Site Specific Pieces day 2

I think that Arutyun and Jin win this bout. I really like Arutyun’s piece except for the fact that I think it lacks a personal touch. I guess nobody really had a problem with it except for me. The piece was very computer rendered and there was nothing in the whole piece that suggested that he had any emotional stock in the actual event. I’m not saying that he has too… I mean it happened 93 years ago. He wasn’t necessarily alive during that time. It just seemed very cold and impersonal. It seems even less important to him because he put it on YouTube.com. He gives the people the option of seeing it or not. Isn’t a mass genocide being covered up a problem? What if America (for some fucked up reason) decided to not teach the children about the Holocaust? Would you just stand by and allow someone to get away with murder? I like the actual short film, but I think the presentation could be worked on a bit. I would have been a lot more interested and responsive if you called up the entire class at 2:33 a.m. and told us to tune into channel 4 in five minutes.

Jin’s piece is simple but to the point, and I love the narrative quality.

Site Specific Pieces day 1

Great job, class! I think we’re getting to where we need to be. Once again Ray scores a homerun. She must have a ton of time on her hands. I wish I had a sugar daddy to pay my bills while I got to hang out in prison. I have nothing interesting to say. I have to let their work soak in a little.

Body Lesson

I really enjoyed this lesson. Jenny Seville has phenomenal work. I think I’ve seen her work in MoMa about 3 years ago. During this lesson, I thought of my friend Diane, who is a transgendered person. I met her at a gallery. She did a documentary style piece which was a series of interviews about people who are put down in our society for having difference that they can’t control. I use to pity these people, but now have only compassion and high hopes for them.

I was very interested to understand William Pope L’s work more. On his site for the Black Factory, it reads, “The Black Factory contends that blackness is limited not by race but by our courage to imagine it differently.” To me, what he is doing is not just being an artist but he is being a cultural anthropologist as well. Race is NOT BIOLOGICAL! Race is 100% SOCIAL. It’s a social construct used to separate one group of people from another. From numerous DNA sampling experiments, it was reported that an African American, teenage girl was closer genetically to a White Swedish male than other black teenage girls involved. He’s addressing these social issues to people, not to alienate but to make them question racial stereotypes and consumer culture.

April 16

(missing)

Site Specific

I am amazed at much site effects a work. I’ve never thought about it. I’ve never been taught it. When you make a piece of art, whether it be a painting or a sculpture, you generally plan for it to be in one of two places: on the wall of a gallery or out in the middle of a field or lake. It makes me want to go back to all the work that I have ever had in the past and reexamine the subject matter. Maybe I was accidentally on to something that I never saw in my work before. Maybe the mediocre sculptures I’ve created in the past would be hardcore conceptual pieces if I would just put place it upside down under a highway bridge or put it in a catamaran and pushed it out to sea…

NoDa

Will was super-uber nice, a gentleman, a scholar, and a wonderful host. But, I have to say, I was very disappointed. Will, if you’re reading this, it’s not your fault. It’s mine. I had one idea in my head of how your work would look and make me feel and I was incredible mistaken. And I know that you can take a beating, so here I go.

I think that most of the work in his home was interesting. I loved how he envisioned his work and depicted his characters in their various poses on the doors. It’s an unusual depiction of a life I never see, and I’m glad that he takes the time to pay homage to these few, ‘marginalize’ people. But I have to say I hated his floor piece. I know I don’t know the situation very well, but I thought the floor plan was poorly designed. The piece didn’t flow and his subject matter was varied too extremely. It was hard to recognize how the pieces related to each one another. I think everybody hyped it up a little too much because of it’s sheer size, but I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity. Size doesn’t matter; it’s all in how you use it.

He did teach me a lot about how to live and work and achieve my dreams. I appreciate his will to express himself. Just because I don’t like his most important piece doesn’t mean I don’t think I can’t learn a lot from him.

April 7

(missing)

Instigation and Time Pieces

I really loved Nicole’s piece. I wasn’t crazy about the outcome, but I feel that the idea was dynamite. The piece to me wasn’t so much about wasting time, but more about taking advantage of the social constructs within a culture or manipulation to create profitable experience. She took something positive, these gifts from strangers and turned the tables against them. She critiqued their work by destroying it. I love power struggles and find a subtle beauty in unkempt relationships.

Also I enjoyed the lesson on instigation. I appreciate the fucked up artist who plagues our societies. This lesson kind of showed me how different I perceive most art. I have always been very accepting of differing viewpoints and ideas. Most of the artists that I know or are affiliated with have a definite idea in their head as to what they consider art and what their limits are. I don’t think I have any limits. You can shit on my chest and call it art. I probably will call it art too.

Mr Boan

Brandon Boan was the nicest Swedish gypsy from Oregon I’ve ever met. His unconventional, nomadic, poor lifestyle helped me realize that I’m not that kind of artist! He is a different breed of subhuman (and by that I mean artists). It’s weird that he has an insatiable desire to create, kinda like a crack-attack. It’s admirable, but I don’t understand it because I don’t have urges to satisfy the way he does. I require structure. His work was intriguing, but I don’t think I liked it. His ideas were marvelous, and it’s not even that I didn’t like them; it’s just that I didn’t understand them. Brandon had some serious philosophies and theories cookin’ in his dome; So advanced that my tiny little brain couldn’t handle them. His in-depth exploration and questioning skills were great.

March 19

(missing)

Phantasmagoria

This show was beastly. I loved almost everything. I have always been interested in parlor tricks and illusions, so I really enjoyed the piece that smoked and made you disappear. I wish I had that installed in my car seat or under my toilet. The first time I ever heard the word Phantasmagoria was in reference to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. Walt Disney himself was influenced by these shows because he was a huge movie/theatre aficionado and incorporated a lot of his ideas into the haunted mansion.

The exhibit was very powerful. The ghost reflections in the water and mirrors called to mind thoughts of the ghost I lived with for a year, the one that made me a believer. The exhibit as a whole reminded me of how hard it is to be serious about death and how hard it will be for me to cope with the impending death of my loved ones. I have never been close to anybody who has passed away. I fear death, yet mock it at the same time. I often joke about my own grizzly demise just before I tell my fiancée or parents “I love you… Goodbye”. Or when my brother tries to get off the phone with me when I’m driving in very bad weather, I tell him there is no way I’m going to be killed, just because I know it’s not going to happen. It was a magical exhibition with stark realizations hiding around the corner, ready to slap you in the face.

Hawkinson and Qiang

I really liked what Tim Hawkinson was saying about how music was a really big component of his art experience. Art must be viewed in the broadest sense of its meaning. It is an artist's duty to acknowledge and proliferate all forms of art - not just visual art, but performance, theatre, music, dance, language arts, culinary arts and the physical arts as well - even if they pursue mastery in only one or two specific disciplines. Music is an important component in my life.

Cai Guo Qiang’s bio was pretty interesting too… I wasn’t so much a fan of some of the work as I was his incorporation of the materials used. The way he developed a harmonious relationship with the gunpowder was really intriguing. I liked how he said that you have to accept the fact that the gunpowder was dangerous and accidental. I always have a profound respect for people who are able to let material things in their lives go for the sake of establishing “higher” connections. His work made me think of Ah Leon, a world renowned, Chinese ceramics professor. His work consists of ceramic teapots and landscape structures that are related to his heritage. His art was recently exhibited in the “Masters of Disguise” show at the Mint Craft + Design Museum. I find it absolutely astounding and honoring that an entire culture of people can structure their existence around the arts, whether it is by the way they dress, write letters, exercise or even serve tea.

Art 21 Series

Fuck engineers and their brains. Theo Jansen’s work was really inspiring though. He has taken his art to a new level, above mere existence. His work will one day be able to live on its own… Not like a painting can live in a collection, but actually living and breathing the ocean air, moving from place to place, where ever the wind takes it (literally). Even though the work is overwhelmingly beautiful and elegant, I can’t help but think about this new military device being developed by Boston Dynamics called BigDog. It’s terrifying; a perfect counter argument to Theo’s vision. It’s currently being tested to carry military supplies, but it’s robotic parts are so close to human limbs that it’s haunting. It too moves by itself, has a significant purpose, and they both struggle for survival.

How the hell did this guy come up with these 11 Golden Formulas? What an original idea that is. His work is a refreshingly original in a society that almost condemns a piece if it does not in some way, shape or form reflect that of an earlier work. The one thing I hate about this piece is how it makes me feel about my own art work. I think if I could have one truly original thought in my lifetime I would be ecstatic.

Still Struggling...

Splitting into groups was definitely an interesting way of collaborating this week. I wish we could do it more often, even outside of class so there is no inhibitions or constraints of time. Although, I think I learned something I wasn't ready to understand... I hate my own conceptual ideas. I think that they, for the most part, are 2d, unconventional, and underdeveloped. However, I am really good at taking someone else's ideas and turning them into thought-provoking and making them more dynamic. I also learned something else... I don't take other ideas well. I mean I do.. but it isn't genuinely my ideas. I know that my art is coming out of other art (other famous art), but for someone to just hand me an idea to run with is just awkward. I feel like I will be pointed out or reprimanded for illustrating or documenting a piece of work I didn't even develop in the first place.
Anyways, I'm really worried about my piece. I have gotten a lot of great ideas, and I've been thinking about it for 2 weeks, but now it's getting late and I just keep shooting them down or are unhappy with the final way I'm going to orchestrate everything, or I don't have enough time, money, materials or competent help to give me the alpha-piece I've been waiting to create my whole life... I would rather put an end to my misery by drinking a flask of antifreeze before I settle on an idea or final cut I view as a failure.

Fiber art

This week, we all went to the Mint Museum of Craft and Design to study fiber art... for no particular reason. It was fun and enjoyable... until we actually saw the exhibit. I learned a lot... but will never use what I've learned. So all in all, it was very educational!

No really. What is holding these people back? They obviously have the talent and skills needed to really fuck with contemporary youth, but all they're doing is weaving pretty colors back and forth. I don't care to look at something that makes my limbic lobe relaxed and tranquil feeling. I want to look at shit that makes me ralph all over the floor or question my existence or at least have a greater appreciation for the methods used to create it in the first place. I would just rather see art that makes me change who I am. I like the shock value (and I don't mean shitty, underdeveloped shock) in contemporary art. Where is the serious content and purpose?

Some people like this stuff though, either because they suck at making quilts and they get a lot of inspiration out of looking at other aesthetically charged pieces or it reminds them of their dead grandmother or they just have a bland personality. And I know that not all art has to communicate an idea or message. Sometimes just evoking emotion is all that it is about, but for a museum that primarily contains art made after WW2, in an era that concerns itself with questions of what constitutes what art actually is, I expect to see something a little more avant-garde/modern than paleolithic... which leads me to my next point.

I don't know if I want to say this is art. Is it? Yes, the museum says it is. Does that mean I won't argue it? Hell no. Is it modern art? Yes, says the museum, but not really (not to me anyway). I'm aware we have been arguing what art is since the dawn of Greek civilization, and I know that there is no complete definition that clearly categorizes it, but I still have to argue it, especially because I live in a time that characterizes art as being original, transcendent of the literary, or pushing strong social and political viewpoints into the mainstream culture. When I see quilts or blankets hanging on the walls, I think textiles. Industrial Revolution. Cozy, warm, belongs on my bed. This type of work, as a whole, hasn't really developed so much that we can say it's breaking new boundaries or intervening on, manipulating or developing the social structures of our modern world. Shouldn't contemporary art and museums make the public stop in the middle of the sidewalk and ask questions about our morals or ethical principles, our ideas about global warming or baby killing, our addiction to prescription drugs or how we perceive Christ or our mother's sexuality?

Also, gotta love those docents! I just love the way they tell you how to think about art while you're being led around like a dog on a leash! While I personally prefer the Andrea Fraser types, I wouldn't have minded making hot, art-porn with ours either.

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." - Albert Einstein

Cliché? I think so! But important to realize none the less.
It is my belief that a true artist must completely explore, comprehend, accept and facilitate all sparks of creative thought. Art is a way of reflecting on our imagination, beliefs, gained knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Without a fundamental understanding of art and its disciplines, we wouldn't be able to express our individual ideas or culture as a whole.
Art must be viewed in the broadest sense of its meaning. It is an artist's duty to acknowledge and proliferate all forms of art - not just visual art, but performance, theatre, music, dance, language arts, culinary arts and the physical arts as well - even if they pursue mastery in only one or two specific disciplines.
Now I sure as hell don’t think my art is more important or meaningful than any person, be it Giotto or some random, Hispanic third grader, but I would have to say I was kind of disappointed in some of the Material Invention projects we looked at this week. I was expecting everyone in the class to have a firmer grip on exactly what they wanted to do, and develop their pieces like they would any other fine artwork they would work on.

Given, I myself didn’t develop my work as well as I would have liked, given the restrictions, but I still think I have a lot firmer grasp on how to manipulate content, form, or even the overall composition of my art work for a more powerful or aesthetical response. I’m very critical of other people doing a good job, and I know it sounds kind of doucheish, but I want everyone to realize that you are making this art for me too. So do a good job! You have lots to offer and I want to learn something from you!

As for our Meaning lecture, thanks Stephanie, Drake and David. I enjoyed sucking on your brains!

What this class is really about...

The course description in UNCC’s catalogue for this class could read:

This class will help to teach the students how to B.S. their way through art school. Word manipulation lessons will prove vital in the art world when a) working to counter arguments against controversial pieces with subject matter ranging from religious defecation to homo-erotic sex practices, b) validating crude or immoral artistic philosophies, c) allowing and rationalizing the lacking consideration of another individual’s ideals or beliefs, as well as the teacher’s given assignments. Students will view degrading and obscene images of bitches holding horse cocks, as well as other images they never wanted to see in their lives for the purpose of expanding their understanding of what art really is. Students will also learn to articulate their very own sob-story to tell possible clientele at possible gallery openings.

This is the conservative in me coming out! But I’m awfully cynical at the same time. If this was in the catalogue though…, I would still take this class.

Art Cash

Loved the McColl Center… it was oodles of fun and enriching. I was amazed at how much money is distributed among the art community. I didn’t think the government really cared that much about us. As an educator, you constantly hear about more funding going to science and math programs. At the same token, I constantly hear about new funding programs for the arts in the public school systems as well, whether it be music or dance or just visual arts, whatever. But sometimes it just doesn't feel like there is enough. I'm just not seeing the kind of support or financial backing that I think these children need to grow into more cultured individuals. Sure their getting art supplies out the ass… and the fundamentals are there too (roygbiv, gradation, space, shapes, etc.) but kids aren’t getting a proper understanding of the history behind it all, the wars that have been fought over freedom of artistic expression or who are the greats and what were their philosophies. In grade school, I was one of the top students in the art classrooms, but none if mattered because there was no passion behind it, because there was a limited amount of information. When I got to college, I learned the concepts that made me understand why art was important and that was what affected me the most… the ideas that start a work in the first place, not the finished product. This is going to be one of my primary focuses when I start teaching.