Fire sculpture

To have Nina’s sculpture taken over by other artists in building to even people of the community volunteering to help watch the sculpture bake at night truly adds to the meaning of her concept behind this piece of work. However, with the sculpture being cooled down now, it has become another artistic piece that requires the artist statement in order to appreciate the piece fully. I believe this because there are other buildings surrounding this sculptural building. This sculpture essentially mimics those buildings and to the ordinary viewer would pass it with one glance at it as if it were any other building, unlike the PAO heads. Having gone through a few ceramics classes myself, I can understand the process of making a ceramic sculpture outside to be a very critical and slow procedure. This is because of ensuring the piece does not crack by the fluctuating temperatures and weather climates that surround it. At the end of the firing as well, is just as critical moment. Taking off the material encompassing the sculpture for one has edges scorching, so the volunteers don’t burn the grass as well. I also learned about the sawdust and salt technique to cool off the sculpture which is something I would never have thought of.

Undergrad fine arts show

Once again, I have had the privilege to watch and see the developments of an artist in this show, Sloan, through a printmaking class this semester. I really enjoyed her work because it stands out with the color choice and imagery in both a disgusting (by the paint) and humorous way (by the content of the image). With these images being her own, they are true and raw, yet these photos can have a different feeling due to media outlets. Typically, the content of this image would be seen in poor, negative light by news coverage. However, she is just trying to display memories that mean a lot to her and the lighter side of a darker image impacted by third parties’ opinions. Sloan gives a lot of attention to the details of her human subjects and allows for the backgrounds to be simple while adding to the content of the image. 

Caroline Owens

I have known Caroline Owens since last semester through printmaking. In fact, her book making during last semester intrigued me to do one of my own this semester as well. Seeing her work has allowed for me to see the combination of photography combined with other printmaking methods into different formations i.e. prints and books. The photos may seem similar to the viewer’s eye, however, there are different facial expressions that flow in a fluid motion as their titles entail them so as well. The common pale blue and faintly patterned background are actually overlaid lightly in certain areas of her face. This can add to some of the emotions she is trying to achieve by indirectly by allowing for herself to blend in with the background as she struggles to find herself. The setup of these prints allow for the eyes to focus on the image rather than framing them in which that could restrict her images conceptually. 

Brain bress

Bress has some very unusual work, and this is by far the weirdest to understand. There are multiple segments given what I would call a flashback. At one point he has in the background of one of the segments: because depression. There is then a coal worker with terrible speech/accent, a heavy man punching the wall, an unknown figure disco dancing, to even a red figure trapped between the mattress and box frames. The title of this video is Status Report, so these characters could be extension and feelings of one man “because of depression.” Depression is taken in 2 basic directions by media outlets. One perspective, it that depression is over diagnosed frequently, and depression is not a real illness. The other viewpoint, is depression is very much real, and for those who suffer, struggle on and off for short to long periods of time. 

Walead Besthy

I find it interesting that Besthy purposedly makes art without the intentions to reflect “sculpture” or “photography.” I think this is evident in his work by no subjects, but abstract visuals being his series/body of work. Beshy also notes that with these terms, the words themselves are ignored or obscured to what they are meant. This is also represented in his work in which the concepts “time” and “space” compliment/work together as one by his use of lighting, lines, and how the image is encompassed in the allotted frame size. His Barbican interesting concept to me that embraces all four of these terms. Essentially his studio works as one machine that makes one work. This in turns shows exactly that which he developed by machinery, technology, and socially. What is the most impressive aspect of this work is that this is a full year’s worth of material. To just make a simple piece of art once a day (or more) and to strategically place the items in a collaged form also demonstrated the blending of sculpture, photography, time, and space. 

what is conceptual photography

Grasping what concept is both by definition and by context is a challenge after watching this video. Hearing from different people’s perspectives, I can see each point and how they view the word concept/conceptual. I agree that the real question should be what isn’t conceptual. This is because concept requires one to view the image in a certain way. And yet, I feel as if there should be standards because of my education through art. Within my classes there are these rules and standards to what art can be, and yet here is this art that has no true standards. I, myself, struggle to come to terms that most of my recent work is conceptual even though I don’t understand some conceptual art because of how far abstracted the final result appears to be. I believe the word concept can be correlated to the word postmodernism in which both words are difficult to explain and can be explained in different viewpoints because of individual perspectives.

Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle from Hanna Vongpraseuth