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I also found what the article said about how we the sound objects produce and the object itself become one in the same. Its nothing I’ve ever really thought about it but now that I do, how totally true! I also found One Square Inch of Silence to be extremely soothing. Its weird how we can probably almost hear the exact same thing if we walk into some random woods thought. Its crazy how much we take for advantage without even realizing it.

Week 15- Sound

This week’s reading was interesting. First I would like to apologize because I couldn’t figure out how to download the sounds, so instead I shared the links to the YouTube links. 

 I found it neat when the article “An Introduction to Sound Art” said that because sounds of instruments have no name, we often refer to the object producing it and sounds become things. I found that part of the article really pertains to my own life. In music class, the teacher would play a sound and we would have to say what it was; we never said “the sound of a guitar”, but “a guitar”. I found that neat because I had never realized before that it wasn’t a guitar, or a trumpet, or a violin, it was the sounds of those objects. It was also interesting reading about the differences of hearing and listening, and how the questions we ask ourselves about the pieces shouldn’t just be about what produced it, but about what we are hearing.

“One Square Inch of Silence” was very soothing to listen to. I think that it really represents how much of this world we take for granted. It’s so beautiful to listen to, and it’s right outside. It reminds me of playing outside in the woods with my brothers because the trees were so thick that they collected the leaves when it rains, and standing on our porch feeling the mist of the water whip against my face. I love running in the rain and coming inside drenched. I also love thunderstorms because they are such an amazing phenomenon to watch and listen to.

This week’s video was on Tim Hawkinson, a guy who built a machine that uses drips of rain to create music. Even though I feel I can consider things art more than most people, I definitely have not thought of a machine as one of them. It really changed the way that I defined art. It was interesting listening to how the channel changes the man’s expression, and it was really cool to listen to. Back to the rain drop machine, I think that this could be a very controversial topic. I think that the sound of the water hitting the drum is definitely considered art, but I wonder if he wanted the water spout to be considered art. I could see it being art because I don’t see how it is any different than many of the other pieces that we have read and learn about. However, I feel that many people could consider it a mechanic. Thinking about this it really gives me a new interpretation of how I visualize art.

The piece that I found neatest in the Hawkinson video was the uberorgan. It was so cool that the machine read the letters, and it was cool that it that people could place their hand over the organ to get it to play their own notes.  I found this really cool and a great way to get the viewers and listeners interacting in his piece. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D5aOUJ0QXM

The artist that I chose to write about this week was Bethan Kellough. Kellough’s art piece “An Opening” is very eccentric in my opinion, and reminds me a lot of the part in a horror movie right before the character is about to be killed. At first, it started with this loud, obnoxious shrieking sound that was eventually drowned out by an ocean water sound. It was very interesting to listen to because what would have seemed to have given me nightmares eventually calmed my fears with the water at the end. I think that I was waiting for a noise to be heard the whole time, and it really reminded me of how sometimes things that seem like they may be bad aren’t, and you just have to stay with it long enough to find out. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwyMORRRRkg

Online Sources:

http://contemporarysupplement.blogspot.com/2011/07/tim-hawkinson.html 

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Week Fifteen- Sound

I had never heard of sound art before reading this. Robert Worby was right when he started off by saying sound is very strange stuff. I had never really sat and thought about sound and how it works. It’s weird how we do focus on the objects that make the sound and not the sound its self. Because like Worby talks about there literally is no words for sound other than sound. I find the whole idea of sound art to be interesting, odd, and intriguing. I don’t know that I believe some of the things Robert Worby was saying. I do believe and understand that sound can be art but I just find it so odd that Performances like Hugo Ball, being in a ridiculous outfit and slowly babbling like a baby is art or like the ‘4’ 33” when John Cage had a performer sit in the middle of the sage and was told to “be silent” and the only noises around him for four minutes and thirty three seconds was the sound of the audience and the random noises that filled the auditorium. That’s something that happens often when you go to a show or are sitting in some kind of auditorium, is that considered sound art or no becomes no one is leading that? I don’t know maybe I just really didn’t understand the reading, but this really left me kind of confused and surprised.

Tim Hawkinson was interesting. The sound he made from the rain and the way he controlled the way the drops sound from all them gears and electronics is insane! I liked the way the sound made, I think it kind of made a cool beat and it honestly really made me think of a horse galloping. The drawing he made by twisting the pencil with the drill was neat as well, it’s a different idea that I had never seen or thought of. The fact that he was able to use all those inflatables to make that strong of a sound is crazy too. He’s definitely a very creative man.

I really loved One Square Inch of Silence. In fact, I was working on homework with a friend and we both sat and listened that the entire time. I would love to one day have the chance to visit that park and experience it in person. I found it to be very soothing and relaxing. I will mention that for some reason it made me picture rain hitting pvc.

For my relevant artists this week, I listened to Amenta Abiota. I don’t really know how I fell about it. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I’m a fan of it. I just don’t think I found it to be something that I personally would enjoy sitting and listening to. Is music considered sound art? I don’t recall reading anything about this in the reading. But because I feel like a lot of what I listened to her was music more than sounds. https://amentavera.bandcamp.com/ 

[macaulipirillo-blog]

I don’t think you could have started your blog out any better. This unit was definitely the hardest for me to grasp. I agree with your saying that this art is more up to the viewer. I personally wasn’t the greatest fan of Tania Bruguera but I think that part of the reason for that was that I don’t really understand how what she did was art. Your post definitely made me think farther and get a better understanding of how her work is art.

Week 13

Tania Bruguera

This week I would have to say it the most complex that we have covered.  It is not a cut and dry medium (many mediums).  It is also the most interpretive, where as it is up to the viewer, in my opinion.  “A set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space” Nicolas Bourriavd, French art critic.  It is a way of looking at things, mostly social issues.  Where as global art is about using cross culture to revision world relations.  I find this form to be the most difficult to define in a definitive way.

Tania Bruguera

I think that Tania has a good interpretation of her art, which is to make people question if it is art or not. She does things that some would not call art, things that have real consequences to make a political or social statements.  She takes what is coming out into the news and takes those uncomfortable feelings and makes art with them.  I love this piece because it is a statement.  It represents the African Nkisi Nkonde figure.  One where you tell it your wish, but you have to give something in return, if you do not it will haunt you.  It is a statement that political figures make promises but never seem to keep those promises to the people.  I think that it is a powerful statement!  It is taking what is happening and making it realistic in a sense.  Her work evokes engagement from the audience.  Like her piece with the officers on horses, bossing around the audience.  This was to portray the harassment of the police of people who are immigrants or  minorities.  That is what I took from it.  I think that she makes bold statements that need to be seen.  Also, I love how she implements different ideas and lets the people transform and run those ideas.  She is inspiring others.  I really enjoyed her as a person and as an artist.  She is doing things knowing the repercussions to make a statement that others would be to afraid to make.  We need more people like her in todays society.    

Rirkrit Tirauanija

As for the relevant artist I picked Rirkrit.  I think that his work is similar to Taina I the aspect of making a statement about bringing people together.  He also does a lot of projects that give back to society.  I love what these artist are doing in the sense of using their art to do good.  

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Week Thirteen- Social Practice

This week’s articles were very informative. I truly have always thought of art as the basics like drawing, sculpture, photography, and painting but this class has really opened my eyes. Basically artwork can only be considered “relational art” or social practice if it is based on social interaction.  It really reminds me a lot of performance art except that this actually has interaction with others instead of “putting on a show”.  I looked up Felix Gonzalez-Torres from the An Introduction to Relational Aesthetics and Social Practice article, and a lot of his work is definitely installation but I will say I do enjoy his work and love the colors he puts into them. But I guess I don’t really understand how just because he puts a bowl of candy or stack of posters out by his work that makes his art work a social practice. Couldn’t almost any artist do this and become a social artist then?

I enjoyed learning about Tania Bruguera. I like how she thinks the most productive point for her is when people question whether or not some work is art. I find this interesting because I do personally question that what she did was art. I do like how she uses her art to spread awareness and information for different things such as her culture. She kind of reminds me of Theaster Gates in this way. I liked the concept she used when bringing the mountain police in on the horse to do their normal job in order to show what it really feels like and show that police are really helping people. But maybe I’m just not fully understanding social art but I don’t see how this is considered art?

For this week’s relevant artists, I chose Theaster Gates. He was born in Chicago in 1973 and still resides there. He is an urban planner, potter, and artist. He creates sculptures with clay and tar and renovates buildings. He transforms the raw material of urban neighborhoods into reimagined places of opportunity for the surrounding community. He has a non-profit called Rebuild Foundation in Chicago that manages a lot of projects such as Arts Bank, Black Cinema House, Dorchester Art and Housing Collaborative, and Listening House. A lot of his work also revolves around his African-American identity and the struggle for Civil Rights. I think that’s what made me enjoy his art so much. I’m firmly against racism and I enjoy seeing someone out there doing something positive for once to try and influence the change. He has a piece called “My Labor is my Protest”, which was my favorite. The title alone says a lot about the work. In the piece there’s a classic fire truck hoisted from the ceiling and a huge metal container that has hundreds of African American magazines inside. I feel like the message he is trying to get across is that if we “hoist” the Civil Rights out of our view then it becomes meaningless and we’re able to forget about it and go on with our lives.

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Week 12-Performance

I would have to say when I first saw the title of this week’s topic, I pretty much had a generalized idea of what it was going to be about. Performance or also known as “live art” is one of those types of art that gets “written off,” so to say. I feel as if you were to talk to people on the street and were to ask them what they think of when they think of art, most of the answers would be things like sculptures, paintings, drawing etc. I truly believe performance art is the most expressive and the most beautiful. When you see live art, you get to see the emotion through their body language and even their facial expressions. What did surprise me is body art. I never would have thought of body art as performance art. Also, when I think of body art, I think of tattoos, not paint on someone’s body acting as the canvas.

If I’m being honest here, I can’t really say I took anything away from reading the Art21 Janine Antoni Touch and Moor written interview. Can we talk about what the heck Janine was doing around 39:00 in that video?! She states that she does extreme things with her body in her art; thanks for the disclaimer, but that was intensely weird. Literally on the ground painting with her hair as if she was the paintbrush. I’m all for expressive art, but that was almost too much for me to even take her seriously. She really is a strange artist. The construction bucket piece I have actually got to see in person, so that was very neat to see come on in the video! I did find the bathtub and cow thing to be interesting.

In regards to Bree Newsome’s “superwoman-style” Confederate flag pole climb; that is not art. Like I stated before, I am all for expressing oneself and living freely, but this is just not art. Protesting is not art in my opinion. Anything political is just not art from my stand point. I remember hearing and reading about this event in the news, and to this day it still actually makes me mad. Yes, the Confederate flag was used as part of the Civil War to essentially signify the extension and south’s separation from the north. However, that is clearly not what South Carolina was still flying it for. Yeah, yeah, we all know some redneck out there that has the Confederate flag flying because he/she is “country” and uses racial slurs; those people are idiots. I believe the Confederate flag is a part of the United States history and means much more than racism, slavery or even white supremacy.

The relevant artist I chose this week was Teching Hsieh. There was something about his work that really caught my interest. He seems to have this depressing theme in his art, but I’m still so drawn to it. A common theme I recognized was a jail theme. Or maybe it’s even a “captured” theme or “tied up/down.” My favorite of his work would have to be One Year Performance 1978. This is an image of a man sitting inside a cell. I guess I can just relate to the image; not completely, but it’s relatable.

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Week Twelve- Performance Art

For this week’s relevant artist, I chose Chris Burden. He is hands down the most intriguing and interesting artists I have read about this semester. I find a lot of the things he did extremely strange and crazy. He first started performance art when he was in college. It involved him locking himself in a locker for five days. He had no food, a jug of water, and an empty one below him to void in. A lot of his art actual caused him some kind of physical pain or discomfort. His most famous piece of work was Shooter, in this piece someone was actually supposed to knick Burden in the arm with a  .22 from 15 ft. away! The shooters aim was off, and he ended up shooting him right in the arm! The performance I found the most intriguing was Trans-Fixed. Burden nailed himself to a Volkswagen with nails through his hands and rolled out of a garage to an audience. The engine was revved to show the sound of screaming in pain. I just am not sure how one even thinks of some of the things he does or why. His work seems to have dark and twisted meanings behind them. He wants audience to realize things like that pain is real or what being shot is like in a more personal setting then say tv and movies.

Performance art is basically exactly what it says. It’s art that you see in a live act. Performance art made its first appearance around the 1960’s and used to be left out from museums and galleries but is now very welcomed. There are multiple different styles of performance art from action, body art, happening, endurance, and ritual.  After reading about what endurance art was it helped me understand Chris Burdens art further. The work is meant to explore actual human persistence, willpower, and patience.

When reading the article about Bree Newsome, I’m going to start by saying that I had no idea that there were any let alone multiple state houses that still had the confederate flag hanging. I personally do not believe in the confederate flag. But what Newsome did had to have taken serious guts. I never in my life would have seen this as piece of art. Her work brought attention to the flag and the meaning that it has to African Americans. I really loved what Sonya Clark did as well though. When she split the first flag apart and separated it into three separate colors to she showed red, white, and blue, representing the unraveling of racism. This is mesmerizing and genius to me. She brought a message to people in a way that no one would have thought of.

Janine Antoni was interesting. Her Lifeline piece is extremely sentimental, and I would love to have something of that nature. She had each one of her loved ones donate material and she made them into a rope therefore representing everyone important to her and her “lifeline”. Touch and Moor had a beautiful message to always reach for the horizon behind it. 

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I hadn’t chose Zaha Hadid for my relevant artist this week. But seeing her Leeza Soho Tower, its beautiful. I enjoyed the Kanna huts as well. Its amazing to me how they were able to make everything out of nature. I like how they promote that you don’t have to have the fancy things in life to be happy like you mentioned. There is far more important things to be worry about. The Singapore skyline is absolutely breath taking as well.

Week 11 Chapter 13

This week we watched the video on Maya Lin. I like that she incorporated solid, liquid, and gas into this park. I also really enjoyed that Lin used the starry sky in her ice rink. I thought it was great that she redid the entire park into a more cohesive piece for people. You do not really think that a park could be artistic but she did a great job.

For this weeks relevant artist I chose Zaha Hadid. Hadid was born on October 31st 1950 in Baghdad Iraq. Her father was a wealthy industrialist and her mother was an artist. She was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. My first thought seeing her work was WOW! They are stunning. My favorite building of hers was Leeza Soho Tower. It was one of the last designs before she passed away. It is also the world’s largest atrium. It is 679 feet tall and has 46 floors. By looking at her work it really seems like landscapes inspire her and she like for her buildings to have lots of windows for the light to shine in which makes me think that she really wanted her buildings to be one with the world around it. Her work really reminded me of Maya Lin and their works seems to connect by their use of the outdoors and landscapes.

Chapter thirteen was Architecture. The first buildings I loved were the Kanna huts in India. I love that they were created with the nature that surrounds them. They do not need to create pollution to make a home. You do not need fancy things to fill it. You just need the ones you love. Seeing homes like this really make you think about your life and we need all the junk. Are we using it to fill a void? I know there are times that is why I buy something. We forget about the important things sometimes.

The next building I enjoyed was Fumihiko Maki’s Kirishima International Concert Hall. This building is located amongst nature, about an hour drive out of the city. Built in 1994 and seats a total of seven hundred seventy people. There is an open air arena which can seat up to four thousand. There is also a small reversal room, practice rooms, and a cafeteria. I really love that Kirishima wanted nature to surround this hall while people enjoyed music. You really get the idea that he really wanted people to feel at peace while having a good time.

The last favorite part of the chapter was the Singapore skyline. When you live in the city, it is all about the hustle and bustle. People wake up, go to work, and go home, it starts all over again the next day. We can forgot the beauty the city can hold. The Singapore skyline is incredible. The buildings flow beautifully together, all the different colored lights are stunning. It really is a large scale work of art.

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Week Eleven- Architecture

Architecture isn’t something that has ever been very fascinating to me.  But after reading this chapter I will say that I have a newly found admiration and appreciation for it. There is a lot of work and strategy that has to be put into building these structures. Stone I feel is obviously known the most for being used in architecture. It has been used since prehistoric times as a building material. Buildings for the most part are developed from same principles and elements as other art forms. Architects are known to work with form, texture, line, space, and color just like any other artist.

Architects are artist but some of them also have to serve the people they are working for. Like a home designer has to be aware of the wants and needs of the individual he is working for. I also hadn’t thought of dwellings or huts as architecture. I don’t really know what I thought of them as. They are made from grasses and canes being bound together. They only last about five years but they keep cool in the summer, warm in the winter, cost nothing, and are easily replaceable when worn down eventually. They are built with careful planning and assembly just like any home would be.

My favorite piece of architecture from this weeks reading was the Performing Arts Centre for Abu Dhabi. It was created by Zaha Hadid. He molded materials into curving lines that flow over and around each other to create a 203-foot-high building. It is shaped with glass areas that allow for a view of the sea from the five theaters that it holds. It has a music hall, opera house, concert hall, drama theatre, and multipurpose theater. I think from the picture in the book it is extremely pretty, and I can only imagine what the inside of it looks like. I think it would be awesome to visit this in the day time and see the sun and sea reflecting off of the glass in person as well.

I found Maya Lin work to be inspiring. The way she transformed the urban park in Grand Rapids into a beautiful ice rink is amazing. She was able to take her idea and even make a park part of sculpture. I like how her work was able to bring the park back to life and be used as a place for the community to enjoy. I chose to go with Frank Gehry as my relevant artist this week. He is a Canadian-born American architect. His work is really quite crazy. He bends and twists metal creating an illusion that the actual building is twisted. The way these structures look its like something you would see in a cartoon. How he comes with the shapes and the structure he does to these buildings I’m unsure of. He’s obviously a very creative man.

[macaulipirillo-blog]

I agree with your thoughts on the Smithsonian’s craft Museum. I think the artworks speak to each other and help collaborate with each other and also in a way kind of feed off of one another. Kimsoojas work was odd to me. I get what she was trying to do but I just don’t think I understood it or was a fan of it. It was interesting how everyone in a mad rush didn’t even notice the woman just standing there in the middle of the crowd but for some reason I just couldn’t get the correlation between sewing and what she was doing.

Week 10 Chapter 11

Chapter eleven was Craft Media. Craft Media is created out if clay, metal, wood, glass, and fibers. Norma Minkowitz’s Collected was beautiful and strange. Upon viewing her other work, I really see her connection with nature. Her work is very organic and earthy, even down to the colors. In the picture I have chosen for her work you see a human in a nest. You get the feeling she is growing with the nature around her.

Another piece I enjoyed was The Unicorn in Captivity from the Unicorn Tapestries. You see this animal constrained inside a tiny fence with a rope that you think is tied to a tree. If you look more closely you see the end of the rope isn’t tied to anything. Whom ever made this clearly wished for the animals escape, as the fence is low enough to jump from. That made me think about how we sometimes use failure as an excuse to stop from trying. Sometimes you have to jump over those hurdles and try again to achieve your goals and dreams.

This weeks additional reading, Wondering about the future of the Smithsonian’s craft Museum. I thought it was interesting that many different artists shared such a huge space for their work. I would have to say I disagree with the writer who said the artworks didn’t talk to one another. I thought they did. I found them all to resemble nature in some way; rock formations, rainbow, vines, trees, bright flowers, and one even resembled a desert storm. I like that each room you would walk into the artists view on nature. I thought it was neat. The connection between the chapter and additional reading was of course nature. These artists really brought their view of it to life in some form.

Kimsooja’s video Needle Women. I found her perspective with people intriguing to watch. You see how she stands still with the fast paced lives moving around her. Most of these people were in just a hurry to get to point A to point B that they did not notice her standing there. She’s the needle and the people are weaving their way through her. I really like that she incorporates people into her work. With the lotus flower lanterns and the chanting through the train station, I liked that she gives these people a sense of peace in their everyday hectic lives. Kimsooja’s work is very peaceful and realaxing. I like that.

For the relevant artist I chose Beth Cavener Stichter. She was born in Pasadena California. Her mother was a ceramicist and her father was a molecular biologist. You really see how much of an influence her parents were in her art. Her  scluptures are insanely detailed and beautiful. She uses controversial subject matter in the shape of animal form. In the photo below, “The Adoration” you see a lamp hung up bleeding from its neck with a glass to collect the blood. It reminds me of how easy it is for people to kill these beautiful creatures. I think this is a great way to remind people that these animals do not deserve to be slaughtered and how ugly human beings can be.

The next piece from Stichter I really liked was “The Questions that Devours.” You see the big bad wolf about to devour a small rabbit. This made me think about people and how some will do anything it takes in this life to help themselves. People steal, hurt, murder, etc, to move up in life. Some will “devour” others in order to do so. I thought this was a very powerful piece of work. Her work really resembled a lot of other artists I mentioned today. They all used nature in their own way, whether it’s to talk about controversial subjects, or just to show beauty in the world.

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Week Ten- Craft Media

Craft media has been around for a long time. Especially clay craft media. I feel like clay has been used since the beginning of time. There our five major craft medias which include, clay, metal, wood, glass, and fibers. When I think of clay I instantly think of pottery. I’ve always wanted to go some where and trying making pottery sometime. Paula Winokur’s Working in Clay article was interesting to me. She said that no one ever things of clay as being a fine art. Which she is definitely right about. Her piece White Butte doesn’t make sense to me, even after reading I still don’t understand what it is supposed to be or the meaning behind it.

Wood working is something I’ve always enjoyed looking at. There are some people that can do some amazing work with would that I wouldn’t expect. But as much as I enjoy wood work my favorite part of this chapter was the glass work. Glass is so fragile, I can’t imagine that its easy to work with. Glass work can range from being jewelry, windows, figurines, or wall hangings. I personally enjoy stained glass window the most. I think part of the reason I enjoy glass work so much is because of the transparency glass has and I love the way it looks when light hits it. Louis Comfort Tiffany, Irish Bells and Sentinels stained window is beautiful. I looked at it and it instantly brings a smile to my face. There’s nothing but beauty to the window.

For my relevant artists this week I chose Marie Watt, she is an American artist who is actually an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians. She is best known for her work with blankets. One of her pieces from her Companion Species manifest, Companion Species (Listening), its two wolves and they have little beams connect them to show them listening to each other and one listening to the environment around them. “My mom says we have two ears and one mouth because the Creator intended us to listen twice as hard” (Marie Watt Studio, 2017). Was a quote I found under it and it really made me think that this is a piece with an important message that a lot of people won’t get it. I honestly wouldn’t have had I not read that quote. Listening and being aware of things around you is essential in life. The complete Companion Species manifest all seem to have important messages and make you think. A lot of the work is about the correlation between humans and animals and how humans learn from animals.

I found our artist interview with Kimsooja odd in all honesty. I can tell she’s very passionate about her background and her ethnicity. But I’m not quite sure that I understand the whole women needle concept. I don’t know if its just because I couldn’t picture it or what. I enjoyed her Crystal Palace the most. It was cool how she put mirrors all over the bottom to make the reflection. The breathing was something that different that’s for sure. I don’t think I would find that soothing though.

[macaulipirillo-blog]

I as well find installation art fascinating. I love that they can be so big and literally just in the middle of no where. I really enjoyed the Rain Room piece the most from this chapter. I never thought of it as being a healing ritual but I really like thinking of it in that aspect. I think it’s a great piece and I would love the opportunity to visit it some day!

Week Nine Blog Post

I absolutely love the idea of installation art. The fact that it is not limited to any standards or genre; it can just be what it is. I also really like that it usually takes up rather large space whether it is a building, in or outside, a park, or even in the middle of a plaza. The quote from Maurice Merleau-Ponty “I do not see according to its exterior envelope; I live it from the inside; I am immersed in it. After all, the world is around me, not in front of me.” really opened my eyes to what art and specifically installation art can be.

After reading the article about installation art I found that I really enjoyed seeing the work of Robert Irwin. Scrim veil-Black rectangle-Natural light was interesting to look at and read about. It really reminded me of a black and white movie. The lighting and shadows showed the potential for the space. The window looks like a skywalk to me. The movement of the outside and light coming through makes me think that you can almost walk through it into the outside world. Then over to the right you see a small black corner that shows an entrance almost like another hallway. The ceiling shows the differences throughout the space you can tell that there are two separate pieces to the ceiling each with a different pattern giving off different balances of light coming through the window.

The piece entitled Rain Room I’ve seen before in a movie. In the movie its shown as a sort of healing ritual to stand in the rain and let it wash you clean even though you aren’t actually getting wet and I think that’s what makes this piece stand out. The movement, essence of forgiveness and reassurance of hope really made me fall in love with this piece. (Also I just made a pun)

Now onto the artist interview video this week. Do Ho Suh’s work really surprised me. When I started the video I really didn’t know what to expect but I actually really enjoyed it. Mostly because of his back story about leaving home. He says that it was mostly because of his father and his over shadow because he was a very impressive painter. I understand that. Suh obviously isn’t your typical, everyday painter. He uses different medias to make his work and I can see why he thought he had to leave. It really hit when I saw his first work; the house. He says that he wanted something that he could take with him wherever he goes and that really hit me.  

For my relevant artists this week I chose to read more into the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work. I’ve seen some of their work before but I really didn’t get to read about it. It really interests me because of the close connection with environmental protection. They seem to use a lot of metaphors and interesting ways of showing what we need to do in order to help the environment.

Thank you!

[macaulipirillo-blog]

I like how you pointed out that sculptures can be made from anything because how true is that? It’s crazy what they use to make sculptures sometimes, like sugar for example like Kara Walker did!  I also didn’t even consider wood carving to be sculpture until I read your post. I really love wood carving! Damien Hirst For the Love of God piece is amazing! Skulls have always kind of creeped me out personally but with over 8000 diamonds on it this piece is beautiful!

Week 8-Sculptures

I enjoy the art style of sculpture because it can literally be made out of almost anything and everything. I personally cannot sculpt to save my life. In middle school I made a sculpture of a squirrel and some kid told me it looked like a hamster. So, sculpting is definitely not my calling, but it is definitely something I really enjoy viewing. One of my favorite sculptures that I have actually visited in person was up in Madison, WI. I don’t quite remember the name of the piece, but I do happen to have a picture of it. However, I will not post the photo because it might be slightly inappropriate. One of my favorite types of sculpture would have to be wood carving. I like the way that different types of wood create different colors and there’s a lot of depth in wood carvings. However, I think my favorite sculpture of all time would have to be the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington D.C. That sculpture I have also had the honor of seeing in person.

I really enjoyed watching the video this week of Kara Walker. The idea to create a sculpture out of sugar is very unique and also a fun idea. Watching the video made me realize how intensive and complicated it actually is to create such a piece out of sugar. She said something in the video that really stood out to me; “I think it was very important to me to have figures made out of a substance that is so temporal…so subject to change.” I like how her pieces are literally dripping and literally melting. Her largest piece is incredible. So much time and dedication was put into that piece. I appreciate her as an artist because she openly accepts change, which is why I believe she chose sugar as a sculpting model.

I know we are to choose one relevant artist, but I honestly couldn’t choose just one this week. The first artist I chose was Anish Kapoor. I chose Anish because of his piece in Chicago the Cloud Gate. The Cloud Gate is also known as “The Bean.” I find myself more able to appreciate certain artists and their work when I have actually seen their work in person. There’s a different sense of respect and appreciation to the work when viewing it in person. I like how Anish works with a lot of reflective materials in his art. I feel as if it’s almost giving a different perception on the things that surround you. The other relevant artist I really enjoyed looking up was Damien Hirst. Now this guy really has some interesting work. I love his pieces of the animals inside those tanks! However, my favorite piece is his piece called For the Love of God. This piece is a human skull created with platinum and over 8,500 diamonds adorned to it. I have a love for skulls and to me this is just a beautiful piece. What I wouldn’t do to be able to own it!

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Week Nine-Installations

In this weeks Artist video on Do Ho Suh was unlike anything I had seen before. His piece of work where he used little figurines in the floor to represent what he feels as personal space in Seoul is awesome. He describes how crowded Seoul is and how you’re constantly bumping into people and this piece of work represents this perfectly the way they are all crammed into this space. I also like how it looks like this little people are almost holding the acrylic used to cover them up with their hands. This adds a lot of character to the piece. The piece he made with the dog tags is truly heartwarming. For him to use these dog chains to make a uniform, you can really see how much this piece means to him as he goes into detail about the uniforms and they’re meaning to him and other Koreans.

After looking into a couple different relevant artists this week, I decided to go with Tracey Emin because I found her work to stand out the most to me. She’s a British artist whose artwork involves autobiographical details through installations, sculpture, photography and painting. Some of her most iconic pieces are Everyone I Have Ever Slept With and My Bed. I feel that both of these pieces really allow you to see into her life. Everyone I Have Ever Slept With is literally a tent with names of everyone she has ever slept with and not necessarily in a sexual manor either. She included people like her grandmother and other friends or relatives that she literally just shared a bed with. My Bed is exactly as it sounds, a picture of her bed. The bed is a mess. There are empty alcohol bottles, cigarette butts, and dirty underwear laying there. I think both pieces of work sort of show case that her life and she in general is kind of a mess but that she’s okay with and accepting of it. I think it probably took guts to show case this kind of personal information as well.

I had absolutely no idea what installation art entailed until reading this week. Installation art is an artistic genre of site specific three-dimensional works that are designed to transform a person’s perception of space. I find the interactive installations neat. I like that it allows people that can be from all over the world and have complete different personalities the ability to go in and work on the same project so it sort of has piece of everyone in it so to say.

I found the Rain Room to be the most intriguing from the readings this week. This is in the Museum of Modern Art. It is an installation of water, light and space that has the ability to blend art and technology. Its literally a room that looks like its raining but you can step in there and dance and chance the rain drops but you will not get wet. As you move under the “water” the droplets will part for you to get through. This has me so mind blown. I would love to be able to visit this or even something like this to see how it works.

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Week Eight- Sculpture

So, this weeks Artist of the week, Kara Walker was interesting to learn about. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see a sculpture being made from a sugar paste. They used corn syrup, sugar, and water and like the guy says in the video is that this is like the ingredients one would use to make caramel, that’s crazy to me! The sculptures melt in the sun giving the sculptures a weeping appearance. I think the idea of this is super awesome. I would love to be able to see one of these in person.

For my relevant artists, this week I chose Damien Hirst. Damien Hirst is a British artist known highly for his work of dead animal displays and spin-art paintings. One of his most famous pieces is A Mother and Child Divided. It is four glass tanks total, two of the tanks contains half of a cow each and the other two contain half of a calf each preserved in formaldehyde solution. The cows are literally split in half and spaced far enough apart so that you can see the insides of these cows. I find this both super cool and interesting and slightly disturbing. I wonder how Hirst went about cutting them in half and to do this? I also find the name of the piece kind of ironic and funny. When I first seen it I just assumed oh a cow and a calf, the calf divided from it’s mother makes sense. But then I realized the cows are literally divided in half so it fits both ways.

Reading about sculpture this week I learned that there are four traditional ways of creating sculpture which include, carving hard materials, modeling soft materials, casting molten materials that will harden, and assembling materials that can be joined. Carving is the most common type of sculpting that I hear about. This entails a larger piece of working materials such as stone, ivory, or wood and you diminish this down and cut pieces off to make some kind of sculpture.

Casting was one that I hadn’t heard of before. In casting, easily shapeable materials are used to create a negative mold which a molten material like plastic or bronze is poured over then allowed to harden. I would think that using this process would make it hard to produce very fine details as pouring the molten material on I would think you would lose the definition. But in the Alter of the Hand or the Perseus with the Head of Medusa you can see perfect definition in these. The Perseus with the head of Medusa is really a quite fascinating piece. You can see all the muscle from of Perseus and with the head of Medusa in his hand you know this sculpture has a great significance of power that belongs to it

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Earthworks is a different kind of art where the artist use the earth’s surface itself as their medium. It is an ancient form of art in which the earth is sculpted into mounds, spirals, and mazes. The Spiral Jetty was something new to me that I hadn’t heard of. Despite that it only lasted for two years due to the rising water of the lakes, it’s fascinating to me how they could make this out in the middle of the lakes strong and sturdy enough to even last that long.

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I watched the Hot Beach Babe Aims to Please film so many times trying to figure out what those black things were that were following her. It makes perfect sense now that they’re fruit flies! And your description of the video is great, I agree with everything you said. I struggled with Belly as well but I think your decision that it outlines the complexities of different individuals is very on point. They are all very different people.

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Blogpost Week 7

I want to start off by saying that photography/film-making are wonderful forms of art that - in my opinion - are centered around capturing a moment or a theme. In connection to our assigned videos, I felt like they were effective in doing so. 

In Short Film: Hot Beach Babe Aims to Please, by Jillian Mayer, I felt like she greatly depicted how sex is something that humans gravitate towards. Fruit flies are attracted to sweet things such as banana and peaches . For them that’s their source of energy. This video is simply simplifying life and how sex is something that humans gravitate towards. The girl in the video is like a banana. Although the theme of this video is very simple The next is quite opposite.

In Short Film: Belly, by Julia Pott, the theme was much more complex. I had to re-watch this film a few times. Initially, I was just confused, deciding that the film was just weird with unique animations, but ultimately I decided that it outlines the complexities of different individuals. Contrasting the defining principles of empathy and care. Pott primarily used 3 different characters in order to ouch her theme: Oscar - little brother and owner/friend of “The Beast”; Alex - Typical teenager and Oscar’s older brother; and lastly “The Beast” - Oscar’s pet and best friend. For me, Belly retains it’s mystery. 

The first couple short films are much different than Jim Cummings’ Thunder Road. In my opinion, Thunder Road begins in a funeral that quickly goes downhill when Jimmy Arnaud - main character - decides to give an unprepared speech at his mother’s funeral. The speech quickly turns into a comical dance recital in which a family member in the front pew begins to record on Snapchat. A couple themes from Thunder Road are love your mother while you still have time, and don’t proceed to publicly “reminisce” at her funeral if you didn’t!

I Chose Wolfgang Tilmans’ Peas as my Relevant Artist Piece. This short film most resembles the “hot” babe film by taking a simple and natural approach to providing mental stimulation. As the peas boil, the bubbles fade creating a oddly stimulating moment.

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I thought Johns work was very interesting as well. The way he used the stills from movies was my favorite part, I have never seen anything like this done and found the process very informative and intriguing. I think it’s cool that you chose Andy Warhol as well. His Campbells soup can is one of his most iconic pieces and I think that’s kind of funny because like you said its such a simplistic design but the way he makes it pop is awesome!

Week 6

This week we read about printmaking and graphic design. I personally loved reading the technical aspect of making a print of a image, but most of all I found it most interesting that you can change the image ever so slightly while printmaking an image. Due to this I found Monotype most interesting because I find it so incredibly interesting when you take a simple image and every time to make it you change it ever so slightly. When it comes to Graphic design I love the selling aspect of it where a person designs wrappers, boxes, and advertisements to catch a persons eye and to get someone to notice a product.

John’s art is interesting to say the least. I found it most interesting that he uses a printmaking style in some of his art by layering images on top of each other, and in others he uses a typography or graphic design style by using colors to draw attention to certain shapes of parts of his art. His use of stills from movies most surprised me and interested me as they show a uniqueness to his work. Over all from the video John clearly has a great passion for his art, and I loved watching him.

My relevant artist is Andy Warhol. Andy did a lot of art I found it most interesting, but the one piece of art I found the most interesting is his Campbell’s soup can work. Its simplistic design is brilliant in my mind, and each time I look at it I see something different. Photocopying is part of Andy Warhol’s art and his Marilyn Monroe piece is beautiful. The use of light and colors brings Marilyn Monroe to life even after her death, and just like the Campbell’s soup can piece I take something new from each viewing of the piece. I have always loved Andy Warhol’s work and enjoyed looking over some of his art.

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Week Six- Printmaking/Graphic Deisgn

So, going into this week’s reading, I know absolutely nothing about printmaking and graphic design but I must say so far this has been my favorite to read and learn about. I learned that according to the book, printmaking is basically just a method for creating multiple identical copies of an image by repeatedly inking and printing a worked plate. I found almost every image in chapter 6 interesting. I really enjoyed the Battle of Ten Nude Men by Antonio del Pollaiuolo. At first, I was blown away by the detail that Pollaiuolo was able to give these guys. The definition and tone in the guys body is amazing. But then after reading I discovered that all of the definition in the guys’ body are built up through I series of small lines. I never would’ve known or guess this!

Going into chapter seven about graphic design, I was kind of excited to learn about this. I know a couple people who have went to school for this and I was never really sure what that entailed. Reading this chapter definitely helped me understand more. Graphic designers should be very creative and have the ability to adjust with the always changing times. Because of the high-tech approach to the arts is increasing so drastically it has threatened the survival of more traditional arts. In fact, a lot of colleges offer more computer-based art classes. The three major ingredients of graphic design are letters, images, and illustrations. I should say that I really loved the picture by Alberto Seveso, the image on cover disc of Computer Arts Projects Interactive. I think this is a beautiful piece of work, it’s something I would even want in my home. I love the colors and the flowers on the girls face and just everything about it.

For this week’s artist of the week, John Baldessari, I liked how he started out by asking “What can I do to this to make it art?” because in all honesty the more I’m learning about art I’m starting to feel like almost everything we encounter on a daily basis is some form of art. His work is very interesting and unique. Almost every piece of his work that entails people he covers their face or part of it and that’s not like anything else I have seen. I’m not sure I understand it but, I kind of like the mystery behind it.

For my artists this week I chose Andy Warhol. I chose him because for some reason I remember being in the library during high school and seeing books on him and I always thought his work was interesting. Andy Warhol was a successful ad illustrator until he became a leading artist of the 1960’s pop art movements. He ventured into a wide variety of art forms though. He is also considered to be one of the most creative and popular artists of his time. Some of his most famous pieces of work are the pop art portrait of Marilyn Monroe and the Campbells tomato soup. I actually really love his 1986 self-portrait piece thought just because I think it’s kind of a creepy picture and like the way he portrays himself. I think it’s different.