Idea Post -- Brainstorming List -- 2.24

Things that are bad, uncomfortable, repulsive, etc:
caviar
mold
blood
social situations
weeds
cold
medicine
tooth ache
bones
wicker
sweltering heat
sand

Things that are good, precious, sweet, etc:
strawberries
flowers
kittens
puppies
cookies
silk
the hand of a lover
a mother
tea
warmth
water
pillows

i'm drawing so many blanks it a little pathetic.

Artist Blog -- Chris Anthony -- 2.22

Emily from Victims & Avengers

Rashidja from Victims & Avengers

Jocelyn #2 from Victims & Avengers

Wednesday from Victims & Avengers

While I don't think that I would want my work to be as heavy handed in the dark imagery, I've just got to say that Chris Anthony's work is. Bad. Ass. I hope I'm allowed to say that in my blog. Anthony is an award winning artist garnering attention from PDN, American Photo, and Hasselblaad Masters. He has also held numerous solo exhibitions in addition to being included in a wealth of group shows.  

From Haute Macabre:

The women and children [...] are pictured in the aftermath of revenge. Anthony, who describes himself as growing up as a witness to domestic violence in his own home, says he imagines his subjects as victims of extended abuse who have finally struck back at their abusers, captured in “the moment of release, like the calm after the storm.”  

Part of the allure of Anthony's imagery is how constructed it is in nature, the images are less photographic than they are digital paintings of fantasy encounters and reactions to an unseen menace.

Idea Post -- Color -- 2.17

I will be updating this in a few hours after I've had more time to peruse the book that I have on color!

So maybe it's been more than a few hours, some may say a week has passed. I've read a few chapters in the book Color by Victoria Finlay including those covering Ochre as well as Black and Brown.  What's interesting to me is that although these things are relatively common, at one time or another they were very precious and blood has been spilt in order to protect the sacredness or exclusivity of the item whether it be ochre or lead or whatever.

In her the chapter on ochre, Finlay mentions the meanings of red which can not only be violence or blood but also fertility or the sun.  I feel like this is true of most colors green is sickly but also fresh, blue is soothing but also sad.  With that said, shades need to be taken into consideration in order to convey the proper mood.

Artist Lecture -- Hank Willis Thomas

"Looking Through the Fence" from Winter in America -- the Photographs

2005

Lightjet Print

Made in Collaboration with Kambui Olujimi

"Lawrence Watching" from Winter in America -- the Photographs

2005

Lightjet Print

Made in Collaboration with Kambui Olujimi

"Bleach and Glow 1975/2008" from Unbranded

Digital C-Print

Variable

"The Mandingo of Sandwiches 1977/2007" from Unbranded

Digital C-Print

Variable

"Absolute Power" from B(r)anded

2003

Light Box

30" x 40"

also: Inkjet on Canvas

"Branded Head" from B(r)anded

2003

Lightjet Print

Variable

Something I need to try to do more often is not look forward to things, because I am often very surprised when I am unexcited for something (at least as far as these artist talks go).  As a pre-lecture ritual, I look up the artist's work and try to "get it" on my own first, and in this case I didn't "get it". To an extent I suppose I did, but overall I was a little confused.  How was this any different than what I've seen on this subject before? After the lecture I can say this, it's clever.  Also, I was thrilled that he began with his roots as an artist. Ashleigh and I have discussed on several occasions how unfortunate it is that our visiting artists often pass over their early works.  Great artists don't just happen, they have to come from somewhere. How did you get from point A to point B? Thomas did this, and it was very interesting to see how his ideas flowed into each other and grew off of each other naturally, almost effortlessly it seemed.

The work that resonated most with me was that of the frames and framing.  The "indecisive moment" that he spoke of is something that I very much believe in and is something that I have always wanted to play with.  The first artist that I can think of with that in mind is Rineke Dijkstra with her deadpan portraits, waiting until the subject is completely disarmed before snapping the picture. Thomas also mentioned how the frame as a physical object can alter how we see a person -- a guilded frame for glory, unfinished wood for salt-of-the earth. 

I took a lot away from this lecture, and it may have been one of the most beneficial lectures that I have attended in my college career.  I hope that I'll be able to see him lecture again sometime. 

Hank's Website

Artist Blog -- Eleanor Hardwick -- 2.15

from "A Secret Place"

from "A Secret Place"

from "A Secret Place"

from "A Secret Place"

from "Diary 08/09"

from "Diary 08/09"

From her website:

Eleanor's work embodies the idea of daydreaming the banality and routine of daily life into something more mystical, playful and beautiful; it is a reflection of a world where surrealism meets realism. Her photographs covey a juxtaposition between being lost in the world's perplexity, whilst finding beauty in all things, where a soft and whimsical romanticism meets wistfulness and yearning.

Sometimes you just can't say things better than they've already been said, and Eleanor Hardwick's artist statement is spot on in describing her work (as a successful artist statement should be). Eleanor's imagery is beautiful, quiet and stunning in its simplicity.  Although she sometimes employs more elaborate sets that had to be constructed for the image, they still seem effortless or "found" as it were. The images I've posted from her Diary 08/09 series are the type of pictures that I admire and struggle with creating: captures of the everyday that seem perfect and still and infinite -- somehow beautiful in their ordinariness. 

At only 17 years old, I am beyond impressed with her work and I can't even begin to imagine how her works will progress as she gets older and more experienced. I see only good things to come from Eleanor Hardwick.

Eleanor's website

Artist Lecture -- Paul Pfeiffer

"Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (6)"2001
Digital duraflex print, 60 x 48 inches
Edition of 6, AP of 1 

"The Long Count (Rumble in the Jungle)"2001
Digital video loop, LCD monitor, DVD player, and metal armature, 6 x 7 x 60 inches
Edition of 6, AP of 1 

"Poltergeist"2000
Laser-fused polyamide powder, and wood, glass, and linen vitrine
Object: 4 x 4 x 8 inches
Vitrine: 22 x 22 x 24 inches
Edition of 3, AP of 2

"Quod Nomen Mihi Est?"1998
Wall-recessed diorama, 10 x 16 x 18 inches

"LIVE FROM NEVERLAND"

 2006

Stills from two-channel video installation

"Live Evil (Bucharest)"

2004

Two digital video loops, two metal armatures, two projectors, still video installation

Edition of 6, AP of 2

Paul Pfeiffer is a Hawaiian born artist who spent most of his childhood in the Philippines.  His work is mostly composed of video installations, which I suppose is the sculptural aspect of most of his pieces, since very few of them could actually be considered as sculpture (at least from the work that was shown).  The works shown had an eeriness about them that left me uncomfortable, even in the iconic Risky Business (which, for the record I have not seen but it's so recognizable!) loop I knew I was seeing Tom Cruise having a tantrum on the couch but it looked more like he was writhing or being electrocuted and so where the image came from didn't really factor into how I perceived the video, or maybe it did I'm not really sure. I experienced the same thing with Live Evil where I recognized the disfigured visage of Michael Jackson performing despite not really being familiar with that particular (or any) performances of Jackson's.  Still, though, I was very discomforted and put at dis-ease by the warping effect that was created by the merging torso.  This relates directly to his sentiment that it doesn't matter where the images really come from, but it creates another layer to the piece if you do.  

While looking for images to put in this post, I found what I realized was the piece that he chose not to show due to length and that piece was LIVE FROM NEVERLAND which, after reading about it, I was really disappointed he decided not to show. According to descriptions, one channel was a Filipino children's choir singing Jackson's 1993 broadcast regarding the child molestation allegations that had come against him while in the other channel, said broadcast was played sans sound.  The part that seemed remarkable to me was that the cadence of the choir is said to have been matched perfectly to Jackson's silent delivery of the same words.

Idea Post -- Stream of Consciousness -- 2.10

SUGGESTIONS FROM WIKIPEDIA:

1. Ostensibly unedited, spontaneous live or recorded performances, as in film, music, and dramatic and comic monologues, intended to recreate the raw experience of the person portrayed or the performer

2. a narrative mode used as a literary, cinematic, theatrical, or lyrical technique

3. (psychological) the flow of thoughts in the conscious mind

Stream of consciousness as a narrative device is generally characterized as a form of interior monologue that hasn't been sent through an editing process that would typically clarify the thoughts of a person to the audience experiencing said monologue, it is as if the monologue is being observed in the brain. The term was introduced by American philosopher and psychologist William James and he described it as a sort of mind-world connection. This resulted in a major influence for avant-gard AND modernist literature and art.

Several well known literary figures have used this type of writing in their works including William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Marcel Proust, Virginia Wolfe, Samuel Beckett, Hermann Hesse, J.D. Salinger, Albert Camus, Bret Easton Ellis, Mark Z. Danielewski, and Thomas Pynchon. Of these writers, the best example of what I'm trying to explain here is going to be T.S. Eliot's the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which can be read in its entirety here. Below is an excerpt:

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!	75
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep … tired … or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?	80
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,	85
And in short, I was afraid.

From the poem, the reader is unsure of exactly what Eliot is writing about but is still able to feel the tone of his writing which is in direct correlation with my work.  The story itself is unimportant, but the feelings that can be extracted from the writing, the dots that can be connected, those are places where the real meaning lies.

Artist Blog -- Manjari Sharma's "The Shower Series" -- 2.8

 

 

Manjari Sharma is an India born Photographer who has moved back and forth between the US and India a couple times during her photographic career. She has worked with high profile photographers, one such being Eric Ogden, and is currently based in New York.  In the Shower Series, Sharma invited people into her bathroom in order to photograph them and while doing so she invited them to actually shower in front of her. From her website:

I noticed that once the warm water ran over my subjects' bodies it 

often relieved them of some of the awkwardness the camera brought 

about.  Once they were relaxed, the bathroom, formerly a beauty 

parlour, now turned into a confessional and I the hair dresser. 

Many of my subjects have shared intimate details of their life with me 

and every new person in the shower brings a brand new allegory. 

With every new visit I've had a new protagonist; A new plot and a 

new parable of hurt and heroism that has come undone under my 

shower.  Secretly  I have been told by my subjects that it is thrilling 

and adventuresome to be in my shower; secretly cheating all of my 

traditional and tame Indian upbringing I live through all of my 

subjects. Fighting their wars and braving their fears and for those 

few hours, we are connected through this controversial pious space.

The release of tension and awkwardness that is described in this excerpt is evident in the expressions presented by the models.  Each moment captured has a story that can be inferred from the gentle facial expressions and each image is engaging, despite being presented in conjunction with other, similarly lit and composed portraits which is a great feat.  Sharma has an eye for vulnerability but does not exploit her subjects. Instead, the relationship that she has formed with each person is shared with the viewer who then forges their own relationship with each person photographed.

Manjari's Website

Idea Post -- Home/Gothic Fiction -- 2.4

DEFINITION

 home [hohm] - noun: 

1. a house, apartment, or shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household
2. the place in which one's domestic affections are centered
3. any place of residence or refuge: a heavenly home

Home is a concept that has always seemed foreign to me.  I've never quite related to the idea of a space, a sanctuary type of place where no harm can come to me. Perhaps this is because at any place that I've ever called home, I've experienced some sort of betrayal, in a sense. Rather than the typical depiction of a home as related in the image above, I feel as though my understanding of a home more closely identifies with the idea of a home as found in gothic literature.


The home in gothic literature is architecture, a dwelling, and it is as corrupt and crumbling as the characters that find residence inside of its walls.  Horace Walpole is said to be the author to birth the movement with the novel the Castle of Otranto -- rife with melodrama, parody, and decay. None of the inhabitants are sound of mind and the evil that snakes through the stories is not a physical ugly creature -- no Frankenstein, no Dracula -- but rather a psychological malice or disease that consumes the player that it is found in. The house itself is typically in some sort of disrepair or in the process of decaying which represents the irreparable state(s) of its inhabitants.


While I can't say that my experience has been to such an extreme, it felt as though my life were in such a state of shamble. My childhood home was always in various stages of being "fixed up" which lead to splintered floors, stray nails, and other precarious circumstances that needed to be navigated around.  Family matters were no better and persisted even after the divorce of my mother and step-dad. My own mind was ravaged by the aftermath of various encounters with my step-father and that weight was a lot to deal with and still carries with me now. 


I hadn't quite made a connection between this and my work before, I knew the events which have really fueled my work, but the home aspect hadn't really made itself apparent to me and now I'm interested to see how this realization will impact my creations for this semester.

Artist Blog -- Ian Aleksander Adams' "Gray Days"

The above photos are a selection from Ian Aleksander Adams' photobook entitled Gray Days.

While checking my blogs this evening I read a blurb about Ian Aleksander Adams. It referenced his work Gray Days and a brief essay that his mother wrote on the work. Intrigued, I investigated a little further and fell in love with this series.  It is a perfect example of what I want to accomplish with my work, that is, a series of images of seemingly unrelated instances intertwined to create a story.  The imagery itself is still, even in moments that show some kind of action, they are quiet and reflective and reminiscent of those moments when I find myself just focusing on one small, insignificant detail of my day.  Even more interesting, was his mother's commentary on the imagery.  Truthfully, I did not finish reading what she was writing as it hit very close to home.  She wrote:

Looking at the somber, muted, personal and a bit alienated images, I can relate to the mood and existential angst. What is the meaning of this proscribed life? I also feel a bit guilty. Perhaps my son would be out shooting a more engaging world, if his younger life had been different, or his genes. Maybe his images would convey the vibrant beauty and energy of the world around him if I, his mother, had been more able to connect him to it, to live with verve and joy rather than fighting fatigue and the sense of clawing negativity on many days, for many years. Maybe his work would have more clarity, color, drama, and be striking. Some of his early stuff was. Why is he pulling away from that? What is the message he is reaching to make- is it partly to me?

It reminded me of something that transpired between my mother and me when I showed her my portfolio last semester.  She was silent, at first, and when asked what it made her feel she said it made her feel like a failure as a mother.  She's nothing of the sort, but that is, I suppose, what the aim of my work is in a way. It is somber and brooding, not what one would expect from me on the outset I'm sure.  I feel almost as though it is my purpose to create such work, I just feel as though it doesn't fit in the environment that I exist in at the moment.

Ian's Website