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.