De Tears

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Artist Lecture

Blithe Riley is a digital artist that works with video installation. In her talk today, she discussed several of her completed projects. Two of these projects were the three part installation, Shake, Crawler and Wall and the project Scale and Descent. These two installations differed a lot from each other but at the same time were both very unique pieces of art.

Shake, Crawler, and Wall are three installations that uniquely combine videos, installations and actors. The actors, if present, will interact with the video being shown. In Shake the actors is a Quaker. The video she follows has fours stages (birth, awakening, trance and rest.) The exhibition tells a simple story of a spiritual ritual that balances liberation though dance but also a restriction through faith. The next installation Riley shows the group is Crawler. She admits that she got inspiration for the work from the Matrix and its female lead Trinity. In the work, there is a video of a woman crawling through what looks like a cave. When the woman gets to one end of the video screen and disappears, an actor pops out with the same outfit of the women on the screen. Then she eventually disappears and the same thing happens but on the other side. With these two installations I wondered how well timed are the actors and the videos. I also wondered how different would it be if the actors were not present. Finally, it crossed my mind if the actors got tired of constantly doing the same motions and if different people rotated for the part. The final part of this three piece exhibition was the Wall. In this exhibition the actor doesn’t appear. Instead they are hidden behind a wall. Also, people can physically interact with this one. The participants would stick their hands inside the wall and feel the actor’s hands grab theirs while the participant would look at a prerecorded screen. This could cause confusion and a bit of surprise to the participant. Overall, I believe the installations worked well combing completely different types of art.

The second installation I felt was more extravagant than Shake, Crawler, and Wall. Scale and Descent could not even be enclosed indoors. It was part of a defunct water tower. Between the spaces of the towers were several screens. Inside the screens showed a person climbing and down the tower. The tower itself provided a surface for the onscreen person to climb on. Unlike the others, this installation did not include actors however, it did share the same concept of having an actor on film interacting with an environment not on film.

I have never seen an artist quite like Blithe Riley. It would have been nice to seen Shake, Crawler and Wall in person. That exhibition took a year to make so most likely I would probably not see any of her work in person at St. Mary’s.

National Art Gallery

I have been to the National Gallery of Art two times prior to my field trip on Thursday and I have been to the Hirshhorn once. I had never been to the Sackler. This trip I decided to visit the Sackler and see the National Gallery one more time. I feel as if visiting the national gallery this third time has helped me respect the place better. Having a partner really helped me not get lost, the previous two trips I walked alone, and it provided company in which I could talk to and express how I feel about the art. It was probably this small change that helped me appreciate the art in the gallery, especially the older works, a bit more.

One of the greatest things about going to a museum is seeing the actual artwork. A reproduction will never ever capture the brilliance and detail shown in the actual work. At first, I did not care too much about Cezanne or Van Gogh but seeing their works up close is breathtaking. Another thing about visiting a museum is the fact that you recognize pictures that you have only seen in books and for once in you life you are only several inches from the painting admiring every stroke. I was fortunate while visiting the gallery to find some of my favorite artworks. An example of this is Magdalene at the Mirror (the sister painting, The Magdalene with the smoking Flame, was in the Disney movie: The Little Mermaid.) I also saw Robert Gould Shaw Memorial. This memorial was dedicated to the Massachusetts, Fifty-fourth Volunteer Infantry, the first official all African American regiment. It was a complete surprised to see both of these works there. It was hard to express how happy I was. However, I also gained some new favorites. The large oil painting, The Voyage of Life: Youth by Thomas Cole was breathtaking. In the upper left corner is this beautiful castle made up of clouds while on land is this lush greenery. Another beautiful work is the Corinthian Maid by Joseph Wright. What attracted me to this picture were the rich deep reds and the expression of the two people. I felt that although subtle, there was a lot of emotion between the two.

After seeing the almost exaggerated beauty of the human anatomy, I headed to the Eastern part of the building which features modern art. The works on this side of the building sharply contrast those in the West building. No longer are there portraits, landscapes, and still life but a shift of focus to color and more abstract art. Someone told me, that you can’t compare modern art to pre-Twentieth Century art because their focus is on two different things. Modern art has pushed the boundaries of art and has us question what can be defined as art. Looking at one of Cy Twomby’s untitled pieces in the gallery, one can easily say that anyone can do that. However, at the time this picture was created, the mere thought of it being in a museum was scandalous. I feel as if I value both types of art and I will try my best not to compare the two.

Instead of visiting the Hirshhorn, I decided to visit the Sacker. This museum focused on the Asian and Middle Eastern art. It also had an exhibition featuring bibles predating 1000 C.E. and fine beads necklaces made up of torn paper. After seeing the Western artwork at the National Gallery, it was nice to see some Eastern works. These artworks seem very organic compared to the western art. In the Chinese art, there was not a portrait of a perfectly replication of the human body but a story. The Indian sculpture often featured very voluptuous and ornate women. There was often a subtle bit of sexuality to the sculptures too. The Asian art also seemed more fantastical than the western art. Woman often had four arms or more in Indian art and colorful dragons were often featured in Chinese art.

Every visit to an art museum concludes with an amount of knowledge gained. I feel as if this trip helped me appreciate art more. I would have loved to explore the Hirshhorn too. The Smithsonian is such a miraculous place. It does not give it justice to explore just two museums in a day.

Cyborg Manifesto

Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto is a very difficult read and confused me slightly because it stalk more of sociology and feminism more than cyborgs.It does however slightly explore how cyborgs could live. As she has pointed early in the article, cyborgs would not be like us(humans)because they would not have a gender or be made like us. However, cyborgs may have to be forced to follow the social structures everyone else does. The author compares them to minorities and possible having a lower status.There is something else that would bring trouble to cyborgs. According to Haraway cyborgs are "offspring of militarism and patriarcahal captialism, not to mention state socialism.

The term cyborg in Haraway's essay is more of a metaphor for woman. She talks about the women's role in the 20th century than compares it to cyborgs. Many times through the article, Haraway often mentions about a woman's place and thoughtout history it has been seen second to man. Race can also affect a person status in society while race and gender together can really harm a person's status. However people ofter fight against this. She also talks about women of color explain this.

This article makes me think about how global society view women and the possibility that if there were cyborgs what role they would have. Nevertheless, i believe it will be much later in my life before cyborgs as advanced as in science fiction occur.

Made History Soviet WWII photographs exhibition

The current exhibition in the Boyden gallery, Made History: Soviet WWII Photographs, is a chilling collection of photographs featuring disturbing but also the eerie tranquil moments of war. One of the descriptions hanging in the gallery highlights an important fact many viewers often overlook: the power of the black and white photo. In a summary of what the description said, black and white images are more believable than colors ones since it is what we are used to the most. Even if there was a color picture, it doesn’t seem real to the viewer because of what they are used to seeing. Not only that, but I believe black and white photograph have the ability to filters out the unnecessary, and bring out the sharp contrast that makes the picture powerful. They were four pictures that I believed stood out from the others. The first two have an aura of fantasy, the second is full action and the last one is disturbing and frightening.

The first photo I encountered, Yuri Levitanski, was paired with a poem called a “Dream about a piano.” In the picture are a small number of soldiers in a house that has taken severe damage. The walls are crumbling and the roof is exposed. There is debri everywhere but somehow, the piano, the chairs around it, and the vase sitting on the piano are intact. One of the soldiers is playing the piano while the other soldiers sit around or stand beside him. It must have been a peaceful moment when this picture was taken. Still, the witness can see the destruction behind them. I don’t know if this will be the last time this man will play the piano, or if the person who lives in the house will ever come back. Time is frozen and viewers only know what they see: a peaceful moment. But for how long?

Tank Battle at Night is the second photo I would like to discuss. It is beautiful and sad. The fires from the tanks are like shooting stars and the picture is almost cut diagonally by the row of tanks. This picture has a bigger contrast than most of the pictures in the gallery. The way the light moves almost seems as if it has a life to it. For a second, the viewer almost forgets how dangerous it could be because of the lights beauty.

In Attack, there are different types of motions felt than the former. There is urgency, panic, and speed. The soldiers are caught in their fierce attack for battle. They are going so fas,t part of the picture has blur lines. Seeing this picture made my heart beat fast. I felt like I was immersed in the action. The widescreen structure of the picture also reminded me that the shot could have been a scene in a movie.

The final picture is haunting, disturbing and one of the more emotional pictures in the exhibition. Called Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, it features a boy with a baby face in a ditch. At the angle the picture is taken, he appears to be floating. Out of context, the picture seems almost peaceful until the viewers eyes trace to his neck which seems to be bent to an awkward, disturbing angle. It is then you realize then that child is dead and how despairing the picture is.

I believe this collection features all the emotions people who somehow come in contact with war feel: hate, urgency, courage, sadness and pain. However, there is also jubilation. This is the case in one of the pictures when the civilians welcome home the soldiers. No matter who is fighting whom, or who the enemy is, there will always be these feelings associated to war.

photoshop pictures

Here are the three pictures i worked on. The project was combing fruit and architecture toghether.

Gif

Here is a link to my gif!

Siobhan Rigg artist talk

I have not been able to go to any artist talks this year besides this one, but the talk was very interesting. I liked all of her her projects and found them very imaginitive but my favorite two were "Welcome to the C district" and "redistribution." I think redistribution was somewhat revelent to what we are learning now:motion pictures. I liked how Rigg moved the cards which created a movie of what was occuring in all those pictures. C district was interesting because it was a mobile performance. With most performances, everything is traditionaly done on a stage, but these performances were done all around the city. In a way it was blurring real life and cinema together.
Rigg's current project is about filming places around route one. I feel like this project relates to me because the highway runs up and down the east coast and the east coast of the United States is the only part of the world i have been too. It's unfortunate that she did not complete this project because maybe some of the film would have reminded me of some places i have gone to. I wish her the best of luck with it.