Tuesday, September 30, 2008
5 Senses Project
Zac Scheinbaum
IF YOU HAVE TO PRAY TO SOMETHING...
Trances and other states of conciseness. Meditation, and heavy sound. The tone that shakes the body. What i am doing with this piece is make a shrine to meditate with/too. Meditations are different for everyone, so what i am trying to do is make a shrine that i would feel most comfortable meditating with, and then pushing it beyond that. trying to symbolize all of the thoughts that come into my head when i meditate, except in an over dramatized way. The bass and drums for the music that drives me, the skull for death and impermanence, the candles for the overwhelming sense of a gothic castle, or church. Things that to me, symbolize something Grand. A place bigger than life. And by putting the meditation cushions on a drum bench, i can make the viewer feel a sense of grandness. By doing this, i am trying to obscure the thoughts that would come to one by meditating; losing yourself, nothing, clarity, trying to bring your body and mind to nothingness. Seeing things for what they really are, just shapes, sounds, thoughts. But by putting someone in this seat of control, it takes it all away at the same time, using your body to stay connected to the drums, and shaking the bass. I am trying to put the viewer in a different type of meditation, one with sound, and physical movement. Where one could hopefully keep a steady beat to drive oneself into and unearthly trance.
I am heavily influenced by the artists Banks Violette, and Friends With You. Both do "grand" types of installation to me. They both work on opposite sides of the spectrum to me, One insanely metal and the other childish to an extreme. I find them both so inspirational because i can easily be drawn into their work both aesthetically and conceptually. Something i would like to think more about with installation would be basing projects on stronger ideas that relate to me and how i look at things, not only bringing someone into my world, but also facing them to hysterically loud and over the top projects.
Zac Scheinbaum
IF YOU HAVE TO PRAY TO SOMETHING...
Trances and other states of conciseness. Meditation, and heavy sound. The tone that shakes the body. What i am doing with this piece is make a shrine to meditate with/too. Meditations are different for everyone, so what i am trying to do is make a shrine that i would feel most comfortable meditating with, and then pushing it beyond that. trying to symbolize all of the thoughts that come into my head when i meditate, except in an over dramatized way. The bass and drums for the music that drives me, the skull for death and impermanence, the candles for the overwhelming sense of a gothic castle, or church. Things that to me, symbolize something Grand. A place bigger than life. And by putting the meditation cushions on a drum bench, i can make the viewer feel a sense of grandness. By doing this, i am trying to obscure the thoughts that would come to one by meditating; losing yourself, nothing, clarity, trying to bring your body and mind to nothingness. Seeing things for what they really are, just shapes, sounds, thoughts. But by putting someone in this seat of control, it takes it all away at the same time, using your body to stay connected to the drums, and shaking the bass. I am trying to put the viewer in a different type of meditation, one with sound, and physical movement. Where one could hopefully keep a steady beat to drive oneself into and unearthly trance.
I am heavily influenced by the artists Banks Violette, and Friends With You. Both do "grand" types of installation to me. They both work on opposite sides of the spectrum to me, One insanely metal and the other childish to an extreme. I find them both so inspirational because i can easily be drawn into their work both aesthetically and conceptually. Something i would like to think more about with installation would be basing projects on stronger ideas that relate to me and how i look at things, not only bringing someone into my world, but also facing them to hysterically loud and over the top projects.
My Sister’s Kosher Wedding
Amy-Beth Maran
For my project, My Sister’s Kosher Wedding I wanted to put the audience in the intimate setting of a private argument between family members. This non-fiction argument takes place in a car, and the audience views the situation as a backseat passenger.
This project involves both the sense of sight and smell, though sound is an obvious component. The argument takes place over whether chicken is kosher or not. As my mother is a Rabbi, this conversation displaces many of the myths of what a religious family is actually like.
Because the argument is over “Why can’t we have chicken at the wedding?” I wanted to make the want of chicken resonate with the audience. I thought that bringing in roasted chickens and keeping them outside of the viewers reach would evoke the thought, “Chicken smells really good right now,” or a thought of that extent.
The audience is a participant, but how? They yield no say to what goes on and are “stuck” in the car. They may share in the desire for chicken. They can not control their space though. “With Installationism, we are no longer observing the artwork from a safe distance but are quite literally inside it” (Lewis, Robert).
I don’t know for sure how an audience will react to the piece. Having a college audience as opposed to a Jewish audience would certainly create different responses. I personally feel both humored and uncomfortable watching the film, and that is from an intimate knowledge of these people.
For some background to the question, “Is chicken kosher?” Yes, it certainly is. If the chicken is killed properly and prepared in a kosher kitchen it is. (Torah) That is the “Orthodox” view; however, my family is not orthodox.
Robert Lewis, Installation Art: Art or Artifice, Art and Opinion, 2004 n.d., http://www.artsandopinion.com/2004_v3_n3/lewis-9.htm, 28 September 2008.
Leviticus 11, 3-30; Exodus 23, 19; Deuteronomy 10-21, Torah.
For my project, My Sister’s Kosher Wedding I wanted to put the audience in the intimate setting of a private argument between family members. This non-fiction argument takes place in a car, and the audience views the situation as a backseat passenger.
This project involves both the sense of sight and smell, though sound is an obvious component. The argument takes place over whether chicken is kosher or not. As my mother is a Rabbi, this conversation displaces many of the myths of what a religious family is actually like.
Because the argument is over “Why can’t we have chicken at the wedding?” I wanted to make the want of chicken resonate with the audience. I thought that bringing in roasted chickens and keeping them outside of the viewers reach would evoke the thought, “Chicken smells really good right now,” or a thought of that extent.
The audience is a participant, but how? They yield no say to what goes on and are “stuck” in the car. They may share in the desire for chicken. They can not control their space though. “With Installationism, we are no longer observing the artwork from a safe distance but are quite literally inside it” (Lewis, Robert).
I don’t know for sure how an audience will react to the piece. Having a college audience as opposed to a Jewish audience would certainly create different responses. I personally feel both humored and uncomfortable watching the film, and that is from an intimate knowledge of these people.
For some background to the question, “Is chicken kosher?” Yes, it certainly is. If the chicken is killed properly and prepared in a kosher kitchen it is. (Torah) That is the “Orthodox” view; however, my family is not orthodox.
Robert Lewis, Installation Art: Art or Artifice, Art and Opinion, 2004 n.d., http://www.artsandopinion.com/2004_v3_n3/lewis-9.htm, 28 September 2008.
Leviticus 11, 3-30; Exodus 23, 19; Deuteronomy 10-21, Torah.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sight and Taste
The installation I’ve created makes use of the two senses sight and taste. The senses are put into effect using a traditional candy which is hung from tree branches in a public, often occupied area of the College of Santa Fe campus known as the Quad. The installation speaks to our ability to give in to our child like tendencies when the opportunity arises and temptation is not far from our reach. In the installation I’ve created a one tree paradise for sweet tooth and scavenger alike. The candy is clean and edible.
The idea was to create an installation which would capture the viewer if only for a moment, to test their individual curiosity and temptation when opportunity is seconds away. The concept came from a child like idea of the past, when we all wished that candy grew from trees or fell from the sky. I chose to create this installation based on a desire to fulfill the unexplainable, unnecessary yet fascinating projects created at an early age in my conceptual mind.
Further inspiration for this project came from artist Penelope Thompson and her “Raintrees” installation in 2006 in the Jeju Installation Art Festival in Korea. In the installation Thompson suspended water filled sacks from branches of trees. The installation represented the feeling of Korea’s remarkable downpour in the rainy summer season. The installation resonated with me in the sense that I am not from a primarily moist climate, but I recognize that feeling from the last few summers in the city. There is a feeling of great abundance and comfort when the monsoons reach our small town. The installation relayed a strong presence of both.
I was inspired to recreate this installation in my mind’s oddly childlike way when I came across a package of gummie candies that took me back in time to when my family would visit my grandmother’s house and when I would break the pinata on my birthday. The only candy she had in the tin were gummie fruits and dinosaurs. The feeling of breaking the pinata and opening the candy tin were the same pleasant emotion. I wanted to create a moment of immature glee and suspend it in time. This installation is a small tribute to fond childhood memories long gone but near in mind.
The idea was to create an installation which would capture the viewer if only for a moment, to test their individual curiosity and temptation when opportunity is seconds away. The concept came from a child like idea of the past, when we all wished that candy grew from trees or fell from the sky. I chose to create this installation based on a desire to fulfill the unexplainable, unnecessary yet fascinating projects created at an early age in my conceptual mind.
Further inspiration for this project came from artist Penelope Thompson and her “Raintrees” installation in 2006 in the Jeju Installation Art Festival in Korea. In the installation Thompson suspended water filled sacks from branches of trees. The installation represented the feeling of Korea’s remarkable downpour in the rainy summer season. The installation resonated with me in the sense that I am not from a primarily moist climate, but I recognize that feeling from the last few summers in the city. There is a feeling of great abundance and comfort when the monsoons reach our small town. The installation relayed a strong presence of both.
I was inspired to recreate this installation in my mind’s oddly childlike way when I came across a package of gummie candies that took me back in time to when my family would visit my grandmother’s house and when I would break the pinata on my birthday. The only candy she had in the tin were gummie fruits and dinosaurs. The feeling of breaking the pinata and opening the candy tin were the same pleasant emotion. I wanted to create a moment of immature glee and suspend it in time. This installation is a small tribute to fond childhood memories long gone but near in mind.
Juanita sight/scent installation
For this installation I will be making a statement about current politics today. In politics today verbal jabs and elaborate rhetoric dominate the field. My project, entitled “political bore” explores this.
Recently in politics Senator Palin made a statement, “What is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit-bull…lipstick.” This created a buzz and catch phrase that had nothing to do with the issues at hand. The other side counteracted with the phrase, although denying it directly in the media, “...you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”
For my installation I will place a heavily perfumed poster of a pig, based on recent comments, in the bathroom. The toilet within each stall will be filled with perfumed vomit representing the political spews of corrupt politicians. The viewer will be allowed to explore each stall as they wish, examining the contents. The installation is intended to create the sensation of nausea and being overwhelmed.
5 Senses Paper
Individual and Collective Experiences
In my installation, located in the elevator of the art building, I am attempting to use sight and sound to create an experience relating to the individual vs. the collective. I am also trying to convey certain disconnects that may occur during the art viewing process, as the artist’s personal connection to the work and process is very different than that of the viewer’s relationship.
In the small room I have hung two large scale abstract images of grey-scale ink drip paintings which were originally intended to resemble static. Their connection to static is not as important as the disorienting effect they give the viewer due to the randomness of the drips and the paintings scale. On the ground are a number of ink drawings/writings/scribbles that I impulsively created in an hour. I was writing and drawing whatever came into my head, regardless of how little sense it made, or how accessible these writings would be to the viewer. In the process of making these drawings, I was interested in art’s uses as therapy. That the process of making art, no matter what it looks like or how it could be criticized, is just as (if not more important) than the product itself. This lead me to fold the drawings in different ways while the ink was still wet, so they would somewhat resemble Rorschach ink blot tests. The ink blot tests resemble art viewing, most notably installation art viewing, because it is generally subjective in its interpretation and individualized experience.
The visual aspects of the piece parallel both visual and conceptual themes of works by Yayoi Kusama. Ceiling and wall mirrors in the elevator duplicate the actual paintings so that the environment is more encompassing. Kusama uses multiple mirrored walls in her “Mirror Room” installations. She describes her work as linked to: “Steryotypical action, repetition, accumulation, obsession, the curtain of depersonalization, emptiness, infinity, psychosomatic art, proliferation, ‘vacuum’, cell, segmentation, eternity” (Art Review 79). The artist’s “Infinity Net” paintings, according to author Pamela Wye, “have a Rorschach-like mutability that makes for an intense viewing experience up close” (Wye 96). Kusama uses art making to represent her inner state of being. One interviewer writes: “Notoriously, compulsion born of mental illness has fuelled her practice” (Art Review 76). The artist’s work is deeply personal, yet encompasses the viewer to see what she is seeing.
The recording occurred when I ate a meal by myself at a restaurant where I used to work. There is a continuous stream of dialogue from people at other tables, and then more specific dialogue between me and people I used to work with who would say ‘hi’ as they noticed me. The installation’s sound component depends on the viewer’s presence to be complete. When the elevator door is open and empty, the viewer can hear only static. If the viewer enters the space and the door closes, than the signal of the sound becomes more clearly transmitted to the radio which is projecting it.
Sources:
Art Review. “Yayoi Kusama: To Infinity and Beyond!” 15 (2007): 74-79
Wye, Pamela. “Is She Famous Yet?” Art Journal 57 (1998): 96-97
In my installation, located in the elevator of the art building, I am attempting to use sight and sound to create an experience relating to the individual vs. the collective. I am also trying to convey certain disconnects that may occur during the art viewing process, as the artist’s personal connection to the work and process is very different than that of the viewer’s relationship.
In the small room I have hung two large scale abstract images of grey-scale ink drip paintings which were originally intended to resemble static. Their connection to static is not as important as the disorienting effect they give the viewer due to the randomness of the drips and the paintings scale. On the ground are a number of ink drawings/writings/scribbles that I impulsively created in an hour. I was writing and drawing whatever came into my head, regardless of how little sense it made, or how accessible these writings would be to the viewer. In the process of making these drawings, I was interested in art’s uses as therapy. That the process of making art, no matter what it looks like or how it could be criticized, is just as (if not more important) than the product itself. This lead me to fold the drawings in different ways while the ink was still wet, so they would somewhat resemble Rorschach ink blot tests. The ink blot tests resemble art viewing, most notably installation art viewing, because it is generally subjective in its interpretation and individualized experience.
The visual aspects of the piece parallel both visual and conceptual themes of works by Yayoi Kusama. Ceiling and wall mirrors in the elevator duplicate the actual paintings so that the environment is more encompassing. Kusama uses multiple mirrored walls in her “Mirror Room” installations. She describes her work as linked to: “Steryotypical action, repetition, accumulation, obsession, the curtain of depersonalization, emptiness, infinity, psychosomatic art, proliferation, ‘vacuum’, cell, segmentation, eternity” (Art Review 79). The artist’s “Infinity Net” paintings, according to author Pamela Wye, “have a Rorschach-like mutability that makes for an intense viewing experience up close” (Wye 96). Kusama uses art making to represent her inner state of being. One interviewer writes: “Notoriously, compulsion born of mental illness has fuelled her practice” (Art Review 76). The artist’s work is deeply personal, yet encompasses the viewer to see what she is seeing.
The recording occurred when I ate a meal by myself at a restaurant where I used to work. There is a continuous stream of dialogue from people at other tables, and then more specific dialogue between me and people I used to work with who would say ‘hi’ as they noticed me. The installation’s sound component depends on the viewer’s presence to be complete. When the elevator door is open and empty, the viewer can hear only static. If the viewer enters the space and the door closes, than the signal of the sound becomes more clearly transmitted to the radio which is projecting it.
Sources:
Art Review. “Yayoi Kusama: To Infinity and Beyond!” 15 (2007): 74-79
Wye, Pamela. “Is She Famous Yet?” Art Journal 57 (1998): 96-97
5 Senses - Spencer
For this project, I was interested in performative work that was directly aimed at my being as opposed to a viewer or another exterior self. In our previous class we discussed installation/performance as a mechanism to interact with the viewer possibly in a more intimate context then associated with traditional forms of art. When we think of our senses, we are generally assessing individual facets of the greater infrastructure of the human body that interact with each other to form a collective entity that establishes the full spectrum of human capability. I was interested in eliminating parts of this biological machine to help focus my energy on a different set of variables in environments that I work within on an every day basis.
I spent 20-60 minutes (depending on space) in 4 different spaces this past weekend: the library, the cafeteria, my bedroom and the quad. In each instance I closed my eyes, shut my mouth and isolated in a spot where no one would bother me. Honing in on my ears and nose I listened carefully and drew deep breath in through my nostrils in an attempt to study each space through varied aesthetic approach. By eliminating the ability to see, taste or touch, I could delve into senses that I may not use as readily or to such extent.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Private Drive, Not a Through Street
Spencer Neale
As I rummaged round the campus late last night, I came upon a sign that read:
"Private Drive
Not a Through Street"
Lying approximately 200 yards west of Benildus.
Along with another interventionist, we carried the sign, 4 feet in width and 3 feet in height, down the stretching cafeteria hallway and propped it up against two windows half the distance from either end of entrance/exit.
It made me smile
art was streaming through -
Morning approached....
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
York
If you go to the end of the album there are more pictures of this project
irina - padded cell
My intention for this project was to highlight the discrepancy between the hyper-sexualized body of the fantasy female and the taboo bodily functions of real females. By inviting a viewer - namely Cole - to walk barefoot on my padded carpet and then engage with me in a cliche slumber party sex-kitten pillow fight, I aimed to humorously express my personal opinion that a woman's body should only be shared with someone who is comfortable with all manifestations of that body - whether slim and sexy or bloated and bleeding.
Thanks to Leslie Sakal for the photos.
irina - 100 objects
I haven't been able to get the video working, but here are photos of the carnage from my 100th birthday party:
Monday, September 15, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
SFAI Open House 9/18
| Go to this for Extra Credit or for one of your 6 lecture/opening credits: Santa Fe Art Institute Artists & Writers in Residence September Open Studio Thursday, September 19 5:30 pm SFAI Free Admission Refreshments Served | |
 The Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI) is proud to welcome 10 visual artists and writers in residence for the month of September. The public is invited to meet them and view their work at SFAI's monthly Open Studio. SFAI supports over 60 residents per year and offers a cohesive, arts-focused environment that creates the ideal working conditions for our resident artists.Don Bogen, Poet Hunt Scarritt, Playwright Jeanne Dorsey, Playwright Martie Palar, Poet Lisa Nold, Novelist Agustina Woodgate, Sculptor Hisao Ihara, Video Artist Caroline Kelley, Film Maker Sandra Clark, Photographer Evert Witte, Painter Kim Russo wrote about SFAI open house: www.artenvelope.blogspot.com | |
Thursday, September 11, 2008
100 objects AmyBeth
These are my images from both my home installation and the art department installation. I used animal crackers and frosting to mimick ant patterns for different effects.
The first two images are at my home. I included Boric acid (ration 1:1) to the frosting as a creative exterminating solution for household ants.
At the art department, I chose the Sept. 11th memorial to play with the animal crackers and frosting up the adobe "tower." There was a gentler feel as the aim was to let the ants enjoy the food in their own environment. However, the piece does stop rather abruptly which after hearing the critique I felt was all the more appropriate. The piece is dedicated to Julianna McCourt, age 4 from New London CT.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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