4/13 Art of Photo Show

4/1 Understanding Media - Marshall McLuhan

As a T.A. for the sophomore seminar class I have the opportunity to work with Tom Adair. I have been working on a draft for my artist statement along side the other students in the class. Upon reading my paper, Tom suggested that I look into Marshall McLuhan, someone that we feels is very inspirational and someone that he felt would help to inform my own artist statement.

Here are some quotes I took from the writing that I felt to be particularly poignant.

"We are entering the new age of education that is programmed for discovery rather than instruction."

"Our conventional response to all media, namely that it is how they are used that counts, is the numb stance of the technological idiot."

"The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance. The serious artist is the only person able to encounter technology with impunity, just because he is an expert aware of the changes in sense perception."

"The effect of electric technology had at first been anxiety. Now it appears to create boredom. "

3/29 Carlos and Jason Sanchez

Carlos and Jason Sanchez live and work out of Montreal, Canada. There use of color saturation and cinematic qualities remind me of works by Jeff Wall and Gregory Crewdson. There tableau's are at first familiar, but when you look closely there is something almost sinister about them.

The atmospheric elements created are unsettling and in some ways dark. The brothers play with the visual cliches portrayed in there narratives to create a conversation that speaks to such things as homosexuality, family relations, and Christianity. The patterns of key elements in there work helps to key the viewer read and visually unwind the image's questions.

There work seems like fragments of a larger narrative as if they were taken at the decisive moment in a film. There imagery is suggestive of something else that could be or have happend. Nothing is as it seems, or it seems a little off. This ambiguity contributes to the mood that encompasses all there work.

http://www.thesanchezbrothers.com/

http://myartspace.com/artistInfo.do?populatinglist=home&subscriberid=zntvk0ob69r0s951

3/23 Character Value.

In my meeting with Paul we talked about using my videos as a character representation of the American psyche.

The jock
the drama queens
the doctors
the family
the cops

By using the videos in this way they could represent the cultural values that are portrayed in the television that we watch on a daily basis. Since the films are so short, the images and sound has to work in a way that expresses an idea, the moment of peak interest that encompasses the mood of the different genres depicted.

Thinking of these videos as personalities might help to shape the character of the pieces and work as a whole. If presented together they could begin to have a conversation with each other and formulate a discussion about American Culture through the eyes of the television.

3/23 Anderson Gallery

3/11 Sanford Biggers

http://www.sanfordbiggers.com/

http://www.rovetv.net/sb-press.html

http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/visualarts/sanford_biggers.php

Lotus

Blossom

Cheshire (sculpture)

Prayer Rug

One of the first things that stuck out about Sanford Biggers work was the similarities with the previous artist to lecture Hank Willis Thomas. They both made work that focused on race in American culture and both used popular iconic imagery in there work. Both Artists also used the haunting image of the slave ship in there work.

Biggers who spent a sometime in Japan is inspired by the different cities around the world. He hopes to show less cultural differences and more similarities between families all over. He links Japanese culture to African American Culture in much of his work. Since his work is so multicultural he allows his formal art training to be the translation for his work. Different aspects in the works speak to different people depending on there background. He works with symbols that contradict and that offer a dialogue/ conversation. Symbols that allow for questions that open up the work. For example by mixing Hip Hop culture with Buddhist thinking the work becomes more complicated and avoids the labeling of Hip Hop. His work and himself as an artist is always changing and evolving to avoid such compartmentalizing of himself and his work. Biggers was a great speaker and was really inspirational to listen too. He was down to earth about recycling ideas and reusing past projects to contribute to new ideas.

3/11 thats bs

As I am pulling imagery in for my second movie a few things have crossed my mind as far as subjects go. The nighttime drama that I shot last year was not as well defined as I had hoped when I was thinking of ideas this time around for my films. There are a million night time dramas. But what in reality makes up those dramas. The girl fights. That is the most exciting part of those shows. Reality isn't as much fun without them. So this got me thinking about the rest of my imagery. What about the shows, is so important and what in them is the core, that makes them interesting.
This relationship between imagery and sounds, this is where it can be interesting. This is where I can play with the Moment. That moment of peaked interest and excitement. This is where I can begin to start a conversation.