Graduate Application -- Sotheby's Institute

Artist Lecture -- Amy Hauft and "Counter Re-Formation"

Counter Re-Formation; canvas, metal, wood, foam, sugar, resin, plastic glitter; 2007

Amy Hauft is the Chair of the VCU Sculpture department and her large scale piece, Counter Re-Formation is currently being shown at the Anderson Gallery. Going into her lecture, I had no idea what to expect. I didn't even know who was speaking, just that there was a lecture going on.  It seems that many of my lecture experiences begin in some state of ignorance of what I will be seeing, but it keeps expectations low.  Hauft described herself as "an eccentric magnet" that attracts many things but only a few stick and this becomes the basis for her work.  She does have a few common threads in her work -- one being fabrics, another is self-taught archaic crafts, and the other being landscapes created specifically for the indoors.

For Counter Re-Formation she utilized her three common threads as well as some new bits of information that had been attracted to her magnetism. One of these things was a table based on a dessert table used by the court of Louis XV.  She replicated it at a 1:1 scale but rather than having it symmetrical, she changed one of the arms so that it would create a sort of vortex that would echo the staircase at the center of the structure.  This staircase is a sugar sculpture that satisfies the archaic craft as it was mostly used in the 16th and 17th centuries. The actual staircase itself is actually a 2:1 model of a miniature staircase that Hauft viewed at the Cooper-Hewitt and was luckily allowed to measure.

The forms on the table (which is outfitted with canvas) are meant to resemble snow drifts and dunes and banks while the spiral is meant to replicate a memory of walking through snow alleys that are paved during snow storms.  This piece as a whole was meant to be seen from above and was created to be shown at a gallery in Michigan which had a second story viewing level which would allow the audience to experience the piece from the ground as well as in the air. This was not possible at the Anderson and so she constructed a spiral staircase which allows the viewer to have a singular experience with the piece from above. This also occurs when the viewer walks through the vortex as there is only enough room for one person in both of these spaces.

Like Penelope Umbrico, I was impressed with how Hauft was able to take something as insignificant as a childhood memory of walking through snow plowed pathways and turn it into something that demanded admiration and consideration.  In dealing with the Baroque era through the table, she was also commenting on how the decadence and excess of the period ushered in its own downfall, but the irony lies in that it is in fact quite decadent to have this entire installation to yourself, in your own experience.

She mentions that the haptic experience is primary -- you can come in without any outside knowledge about what is behind the creation of the piece, but you can still have an experience with it.  She also says, "As an artist, I'm not held to scholarship. I can take what I want and leave what I don't. That's the best part." These are both sentiments that I appreciate as an artist because they are also things that I strive for in my own work.  If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times -- it is so exciting for me to hear my own thoughts bounced back at me from a working artist. This reinforces that my thought processes aren't so foreign.  Seeing Amy Hauft speak was quite the treat and I'd love to see more of her work in the future.

Contest Entry -- VMFA

Images used:

melting, 2009

throes of ecstasy, 2009

window gazing, 2009

``reality destroys our dreams``, 2009

from our ruins, 2009

cornered by you, 2009

a certain distaste, 2009

in memoriam. , 2009

Contest Entry -- Undergraduate Research Grant

Contest Entry -- Artemis Gallery's Salon de Refusés

There wasn't an official form for this, but I spoke with the curator about it directly. Hopefully this will suffice as proof of entry:

Idea Post -- Idea for Continuation in Second Semester

In reference to this image:

closer to you, 2009

I'm thinking a series of intense closeups where something is being applied to the person to make them severely uncomfortable. I think this would be a more cohesive way of getting my point across. I'm also thinking of working in two separate veins. Rather, I would like to conduct two separate projects that deal with the same theme in two different ways. Whether or not this happens remains to be seen, but I thought it pertinent to get these thoughts down so that I can come back to them later.

Artist Research -- Rebecca Rijsdijk's "fluitenbergstraat 104"

(all from fluitenbergstraat 104, 2009)

As far as biography, there's not much that I can find about Rebecca Rijsdijk.  She seems to be a young, contemporary artist who works in many different veins.  I'm choosing to focus specifically on fluitenbergstraat 104.  Just from reading the images, the piece seems to be about looking back on something that was lost. One thing that Rijsdijk does that I want to perhaps experiment with in my presentation of my work is the utilization of mismatched imagery. This gives the impression that she is showing us a collection of events that have taken place over a span of time and have not been captured only recently.  In other works, she incorporates written pieces and scraps of paper which gives the work more body and soul.  These written pieces do not overpower the images but rather give them a bit of context as well as clues as to what we are viewing.

Rebecca's Website

Idea Post -- Idea for a Photo

While I'm not sure if I will be able to attempt this (it all depends on my model's availability before the end of the semester) I thought of something that I believe will really get across my point for the following series of images.  These are all of the incarnations this photo has seen:

 

three incarnations of a certain distaste, 2009

So I'm thinking that the framing would be similar to that in the second incarnation however his head would be tilted up and a fencing foil would be held to his throat while he has the fork or knife either right above or sticking into the dish laid out before him.  It would show the forcefulness without being too overpowering, I think.

Artist Research -- Brooke Shaden

From her website:
Founded by photographer and filmmaker Brooke Shaden, Shaden Productions explores the theme of surrealism in portriature and beyond. Brooke is a Temple University graduate with degrees in film and English, currently focused in photography while producing and directing a short film, Keep. 

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a play in three acts, 2009

an unyielding limb, 2009

hygiene, 2009

disjointed dream, 2008

Brooke Shaden's imagery is both haunting and quiet and is sure to creep into the thoughts as one is trying to get to sleep.  While sometimes I feel like it is slightly over produced, it is still beautiful and rife with historical references.  The posturing of her figures is classical and romantic, which is in stark contrast to the majority of the subject matter which is dark and anxious, which is always something I admire. She draws much of her inspiration for imagery from paintings which reminds me of Joel-Peter Witkin.  Shaden's lighting is also gorgeous, she has a clear understanding of it and photo manipulation, which some of her other works are reliant on.  The first image I've posted actually reminds me of one of Brittany Kaufman's images.

fetus, 2009

green street blues, 2009

a winter wind, 2009

coinhabitance, 2009

Brooke's Website

Idea Post -- Elco Color Printing and Mounting

So after my meeting with Tom we discussed size and presentation for my work.  While I think that 18"x12" is a nice size, I would like to see these images bigger and he mentioned the ongoing poster print sale at Elco Color.  Here is the price listing:

I'm thinking that the 30"x20" prints are looking like my best bet. Not because they're cheaper, but because they're more of the size I want -- just slightly bigger than what I originally presented.  Tom had also mentioned that another student, Zack Concepcion, had gotten his Elco prints mounted there as well. So, I looked into this:

While I don't have a problem with foamcore, and it would be nice to do a one stop shopping kind of thing, these prices are just way too high.  For the critique, I went to Main Art and got 5 prints mounted for I think $28, which is a really great deal especially considering the turn around time (I got them back same day).

I think my best bet is going to be to get my prints made at Elco and then have them mounted at Main Art. I just have to make sure I give myself enough time to get everything taken care of.

All images are screenshots from the Elco website.

Artist Research -- Jinyoung Yu

``My creations represent those who have chosen a life apart from others, as if they are invisible or non-existent beings.  Instead of adapting themselves to human society, they enter into their own personal space, avoiding others interruptions.``

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Jinyoung Yu is a 32 year old Korean artist who, at current, does the majority of her work in sculptural medium.  Her work struggles with a few key ideas including the isolation that occurs due to the break down of communication that we are experiencing within our culture as well as the actual state of being an invisible or transparent individual.  Both of these ideas are expressed poignantly in her work, especially in the faces of her sculptures which are created with a self-realized PVC recipe and clay.  Yu was actually featured in the same issue of Hi-Fructose as Michael Hussar and in her interview, I found this paragraph to be a good summation of her work:

So how does one make sense of it all? Is it better to shout and carry on or to hide in the corner, feigning weak smiles? Is wearing your heart on your sleeve any better than putting on a mask? As in any intellectual debate about identity, conformity or individualism, it's hard to make a shatter-proof argument one way or the other.  All I know is that when I look at one of Jinyoung Yu's invisible people, they look familiar to me. I understand. I understand because I know them as myself.  Jinyoung's work is for the loner in all of us, for those outside of the world; those who find their comfort inside their own private sphere yet long to show their true self; a self free of lies and fraudulent affectation.  As stunning as the work may be and as dedicated an artist as she is, the true aim of Jinyoung's invisible people lies in the instinctual pursuit to find and celebrate the sincere individual lurking inside each of us.

I find that much of this is what I'm trying to achieve in my own work, a communication, a deep seeded understanding of self that lies in another person or figure.  My struggle, though, is going to be this: How do I achieve this intimacy without the use of an entire face? I'm noticing in my reshoots and that most of the imagery that I'm creating anew that the face is becoming smaller and smaller in the frame, if it is even in the frame at all.  This is interesting to me because generally the face is a large part of my image and it always has been I think. It is the hub of emotion, but I think in studying body language, I can get the same kind of raw energy that is shown in these faces made of lifeless clay.

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All of these pieces are either from Abundant Emptiness or A Family in Disguise. Because she is a foreign artist and many of her pieces bear similar qualities, it was difficult to decipher which pieces belonged to which series because of the language barrier and her general state of unknown in the US.

Jinyoung's Website

Idea Post -- Display Ideas part Deux

Here is a beautiful diagram of how I would like to present my final piece:

The hanging red/white things in the middle are my images. I want to have a light shining in the middle space. There will be curtains sectioning off the area from the rest of the room, however it won't be small like it was at mid-term, it will only serve to define a space so that the room that I present in (I anticipate room 305 ) will not distract from my work.  I actually got this idea from Ashleigh.  We were talking about how I feel there is no beginning or end to this particular work. She mentioned it being cyclical and what if I hang my images in a circle where there is no defined start or end and when the person enters the space they just go around and around. I like this idea of entrapment to go along with my work and having my audience being stuck in the endless cycle that I find myself stuck in on the day to day.  I think it would be a very effective way of showing my piece for this reason.