Thursday, December 18, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The glass maze
For my final project I decided to continue my exploration of reflections using the glass bottles. I layed to glass bottles out in concentric circle patterns around and on the tables and chairs. The installation was set up in in the courtyard of the faculty lounge. The installation took place outside to reflect nature. The light from the moon and stars was reflected to through the glass. Viewers were invited to move through and around the bottles. Some people interacted with the installation while others observed. The layers of glass and the external atmoshere reflect the multiple layers of perception, the audience as an observer, the object, and the enviornment.
Light and shadow are dispersed and manipulated. My piece was partially influenced by Ursula Berlot’s, installation pieces that deals with light, reflections, and special relationships. She is a German installation artist. Like my piece, her pieces focus on the reflection and movement of light through various transparent objects. Often times her sculptures are kinetic and intersect shadow within light. Sound is also employed. I was also inspired by an installation piece by Tokujin Yoshioka entitled Crystal Forest. This piece was installed in the Swarovski Flagship store in Ginza Tokyo. Stainless steel pieces hang, “reflecting fragmented views of the street.” My project uses multiples of the same objects to capture, transform, and reflect light. Although her piece is still, the reflections are in constant motion and ever changing with the movement of the environment. This static capture as well as alteration of the movement is one of the subjects that my piece focuses on, along with self-reflection and analysis. Through subtle changes in the environment perspections are altered.
Although the installation was not a complete success or my origional idea, it was an alternative way to explore similar ideas about similar concepts.
Light and shadow are dispersed and manipulated. My piece was partially influenced by Ursula Berlot’s, installation pieces that deals with light, reflections, and special relationships. She is a German installation artist. Like my piece, her pieces focus on the reflection and movement of light through various transparent objects. Often times her sculptures are kinetic and intersect shadow within light. Sound is also employed. I was also inspired by an installation piece by Tokujin Yoshioka entitled Crystal Forest. This piece was installed in the Swarovski Flagship store in Ginza Tokyo. Stainless steel pieces hang, “reflecting fragmented views of the street.” My project uses multiples of the same objects to capture, transform, and reflect light. Although her piece is still, the reflections are in constant motion and ever changing with the movement of the environment. This static capture as well as alteration of the movement is one of the subjects that my piece focuses on, along with self-reflection and analysis. Through subtle changes in the environment perspections are altered.
Although the installation was not a complete success or my origional idea, it was an alternative way to explore similar ideas about similar concepts.
Friday, December 12, 2008
displaying 2D evidence of the passage of time three-dimensionally
For this piece, I examined and documented light patterns that moved within one plane of space (the floor in the glass cube area between Tishman floors 1 and 2) over time and created solid forms out of cotton scrim to represent the light patterns formed during distinct moments of time. My objective was to document a temporal phenomenon in eight moments and then juxtapose those eight distinct moments' patterns in time simultaneously in space. The layering of each individual visual moment (normally occupying the same plane) would then expand to create a voluminous form out of eight planes. Just as video/ film projection is the juxtaposition of images on the same space over time, so too is the play of light on the floor. I wanted to separate out "single frames" of light patterns and juxtapose them throughout space rather than throughout time. It would be as if one took eight frames of video and layered them vertically throughout space rather than projecting onto the same plane.
Here is one pattern made out cotton scrim, based on the light pattern captured at 8:30am 11/1/08.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
First Snow, or...
When Will I Get My Fucking Act Together and Move Somewhere Tropical?
This installation was a physical manifestation of my struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The focal point of the project was a green scarf with brightly colored flowers woven into it. The scarf was a visual representation of the warmer seasons, but in the context of the installation it also represented my yearly denial of the emotional difficulties that winter inevitably brings.
To use David Stout’s words, my piece was a “tableau vivant for the seasonal disordered.” My intention was to create an environment that expressed tension and irony as I went to great lengths to simultaneously acknowledge and deny my seasonal struggles. The irony and tension were expressed in through three major juxtapositions. First, I was knitting the scarf – clearly a winter object – but it was green and covered in flowers – clearly a spring/summer theme. Second I was wearing my bathing suit and sunglasses, but they were paired with my heavy snow boots. Third, I was sitting in a chair that is clearly for sunbathing, but the lobby was cold and the scarf trailed away from me, out into the cold winter night, and ended in a flowerbox full of dead leaves; the only sunshine nearby was on TV, as footage of a sunny beach looped incessantly on a screen that was out of my reach, representing both hope and desperation.
While I feel that my installation for our show was somewhat successful, I had the opportunity to install my piece in a different space for the InterArts final show and I felt that the second installation was more successful. The major difference was that instead of being in the middle of an open space, I was enclosed in a raised alcove built into the wall behind panes of glass, as though in a cage. This space created a feeling of isolation and separation from the audience, which felt incredibly appropriate because social withdrawal is a common symptom of SAD. I further took advantage of this space by hanging a sign on the cage, both emphasizing the isolation and also providing contextual information that related the project specifically to SAD. The sign read:
Observe the Artist in its natural habitat!
Although she would never admit it, this particular specimen has Seasonal Affective Disorder. During the colder months, when daylight hours are limited, this disorder causes the Artist to experience many of the following symptoms:
LIVE ANIMAL! PLEASE DO NOT TAP ON GLASS!
This installation was a physical manifestation of my struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The focal point of the project was a green scarf with brightly colored flowers woven into it. The scarf was a visual representation of the warmer seasons, but in the context of the installation it also represented my yearly denial of the emotional difficulties that winter inevitably brings.
To use David Stout’s words, my piece was a “tableau vivant for the seasonal disordered.” My intention was to create an environment that expressed tension and irony as I went to great lengths to simultaneously acknowledge and deny my seasonal struggles. The irony and tension were expressed in through three major juxtapositions. First, I was knitting the scarf – clearly a winter object – but it was green and covered in flowers – clearly a spring/summer theme. Second I was wearing my bathing suit and sunglasses, but they were paired with my heavy snow boots. Third, I was sitting in a chair that is clearly for sunbathing, but the lobby was cold and the scarf trailed away from me, out into the cold winter night, and ended in a flowerbox full of dead leaves; the only sunshine nearby was on TV, as footage of a sunny beach looped incessantly on a screen that was out of my reach, representing both hope and desperation.
While I feel that my installation for our show was somewhat successful, I had the opportunity to install my piece in a different space for the InterArts final show and I felt that the second installation was more successful. The major difference was that instead of being in the middle of an open space, I was enclosed in a raised alcove built into the wall behind panes of glass, as though in a cage. This space created a feeling of isolation and separation from the audience, which felt incredibly appropriate because social withdrawal is a common symptom of SAD. I further took advantage of this space by hanging a sign on the cage, both emphasizing the isolation and also providing contextual information that related the project specifically to SAD. The sign read:
Observe the Artist in its natural habitat!
Although she would never admit it, this particular specimen has Seasonal Affective Disorder. During the colder months, when daylight hours are limited, this disorder causes the Artist to experience many of the following symptoms:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Loss of energy
- Loss of libido
- Social withdrawal
- Oversleeping
- Loss of interest in activities she once enjoyed
- Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
- Weight gain
- Difficulty concentrating and processing information
LIVE ANIMAL! PLEASE DO NOT TAP ON GLASS!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
lonesome valley part 2
When I began this project, it was an opportunity for me to push myself beyond the boundaries of painting that I had grown accustomed to in my life. I have always been infatuated with the process of painting and the extreme relief that it gives me amidst the turmoil of my life. One thing that I have noticed about myself is that I find myself creating environments around me that are comfortable. Growing up I never found the comfort that I have found in my new life here. In this project I really wanted to explore how far I could take that reflex of mine. I took objects that I had acquired over time for my own space at home and altered them to fit how I needed in my own fictional environment. I suppose you could say that I escape into my paintings and I wanted to recreate that feeling in a space where the audience could experience that for themselves. The space that I chose for this piece is perfect for the installation because it is the space I use to paint in. Automatically, I have a connection emotionally to this area. It is a space that is charged with my creative energies and is very personal to me. The decision to sleep in the space was one that I made after the first critique that we had. I had begun the process of creating my space and was interested in pushing the experience further. The need to make these painted objects into something more than meaningful "objects" was interesting to me. I wanted to live the space I had created and spend a night contemplating why I had made the decisions I had made. When the time came I spent most of the night fuming around the barracks making decisions about what objects to use and how to place them in this 3D composition of sorts. I found myself dredging up interesting pieces of my past for inspiration. Certain symbols kept appearing in aesthetic choices and objects that I had collected in my lifetime. An example of this includes bird and cage imagery in the paintings as well as the objects that I had laying around my house, and the image of a cage-like house or home. The loneliness of the human existence has intrigued me very much. The Carter Family song "Lonesome Valley" has been a source of inspiration to me as well, because the lyrics are all about the lonely human condition. The feeling of being caged in ones own existence or reality has interested me very much and I see this entrapment appear often in my artwork. The experience of living in my art space is one that I feel was extremely helpful in the process of this piece. In the future I would very much like to sleep here again and keep a journal account of the experience and the process of building this "nest" of sorts. A journal would have worked better to draw in and control the audience in a way. I thought it was a successful piece for me personally, and I would hope that the audience could draw some sort of experience for themselves. I enjoyed this project the most of any this semester, because I put a lot of time and my heart into it. It was a great exploration of isolation of oneself in life and reality.
Because Susan didn't get to see the first installation I did for the class (100 objects - I handed out 100 wildflowers) we agreed that I would do more installations with my fake daisies. I decided to take them with me when I went home to New York for Thanksgiving.
In case you can't tell from the photos, the 5 locations I chose were the Denver airport, my parents' piano, my old bed, the post-Thanksgiving dinner table mess, and the back of an NYC taxi. Here is the documentation:
In case you can't tell from the photos, the 5 locations I chose were the Denver airport, my parents' piano, my old bed, the post-Thanksgiving dinner table mess, and the back of an NYC taxi. Here is the documentation:
Monday, December 1, 2008
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