Art.

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Art and the Environment

After learning more about land art, I found myself particularly interested in works that defy the societal expectation of gallery and museum views of work. In particular, I am very intrigued by Andy Goldsworthy’s sculptures. I am fascinated by his use of found materials. Goldsworthy’s process, used with his materials, also makes his work unique and appealing. 

In Andy Goldsworthy - Land Art, Waldemar Januszczak joins Goldsworthy on a journey of creating his work. Januszczak and Goldsworthy find themselves deep in the woods, where Goldsworthy creates a sculpture made entirely from sticks and twigs. The sculpture is a spherical orb that appears to be held by the small waterfall Goldsworthy constructs it on. As the two of them walk, Januszczak asks Goldsworthy, ‘It doesn't bother you that no one ever sees, or very few people ever see this part of your work? The real part, the core?’”. This question seems to be induced by the idea that talented artists’ work is shown to the public through the resource of a museum or gallery. Goldsworthy seems to be more interested in sharing his work to a random, diverse, and general audience. He replies to Januszczak saying, “’You may think this is a fairly isolated, secluded spot [but] probably more people visit here than artists studios…’”. This perspective entirely changed the way I think of how art is displayed. Goldsworthy seems to be appealed to the idea that anyone can view his work in nature. 

When art is displayed in nature, there is no socio-economic barrier between art and audience like there may be in a museum. This is a similar perspective to socially engaged art like the Laundromat project where the art is truly available to the public with no entry fee or judgmental gaze. Another interesting aspect of the settings for Goldsworthy’s work and the Laundromat Project is that the audience may come and go at random and the artwork is also found at random. For example the laundromat may have a few customers who walk in for a different purpose but find themselves immersed in art. This initial finding is characteristic to these settings of displaying art. With this, there also becomes an engagement with daily activities such as going on a hike or doing laundry, activities that the average person does often.

Recently, Rebecca Morgan was a guest speaker in my painting class. In her work, Morgan drew on digital apps on iPads and phones that were being sold in stores. She set her digital drawing as the lockscreen for these devices so that the shoppers would naturally look at her work as they walk through the aisles or shop for new technology. This idea reminded me a lot of land art and socially engaged art as it is another way to bring art into the lives of the average individual. As I learned about these ideas in recent classes I have been frequently asking myself: how can I make my work more accessible? This question is a valuable concept that I have been more and more aware about, especially through my interest in land art and Goldsworthy’s work.

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Rap Research Lab

Dec 11

Tahir Hemphill is an engaging speaker who I found to be even more engaging in his curriculum. In his video with Creative Time Summit, “Creative Time Summit NYC | A Curriculum's Contents: Tahir Hemphill”, Hemphill explains how his teaching strategies bridge the gap between the culture surrounding his students and the beauty of language. Hemphill teaches his students how to be engaged in what they are reading and learning through analyzing Hip Hop. He uses a scientific and analytical approach to break down Hip Hop songs into themes, symbols, most common phrases, and connotation. This helps students learn about something they are connected to, while also allowing them to reference this formula to understand other resources they work with.

This teaching strategy considers more mathematical thinkers who enjoy analytics as well as artistic learners who are fascinated with music and the humanities. Personally, I find myself having a creative mind but also understanding the graphs and code that Hemphill uses in his process. 

Hemphill’s lecture made me consider the stereotype that people who learn differently may need two entirely separate ways of obtaining information. His teaching allowed me to think about how one style may appeal to many individuals because it involves several styles of learning. The idea that this curriculum may interest many different learners also encouraged me to think about artists like Leo Villareal and Paul Vanouse who create art using subject matter that is found in other subjects of education. these artists focus on scientific code and information, similar to how Hemphill uses code to understand a creative study of music.

In my personal work, I have always been interested in considering the relationship between art and science. Vanouse, Villareal, and Hemphill all encourage me to further this study in my practice. There is often a stigma of individuals who are studying certain majors or have certain interests but these artists have shown me that it is ok to reveal a depth of interests in my body of work.

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Guadalupe Maravilla

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Atul Bhalla

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Art

What is art? This is a question I find myself revisiting in many blog posts; it’s a question I ask myself as I make art; it’s a question I ask when I view other people’s art. And it is also a question that I despise.

I have been pondering what to write about and pushing this post aside because I was planning on writing about Pop Art and Vernacular Cultures: Introduction by Kobena Mercer. While the reading was interesting, Pop Art is not a style that interests me that much. As I came back to the reading, I was hoping that some idea of characteristic would engage me more than the first read through. I suddenly found myself captivated by the idea of high and low art. Mercer acknowledges that pop art is often diminished in being referred to as a low art. This article also considers the idea that the boundary between high and low art is a “political” characterization of artwork. 

I am very interested in observing the social relationship individuals have with art. Why is there a hierarchy within the creative realm? Thinking through this question, I considered that historically, high and low art was defined by trade. It was a way to further divide members of different classes or cultures. Until the era of modern art, few people challenged the value of the work they made. As art became more expressive, and less socio-economic, many artists challenged the boundary of high and low art. In the post-modern era, there was an upward trend in vernacular art despite the discrimination against works like pop art. 

Like pop art, graffiti is another discipline that challenges the definition of art. The pattern of individuals challenging traditional styles relates directly to culture and society. For example, the hip hop culture shown in Style Wars very clearly defines graffiti as art despite the fact that the materials and techniques were uncharacteristic of traditionally high valued artwork. Modern society began to question things like value and rights which leads to an even more diverse and multidisciplinary definition of art, like contemporary art. 

While this post stands as an informative depiction of how art has been defined, I also want to write about the transformation of art as the culture and political definition has changed. Pop art is one of the many movements which shows that individuals are beginning to question the historically patriarchal hierarchy of the art world. The development of thoughts, style, technique, and media is always changing and challenging the past; therefore, the definition of art will always change in society. I cannot change how society thinks, but I do know that anything created to convey something is some form of art.

I think movements such as the graffiti and pop culture movements have both been groundbreaking in the development of art and culture. I also find more traditional artists, who may find themselves considered high artists without debate, are also pushing these boundaries. Artists like Kent Monkman and his use of textiles empowered me to rethink and reconsider the definition of art. Materials like textile, which are too often underappreciated as craft, can also fall into the category of low art in the trend of what low art means. This explains exactly why I despise the question of what is art. Why should there be a question? Where does the line between high and low art, art and not art, truly exist and why is it something modern culture feels the need to ask in studying art?

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Lina Puerta, “Mēãbema” from the Botánico series, (2019), installation View, Ford Foundation Gallery Radical Love

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Athi-Patra Ruga, “Umesiyakazi in Waiting” (2015)

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style wars

nov 9 2020

Basquiat grew up in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Puerto Rico but he truly found himself once he met his friend Diaz. Diaz was a graffiti artist from the Lower East Side who encouraged Basquiat to write graffiti with him. The two of them created a fictional character named SAMO, an acronym for Shame Old Shit. This character acted to promote a fake religion but more importantly, SAMO was an outlet for Basquiat to express himself. The tag SAMO coincided with poems that Basquiat wrote to provoke thought and ideas in Manhattan. It was a way for Basquiat to bring art into the streets, make a name for himself and present his ideas to a large audience of diverse individuals.

In 1977, when Basquiat was only 17, he started writing on the D train of the IND line in Lower Manhattan. At the time, other artists were covering the trains in graffiti just like Basquiat. The graffiti artists built a community of “bombers” who spent their nights with bottles of spray-paint on the tracks. This community was just a small part of a bigger culture that developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s: hip-hop.

Hip-hop was a movement of art which predominantly included breakdancing and graffiti art and was developed in New York. The film, Style Wars focuses on the growth of hip-hop culture while also depicting the counterculture. One of the most memorable moments of watching the film was when the question, how can graffiti be art, was asked. It raises the general, continuous question: what is art? This question also reveals that graffiti was too often undermined and misunderstood. A large part of the American population saw graffiti as vandalism and a crime; the paint was painted over and washed off, but the artists never ceased to leave their mark.

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nov 8

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nov 8

What Remains After the Village Is Emptied? 2018

ceramic and painted paper diorama

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Nicole Awai

Nicole Awai, Reclaimed Water, Buffalo Bayou, Houston, Texas installation

Firelei Baez, A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways), 2019, Two paintings, hand-painted wooden frame, perforated tarp, printed mesh, handmade paper over found objects, plants, books, Oman incense, palo santo

Nicole Awai, Persistent Resistance of the Liquid Land, installation

nov 2 2020

Nicole Awai’s lecture introduced me to new materials which can be used to create fine art. When listening to her creative process, I recognized that Awai uses a lot of nail polish in her paintings. She compared this medium to the use of oil paint saying how much more challenging it is to work with when considering its quick drying. The idea of using a material like oil paint reminded me of Mickalene Thomas, an artist I am focusing on in one of my art history courses. In an interview with Thomas, she claimed that her work uses felt and rhinestones along with many collage techniques because it was a way of problem solving. She learned that these less expensive materials could be used to create fine art, even if they are bought from a craft store. Both Awai and Thomas think outside of the box and present unique methods of creating work. 

The use of diverse media also allows for the audience to be immersed in Awai’s work. Persistent Resistance of the Liquid Land is an installation that fills a corner of the space. The work embodies the concept of transformation but also brings the audience into a state of flux, allowing them the ability to transform. The sense of immersion and tranformation reminded me of other installations, such as Firelei Baez’s A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways). Baez’s work brings the audience into a unique space surrounding them with the art and passion in the work.

While Awai has a unique process in her work, she also presents important ideas and beliefs in her pieces. On Nicole Awai’s website, she states that “Employing diverse media, [allows her to] transform non-conventional materials [and] create visual layered statements about the body, gender, race, and the environment.” Like Nicholas Galanin, Awai considers monuments as a subject for several of her pieces. For example, Reclaimed Water is a work that debates the Christopher Columbus monument which, unlike other monuments praising colonialism, was left standing in New York City. Her other pieces also consider the intentions and purpose of monuments and whether or not the individuals, movements or time periods depicted are ones that deserve to be glorified.

[art210lifedrawing]

Ambera Wellman

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Nov 1

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Oct 30

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Indigenous Cultures in Contemporary Art

oct 26

Nicholas Galanin is a multi-disiplinary artist who makes work which recognizes the indigenous culture as well as indigenous identity. His work immediately reminds me of Kent Monkman who also focuses on indigenous characteristics and a modern representation of the Cree population. Ironically, while Monkman and Galanin have their unique styles, even their websites look similar. Both artists reflect on historical impacts of their culture. For example, Monkman references colonization and the challenges this presented to the Cree population. Similarly, Galanin also bases a lot of his work on the connection between man and nature, specifically the indigenous relationship to land.

The works of Galanin and Monkman both pinpoint the importance of land as a cultural identity of the indigenous population. They also both focus on colonization as being a negative impact on their cultures. The article, Cornell: A “Land-Grab University”? shows that the destruction of indigenous land is much “closer to home” than Canada (where Monkman lives) or Alaska (where Galanin lives). The Morrill Act of 1862 lead to the colonization of indigenous land in a significant portion of America. This article explains that federal land grants were sometimes the cause of this destruction. My favorite part about this article is the recognition that Cornell, a highly respected university is just one of the many institutions that has impacted indigenous cultures.The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program at Cornell has utilized this platform as a means of educating people on historical flaws and concerns such as the destruction of indigenous land to help people recognize these cultures and be able to have a more mindful appreciation and respect to the indigenous beliefs. 

Like the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program at Cornell, Ganalin also uses his artwork as a platform to recognize the under-appreciated culture of the indigenous population. He works with unique mediums that are commonly seen in indigenous life. Some examples of this is deer hide and wood. Galanin preserves his culture by using these materials to create. The word create itself acknowledges how Galanin values tradition, such as wood carving and hunting. In the lecture, I was appealed by Ganalin’s intentions to share his culture to a broad audience but also share his passions and art with his family and the generations below him.

In his work, Shadow on the Land, Galanin observes the Captain Cook monument as an example of the impact of colonization on the indigenous population. During the artist talk, Galanin states “The Cook monuments shadow is an embodiment of the shadow of greed pollution and destruction casts on the land by corporate capitalist colonization and settlement.” He also claims that this work is a burial for the monument AND the government destruction of indigenous land. In the lecture, Galanin presents a photograph of Shadow on the Land close up. In this image, there are signs stating the title of the piece and the objective, an excavation and bush burial. This is a very direct form of expressing the way Ganalin reclaims the indigenous land with his thought-provoking works.

Unlike Ganalin, Monkman usually isn’t as direct about the literal property of land which was destroyed from colonization. Instead, he references the changes in culture from this loss. This is an interesting difference because it leads to the question: which artist displays indigenous beliefs more accurately or relatively? Do both artist stand to represent the entirety of the indigenous population or do they strive to acknowledge their personal journey and interests in indigenous life?