Greg: Sex, lies and videotape

“Oops” (2000) from margherite on Vimeo.

"I wanted to put them in a situation where they were really in over their heads or out of their depth or just where they felt uncomfortable and didn’t know how to deal with what was happening."—Laurel Nakadate

For Greg's class on Nov. 14, we will read and discuss:
= Laurel Nakadate interviewed by Scott Indrisek for The Believer, October, 2006. Nakadate's exhibit "Say You Love Me" is on view at Harvard's Carpenter Center from Nov. 17 to Dec. 22. She speaks at Harvard at 6 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17.

Some questions to consider: What is Nakadate's work about? Are her methods dangerous? Are her methods exploitive? Are her methods fair? What does her art say about men? What does it say about women? What does it say about the relationships between men and women? What does her work say about age, about young and old? What does her work say about sex? What does her work say about loneliness and isolation? What does her work say about privacy and secrets? Is her work feminist? Is she a stalker? Why is her art "uncomfortable"? Is this a good thing? What is Nakadate talking about when she says she was "going out into the world and discovering little tragedies"? What is the morality of her art? Do you agree with her when she says, "I think my work is optimistic—as much as it is pathetic and funny and sad and ridiculous, at the end of the day it’s about the hope that something will go right, and the constant wishing for a world where things might start to make sense"?