Allan Kaprow's "activity"

It was an interesting experience, making face into the mirror until I couldn’t see Shannon’s face anymore. It really made me aware of so many more things. Like the fact that I had to pay attention to the faces that both Shannon and I were making, but also avoid tripping over something in my apartment as well. Even tough now that I’ve completed the assignment, I still feel like I missed out and I don’t completely understand. It must have been different to have the entire class watching and to be outside. Was there some secret trick that I’m missing, or is it simply the fact that I don’t really appreciate the type of performance art we studied in this class? It was a fun exercise and I understand the basics of putting together a performance piece. I guess I just don’t consider it as my type of art.

Iconography

As a traveler in a foreign country, symbols or icons are the main source of relief and navigation. For example, the fork and knife symbols are widely used and tell the observer that food is in such a direction. The simplified figures of male and females are the universal sign for bathrooms. There are symbols out there that are so well known that the brain recognizes it and the connotations that go along with it. These commonly used symbols are known as Icon’s and humanity has been using them to communicate with one another for centuries.
Christianity used icons in the medieval ages to teach the illiterate lower class religious values and lessons from the Bible. Other religions used icons in the same way. Today their own distinct icon can identify different religions. Christianity is the cross; Judaism has the Star of David, and so on. An icon can link to completely different worlds. A Muslim can recognize another person as a Christian without ever having to say a word. A necklace with a crucifix is enough.
Aside from religion, people have used icons in advertising. People are more likely to know your product and buy it if they can immediately recognize it. Children grow excited when they see their favorite character on cereal boxes, or their favorite cartoon character on apparel. The more people know you, the more success you will have. Being able to make that immediate connection with your audience is vital.
Basically, the study of Iconography is about how human beings can communicate with the use of symbols that are universally known instead of spoken words. It is a language in itself that almost every human being on the planet knows. From personal experience, simple communication with the use of pictures works beautifully. Three years ago, I had a young Japanese exchange student come and stay with my family and I for a month. The two of us got along perfectly by drawing what we wanted to do on a notepad that we carried along with us. Humanity is amazing in that it can be so completely divided by nationality, race, and tongue, but at the same time inevitably connected by the fact that we are human, and have a brain.

*there are no citations because this blog is based off of my own observations and common knowledge.

Yet another blog... about Performance Art

Performance art is vague, painfully vague, but therein lay the point. The movements that helped to bring performance art into the spotlight, Fluxus, Gutai, Nouveau Realism, and Dada are all about breaking the traditional confines of how we perceive art and breaking away from influences to portray the artistic idea in its pure form. This way of thinking challenges how we regard art by its lack of guidelines. People who embrace it are those who craving for newer ways to express the ideas in their heads, free from the long history of art that can be, at times, a weight around our necks. Art is a free form, and the ways in which to express it are limitless.
Artists during the first half of the 20th century came together to break the bonds of what they considered as “commercialized art”. They functioned as groups in different areas of artistic thinking, artists, composers, writers, and designers to become the international network known as Fluxus. The inventors of this movement took its name from Latin, meaning, “to flow” and indeed it seems to be justly named. The network “flows” together by accepting the artistic differences among the participants so that “Intermedia” became a phrase commonly used in describing it.
Another interesting group that helped shape the thought process involved with performance art is Gutai, a movement in Japan that was started by Jiro Yoshihara in 1954. This movement was preoccupied with the idea of the “beauty that arises when things become decayed or damaged”. Yoshihara wrote a manifesto that explained that damage or destruction is “celebrated” as a way of revealing the inner “life” of an object.

"Yet what is interesting in this respect is the novel beauty to be found in works of art and architecture of the past which have changed their appearance due to the damage of time or destruction by disasters in the course of the centuries. This is described as the beauty of decay, but is it not perhaps that beauty which material assumes when it is freed from artificial make-up and reveals its original characteristics? The fact that the ruins receive us warmly and kindly after all, and that they attract us with their cracks and flaking surfaces, could this not really be a sign of the material taking revenge, having recaptured its original life?...."
- Jiro Yoshihara

This was of thinking is fascinating. I’m glad for the sharp minds that took the time to challenge what was the norm and create a way for people to express their art in more ways. Nouveau Realism and Dada are all about breaking the mold and the ability to think freely about their ideas. It’s a challenge, in my opinion, to other artists. Take the road that’s less traveled, be bold and daring about your thinking. So many of us try to hide behind what is normal. We limit ourselves with what we’ve already seen or the fears we have over the reaction of our work might be. I know that I have a fear of how my viewers will react, but that’s why I’m here. The reason I’m studying art in the first place is, even more so than gathering skills, is to learn how to be fresh in how I approach my ideas and expressing them without any hesitancy.



References:
- Françoise Bonnefoy; Sarah Clément; Isabelle Sauvage; Galerie nationale du jeu de paume (France). Gutai (Paris : Galerie nationale du jeu de paume : Réunion des musées nationaux, 1999) ISBN 2908901684 9782908901689
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutai_group
- O'Dell, Kathy (Spring 1997). "Fluxus Feminus". The Drama Review 41 (1): 43–60. ISSN 10542043. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus

Performance art.

Thanks guys (:

Duchamp Duchamp

The Large Glass, otherwise known as The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, as become one of the most well known mixed media, three-dimensional works of art to come from the hands of Marcel Duchamp. He began planning for the project in 1913 with a series of notes and sketches. Then he published those preliminary studies as The Green Box and sold many copies. He began work in 1915 and carefully constructed the work from two glass panels, lead foil, fuse wire, and dust and finally finished in 1923. His work not only involved laborious craftsmanship but fortunate mistakes. The glass was broken in 1926 and Duchamp decided that he preferred to leave the glass that way after carefully repairing most of the damage. As time passed on and it’s popularity grew, Duchamp sanctioned replicas. The first was for an exhibition at Maderna Museet in Stockholm and another in 1966 for the Tate Gallery in London.
The most popular interpretation for The Large Glass is that it’s an exploration of female and male desire and the complication that arise. It’s a “love Machine” or more appropriately, “a machine of suffering” according to Janis Mink. “The lower and upper realms are forever separated by the horizon designated as the ‘bride’s clothes’.” The bachelors below are subjected to only being able to experience “the possibility of churning, agonized masturbation.” [Mink]. Andrew Stafford, author of Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp, claims that the title the characteristic ironic humor that many of us know Duchamp’s art for, arguing that “ the Bride bares herself, physically or psychically to incite her suitors’ libidos. Personally, I have never had a taste for Duchamp’s work. While I appreciate his intuitive sense of creativity, his disdain and prickly manner in which he centers his work around has always annoyed me. I have an interest in how he created the work, because I have always found mix media fascinating. But when it comes to the concept behind the work, I take the time to learn what it is, but then I move on. There are other ideas that I prefer to delve into.

sources:
Mink, Janis: Marcel Duchamp, 1887-1968: Art as Anti-Art as reproduced at artchive.com.

Stafford, Andrew: Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp website.

Kills Museums Dead

Our assignment was to analyze the similarities between the two articles on the future of museums and answer the questions that would help us explore the issue further. However, I cannot proceed without pointing out the differences as well because these two articles, while addressing very similar subjects, are oriented on two slightly different paths. Joel Garreau’s Is There a Future for Old-Fashioned Museums is an intriguing article that takes an overall view on how all museums are changing and how the internet it changing how things work. It addressing the question of “Well… what exactly constitutes a museum? A Webster’s dictionary definition of what a museum actually is.” It focuses on what makes a trip to a museum so satisfactory and in others opinion, why the Internet is a better choice. Garreau finished his article with the gist that the Internet may be more convenient, but something about human nature and the desire to explore will continue to bring tourists to museums.
Blake Gopnik has a more specific focus in his article, Art Museum Expansion: A constructive Trend? He starts off as though he’s perched himself up on a soapbox, but his cliché beginning suddenly changes into irresistible humor. Gopnik studies wholly how museums today are expanding and how it can be damaging the whole museum experience while Garreau explored this issue only briefly. He claims that by adding on more wings, the quality of the art shows are lowered. What was once a place of quiet reflection is now a business focus mainly on how many people passed through the doors and how many cappuccinos where sold in the museum’s café.
I agree with both articles completely. Throughout the 21st century museums have been a place of exploration and human interaction. Personally, I think that technology is a wonderful tool, but we’re seriously treading a thin line. Where are museums a commercial monster and where are they a personal place that makes the visitor welcome but at the same time manage to support itself. We have to be careful to not lose the human element of interaction.

Patterns

When it comes to pattern work, Islamic art is the best. The architecture from its culture and religion is beautiful, intensified for their sharp eye for simplified yet complex patterns. Arabesque design work is an elaborate use of repeating geometric forms that represent plans and animals. Muslims believe that when these forms are tacken together, they constitute an infinite and uncentralized nature of the creation of Allah. Basically, Arabesque art conveys a definate spirituality without having iconography like in the art of other religions. The ancient Islamic people had five main shapes that they would manipulate to make many styles and designs. From looking at many patterns on tiled floors, wallcoverings, and prints, I think that the Native American and the Muslim are the masters when it comes to patterns in design. Of all art, patterns, simple or complex, makes the strongest and most solid composition.

(Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar, and Marilyn Jenkins-Madina, Islamic Art and Architecture, 650-1250. (New Haven: Yale UP, 2001), 66.)

Gestalt

(Art by Frederick S. Perls)

A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts.

(cited from)
Modern Language Association (MLA):
"gestalt." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 27 Sep. 2007. .

Composition

Eco Jumble

When we come to college, most of us at least have this great idea of being able to jump straight into our dream careers as soon as we get a diploma in our hands. In reality its much more difficult than expected. I would love to use my art to build my career but I know that I have to have a wide range of skills to get up to that point. At the end of the day, I want to be able to spend some time to make what really gets my heart pumping. Sculpture is my dream. Being able to create something solid with my two hands always seems more real to me than using a computer. I'm a strong visual learner and I have to use my sense of smell, touch, and taste to figure out what it is that I want to create. Computers are useful and when it comes to design they are perfect, but they really just aren't for me when it comes to creating art. I'm going to have to use them to broadcast myself, that's for sure and it's something that I'm learning to do.
Many people today, besides material possessions, value a wide scope of knowledge. If a person can be knowledgeable on many different topics, then respect naturally follows. I've gotten to the age where I realize that so I'm starting to expand. Photoshop was tough but once I got into it, it was really enjoyable. I'm sure Illustrator will be the same, although as for my true calling in art, computer's really have no place unless I'm making a piece using found objects. History, writing, politics, world events, and sciences are other things that I'm looking into. Everyone should have at least a vague idea of whats going on in fields besides the ones that interest them. It's tough but we should give it a shot. That way if we need to be employed in a field besides art directly for what ever reason, there are many options. Art is something that will always stay with us and that we can come back to.

String Project :3

Class is always better when you can get up and actaully do something. I've never been big into computers so I really liked that we could make the entire room into the project... plus, string is cool. When I was younger I would often fill me room with string. The room is now a wonderful mess (minus the cleaning part) my only regret is that we didn't get as creative as we could have. The chairs could've been stacked much higher. It would've been really neat to have gotton some string up to the ceiling. Maybe the risk of breaking a light dissuaded most of us from attempting to throw the balls of yarn up. I really liked what Jamie and Emilia did with the pink string, weaving the string like a pink web was cool and it was neat how Emila thought to actually lay the string on the ground to make a picture.
I think that maybe if Brain had waited to tell us we had to clean it all up without cutting after we'd actually put string all over the room, we might have been a bit more crazy with our "lines". We should have encorporated more poeple into the work, like stringing them to the tables and stools. Maybe surrounding them with string so that it would look like they were in a cacoon. If we were allowed to do it again, it would be really neat to see how we adjust our methods. It might be more organized or even more chaotic, either would be interesting to see how it turns out. This definately surpasses an ordinary class setting. How many students can say they did their asignments while surrounded by string? We didn't think about it while we were going string crazy, but many people have string all over the chairs and in front of their computers. It's amusing to look around and watch as people try to bend around the string to type.

Line or Shape

I think that c and b could be considered really thik lines, however if I classified c and b as lines so could a and d. As for shapes, they all can classify as shapes as well. It mainly depends on how their used in an image. A simple line, to me, has to be continuing out on both ends into infinite. A line never ends (mathwise). In order for a shape to be a shape, that line has to actually connect to create a seperate, closed of space. Even then the line never truly ends. just keeps going around in a closed circuit.

Analyzed

At a first glance, Julie Mehretu’s Untitled Dervish (as seen to the left, made in 2005) seems so busy that it’s hard to decide where to look first after the piece first hits you. The swirling black mass of chaos definitely draws attention towards the center of the work because that’s where the black shapes seem the most concentrated. When it’s examined more closely, what at first appears to be a dark swirling cloud is really a mixture of lines and shapes that suggest an intense flurry of movement. It’s a nice contrast to the straight edge, architectural design in the background. Clean, colorful lines tie the foreground into the middle and back ground by weaving in and out of the “cloud” in the middle. A shape on the left hand side looks as though it is caught in middle movement, leaving a red line in its trail. All of the lines and forms in this piece are different and yet fit together to draw the work together.
To me, it looks like a blueprint of an air battle. The mass in the middle looks like an explosion and all the lines are the planned out routes of fighter jets on their way. It makes me think of World War One or Two, perhaps it’s because of the strange shape on the left that looks a bit like an old war plane falling from the sky. The mood of this piece is organization, yet so complicated it’s confusing, like how advanced physics would look like to a third grader. There are all these straight or neat lines that manage to blend in with this great big heap of jumbled shapes and lines. I think that Mehretu may be hinting at the idea of orderly chaos. The world seems organic and unorganized, but really everything follows a certain pattern. Over all I think that this piece is very successful. It’s eye catching but is capable of keeping the viewer entranced for more than a few seconds. A lot of time can go into examining this piece because there is so much, but it’s done in such a tasteful way that its not overwhelming.