Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Final Blog: Sophie Calle



Sophie Calle's conceptual project is known to "plumb the depths of human relationships, fears, and desires." This specific exhibit, I believe, was successful in that she hit all of those points. It was creative in that each small piece was thought through. For example, putting it in a secretary, a funeral program (that doubles as a press release), and the concept of bury your secrets in the grave is all unique. 

Personally, I do not believe I would have attended this event. It rubs me the wrong way that it is in a graveyard, but at the same time it makes sense. I don't necessarily think it is "disrespectful" to have it there, but at the same time I kind of do. I do think it is kind of poetic in a dark way. It is a therapeutic way to take weight off some peoples shoulders, for others it is for fun. I think that, conceptually, it makes sense to have it in the cemetery.  It provides the proper ambiance. I respect the artistry behind it, it is just not something I would do. 

Secrets to the grave


After reading this article, I was intrigued to learn about this style of art introduced by Sophie Calle. It's a great way for people to bury their secrets in a literal sense. Her work is significant through it's collaborative efforts and holds meaning to every person who shared a secret to the grave. I love the idea and I would definitely like to contribute one my secrets into the collection. Overall, Sophie Calle's artwork is therapeutic because it reassures the participants that their most deepest darkest secret will RIP. 

Secrets of the grave

I think the idea Sophie Calle created is creative while also disrespectful.  Burying someone isn't a happy uplifting event and I feel that she is disrespecting the dead by using a graveyard as an art piece.   People go to graveyards to respect their loved ones and remember the good times they once had.  I personally believe that people who have problems and need a tombstone and a letter to make themselves feel better need to find somewhere else to do it.

Here Lie the Secrets of The Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery


Sophie Calle is a 63- year old French artist who recently had an event at the Green-Wood Cemetery called " Here lie the secrets of the visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery". During this event the visitors had the opportunity to speak to Calle about their deepest, darkest secrets where she vowed never to speak of it. They had an opportunity to bury their secrets.

Last confessions




Similar aspect to religious processes like confession. Theres sort of an art to it where I feel differently  when looking at multiple angles of chair and trees. This particular I photo is a little eery and lonesome

Final Post

I think this interactive peice is amazing. It leaves viewers at peace with themselves and their demons and for that i think endless praise is deserved. Art is about the reaction and when the reaction can be so personal it moves viewers to tears, an artist has done something incredible.


One Foot Out the Door, One Foot in the Grave

             This is a really great idea Sophie Calle created that follows some her previous themes that were unique and very interesting. Her works I believe are not groundbreaking but interesting enough that would grab enough attention from from average people to big name people who were affiliated with some of the famous people that reside in the graveyard like Jean-Michel Basquiat. Also I forgot my plaster so I should get it.

Sophie Calle

 

     I have never before heard of something quite like the art exhibit that Sophie Calle has created at the Green-Wood Cemetery. I like the symbolism of burying your secrets in a cemetery but also that those who participate are able to literally bury their secrets. Also, I think it is interesting how you are able to speak to Calle herself, almost as if it is a short therapy session. When one thinks of a cemetery they usually don't think of sitting down and chatting about something you have held in. I can appreciate Calle's choice to do such a piece, which doubles as sculpture and performance in a way, in a cemetery. Since, a cemetery is usually looked at as a somber, constricting place it is nice that Sophie gives the art-goers an opportunity to do the opposite and release what they are holding within. 

art is dead, nothing matters

Taking in the setting of this exhibition, the secrets of people walking through a graveyard is pretty mundane when considering The Physically Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone living. It sounds like a cool concept in theory, however the secrets of the living are pretty mute when standing in a graveyard where people have lived a million secrets in their lives. To think how something like an art showing fits in such a heavy place is definitely mute.

FINAL BLOG EVER!!!!!




I think this art representation is SO COOL. Frequently, many people fear death and stray away from it, this art form allows people to get closer with the idea without running away. Although they are just letters and not actual living things, the act of it allows people to express their emotions through art, which is what it is all about. This piece incorporates writing, sculpture, feelings, and fear which is really the basis of art.

Final Blog


    I thought this exhibit was super interesting and I really enjoyed reading the article. I think that it is a creative way to be able to discard your secrets by informing one person of them and then never looking back at it again; like its gone forever. I also really liked the idea of this being in a graveyard; normally when you think of a graveyard its sad and dreary but I like the aspect behind it. Bury your secrets away to relieve stress from the body and provide yourself with a healthier life to live. As a whole I really enjoyed the article and the message that it spread to its readers; this was a great article for our last blog.

Alas, poor art blog - I knew it well.


I found this article incredibly interesting because it opened up my mind to something that I would not previously have necessarily considered artwork. Performance art is something that I sometimes struggle to reconcile with being artwork in itself, but the article helped to draw the connection more closely. The intensity of the catharsis for both Calle and attendants must be extreme. I was reminded of another piece of performance art - Shia LaBeouf's 2014 "#IAMSORRY" exhibit, where the actor sat silently in a room across from guests who were permitted to bring in provided props with them - including a whip. What happened between artist and guest was similarly confidential. Performance pieces like these allow the possibility to take a look into the reality of the human condition, which can at times be awe-inspiring or even gruesome. 

Sophie Calle

The infinite forms of art and their undefined boundaries are shown in Sophie Calle's artwork. I personally would not trust a stranger with my secrets which is why I dont like the concept of confession in the church but for the people who participated they seemed really happy with this form of art. There is art inherently in a cemetery with the addition of the cherry blossoms and the two chairs adds to the art factor of this event.

Sophie Calle


I enjoyed reading about Sophie Calle and her new work in the cemetery. I also really liked how she sat down with people and let them talk to her. The piece above is called "The detective". She said that her mother hired a private investigator to follow her around and that same day Calle kept a journal of all her actions and then published the photos and detective reports and her written logs together. She deliberately led the reporter to places that had great personal meaning to her. Her project has as sense of uneasiness because it revolves around the idea of being followed. Throughout this project she builds up a realistic concept of personal identity.


Final Post

I was instantly reminded of the Marina Abromavic exhibition in 2010 when I read this, to find that the writer speaks about her within the article. I had livestreamed it back when I was very interested in becoming a studio art minor and found this type of public "performance" interesting and enthralling. The work that Sophie Calle is doing is similar to me in that she is using open spaces, human emotions, and raw innocence and emotion in order to not only showcase the power of it but also utilizes these facets and creates an art piece that speaks volumes of the daily struggles within all of us. Transcribing the deep secrets and confessions of those that came to Calle's exhibit and then the symbolism of her dropping them within a hollow obelisk is symbolic of letting go and moving forward.

RIP Class!


I enjoyed reading this article about Sophie Calle because her inspiration reminded me a lot of the "Letter's to Juliet" wall in Italy. This is a great way for people to express their feelings and secrets in a secure manner. Being a counselor in training, I believe this is the best form of confidentially since there is absolutely nothing restricting or exposing a person of their feelings. Almost like attaching a memo to a balloon and letting it fly away, this allows a person to express their feelings without anyone else knowing. Although this could be seen as morbid, it is a visual representation of what is really going on.

Final Post



Sophie Calle is very different from all artist because she doesn't just do art, but  she get the public involved. How so ? because people speak to her in person and their secrets are put to rest after they are done speaking. After speaking to her one may fee a sense relief and they are no longer suffering. What stands out to me the most is that all your secrets are with everyone else and they will always remain there. Sophie could have just made the sculpture, but I think it's great that she took it a step further and got people involved. 

RIP

First I was interested to realize that Jean-Michel Basquiat is buried at the cemetery we are blogging about. Sophie Calle set up two chairs, one for herself and one for whomever comes over. She is a conceptual artist who uses her work to reach depths of emotions and thoughts for people. She gave visitors a broacher similar to a funeral one and it also had a guide on it. Visitors then are asked to write their secrets down, dropping the sensitive papers into a gravestone whose face has been chiseled with the words “Here Lie the Secrets of The Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery.” Some people then would sit in the chair opposite of her, and confess their secrets to her. She would then write down the secrets spoken to her in a notebook while asking questions. She gave the paper to the confess-er as they left the encounter. I found it really beautiful that she based this project on her breakup with her former partner who told her a large secret as they broke up, which she described as “At the very moment he was depriving me of his love, this man offered me, through his confession, the ultimate proof of our intimacy.” I think this is a very interesting and beautiful concept, and I find the fact it takes place in a cemetery brings a powerful aspect to the project. 

-Megan McCarthy

Final Post

I found this article very interesting because people usually go to the cemetery for their dead person and these people are going to bury their secrets. Some of Sophie Calle's work is following strangers; dissecting found diaries; and asking women she doesn’t know to respond to a break-up letter from the artist’s former partner.
This idea is new to me because I've never heard that people go to that specific cemetery to bury their secrets. Very interesting!!

Final Post


Reading about how Sophie Calle creates art with the interaction of the public. I feel her work is almost like she is conducting a public service being that everyone who speaks to her feel relieved from their suffering. Being that the people who participate get to lay their secrets to rest once they talk with out with Calle. All the secrets are out in the open and the people are no longer suffering I feel is an amazing play on words that she does with the sculpture with "Here Lie the Secrets of The Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery".  Her work I feel serves a purpose to create a meaningful piece of work but to also relieve people of these deep dark secrets that may be holding them back. I enjoyed reading this article and seeing how talking to someone as if they were like a therapist could cause so much relief so quickly while also creating a beautiful, purposeful piece of art.

Here Lie My Final Blog

I must say that this was a great read and like most other articles we did prior, this open up my mind to yet another medium of art. I find this piece or installation to be moving. As I read the article I kept thinking of what is my deepest darkest secret. To say the least, this installation is rather genius and is also a great way to show how art can become intimate and personal. Most art work can be observes and appeal to different senses, some senses more subtly than others. In this process you're surrounded by the natural world and that applies to all your senses but more interestingly this process applies to your inner self. Telling a complete stranger your darkest secret is scary, or should be, but knowing that you can bury that secret and leave it behind in flames, now thats how you get rid of a secret.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Final One!!!!!!!

I thought this exhibit was quite brilliant and really enjoyed reading the article. I liked how people can feel less of a burden by just telling one person a secret that will just be burnt away. It's like a weight lifted off someone's shoulders. There are a few installations that reminded me of this one by Sophie Calle like the Shia LaBeouf one when he had a bag over his with the words "I'm not famous anymore" written on them. He would have people come up to him and do anything they wanted. He in fact had a few exhibits like that. I think it was interesting do have this take place in a cemetery. I can see the subtle message behind it: bury your secrets away, they will be gone forever. No one will know. I think it was also interesting that she placed this in a cemetery in which many famous, well known people like mobster Joe Gallo, who probably was buried away with many secrets. It makes you think about how it's not just a graveyard for people, but for a graveyard for secrets as well.

Final Blog


I enjoyed reading this article because I thought Sophie Calle had a brilliant idea to allow the public to interact with her artwork. It is interesting to see that she incorporates personal stories, and provides a space of intimate reflection to the public. Calle's work holds something much stronger than writing down a few words on a piece of paper. She is allowing people to think about their past and reflect on themselves and the choices people made in their life. The picture is the Brooklyn landmark in which Calle will bury and burn the the envelopes containing confessions and secrets.

The Final Post Ends at a Cemetary


https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-sophie-calle-will-secrets-grave

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Kerry Marshall



  • Frank Oceans new single cover was inspired by Kerry Marshall. Kerry James is an artist who focuses most of his painting on black folk art. The painting from above is called Mastry and was painted in 

Anicka Yi, Force Majeure, 2017

             This piece by Anicka Yi is unsettling in all the right ways. She has create a visualizing pleasing object out of something rather grottoes. While I do believe it has some deeper meaning and reading what the artist say I do not see how this portrays Asian women. Some of her other works are more gross and bother more but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Growing Art

Using science is always a beautiful way to create art. I really like this because its almost as if its a snow globe effect and the three dimensions adds character.

Anicka Yi

This piece by Anicka Yi is called Sister and was made in 2011. It is made up of a red turtleneck and  tempura fried flowers. She likes the idea of deep frying the objects because it attributes to the senses and can show pain and fragility. She liked how you can used violent techniques on delicate objects to expose vulnerability. Flowers are always seen as purity. The stems are dipped in batter and then in panko crumbs and placed in the deep fryer. She likes how radical art has shifted to the culinary side of things. I really enjoyed this piece because it kind of pulls you in and makes you actually want to touch the flowers to see what they feel like. I love how she used a bright colored shirt to contrast with the muted colors from the flowers.

That Fork Feels Good Sliding in My Mouth


I found Anicka Yi's work extremely interesting. She's taking things that are considered gross and turning them into art. The art world is predominately visual, Yi is trying to change that with her work that has themes of scent and tactically. The piece shown above is called "That Fork Feels Good Sliding in My Mouth" and is a canvas made with scented soap. The painting is a statement on the designer consumer culture that revolves around personal hygiene, luxury, and olfactory decor. This piece also puts a statement that art can be decorative, and hygienic (spiritual, intellectual) aspiration. The paintings scent is meant to draw the viewer in but the barren canvas prevents the viewer from reaching a closer proximity.


Anicka Yi, Lifestyle Wars, 2017

Lifestyle Wars is a room-sized sculpture that intermingles computer equipment, enormous fake mushrooms, mirrored panels, and thousands of live ants, which methodically amble through a series of tunnels built into the piece’s walls.  I like the piece because of the colors and the mediums she used to create the piece.  My favorite part is how she uses ants to create new designs in the piece.

Anicka Yi: Childless Comfort

This piece, by Anicka Yi is called Childless Comfort. It was made in 2016. It is silicone on panel,, with artificial flowers used. It is a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be, at 41.73 x 28 x 3.54 inches. I liked this piece because of the materials used in the border. Also, I thought that real flowers were used, and was pleasantly surprised when I saw that it was artificial. The name, Childless Comfort, also intrigued me. All in all it is a simple, pretty piece to look at. I would hang it in my house.

Force Majeure by Anicka Yi


Force Majeure by Anicka Yi 

I found Yi's work and the mediums she has chosen for this show to be incredibly interesting. From behind the glass wall Yi has put up, the tiles each have their own individual work of abstract art. Inside the glass, the smell would be a hint as to what the art is made out of. The fact that each strain of bacteria, while selected specifically for color, was then left to create an unpredictable work is incredibly fascinating to me. What was even more interesting was the source of the bacteria - toilet handles and door handles in Chinatown and Koreatown. I think that this all really helps to communicate Yi's theme of of facing intolerance and conditioned perception. 

"Maybe She's Born With It"


     Anicka Yi is known for her more unusual pieces, and this one, titled "Maybe She's Born With It" is definitely unusual. It consists of tempura-fried flowers. 

 

     This photo is a close-up of the friend flowers. I don't think it looks too appealing but perhaps that was her goal, hence the title "Maybe She's Born With It" which is the slogan of the makeup brand Maybelline. 




Anicka Yi



This is just beautiful so to look at . The detail in this image is just fascinating. And the structure of the art farm speaks for it's self. What caught my attention was all the circuits behind the ant farm and how everything just blends together so well. You can see through all the circuits giving it a three- D look as well as a see through look. What really took me off my feet is that this structure really does look like some type of computer structure in my eyes, but to the ants it may actually seem like a home to them. And this is where manipulation places a role in art. It may be a world of circuits to us , but to the ants it is there actual home.

Life is Cheap - Anicka Yi


     Anicka Yi's latest exhibition "Life is Cheap" showcases a unique diorama of tiles containing live bacteria growing in agar medium. This piece is collectively referred to as Force Majeure displayed in a large room setting made to represent a bathhouse or a hospital clinic. The bacteria cultivate generously in agar, therby transforming each tile into an abstract painting. Yi says that bacterial growth has an "aesthetic quality" because it is capable of producing different colors which relate to their function. Some of Yi's previous work focused on olfactory senses, however the smell of bacteria is masked as they are placed behind the glass because Yi admits "That's the hardest part: dealing with people's prejudice and intolerance for what they consider foul odors." I really admire Yi's work because she chose to incorporate two of my favorite things: science and art. I remember making agar plates of various microbes in Microbiology making her artwork very relevant. Her work makes you think outside the box and come to your senses, literally. Yi is trying to make a statement with her art by saying that two most frequently used locations - "the toilet handles and door handles" are filled with bacteria that you probably didn't recognize or put little thought into prior to looking at her exhibit.

Anicka Yi 7,070,430K of Digital Spit


Anicka Yi calls this piece "7,070,430K of Digital Spit" which was seen at the Kunsthalle Basel in 2015. Yi's art represents beauty, organic materials and science. I am unsure if this is really spit or not but the glass confidential for possibly holding in odor leads me to believe it really is spit!

Anicka Yi, Lifestyle Wars, 2017

Anicka Yi, Lifestyle Wars, 2017 
The lighting is beautiful to me. I appreciate the structure of the ant farm, and how well it blends in with the circuitry design. It blends so well, and creates an idea of this interesting utopia which blends technology and natural design/structure. I thought it was funny to think that the makers of that ant home had the idea of keeping the ants happy, and that the lights and technology kind of keep us happy in a very artificial way. I liked that the ants were donated afterwards and not destroyed. I found it even more interesting that the ants were not to be placed back into their natural habitat, because they may carry pathogens...which kind of brings up the imagery behind the art of whether technology or this artificial happiness corrupts us from our natural ways. 

life is cheap



Life is cheap exhibit is very cool, from a far distance away. I love the colors and tools that were implemented, but then I realized that it is bacteria and ants and gross stuff and I couldn't really appreciate to it. Art is typically something that people can relate too. I understand that other can maybe relate to this because one may not be able to afford the nicest of things, I just don't know if I could appreciate the art or focus on it once I found out what the materials are. When I think of art, I think of bright colors and paint, odd objects but not bacteria. I applaud her idea and want to do something so crazy, I just don't know if I would totally consider it art.

Anika Yi


This artist is interesting to me bacause she did a typical sculptural installation that  include honey, taxidermy, fake fur, electronics, contact lenses, flowers, or desiccated shrimp. I would love to see something so interesting like that. I think she is very talented. 

Ant Home || Computer Structure


Lifestyle Wars by Anicka Yi
Firstly, I would like to say I am an instant fan of Yi's work. However, I am a bigger fan of this complex sculpture simply because of its hidden gem. Yi put together a room of computer equipment/motherboard and a fake mushroom with a ton of Ants. The ants can be seen making their way through this complex structure. However, what I found is that this computer structure in many ways resembles an ant home structure underground. This to me is fascinating because the ants might treat this structure as home not knowing that it's a computer structure that's manipulated enough with element from their natural habitat. 

Awol Erizku



I chose to write about Awol Erizku because it was interesting to find out he was the one who photographed Beyonces pregnancy portrait. Besides this fact, I was interested in his art with intense anti-trump statements imbedded in the artwork. His show in London featured 14 peices, and 9 of them have the Black Panther party logo. He states that he wanted to make a statement because he is a black muslim man, he is scared about where this presidency will lead and he felt he needed to make a statement on it but not in America because he didn't want to receive bad attention for his works. I found these works to be powerful and inspiring in a time of uncertainty for minority groups.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Anicka Yi


Anika Yi is an amazing artist who takes things that most people find gross or disturbing and turned them in eye catching works. This piece is made up of bacteria that is formed from swabbing different things in Chinatown and Koreatown and being allowed to grow and spread. They were fed agar to help create this color. Its amazing that all the bacteria are alive, which means that the pieces of work could change in time due to the growth of bacteria. The beauty that is created from something most people kill and get disgusted by is gorgeous, each pane/tile of the work is different and Yi had little control how each tile would look yet they all blend together to make a gorgeous piece!

Anicka Yi

In Anicka Yi's exhibition called Life is Cheap, she used bacteria as her media to explore societal problems. Yi states that we live in a world that is obsessed with cleanliness. She states "as an artists its part of my job to render visible the source of our discomfort, and our anxieties, and our intolerance." In this piece of work, she exposed a petri dish to the environment to see what bacteria can grow on the plate, and make the point that we live in a world with multiple organisms other than the humans. I really enjoyed Yi's work because I learned about this in my microbiology class and by looking at this plate, I can identify the microbes that are present on the plate. Overall, I liked how Yi incorporated science into her artwork.

Lifestyle Wars


        
     I chose this piece by Giese because I found the story behind it to be very inspiring. The background of this art was originated in the desert of Utah. This art was made after the work of ants, expressing their fiercely matriarchal communities. He states how the role of a male ant become drones and their sole purpose is to inseminate and then shortly die after. I think it is super interesting how this pattern is traveling in several different directions reminding me of ant families. Ants resemble team work and when I look at this piece it reminds me of a figure being built to create a larger mechanical object. I really enjoyed the artwork and Giese's creative imagination.

Blog for Wednesday 4-26



https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-anicka-yis-new-guggenheim-art-smells-crawls

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

cj


Cj Hendry is a modern artist. She is not only modern because of her work but also because she is a woman. Back then, art was mostly done by men. It had to be fancy and persist. These things and others have changed the face of art. Art has become more casual over the years, letting the artist decide what they want to do and how they want to do it. This piece is really cool because its a couple different art work in one. 3D plate, extreme details with the pineapple and then her. Artists don't typically go into their work, but she does. 

Toshio Saeki

The artist I chose was Toshio Saeki. The 72-year-old artist, who some have christened the “Godfather of Japanese Erotica,” has lived in the Japanese mountains since the 1980s, when he left Tokyo to escape its bubble economy. Today, still actively working, Saeki has published 21 monographs of his erotic art, for which he’s earned acclaim and exhibitions all over the world.  In this particular piece I like how the expression of the male object is unmoved in each position while the women is trying to get his attention.  It could also mean that he is paralyzed by her actions and that the women has most of the control in situations like that.

Koons and Balloons

   I chose this piece because I thought this was a very creative way to design a piece of art. I enjoy how the artist made it look very shiny and from far away it easily looks like it is balloons. This piece is nice but it is also very unique and I enjoyed being able to read about it and viewing the dedication that was put into this. I also like the color that was chosen to design this piece. The yellow is very striking and attracts the eye very well.

Jeff Koons



Jeff Koons caught my attention right away, I have always been a fan of balloon art since my childhood. I just love the fact how people are able to turn a a plain balloon into basically anything. What stands out the most about this balloon art is the fact that it is gold and it is a bigger size than usual. If I was to see this as a child I would have gone crazy and still today seeing this balloon art still brings me happiness. As soon as one sees this balloon art they are brought back to their childhood and it make this piece of art that much more enjoyable.

CJ Hendry

I chose to write about CJ Hendry because she chose to promote her artwork via Instagram, an app I use on the daily. Her instagram account by the name of The Cool Hunter received a lot attention and commission from different artists, galleries, and brands. Although her technique with the use of pen and paper is common, her work is brilliant to look at it and resembles photorealistic black and white images. In particular, I found this 100$ note of Kanye to be hilarious because this work completely represents what kind of person he is. CJ does a great job of making a photo image come alive. Although deserving, i'm impressed to see a 26 year old college drop-out become so famous and successful.

CJ Hendry





CJ Hendry is an Austrailiam artist who makes life like pieces. These things are incredible. They are done in pen and ink. Each piece is an enlargement of a black and white photo. I really love all the detail and how life like it looks. The crippled cards look so realistic to me. It must be extremely meticulous for her to do this.