User:2601:600:C102:A110:F910:608:DD38:C2BD/gap analysis

Gap analysis

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Blanka Amezkua


 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

The gap was first identified for artist Blanka Amezkua after finding her as a source for the first visual analysis paper. It was evident that, although there was a decent amount of information on her on her own website and through the Brooklyn Art Museum's, Wikipedia's own archive of information on Amezkua was rather lacking.

A lot of the information on her Wikipedia page seemed to come from the Brooklyn Museum page and her own website's biography, and likewise seemed to singularly honed in on works of hers that are featured only on these narrow windows into her life and work. Even then, they have missed the fact that on the Brooklyn Museum's page Amezkua's "Feminist Artist Statement" identifies an 8 year long "interest(ed) in the Mexican adult comic's reductive representation of women's bodies." Comparing this to the statement on Wikipedia where her techniques are to "explore female sexuality" it seems that the page could use a small touch up to more accurately represent Amezkua and her work, or otherwise be as reductive as that which she seeks to oppose.

The Wikipedia page identifies her as a contemporary artist, but chronicles only her earliest, most recognizable, works. Thus it might seem to be canonizing in a way that adheres to the traditional museum form of value attribution. In her Wikipedia page Amezkua is confined to specific moments in her life and her art practices similarly appear to be unidirectional. Specifically, although she was practicing art in various locales throughout her life, she is only cited for training in Florence, Italy. For an artist labeled as "contemporary" it would seem key to keep the page up to date with her most present works, but this is not the case. Perhaps it is because she is not as well known as other contemporary artists, but this also points out the flaws in what artists are attributed notoriety and which ones are not. Nonetheless it stands that there is a huge gap between what is recorded in Wikipedia's annals and what has transpired in the duration of Amezkua's career.


 * Propose a paragraph of new or substantially edited content based on reliable sources. (If you are editing existing content, post the current version along with your edited version, and clearly mark which is which.)

I think that it is necessary to identify the early inspirations and ideologies for Blanka Amezkua's work, especially those relating to her crochet and needle work pieces. These pieces especially are responses to mass media, and identify points of her transition into public spaces as sites of creation and exhibition of art.

As it stands, it appears that Blanka Amezkua might be an artist that works predominantly in the studio, but she has long since her formal training transitioned into works that, in at least some dimension, incorporate the public domain. It seems that the Bronx Blue Bedroom Project might be one of the sites of misinformation in this regard. On naming alone, it might seem to be a studio created work exhibited briefly in her room and then after completion situated in a museum. I propose to fill in the gaps that exist here in the art practices and ideologies that she engaged in herself and the artists that she invited to this project. It was a collaborative piece, but none of this comes through in the Wikipedia page. It is documented on the Bronx Project website, and image documentation exists in external links on it, but it was a collaborative piece that preceded 3///3 walls that did not get labelled as such.

In further expanding some of her earlier works it might make it more obvious that Amezkua doesn't work singularly in any medium. This is easily solved by looking beyond the aforementioned Bronx Blue Bedroom Project and likewise expanding on the ideologies and methodology in Amezkua's embroidery art featured in the Brooklyn Art Museum. Completing these two tasks should at least free Amezkua's Wikipedia identity from being solely confined to a single named project and art form.

Thus I propose these changes:

The existing Blanka Amezkua page:

She has adopted "crochet, embroidery and comic book visual vernacular" as techniques to explore female sexuality her work.

[|Blanka Amezkua]

My Proposal:

Moving this section into an appropriately chronicled portion of her "career" sub- section, and adapting her introduction paragraph to stress the variety of mediums that she works with. It should further be expanded that her embroiderd art was a collection of works titled "Sensacionales" that are in some part a response to Mexican soft- core comics. She does indicate having some fascination with the topic for 8 years, but embroidery is not a method or medium that she religiously adheres to, but rather the comics that inspired some of her other work. For example, she also works on collages using cut- outs from various comics. Though it echoes her embroidered art, it seems to be a fundamentally different art work.

Additionally, I propose that some of her contemporary works be added to her page. Her collage work in Cut N' Mix should especially be featured, being of the year 2015 and a work that highlights her "contemporary" qualities, and removes the reductionist confinement of her art practices to embroidery.


 * List the reliable sources that could be used to improve this gap. (You can use the Cite tool from the editing toolbar above to input and format your sources.)