ARTS 3379 Photo Blog

[mattw2013]

[mattw2013]

[mattw2013]

Urban Theater: New York Art in the 1980s

This is the only art exhibit I recall going to, and that's saying something. I've been to them before, I just don't remember any of them. This exhibit stood out to me due to its unusual qualities. It felt as though I were stepping through time to access each of the pieces on display. It also ranged from paintings to installations to videos.

The exhibit sent a very concise message overall; it spoke of the issues in New York society in the '80s, including gender roles, pop culture, consumerism, feminism, sexuality, and urban squalor. Many of the pieces fit the definition of "new media" precisely, such as a photograph of Jenny Holzer's electric sign in Times Square in 1985, proclaiming "Protect me from what I want". Others were largely influenced by new media, including Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, which were heavily influenced by the female stereotypes present in movies of the time.

This period was also a period of blurred mediums. Many photographs became parodies of advertisements, and some even became ads themselves. One flyer depicted what appeared to be a boxing match, but was in fact an ad for an art exhibit featuring Andy Warhol and Jean-Michael Basquiat. Jeff Koons' Art Magazine Ads were a message about how art, like many other mediums, was becoming more and more engulfed by the celebrity scene in order to become popular. Koons photographed himself among animals, women, and lavish sets as though he were a famous star on a popular magazine cover.

A prevalent theme of the exhibit was sexuality and how it was slowly overtaking the female identity, with many pieces displaying nudity, including The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1973-1986) by Nan Goldin, Bad Boy (1981) by Eric Fischl, and, most importantly, Spiritual America (1983) by Richard Prince. Other notable works from the exhibit include:

I Shop Therefore I Am (1987) Barbara Kruger

Perseverance (1981) Francesco Clemente

Men in the Cities (1981) Robert Longo

The New by Jeff Koons

Gun Money Plate Wallpaper (1980) Robin Winters

Dead Plant November 1 1988 (1988) Donald Sultan

Cosmic Cavern #32 (2014) Kenny Scharf

Other notable artist include Laurie Anderson, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Charlie Ahearn.

[mattw2013]

For my second project, I wanted to depict actions happening around time, in order to make time appear static and unchangeable. I took pictures of my nightstand throughout the night as me and my girlfriend went about our normal lives. You can see that the objects on the nightstand and sometimes the actions associated with it change, but the alarm clock stays the same and time marches slowly on.

[mattw2013]

[mattw2013]

Time Based Photography Project Final Post

That's it. I would consider the project a success. I showed some of my friends, and told them the pictures were out of order. Each put them in a different order. It was an extremely close relationship I felt when I displayed them. These were taken at a time of night when I'm usually alone, and letting people see that was interesting. It's also interesting to look at space; all but two photos were taken in my apartment, and the others were in the gym. Time has no correlation to space, which is something I find worth investigating and representing.

[mattw2013]

I finally managed to scrape money together to buy Destiny. Remember when I said Blackest Night would take all my time? I was wrong. This will.

[mattw2013]

This is a more abstract representation of the project. Tonight I was doing nothing more than listening to music, and this is the closest I could get to taking a picture of sound. It's also a reminder that not all activities are tangible.

[mattw2013]

This is the only photo with a shared subject. This is probably also my most intimate photo, as it indicates I have some kind of schedule.

[mattw2013]

Today my Blackest Night Omnibus came in. Of all the subjects in my pictures, this is going to consume most of my time. That's another interesting thing about these photos; it is impossible for viewers to gauge how much time I'm spending on these activities.

[mattw2013]

This is the second photo in my series. An interesting concept I might like to explore in the future would be to take pictures that are far enough apart in time that they are not moment to moment photos, but close enough to create a movie for the viewer. I would also find it interesting to see what order viewers would place my photos in.

[mattw2013]

For my time based photography project, I want to explore the liquidity and nonlinear nature of time, along with its irrelevance to space. I'll be posting a picture of my activities at 11:40 p.m. for the next week. The goal is to show that without my captions, the viewer would be unable to determine the dates of the photos. Time is not a process, merely a collection of moments. It is the juxtaposition of these moments that give us a linear impression.

[mattw2013]

#pnm3379 #whyiliketoshoot #capturethemoment #instaphoto

[mattw2013]

#pnm3379 #photooftheday

[mattw2013]

#pnm3379 #posttheordinary

[mattw2013]

#pnm3379 #postthepeople #destinython2014

[mattw2013]

#pnm3379 #happy