Artist Lecture #4: Sanford Biggers 3/11/10

(posted in May from a saved draft)

I’ll start out by saying that Sanford Biggers is a very complex artist, and while I liked the obvious involvedness of his work, it was hard to take notes at his lecture.

Sanford Biggers came to talk to us this week from his home in New York. With a culmination of sculpture, video, music and other media, Bigger’s work mixes African culture with hip-hop and pop culture in America. His complex pieces are made in heavily involved processes, in order to communicate ideas of race, social standings of the past and black culture.

One of the first pieces we got to see was a break dance floor that he colored with a design. This piece has been displayed in galleries and danced on within the galleries as well. To comment on how a space becomes its own and how its treated, Biggers filmed dancers from above the tiled break dance floor and articulated how it was a sacred space to those dancers, like their own place for spirituality. I thought this was really awesome because I feel like I was talking about this in my post on H. Bosch!


Mandala of the B-Bodhisattva II, Sanford Biggers. Hand colored rubber tiles, 16x16 feet. http://www.sanfordbiggers.com

During the lecture, Biggers shared a video he made in collaboration with a white artist. Together they combined similar home movies of their families and created a whole different movie. It was an obvious comment that although they’re of different races, they’re no different from each other.


A Small World, Sanford Biggers, in collaboration with Jennifer Zackin. 6:30 minute silent color DVD. http://www.sanfordbiggers.com/


http://www.sanfordbiggers.com/

Artist Blog: Aino Kannisto

(Posted in May from saved draft)

Aino Kannisto is a Finnish photographer who constructs fictional scenes that she records with her camera. Kannisto, like me, acts acts as the subject in her scenes and doesn't consider them self-portraits in a traditional way, but considers herself a narrator. "My pictures are fantasies, I represent an atmosphere or a mood through fictional persons. Fantasy is a means to speak about emotions." - Kannisto (http://www.women2003.dk/artists.php?id=46)

She and I obviously speak the same language.

Untitled (Trashbin) Aino Kannisto, 1999. C-Print, Diasec, 90 x 115 cm. http://www.m-bochum.de/artist_image.php?aid=66#down.

Kannisto's influences are much like the influences of mine and previously posted artists, with emphasis on the surrounding world, literature and cinema, "as well as by images more difficult to locate, such as memories, daydreams and nightmares" (Kannisto). She also admits that just being alive, engaging and perceiving life and the things around her, ignites pictures in her head.

Being an artist as just a reaction of life is such a great definition of Artist. I think it's a breakthrough, even.

"I see pictures in my mind, the things I have dealt with come into my dreams and still moments. I cannot stop working as I cannot stop thinking or existing in the world." - Kannisto

Untitled (Translucent Curtain) Aino Kannisto, 2002. C-Print, Diasec, 90 x 113 cm. http://www.m-bochum.de/artist_image.php?aid=66#down.

I really love the softness and romance of her gesture in this above piece, Translucent Curtain.

Untitled (Blue River) Aino Kannisto, 2006. C-Print, Diasec, 90 x 142 cm. http://www.m-bochum.de/artist_image.php?aid=66#down.

Sometimes it's exhausting to find these artists. I find it frustrating that I'm only this age and that I haven't been in the world before now to know about these things before they did. Selfish, yes definitely, but it's true. I find so many similarities in the mindset and influences of these artists that help fuel my creative processes that I feel unoriginal again. But at the same time I feel the need to keep my work personal and quiet and only for myself because that's why I make it in the first place. It's a dilemma for me, but not for Kannisto, who said "Making pictures is for me a way to deal with human emotions. It is also a source of immense creative energy and pleasure – a way to give meaning to life by sharing some part of the world which otherwise remains private."

I hope eventually I share the same joy out of sharing myself and my work in the same way she does.

http://www.m-bochum.de/artist_image.php?aid=66#down.

http://www.women2003.dk/artists.php?id=4

Research Blog: Mid Critique!

I had my mid-critique! It was incredibly uplifting and successful and I feel as though our class has really reached out for each other this semester and we're genuinely interested in each other's endeavors.

These were the two images I shared:

Enlightenment, Rebecca Arnold, 2010.

Voyage, Rebecca Arnold, 2010.

I received very constructive and supportive feedback from the class. A lot of comments were reassuring, about how I've really gone 'all out' (in a positive way) this semester and that my execution of childlike/dreamlike visions constructed in a mature way is successful. This is really uplifting! I'm so glad I'm finally heading in the right direction.

There were some disagreements over suggestions, like one over adding another layer in the photo "Voyage", so that you can't see the closet door in the background and so that I was completely entrapped by this fantasy world. The rebuttal was that presenting both the real world (what I'm escaping from) and the illusion (where I'm escaping) meeting so close together is successful. Another debatable item was the "boat" chair in that same photo. One classmate thought it was distracting, as it was recognizable and it's already obvious I'm in a domestic setting, but others argued that that's what makes it accessible.

I'm extremely happy with how this semester has gone so far in terms of production and progression. I can't wait to continue making these sets!

Artist Blog: Boyd Webb

(Posted in May from saved draft)

Boyd Webb is an artist who uses large scale cibachromes (which are now known as Ilfochromes thanks to Ilford) in which his subjects and their environments are in the midst of an absurd occurrence. Webb was born in New Zealand in the 1940's, and after he turned 25 in 1972, he traveled to London to study at the Royal Collage of Art. Some of his exhibitions include the Hirschhorn Museum in 1990, Whitechapel Art Gallery in London in 1978 and 1987, and the Auckland Art Gallery touring exhibition in 1997. He now lives in Brighton, England but continues to travel.

Coxswain, Boyd Webb, 63x75 inches, Archival Digital C Print, framed. http://www.artnet.com/artist/17598/boyd-webb.html

Another student suggested I look into Boyd Webb's work, and actually I remember him from my first Studio class at VCU. It was nice revisiting these images knowing what I know now. When I think back to that class when I was first introduced to his work, I liked it a lot and was very intrigued, but I couldn't really understand why. And my teacher (ahem) wasn't very good at speaking about him either, so that didn't help.

Bedding II, Boyd Webb, 63x75 inches, Archival Digital C Print, framed. http://www.artnet.com/artist/17598/boyd-webb.html

While I really like his work and find it relevant to my own, I feel like I'm trying to move away from this simplistic studio aesthetic. I want to have elements of domestic spaces in my photographs and added layers as well. I'd like to get back into doing studio work eventually, but not for this series.

Either way, I'm fascinated by his work and his utter control over his sets.

Tosser II, Boyd Webb, 63x75 inches, Archival Digital C Print, framed. http://www.artnet.com/artist/17598/boyd-webb.html

Without realizing, I see now that the three images I chose to share of his were all celestial/astronomical in style, which is actually what I've been working with lately with my own shoots (which I will show at mid-crit!). I probably also chose these because I tend to choose the most fantastical and whimsical images of my favored artists. So sue me.

http://www.suecrockford.com/artists/biography.asp?aid=15

http://www.artnet.com/artist/17598/boyd-webb.html

Artist Lecture #3: Paul Pfeiffer 2/15/10

(Posted in May from saved draft)

Paul Pfeiffer came to lecture last week at VCU, and it was great because I'm increasingly interested in video art and all of the possibilities in using that medium. Pfeiffer shared his short, looped 4"x5" films, that he described as video sculptures, which touched on subjects of religion, art, race, commerce and philosophy. By using video, sculpture, photography and modern technologies, Pfeiffer appropriates found footage and pop culture pictures to explore mass media's role in influencing society's consciousness.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (28) Paul Pfeiffer, 2007. Digital C-print 
60 x 40 inches. http://www.thomasdane.com/artist.php?artist_id=12

The small size of the films (4"x5") creates an intimate experience for the viewer, as Paul Pfeiffer explained, and through these films with such an introspective and spiritual nature, the viewers were to draw from their own psyche to create their personal interpretations of his work.

"Pfeiffer's work addresses how the image of the human being has been transformed by new digital technologies, which can be used both to store limitless amounts of visual information and to manipulate pre-existing images" - Hilarie M. Sheets (http://www.gagosian.com/artists/paul-pfeiffer)

Paul Pfeiffer is the recipient of several awards, most notably becoming the inaugural recipient of the Whitney Museum f American Art's Bucksbaum Award in 2000.

www.gagosian.com/artists/paul-pfeiffer

www.pbs.org/art21/artists/pfeiffer/index.html

Artist Blog: Eugenio Recuenco

(Posted in May from saved draft)

Eugenio Recuenco is a moderately well known fashion photographer, who is considered one of the more creative in the publishing and advertising fields in Madrid, Spain. He shoots exclusively for Vogue, as well as other international magazines, such as Madam Figaro, and has done campaigns for several prestigious brands.

photograph by Eugenio Recuenco, title and addition image information not found. (http://www.eugeniorecuenco.com)

Agencies often refer to Recuenco's work as cinematographic and pictorial in style, and he often references film and the directors who've had the biggest influence on him (Hitchcock, John Waters).

photograph by Eugenio Recuenco, title and addition image information not found. (http://www.eugeniorecuenco.com).

In an interview with Recuenco, he talks about some of the things that Tom and I discussed in our first meeting, referring to the classical questions of photography and the elements of disbelief. After being asked if he considered himself a violator against the image because of his "theatrical point of view," Recuenco explains his successful methods of not doing "anything forced; everything happens spontaneously." He later asks, "Why does the image need to be realistic? I believe we are becoming liberated from that, as paintings did a long time ago. The image, if you want to consider it as art, must be untied from the idea of being realistic. There is no other way." (www.bobbintalk.com)

photograph by Eugenio Recuenco, title and addition image information not found. (http://www.eugeniorecuenco.com)

I seem to find a lot of artists who have the same ideals of art that I do, and it really motivates me. Eugenio Recuenco has a wide variety of series, but I found some great images to post that are most moving to me. I couldn't find any titles or additional information on the images, which was frustrating, but in the long run I suppose the images should speak for themselves. And I think most would agree that they do!

I want to include this one, just because it's fantastic: photograph by Eugenio Recuenco, title and addition image information not found. (http://www.eugeniorecuenco.com) http://www.eugeniorecuenco.com http://www.bobbintalk.com/2010/01/eugenio-recuenco-inside-out.html

Artist Lecture #2: Hank Willis Thomas

(Posted in May from saved draft)

Hank Willis Thomas came to speak at VCU this week, and he was like a breath of fresh air to the Photo Department (or at least to me and my peers).

He began the lecture by saying that he didn't really have anything planned. I took this as a great sign because he was confident and could obviously speak well of his work (unlike so many lecturers). Thomas' work was mainly based around consumer culture and what is concealed in media. He also deals with racial issues and the complexities of the terms "black" and "white" in our society. He shared with us a quote by one of his influences, Carl Handcock-Rux, about how being black or white in America doesn't mean anything and that race doesn't really exist. I found this a very profound, yet simple observation, and the work we viewed of his pertaining to this subject was equally as interesting.

Using graphic design and advertising formats, Hank W Thomas combines logos and icons to comment on the way Americans are so consumed in brand names and branding themselves, and not about real issues. Often overlooked are the harsh realities of America's past with slavery.

Branded Head (B(r)anded), Hank Willis Thomas, 2003. Lightjet print, size unknown. http://hankwillisthomas.com/splash.html.

Hank Thomas also shared with us the story of his deceased cousin, whom he grew up under, and the night he was robbed at gunpoint and killed. Collaborating with a friend, he used G.I. Joes action figures (the same ones he played with as a child) to make a stop-motion film with the information from the accounts of witnesses. With all of his studies in African American culture, Thomas found it ironic that their ancestors were brought over in chains and that his cousin died from another black man wanting the chains around his neck.

This my man Songha (Winter in America), Hank Willis Thomas, 2005. Lightjet print, size unknown. Made in collaboration with Olujimi Kambui. http://www.hankwillisthomas.com/splash.html.

By using these action figures, Hank Thomas intends to make the format of the story goofy and disarming. As a society, we are desensitized by violence, and with childsplay, children are used to knowing that even if your action figure "dies", you can just pick him back up and keep playing with him. Thomas highlights that the violent toys sold every day breed a culture of violent thought and scenarios before they're even old enough to read.

One of the final projects Hank W. Thomas shared with us was a contracted, collaborative piece called "Along the Way", a film with over 1,200 strangers of all different ages, backgrounds and cultures found in an airport in Oakland, California. These artists created a beautiful and hopeful video and it was a perfect end to the lecture.

Along the Way, The Cause Collective (H.L.Thomas), 2007. 30' x 10' video mosaic, Oakland International Airport. http://www.causecollective.com.

"Faces and places merge and commingle creating a vocabulary that evokes mood while underscoring place and movement with the unifying thread being the humanity of what we encounter "along the way" in a place like Oakland."

http://hankwillisthomas.com/splash.html

I'm so thrilled we got the chance to have this artist come speak to us. I really enjoyed his work and listening to his thoughts.