Jeff Wall

The split actions caught in the space of time relate to paintings such as Édouard Manet. Manet’s work was surrounded by this idea of capturing and perceiving ascents of events such as music concerts, café scenes, and war. This concept was successfully applied by Jeff Wall. Wall’s photos imitate life though resemblances, expressions, and inferences. Thus the illusion of a reality in a fictional world. Wall also creates his images to be life size so that the viewer feels an intimate direct or subtle connection. These sizers are very similar to the ones Monet also worked with.

The process of manipulating the models is Wall’s influence on the image, but this does not affect the cultural surroundings he is trying to perceive. The way he works with his models and how his models pose fixed expressions can be associated with theater too. Staged action replacing real action. Hence the authenticity of true documentation of events and people is eliminated with his subjects acting out his productions.

Wall’s process of creating these acted out scenes are similar to how true story movies are portrayed. The details and emotions of the story are told vividly by the director and fools the audience into believing the entire movie is scene for scene, detail for detail, true to how the original movie was. So in a way Wall is also mocking these movies for how easy it is to fool people.

The issue he works with in this reality is typically class related yet he never gives a political stance; he keeps himself distant from influencing the viewers’ opinion. His subjects are signifiers of a social status, employed to signal the idea of class, as if in a genre painting. This is similar to Manet’s work on social events of the rich class.

The Works

Dead Troops Talk

If you look closely the phot shows no true side of which the soldiers belong to, Rather the soldier are no names and the expressions they give conflict with the setting. The dead soldiers seem to talk and joke with one another. As Wall typically makes the viewer question if the photo is real or fake, it is quite certain by the models that this image doesn’t refers to an event found in history books. I think this image can be compared to Manet’s Battle of Cherbourg. In this painting, there are multiple ships out at sea with one that appears to have been hit. If it were not for the French flag on the bottom left ship, you would not be able to tell who is fighting for which side like the soldiers from Wall’s photo.

View From Apartment

Manet challenged established artistic values by rejecting the illusionistic painting techniques emerging from the Realism to Impressionistic period. Wall constructs a similar critique through his practice by deliberately staging his photographs. In A View from an Apartment, the artist gave his model a budget for the apartment over several months and then photographed moments during the model’s time there. He then used digital editing to combine multiple shots to achieve this final image. This creative process forces us to question the photograph’s value as an accurate record of the scene.

Dick Blau

Dick Blau's photography work in Polka! Happiness captured a lot of raw first moments. I felt that since it was his first time experiencing this, we were able to experience it secondhandly through his eyes. These pictures also broke my own stereotypical thoughts on Polka music and the atmosphere surrounding it.

With his first film, his experimenting and educating himself, gave a different kind of element. Blau was used to photography in which the end result was just one moment. This mindset helped to capture the emotional expressions from the church gatherers; in moments such as them praying with their hands held up high or hold their books so closely to their bodies. He was able to diversify the viewers from a larger to small picture and back and forth throughout. He would focus on the people within the church and then pair these images with scenes outside such as the parade down the street or the woman preaching by herself outside. This piece overall was strong not just in the obvious religious ways but also in the social aspect as to how this group interacted the world outside of their church.

The fairy tale video was my favorite piece of his.The conceptual idea of this video added to the essence of it since kids pretending gets jumbled up by "new intruders" and "obstacles" causing the story to constantly change. I really felt as though this piece could have been categorized as creepy or horror by the way the video would repeat areas or reverse the order of another area within the "plot line." I also loved that although Blau staged some narratives, he had to work with what he was given by the kids costumes. 

Georges Rousse

His early figurative paintings seem straight forward but they are different. Rather than photographing an image of the “empty hallway or room” of an abandon building, he gave life to it. And in a way created memories to commemorate previous residents in his own imagination.

The sculptural forms remind me of how an interior designer would imagine different pieces to be placed or the potential of the space. This technique is also similar to sidewalk chalk artwork in which their one particular point of view can deceive the viewer between 2D and 3D perspective.

The transparent shapes painted in itself seems contradictive. This is because typically when paint is placed on a canvas or piece of paper it becomes solid or not see through. On top of this, the shapes Rousse used are typically in a solid sense whether that is 2D or 3D. However, with this space and use of material Rousse makes these shapes appear translucent.  Allowing the elements that are in relief to become flat continues to draw my attention; 3D elements becoming 2D in a certain viewpoint.

When Rousse went onto his series of capturing light with the use of circles allows for us to look more into his medium. The base of these pieces being architectural reverts his idea in his transparent pieces in the sense that Rousse is trying to show more depth into the architect elements conceptually; and being that architecture is 3D form.  

The incandescence of the sun (where does it come), merged with his words puts a more literal sense than without the words. Before the words, I was appreciating the light source and how it appeared in certain areas of the pieces. But then bringing the subject of light into a religious term can be more depicted in his words because of his thoughts with death; these thoughts contradicting the light, a holy figure, is a beautiful thought and image. 

Still Moving

Charles Gick

                A cloud is theoretically tangible, yet unattainable to humans because of its properties and the elevation at which it is found. However, there is also a saying: Reach for the sky, because the sky has no limits. If you were to think of this while watching this video, the concepts would seem surreal. Poking a cloud is as if you have broken the saying/myth. Or perhaps reaching a goal or your full potential is like reaching the cloud.

Kevin Cooley

                There feels like there is a split timeline in this piece: one in which the water is constantly moving and the other is the sunset stopped in one brief second.Sometimes this is how I perceive moments in nature. A sensation of the sky never changing because of the constant combination of warm colors blurring during this time period. The water however is in a constant motion as though time is continuing into night and the gravitational pull of the moon is taking effect.   

Stephen Hilyard

                Using a projector also adds the presentation of this segment in which the viewer can interact their shadow with the video. This video of constant water can be interpreted to the viewer in different aspects. At first, I was just at peace because I love nature and appreciate the beauty in it. But then I thought more of the notion, purpose, and aspects of water.
                Continuity of Life: the constant running of water can symbolize the circle of life in constant motion.
                Pure/Healing:Water is in its most truest, wholesome state. We are mainly made up of water components so when our bodies become dehydrated water is the solution.
                Flexible/Adaptable: water is a liquid which allows for the particles to move freely as should our minds.
                Calming: the color blue creates a soothing sensation for most people.

Conceptual

Regardless of tool and form and material Content/idea is more emphasized

What makes you look at art one more time

Based on looking photography for conceptual art: what you look at is represent idea

Why important to photograph apple concrete idea persuade viewer

Content not formulated no reason to look at work

Photography most conceptual art form phot represent idea

Nature represent memory believe is real

Marking territory of memory when take photo

Ken Josephson

Pictorial experiments how we perceive photos transformation when 3 d transcribed into 2d

Photo has own visual code that creates illusion always there not looking at reality but picture of reality

Photo insert into original photo

                Layering time; cannot trust photos because of manipulation; one vantage point; remember places?

Postcard became representation of picture in mind

Reference to how camera works

Truth of photo ; viewer perspectives and influences

Rene Magritte-painting challenge reality like josephson obscured by painting how made accessories

Metaphoric fixated of image perspective

John Pfahl

Exquisite landscape

Installation artist

Alters space for depth and flatness

Brain think before analyze

Sense of space questionable

String compress foreground and background

Zeke berman

Georges Rousse

Similar optical illusion transforming architectural space by painting the space

Vantage point perspective

Very different around each point

David hockney

Explore composite and collage images challenges singular perspective of photo

Create movement natural to eyes

Challenege space chairs repetitive

How we enter the image

Vic muniz

Appropriate artist

Questions values of art system

Game child playing

Common mundane objects

Yasumasa morimura

Digital manipulation

Paint background turn into photo for backdrop

Questions on assumptions on western documentation

Western assumption of importance

Art history start with western. Why not eastern?

Create own history

Same value now that main subject is Asian

Question hierarchical education system of west describe feminism or masculine

Concept of male gays

Carrie mae weems

1980

Race and color

Colored people: tinted with colors conceptual challenges how we use the term color to label people

System of language

Skin tone values

Lora simpson

Notion of class race gender age defining people obscure

Manipulate memory and mind

Reading of image vs text

Media dictatorship

Gillian wearing

British artist uses models for performances

Shizuku yokomizo

Strangers

Ruth thorne thomsen

Pin hole camera

Dream like surrealistic

Aberaldo morell

Photo roots

Render capture camerless photo camera obscure

Perform quality

Adam fuss

Susan derges

Pioneered

Landscape as darkroom

Submerge paper in river with artificial lights is moon to expose what is around her

Midterm

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman’s artworks are these one instances with certain characters for individuals to connect with in a nostalgic way. Using a camera as her choice of tool was the best way to present these subjects. This is because the subjects are mostly snippets of a frame in time so the medium adds to this sense. The way in which Sherman captures these moments and characters does allow for the viewer to think more into this space of time in a broader spectrum than what they have conceived it to be.

Sometimes her works is manipulated, twisted, and stretched thin until her work fits a concept or theory for someone to create. Sherman’s work is most notably debated to be feminist or political like by viewers; but Sherman does not see herself nor her pieces as that. There is no right or wrong to her work. It is there to be out in the open. This is the kind of work I hope to do. I want my art to be on social awareness issues just so they can be presented in a conversation; so that these topics can be expressed openly to the public in order to help resolve the matter or do something about it.

Sherman’s subject matter comes from influences of media related things throughout her time such as things from new television sets to women role models with obscured standard for young girls; these influences are deliberate and raw in her images. For instance, when the NEA pulled its money from obscene art, Sherman responded with fake body parts arranged into ways in which one is forced to look at because it is the main presence of the image. The simplicity of just having a massive penis as her artwork really pushed the censorship line the NEA had. But, this is also an instance in which her work’s intention could be stretched to be applied to sexuality, pornography, and aids when most of the time Sherman is making fun of a serious side that is not to be seen as something truly horrific.

Vic Muniz

This video is not just a documentation of Vic Muniz’s work, but rather an inside documentary. I feel as though that this was created in hopes to raise awareness once Muniz and his team saw how corrupt things could be i.e. when the organization’s wages of $6,000 dollars were stolen. Muniz’s work of the portraits were to be sold and the full percentage of the profits given back to them. However, this video expanded on that help. This video spreads the word by real documentation rather than by word of mouth. 

Yet, towards the end of the video Muniz and his wife revealed a deeper question on the project: is it doing the locals any good by involving them in the work? I can equally see both sides of their arguments. From Muniz’s side, I think it gave the locals sometime to see an opportunity for a better life; and even a look into the beauty of their everyday job. The aspect of these workers creating this art gives a sense of quality and retrospect. Day after day, these people rummage and sort through the garbage of their area; this is similar to what they are doing with the portraits. This technique may have been over seen by Muniz, but it was really created by the people. 

Also, another aspect of this video was the art materials to the place and subjects of the work. Using the trash connects the people to the health sanitation situation and also to their home.