New Genres

Blog Post 1

Well based on the power point that we saw in class the other day, I would have to say that the one that I responded to the most was Yoko Ono – Cut Piece - 1964. Part of the reason why I was drawn to this video was mostly because I know that this is something I could not do my self. I don't think I could let strangers come up and cut my clothes off. The other reason as to why I wouldn't be able to do is because of what happens when the guy cuts her bra off. She keeps her composure. I know that I would most likely say something to the man about how they were spose to cut the dress off, or refuse to let him cut it off. However to contradict myself there was no explanation of what they could or could not cut off of her. As the lady states it invites people to explore the boundaries, are there any or do we make boundaries for ourselves? It is piece where you can walk away with your own interpretations and feelings whether you were took part in cutting away her clothes or if you were just a spectator.

I did a little more research on this piece: 

1. Yoko Ono first performed ‘Cut Piece’ in 1964 in Japan. She repeated the performance at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1965. In September of 2003 she performed the piece for the last time in Paris. 

2. The piece ends when nothing more can be cut, or when the performer decides that the piece has ended. (The piece is non gender specific, meaning that the subject in which you cut clothing off of could be male or female.) 

3. Art historians and critics have descried it- “more like a rape than an art performance”. Yoko Ono lies still and quiet, her eyes fixed and distant as pieces of fabric are removed from her body… first someone takes a sliver at the neck, then someone tears at an arm, then a piece is cut at her belly…and so the piece proceeds, sometimes with long pauses until somebody grows bold and proceeds again. 

Blog Post 2:

This past week I would have to say that my favorite artist was Tony Orrico. I found his work incredible and inspiring. The first aspect of his work that really inspired me was his personal connection to his work. With out his understanding of math and how the body moves his art work would not turn out as it does. I appreciate the time he spent planing out the circles based on the 4 different mathematical shapes. For me the other aspect that really drew me into his art work was the combination of dance and art. Between his arms and legs and the almighty drawing tools we get this truly mind boggling art work. 

Not only is he and his art work one but it started out on his kitchen wall. In what most people consider the heart of the house he discovered that if not one hand was in control but rather they moved as one you could take your art work to a whole new level. It may be just me but I find it interesting that he started this drawing in his kitchen. A place where was as humans run to all the time but tend to also over look its importance. Now he could have just seen a white wall that he could practice his new found talent out on but I see it as a symbol.... he puts his heart and soul into his work... like I said before he was in the hearty of the house. 

Blog Post #3

  Earth art:  is an art movement which emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked.

Most deffinitly true for  Christo and Jeanne-Claude. A husband wife duo that have worked side by side to create these monstrosity earth art works. I was familiar with a few of the pieces presented in class from a previous project I did in digital photography. However they were just a side note to my presentation. Apon hearing the presentation I was interested in doing some reserach on my own. A few things that I thought were interesting were:

How do they chose the locations?

Well sometimes they have a location in mind and other times they have an idea but no lactation. for the projects that they don't have a location they end up going on road trips to find the perfect space for their art work.   

Inspirations, where do they come from? 

“Projects come from ideas from their two hearts, and two brains. The artists never create works that come from other people's ideas. Never.

 Lastly.....

YOU CAN WORK ON THE ART WORK ALONG SIDE OTHERS! YES PLEASE! 

I found it interesting that they go on road trips to so many different locations to pick the right spot. Sounds like an extra bonus to me, travel, art work, get paid! However in their Over The River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, they drove 14,000 miles in the Rocky Mountains and inspected 89 rivers in search of the river that would provide all the characteristics they were looking for. That is a lot of time and driving; I don’t think that I could do the driving part.  

I also found their works interesting because for most people they have no idea that they are about to walk on/drive through/or pass by the art work till they are there.  How awesome would that be on a family vacation, driving through the mountains when all of a sudden you are going under this bright orange fence! I think that there should be a lot more of these works throughout the US! It would make long rides more enjoyable and art educational!

Artist from the Book= Valie Export

Her artistic work includes video installations, body performances, expanded cinema, computer animations, photography, sculptures and publications covering contemporary arts.  The work I found most interesting form her is called "The Screening." To give you a better understanding of what it is I think her own quote will help: "The screening takes place in the dark as usual: except that the movie room has shrunk a little. It only has room for two hands. In order to to see the film, which in this case means to sense and feel it, the "spectator" has to put both their hands through the entrance of the movie house." Strapped to Export's bare torso is a curtained box. In 1968 offering her breast as the scene she created the TAPP-und TASTKINO ( TAP and TOUCH CINEMA). She referred to this as the first genuine women film. A film in which forced its audience to engage in an awkward experience of touching a strangers body while looking at her indifferent face.  The media responded to Export's provocative work with panic and fear, one newspaper aligning her to a witch. From 1969-1971 Export traveled throughout Europe, several of her performances provoked hostile reactions. She was banned from a preformance in Stuttgart because of a riot in which Export sustained a head injury.

Another one of her preformances I thought was interesting was Aktionshose: Genitalpanik (Action Pants: Genital Panic), Valie Export entered an art cinema in Munich, wearing crotchless pants, and walked around the audience with her exposed genitalia at face level. The performance at the art cinema and the photographs in 1969 were both aimed toward provoking thought about the passive role of women in cinema and confrontation of the private nature of sexuality with the public venues of her performances. Though this performance did need the audience to feel something every one in the room was a part of it.

Blog Post #5

Felix Gonzales-Torres was actually the one artist that really caught my eye in the book last week for the homework blog, but then I realized that he was going to be presented on in class. It is a win win, I still get the chance to talk about him. He is considered within his time to be a process artist due to the nature of his 'removable' installations by which the process is a key feature to the installation. I think that his work is amazing. I love how he takes something as simple as candy to make a statement and how personal it is to him and to what is going on in the world at the time.  I think that the part I found most interesting was his candy installations. The fact that each of them are a certain pound to represent something as significant as his partners weight when he was healthy. Then over time the viewer takes away the weight, just as the cancer took his partners weight. I also really like his paper stacks, In 1989 González-Torres presented Untitled (Memorial Day Weekend) and Untitled (Veterans Day Sale), exhibited together as Untitled (Monuments): block-like stacks of paper printed with content related to his private life, from which the viewer is invited to take a sheet. Rather than constituting a solid, immovable monument, the stacks can be dispersed, depleted, and renewed over time.

 I had not seen his light installations until they were presented in class. Which made me want to look them up and see what they were about. This is what I found: "The most pervasive reading of González-Torres's work takes the processes his works undergo (lightbulbs expiring, piles of candies dispersing, etc.) as metaphor for the process of dying. However, many have seen the works also representing the continuation of life with the possibility of regeneration (replacing bulbs, replenishing stacks or candies)." I think that it is interesting that his work can be so simple and yet so powerful in context. It really makes you stop and think about the things around you and what they could represent in the grand scheme of things. 

Blog Post#6  

                                                                                                                                               

This week I decided to write about Tim Hawkinson. I was really interested in his work in class and jelous that I have never seen his work. I would like to exsperience the rooms. I would probably spend way too much time in his exibits. I found that I was captivated right off the bat by the face peice, "Emoter." I found it interesting and a bit like surealism... in the way the face was morphed into new faces, un real but real. I also thought that his drawings, the ones where he used a drill to control how wide the circumference of the circles the pencil was making was interesting. I would have never thought about using a drill to do such a thing. I also found "Uberorgan" over the top intriguing. I don't think that I can say it any better than he does... "Several bus-size biomorphic balloons, each with its horn tuned to a different in the octave, make up a walk-in self-playing organ. A 200 foot-long scroll of dots and dashes encodes a musical score of old hymns, pop classics, and improvisional ditties. This score is deciphered by the organ's brain - a bank of light sensitive switches - and then reinterpreted by a series of switches and relays that translate the original patterns into non-repeating vairations of the score."

Blog Post #7                                                                                                                                               

In class I was intrigued by Sophie Calle. I love that she has the guts to do some of the things that were presented. I am not sure that all of us have in us to follow some one around that you don't know and to let them take you place, or lead you to new places. I think that it was an interesting concept though, to just follow some one, let them decided where your feet take you, and by following that person you can learn about them and study their routine.  The  other one of her pieces that I found interesting was the one in which she let others come sleep in her own bed. Strangers in the bed. Again I may never be able to do such a thing but I definitely find it interesting. I like how a lot of her work are about observations . I think that human observation is fascinating, I am not sure that it is always considered art, but at the same time the close encounter with others can inspire you in the most surprising ways.  I also wanted to talk about her address book piece. I love that she found it in the street and took it home and copied it and mailed it back to the person, little did that person know that she had photocopied it. Then she set about making a portrait of the man that she was falling in love with based on his information.