gentlerevival-blog

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I agree with your point that most people hear, but don’t listen. I remember there was an experiment done where a talented violinist, who had a sold-out show later that day, spent some hours playing without fanfare in a subway tunnel. Only little children paid him any mind, and they were hustled along by their parents. There seems to be something that happens in the process of growing up that snuffs out that childhood curiosity. Creative types tend to be those who resist this process, I’ve noticed.

Week 15

Sound isn’t a “thing” that we can hold and touch. Sound is something that we listen to and hear. I like how the reading says that sound can be forgotten, but a memory can survive but fades quickly. Sounds helps us remember memories. An example would be concerts. I’ve gone to a few concerts and the music and sounds of it remind me of how much fun and all the memories I made. Many people hear, but they don’t listen. Soundscape was also mentioned in the reading and this is where there are unique characteristics in certain places. Some examples of soundscape would be sounds of people, birds, animals, and insects. Sound is in the music we listen to everyday, people talking, and the sounds we here. It is used all the time in our lives everyday.

Listening to One Square Inch of Silence made me feel calm. I could hear bugs flying, birds chirping, and rain hitting the water. This reminds me of when I was in Muir Woods or even where I live. Where it is quiet I am able to reflect and think about things in my life. I live in the country and it is really quiet compared to the loud noises in the city. In the city, where I used to live, there is never a quiet moment. There is always cars driving or people outside. While listening to the recording, I already felt relaxed. I think it was cool that it was recorded in the quietest place in the United States, which is Olympic National Park. I like how in the description of the audio, it wanted to promote people to listen to natural silence.

In Susan’s video, I really enjoyed the music made from the broken instruments. I thought it was cool how the guy decided to make music from something broken, but as able to create something. It really shows that music and sound is always a part of us and our lives, even when were in a dark place in our lives. I really loved when the music echoed because it made a calming effect on me. I thought it was interesting how the video was related to concentration camps and was based on it. When people are listening to Susan’s music, they are really taking it in instead of just hearing it.

I chose Marcus Fischer & Simon Scott for my relevant artist. I listened to their song Thorns. When I closed my eyes and listened to it, I pictured myself in a large grassy field with the sun beaming on me. It is sort of that perfect world where nothing goes wrong. When I open my eyes I’m just staring at a computer screen. It makes me feel free to do what I want.

Marcus Fischer was born in 1977 in Portland, Oregon. He started his career in LA and started finding his style of music. Marcus created audio/visual events that brought filmmakers and musicians together. In 2009, he had a blog about him creating a creative project a day for a year. For Simon Scott, I wasn’t able to find much. I looked on his website and found that his first performance was on January 28, 2016. His most recent performance was on October 28, 2018.

“Marcus Fischer.” 12k, 20 Aug. 2016, www.12k.com/artist/marcus-fischer/.

Simon Scott, simonscott.org/.

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Sound Art and Exploration

Before I begin my essay proper, I must preface it with a refutation of the final point in Robert Worby’s article An Introduction to Sound Art wherein he asserts that Sound Art “develops what it is to be human.” This is false. Hearing is one of many senses humans commonly use to navigate the world, but it is not a defining feature of humanity. Impairment or lack of it does not alter one’s species. Presumably Worby was being poetic here, but the slight to humanity was too great to go uncorrected.

Sound, as sight or touch, has a profound impact on those who experience it. There are limits to what the human ear can perceive, but there are enough sounds within range to occupy thought indefinitely as it is. Most sounds are considered ambient and not given names, except, as Worby noted in his aforementioned article, those related back to the object which produced them. With such a wealth of options, and an inadequate system in place for recognizing and categorizing them, it is no wonder that people have begun to experiment and create new fields of sound. For example, ASMR is currently rising in popular awareness as a new category of sound performance, one which takes advantage of the power of sound to induce relaxation. Looked at in its societal context and the insufficient categories of sound, there is nothing surprising about the emergence of Sound Art.

Just as different colors elicit different reactions from an audience, so it is with sound. When visual and auditory elements are combined, they can become even more effective. Ryoji Ikeda’s piece The Planck Universe [Micro] is a good example; the piece is composed of video projectors, computers, and speakers. The images appear on a large rectangular surface on the ground, which can be walked on. While watching a video of it, without knowing the title, I began to call it “Patterns of the Universe.” It is reminiscent of the sea, of microorganisms, of the universe, of speed and change and human understanding. It is dizzying at times; there are enough bright, flashing lights that I was annoyed that there wasn’t a warning for epilepsy. Certainly it was a worthy experience. I don’t know of a word that encompasses the feelings I had; it was like dreaming or thinking without words. Much of my understanding was subconscious, but I felt fulfilled by it. It may be relevant to note that these feelings were not distinct from those I get upon viewing other artistic installations without sound. The medium may be slightly different, but the power of the art is the same.

Susan Philipsz is an artist with a keen awareness of places of meaning. Working in Germany and seeing the Holocaust memorials there only deepens this natural understanding. She is also interested in the psychological effects of sound. Through these two things, her Sound Art develops. In 2012, Philipsz revisited Pavel Haas’ Study for Strings. Study for Strings was written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943 and performed by prisoners for Nazi propaganda purposes. Shortly thereafter, the musicians were sent to Auschwitz, where Haas and most of the other performers were killed. Philipsz isolates two parts of the composition - the viola and the cello - and combines them with silence. The silence is, of course, referring to the missing players; victims of the Holocaust.

One Square Inch of Silence is a piece meant to raise awareness of the dangers to the environment and the importance of protecting it. However, the name is incorrect. The recording is not of silence, it is the sounds of nature. In the description, it is referred as “true quiet.” It most certainly is not. If I am meant to believe that ambient sounds in nature affect the human psyche differently than man made ambiance, I shall require evidence. But despite the clumsy delivery, the message of preservation is important and necessary for the continuation of human life on this planet.

The Planck Universe [Micro], Study for Strings, and One Square Inch of Silence are all examples of the many and varied ways that Sound Art can be effective. Artists can and do use it in much the same way traditional artists do to bring attention to something, or to invoke a feeling, or to think abstractly in a way that can be experienced by multiple people. I do not see a strong distinction between this and previous types of art studied in this class.

Works referenced:

One Square Inch retrieved from https://onesquareinch.org/

An Introduction To Sound Art. Robert Worby. 2006. Retrieved from http://www.robertworby.com/writing/an-introduction-to-sound-art/

Ryoki Ikeda. Micro/Macro. 2015 Retrieved from http://www.ryojiikeda.com/project/micro_macro/

Susan Philipsz in “Berlin.” 2018. Retrieved from https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s9/susan-philipsz-in-berlin-segment/

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I was also struck by Cuervo’s work relating to starvation. I was particularly disturbed by the bones half coated in chocolate. I don’t know why that got to me more than the dripping chocolate, but it did. It’s such a mix of decadence and - I mean - bones. In a really awful way it lays bare the mix of opulence and forced scarcity in the world. Food insecurity is such an awful experience, even when it’s not extreme. My great grandmother is still alive; she’s 99 and lived through the Great Depression. She had boxes and boxes and shelves of canned food in her basement for decades, collecting dust. Just in case. It’s only gone now because her kids gradually snuck it all out. I was always struck by that - by the depth of the scars left by privation.

Minerva Cuevas

While watching the video about Minerva I noticed she had a strong sense of community and bringing people together. I really enjoyed learning a little more about her community and what influences her art work. I never really knew a lot about Mexico but when Minerva said she is inspired but the amount of improvisation in the town and how there are so many people from all over and from different backgrounds come together to create music, dance, and art. No matter where you came from or who you were it was a safe place for everyone to be and take part in the activities.

The first project Minerva talked about it thought was pretty cool. I did not catch the name of the project but the concept caught my attention. She started with giving away phone calls which then turned into subway tickets, food barcodes, and even student ID’s. I think when you come from somewhere where the whole community struggles getting these things for free could mean the world to you. A simple phone call could be the biggest difference in someone’s day or week.

I was also a big fan of how she used the history of cacao to create a sculpture. Her main focus was on the problems of starvation and this reminded me of last week’s discussion post of the child and the vulture. The chocolate drip was my favorite part of this video because the chocolate drips every time a person dies from starvation and the drips created a small yet large sculpture.

Article

Reading the articles about relational aesthetics I was really confused. Reading the beginnings of the articles just seemed all over the place. I did however, appreciate how Jeriah asked friends to put it into terms it would be easy for someone who knows nothing about art to understand. This somewhat helped but I needed to dumb it down a little more.

I researched into it further and realized the name makes It sound much more complicated then it actually is. I understood it as people taking everyday objects to create art by changing or adding onto the object itself but not enough to take away from the original subject. Or an object that has a set purpose and creating another purpose for it.

I looked up an artist one of the pages suggested to see if a visual aid would be more help into understanding this subject. I recognized the name Maya Lin from when we learned about her a couple weeks ago. It helped to understand more but I am still not sure I get it quite yet.

While reading the introduction article the writer summarized the topic to be about social interaction or places we come together to interact and this made way more sense to me than much of the article did. This type of art can not be limited to anything. It can be anything, include anyone, and be made of whatever helps the artist create their project. 

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I have strong opinions about the intersection of art and life. In my previous essay, I spoke favorably of Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece,” a performance in which the audience decides the energy and message. Gonzalez-Torres’ Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) is another example of art reliant on audience participation to be fully understood. I don’t believe that involving the audience in a piece of art invalidates its status as art. However, social practice goes beyond that. In order to explain how, permit me to first share something about myself.

Earlier this year, I lived in a domestic violence shelter. The shelter did not provide meals, although sometimes people donated food. At that time, I defined homelessness as trying to remember what bread tastes like before it goes stale. Sometimes I went to food pantries and was given rotten or expired food. Sometimes the people giving it to me expected me to be grateful. Once I didn’t realize in time that some milk I’d been given was already a month expired; I tried to have a bowl of cereal and ended up retching into the sink.

Art is made to be looked at, literally or metaphorically. It can be quietly decorative or provocatively political. Art can be pleasant or disturbing or ugly. But there is a point to it - a purpose, if only in the mind of the viewer. It is meant for somebody; usually a wider audience, sometimes only for the artist themself. That is how I understand art. Social practice is not art.

Minerva Cuevas describes social work as art, and it terrifies me. She talks about giving out barcode stickers, which reduce the price of food at supermarkets. The pictures shown are vegetables. Fruit and vegetables are expensive. Living in the shelter, the only access to them I had was at food pantries, where it was all rotten and decayed. This is good work she is doing, important work. But to call such an act art is to implicate the people she’s helping as art, too. They are not the audience; they - we - I - am the thing being looked at. When she is describing helping people as art, I feel like I’m being put behind glass to be gawked at. I’m suffocating.

Don’t misunderstand. Art can bring attention to a cause. Art can act as a force for change. Art can help people. But helping people isn’t art. Because if it is, then who is the audience? When you are part a video segment talking about your social practice, you make the world your audience. But art that relies on interactions with people to express itself only works when the people are either also the audience consuming it or the artists themselves performing.

Not all examples given in this week’s media conflate social work and social practice, however. Some, as mentioned in the first paragraph, merely require audience participation, while others, such as “Snow Coffee,” which was described in the article An Introduction to Relational Aesthetics and Social Practice, are not so much art as a commentary on a societal behavior. Noticing and lightly satirizing societal quirks is not, in my opinion, inherently artistic, though it does require a creative mind.

As previously stated, art can bring attention to a cause. However, when one is removed from that cause, one must be careful in one’s depictions of it. That was my feeling when reviewing the work of Vanessa Beecroft; specifically, Still Death! Darfur Still Deaf? It is a work in which 30 Sudanese women lay face down as if dead on the ground. Their skin is painted black; they are mostly nude. Beecroft spatters them and the ground with a blood-like liquid. Ostensibly she is protesting war in Sudan. But to me it falls flat. First of all, blood is thicker than that. Second of all, why are they painted black and mostly nude? She has removed all personality and culture from them. They are dehumanized in their sameness. It feels like an empty performance. Beecroft is known for her many, many pictures of nude or almost nude women; it’s a recurring theme for her. But I don’t believe that was the right choice for this specific piece.

References:

Vanessa Beecroft. 2007. Still death! Darfur still deaf? Retrieved from http://www.liarumma.it/projects/vb61-still-death-darfur-still-deaf-2007/ and https://vimeo.com/19806181

“An Introduction to Relational Aesthetics and Social Practice,” Bad at Sports. Retrieved from http://badatsports.com/2014/an-introduction-to-relational-aesthetics-and-social-practice/

“Relational Aesthetics: The Art of  Sociability,” New Britain Museum of  American Art. Retrieved from https://nbmaa.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/relational-aesthetics-the-art-of-sociability/

Artist Interview: Minerva Cuevas,Art21.org,video segment 28:06-40: Retrieved from https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s8/minerva-cuevas-in-mexico-city-segment/

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I find your comment about Bree Newsome’s actions interesting. Political performance is rarely tasteful; it’s provocative by nature. It takes a side. The Tea Party was hardly tasteful, wouldn’t you say? All that wasted, stolen tea. So I think the more important question is, what point is she trying to make? I wouldn’t want to put words in her mouth, but to me her actions seemed to indicate that black citizens do not feel safe having to see the Confederate flag all the time and do not respect it. Given that it is the flag under which white men in this country fought for the enslavement of her people, personally I find this understandable.

The first one I read was the performance art article.  Performance art is basically performed but usually has the artist in it with performers the artist hires. What I am picking up from performance art is that a lot of artists start off doing a more traditional type of art, turn to performance art for a change of pace and crowd.   I am still unsure of what performance art is exactly from reading this article so far.  I did learn that performance art is challenging and suppose to make the audience provoked. Performance artists do not fall into one area of art, each performance art is unique.  Performance art can include body art, endurance art, rituals, etc.  I think because it has such a wide variety or differences performance art has, I think that is why I am having a hard time seeing the big picture of what it really is.  Some of performance art basically like short little shows.  I am not sure if I would be a fan of watching performance art, it almost sounds more abstract than put together.  A lot of women although in the 1980’s used performance art to show social dissent.  

Next was the Bree Newsome article.  Right away it started with the title superwomen-style, confederate flag pole climb was an artistic statement. I can’t say I would climb a flag pole for an artistic statement, but she must have some deep passion to be able to do that.  Bree climbed the flag pole and took down the confederate flag that has been in the South Carolina State House since 1961.  Newsome did get arrested for doing that and the flag was put right back up after.  In the article it said that is a type of performance art, which I don’t see as art as all.  I don’t think climbing a flag pole to cut down a flag is tasteful at all, no matter what the views are on the confederate flag.  

               Lastly is the Nick Cave video.  Initially I found the figures he had made to be kind of creepy. It almost reminded me of something you would find in a scary movie or almost a Halloween costume.  As I said in the first article about performance art, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  I am sure the artist knows the meaning behind their art, but for someone who doesn’t know much about art I found it to be very confusing.  I feel like performance art has changed by opinion about art in a negative way.  I just feel like I am really missing the main concept on what the point of performance art is.  Its almost so abstract that I can’t connect with any of it.  I included a picture about his art he had created.  Its almost impossible to even tell what’s going on.

               The artist I chose to write about is Adrian Piper. The image I included in the top is one that stuck out to me.  It says, “I embody everything you most hate and fear.”  I really enjoyed this art because I see the emotion in the art.  Adrian is well known in performance art as well as environmental installation.  I am seeing Adrian to be a feminist.  She also dedicates a lot of her art about gender, oppression of women, and race.  

http://www.artnews.com/2018/04/13/archives-adrian-pipers-sly-subversions-power-structures/

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Response to Nick Cave in “Chicago”

Nick Cave is a self-described artist with a conscious. But his art lacks clarity; there is too much he strives to achieve, and so he achieves none of it. In this essay I will delineate why I believe the previous statement to be true and explore examples of artists with similar messages who expressed them clearly and effectively.

Nick Cave states that his art is meant to bring the viewer to a “place of dreaming.” Certainly there is something surreal about some of his “soundsuits.” With their different, sometimes flowing textures, many colors, and bizarre shapes, they capture the viewer’s attention and invite scrutiny. But there is something of the nightmare about them as well. They are made in unnatural shapes and then placed on people who move unnaturally in them. I have a habit of picking out the unlying human shape when viewing any person in a costume. Here that is more difficult. It feels reminiscent of the uncanny valley, and deeply disturbing.

Cave’s original concepts can also stray too far in production, so that the finished piece needs too much explanation to be truly effective. For example, the soundsuit inspired by the case of Rodney King; specifically, of the feeling of being discarded. Cave connected that feeling to twigs lying scattered on the ground in the park; so far, so good. But Cave’s execution of that concept is a soundsuit made of twigs which hit against each other to make sound as the occupant walks. It does not inspire feels of loneliness or abandonment. It looks like a knock-off fantasy tree creature. Or Groot. This is an example of a case where the necessity of explaining the meaning reduces said meaning.

Cave describes his imposing soundsuits as “suit[s] of armour” and a “shield from society.” This is something I understand. As a fierce introvert, I too see the appeal of a giant suit which completely obscures my face and body. The urge to burrow away, to hide, is familiar to me. However, that is not what his soundsuits accomplish. They are big and bright and showy. The purpose of the outside of the suit contradicts the purpose of the inside of the suit. Furthermore, Cave stated his desire to give back to his community, to be an agent of change, an “artist with a conscious.” One must come out of one’s shell to do such things. There is no clarity in his process.

Yoko Ono has a performance called “Cut Piece.” It is a mirror; a piece in which the audience is the statement made. During it, Yoko Ono sits blank faced and motionless, and the audience comes up one by one to cut off a piece of her clothing. The results vary wildly. At a convent, the meditative nature is understood, and the piece is performed respectfully. In front of Americans, the men cut a hole in her sweater over her chest, and proceed from there. There is a video of the performance which was viscerally horrifying to me. The women cut from extremities; the men did not. The video ends after a man cuts her bra straps. A performance like that is revolting - because it is a reflection. Yoko Ono barely moves. It is the audience who decide the changes, who decide the energy. Yoko Ono holds up the mirror, and the audience makes her point for her.

Another performance which makes its point clear is Bree Newsome’s patriotic act of climbing a flagpole and removing the Confederate flag. She may have meant it purely as political and not artistic, but the act was symbolic, and thereby artistic. It is a powerful visual; a black woman, climbing a flagpole to remove the flag under which men fought for the enslavement of her ancestors. The aftermath - Newsome arrested by white police officers - is part of the performance too. Her act was simple in concept and clean in execution. She made her point and added fuel to an important national conversation.

In conclusion, it is the overwhelming nature of Cave’s work which detracts from their value. They are simply too complicated for the concepts and ideas they are trying to express. Textures, colors, shapes, there is so much of each - if the idea he was trying to express was franticness, or overstimulation, then I would have nothing negative to say. But his ideas of change and altruism get mixed with his desire to evoke the strangeness of a dream which hits up against his desire to shield himself from world inside a suit. He simply cannot do it all at once and would be better served to clarify his vision going forwards.

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Intelligent Design and the Gentle Architect

Maya Lin’s entry for the design of the Vietnam War Memorial broke one of the fundamental rules of the contest; no politics. Her design referenced “domino theory,” which is the supposition that if one country falls to communism, those around it will as well. The slabs were inscribed with the names of the fallen; Americans who got caught up in a series of metaphorical falling dominoes and ultimately lost their lives because of it. Curiously, Maya Lin believes that if not for the reputation this piece garnered her as a person who makes monuments, she would have gained the title “artist” five years sooner than she did. Instead she was called an architect; she is, in fact, both. I respect Maya Lin for the decisions she make in creating and submitting her work to the Vietnam War Memorial Contest. Given such a task, I would not have refrained from a political statement either.

Lin strikes me as a very intelligent, gentle sort of person. She draws her inspiration from the environment, and the balanced nature of her work reflects her own personality. At one point in “Identity,” she expresses the regret that, because she’s been doing so many large-scale works, she hasn’t had time to sit down in her studio and work privately on smaller pieces. This is an example of a feeling common to many artists; that of having too much to do, too many ideas, and not enough time. I often feel this way; between school, work, and familial duties, I quite simply don’t have time to focus on my artwork and explore every, or even most of the ideas I have. This past week has been yet worse; a recurring sickness of mine has exhausted me. I have so little energy that doing any artwork at all is unquestionable. My responsibilities must, for the moment, take precedence. But how painful it is, to be so full of inspiration and have so little energy. I feel I am only alive in my dreams, when I am free to create without restriction.

Maya Lin makes an interesting distinction between artist and architect; or rather, she points it out. I understand how and why the two are different, but I wouldn’t classify them as being without overlap. I would argue that the best architects have an artistic leaning. Lin’s architecture and landscaping work feels hospitable. All architecture carries a message; hers is not only one of welcoming, but one of inspiration and mental clarity. When tasked to make an artwork for a public park, Lin chose to remake the park. She saw how barren and run down it was; this was not a place that would be much benefitted by a monument. Instead of declining the commission, Lin expanded its scope, to the benefit of all who visit. Particularly striking is the ice skating rink, which has been transformed with under ice LED lights so that skating upon it is like skating upon the night sky. I am not aware of a word to easily encapsulate the feelings this invokes, but the closest phrasing is “food for the soul.”

Zaha Hadid is another artist and architect who creates her works with a consideration for their impact on others. Her designs are ecological and refer back to the traditional local architecture without being defined by it. Her work reaffirms my earlier statement that the best architects have an artistic bend to them. The pictures of her work, which are included below, are like something out of a dream.

Works referenced:

Maya Lin

https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s1/maya-lin-in-identity-segment/

https://archinect.com/news/article/150031094/salon-revisits-how-maya-lin-won-vietnam-war-memorial-competition-by-breaking-its-biggest-rule

Zaha Hadid

http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/alai/

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I hadn’t heard of this splatter art - “a chance to walk through a crime scene,” you say? That sounds fascinating. Knowing that I won’t compromise an actual crime scene makes me want to do this immediately. I’ve noticed that people often struggle to come to terms with their own mortality. It’s interesting to watch. I understand why it’s hard to accept that your existence is finite, but on the other hand...it’s not like that’s different from anything else that exists. Even the sun will go out someday. I love the power that installation art has to immerse the audience in an experience in order to explore complex concepts.

Week 9

Reflections on the reading

In this reading we learned that installation art can be temporary or permanent for public or private spaces. Installation art work came along in 1969 where inside art was built in a space that is made for that art piece. In the 1980s Immersive virtual reality became very popular because the audience was involved. The spectators could visit what the artist made and make a situation come alive rather than just watch. Installation art is not limited to on object; it can be a painting, sculpture, photograph or film.

Qireshi at the Metropolitan does a garden every year that does splatter art which gives the public a chance to walk through the art work to experience the feeling of a crime scene. Life is death; people seem to be afraid to walk through the landscape perhaps because they were scared to mess up the art work or because they may not know what will come next in the landscape.

Rain room is made up of water that is made by cameras that can track your every movement. When moving through the space it is said to feel like there is an emotional connection with the water. Only a few people at a time are allowed to walk through this exhibit; the wait time is up to almost two hours, rain or shine.

The Gallery of the Lost Arc didn’t seem to stand a chance to be an exhibit; it was not introduced to the pubic. The arc seemed like it was a big eye sore to the people who worked in the offices surrounding the area; they went to court to get it taken down. It was broken down in three sections that now is in a warehouse nowhere to be seen.

Your reflections on the videos/Media: Do Ho Suh in” Stories”

We hear Do Ho Suh talk about his life growing up in Korea  as a young boy into a man and how their customs come out in his everyday life from when he was in the army to the other children in his class. Do Ho Suh wanted to be out of his father’s shadow to be his own artist. His mother helped him to become his own artist. Do Ho Suh was part of the military, which is a big part of a Korean man’s life. He spent two years in the forces and became a good sharp shooter. He felt that this experience dehumanized him and that made him think. His art work today shows a lot of what he went through and felt as a young man in the army.

Connections/comparisons you find between the two:

I find the connection of the art work that is sized and designed for the space of the object or objects that will appear in that space. In both the reading and video it was talked about how a space was made to fit the exhibit and how that piece of art works within that space. The public can walk around the object or through the art work to see a three dimensional work and have a better perception of the exhibit.

Relevant Artists:

I have chosen Nancy Holt for my relevant artist because her background caught my eye I enjoyed reading about what she has done and what she has become in the art world. Nancy is most known for her sculpture, installation art, and land art. she started to work with film and photography. She also started writing books and articles that talked about her own art work. Nancy is an American artist that was an only child who spent most of her time in New Jersey with her mother and father. After college she married a fellow artist. Both she and Robert her husband started a foundation to expand the limits of  artistic practice through public service. This foundation changed the awareness of both artists’ creative legacies that continue to transform the art world today.

I would have to say I am surprised about how they choose a place to have a certain exhibit by the layout of how big a place is so the art work exhibit can be built in a special size. I really liked the dog tag armor exhibit that was shown in this week’s video and how things can look different than what we may think they should look.

My opinion has changed tremendously toward concerning my expectation of art and who an artist can be. I feel I have gained the information of all the different types of art that is out in the world. I have a better understanding of the artists’ process of creating their work.

I strongly liked the rain room exhibit because with all the technology becoming such a big part of today’s world it is really interesting how they can put cameras in a room to detect movement and have water fall down and not get a drop of water on anyone. It astounded me to see what technology is doing and has done in the past; this project is only one example.

I feel it is my life lesson to keep an open mind along with all the possibilities of what can come next in life with having a great appreciation for art and what it takes to be an artist. It is never one sided as well as there is no one thing that should or shouldn’t be part of art. This new world is full of possibility of color and shapes and is willing to push what art is at the end of the day.

References

Art21years (producer). (2003,September 9).”Do Ho Suh in Stories.” Retrieved from https://art 21 org/watch/art-in-the twenty-century/s5

Brenson, M.(1989).Artview: The messy Saga of Tilted Arc is far from over. Retrieved http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/02

Installation art.(n.d) Retrieved from www.wikipedia .org

Mundy, J(2012,October 25) Lost art: Ricard Serra. Retrieved from https//www.late.org.ukcontext-comment/articles/gallarey

Selz, Gabrielle.(2003,July). Installation art-five wonders in new York. Retrieved from www.Hamptons art hub.com

Nancy Holt land art(n.d.) Google images

Rain Room (n.d.) Google images

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Do Ho Suh, Ephemeral Art, and Reminiscence

I have written before on art as a conversation in previous essays. Do Ho Suh’s work is yet another example of this premise. Specifically, his art is a conversation with the past, and the culture he grew up in. The ephemeral nature of some of his work highlights the intimacy of his pieces as well; sometimes, an artwork’s primary purpose is to be viewed for a short period of time and then be gone, and that is enough.

Motoi Yamamoto’s Labyrinth is a succinct illustration of this principal as well. Labyrinth is a floor mural constructed out of salt. A strong wind would destroy it quickly. Against a far wall are salt mountains, and from their base, extending through the room, is a salt maze. The walls of the maze and the space between are quite small. It feels like the installation is miniaturized; when viewed from a low angle, the distant mountains look to be the correct scale, and the lines of the labyrinth look almost like alien fields. An ephemeral installation such as this one must have, I would argue, not a universal appeal, but a personal one. The experience of viewing it is designed to be only fleetingly possible - but, somehow, that must be enough to justify the work the artist puts in. Therefore pieces such as these, unless made to demonstrate a philosophy, are primarily designed for a specific audience - usually the artist themself.

Do Ho Suh strikes me an introspective individual. In the segment Do Ho Suh in “Stories,” he muses about the way his experiences shaped him. When he moved to New York from Korea, his homesickness kept him from sleeping well. So, Do Ho Suh created a replica of the house he grew up in out of fabric. It’s lightweight and transportable; now he can take his home with him wherever he goes. This urge - the strongest version of homesickness - is familiar to me. I moved out of the house I was born in years ago, and I’ve felt disconnected ever since. Everywhere I’ve lived has been temporary. I don’t know how to settle my bones after so long apart from the place where my mother birthed me, where I spent my childhood, and where my baby sister died and was buried. She was only a fetus; I know that her body has long since been absorbed by the soil. How can I explain my feelings when I go back and see the plants growing over her grave? Even if I imitated Do Ho Suh, it would do nothing to bring her closer to me.

Do Ho Suh also created a sculpture entitled Some/One; a suit of armor made up of individual dog tags. Inside of the armor is a mirror. Enlistment in the military is mandatory for Korean men; Do Ho Suh served for two years. He notes the ways in which soldiers are trained and shaped so that they are capable of murdering other human beings. Some/One seems to me to represent the Korean army as a whole and as a concept used in propaganda. It is an intimidating whole, but it is made up of individuals. The mirror, in my interpretation, is a question. A mirror has always seemed to me to be slightly accusing, especially in an artistic context when one expects to be the viewer, not the viewed. The use of the mirror keeps Some/One from being an impersonal experience for the viewer, because it questions their relationship with the arrangement being displayed. What is your role in the exhibit, in the ideas being explored? When I imagine myself standing there looking into that mirror in front of that armor, I feel I am looking, not at the Korean Army, which I have no relation to, but the American army, of which I am critical. I appreciate this piece in ways I don’t quite have words for.

Do Ho Suh expressed his childhood feeling early in the Art21 segment that he would be overshadowed by his father, who was a successful artist. But Do Ho Suh has many good and important observations about the world, and his art explores these ideas in meaningful ways. For this reason I believe that Do Ho Suh is a valuable voice in the artistic community.

References:

Do Ho Suh in “Stories” retrieved from https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s2/do-ho-suh-in-stories-segment/

Motoi Yamamoto retrieved from http://www.motoi.biz/english/e_top/e_top.html

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I found your interpretation of Petah Coyne interesting. Your wording leaves out a crucial detail, in my opinion. The dress is fashioned after her childhood impression of womanhood, not her overall impression. Under the layers of white and delicate pink in the work, you can see a darker, dirtier color. It looks like decay, or rot. That has a meaning too. At least, that’s what I thought. I like your research.

Week 8 Sculpture

Week 8: Sculpture

Reading: This chapter we learned about the different ways of making sculptures and the different materials you can use. Making sculptures seems very complicated; as you must choose carefully where you carve at. A lot of artists like to make a mini model before they do the actual sculpture. Once a piece is carved out there is no putting it back because you cannot erase it or paint over it like you can in painting.  Sculptures can be carved in wood, stone, or ivory. Those three different materials are very different looking and feeling from each other so its up to the artist on what they prefer. I found it interesting that some people create sculptures from random objects they find. I think that shows how original and creative the artist is. Zoé Leonard created a sculpture using different kinds of fruit to honor her friend that died. She said, “Eventually I reached the decision that the piece needed to be perishable. The piece is about being temporary and fragile”. I think the fruit represents life because people don’t live forever; life is temporary. The sculpture that really stood out to me was the one called “Freedom Marchers” by Thornton Dial. The sculpture was made with wire steel and tape. I like how in the sculpture you can see the characters are people but can’t see distinct features, its fun and abstract. Overall, I learned a lot this chapter as I didn’t really know much about sculptures before, it was interesting.

Connections: The reading and media went into detail about sculpture. I like how in the video I got to see them carving the sculptures its satisfying seeing it get shaved away. She didn’t really talk about the different kinds of sculptures she focused more on sugar.

Videos Kara Walker- In the video of Kara Walker it showed her creating her sculptures that were made from sugar and the boy sculpture made of resin and sugar. She did a lot of research on different kinds of sugars. I really like how the sugar makes the sculpture look like its dripping it creates a nice look. In the written interview with Kara she talks about gone with the wind and what it means to her. I like how she said she never says why me because this is the career she chose herself and loves doing it.

Relevant Artist: The relevant artist I chose was Petah Coyne, she was born in 1953 in Oklahoma. She is a sculptor and photographer and was even called the queen of mixed media. As stated on the website about Petah Coyne “Theme of loss, darkness, and hidden beauty are recurring in her work”. I think that’s something that not that many people focus on. She made a sculpture that was the shape of a dress made of wax the dress looks like it has flowers on it. I think it’s a beautiful piece and represents when you’re feeling confident like floating on air and nothing can stop you, that’s what it reminds me of. Petah said, “that’s how she imagined womanhood like floating on air” which is kind of like how I interpreted it. She has done many beautiful pieces, I love her work. 

Sources: http://www.petahcoyne.org/

https://nmwa.org/works/untitled-781

http://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/artist/thornton-dial/work/freedom-marchers

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Kara Walker

For a previous essay I explored Kara Walker’s works as a Relevant Artist. Now instead of supporting my main topic, she is my topic. Kara Walker resonates with me strongly. It took me significantly longer than is typical to complete this assignment because I had to take extra time to process everything. I will try to condense my reaction to and analysis of her artistry as much as possible.

Kara Walker’s interview, The Melodrama of “Gone with the Wind,” is centered around her piece Gone, A Historical Romance of Civil War As it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of Young Negress and Her Heart, which is her reaction to and interpretation of the book Gone with the Wind. I had personally only heard that title in regard to the movie, which I had never seen. From what I had heard about it, I’d thought vaguely that it was based in the early twentieth century. I had no idea about its Southern setting, or that slavery was featured in it. Discovering this sent me into a bit of a research tailspin. Please understand - I’d heard reference to this movie for years. It’s a classic, one of those oldies but goodies. It’s a sweeping love story. The visuals are gorgeous. That is what I’d heard. Racism and nostalgia for the Old South; that refined, cultured place with such strange fruit (to quote Billie Holiday)? That had never been alluded to. I discovered, in detail, what Walker was discussing, and then I returned to the interview.

A Historical Romance of Civil War As it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of Young Negress and Her Heart

Walker expresses in the interview her surprise when she read the book. She was already aware of its racial bias, and was expecting to dislike it entirely. However, “the romance of it, the storytelling—it was so rich and epic…[Walker] hadn’t expected to be titillated in the way that stories like [Gone with the Wind] are meant to titillate.” (Walker, Art21) This is an important observation; a work may express harmful ideas and still be written well, still engage the reader and draw them in. That is part of why stories like Gone with the Wind endure, in my opinion. Racially charged nostalgia is not enough, even to the most embittered audience. They must be woven into the fabric of a truly compelling narrative. That’s what gives Gone with the Wind its staying power. Walker describes “being caught up in the voice of the heroine, Scarlett O’Hara…[and] that unexpected situation of kind of wanting to be the heroine and yet wanting to kill the heroine, at the same time.”

Walker’s exhibition "A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby" is an example of what is described in The Art of Seeing as working with ephemeral, or perishable, materials. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a monumental sphinx carved in the likeness of a sexualized black woman. Her buttocks are exaggerated and the curve of her spine implausible. She is formed out of sugar. The same material is used for the rest of the sculptures, which are carved in the likely of black children; a representation of the slave labor used to harvest sugarcane. Walker says that she does not believe her work “is effectively dealing with history.” Rather, she “[thinks] of [her] work as...subsumed by history.” The entire exhibit is temporary. Even as it was displayed it began to melt, adding perhaps to the poignancy.

Kara Walker’s work is an example of explicitly grappling with complex ideas through sculpture. Conversely, Diana Al-Hadid demonstrates how an artist can use sculpture to express advanced thought without precisely showing what that thought is. Both artists strike me as being somewhat overtaken by their own work, by the enormity of their undertakings. That is no doubt part of what makes them so compelling. I cannot help but be drawn to those who see that a task is perhaps too much for them, or for any one person, and resolve to do it anyway, simply because it is important.

Record of a Mortal Universe

The Problem of Infinite Towers

A Measure of Ariadne’s Love

References:

Fisher, Mary Pat. Zelanski, Paul. The Art of Seeing. 2011.

Kara Walker: “A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby.” May 23, 2014. Art in the Twenty First Century. Art21. Retrieved from https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/kara-walker-a-subtlety-or-the-marvelous-sugar-baby-short/

Billy Holiday’s song Strange Fruit

Diana Al-Hadid. Retrieved from http://www.dianaalhadid.com/work

Kara Walker. The Melodrama of “Gone with the Wind” Art21, Inc. 2003 Retrieved from https://art21.org/read/kara-walker-the-melodrama-of-gone-with-the-wind/

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I agree that the Julia Pott short animation was interesting and takes time to begin to understand. I think the animal like humanoid characters (I don’t know how else to describe designs like that) were a stylistic choice, but I’m not sure. I suppose they may have had symbolic meaning, but that’s beyond me. I watched it a few times, and after some reflection, I think it’s about growing up? Some sort of loss of innocence...or the loss of something that you agree to, or you think you do, but you still “feel [it] in [your] belly.” 

Week 7 Photography and Film

Week 7 Photography and Filmmaking

Reading: During chapter 8 we learned about the different types of photography and filmmaking. It said in the book that the, “Greek word for photography is writing with light”. I thought that was interesting because photography has everything to do with light, so that translation was perfect. There were a few things that I read that I had learned in history class in high school for example about Dorothea Lange I remembered that picture so well. The photograph makes you feel how she was feeling. This chapter it also said how pictures were taken before digital cameras. You had to leave the film outside inside a box with a hole in it and film to take a black and white picture. I took a photography class last year, so I’ve developed tons of pictures in our dark room at school. I like the image that was taken of Paris boulevard that makes it look like the streets weren’t busy since people weren’t in the same spot for long to capture them. “When images were first being colorized colors were added by hand to the already black and white pictures”. There were a lot of types of filmmaking for example cinematography, documentaries, television and video. The thing I found the most interesting was that “camera lenses translate the amounts of light in a scene to a tube that translates light into electrical signals”. Overall, I found this chapter interesting and fun.

Comparisons and contrasts: The reading and videos were similar by how they showed the different techniques of taking pictures and making films. The film that Julia Pott made you can tell was very computerized it looked like it was made of drawings and then animated. In all the videos you could see that light and sound was very important for every scene.

Videos:

Natalia Almada: One of her films she made was about her sister who died from drowning. Natalia wasn’t there so she didn’t know firsthand exactly what happened, so she had her parents tape an audio of them talking about it. She has an older lady acting in the film and has her act like how her mother is, who is now afraid of the water. Natalia also has a collaborator helping her out with her films; they have created three films together.

Julia Pott film: I was really confused what was really going on in the film. I just saw an elephant head on a cartoon human body, some animal that I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be and a whale. One of the characters Oscar went with his friend to save his brother who was swallowed by a whale. When they were in the whale’s body Oscars friend got stuck. I’m not sure what the meaning was supposed to be.

Jim Cummings: This film was about how a policeman’s mother died and he spoke at her funeral. His mom was a generous person, she anonymously donated money and the policeman said he could never do that because he would want people to know he did that. He then played her favorite song and dance and sang to it and began crying. I think the film just wanted show how different people mourn loses.

Relevant Artist: Richard Prince was born in 1949 and is a photographer and painter and lives in New York. One of his first jobs was in Time-Life where he picked out different articles and took pictures of them to make his own photograph. He took a photograph of a road that had a shadow of lines or maybe painted lines on the gravel that I thought looked cool. You can tell he added thought into his photograph to make it just how he wanted. I think this image means just see where the road takes you and go with the flow of things. He has tons of different photographs; another being a person riding a horse with a sunset in the background.

Sources: http://www.richardprince.com/bio/

https://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/09/05/richard-prince-artist/

http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2014/november/18/photos-that-changed-the-world-8-louis-jacques-mande-daguerres-boulevard-du-temple-paris/

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The Artistry of a Camera

I have a theory that the creation of art is initiated by the act of looking at something or feeling something, and desiring to give physical form to your vision or feeling. Following this hypothesis, art photography and filmmaking are the logical response to the invention of the camera. It is merely one more way for artists to share the way they experience the world with other people.

For example, Sally Mann’s At Twelve exhibition gives me the distinct feeling that I’m seeing the pieces of someone else’s experience without the knowledge to truly understand what is being shared. There’s a story being carefully told, but to me it is as if it is being told in a different language. I can see enough of a pattern to understand that there is a vocabulary and an intelligence here, but I cannot interpret it. Some of the pictures hint, to me, of early sexualization, of innocence lost, of callous men. But was that Mann’s intention, or only my own preconceptions clouding my vision?

Similarly, Julia Pott’s Belly is a well made short animation that I do not understand. In this case, it is not that I don’t feel I have enough information to analyze it; instead, I feel I have too much. Sometimes, when I’m not sure I understood something I’ve seen or read, I look up critical reviews and analyzations. But I have long since stopped doing that for surrealistic pieces such as this one. I think because a surreal medium opens itself to many varied interpretations, I inevitably find myself disagreeing with what I find. Belly is, it seems to me, about childhood. And loss - some kind of loss. Maybe not a person. Maybe innocence, maybe creativity, maybe freedom. Or it could be childhood. Whatever it is, it hurts to watch. The experience of watching it was like dreaming for me; on the edge of a nightmare but not quite there.

Jim Cumming’s short film Thunder Road is a good example of the way that artists use their medium to direct the viewer’s attention. Cumming has something he’s been thinking about, and if you choose to watch his film, he’s going to make you think about it too. The camera holds steady on Jimmy Arnaud throughout nearly the entire film. He is the focus of the camera, and therefore the focus of the audience. Thunder Road is an uncomfortably straightforward look at a man’s breakdown during his mother’s eulogy. It does not look away, and so neither can we. His anguish and grief are shown plain and unfiltered. Jimmy Arnaud, it seems to me, feels he failed his mother, whom he loved. Perhaps he thought he’d have more time; she was only 59. Regardless, watching Thunder Road reminded me sharply of the old tradition, still practiced in some parts of the world, of Professional Mourners. People, usually women, paid to weep and wail at funerals. I wonder if part of the reason the profession was invented was as a way to relieve internalized feelings of grief. I have wanted to scream and wail in reaction to loss many times before, but I never did. I couldn’t. It stuck in my throat. Jimmy, too, seems to need to scream, but he can’t quite. I wonder if mourning would be easier if we hired people to do what we can’t let ourselves and cry the way we want to.

Natalia Almada is the great-granddaughter of Plutarco Elías Calles, a highly controversial Mexican president. In her projects, she explores both her family’s history and the world around her. Almada is both American and Mexican, and struggles with that duality. As she says in the video segment “Mexico City,” she feels she connects more strongly with her Mexican heritage - but on the other hand, attributes her assertiveness to her American upbringing. Because of American culture’s influence on her, she doesn’t question her right to create videos and art; she simply does it. Almada’s work is a reflection of her exploration both of herself and her roots and of the world around her.

All of these artists express themselves through the still new mediums of photography and film. But the artistic urge is the same. Like discovering a new method of painting, this is simply art explored differently than before, but with the same intentions and motivations.

Referenced: Fisher, Mary Pat. Zelanski, Paul. The Art of Seeing. 2011. Natalia Almada in “Mexico City.” September 16, 2016. Art in the Twenty First Century. Art21. Retrieved from

https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s8/natalia-almada-in-mexico-city-segment/

Julia Pott. Belly. 2012. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/46233381

Jonathan Kieran. Thunder Road. July 19, 2016. Retrieved from http://nobudge.com/main/thunder-road

Sally Mann. Retrieved from https://www.sallymann.com/

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I talked about Kara Walker in my essay as well. She’s a fascinating artist to study. I was alarmed by the part of her artist’s statement where she says that she was worried that her art would be dismissed as typical or cliche if she chose to use it to explore race and the history of American racism. I don’t see how using one’s art to explore one’s history can ever be cliche. I’m sad that that had to be of genuine concern for her.

As a side note, I love her art. It’s so precisely done, and it says so much in a very straightforward way.

Blog 6

           Chapters 6 and 7 got me thinking back to the very first post we made for this class where we discussed what we considered art. These chapters truly reinforced the idea that anything and everything can be, or is, considered art. I had no prior knowledge to printmaking, so I thought. However, I learned that books and commercialized advertisements, like cigar labels (p. 260) are forms of prints. I was also much uniformed about all of the work that goes into graphic design and never gave thought to how the different font-types I get to choose from when I type a paper were created. I took the technology we have today for granted and never considered that printmaking existed before photocopying. When I thought about art in the past, paintings, drawings, and sculptures came to mind; I never thought to see advertisements or letters or labels as art.

           Chapter 6 taught me that prints-pictures created by transferring ink from a specific surface onto paper-have four major processes: relief, intaglio, planographic, and stencil (p. 245-247). The technique of relief uses a carved surface so that lines and areas intended to be printed are raised above areas meant to stay blank (p. 247). I particularly liked the typical form of relief, woodcutting, and examining how different types of wood made different patterns in the print, like Antonio Frasconi’s, Portrait of Woody Guthrie (figure 6.8, p. 248). Intaglio prints are the complete opposite of relief prints because the surface has grooves that are carved below the surface, which is where the ink is applied (p. 252). I was intrigued by Joseph Mallord William Turner’s Snow Storm: Steamboat off a Harbor’s Mouth because the line engravings in his print gave the image a completely different feel than the oil painting of the exact same image (figure 6.16 and 6.17). The swirls in the painting made the picture seem majestic whereas the lines in the print gave the picture an ominous tone (in addition to this one being in black and white rather than color). Planography, unlike relief and intaglio, uses a flat surface (p. 261). I was surprised to learn that this process was even used to print this book! Lastly, the process of stenciling is used to mask out areas that don’t want to be printed (p. 262).

           John Baldessari gave up painting because he liked to experiment with the color wheel, as seen in his prints. He also never understood why words and images had to be separate so he combined the two. He used humor to create a lot of his work and my favorite quote from him was, “Because I said it’s art somebody believes me.” His quote kind of reinforced my initial thoughts from our chapter reading and our first blog, that anything and everything can be considered art.

           Kara Walker is a relevant, American artist who uses “cut-paper silhouettes” to tell stories about history. Her silhouette work is mostly done in blacks, whites, and grays which is very fitting to the tones they convey: dark and ominous. The image I chose tells the story of racism in the United States. The black woman carries the white woman above her head. The black woman’s figure carrying the white woman portrays the manual labor that African-Americans endured. The white figured woman’s hair is big and her dress almost looks like she’s meant to go to a ball. The picture is so simple, but tells an entire story. It makes me feel ashamed and depressed.  

https://www.artsy.net/artist/kara-walker

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Art is for the People and the People are Dreaming

John Baldessari concerns himself with the philosophical question of what art is and is not. He muses in the 2009 video John Baldessari in “Systems” that sometimes only saying something is art is enough to make it so. His work strikes me as being nearly stream-of-consciousness; or alternatively, overly deliberate, as when he decides to “be very systematic about it and use the color wheel.” His work, as well as that of other artists who will be explored, poses questions not only about the nature of art but also its value. As an artist who believes strongly that art is for the people and rejects the idea of artistic hierarchy, but would also very much like to get paid for my work, I find this topic relevant to my own life.

Plant and Lamp, John Baldessari

Printmaking and the proliferation of inexpensive paper laid the groundwork for cheap artwork. Printmaking is, as defined in The Art of Seeing, “a method for creating multiple identical copies of an image by repeatedly inking and printing a worked plate.” (Fisher, Zelanski 246-247) Before this, copies of an image would have been painstakingly created by an artist in a process similar to the creation of the original. Upon the genesis of printmaking, and its advancement in photocopying, copies could be made quickly and easily. This raised new questions as to the worth of “fax art.” As David Hockney posits, “Fax art is essentially a Xerox copy, isn’t it? What’s it worth? Nothing. That makes the art world nervous.” (Fisher, Zelanski 264)

Hockney made the argument that “Art is for all...I don’t want [my paintings] to be exclusive and sold for money. They are free to everyone.” (Fisher, Zelanski 264) Jan Mlodozeniec was another artist with this altruistic worldview, creating a new typeface for his “Cyrk” poster which gave the letters a “three dimensional appearance, like blocks to be hand-printed -- suggesting something by the people, for the people.” (Fisher, Zelanski 267-268) Although these are sentiments which fit in well with American society, which was built deliberately free of monarchy or any such institution, the freedom with which Hockney reduced his paintings to something nearly or entirely worthless raises the question about the overall worth of artwork in today’s world of cheaply produced copies.

However, no matter how many times an image is reproduced, its power does not necessarily decrease. Kara Walker is an American artist whose exploration of American racism is visceral and unsettling. Her artwork may be copied and shared many times over, but it retains its gravitas. It also does not matter how many times artwork has been shown before if you are seeing it for the first time. The cheap proliferation of art ensues a wider audience than ever before for artists, allowing them much broader influence but also widening the art world into something almost incomprehensible in its diversity and scope.

Untitled (Hunting Scenes), Kara Walker

In today’s modern world, it can be both invigorating and daunting to consider the great artistic freedom we are now presented with. Art is no longer exclusive to the upper class, and it can be created and shared widely with less effort than ever before. This results in a great many new perspectives being explored, but also an avalanche of voices that one’s own may be lost in. I believe that art is always valuable; even if one disagrees with the high price of their artwork and so distributes copies of it for free like David Hockney, the original artwork still took time and skill. The ease of copying simply means that art is more accessible than ever to the average person, and for that I am glad.

Sources Fisher, Mary Pat. Zelanski, Paul. The Art of Seeing. 2011. John Baldessari in “Systems.” October 28, 2009. Art in the Twenty First Century. Art21. Retrieved from https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s5/john-baldessari-in-systems-segment/

Kara Walker. 2018. Art 21. Retrieved from https://art21.org/gallery/kara-walker-artwork-survey-2000s/#2

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I’m not gonna lie, I ugly-laughed when I read your comment about how long art takes. I actually once considered quitting art because I took, like, an hour and a half to draw a comic page, including time spent looking up reference and planning out the layout. I didn’t know how long it took other artists, so I thought I was just hopelessly inept. But no. Art really does just take forever and a day. It’s agonizing. Some artists can work very quickly; I have no idea how. I’m like Da Vinci in that if you commission me it’s either gonna be done in a week or five years. There ain’t no in-between.

Week 5

Painting is being able to apply colors to a surface with tools. I would think everyone has painted before whether it was in kindergarten or in a high school class. When reading about painting, it was really familiar to me. I was able to recognize mosaic, oil, watercolor, synthesis, and collage paintings. These are techniques I have seen before or have used in my life. I didn’t recognize encaustic, fresco, tempera, or gouache. The reading also mentioned different approaches to painting and what mixed media is. Mixed media is having different techniques of art into one piece of artwork. It can be a combination of a painting, drawing, and photography. 

Julie Mehretu gave a different aspect to art compared to the other artists we’ve watched in this class. I personally didn’t understand abstract as well compared to other ones I’ve seen. She painted in layers instead of going in at once, which is very time-consuming. I like how she said in the video that she doesn’t paint to tell a story, but how the marks make a person feel. I also liked how Julie and Jessica Rankin were able to work together as an artist couple. They are able to bounce ideas back and forth and give feedback to each other. Julie made paintings from Google Maps and used cities like New York and Tokyo. I think that was interesting that she can create art from buildings and allow the viewer to feel a certain way. I enjoyed seeing Julie’s assistants help her trace and add their part to the painting because it really shows that they are a team and they need one another. 

When watching Julie’s video, I saw a few connections from the reading. For one, Julie used mixed media, combining painting and drawing together. I’m not sure if I’m right on this, but it looked like she used acrylic paint, which means she was using the synthetic technique. I like how she used mixed media because it shows that a person doesn’t just have to paint, but they can maybe, for example, draw planets and watercolor the background to give it a better blend. 

The relevant artist that I chose is Anoka Faruqee. She was born in 1972 in America. She went to Yale University and earned her BA. She taught in Chicago and California. In her works, she likes to use layers to create an optical illusion effect. Julie also liked using layers in her works. While Julie’s is random layers, Anoka likes to create the same pattern. In some of Anoka’s other paintings, she made her paintings look 3D by using shading and different colors. I’m not going to lie, Anoka’s painting hurt my eyes when I first looked at it. It made me interested and intrigued by her works because why would an artist paint such things. I wasn’t able to find much about her work and only where she went to school.

Something that took me by surprise would be how time-consuming art can really be. In the video, Julie mentioned that they had a year to finish the paintings and was hoping they could make it on time. Not only does painting and art, in general, take long, but also the fact that Julie had to paint the massive canvases shows how much she actually has to do. I personally don’t like abstract, as I mentioned before, so I didn’t understand or relate to her work at all. However, I enjoyed looking at Anoka Faruqee’s works because that isn’t typically what I see in art.

“Anoka Faruqee.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Sept. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoka_Faruqee.

[gentlerevival-blog]

Art as Extension of Artist

Julie Mehretu’s art looks like the type of picture I create as a warmup, or when I’m bored. My first impression of it was unfavorable, because it struck me as meaningless, and I do not personally care for frivolous art. However, this is an example of the often misleading nature of a first impression. Mehretu’s art grapples with mature concepts and is quite deliberately crafted. Reflecting on the ambitious aims of one of her pieces, Mehretu asked, “can you actually make a picture...of the history of capitalist development?” Perhaps not, but one may certainly try, and in so doing, express visually important and complex ideas that require much thought to decipher. It also raises a question of interest to me; the relevance of the artist to the art, as I would care nothing for Mehretu’s work if it was presented to me sans the words of the artist.

Julie Mehretu invests time and effort into her pieces. As she says herself, “The thing that keeps me going is the painting...and in getting lost in doing that a language is invented.” That type of thinking resonates with me; I have never felt so full of possibility and life as when I’m thinking about painting or experimenting with painting. She also makes reference to the amount of time necessary to create art. In chapter five of The Art of Seeing, many different historical styles of painting are explained. Old paintings have a variety of obstacles when it comes to long-term preservation, and even the most well-kept have cracks in the paint or discoloration. But great effort continues to be spent to protect and restore these works, even when it seems impossible. “[Restoration methods for Giotto’s fresco] are extremely time-consuming, but the extensive frescos of the Basilica of St. Francis have been such objects of adoration that every effort was made to save them.” (Fisher, Zelanski 221) The passion of the artist and the power of the art is such that people will go to great lengths to restore it, even when it is evident that the task will be full of frustration and with few results.

Frank Stella is an American artist specializing in minimalism and various styles of abstraction. He is quoted as saying, "I like real art. It's difficult to define REAL but it is the best word for describing what...the best art has. It has the ability to convince you that it's present - that it's there." This quote, especially from this particular artist, is interesting to me because I agree with his sentiment but do not find that his art fits the criteria. It is vaguely intriguing to look at, but to me, it has no particular power. This illustrates that the difficulty of creating a hierarchy of art. One’s appraisal of art is subjective and may change, as mine did with Mehretu, upon learning more information. But I do believe that the words and the intention of the artist adds poignancy and meaning, and therefore value, to artwork.

In conclusion, I believe that art must be judged not only on its own, with only one’s impressions and biases to serve as interpretation, but also with the words and actions of the artist to provide context for the piece. Art does not require a dissertation to be capable of moving the viewer; however, creation is a multi-layered, complex process, and a greater understanding of the factors influencing a piece can only enrich the viewer’s analysis.

Sources Fisher, Mary Pat. Zelanski, Paul. The Art of Seeing. 2011. “Julie Mehretu in “Systems.” October 28, 2009. Art21. Retrieved from https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s5/julie-mehretu-in-systems-segment/

Julie Mehretu. Marian Goodman Gallery. 2018. Retrieved from https://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/julie-mehretu

The Art Story. Frank Stella. Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/artist-stella-frank.htm