Artist Lecture -- Shimon Attie

Still from The Attraction of Onlookers 

Joachim-Ecke Auguststrasse: Slide projection of former Jewish resident, 1931, Berlin, 1992

Judging by the image that was chosen for Shimon Attie's lecture poster, I was not excited at all to come today, but I've got to say I was very pleasantly surprised. While I thoroughly enjoyed the entire lecture despite the embarrassing technical difficulties, I'm mainly going to focus on Attie's The Attraction of Onlookers -- Aberfan: An Anatomy of a Welsch Village. In 1966 there was a tragic disaster in the Welsch  village of Aberfan.  A man-made avalanche slid down a mountain and completely covered the village's only elementary school.  This disaster brought all kinds of attention to the small village and hasn't truly allowed them to move on and really recover from the disaster.  It has also spawned a kind of disaster tourism that brings swells of bottle-neckers to see the site of the disaster.  Like Attie said, "We freeze in response to trauma, but the trauma is never complete."  He was approached many times to make a piece commemorating the incident and turned it down many times before he actually accepted.  He made two promises to the village, that he would not use any of the archival imagery of the accident and he would show them in a way that they'd never been shown before.
Thus he created The Attraction of Onlookers.  In this five channel installation, he had images of archetypes that could be found in any given Welsch village: the dancer, the hardcore singer, the mayor, the men's choir, the conductor, the family.  Each person/group of people were depicted on slowly moving black platform which was seamless against a black background.  They were holding various poses that were indicative of their particular "label".  In the background, there was a slow, tinkling music that was very quite and contemplative.  The music coupled with the movements reminded me of a music box, and it was really quite touching.  He chose to show the people with expressionless faces in order to extract any sentimentality that could be attached to each person.  The use of these iconic types was to rectify the loss of privacy and anonymity.  I wish I would've been able to experience this piece in person. I believe it would be truly moving to be encompassed by all of the imagery and sound of this work.

Artist Lecture -- James Siera

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I wasn't quite sure what to expect going into this lecture, but I got a real treat.  I'd only found out about the lecture the night before and didn't think to look up the artist.  On top of that, he was speaking on behalf of the painting and printmaking department. He was very charming man and the lecture was very conversational, which I appreciated especially with the arsenal of imagery he'd brought along with him. Siena had very specific titles for most of his work, but he also has allowed for friends and his son to name his images as well. I like this playful approach to naming. At first he said that didn't name his work because it could point a person in the wrong direction, but stopped caring because if the work was strong enough it could overcome any misdirection that a title may present.  I took this to heart especially since I have so much trouble naming my images.

It was also interesting how he takes an original concept and twists and manipulates it in on itself. For example with his lattice series (one version seen in image 3) he started in one direction and completely turned the idea on its head via rules he creates for himself for each project whether it be only using acute angles, not allowing lines to touch, or continuously dividing up the image.  These are rules he creates for himself. To me, it seems like they are little challenges or prompts for him to follow and explore. He even said that sometimes these twists and turns can be arbitrary.  These simple rules are very much the foundation of his work, but I think because we are so trained to find complexities and reasons for every  little thing, it can be difficult to grasp that there were no reasons for some of his rules except to simply exist as guidelines for a painting. Sometimes there are "phantoms" or tricks of the eye that appear in his images and while he didn't necessarily plan for them,  he left them in the images simply because he likes them.  He thinks of them as paintings within the paintings that are generated when the eye moves over the image, which I think is a very smart way to look at it. My favorite thing that he said, however, was something that I don't know that I would've given a second thought to, but Ashleigh had me write it down for her own memory and afterwards I found myself thinking about it:

"I thought about doing it, so I better not, not do it. So I did it."

I know I've heard a couple times this semester, "If you know what it's going to look like, why do you need to make it?" Sometimes you have to make something to get it out of your head because it plagues and haunts and pecks at you until you actually do it.  In some cases, you may think you know what it's going to look like, but it comes out completely different.  I think it is very important to get out any kind of idea that you have, especially if you have a gut feeling about it.

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Titles: 1) Heliopolis 2) Non-Slice 3) Yellow Ocean Lattice 4) V-Module 5) untitled yellow-black 6) upside down devil 7) the narrows
8) battery 9) enter the face 10) eight line way (pink) 11) Recursive Boustrophedonic Combs with Random Prong 12) Recursively Puckered Non-Slice

Artist Research -- Michael Hussar

 

    Pope Innocent XXX, 2006               Morphine, 2001

 

                                                                           Spoonfed, 2001

This week, my artist is painter Michael Hussar.  My friend Alanna told me about him over the summer and I just rediscovered him in an issue of Hi-Fructose that I'd purchased a couple of months ago and just now got around to reading.  While his imagery is certainly darker than mine, his imagery is unique and not "easy" in the way that it unnerves the audience.  This is something that I spoke with Tom about early in the week.  Specifically, in regard to this image:

a certain distaste, 2009

We spoke about how I wanted to communicate that this "meal" is something being forced upon him and that although he may not want to partake in it, he has no other choice.  How am I conveying this restraint? Physical restraints were discussed and I mentioned not wanting to make the symbolism too easy, which was something Tom appreciated.  I feel like Hussar is a perfect mix between the realism of Witkin's photographs and the horrific imagery of Bacon.  It's a perfect marriage, really.  The article in Hi-Fructose opens with this sentiment:

In most forms of art, a grotesque figure is meant to symbolize the enemy--a lothesome creature, foreign, despicable and the antithesis of beauty. 

In Michael Hussar's paintings, the grotesque is often invoked to portray the self.  This reversal is not mere artistic self flagellation or overly dramatic theatrical posturing, but rather a meditation of the nature of the psyche of moments in time where the direction of one's  life pivots in an instant, sometimes in the wake of a tragedy.

I feel that this is important because it seems as though such dark imagery is frowned upon quite often if it is not performed in a certain, scaled back way.  And in Hussar's case, the grotesque is horrifying and in your face, but it also has a sad beauty about it-- the latter being something that I want to inject into my own work. I also found this passage interesting:

"A lot of dark, gothic painters, (not all off course), paint things because it's cool. I never set out to be a dark artist but have just tapped into painting how I feel and that is what you see. It's just an underlying thing in my life.  My life turned at a particular point, and that's just the way it is. I don't fight it or try to justify it. It is really honest."

This is definitely something that I find hope in, especially in addition to something else that was mentioned.  Hussar very rarely sells his work because he feels a presence about it and he doesn't want it to be just another thing that someone buys.  I feel the same way about my work. Although I am a photographer, and he is a painter and the way our final products work is definitely different, there is something that I feel from my work that resonates with me.  It also made me feel a little less weird about making dark imagery, especially when I feel like I'm surrounded by work that is decidedly not so dark.  It's something that I don't aim to make, it just comes out that way and I'm glad that I can find a relationship in that in another artist who is working today.

       Vasoline, 2002                                                  

 

                                                                      Hans Memling, 2006

Michael's Website

Idea Post -- Word Association? pt 2

Last time I did one of these, it was things that I was considering putting in my images.  This time, I'm going to put down words that I want my work to embody and communicate. Or rather, these are words that I want to be associated with my work as a whole, not necessarily only in this piece.  Some of these words may not even be expressed in my work thus far.


cold
despondent
numb
feigning
pressure
loneliness
fear
anxiety
reluctance
distress
chill
weight
hopeless
trembling
exquisite
somnambulation
solitary
confined
aching
hesitation
separation
fading
falling
distress
lost
discarnate
dissolving
silence
reflection
restlessness
disassociation
haunting
isolation
futility
fey (as explained in this definition: Magical or fairylike; Strange or otherworldly; Spellbound; Doomed to die)
creeping
decay
fallen
sickness
gnawing
fright
exhausted
worn
drowning
unashamed
resolute
clarity
rebirth
calm
freezing
blue
grey
black
bleak
icy
surreal
shattered
jagged
lucidity
dreaming
erased
frail
freezing
frozen
stripped
pale
abject
hidden
weeping
crying
seeping
rotting
choking
fragmented
sorrow
pain
seclusion
flawed
discontent
binding
desperation
displacement (from this definition: In psychology, displacement is an unconscious defense mechanism whereby the mind redirects effects from an object felt to be dangerous or unacceptable to an object felt to be safe or acceptable.)
abandoned
echoing
cutting
isolation
somber
hollow
longing
pleading
tainted
impure
crawling


Sorry for any repeats, they were just flowing out like water.

Artist Research -- Sarah Wilmer

I know I've brought up Sarah Wilmer in some of my earlier blogs, but there wasn't a sole focus on her and I think her work is worth mentioning again, especially with its influence on my work.  I saw her featured in an American Photo on Campus or one of those magazines that are always scattered around Pollak and I was enamored by her work.  Her images are beautiful and haunting within their own contexts.  Although they are mostly commercial, I think her lighting is striking and there's a magic here that I want to be able to harness in my own photographs.

from others

from others

from others

from others

image created for Surface Magazine

Sarah's Website

Idea Post -- Display Ideas

This is still in it's early stages but I think it's about time that I start considering how I'm going to present my final pieces. I'm wondering if maybe I should have sounds as part of my installation (if I choose to do an installation) but my concern is that any sound I want to use is going to be clichéd.  I want to create a monologue with sound (not words, per se) that would accent my work and help lend to the mood.  I think within the confined space where I plan to show my work, it would lend to a personal moment that you are experiencing because a moment, a memory, is a compilation of sights and sounds and maybe even smells.  My concern though in needing a specific space for my work is that when picking out a gallery space, I would need a small in which to present my work.  I know that I can build something, but I'm a) not confident in my building skills and b) I really just don't have the money for building.  I've still got a lot of thinking to do here, but the wheels are certainly turning.

Personal Critique - 10/20

I was actually pretty impressed with myself when I played back the critique tape.  For the most part, I thought I spoke clearly, although when I was reading I thought that it was a little too obvious that I was reading in the way that I spoke. I think I stammered a little much for my liking, sometimes my words all jumble together before they come out and since we're on a time limit I find it difficult to answer coherently especially when I don't understand the question and then I feel a little dumb having to re-ask but I guess I have to get over that. I read an interview with Robert Smith from the Cure once and he said that a lot of times in interviews he will pause for a moment before answering a question so he can think and that a lot of times people think he's a bit dim for it.  I definitely understood that sentiment standing up there because I would stop and think but then I felt like I was taking too long and I could only imagine what was crossing everyone's minds. I did feel pretty dim. But really, aside from collecting my thoughts a little better I did well in addressing the questions that I understood.