Emma Carroll - 4D

The photograph, I think, is less important than the life one is leading. - Mapplethorpe

[georgesaintthomas]

Module 1 Project #1

Language: This text is open to interpretation. My meaning behind it may mean something totally different than what others perceive the message to be. Conversation piece

Public: Wherever i go this jacket is for public viewing. 

Place: This location was Downtown Denver on the 16th street mall. If you notice you see the Clock Tower lit up. 

Distribution: Public eye

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

I love that you chose clothing (and your own body, for that matter) as your platform. I think calling it a conversation piece is a great way to describe it, as it definitely stands out thanks to its size and vibrance. Something in me struggles with the shortening of “why” and “be” - but those are minor grievances at best and I find this piece really successful.

[kjonesmsu-blog]

Exercise 1  1/3

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

I love these! It’s genuinely funny how you incorporated the sign right into the song lyric, and you chose a super popular song so most everyone can should the joke. I appreciate your humor and the simplicity of this piece. 

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 4: Performance documentation

“Penance” (July 2016)

I took inspiration from Marina Abramovic’s early work for this performance, drawing on themes of physical exertion and exhaustion as metaphor (especially for mental anguish). Two nights ago I hurt someone very close to me, and I have had difficulty getting past the guilt and repairing the damage I caused. The classic “running into a wall” image/metaphor felt like a promising place to start, which I then combined with the very real physical action of slamming my body into it. I’m using exhaustion and physical pain to open the discussion around catharsis, guilt, and emotional damage.

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 4: Film response

I remember when this performance was happening at MoMA and the frenzy that it caused. At the time it didn’t occur to me how physically strenuous sitting in a chair for three months would be, but I remember being struck by the simplicity and outwardly introspective nature of the piece. This film offered a behind-the-scenes look at the curation and development of the retrospective and the performance, and it was an illuminating look into her process and life. For example, I didn’t know about her decision to remove the table between her and her audience because she felt it unnecessary and distracting. That particular moment also demonstrated the way durational performance is not a static form that must adhere only to the initial decisions of the artist.

It’s since gone viral, but it’s still worth mentioning: the segment of Ulay walking through the gallery and sitting at the chair across from her is so evocative and powerful. I’m well aware of their shared history and performances (“Light/Dark” and “Relation in Time” are my personal favorites), making their in-exhibition reunion all the more poignant. Their reunion also speaks to the startling longevity of their individual artistic careers.

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 4: Reading response

“The stance of performance artists has historically been a radical one: against the establishment (be it art or politics), against the commercialization of art, and against the strict confinement of museums and galleries.”

RoseLee Goldberg’s essay on performance was illuminating as to the inherently rebellious nature of the form. She traces its development through contemporary art history, citing the Dadaists, Futurists, and Surrealists as groups committed to solving problems of criticism, confinement, and the limitations of various mediums through performance. In my own practice, I’ve found performance a vital medium when making art about urgent issues such as gender, abuse, dependence and addiction.

I found it interesting how fraught with conflict the history of this medium is. Goldberg discusses the short-lived Cabaret Voltaire, emphasizing how irreconcilable creative differences led to the demise of the unity previously enjoyed by the Dadaists. Full-scale riots were a common occurrence during performances staged by Futurist artists. As a medium, performance split down its own seams as artists aligned with different movements and spread across Europe and the United States. As Goldberg describes it, the result was a wildly varied new medium with a diverse range of styles.

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 4: line drawings exercise

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

20 Verbs

to dip to hide to sprint to bind to douse to disclose to reveal to curate to endure to accelerate to descend to whip to queue to trap to lather to wash to tangle to twirl to mend to rewind

[kris-ellis-art-deactivated20160]

4d performance

After looking at other Artist’s work, such as Marina Abramovic and Yoko Ono, I was overwhelmed by the vulnerability of the artist’s in the moment.  I recorded myself sleeping throughout the night because it is when I am most vulnerable.  The performance is the act of posting it on tumblr.

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

I appreciate your commitment to portraying vulnerability, and I’m also interested in the way you’ve exposed yourself with this performance. Our bodies betray us when we sleep, completely shedding the veneer of civil and attractive behavior. We drool, we toss, we move into less than flattering positions, we snore. The black and white coloration helps boil your performance down to its most essential parts. The only aspect of this piece I’m struggling with is the iMovie intro. It would have been more effective for me without that intro.

[miketruorangeandblue-blog]

Project #2 - original gifs

I found this at a shop in Ouray, Colorado 

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Of your ten GIFs, this is easily my favorite. The loop is nearly seamless, and it’s somewhat mesmerizing. It’s rather simple - there are no excess parts or elements, and that’s exactly why it works. The bird takes up the majority of the frame, creating a singular motion and subject with few distractions. My only difficulty with the GIF is the brightness of the lightbulb behind it, but other than that I really enjoy this piece of work.

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 3, Project 3: Vanishing & Becoming

Audio: 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds by Jefferson Airplane

For this project I was interested in the ways we interpret vanishing and becoming. I wanted to play with time and sequencing - if the act of vanishing is reversed, does that mean it is now the act of becoming? I’m also interested in interpreting the concept of becoming from the lens of production. The automotive industry is synonymous with the assembly line and mass production, so it felt a natural starting point in investigating these concepts.

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 3: Reading Response #2

“It’s as if the whole history of Western art has been an elaborate sepulcher built over the bones of the dead to keep their memories alive, and to hide the brute fact that they are no longer there.”

Sean Cubitt’s essay was incredibly insightful as to the philosophical and psychological elements at work in art making, subjection, and projection. He argues that absence (or impending absence, as with Pliny’s maiden) is the greatest motivating factor for projection, and that this absence is as important as the disappearance that caused it. “Subjection, in short, is the grand illusion,” he writes, arguing that the subjects which have been subject to projection are by default already dead.

One concept Cubitt explored that I found especially intriguing was projection as projectile, envisioned in science fiction movies as ray guns. Cubitt writes that projection technologies serve as metaphors for “paranormal and extraterrestrial anxieties,” manifesting as weapons wielded by entities we can neither control nor understand. Human adversaries use bombs, guns, knives, swords, clubs, and missiles - all solid and destructive weapons. But we grant those adversaries whom we share no common ground - not even a basic species designation - weapons that speak to our fears of projection and are almost (if not totally) immaterial. It’s an interesting dichotomy that dates back to the science fiction of the 40s and 50s, coinciding with the rise of television and broadcasting.

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 3: Reading Response #1

Chapter 6

“Artists provide viewers with experiences that thoughtfully involve time and motion. In a basic use of time, they make decisions that affect how they want to move viewers’ eyes about a space or object and for how long and at what pace.”

Time and motion are integral to all art forms, whether that time and motion is implied or real. Many of my favorite artworks that utilize time are durational performance pieces such as Linda Montano and Teching Hseih’s “Art/Life: One Year Performance” and Vito Acconci’s “Seedbed”. Time can be an extremely effective art making tool, manipulating the audience’s desires or repulsions to an artwork.

Motion, too, plays a major role in many artists’ processes. Chris Burden utilized motion his entire career, whether through kinetic sculptures, self-navigating yachts, or his performance work. Both “Shoot” and “TransFixed” involved motion: a bullet being fired from a gun and a Volkswagen being rolled out and then back into a garage (with Burden nailed to its hood).

documentation of “Art/Life: One Year Performance”

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 3: Music Video

audio: “I Can’t Get Around You” by Ty Segall and White Fence video: footage of 1980s NYC, My Own Private Idaho (dir. Gus Van Sant)

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 2: 10 GIFs

For this project, I decided to make an exquisite corpse out of all the videos from different places and experiences saved in my phone. I co-opted the Tumblr aesthetic in order to alter the meaning of several of the GIFs, while I left others completely intact. The result is a dizzying variety of paces, places, and subjects, all veiled in mystery and ambiguity due to their brevity and lack of context. 

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 2: GIF 10/10

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 2: GIF 9/10

[emmacarroll4d-blog]

Module 2: GIF 8/10