#nothing-illusions

[sharifhadidi]

Whitney Museum

I went to the Whitney Museum of American Art this week to view the Biennial exhibits. I would first like to preface my post with the statement that I am not really a fan of modern art, and have always had issues with it.

The first piece I got to see was Untitled wood pieces

I found these kind of intriguing if I am being honest, mainly due to my fascination with how many were on display and also with the creation of the piece. I was trying to find out how he went about creating the pieces and got them within each other for a while. I assumed it was a lot of really well hidden seams in the pieces.

A piece I didn’t get a picture of but wish I had was “The Meat Grinder’s Iron Clothes”, this was fascinating and engaging. I wasn’t sure if pictures were allowed as I was there early in the day and the floor was empty aside from staff at the time. This piece reminded me of corporate America and the rat race. But also of death and sadness. It was really great especially the infinite mirror.

I then saw Censorship

This one I really liked, I found it interesting, both the pieces and the space created for them. I found myself sitting on the couch just reading the passages, really enthralled with message behind the pieces.

This was also the pieces that I took the most pictures of cause I really liked what the artist had done.

Because of the beautiful day out when I was at the museum I also spent a large amount of time on the Pacific Red II pieces outside on the terrace.

These pieces really were very interesting to me, I could see how at different times of day the pieces while simple change and alter the experience. Never quite giving anyone the same experience unless perfectly timed. This made me think about the Einstein Dream book we read for last week.

“The John Rippenhoff Experience” was unique, I didn’t quite get it as it was just a box with a bunch of lights that made me feel really hot. I like the infinite mirror aspect, but in general do not like pieces that make me put my head in a small box as I get kind of claustrophobic.

I also found the piece “beginning & the end neither & the otherwise betwixt & between the end is the beginning and the end” to be quite beautiful in both composition as well as its display.

I really enjoy stained glass, I find it to be extremely beautiful with the sun shining through. It is one of the things I always remember about going to mass when I was in catholic school.

The piece I didn’t get nor did I enjoy was trigger by Puppies, Puppies. This piece didn’t quite grasp me like I felt it was intended to. The whole 6th floor really wasn’t something I enjoyed as I am not really a fan of violence or weapons and a lot seemed to accentuate it.

I really did enjoy the Mother tongue Root Sequence piece. It felt out of place amongst the violence of the floor. This room was very calm to me and I spent a lot of time in here among the trees and really found this to be one of the better installations.

[sharifhadidi]

Isadora’s dedication to Detroit + Perspective

For this weeks assignment to create 2 scenes in Isadora, I worked on a dedication video to Detroit, MI my home town. I used a few videos that I have that were very big in Detroit and also try to represent for the city. I chose to use Eminem’s letter to Detroit, from the 2009 Super Bowl. It is a ode to the city reminding them to not give up and never surrender no matter what is thrown our way. The second scene was Big Sean’s Guap video that was filmed in Detroit and gave a much more positive upbeat vibe to the city, I also used a still from this video as the intro to the first scene(also shown below).

Here are the scenes I worked on as well.

I also ended my scene with Eminem, Royce Da 5′9″, Big Sean, Dej Loaf, Trick Trick and Danny Brown’s Detroit vs Everybody. This song was a massive anthem for the city when it came out. It shared the sentiment that the letter to Detroit had but took a much more aggressive stance towards the doubters.

I really enjoyed using the software, it really was interesting and fun and also very user friendly. It also was much easier to find what I was looking for over using something like Premier or After Effects which I really really appreciated.

PERSPECTIVE

For my perspective drawing I decided to make the start of a farmers market, this vendor has shown up earlier and has yet to set up his ware and offerings.

[sharifhadidi]

Seeing is Forgetting

Seeing is Forgetting gives us a look into Robert Irwin’s view of his art and the process in which he takes to achieve his goals. Through the reading it gives us insight into the questions we should be asking whether that is to ourselves about our work or towards the world in general. It is important to look more at the process than the end result which is sometimes overlooked, the result is a culmination of the process we work on and the questions are invaluable to the achieving the result.

In my personal work I usually overlook the process in favor of the result leading to what I would consider unsatisfactory work sometimes. I should try less to achieve the result and focus more on the process. Working towards the result is a product of the process and I believe the use of collaboration and unlike minds also adds to the process. Irwin collaborated with unlike minds to achieve the result and add to the process, this is something that is clear by the uniqueness of his work. 

You can see the influence this has had on many fields, especially technology and art. When I worked as an engineer, my team members came from many different backgrounds and disciplines. I myself come from a political science background and pursued law only to transition into engineering. I believe that this has given me a different mindset when approaching specific problems and has led to much of my success over the years. You see this approach very evidently in ITP where we all come from diverse background disciplines and experiences but when working in groups we come up with truly unique projects and ideas that I would have never thought possible.