: a snowflake, flower, columbine doll, and sugar plum attendant, said that she feels graceful while dancing. Loeke mentioned elegance. Many of the dancers described turning or leaping movements as their favorites, such as pirouettes or grand jetés. But ballet extends beyond beauty. It is an art form, and aesthetic beauty is only one aspect of art. “It’s about communication and self-expression. It goes far beyond tutus. You have these contemporary cutting edge works, which are very interesting. You have these full length ballets where you get into very dramatic works, so now you’re a dancer and an actor on stage,” explains Redick. For some, ballet is an expression of the self. Maura Connell, 12, and also playing Clara, said that she likes how “you can show your personality.” 8 |Fall 2012

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For others, it’s about inhabiting a different personality. “You can be someone else than you really are, like a doll, like I don’t walk around like this – ” said Loeke, holding her arms rigidly upright and marching around stiffly for a bit on her toes to demonstrate. The various musical pieces of the ballet have their “own character and flavor,” according to Redick. Paige Calvert, 14, playing a mouse, snowflake, sugar plum attendant, and Baker, outlined a glimpse of these. “Mouse and Baker are definitely parts that you can have a ton of fun in. As a mouse, your entrance can be to roll on stage, and you jump around and fight with little kids, and as Baker, you stand on a giant cake and smile.” I recalled the older mice pantomiming nibbling motions with their teeth and scrunching their faces at each other; the crawling, creeping motions they took to reach the center of the floor; and the scurrying, hopping movements of the baby mice. The interpretation and conveyance of these personalities are crucial to communicate to the audience. Redick emphasized the importance of this. “When I look at the Claras in particular, I want to see the magic of Christmas in their eyes. There are other things as well, but they have to have that kind of feeling, because the audience needs to feel that,” said Redick. Magical is another word the dancers frequently use, and it’s especially relevant in a production of The Nutcracker, where nutcracker, dolls, and desserts come to life and dance amongst fairies, flowers, animals, and snowflakes. For Paige, the performance itself

is rather magical. “Everything hits you when you get to the Shubert. The stage seems bigger, the lights seem brighter, your heart’s beating faster, but it’s still all in good fun.” One of my greatest surprises, as a former piano player whose fingers and legs shook prior to recitals, is that few of the dancers have reservations about performing. They’re supremely self-assured. Even the Claras, who must “carry the story,” according to assistant choreographer Elizabeth McMillan, (which seems a weighty job with which to task a 10-year-old and 12-yearold) both shake their heads and say “no” in unison when I ask if they are nervous. They all seem to enjoy the spotlight. “I know what I’m doing and I’m proud. I’m in front of maybe hundreds of people that I don’t know. [I think], ‘Wow they might be talking about me,’” said Nikolay. “I like looking down at the stage and seeing all the faces,” said Taylor Burns, 14, playing a harlequin doll. Self-confidence, contrary to the negative stereotype of ballet dancers as preoccupied with their weight or appearance, is one of ballet’s greatest benefits according to parents. “Girls at this age can feel a little self-conscious or awkward, and I think ballet counteracts that. When they move so gracefully, I think they feel good about their own body,” said Christopher Koval. Paige noted that this negative stereotype is the only one among the many about ballet that bothers her. “There is never any pressure at all to be skinny. There are no scales, there are no weight checks. It is completely, completely untrue and hurtful. In a student company, like NHB, there are beautiful girls of all shapes, sizes,

New Haven feature and heights, and that’s what makes ballet beautiful to me.” Despite the obvious beauty and glamour and fun, however, ballet is not easy. (Though it is certainly not as horrific as portrayed in Black Swan.) Class and practice can get very tough, and rather painful. “Sometimes when you do pointe work, your feet hurt a lot and you get blisters,” said Maura. The pointe shoes let the dancers defy gravity and dance on the very tips of their toes. They’re ballet shoes with a large block of wood in the toe, and are the hallmark of the professional classical ballet dancer. Though the girls sacrifice “sandal feet” for the shoes (think the bruised, bloody toenails), receiving them is a rite of passage. “It’s a different feeling than being in regular shoes, because you feel more professional and grown up,” said Sarah. Sarah pulls out a pair of her own. I knock on the toe. Definitely hard wood. Ouch. Sarah told me she spent three hours on the shoes that day. Imagine the weight of your entire body crushing your toes against wooden blocks while trying to dance for three hours. Sarah and Maura are only 12 years old. It takes large amounts of time and practice to build up endurance. Dancers must go through a pre-pointe class, involving extensive work at the bar to train the feet and legs. “I hate the pain. You feel it after pointe or just regular class, you’re so sore to the point where you sit down in the car, and you honestly just want to never move again,” said Paige. There are the mental challenges that come with learning anything new as well. Frustration can occur when learning new, difficult steps that are hard to get right.

“It’s never perfect, so you always have to improve and sometimes it can be the feeling that you’re not good,” said Loeke, expressing the classic ballet drive, but it is a drive that comes from a personal love. As is the case with most teenagers, neither are the dancers completely immune to the woes of comparing themselves to their peers, though not out of mean spirited jealousy. “There are some girls who I dance with who are just amazing. I mean they could go on to be professionals. I see them, and I feel like I’m not as good as them,” said Paige, though she gets over this quickly: “I be me and I rock it.” One challenge that faces male dancers, especially, is the perception that ballet is a girl’s activity. Asked whether there was ever a question of not dancing ballet, Redick slapped his hand down on the desk and declared – “Absolutely! I’m a boy!” Nikolay said that misconceptions about boys in ballet “make no sense,” especially given, “a lot of great ballet dancers are boys.”

”

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fall and push ‘em back up to get up there and do it again.” The stereotype about “Ballet parents” being very involved certainly seems to hold up. Deana Vendetto, Sofia’s mother, laughs when I ask her how much time she spends driving her daughters. “Hours. Hours hours and hours, but I love it. We do it. They love it and I love it for them.” The Koval and Merlini parents good-humoredly referred to the task of transporting their children as “schlepping.” Many of the parents volunteer backstage during productions. Mary Merlini helps with costumes, makeup and hair, tracking down missing buttons or fixing loose bobby pins. Her husband chaperones the boy dancers. Lee Beatty supervises the dancers while they wait for their calls, which normally involves coloring, DVD’s, and books. They are extraordinarily proud of their children’s achievements. “Oh god – buttons are bursting,” Koval said, on watching his daughter perform.

:H DUH QRW H[WUHPH FUD]\ SHRSOH ÀOOHG with hatred who try to sabotage each other because she ‘stole my part’.

For dance help, the dancers turn to their instructors, who correct technique. For motivational help, however, most dancers look to their parents, who are their best sources of support. “We always tell [our daughters] to try their best, to work hard and to stay with it. Sometimes she gets frustrated with herself, so we keep saying ‘stay with it’,” said Beatty, “We kind of catch them when they

“Like watching them walk for the first time,” Van Oss said. Camaraderie between dancers is another important source of support for the challenges of ballet. Unlike the “sensationalized” world often portrayed in media, Redick says it’s a “privilege” to share the world of dance with fellow dancers, even in a professional company. “To watch your friends and colleagues and peers on stage achieving

New Haven feature things, and you know what’s difficult for them… It’s just a wonderful experience to watch people succeed, to rise to the challenges given to them, not just yourself, to be a part of that.” In school, the students “push off each other,” as Beatty notes. During rehearsal, when some of the younger children needed to go to the bathroom, the older girls took their hand and lead them up the stairs. They corralled masses of “little pink people” into the elevator and ferried them back up to the lobby after rehearsal. “We are not extreme crazy people filled with hatred who try to sabotage each other because she ‘stole my part’. Honestly, we’re not that dramatic. We’re all like family to one another. We know when the others are hurt, so we give them Advil and Band-Aids to make it all better,” said Paige. In spite of the pain and occasional frustration, the challenges and overcoming those challenges are actually a large part of what the dancers love about ballet. Ballet is about growth, not perfectionism. “If you want to get better, it’s kind of up to you, and I like that,” said Sarah. “Sometimes you can get stuck, like you can try something a lot and it won’t work, and you need to figure out for yourself how to make it better.” Younger dancers aspire to one day dance the most difficult solo roles of The Nutcracker in their senior year: Dew Drop, Snow Queen, or Spanish Lead. “It’s a hard part, but it’s rewarding, because you get to be the star,” said Sarah, a fact that surprised me because I had been under the impression that Clara, the main character, would be the star. In fact, the Claras are rather young. Sarah played the

part two years ago. Paige warned me not to refer to ballet dancers as ballerinas though, even the stars. “A ballerina is a stereotypical tutu wearing girl who is just so happy all the time and doesn’t have to work hard, bone skinny and just does everything perfectly. It’s what our parents call us, but we’re just not. It’s a little girl word. A ballet dancer is a real person who works hard. It’s the grown up version of a ballerina. So call us dancers, we are grown up people.” Although Redick might beg to differ: “I had a director who used to say – and I used to get upset with it – ‘You’re never a dancer until you’re 30!’ and when you’re in your 20s you’re like, ‘I’ve worked my butt off, I’m in my 20s, I’m already a dancer. I’ve been dancing professionally for 5 or 8 years!’ And then I turned 30. There’s this wonderful juxtaposition of experience and age and your body, what you learned, and he was right, he was absolutely right about that.”

Although the world of ballet isn’t exactly the dreamy, delicate one that small girls and observers like myself might imagine it to be, it isn’t the destructive, dark one of Black Swan either. The seemingly literal blood and sweat that goes into practice can be positive, and turns the art of ballet into something better, something akin to what The Nutcracker is all about – Clara’s dream (or is it?) come to life. “We all have a little bit of Clara in us,” said Paige. “When you put the costume on, whatever it is, a tutu, a mouse head, or polka dot shirt and chef ’s hat, you finally get to become the character you have been working on for months. That dream of what it’s like inside your head finally becomes reality. You get to live it for the four days. Then when you go to bed after it’s all over, you dream about it again and again ‘til auditions come around next year.”

New Haven feature

Beyond the Trucks Swapping stories at the New Haven Dixwell Fire Station STORY & PHOTOS BY SAM GREENBERG

”

ometimes, I worry I am not fully alive. I worry that my comfortable, predictable, and at times sterile existence is shielding me from life. The firemen at the Dixwell Fire Station probably never have this worry. Almost every Saturday for the past few months, when I’ve walked off campus and entered their world, I found a society of men who not only have fun, but also feel confident that they have devoted their lives to important work. My stresses would melt away; I was reminded what happiness and purpose look like.

put on their bulky suits and boots, work in suffering. But as common and jump into the truck as it pulls as death is, they never forget that every life they save matters. out of the garage. “When you know how to save once asked them for stories a life, you just do it,” one of them about their rescue work. tells me as he leans against the Once, one of the firefight- door to the TV room. “You don’t ers was on vacation at the beach, know if you’re going to succeed, where he saved a man who had but you’re going to try.” drowned and had already stopped Trying can have its costs. This breathing. same fireman once fell through “That’s intense, but this one the roof of a house while trying time…” another started, and pro- to enter, and had to spend months ceeded to relate how he saved a in physical therapy regaining his child whose skin had burnt off. strength. A short while after reThe two guys kept going back covering, he fell through a set of and forth, each trying to top the stairs that collapsed from a fire. Again, he had to take time off to recover. “But the bottom line,” he tells me, “we are willing to give our life. We aren’t promised to come home.” And they know how real that risk is. Some of their friends die on the line of duty, and a other, until I told them to stop. I shocking number have died in had heard as many gory stories as their sleep. The leading cause of I could handle in a single day. death among firemen is not being They talk about rescuing people burned or crushed – it is sudden from burning buildings and over- cardiac arrest that results from the turned cars, about burnt faces and stress of the job. Dixwell station crushed skulls. Sometimes the vic- has had a few men who died in tims were saved, sometimes it was their sleep. They are commemotoo late. rated with plaques on the walls, Their story-telling is not cal- and with memorial lockers in the lous, though it might seem insen- locker room. These are left decositive. These are men simply used rated but untouched. to a different reality. They live and They form a community, bound

The bottom line is that we are willing to give our life. We aren’t promised to come home. The guys at the station get to feel alive. During down time they relax, genuinely enjoying each others’ company. But when a call comes in, the shift is immediate and abrupt. One minute they can be sitting around watching the baseball game as they make fun of one of the guys for being too lazy to get his own food from the fridge; the next moment the bell sounds, and they assemble briskly from all corners of the building,

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by the mission they share. Some of these men voluntarily drove down to New York City on September 11, 2001 in order to help with the rescue mission. Others drove down a few days later to attend the many firefighter funerals. These funerals were going to be sparsely attended, so some of the men drove down from New Haven to honor men they had never met. They wanted to ensure that each deceased firefighter, and their surviving family, would have a respectable funeral. These are men who save lives, in more ways than most people are aware of. Firemen are often used as first-responders, and as such are the first to arrive to a wide range of emergencies â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from heart attacks to chemical spills to suspicious packages (they are used as first responders since they can often arrive faster than ambulances, and since a city needs a large fire-fighting force but there are not enough fires to fill their time every day, this is a way to effectively use their time). The firemen take immense pride in their work and mission: each firefighter will proudly tell you how many years he has been on the force. The firemen themselves take responsibility for mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, and keeping all of the equipment in top shape. They take the continuing education classes diligently, keep meticulous logs of equipment, and follow protocols for all tasks, so that even seemingly simple tasks are executed in the best possible manner. Every day at sunrise the flag is raised, and every night it is taken down. Every time a new shift arrives at the house the men check that the trucks are working, and every time they return from a call they inspect the equipment they have just used. The firefighters know there is no room for messing around when doing their job. They know

New Haven feature New Haven feature

that the stake of their work could not be higher. I have to ask myself: When was the last time I took something, anything, so seriously?

lmost immediately after the guys return from a call, everything seems normal. You would not be able to tell they were just out on a serious, potentially life-saving, mission. When not on calls, in training sessions, or doing maintenance work, the guys – and there are only guys at this station, with the exception of one female lieutenant who oversees one of the shifts – can most often be found watching TV, preparing food in the kitchen, or working out in the gym. When I first arrived at the firehouse and asked the guys to tell me about it, one veteran member said 14|Fall 2012

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that the firehouse feels like a frat. Ever since, I have been hard-pressed to think of a more apt description. Even though the house has a large TV room, the guys will pass on its comfort in order to huddle around the small TV in the communication room to keep company the one guy who has to sit by the phones. They are good friends, and do the things good friends do. They watch a football game while doubling over in laughter recalling the crazy things they did or said to each other last year. They sometimes do the work of heroes, but the rest of the time they are just guys. And these guys are more a part of our world than we realize. For lunch, they often go to GHeav, where they are good friends with the daytime staff. When students accidentally set

off fire alarms at Yale, these men are the ones who respond. The 3 a.m. calls to a false alarm in Pierson may not be their favorite part of the job, but on the whole they really can’t complain. “We have the best job in the world,” one of them told me recently. I believe him, despite the risks they face and the stories they carry. These are men to whom we owe our lives. They go to work everyday with no doubt of the meaning of their lives. That sense of purpose inspires the confidence and peace that washes over me every time I enter the station. We won’t all be firefighters. But can’t we all aim to do something this good?

the

Huntof the

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Makings of a ream

the

D D

ream pouches, or dream pillows, are the ancient practice of using aromatherapy to induce certain dream responses. The use of dream pouches developed mostly in European and Asian cultures, though the herbs and roots come from across the world. Sleep was believed to be an under-utilized time, when an individual could access different parts of themselves, or the spiritual realm, both of which were harder to access during waking hours. Certain herbs and smells, as an outside influence, allowed dreamers to better understand and act,

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once awake, on the symbolism suggested in their dreams; tradition teaches that these pouches better enhance particular goals, abilities, or inclinations already present within an individual, and revealed to them in their dreams. The three recipes featured here are based on traditional herbology as well as my own personal trial-and-error experiment. More information on my experiment, where to purchase unusual herbs or order a handmade pouch, and the tradition behind dream pouches, can all be found on my website: www.dreampouch.webs.com

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“A Dream Uninterpreted Is Like A Letter Never Read” Babylonian Talmud

BY BENJAMIN WOLF TELUSHKIN

Photos by Shira Telushkin

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ach of these recipes is intended to yield 5 or 6 pouches, and the amounts are for ratio purposes only—decide on your own how many you want to make, keeping in mind the size of your satchet, and that most herbs are cheaper bought in bulk. The addition of mullein or lemon balm to any of the pouches will also help prevent recurring nightmares.

STEP 1: POUCH ASSEMBLY

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Fill about ¾ of a pouch (any cotton or burlap sack roughly the size of an iPhone), with the desired herb mixture. The pouch should then be topped with cotton—if using cotton balls first unravel—in order to prevent spillage and keep the pouch soft. Tie with string, or use a drawstring pouch. The completed pouch should then be placed under one’s pillow or inside the pillowcase. Every two weeks the pouches should be sprinkled with water to freshen the scent. For optimal use, and easy sleep, one should not be mindful of the pouch. Its aro-

ma will be effective even if not directly under your head!

STEP 2: RECIPES

Lucid Dreaming

This pouch strongly increases the ability to lucid dream and astral travel. The yarrow also has a history of helping one achieve their dreams for the future: when using the pouch, first write down your hopes for the future, and put this note near you for the dream to come true. These pouches do not help you sleep

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more deeply, but will help with memory. Though they can cause early wake up, the spiritual exercise often gives the feeling of rest and calm. Wormwood 1 1/2 cup Mugwort 1 cup Lavender 1 cup Yarrow Leaf 1 cup Peony Root 1/2 cup Thyme 1/4 cup Rosemary 1/4 cup Lemon Verbena 1/4 cup Mint 1/8 cup

Sweet Sensuality

This recipe uses herbs known to produce sensual dreams for women (jasmine, rose buds) and for men (star anise, cinnamon, cloves). They also produce a calm feeling, and I have found that many people remember old memories when using this mixture. Rose Petals 1 cup Jasmine flowers 1 cup Lavender 1/2 cup Rosemary 1/2 cup Damania 1/2 cup Mint 1/4 cup, Star Anise 1/4 cup Lemon Verbena 1/4 cup Cloves two tablespoons

Deep Sleep

This mixture treats insomnia, sleeplessness, and recurring waking up. These herbs induce immense comfort. For those who do not have a cat, an addition of one cup of catnip strengthens the recipe. Cats, however, will attack and likely rip up the pouch—thus cat-owners are not advised to use catnip. Chamomile 1 cup Sweet Hops (or regular hops) 1 cup Jasmine flower 3/4 cup Lavender 1/2 cup

Directory to Herbs and their Functions Chamomile

helps produce relaxation and deep, restful sleep. Used to balance energizing effect of wormwood and mugwort. Warning: Those allergic to ragweed allergies may have a reaction to chamomile.

Lemon Verbena

enhances humor in dreams, and causes funny scenarios to occur. Should only be used in small quantities, as an enhancer. Adds vividness and color The strongest aid to Lucid Dreaming and Astral Travhelps men produce sensual dreams, el along with Wormwood, causes unrecognizable dream which are often located in a characters and enviorments warm climate. Guards the used as a relaxant for deep sleep, and helps with Sleeper from nightmares insomnia. promotes enjoyable dreams and helps with female sensuality. helps produce deep, restful sleep and induces childhood Increasmemories, often populated by es memory, helps to recall old friends or family memdreams upon waking bers. can possibly helps women have sensual dreams, induce fairies and fantastical creatures and lends a 'sweet' smell to dreaming. Like chamomile, The balances wormwood and strongest aid to Lucid mugwort. Dreaming and Astral Travel along with Mugwort, causes unrecognizable dream charProtects the dreamer from acters and enviorments recurring nightmares

Cloves/Star Anise/ Cinnamon Hops

Jasmine flowers

Mint

Mugwort Mullein

Rose Buds

Rosemary

Lavender

Thyme

Wormwood

Lemon Balm

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Yale will pay you to get

NUDE (but not naked) BY SHIRA TELUSHKIN

Photos by Susannah Benjamin

arvard only uses local professionals. Utah Valley State College, The College of Communication at Ohio University, and scores of other universities throughout the south and Midwest ban the use of students. Yale’s nude models, however, are almost entirely undergraduates. They’re paid by the university to model for Yale Art School courses, and collectively work about 240 hours a year. The nude has been a staple of the Art School since 1871. Nobody—not religious conservatives, uncomfortable parents, or critics of Yale’s sexual culture—has ever complained. Why?

The Yale Art School, founded in 1869, has always been a world of its own within Yale University. Not only did it always include women—the Art School was “open to both sexes,” and any student over 15 years who could pay the $36 term fee was admitted, according to cata-

logs from the early 1870s—but the Art School was also “intellectually shunned by Yale College,” for not being “intellectually rigorous,” explains art historian Betsy Fahlman. This was one reason, in a society divided over the issue of coeducation at the university level, that women

were less stigmatized for attendance: the Art School was considered a non-academic institution. In fact, for the first 30 or so years the student body was two-thirds female. Yale College students were only allowed to take courses there much later, and there was little interaction 29

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between the faculties of the two institutions. In dramatic divergence from Yale College policy, the Art School began awarding BFA degrees in 1891, granting a degree to Josephine Miles Lewis in 1892—the first woman to receive a Yale degree, almost eighty years before female students were admitted to Yale College in 1969. This is one reason the College never protested the use of nude models: it simply had too many other worries about the Art School.

students took courses on the nude, though initially they were sex-segregated, and it is unclear if models of the opposite gender were used before the 1930’s. The instructors were all male. Today, the nude is still standard fare in the Art School, and the position of nude model is advertised on the Yale students job website. Art teachers are given total discretion in their choice to hire and use individual models, who each submit a headshot and brief application through the website.

“Yeah, I was sitting naked in front of my TA, but there was nothing sexual about it.” This is not to say that the College would necessarily have found nude modeling morally objectionable. The nude is such a fundamental aspect of classical art training that its use has always been public, if not obviously assumed, for those at Yale who cared. Course descriptions from as early as 1874 attest to the study of the living model, both “nude and draped.” From 18931897, The Yale Daily News announced an annual competition for the William Wirt Winchester Prize, which enabled the winner to study abroad for two years; it was then the largest prize of its kind in America. The prize was awarded based on submission of a “full-length drawing of the nude model.” Unlike many coed institutions of the time, the prize was frequently awarded to female as well as male students. From at least 1871 on all

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Today, the models are almost all Yale College students, who earn $25 an hour. “I expected it to be very terrifying and very exposing,” admits Marj Berman, YC ’13, who began modeling during her final year as an undergraduate. “But ultimately I found it to be very easy, calm, and not particularly invasive. I was surprised.” What’s so surprising? Students at Yale get naked all the time. But modeling is different. Most of the nude models don’t participate in “Yale naked culture.” Few have ever gone to a naked party, participated in the Bass Library naked run, or, where relevant, done the Saybrook strip. In fact, for many, the experience of nude modeling holds little resemblance to the imagined experience of being publicly naked. “Yeah, I was sitting naked in

front of my TA, but there was nothing sexual about it,” Shizue Rocheadachi, YC ’15, recalls of her first experience modeling for an art class, which happened to be audited by her male TA who was teaching her that semester. Although “it was a bit of a shock,” to see him in the course, Rocheadachi never felt uncomfortable, especially because the class in which she had the TA was an art course. He was “part of this [art] world,” she says, adding that she might have felt differently if he had “taught her math or something.” When asked if she and the TA ever discussed her modeling she laughs. “No, never. I think we made the conscious decision to not mention it, motivated by the fact that we would have to ride out the rest of the semester with one another.” It is hard to imagine any other scenario where Yale University would not only permit, but also pay, a student for being unclothed in front of her TA. So what makes nude models art? A critical distinction among those in the art world is the oftphrased difference between being naked and being nude. The nude has a long artistic history, beginning with the statues of the Greeks and reclaimed by the artists of the Renaissance, reinterpreted throughout the centuries to represent the divine, grotesque, erotic. Almost every famed artist has worked with the nude. “The nude is a construct, it’s an idealized body—naked is just the body without clothes,” says Robert Storr, Dean of Yale Art School and a prominent art critic. For Dean Storr, the nude as a

Yale feature subject is not about beauty but about freshness. About getting people to reconsider what they are seeing. As we talk, in an office so crowded with boxes and books and art that I first mistook it for a storage room, he looks up the works of a variety of nude painters, both old and modern, whose models are often old, overweight, and far from attractive. He throws around names and theories like candy. I can barely keep up. Storr is endearingly polite: “He was no Adonis,” he says of one subject, or “She was no Venus,” of another. He describes the extraordinarily overweight muse of Lucian Freud as “no bathing beauty.” For Storr, all artists should feel adept with the nude as an art form, which is so much broader than just depictions of beauty; nudity elevates the body into art. Artist and Yale professor emeritus Erwin Hauer, who taught sculpture at Yale from 1957-1990, makes the same distinction. “Naked can go all the way down to the gutter. Nude can never go that low,” he tells me one afternoon, as we sit in the Yale art library. Although he hasn’t been back to the Art School in years, he made the trek to continue what he calls his life mission: to have the nude recognized as a legitimate art form. Think Adam and Eve. The natural body is nude. The naked body is one that is consciously without clothing. This division is seen in the classroom. When a model gets up to stretch, breaking out of her role as a piece of art, she puts on a robe. Out of pose, her body is naked, not nude. Nudity is about the body; the individual person is irrelevant. This distinction is important to many models, and “being objectified” (as

more than one person described it to me), is often integral to their comfort in modeling—it really is about the art, not them. In fact, for many it is a strongly positive aspect of the experience. “It’s like your body is objectively beautiful, just because it exists. All you have to do is be. You are worthy of observation and replication,” says Gabriel DeLeon, YC ’14, who modeled every week for the same sculpture class over a semester, watching his own body being “built” by others. DeLeon strongly recommends the experience, describing it as an amazing, surreal, and mysterious time for self-reflection. Berman says she herself felt much more beautiful after seeing the work of students,

and that the professor’s instruction to objectify her body made her less self-conscious. The most daunting aspect of modeling, most models will agree, is not disrobing but choosing a pose. Yale instructors rarely tell the models how to pose, sometimes just offering suggestions such as “create negative space,” or “today we are focusing on limbs.” When asked if he offers any instruction or training for his models, Sam Messer, associate dean of the Yale Art School, smirks. “Yeah, like some people don’t know how to unbutton or unzip their clothes, so we have clothing removal sessions,” he jokes. This lackadaisical attitude to wards training is curious, given how

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WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU GO TO MODEL If you are nervous, come with a few poses prepared for a sitting, reclining, or standing pose. Some instructors will let you read while posing, but very few positions allow for this, and you would have to turn pages frequently. Bring a robe to wear while stretching on break. Most models undress in a corner of the room, but you can go to the bathroom if you feel more comfortable.

TOP 3 MYTHS ABOUT MODELING It’s Easy

Modeling is hard, and at times, painful work. Learning to hold a pose, and strike an inspiring pose, takes skill and practice.

Models Must Be Beautiful

Models can be any body type and age. Students are learning how to draw the human form, and are working to make their art match your body, not the other way around.

Only Exhibitionists Model

Most models shy away from Yale naked events, and few are comfortable displaying their bodies outside of the studio. 34|Fall 2012 Vita Bella! 34 Fall 2012 $ Vita Bella!

difficult it is to be a good model. Matthew Sanders, an artist at Harvard University who teaches courses with nude models, supports Harvard’s use of professional nude models, explaining that they are more comfortable and “often can be given the freedom to choose their own poses,” because they sense what is useful for students. While Sanders has never checked the official policy of the university, noting that using students as nudes is “just not in the culture,” he finds experienced models more useful in the classroom. Professional models are usually preferred for their physical awareness, ability to hold still for long periods of time, and more creative and interesting range of poses. The lack of instruction at Yale can be stressful for inexperienced student models, who express some concern over choosing a proper pose. Models will practice poses before class, google “nude modeling poses,” and even look up famous paintings for inspiration. All have at one point or another regretted choosing a pose that rapidly became painful. Rocheadachi, whose mother modeled in college and encouraged her to pursue modeling at Yale, was helped by her experience as a dancer. “I was used to my body being viewed as art,” she explains, adding that dance helped her choose physically expressive poses. Many of the models have performance backgrounds, in dance, theatre, or athletics.

ow to talk about sex and nude modeling is complicated. On the one hand, there is a fear that any admission of sexuality will discredit the practice to the broader world. On the other hand, most artists are unwilling to sever the nude from any erotic associa-

tions. In the art world, at least, the feeling is that the erotic element of the nude is unfairly demonized, and grossly misunderstood. “What is so demeaning about sexuality?” asks Naomi Wolf, YC ’84, who nude-modeled as an undergraduate and writes widely on women and sexuality, in an email to VB! For Wolf, sexuality is as basic to the body as movement, and cannot, and should not, be separated from the body. Sexuality has always been present in the history of the nude, both male and female. Much classical art is openly erotic, and many models and muses have been famously entangled with the artists who depicted them. A healthy, living, breathing body is necessarily also sexual. Even the Yale Art School, in acknowledgement of its suggested sexuality, hasn’t always fully embraced the form. According to Erwin Hauer, when Joseph Albers became Dean of the Art School in 1950 his first move was to shut down nude modeling in the sculpture department. Albers, a prominent force in the art world, felt that sculpture was more intimate than painting and drawing, and thus an inappropriate medium to work with the nude. When Hauer arrived in 1956 he fought an uphill battle to have the nude re-instated into the sculpture curriculum, a move that permanently damaged his relationship with Albers. Hauer, who says he had difficulty getting his appointment renewed due to this friction, is nonetheless quick to add, “You can’t say enough good things about [Albers],” the man he also views as his mentor. Albers’ attitude wasn’t completely out of step with cultural norms of the time. A 1951 article in the dai-

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ly Harvard University paper, The Crimson, describes “the precedent shattering decision by the faculty committee on Undergraduate Activities” of the previous year to allow the use of nude models, though the paper notes that a year later the Arts Association was having difficulty finding any willing models. The arts have traditionally been a much less emphasized discipline at Harvard than it has been at Yale, and there is today no equivalent to the Yale Art School. Acceptance of the nude model has not simply increased with passing time. Decades past may have been more nude-friendly than today. Dean Storr certainly feels so. He recalls that the first time he met his future mother-in-law she climbed out of the lake where she was swimming nude in order to greet him. “In the 60’s we took clothes off for everything” he recalls. Increased sensitivity to sexual harassment and teacher-student power dynamics has made nude modeling a more scrutinized practice, particularly when students are being paid as models. In 2003 the College of Communications at Ohio University, for example, banned student nude models after a student filed a sexual harassment claim against a professor who had photographed her nude. Many universities, particularly in the more conservative south, have such policies in place. When asked about such policies most members of the Yale art community where dismissive. Sam Messer seemed mystified, echoing the sentiments of many when he ascribed the “prudish-

ness” of such policies to America’s “puritanical society.” Naomi Wolf further wrote, “No, [using student models] does not create an unsafe atmosphere. It creates a safe atmosphere as students are encouraged to see the human body as a work of art to be respected, not a pornographic commodity,” noting that there is no reason to focus on female models when the male nude is as staunchly part of the classical tradition and training history of artists.

Yale feature ories of the more body-accepting culture of several decades past. Stacey Gemmill, director of financial affairs at the Art School, estimates that the number of available models might have been double ten years ago. And some things never change: In any drawing class, Storr notes with a laugh, half the students will wait until the end to draw the penis. Hauer also laughs as he describes the nudes of beginning artists: two bags and a black triangle. The recruitment process, how-

“What’s so demeaning about sexuality?” asks Naomi Wolf, YC ‘84, who nude modeled as a Yale undergraduate.

he Yale Student Job program began in 1933, and while the Art School certainly employed student models in the 70’s it is hard to tell exactly when Yale began paying students to model nude, and whether this practice began before the school went coed. The Yale School of Drama continues to rely mostly on New Haven locals for their nude drawing courses in the visual design department. The change in societal comfort towards nude modeling is debatable. While the models insist they are totally comfortable in the nude, Storr says it is difficult for the department to get models, and the models tend to be more embarrassed and reluctant to really stretch, instead choosing poses that cover up their bodies. He contrasts this with his mem-

ever, definitely reflects a change in attitude. Throughout his time at Yale, Hauer recruited most of his own models, including undergraduates, graduate students, locals, and even the secretary of the art department. When asked if the Art School could be more active in model recruitment today, beyond just posting on the student job website, Storr shakes his head. “I think not. It gets a little dicey to actively look for models. With Title IX and all we don’t want people to get the wrong idea,” he said, referring to the legal amendment against gender-based discrimination. For similar reasons, Storr says he would never ask someone to model, feeling that the request itself could make someone uncomfortable. He is extremely cautious in the classroom 35

Yale feature to ensure the model is comfortable. This lack of active recruitment, coupled with a 2012 policy that makes hiring outside of the student body difficult (due to complex time delays in setting up non-Yale affiliates as temporary employees of the university), severely limits the range of models available to professors and students. Student models are all young, generally fit, and mostly female; DeLeon is currently the only male available to model. Recruiting male models has been a problem since the 50’s. While nobody has a conclusive explanation, it seems fair to muse that women, whose bodies are more openly the focus of societal gaze, are less thrown by the idea of being on display.

and emphasizes the intimate relationship created between model and artist. Having been given that trust, when someone is willing to make themselves so vulnerable for you, to even “take her clothes off for you, it’s something special,” he muses, quietly. The experience of modeling was “mutually enjoyable,” for the model and the artist, he explains, and adds that for some of his models from more conservative homes—one of his models was the daughter of a minister—the experience was “very freeing.” At one point Hauer laughs as he envisions the anger of his early students had he ever brought them “a really fat model.” Such an anecdote, which comments on the model’s sexual desirability, would be considered taboo by a

”

“It’s like your body is objectively beautiful, just because it exists. All you have to do is be. You are worthy of observation and replication.” In contrast, Hauer, who began teaching at the Art School over a decade before Yale College went coed, is much less cautious about the sexual elements of the nude art form. While he was conscious of always asking students if he could physically guide their hands, he is also open about his preference for female subjects, confiding several times, “I worship women.” Rather than downplay the significance of nudity, he returns often to the role of trust,

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current professor. Still an active artist at 86, Hauer describes himself as ancient. He walks slowly these days, using a cane, and is growing hard of hearing. Throughout our interview I whisper my questions almost directly into his ear. Born in Austria, he maintains a thick accent and a delightful smile; he laughs often. He is passionate about the significance of the nude, and came to meet me in New Haven from his studio in Bethany, as

mentioned, to advance the cause of the nude model. “Even if people object to figure sculpture as a cultural misstep, the fact that it exists, in western art and all over the world, not only justifies but demands that it be made available,” he says. At one point he leans towards me. “I know the question you want to ask me,” he says, in his slow, accented voice. I wait. His hands are enormous, his fingers thick—exactly the hands you would imagine belong to a sculptor. “Was I ever intimate with any of my models?” The question had not even occurred to me to ask. Hauer waves away the answer, stating simply that while he never had a relationship with a model at Yale, some of his students did.

o this day the Art School feels separate from the rest of Yale. The energy is different. Maybe it’s the way people talk, or the way people dress. Maybe it’s because the professors are mostly artists and don’t identify with the world of academia. Maybe it’s the collective struggle with creativity emanating from each of the rooms. One of the more striking aspects of a Yale art class is the investment of students. Students are honestly trying their best. There are fewer excuses to hide behind—I didn’t do the reading or I totally blanked on the midterm don’t cut it when one is being judged on skill, creativity, and technique. As a student, I know I feel most exposed when being assessed on work where I have

Yale feature really tried to do my best. I’ve noticed this same investment in writing, performance, and music courses as well. It’s terrifying. It’s intimate. Gabriel DeLeon notes the irony of the word “posing.” “This is such a self-affirming task,” he says of his modeling, and to pose is usually negative. I’m not posing,” he says. Marj Berman also notes the intimacy of the work, but in the other direction. One day, as she was getting dressed after modeling for a class, the students be-

gan hanging their pictures. She stopped to look. “I felt like I was invading their privacy,” she tells me over coffee in a noisy Bass cafe. “I had relinquished the privacy to my body, but they hadn’t given me permission to look at their paintings.” In a group of students earnestly struggling to render their best work onto canvass, the nude model might not be the most vulnerable person in the room.

HOW TO BE A GOOD MODEL There is no one ideal model. Depending on the instructor and the focus of the class, an ideal model has different skills. If asked to hold a long pose, the model should stay as still as possible for as long possible, in as adventurous a pose he or she thinks can be managed. Models come in all shapes and sizes, and the most critical attribute is utter comfort with your body. While classroom modeling is for instruction, personal modeling for an artist must conform to the needs of the artist and her piece—this is even more subjective, and depends on the medium (paint, drawing, sculpture), the subject of the work, and the working habits of the artist. In short, if you are comfortable in your skin, flexible, and listen well, you can’t go far wrong. Choosing models is the prerogative of the instructor, or artist, and most describe the ideal model as exuding a certain energy, which is hard to define. Models who are uncomfortable or unimaginative might not be hired twice.

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REBECCA ZHU

on the walls of bathroom stalls what’s so fascinating about the exchange of saliva? he asks. it’s more sanitary to lick another’s armpit. a kiss is an oral fixation contingent on the in-between, she says, hard pressed to see in black and white, drifting, with misplaced relish in shades of grey. infinitely more than the pause before: it’s the fleshiness the messiness the muggy happiness, like hot molasses it swathes skin and consumes until life seems cinematic, and the world – which can often drip, drip, drip faded – feels fertile for the kinds of revelations scrawled on the walls of bathroom stalls. distinct from rising in love, (too ambitious) falling up, upwards, will suffice – on earth gravity is wacky. shake it out dance it off smoke drink sleep it away. falling up requires levity. escape gravity.

Fashion Glimpse

Modern Rearranging Fashion: Iconic Houses BY LILLIAN CRABB

o those of you who think fashion in an inconsistent and mercurial pastiche of an art form: I won’t try to dissuade you. The past few years have witnessed several significant transformations in the foremost fashion houses, which has inevitably created a somewhat disorienting amalgamation of designers and styles and the houses they supposedly belong to. Arguably the most drastic of these shifts in the world of fashion is the reinstatement of the designer and multi-faceted artist Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent, this time as creative director. Mr. Slimane, now 44, has thus far led a life as diverse as the modern fashion industry he represents. Born in Paris to Italian and Tunisian parents, he dabbled in black and white photography, tailoring his own clothes, and journalism throughout his youth, only to pursue all of these to a much greater extent in his wide-ranging adult career. He first designed for Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent, but it wasn’t until he became creative director at Dior Homme in 2000 that his reputation was firmly established. This was when his characteristic silhouette, the dramatically slimmed jackets and pants that comprise the “skinny” look, exploded into the fashion world and throughout youth culture globally. This style was inspired by Mr. Slimane’s musical and social scenes, namely the advent of digital electronic music in Berlin and the in-

die scene in London. However, both the roots and the effects of “skinny” style are based in urban youth cultures, and increasingly, youth absolutely everywhere. It is Mr. Slimane’s creation, not that of the Dior fashion house, and it has stayed with Mr. Slimane even though he left Dior in 2007 to do independent photography. But now Mr. Slimane is back as creative director at Yves Saint Laurent, whose name he has shortened to simply Saint Laurent, and whose reputation he is necessarily altering, while maintaining some vestiges of the house’s namesake’s signature style: the androgynous suits, the flowing caftans, copious use of both navy and black. It is clear, however, that he is not just stepping in to recreate what Mr. Saint Laurent would be doing if he were still alive. His art is without a doubt his own creation, independent of any late designers’ wishes. Mr. Slimane at Saint Laurent is not the exception, but the norm, as fashion houses redirect themselves after the deaths of their founders. Karl Lagerfeld is now equally synonymous with Chanel as Coco herself, Clare Waight Keller is establishing a less girly and more empowering identity for Chloé, and Raf Simons is carrying out his own creative whims at Dior. The question now is how to reconcile the idea of fashion as a form of independent aesthetic expression with the current arrangement of modern designers adopting previous designers’ established houses.

Indeed, the modern fashion world, with its insular and élite nature, is one of the least established and fastest changing of the arts. Some wouldn’t even allow fashion the title of “art.” And one of the main impediments to fashion’s status is the fashion house system. This ceases to be a problem, though, if we stop thinking that different styles are defined by different fashion houses, but rather by individual designers. The houses only exist, at this point in the evolution of fashion, to organize designers, like museums exist to organize pieces of visual art. Each museum has an identity, albeit a protean one, as the artworks rotate and the collections change. Fashion houses differ from museums, however, in that they are founded by certain designers, whose names they retain. This doesn’t inhibit current designers from establishing their own looks; it simply gives them historical continuity and forces them to think about the context in which they are designing. It shows the fluctuating nature of the cultural landscape, while containing the old in the new, and juxtaposing all the current designers in all the fashion houses at one time or another in their lives. And it is just this – fashion’s dependence on a limited number of designers and houses, and the consequent complexity that comes from the exchange and overlap of their styles – that makes fashion so radically different from any other art. This is also what makes fashion so radically complex to analyze, and makes it worthwhile as a subject of our musings, fantasies, and contemplation, regardless of whether or not we like the garments themselves.