“Hanging Fire”
It is created by an English sculptor and installation artist, Cornelia Parker. Parker was born in Cheshire, England. She studied at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design from 1974 to 1975 and Wolverhampton Polytechnic from 1975 to 1978. She got her MFA degree in 1982 from Reading University.
“Hanging Fire” is made by hundreds charred wood fragments with nails and pins on them connecting by the wires and hanging down from the ceiling in a white room.
I was astonished when I walked into the white room and saw all black various pieces of charcoals hanging down from the ceiling. The charcoals on the top and the edge are smaller. The charcoals in the middle are long and larger. And the black color of the charcoals suit well with the white show room. It gave me really clear, refresh and amaze feeling. I have never thought of the dirty, ugly charcoals can be that beautiful and attractive. Even the texture of the shadow on the floor is amazing too.
“Field Operation”
It is by well-known landscape designer, James Corner. He was born in 1961. He graduate from Manchester Metropolitan University with his Ba degree and got Urban design certification from University of Pennsylvania in 1986. He is chair and professor in the department of Landscape Architecture.
Field Operation of New York City, the artist use white color for the background and curvy shape and thin layer. The major colors of the art piece are green, yellow and orange and blue. The artist used the bright color combine with the white background giving us the feeling of nature and clean ecology.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Better late than never - ICA visit
Joseph Mazrimas
ICA Visit
Prior to this assignment, I had really wanted to visit the ICA – I had several friends, a couple of them practicing artists, say that it was definitely worthwhile. The piece that I was most interested in seeing – admittedly, in no small part for the novelty – was Louise Bourgeois’ The Spider. Something about an eleven-foot steel spider that struck me as something not to be missed. However, when I actually went and saw the piece – its value, for me, went well beyond novelty.
The first element of the piece which I found engaging was the way in which I was positioned; within the gallery itself, within the room, and the relationship between the two. The Spider is in a room separate from Bourgeois’ other pieces in the ICA. A large part of the effect of the piece is achieved through this; until you are more-or-less in the room, you can not see the spider. A logical path in to the room dictates that you get to the doorway in such a fashion as to have the spider about 90 degrees to one side. In this way, the sculpture “creeps” out at you, revealing, somewhat abruptly, its unexpected magnitude.
The Spider itself is extremely interesting visually. According to the panel in the room, Louise Bourgeois saw The Spider as analogous to her mother – protective, strong and, slightly more literally, a weaver. Upon closer examination, the work itself looks woven in a way. Its slender black appendages wrought with twists and bumps. Its body actually has a texture not unlike that of a ball of yarn. Moreover, standing underneath The Spider, one does feel somewhat protected – the creature’s legs stretched out around you, cage-like. These contrasting elements are what I think Bourgeois was trying to achieve.
The other piece which really struck me was Cornelia Parker’s Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson). This work is composed of burned wood (charcoal), wire mesh, wire, pins and nails. It takes the fragments of a woodworking shop, burned to the ground in a suspected case of arson, and suspends them from the ceiling in such a fashion that they resemble the fire that mutilated them. This piece impressed me, first, with the intricacy of its creation. However, was eventually drew me to it was how multidimensional it was. First, when viewed from one wall facing another, the piece appears stagnant (some research at the Mediatheque revealed that this is actually supposed to give the impression of a charcoal drawing, which it does very effectively). However, when you walk around it, its three-dimensional aspects give it the movement of fire – the effect is almost eerie.
In many ways, Hanging Fire is indicative of Cornelia Parker’s other work (according to the information in the Mediatheque) – it is based on the destruction of one object in to the creation of another. However, what separates this piece is that it was not the artist doing the destroying – that was done by some external person – it is in this way that I find the work most appealing. Not to sound too cynical – but given a grant and nothing else to do with my time, I could probably turn a record player in to a cleverly destroyed art work. However, in the case of these piece, the medium was already destroyed – what Cornelia Parker did was resurrect something that was, in many ways lost, and turned it in to something beautiful – something, in a theme keeping with those in her other work, indicative of the original object’s destruction.
ICA Visit
Prior to this assignment, I had really wanted to visit the ICA – I had several friends, a couple of them practicing artists, say that it was definitely worthwhile. The piece that I was most interested in seeing – admittedly, in no small part for the novelty – was Louise Bourgeois’ The Spider. Something about an eleven-foot steel spider that struck me as something not to be missed. However, when I actually went and saw the piece – its value, for me, went well beyond novelty.
The first element of the piece which I found engaging was the way in which I was positioned; within the gallery itself, within the room, and the relationship between the two. The Spider is in a room separate from Bourgeois’ other pieces in the ICA. A large part of the effect of the piece is achieved through this; until you are more-or-less in the room, you can not see the spider. A logical path in to the room dictates that you get to the doorway in such a fashion as to have the spider about 90 degrees to one side. In this way, the sculpture “creeps” out at you, revealing, somewhat abruptly, its unexpected magnitude.
The Spider itself is extremely interesting visually. According to the panel in the room, Louise Bourgeois saw The Spider as analogous to her mother – protective, strong and, slightly more literally, a weaver. Upon closer examination, the work itself looks woven in a way. Its slender black appendages wrought with twists and bumps. Its body actually has a texture not unlike that of a ball of yarn. Moreover, standing underneath The Spider, one does feel somewhat protected – the creature’s legs stretched out around you, cage-like. These contrasting elements are what I think Bourgeois was trying to achieve.
The other piece which really struck me was Cornelia Parker’s Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson). This work is composed of burned wood (charcoal), wire mesh, wire, pins and nails. It takes the fragments of a woodworking shop, burned to the ground in a suspected case of arson, and suspends them from the ceiling in such a fashion that they resemble the fire that mutilated them. This piece impressed me, first, with the intricacy of its creation. However, was eventually drew me to it was how multidimensional it was. First, when viewed from one wall facing another, the piece appears stagnant (some research at the Mediatheque revealed that this is actually supposed to give the impression of a charcoal drawing, which it does very effectively). However, when you walk around it, its three-dimensional aspects give it the movement of fire – the effect is almost eerie.
In many ways, Hanging Fire is indicative of Cornelia Parker’s other work (according to the information in the Mediatheque) – it is based on the destruction of one object in to the creation of another. However, what separates this piece is that it was not the artist doing the destroying – that was done by some external person – it is in this way that I find the work most appealing. Not to sound too cynical – but given a grant and nothing else to do with my time, I could probably turn a record player in to a cleverly destroyed art work. However, in the case of these piece, the medium was already destroyed – what Cornelia Parker did was resurrect something that was, in many ways lost, and turned it in to something beautiful – something, in a theme keeping with those in her other work, indicative of the original object’s destruction.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Divine Gas
Chiho Aoshima is an artist with no training in art whatsoever. She was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1974. She received a degree in economics from Hosei University. From her Macintosh computer Asohima design such threads together to create The Divine Gas.
The Divine Gas picture describes a giant Asian girl lying in an open environment. The picture portrays that the environment where the girl is lying has bird soar, deer nestles near her foot and a couple running around the park with hold each other hands. Also what I notice about the picture is from her bottom emerges a billowing cloudscape lorded over by a genie. The gas morphs into stylized clouds. This picture is drawn by the famous artists of Japan, Chiho Aoshima. I like this particular picture it portrays how a newborn first discovers her surroundings. The cleansing the world with fart in the picture I think resemble how evil is blown away in the clouds. The art I think that is used in this picture is comics and animation.
The Divine Gas picture describes a giant Asian girl lying in an open environment. The picture portrays that the environment where the girl is lying has bird soar, deer nestles near her foot and a couple running around the park with hold each other hands. Also what I notice about the picture is from her bottom emerges a billowing cloudscape lorded over by a genie. The gas morphs into stylized clouds. This picture is drawn by the famous artists of Japan, Chiho Aoshima. I like this particular picture it portrays how a newborn first discovers her surroundings. The cleansing the world with fart in the picture I think resemble how evil is blown away in the clouds. The art I think that is used in this picture is comics and animation.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Ever Lasting
Faisal Saleem
Art297
Cat Mazza
Ever Lasting
“Observation, de-construction, and re-construction of values”
This paper is done on a art piece done by Shunsuke Mizumoto, who is originally from Beijing, China. He has done most of his higher education from here; Boston, MA. His gallery is named Ever Lasting, and my home work is done on the piece that is also posted on the post card of his gallery, named Ever Lasting too. This piece is 40X26” and is done on thick regular paper chart. He used pen on paper and acrylic material on this piece of art. Three different colors have been used on this piece of art; Synthetic paint (aqua and dark silver color) and of course pen on paper. From what I observe from this piece is that he made a design, which seem to be similar to water on sand. The aqua represents water and the small pattern of round shape made by pen represents sand and the silver represents rock. But it seems to be a microscopic view of water and sand, where you can clearly see the separation of water molecule from sand. The artist has done a marvelous job on this piece and that’s why he made it the face of the gallery. What I like about this piece is the pattern of round shape that represents sand. All of his other pieces, he used the same pattern. Most of his work has well defined shapes, some are round and some are irregular. I think he named his gallery Ever Lasting because most of his drawing gives you an image of basic things in life, like water, mountains and round shape stones. It tells a lot about artist that he focus on the details of every each piece and we can see clearly say that he had put a lot of time into this piece.
Art297
Cat Mazza
Ever Lasting
“Observation, de-construction, and re-construction of values”
This paper is done on a art piece done by Shunsuke Mizumoto, who is originally from Beijing, China. He has done most of his higher education from here; Boston, MA. His gallery is named Ever Lasting, and my home work is done on the piece that is also posted on the post card of his gallery, named Ever Lasting too. This piece is 40X26” and is done on thick regular paper chart. He used pen on paper and acrylic material on this piece of art. Three different colors have been used on this piece of art; Synthetic paint (aqua and dark silver color) and of course pen on paper. From what I observe from this piece is that he made a design, which seem to be similar to water on sand. The aqua represents water and the small pattern of round shape made by pen represents sand and the silver represents rock. But it seems to be a microscopic view of water and sand, where you can clearly see the separation of water molecule from sand. The artist has done a marvelous job on this piece and that’s why he made it the face of the gallery. What I like about this piece is the pattern of round shape that represents sand. All of his other pieces, he used the same pattern. Most of his work has well defined shapes, some are round and some are irregular. I think he named his gallery Ever Lasting because most of his drawing gives you an image of basic things in life, like water, mountains and round shape stones. It tells a lot about artist that he focus on the details of every each piece and we can see clearly say that he had put a lot of time into this piece.
Monday, October 1, 2007
ICA
Wendy L. Gibson
Prof. Editing
October 01, 2007
“We were all fish once…”
Dave(not David) McKenzie’s Momentum 8 is a unique piece of modern art; combining real life elements with digital elements- using dolls, birds, fish and more. McKenzie, a thirty year old artist born in Kingston, Jamaica received his degree from the University of the Arts in Pennsylvania; he also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. His well rounded background shows in his work as we watch the wide black screen. A man is falling, falling, falling, and in the blink of an eye man (played by McKenzie) becomes doll. “Have you ever fallen in a dream?” McKenzie uses a voice over to ask this question a powerful statement as we soon discovered. McKenzie uses mostly text to express communication throughout his masterpiece, creating a silence that is almost uncomfortable. When text is displayed it is a relief, when we hear a voice it is bone-tingling . He blends the borders between reality and fantasy, dreaming and waking. McKenzie evokes a strong need to question reality, almost leaving the viewer with no choice as Sponge Bob Square Pants floats through the sky and the Andy Warhol doll sings about his desire to be a gold fish. As the reel progresses McKenzie continues to switch between himself and his alter ego “Herny,” a small plastic doll version of himself. He asks early on in the clip with another voice over, “Have you ever heard the story about the runner?” Ten minutes later we have pretty much forgotten about the runner until another voice over “Remember the runner?…He’s dead.” The impact of the words are jarring. McKenzie keeps you on your toes, trying to define what is going on. This traveled artist has had his work exhibited widely through New York, with exhibits also in L.A. and Chicago, Momentum 8 is not only his first showing in Boston but also his first solo exhibit.
Prof. Editing
October 01, 2007
“We were all fish once…”
Dave(not David) McKenzie’s Momentum 8 is a unique piece of modern art; combining real life elements with digital elements- using dolls, birds, fish and more. McKenzie, a thirty year old artist born in Kingston, Jamaica received his degree from the University of the Arts in Pennsylvania; he also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. His well rounded background shows in his work as we watch the wide black screen. A man is falling, falling, falling, and in the blink of an eye man (played by McKenzie) becomes doll. “Have you ever fallen in a dream?” McKenzie uses a voice over to ask this question a powerful statement as we soon discovered. McKenzie uses mostly text to express communication throughout his masterpiece, creating a silence that is almost uncomfortable. When text is displayed it is a relief, when we hear a voice it is bone-tingling . He blends the borders between reality and fantasy, dreaming and waking. McKenzie evokes a strong need to question reality, almost leaving the viewer with no choice as Sponge Bob Square Pants floats through the sky and the Andy Warhol doll sings about his desire to be a gold fish. As the reel progresses McKenzie continues to switch between himself and his alter ego “Herny,” a small plastic doll version of himself. He asks early on in the clip with another voice over, “Have you ever heard the story about the runner?” Ten minutes later we have pretty much forgotten about the runner until another voice over “Remember the runner?…He’s dead.” The impact of the words are jarring. McKenzie keeps you on your toes, trying to define what is going on. This traveled artist has had his work exhibited widely through New York, with exhibits also in L.A. and Chicago, Momentum 8 is not only his first showing in Boston but also his first solo exhibit.
ICA -- Sarah Foreman
I enjoyed my trip to the ICA. Definately unlike any other art museum I've ever visited before. All of the exhibits that were very captivating. I think by far the most enthralling piece was Chiho Aoshima's "The Divine Gas." I have never seen anything like it before. Created using digital art and inkjet printing onto adhesive vinyl pieces, Aoshima's piece is definately not lacking personality. Two of my favorite aspects of the artwork were the plumes of flowing gas, and the reflection of the day-time and night-time cities in the girls eyes. The attention paid to detail in this piece truly astounds me. It is truly an ecclectic combination of ideas. It is such an overpowering piece in the museum that I found it actually really hard to not spend alot of time taking it in.
In general this is not the type of art that would normally appeal to me, but it is definately worth investigating. This piece gave me an underlying feeling of chaos vs. order. The lights and the darks and the different creatures and people and details seemed to carry that kind of tone to me. The other astounding fact about this piece is its actual size. 26 ft 2in by 40 ft 1 in is an increadible amount of space to take up. I cannot imagine the amount of time and thought that went into its creation.
My other favorite part about the museum was definately the computer lab with the really cool view of the water. This room was unlike any room I have ever been in and I definately think everybody should visit it! All in all, my trip was a good one, and despite its unconventional nature, I do reccomend a visit to the ICA.
In general this is not the type of art that would normally appeal to me, but it is definately worth investigating. This piece gave me an underlying feeling of chaos vs. order. The lights and the darks and the different creatures and people and details seemed to carry that kind of tone to me. The other astounding fact about this piece is its actual size. 26 ft 2in by 40 ft 1 in is an increadible amount of space to take up. I cannot imagine the amount of time and thought that went into its creation.
My other favorite part about the museum was definately the computer lab with the really cool view of the water. This room was unlike any room I have ever been in and I definately think everybody should visit it! All in all, my trip was a good one, and despite its unconventional nature, I do reccomend a visit to the ICA.
The Divine Gas
Reginald Themistocle
September 30, 2007
Intro To Digital Imaging
Prof. Cat Mazza
The Divine Gas
The Institute of Contemporary Art is known to have artwork from current
artists and displays art and materials of today. The mural shown when
visitors enter is called by “The Divine Gas.” According to the ICA website,
Japanese artist Chiho Aoshima drew this on a computer and printed on a huge
vinyl sheet. The mural shows a young girl in a lush landscape, passing gas.
Out of that gas, smaller girls emerge and frolic around the composition.
Although it seems like an innocent and ambitious work, Aoshima tells her
views by playing on roles of gender and sex. All of the women are shown
skinny, perky breasts, round faces, huge eyes, little noses and mouths,
vaginas shaven, and small feet. Aoshima is telling the visitor that this
ideal perception of how not only men in Japan see the ideal woman, but how
other races might see the ideal woman, Japanese or not. The giant girl is
the focus because she is the largest piece in the mural. Viewers would look
directly at the face and into those huge, deer-like eyes and see a tear
coming from her left eye. Aoshima sees this as a criticism that women might
not like sex. And it also plays to the “norms” of sexual positions. The girl
is in the sexual position called doggy style with her butt in the air as she
is ready to receive a penis or is being raped. This compilation also shows
how certain conventions are shown not being lady-like, or not how ladies
behave. In society is seems improper for a woman to release gas, or fart. In
other words it is ugly for girls to fart, yet for men, it is funny or normal
or masculine. Unlike Bosch’s Garden of Earthy Delights, (which the website
compared it to) the sides of good and evil are more hard to find, due to the
simplicity and several hidden meanings of the piece. Aoshima was smart to do
it in the anime style, further illustrating the conventions of women in a
different medium. In my honest opinion, many female characters in anime are
submissive. They are portrayed as little, cute, and skinny with supple
breasts who the guys like over and they want to be saved by the hero. Girls
who are taller or bigger or just don’t show the conventional “anime beauty”
are either regarded as a giant, masculine, or probably ugly. I always
wondered why these “perfect” girls come across as boring. What I liked about
this was that it pretty-looking (there is a difference), but there was so
much to say about it and read about it. The poses were not the Venus poses.
Without the image of men in it, it still illustrates the struggle of the
female wanting to be with a man, but struggling to retain herself also.
Chiho Aoshima constructed a wonderful mural that is beautiful, yet that it
sends the message to women and men to not find answers when asked the
question of what beauty is.
September 30, 2007
Intro To Digital Imaging
Prof. Cat Mazza
The Divine Gas
The Institute of Contemporary Art is known to have artwork from current
artists and displays art and materials of today. The mural shown when
visitors enter is called by “The Divine Gas.” According to the ICA website,
Japanese artist Chiho Aoshima drew this on a computer and printed on a huge
vinyl sheet. The mural shows a young girl in a lush landscape, passing gas.
Out of that gas, smaller girls emerge and frolic around the composition.
Although it seems like an innocent and ambitious work, Aoshima tells her
views by playing on roles of gender and sex. All of the women are shown
skinny, perky breasts, round faces, huge eyes, little noses and mouths,
vaginas shaven, and small feet. Aoshima is telling the visitor that this
ideal perception of how not only men in Japan see the ideal woman, but how
other races might see the ideal woman, Japanese or not. The giant girl is
the focus because she is the largest piece in the mural. Viewers would look
directly at the face and into those huge, deer-like eyes and see a tear
coming from her left eye. Aoshima sees this as a criticism that women might
not like sex. And it also plays to the “norms” of sexual positions. The girl
is in the sexual position called doggy style with her butt in the air as she
is ready to receive a penis or is being raped. This compilation also shows
how certain conventions are shown not being lady-like, or not how ladies
behave. In society is seems improper for a woman to release gas, or fart. In
other words it is ugly for girls to fart, yet for men, it is funny or normal
or masculine. Unlike Bosch’s Garden of Earthy Delights, (which the website
compared it to) the sides of good and evil are more hard to find, due to the
simplicity and several hidden meanings of the piece. Aoshima was smart to do
it in the anime style, further illustrating the conventions of women in a
different medium. In my honest opinion, many female characters in anime are
submissive. They are portrayed as little, cute, and skinny with supple
breasts who the guys like over and they want to be saved by the hero. Girls
who are taller or bigger or just don’t show the conventional “anime beauty”
are either regarded as a giant, masculine, or probably ugly. I always
wondered why these “perfect” girls come across as boring. What I liked about
this was that it pretty-looking (there is a difference), but there was so
much to say about it and read about it. The poses were not the Venus poses.
Without the image of men in it, it still illustrates the struggle of the
female wanting to be with a man, but struggling to retain herself also.
Chiho Aoshima constructed a wonderful mural that is beautiful, yet that it
sends the message to women and men to not find answers when asked the
question of what beauty is.
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