Self-Portrait

 

Heirloom: My dress form Marie that my aunt gave me when I was accepted to Parsons.

 

Heirloom: The guitar on the left was a graduation present from my uncle and the guitar on the right was a Christmas present from my father when I was around 7 years old.

 

Artifact: This is a crown made for a photoshoot from the skeleton of a deer that my friends and I found a cleaned.

Heirloom: My grandmother's blazer.

Heirloom: My maternal great-grandmother's pin.

Heirloom: My mom gave me the table and chairs she bought when she got her first house.

Artifact: My mom designed these shelves and my dad built them when they moved into my childhood home.

Evidence: My best friend would go to England once a year with her father who is a rare book dealer. She would buy little knick-knacks for all of her friends in elementary school.

Evidence: My bedroom walls are covered in my art, posters, art I've purchased, found or been gifted, and photos.

Self Portrait- Kierra B.

Here are the photos for my self portrait from last week!

When thinking about the heirlooms that I have collected or given to me from my family, I cannot think of much. Everything that has been giving to me by my parents, I never really considered an heirloom. However this thought of a heirloom stuck with me because my parents had to have given me at least one thing that was generational and passed down from my family member.

At first I only thought of an heirloom as only existing as a physical object. I've now realize that heirlooms can be so much more. For this week I looked at my last name as a family heirloom.

In a way the last name, Branker, is a heirloom; at least from my father's side. I haven't yet been able to do a thorough research yet as most of family documents are in the West Indies.  I first did a quick google search of my last name which came up with everyone on the internet whose last name was Branker, which included my aunt's obituary from back in 2015.  I have also done a quick search on google for the origin of my name, which actually originates from England which is unsurprising as my father is from Trinidad, which was a colony of the British empire up until 1962.

I don't have many objects that remind me of my extended or my generational family. My last name is a good place to start searching so that I can begin to claim them as my family.

Link to Fire

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/09/news-museu-nacional-fire-rio-de-janeiro-natural-history/

National Geographic did a good coverage on this story.

Olivia

Self Portrait

Antler,

heirloom

During hikes and time spent outdoors, my dad collectes antlers he finds discarded from deer. He sends them to me. One time he mailed me a massive package and I opened it to find nearly 20 stray antlers. I pass these down to friends or keep them for myself, until they are replaced by more antlers.

Mom’s t-shirt,

heirloom

I used to live with my mom in Highschool, when she was at work I would go through her closet and find things that I liked for myself. This t-shirt was an example, she doesn’t know I took it from her, well she could probably guess. But for now I wear it because I like it aesthetically.

Mosquito Repellent,

heirloom

A trait I have been passed down through my family is the sweetness of my blood, for some reason since I was a small child I have been highly allergic to mosquito bites and one of their biggest targets. Repellent is something i have always, this particular spray was bought by my ex boyfriend who wanted me to wear it when we went outside. Now just the idea of repellent itself will be an heirloom to whoever shares my blood.

Bart Card,

evidence

I don’t go back home often, I don’t know why I continued to hold onto this piece of plastic. I think for sentimental reasons, maybe one day I will remember to bring it back with me to put it into use. For now it can be a trace of where I have been.

Rock,

artifact

I collect rocks from where I go. This rock is from the desert in India. I think its shaped in a way that could be touched by someone previously. Someone saw it on my coffee table and asked if it was a rock or if it was used as a tool. I laughed to myself, well of course it is a rock, I guess if you use your imagination enough you could assume it was perhaps used as a tool. I think my placement of it gave it the illusion of something more than just a rock. Like an artifact.

Beach glass,

evidence

I collect beach glass from each beach I visit. If you wanted to track where I travel you could somehow scientifically test all my collected glass.

925 pendant,

evidence

I found this pendant in a shop with no significant importance other than the marking of the indication it was silver. It says 925, 925 is the area code from where I was raised, my phone number too.

Traffic ticket,

evidence

Evidence in the scheme of legality. Bullshit traffic ticket I got for running a red light on a BIKE. The paper is crumpled, evidence of my anger.

Papa’s picture,

heirloom

This is a photo of my grandpa. It’s on his old baseball playing card. My dad gave it to me. I wasnt that close to my grandpa. This is more of an heirloom of my dad. I keep it because It reminds me of him, not necessarily my grandfather.

For today's post, I decided to use Serena's broken racket as Evidence.

During the US Open, Serena played against Naomi Osaka, a younger player playing for Japan. Right before Serena's turn to serve, the Umpire gave her a code violation for cheating by getting signals by Patrick Mouratoglou, her coach from the sideline. This accusation made Serena fairly upset, she then proceeded to berate the umpire for his choice in calling her out. Her argument with the Umpire then resulted in her losing points after the Umpire gave her a game penalty her further for calling him a thief. This angered her so much that she ended up breaking her racket. Which she also got a point penalty.

When speaking at the press conference Serena states that male tennis players have been able to get away with a lot more than what she had said. 

"He's never taken a game from a man because they said 'thief.' For me it blows my mind. But I'm going to continue to fight for women," Williams said.

-Nicole Chavez, CNN

Photo of the broken racket for me represents her own anger towards the US Open, but not just the umpire. During her rant at the US Open, she states that something always happens to her whenever she plays. She also goes on to note that  One can assume that there can possibly be some form of sexism towards Serena.

 It was not even a month ago when Serena was playing for the French Open, the board committee ruled that her tight leotard was further banned from being worn during a match. 

Overall I think this event had nothing much to Naomi's victory over Serena but rather Serena's anger over double standards found within the tennis community. 

Source: Chavez, Nicole. "Serena Williams Is Calling out Sexism in Tennis. Here's Why." CNN. September 10, 2018. Accessed September 13, 2018. https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/09/us/serena-williams-sexism-tennis-controversy/index.html.

ESPN.  2018 US Open Highlights: Serena Williams' dispute overshadows Naomi Osaka's final win, Youtube Video. September 13, 2018

Self Portrait

My Identity

In this mini project, I want to see myself through external perspectives: Biologically who I am, where I've been, what people expected me to be, and who I was when I was young. 

1) Item one: passport (hierloom, artifacts)

The passport represent where I’ve been. It has a lot of stamps that I got from traveling. 

2) Item two: My health report (heirloom, artifacts)

My health status. I don’t even know what kind of shots I got in my body. The handwriting is unreadable, therefore when hospital trying to translate my old heath report from 20 years ago, they have no ideas what kind of medical shots I actually had. 

3) Item 3: my diary 

How I think when I was little. (and bad hand writing)

And how I THINK Now

4) Item 4: necklaces from my parents as my 18th birdie gift( Heirloom) 

It's a memory of entering Adulthood and expectations from a family of being a well posh lady.