Event Blog #3

“Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem” at the Fowler

Conveniently, this exhibition was also at the Fowler, so I was able to attend it on the same day I saw “Singular Spaces.” “Making Strange” consists of a number of dresses that artist Vivan Sundaram created using extraordinarily random, original, recycled materials. When I first walked into the dark exhibition room, I read the description and was intrigued when it said that Sundaram essentially wanted to poke fun at the uptight world of high fashion when he created these works. I really like the fact that Sundaram used recycled items that ranged from the mundane such as industrial tubing or strange such as tampons.

This piece uses wire mesh to make a hooded outfit. It makes me think of both a medieval knight in chain mail (because of the shiny wire mesh) and a veil that a Muslim woman would wear (because of its low hanging hood). It takes a very creative artist to juxtapose those differing cultures together into one piece.

The next piece that caught my eye was the thin white jumpsuit that was adorned with pills. I noticed that the combinations of pills in each pouch were pretty much symmetrical across the centerline of the outfit. It made me wonder what kind of thought process Sundaram went through as he chose the placement of each pill because it did not seem arbitrary and did seem to have flow throughout the piece.

Overall, I think that “Making Strange” is a perfect event for this class because the materials that the artist used are from practical, everyday use (and some were from engineering applications), but they were put together in such a way to create art.

 

Event Blog #2

“Singular Spaces” at the Fowler Museum

I decided to go to the Fowler Museum for an event blog, and I was not disappointed. “Singular Spaces” shows art that is original and raw, almost surreal. Jo Farb Hernandez’s pictures of artists’ work out in the open using only materials that they had in hand displays the ingenuity and creativity of the artists. Usually, the artists would create the art around their homes, with no reason other than to express their feelings or simply amuse themselves. The description makes the point that the artists did not have any formal training, and I think that this makes the work more interesting and refreshing. Although I have never been schooled in artistic techniques (and therefore I may not be qualified to make this statement), I feel that sometimes artists feel to need to conform to certain genres that they were taught in class, and consequently their work is stuck in a well-traveled rut. I think that it is much easier for an “untrained” artist to break new ground, and the artists in Jo Farb Hernandez’s pictures are good examples to prove this idea.

Julio Basanta Lopez’s work was the most striking to me. He created these sculptures to exorcise the demons of his past because his life had been constantly beset by heartbreak. In many of the forms of his work, you can see how much pain he was experiencing.  The color red permeates most of his works leading me to believe that the red represents the bleeding that his family experienced and also represents the constant ache from his heart.

Many of his sculptures take the form of demons that Lopez may have been seeing in his nightmares. The red one looks particularly menacing because it appears to be holding a weapon and has a chain around its neck. The white one with the red blood stain looks more innocent to me because it is shorter and wider. I wonder if it represents one of his lost children as a ghost.

Event Blog #1

“Movement” at the CNSI Art Sci Gallery

When Professor Vesna emailed about a showcase of student art in the CNSI building, I jumped at the opportunity to attend.  “Movement” seemed to be the perfect complement to this class because it focused on art that was inspired by scientific principles.

As a walked around the room, this piece, Float (The Grand Jete) by Taylor Leong, caught my eye. She used acrylic and India Ink to create this work. The strokes convey movement and fluidity. In addition, her work is like a time lapse picture because there are five images of the ballerina, each one drawn at a point in time slightly after the one before it. I like the fact that the center image is bright and has lots of contrast with the background, while the outer images are less vibrant. It looks like the ballerina was moving into the focus of a camera lens and a spotlight and then after the center image was read, she moves out again.

In her description, Taylor describes the ballerina’s movement, the Grand Jete. The ballerina jumps into the air with her legs pointed down, and then at the highest point in her jump, she lifts her arms and legs. This movement raises her center of mass and allows her to extend her jump creating a sense of having “hang time.” I find it fascinating that dancers like this ballerina have been aware of physical phenomena like this for hundreds (possibly thousands) of years before physicists developed the math to explain why it happens. I think that this Grand Jete is a very pure and intriguing combination of art and science because it is an example of something where the science followed the art, instead of the art following the science (as seems to usually be the case.)

 I really appreciate all the dimensions that Taylor put into this piece. It seems like you can view it in layers, and with each layer you unveil, you understand Taylor’s motive more clearly and appreciate her creativity even more. I’m definitely glad I decided to stop by this gallery in the CNSI building.

Float (The Grand Jete) Taylor Leong