Dave Hickey Podcast

After listening to Dave Hickey's podcast it really made me think about how much art has changed over the years.  It used to be based on the artistic talents and characteristics a person had for certain things.  Now it is all based on prices and the money one could receive.  He also discusses how there is art that can sell and there is art that will never sell.  I think its very sad how art has turned into such a commercialized activity.  People used to get involved in art because they had a love for it and they wanted to express their talents and their feelings.  Now as Hickey explains in his podcast people are getting involved because they see an opportunity to make money.  Although this may not be true to all artists, which I'm sure it is not, there are still many more artists than there ever were being placed into the commercialized art category.  Along with everything else in the world, art is changing, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? The answer to that question can be extremely different based upon who you are asking.

The Controversial Chalk

Learning about Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla was really interesting to me. The way they incorporate art into promoting social change made a huge statement and promoted debate. By welcoming people to speak about controversial topics in the bold way they did using huge sticks of chalk you can tell they are not afraid of feedback. I think it is often difficult to open yourself open to such ridicule and they handled it very well. This also allowed visitors to become an artist in the piece. It provided people with the tools to express themself in an artistic manner. I can only imagine some of the statements that were written during the time of this and I am sure it is a significant memory for the people that participated.Their artwork became an experience and because of that I think this was one of my favorite pieces this semester. Connectiong with your audience is the best way to captivate people and allowing them to express their own ideas and opinions did just that.

Andrea Zittel -Back to the Basics

I found Andrea Zittel to be strange and kind of awkward. It seemed like she was pulling away from society and trying to go against the ways of modern society. Her housing situation was a little extreme and it seemed like she put so much effort into being a minimalist that she may have been able to save herself some effort if she was a little more lax. I guess taking things to an extreme is the way she thinks especially with the lack of clothing she has. Choosing to live with only the basics is something you can get away with because people in the outside world do not need to know everything about your home life. But, when considering that she went to work for months in the same outfit that is a little much for me. In todays society appearance does mean alot...and so does cleanliness. I could not imagine what the people I work with would say if I wore the same thing two days in a row, let alone weeks. I guess if what she is trying to do is get noticed she is probably successful but it may be for the wrong reasons.

Herb & Dorothy

Herb and Dorothy Vogel are recently known for their documentary film that was released in 2008 about their collection of over 4,700 pieces of contemporary work.  The most interesting aspect to this story is that all these pieces of work were kept in their NYC apartment, which must have been extremely crowded.  The film describes the story of the two middle-class collectors of minimalist art and their valuable collection of contemporary art.  The film won many festival awards and audience awards and grossed almost $100,000 as of the end of July 2009.

When thinking about collection art, I feel that every individual does it in their own way.  Whether you collect pieces of art, or you collect something that has meaning to you such as toys when you were younger, or coins, or cards, that is all based on your own ideas and meanings to why you collect things.  Personally I love to collect movies, where my mom loves to collect thimbles from different places she has been around the world.  Herb and Dorothy loved to collect art and that is there own choice just like anyone else's choice to collect something they love.

Sunflower Seeds

I really enjoyed Al WeiWei's sunflower seeds exhibiton at the Tate Modern. I think the idea of you being able to step on the "art" is pretty cool. It allows the visitors to participate in the exhibit rather than just looking at it. I am a very hands on person so that appealed to me. I liked watching the video on how they make the seeds too, that way you really appreciated just how much work went into this. The extent to which Al is a part of the production of every seed is pretty remarkable when you think about how many seeds it must have taken to fill the Turbine Hall. I found the conflict going on around it interesting also. The fact the exhibit was closed due to a possible health hazard makes you think more about the logical sense behind this art. Which in many pieces of art I think artists are able to disregard logic and reason so I thought it was rare that a controversary like this arose. I would be very interested in visiting the Tate Modern Turbine Hall exhibits, they are all very drastic and different. I like the out of the box ideas of the artists they feature.

Louise Bourgeois- Spider woman

Known for her contributions to modern and contemporary art, Louise Bourgeois is truly recognized for her spider sculptures, which is where she got the nickname of 'Spider woman'.  She is also known for being the founder of confessional art.  In looking at her work on the spider structure I feel as though this is a very interesting and fun way of expressing ones artistic talents.  After researching through the meaning behind the spider structure I found out that it represents mothers, and the sustenance of life.  I also found that a spider's web deals with stories, social threads and interconnectedness.  Louise was named after her mother who she felt was a "clever, patient, caring,reasonable, subtle, etc. person."  She was her best friend and this is why she created this spider.  She felt as though spiders are everything her mother was.  In looking at this picture below I feel as though this structure is very interesting and fun.  After reading through the meaning of why Louise created it I like it even more because it has meaning.  Maybe other people can relate to this spider as well by not just looking at the actual structure but by learning more about what it represents.

UAlbany Courier Exhibit

         
                           

We went to the Courier exhibit at UAlbany and to put it lightly we were disappointed. I have never been to an art exhibit before and maybe my expectations were too high but I expected a lot more. I thought they would have filled the space with art pieces and instead it was quite bear. I didn't know there would be multiple artists work there either so that surprised me. I went into the exhibit without any prior knowledge of the exhibit or the artists featured there and in a way I expected there to be walls and walls of paintings and tons of sculptures. I guess if I had known the typewriting theme ahead of time I would have been more prepared and probably would have went to a different exhibit. Although, I did like the guy who made the sounds of the typewriter with his mouth. I think that was very creative and pretty entertaining. I guess overall the exhibit was educational but not the most interesting thing I have ever been to. I wish had gone to some tye of performance art instead. I think that would have been much more appealing to me.
 
                             

Damien Hirst's Pharmacy..Is it really Art?

Looking at this picture above of Damien Hirst's 'Pharmacy', do you really consider this to be a form of art? I don't understand how it is art besides the fact that it is displayed at an exhibit. Although this is a complete replica of an actual pharmacy, I just don't understand how it can be considered art.  The medicine bottles are all neatly separated throughout the store and the desk is even made like it is an actual pharmacy.  The four bottles on the desk represent: earth, water, fire, and air.  The only thing missing in this pharmacy are people working and customers shopping.  This piece of work can go back to our original question of "what is art?" Some people may consider this to be art, and some may not it all depends on the individual and in my case I don't think this is art.

Is this art?

After talking about a lot about collections and what people collect and why, I searched online for art collections. Much to my surprise I found the photo below:

                       

In my opinion a Pez candy dispenser is not art. But once I thought about it more I am sure it you asked the creator of Pez if they were art he would be quick to say yes. Understanding how different people interpret art is difficult for me. I think I could benefit from being a little more open minded but that is easier said than done. I see the creative aspects behind these characters and I do like the way they look. But, does something simply being creative make it a piece of art? If it is something that a person can display and collect is it automatically art? I guess I am searching for a defined meaning of what art is and as much as I can offer opinions there is no definite box that art can or cannot fit within.

Michael Craig

I really liked Michael Craig's work. I found the way he took common objects and displayed them in a bright colorful way was interesting. I think this kind of artwork is appealing to the eye and can catch your attention. I wonder how he chooses the objects he uses in his work. They are very random and do not seem to have any ryhme or reason. Somehow though they come together in his work and you start to look at what connections they may have. Although I have difficulty finding the connections I do believe that when he put these together there was reasoning behind it. I think he would be a great artist to sit down and talk with to figure out what his method behind the paintings are.

                                                 

Vija Celmins

                                      


Vija is most known for her realistic paintings and drawings. She did a lot of work regarding nature and the natural world. I found her paintings and drawings to be boring to look at possibly because I am not very interested in the sciences. These works of art appeared to me to be better suitable for a science book rather than an art course. I think the lack of imagination in these is what turned me off to them. I consider art to be a creation by the artist not a replication of something already present. I think that may be why I found it difficult to appreciate many of the works we have looked at this year because I have a hard time understanding how taking something out of its natural setting is artwork. The art that appeals to me the most is out of the box, creative objects that the artist has envisioned on their own.

              

Installation Art

So What exactly is installation art? I asked myself this question right away.  What it is, is an artistic genre of site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to transform the perception of a space.  For example in class we looked at Rachel Whitread's 'Embankment' which is a room full of large white boxes shaped into different structures.  The picture below shows exactly what I mean.

When I searched through installation art after class, I came upon the pictures shown below. The First one is basically a room full of junk.  Although it does take up space in a room, I feel as though this really isn't art.  Because if it was, then wouldn't hoarding be considered a form of installation art? And i truly don't believe that hoarding is any form of art.  The second picture below is a falling garden done by a Swiss artist named Elizabeth Schuppe.  This installation art is very interesting to me.  I feel like because it is so unusual to see a garden hanging from the ceiling it really catches peoples attention.  And because it takes up a three-dimensional space, it can definitely be considered installation art. 

Alison Watt

                                       
  
This was my favorite artist we have looked at thus far. When looking at Alison's paintings they seem like simple objects and to an untrained eye like myself it appears as if that kind of work would not be difficult. However, after looking at exactly how much work she puts into each line it makes the paintings seem amazing. I really like the way she looks like such a small object when standing near her enormous paintings. I think I appreciate the simple look of things so her art is very appealing to me. The process she goes through to complete the painting is very long and strenuous and I admire her determination to complete these. The paintings look so real it is almost as if you could feel the soft texture of them. They remind me alot of draped bed sheets in a really sophisticated way.