Paradox

This episode was hard to follow or maybe it was because I just wasn’t paying enough attention. I did not like Catherine Sullivan’s work. I didn’t get it. I thought it was weird, yet funny. It is amazing that people can move drastically with ever changing facial expressions. A lot of the past artist that we have looked at in Art 21, have had a lot of assistance and people around working to make their work happen. Robert Ryman however prefers to work alone. At first that is what I thought I would like to do if I were one of them, but now it seems lonely. I like how people have connections and networking to be in the presence of others with different skills. Mark Bradford was my favorite out of the group. I liked the work with the soccer ball and the google like map one. I like the colors and how abstract they look.   

Ecology

Ursula Von Rydingsvard, the first artist shown in this episode, was very particular with only using cedar wood for her sculptures. They are enormous sculptures. Her work looks like it is an over whelming amount of work and it is. She has a handful of people helping her get the pieces just right. I like the work tilted “Wall Pocket.” I like the rough edges. Many of her other pieces resemble, in my opinion, sides of cliffs/mountains or the Grand Canyon. 

Inigo Manglano-Ovalle’s work of “Cloud Prototype No. 1” is very unique, a time stopped in a sculpture. I wonder what I would have come up with if I didn’t know that it was a storm cell. I can tell that it looks to be a storm and possibly a tornado. I like it in the video verse looking at this picture, not sure if it is the same one. I like how the light hit and reflected off to reveal a blue. It almost looked like rain falling from a cloud.

Mark Dion’s work in the beginning was disgusting. I was grossed out when he was rubbing the mice/rats with black paint. It is probably because he said that he got them from a lab, and that they were once real. Knowing that kind of freaks me out. The finish product was nice. The last project that they focused on was the tree that had fallen. I find it fascinating that they were putting emphasize on that it was not a naturally system in the enclosed controlled environment and also they could never duplicate the natural system that occurs in nature.

Protest

I felt like I connected, understood, and saw the protest in these artist works. I like when people try to make a difference, what ever way they can. Alfredo Jaar stood out the most. He had passion and a heart-breaking story of Rwanda. He explained how little attention or help was being reported about the country. He had to go there and get their message out, but in respect to the people. As artist we can demand attention in certain circumstances. That is very important to me, because artist can get their own personal opinion/message about an event/topic or collaborate with organizations. I’m coming from a “graphic designer thought” when I mean organizations. I love the idea of possibly designing for an organization, etc. to draw people into an organization or raise thought to what is going on locally, nationally, and internationally.

Alfredo said he uses different skills for different installations. I have noticed a pattern in the Art 21 episodes, that many artist have an idea and then collaborate or higher people to do the skill that they do not posses. I’ve learned that you need to be open to people’s input and the idea of using people’s skills even if you cannot execute them yourself.       

Romance

Laurie Simmons’ dolls were interesting. I didn’t really care for the works that were shown on Art 21. With out her earlier work though she would not have done the three photos of the dolls below. She said that she uses the camera as a tool. These dolls are frozen in time, or an action. They actually really creep me out because they look so real. I believe these photos are from this year and are from a series of other poses of the doll called Love Doll. Here is the website for the other photos. http://www.lauriesimmons.net/photographs/the-love-doll/#  

Simmons’ also did fabric collaborations with Thakoon Panichgul for the Spring 2009 collections. Pictured is two of the same dress. One is on the runway and the other looks to be more editorial. I appreciate this project because I am very interested fashion.  I love patterns, texture, and the way the fabric lies. I like the layers on the skirt or bottom part of the dress. I believe the pattern is a flower with legs coming out of it. This showed up in the video too when she had objects on top of people with only there legs sticking out. Her work has evolved yet she has kept her roots. 

Structure

It is funny how I just mentioned Matthew Ritchie and now he is in this episode of Art 21. A lot of these artists are very deep in the sense that they know their work so well, and can explain it in a highly intelligent way. It makes me wonder if I will fully understand their concepts and if I will also have my own “out of this world” explanation for my art. I am going to just talk about Matthew Ritchie’s work, because his is the only one that really caught my attention. The two pieces below are Matthew Ritchie. They just grabbed my attention, partially because of the scale, the non-flat wall, and the circles and colors of the other. 

His works are massively big and have a great amount of detail in them.  He uses a computer programs to zoom into the smallest details and zoom out for the big picture. They are projected on the wall and traced. Ritchie’s work is collaboration with a handle full of other people. Matthew was always shown working with assistances. He has no problem with people being a part of the work.

Matthew Ritchie also talks about his art and how it relates to his ideas of the big picture. For example the “cell” is a metal cell that could surround a person. This locks a person in. It is their prison and is like the prison where we put the “bad people.” They are trapped and locked in that viewpoint. Picture below is the piece.  

   

Play

I really like Arturo Herrera’s work. I like how he plays with collage and is trying to invent something new out of it. I personally like collage and it is my favorite thing about art in school, besides ink (or sharpie). It might have to do with the fact that it adds different textures, colors, and shapes. It doesn’t even have to make sense, it can be just abstract or design. Here is what appears to be a castle lost in lines, or an ant looking through glass. That is what is nice about art, you can make it what ever you want, whether the viewer or in the artist.

While looking up Arturo, I found Matthew Ritchie. Love, love the craziness and how jammed packed his work is. His art is a piece that can be looked at for a long time or even days apart and something would be discovered each time. Ritchie’s work looks similar in some aspects as Herrera’s. It could be the harsh black and light possibly watercolor parts. The layers and layers of object's  shapes are interesting. They look like explosions. He also does installation work and this, in my opinion, brings his work to life and off the wall. 

Memory

I am repeating myself again by saying that I don’t have much to say about this episode. Maybe I am tired or just wasn’t wowed. I just want to talk about Hiroshi Sugimoto. I really love photography and really wish I knew a “proper” way of doing it. I thought it was interesting that he doesn’t do any of the new wave technology. He prefers to shoot with the natural light. I respect that, but technology can enhance a photo so much more. When I think of the traditional way of photograph, and looking at a photo like that, I think it is just beautiful. I guess I like the idea of editing a photo.

Here are photos of a dress collection that Sugimoto shot (kind of reminds me of editorial work that would be seen in a magazine).    

Another group of work that Hiroshi Sugimoto focused on was out of focused work. I am not sure what I think of it. I like it and then don’t. I think it messes with my eyes, as if my contacts are not in, and that bothers me.