Paul McCarthy is an artist who creates installation and video projects. His early work was very minimal in the sense that he would tape himself using his surroundings (for instance, the architecture of the room) and create something obscure. Other videos of his include him spinning around in circles, taping his face, and covering it in butter. He used personas, like masks and costumes, and I'm not really sure why. His videos are dark, strange, disturbing, provocative. Mr. McCarthy's videos are also sometimes funny, darkly of course. As I continue watching these videos, they get weirder and weirder, plunging into the depths of sheer nonsense and obscurity. I don't like this.
Yinka Shonibare is a video artist who "always enjoyed using beauty and seduction as a way of engaging the world." His first video attempts to blur boundaries between two races, and seems as if it is a testament against racism, or even racial identification. His work with headless mannequins was supposed to parody the French revolution, as aristocracy had their heads chopped off by guillotines. His grandfather was a Nigerian chief. His father was a lawyer, so he grew up wealthy and was not discriminated against. Because of this, when he was young he did not understand the hierarchy of race. Small details which seem irrelevant, such as clothing on fabric patterns, tell a story. I like Mr. Shonibare's work because it is interesting and provocative without being dark and twisted like Paul McCarthy's art.
you picked some tough ones this week Joe.
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