Xerox Project and Peformance Art Continued...

The Xerox project was extremely fun and turned out to be one of my favorite projects I've done in class so far. I'm tried to make the pieces look like one on each cork board that I used, while I started from my feet and went to my head. I incorporate some of my favorite things along with body parts to make it even more personal. I love the piece and how it turned out in the end.

Meanwhile, in class we continued with performance art. After exploring Gilbert and George and Orlan, I find that their pieces of art work and performances are bizarre and something that I would never think of as art. However since after viewing several pieces such as the singing sculpture and more of the artworks by both artists, I found that they are just continuing pushing the box and social norms. Gilbert and George's 2-D artworks that display themselves naked with a color, crazy background is really just a new dada or popart. Their singing sculpture definitely questions art and what is it and reminds me of the characters that are live sculptures in Disney or other theme parts, which obviously is a complete result of the influence of Gilbert and George.

Orlan on the other hand I found extremely interesting from her desire to redesign her body to create new art. Her African hybridization of herself are so well done that they seem like make-up and some sort of mask had to be used but to think that she used technologies such as photoshop is amazing. I thought it was also interesting that she created these figures from photoshop rather than doing it through plastic surgery. I think that these are creating art that would have never been thought of and as artists are extremely intriguing.

Fluxus and Juan Parada Lecture

Fluxus was explored in class today where we saw Neodada artists that were breaking the mold of art. Fluxus artists allowed for anything to be art. They opened to the doors for anything in life to be art, whether that be something positive or negative. For instance the Sonic Youth hammering a piano became art due to George Maciunus. Although may see this as disrespect of the instrument in front of them, they were creating a new way to look at the instrument other than its intentional purpose. Artists like Joseph Beuys created strange art that made people think in new ways. You had to figure out what the possible meaning, if any there was to appreciate the art. The felt suit for instance and other objects that he wrapped in felt was once used to keep soldiers warm during the war, now had a completely different meaning taking it out of contexts. The felt suit hanging on a hanger was not just a regular suit. The felt used created questions of why this material, who this belonged to and you want to know more about the person's life. The art makes you think beyond what you see in a new way that without artists like the Fluxus' we would still be thinking in the same ways, inside the box.
On another note, Juan Parada's Lecture on Friday, March 26, 2010 was very interesting. I found his thoughts on small business and how he runs his company completely through cloud computing and free resources genius. I never knew that there were such aids that could provide small business companies with programs that made their costs almost completely free. I feel that if you need a certain talent that you should search for that and make sure that you make your customers 100% happy, therefore if business owners must reach out to foreign workers to do so, why not take advantage. Another thing that I found very interesting was how Parada would pay his employees with computers, or video games if the currency rate was bad. I think its great since the worker gets paid accurately and its simple for the owner too. Overall I think the small business Parada runs is awesome based on what he does, however I agree with him that certain companies cannot run like and you must be self-sustainable. Once the company gets too big, the resources that he uses are now not to his advantage.

Pop Art

The legend of Pop art and the first person that everyone thinks about is Andy Warhol. His simple ideas of taking every day objects that we have seen many times over and contextualizing them to show their beauty sticks in our minds. When we look at for instance the Campbell's soup can, we remeber it because we have seen it so many times, but yet we haven't recognized it in the art form. The bright, bold and vibrant colors that Warhol uses in his art also catches out attention and draws us in. I feel like artists before Andy Warhol or during the era were thinking, why didn't I think of that. His art is simple, yet brilliant. I loved that in the documentary he answers questions in interviews with small sentences or one word. The suspense and aggravation of not answer a question to its full potential also draws you into his work more because you want to figure it out. Meanwhile, maybe there isn't anything to figure out. Maybe the intention of Warhol's work is to just present the object as is and there is no meaning behind the art. Some times as viewers we look into art too deeply and miss the actual interpretation of the artwork.
Another one of my favorite, Lichtenstein that we spoke about in class, is awesome because of his work that takes the comics or again things that we have already seen and recreates them. I like that he uses the grid-like printing technique of the comics in his work and still love the bright and bold coloring of the art. The works of Pop art are simple and amazing all at the same time.

Bauhaus and Beats

Today's class involving the Bauhaus movement before WWII and the beat after the war gave an insight on the new world of art emerging. The Bauhaus movement was about creating art but making it functional. New chairs, tables, lamps and architecture were created that look almost like what Ikea is currently selling. Thinking back on my trip to Ikea this past weekend, the tables seen in the documentary and the those in the store were exactly the same. Therefore I guess my desire for simplistic design and organization is inspired from the artist of Bauhaus. The shapes and colors are simple and yet the way they are put together for furniture allows for more storage. To me it seems odd that a store like Ikea didn't emerge sooner.
Meanwhile, the beats were the artists that were worn down and tired. They felt the after shock of the war and failed to be part of the American dream. I wonder if these artists generally didn't like the idea of the American dream or just failed at their attempts to be apart of the "normal" life. Although they created wonderful and bizarre pieces of art, it makes you feel sympathetic towards them since they seem like they never fit with others. The abstract expressionist work done after the war also create a new world. Colors and shapes replaced words and the works of Jackson Pollock and others speak for themselves. Jackson Pollock's works allow the viewer to create their own vision and world of what the art is trying to say, meanwhile it isn't saying anything. I love the theory of action painting. Passion and emotion of the artist are blended in the canvas itself, like the paint placed on it.

Marcel Duchamp and the film Un Chien Andalou

In today's class we were exposed to the work of Marcel Duchamp. His experimental pieces of art inspired by futurists and cubists were amazing, while his simple ready-mades created more of a response for myself. Duchamp's ready-made such as the Mona Lisa that he added facial hair to created a new light to familiar objects. For instance the Mona Lisa is known everywhere and everyone has seen recreations of this art piece, however when Duchamp takes it out of its context and recreates the work, it creates a stir and opens your mind to looking at the art in a new way. It's almost as if he's trying to get viewers to appreciate the art more and not take it for granted as often happens due to the familiarity. I think one reason he was able to get to do this Mona Lisa piece was because at the time, Dada, futurism and surrealism were working and also emerging still that allowed for a new wave of art. This new era opened the doors to looking at art differently and creating art from every day objects. Surrealists were twisting art and creating pieces that were never thought of before and were bizarre, however Dada was chaotic and new. Therefore Duchamp's piece was just another bizarre and new idea to add to the growing movement.
Meanwhile watching the short film Un Chien Andalou that was produced by surrealist also opened new ideas. The bizarre and strange nature of the film seems to follow a love story or search of love with the characters, however the cut off hand and man dragging the pianos with dead farm animals on them and Amish dressed individuals is so odd. The cutting of the eye in the beginning of the film also always freaks me out and still can't watch it no matter how many times I've seen this film. However the bizarre twist of the film demonstrates that movement of the time and while they could have created a regular film about a couple they created something that will leave the viewer thinking. Therefore the viewer now has expanded their mind on the art form and seeing the familiar story in a new way.

Grid Art Project!

My grid art project pictures are above. Creating this piece, I used my initials as the symbols and created a cool flattering pattern around the letters. The sweetarts and mosaic tiles used were just things I had that I thought would be interesting to use since they are completely different yet complement each other since they are opposite colors. I glued the pieces to old mirrors that I found at Goodwill and now I can hang them on the wall as a new art piece. While it seemed simple at first, getting the patterns and colors right turned out to be a lot more work than I thought. Overall I thought the project was fun and really love the work in the end.

Dada

The art movement of Dada is amazing in its attempts to ignore language and create pieces based on what something would be without the constraints of language. Seeing that words are used to describe something and we know an object by these words, creating artworks that eliminate these boundaries is what art should be. Art shouldn't have labels or restrictions, it should be what the artists wants to produce whether someone can put words to it or not. Creativity seems to expand with boundaries are broken or eliminated and therefore the artist of the Dada movement created a new world of art by doing just that. The artworks of Man Ray and other artists of the time allowed for simple objects to be turned into new creations. While places like New York rejected these artworks it is because they don't see outside what is "normal" or accepted to broaden their horizons of the world around them. Although everyone thinks differently, it doesn't mean that an art piece we do not understand is not art. I love that the artists during this era made collages of crazy items all together and hidden inside were messages and new forms. The artwork sometimes looked to have motion and chaos, while examining closer, the works of art had everyday words, and common objects. With ever new wave of art, there is a new level of creativity and the artists of Dada broke the realism model and allowed artists to create whatever they really wanted to without judgment.