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Project #5: Performance Art

Artist Statement

For my piece I wanted to do a performance that closely resembled theatrical performances, but I also wanted to be able to convey the same deeper messages that can be found within other performing artists work. Due to this I ended up deciding to do some further research on verbs and try to create a performance using only one verb. This ultimatley brought me to the word fear. I personally feel that the word fear is perfect for this project because of the many ways the word can be applied. Throughout the video there is a hooded figure with a mirrored face. The intention for this was to demonstrate how often times we are the ones who create fear for ourselves. The mirriored face is ment to reflect the inner fears of the plaid wearing character a.k.a me. I can also see the mirrored figure’s face being a reflection of the viewer’s fear, and as a result that would explain why my character becomes increasingly fearful.

Exercise #5: Richard Serra's Verb List

Reading #5

Performance art has always been something I could never really decide on whether I liked it or hated it, and after reading through the Roselee Goldberg essay on performance art my opinion still hasn't changed. With that said I did find the information provided throughout the essay to be insightful. The main idea I took from the essay is that performance art is all about expressing your ideas. I personally feel that expressing ideas is one of the most important aspects of any art form. Expressing ideas through art allows viewers to have a very similar but also very different experiences from each other. It's amazing how ideas you express in a piece can be branched off further by others but at the same time mange to branch back together.

Project #4 Video Art

Artist Statement

When deciding how to respond to the reading on projection I found it was quite a challenge. One aspect I knew right off the bat I wanted to make sure was prominent in my video was reflected light. I experimented with several materials such as aluminum foil, but was not satistfied with how the light was being projected. In the end I discovered that glass bottles do a great job at producing reflected light, so I decided to figure out a way that I could incorporate them within my piece. This ultimately led me to using a bottle filled with water to simulate ocean waves. I was able to manipulate how calm or violent the waves were based on how smoothly or roughly I handled the bottle. Now knowing I could manipulate the intensity of the waves I decided to show a day and night cycle of how the waves react throughout the day, but I also knew that I had to make something vanish and appear again, so I felt it was fitting to incorperate a sun and moon within my piece as well.

#Video Art #Project 4

Exercise #4 Music Video Remix

When deciding what to make a music video of I was stumped due to how many different music video ideas I had. Since I was unable to decide I asked one of my friends to send me clips from one of his favorite shows or movies. The clips in the music video are from the anime The Seven Deadly Sins, and the song I used is Imperium by Madeon.

Reading #4 Projection: Vanishing and Becoming

Often times when we think of art we automatically connect it to activities such as painting or drawing. However in the reading it demonstrates how art itself expands far beyond what we perceive should be considered art in today’s society. For example in the reading it states, “I cannot help thinking here of Bazin’s argument that art has always been an attempt to cheat or at least out-live death; to secure some record of presence that would fill in for the ab-sence of the deceased.” Bazin’s argument demonstrates how art at one point in time could be seen more so as a way to record events.Instead of being used to make a statement or emotional response like many artist do today; art was being used as tool to keep track of history. It’s quite interesting to see how over time the role art plays has changed so significantly. I also found it interesting how in the reading it showed how simple things such as the way light is shining or how a shadow is positioned could be considered art. It actually remedied me alot about abstract art pieces. Not everyone would consider abstract pieces art, but the same could be applied to lighting and shadows being perceived as art. Both involve you as the viewer to do do some deeper thinking. In conclusion it’s interesting to see the shift of what we perceive is art.

Reading #4 Chapter 6 Time and Motion

Being able to convey time and a motion is something many artists try to achieve when wanting to make an interesting piece. I found this reading went well with the second reading because they both had similar overlapping themes. I also enjoyed the different ways in which it showed how time and motion can be indicated. Many times when we think of time and motion it’s usually in terms of pieces such as photographs or drawings. However in this reading it demonstrates how time and motion are applied in other art forms such as sculptures and mobiles. I Personally found this reading really enjoyable because it was very nostalgic to look at many of these terms again. When I was taking design classes such as 3D design many of the projects were designed around being able to convey time and motion.

The Loop (Forever)

Artist Statement

With Halloween being right around the corner I decided to tell a story through my 10 animated gifs.

Exercise #3: Making Mini Cinema

I orignially intended on only uploading a gif of blooming flowers closing up, but as I was going through the process of making the gif I decided to make another one of my favortie video game franchise Uncharted as well.

Reading and Response # 3

After going through each of the reading links I was pretty surprised by how there is more to gifs then meets the eye. For example in one of the articles it talks about how Lauren Cornell the executive director of Rhizome is selling gifs. Selling gifs was something I never considered actually happened because of how readily available they are. I also enjoyed the article titled “How GIF Trash Became Internet Culture Glue”. It’s cool to see how these short looping clips have had such an impact on the internet, and it’s definitely noticeable especially with how much much of a role gifs play in meme culture.

The reason as to why I find these gifs fabulous is because of how random they are. When ever I find myself using gifs I oftentimes use them as a way to express emotion or just to be humorous.

Project #2: Selections

Artist Statement

As I was thinking about some of the themes for this project such as motion and movement I kept being drawn back to the idea of appropriating the famous scientific illustration March of Progress. As a gamer I find the progression of video game graphics to be quite fascinating, so I decided to fill my archive with images from games I felt were visually appealing. I ultimately decided on using Mario as the subject of my pieces due to his long spanning history, and also because of how iconic and reconizable of a character he is. Mario in many ways is like a timecapulse. Due to his long spanning history Mario has been able to make an impact on people of all ages. Mario has also aged as we have gotten older, so I decided to showcase that by showing how he looked throughout his long history.

#Project 2

Exercise #2: Disappearing Acts

As I was looking through my archive it became quite clear to me that characters from multiple forms of media made the bulk of it. With this in mind I decided to see if removeing the characters would change the way in which I perceived the images. As I was removed the characters I felt by doing so it further emphasized them within their surroundings. I also felt that by removing the characters it ended up giving off a sense of mysteriousness due to only the silhouettes of the characters remaining.

Reading #2 Approaches to Postmodern Art-Making

As I was reading through the chapter on Postmodern Art I came to the conclusion that this thought process is very much about not following what is traditional. Throughout the reading it showcased multiple times that the Postmodern approach would do the opposite of what was viewed as the standard. It felt as if this approach was a way of rebelling and pushing the boundaries for what could be considered art. In this collage I have selected pieces which I believe fit the 18 categories of the reading. Unfortunately due to Tumblr limiting me to only 10 pictures per post I can only list the images I found.

1. Cloud Gate, Stainless steel, Anish Kapoor, 2004 - Escaping the confines of museums

2.Ballon Dog, Stainless steel, Jeff Koons, 1994-2000 - Collapsing boundaries between "high" and "low"

3. Marilyn Diptych, Silkscreen, Andy Warhol, 1962 - Rejecting originality

4. ? - Jouissance

5. The Last of Us, videogame, Naughty Dog, 2013 - Working collaboratively

6. Campbell's Soup cans, Synthetic polymer paint, Andy Warhol, 1962 - Appropriating

7. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Videogame, Naughty Dog, 2016 - Simulating

8. Lupe's Scream, Hand colored etching, Tony Artega - Hybridizing

9. Ballon, acrylic painting, Shintaro Oheta, 2014 - Mixing media

10. Stepping Out, Oil and Magna, Roy Lichtenstein, 1978 - Layering

11. Digital, Christopher Beaument, 2007 - Mixing codes

12. Candy Land The Game, oil, enamel, urethane on copper, Tim Liddy, 1955 - Recontextualizing

13. Poster, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, 2012 - Confronting the gaze

14. Cell XXVI, steel, fabric, aluminum, wood, Lousie Bourgeois, Louise Bourgeois, 2003 - Facing the abject

18. No Ball Games' spray paint, Banksy, 2009 -

15. Gun Country, toy guns, Michael Murphy, 2014 - Constructing Identities

16. The Last of Us, digital, John Sweeney, 2013 - Using narratives

17. The Persistence of Memory, oil, Salvador Dali, 1931 - Creating metaphors

18. No Ball Games, spray paint, Banksy, 2009 - Irony, parody, and dissonance

When deciding how to approach this short poem project the idea to use locations that play some form of significant role in my life came immediately to me. The locations I chose were a local park I have been going to ever since I was very little, a bus stop which has become a new form of transportation for me, and finally a near by Sprouts Farmers Market which always seems to get me to leave with items I didn't even come to purchase.

#poem

Robert Montgomery Interview Response

Similar to Jenny Holzer the one thing that stuck out to me from Robert Montgomery's Interview as his most valuable contribution to artists was the importance he placed on the content of a piece as well. As stated in my previous response about artist Jenny Holzer we often have these grand ideas for what we would like to create, but often times we don’t consider the significance the content of a piece has in its overall presentation. We would much rather focus our attention on the minute details of a piece and due to this we overlook what we are trying to convey from our art. Robert's work demonstrates the same level of accessibility as Holzer but with a sightly preachy feel to it. Taking a closer look at his work immediately made me think of Christian word art. Just like Robert’s work many pieces of Christian word art contain a deeper message and while the fonts aren’t similar the style is.

Jenny Holzer Interview Response

As I was reading the interview about Jenny Holzer the one thing that stuck out to me as her most valuable contribution to artists was the importance she placed on the content of a piece. As artists we often have these grand ideas for what we would like to create, but often times we don’t consider the significance the content of a piece has in its overall presentation. We would much rather focus our attention on the minute details of a piece and due to this we overlook what we are trying to convey from our art. Jenny demonstrates in her interview that by focusing on the content of a piece it makes your work more accessible. Jenny’s work reminds me of art such as the iconic “Keep Calm And Carry On” posters as well as art by artists such as William pope who also creates similar art as Jenny.

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