ART:21 TRANSFORMATION

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.

ART:21 SPIRITUALITY

Ann Hamilton believes in a strong connection between the line of sewing and the line of writing, the unifying theme being art. She thinks that each thread of cloth together making a piece is a powerful social metaphor. The relation between the written line, sewn line, and drawn line are about the fundamental act of making. Words are a material like anything else. Her work is broad, ranging from balls of text, to toothpick covered suits, to installation projects. She talks about installation as "animating space." I like her work. It's well thought out, and a little weird.

John Feodorov creates spiritual altars creating "kitsch-objects". He notes how in modern culture, animals have become "Disney-fied" whereas totem animals used to be powerful and command respect. He combines totems using toys, various religions, and sawdust to represent ashes to create some of the strangest, most bewildering artwork I've ever seen in one presentation. His art incorporates and exploits ambiguity and contradiction found in society. His particular interest in Navajo culture and religion stems from Navajo roots, combined with Jehova's Witness Christianity. These completely opposed cultures definitely took part in making his work the way it is. His other work, such as the teddybears with masks, also focus on Navajo tradition and obstruction in modern culture. I like it, but it's a little too weird for me.

ART:21

I liked the way Raymond Pettibon uses writing in his work to verbalize art and communicate humor, drama, anger, jubilance, and sadness.  His work requires two arts: writing and drawing. His work ranges all over, because he has a very broad artistic spectrum. His work is varied, but always meaningful. I can relate to his type of art, as it requires an ever-changing, all-encompassing creative mind.

Elenor Antin work always tells a story. She defines what she does as, "inventing histories." The abstraction of her work with cutouts both confuses and intrigues me. There has to be a lot of thought that goes into her work, as the complexity is planned. She continues to talk about re-inventing herself as someone else, in alter-egos.

Principles of Design

The work of art I looked at with my partner was called "Dempsey & Firpo." by George Bellows. It depicted one boxer knocking another out of the ring. There was Emphasis on the boxers because there was light on them and they were in the middle of the ring. The picture's balance was asymmetrical and movement was implied. It was clearly shown in the punch thrown and the boxer falling. There was proportion on the picture, because audience members were at different distances. All the people were grouped together, and the light shone in a way to contrast the boxers from the audience members.

Found Object Sculpture Reflection Discussions

I didn't get much feedback on my projects, mostly because they were supposedly perfect and had nothing to improve. The only feedback I got was, "That's cool." My group members both had cool projects, but Sammy and Mandy's Sailboat was especially cool because of the moving aspect of the project, involving the gears of a stereo. My group's discussion didn't do much as far as improving my current work, but did however give me ideas for projects in the future.