"Push, Rocks, Haphazardly" Otis College & Genres in Consideration of the New

I personally cannot stand Suzanne Lacy in any shape or form. She was the department head at Otis when I attended there. Suzanne's social political cliche's parallel the term "becoming what you hate". I believe it was two past instructors I studied with at SFAI (Tony Labat and Franklin Williams) that determined her actions and perceptions of myself and my work. She actually said this! At the time, Suzanne refused any critique of her own projects adhering to her established hierarchies and self-empowerment issues. Based on the projects I've seen, it appears she is a  player of mindless games that deal with serious issues she knows nothing about ("The Roof is on Fire project" for example). However, my opinion is absolutely biased and very personal. If you are unfamiliar with her work go to her site and/or do a search on YouTube. This particular rant is more about her professionalism in education than as an artist. Though, Lacy does feel she is providing social and political insight in her public art work. I personally believe it to be as uninformed as her programming at Otis College of Art & Design.

Four or five months into the program at Otis Suzanne told me "that I just wasn't a good fit". This was after the acceptance of my portfolio in high standing and of course TUITION. Actually, I should say, after she got to know me a little better. Our relationship truly developed following an absurd New Genres assignment I was given.

PUSH

ROCKS

HAPHAZARDLY

Choose random words from a hat and "do a piece" based on those words. I was handed "push, rocks, haphazardly". I asked the security guard "if he wanted some rock" and dumped a tray of them onto his front desk. While my reluctant partner photo documented this action. My instructor (Kahty Chen) and Suzanne both called me "a racist" as the security guard was African American. In the silly and very transparent critique, this action was interpreted by the Kahty, to the class, as "that of THROWING dirt and dangerous rocks AT A BLACK MAN". I in no way could tolerate these racist accusations. I interjected her naive bastardization of this ambiguous assignment and pointed out the obvious. There were NO parameters provided, I am Chinese NOT Aryan (as are Kahty and Lacy), the security guard (as all the students interpreted as well in critique) represented authority, laws, rules and limitations. The rocks were more ambiguous but the presentation/intro was that of a dealer pushing rocks and furthering the haphazardness of dumping these objects on the desk of a symbolic authority figure. Ridiculous as this may seem, twas the direction (as assigned) I took to attach social systems/conditions to the word combination provided.

Following this moronic curriculum I was presented with numerous disciplining "pink slips" and negative reviews by instructors who literally didn't even look at my work. I was angered that an accredited educational institution could be so subjective and corrupt. But more so, I was shocked that the curriculum was so elementary. This Lacy program for creative Aryans who love and appreciate minorities, was so cliche I had to document what was actually being said! So I recorded these lectures and was then harassed and threatened with expulsion. It wasn't that I brought in a recorder, it was that "I" brought in a recorder. The treasure in all of this was they claimed this to be "intellectual property" (the audio is A MUST LISTEN!). Truly pathetic! At least I have this documented and had other instructors at Otis in agreement of the blankness of Suzanne Lacy's perception of contemporary art education. In the end, Suzanne's arrogance and personal/subjective leadership cost me over $10,000.

When I hear the name Suzanne Lacy, I get this nasty taste in my mouth and a strange compulsion to tell this story. It is my opinion that any thoughtful review of her work could only reveal "the makings of an angry Aryan woman with a misguided notion of identifying with under class minorities".  I would summarize her career as an artist/educator with the word "OBJECTIFICATION" and the term "the lens caps are still on"...

OTIS Rant #1