October 7, 2008
some piece of art that has changed…
So, this week we are to talk about a piece of work that has affected the way that we see or conceive artwork. Something that has opened new possibilities and showed us new mediums that you didn’t know existed before. Or, really something that just blew your mind.
Immediately, what came to my mind was the video, A Family Finds Entertainment by Ryan Trecartin (2004). I saw it at the Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night exhibit. I walked through the doors and this was one of the first artworks. I expected to watch a few minutes of it and then move on to find what I had initially gone there for, Marilyn Minter and Jim O’Rourke. But instead, I stood there, jaw-dropped, for the entirety of the 41 min. video. It was a visual assault on your senses. There was an enormous amount of color, the initially vague plot line of a boy coming out, erratic behavior, and phrases that got stuck in my head for months. Up until this point, I was relatively scared of color. I still predominately worked in black and white. After this, though, it inspired me to just go crazy with bold colors and not care what the colors would say, what emotions would be evoked, or what statement my photography made. It was all about color, composition, and acting intuitively. I had been trying for a while to make my photos look more like paintings, but, I had never even thought of using paint as my subject matter. So, I feel that this video positively affected the direction of my photography. Although, it is an absolutely insane video and unlike any that I could ever even imagine creating, it has been a big source of inspiration for me and that is probably why I am so attracted to it.
It is explained here by The Saatchi Gallery (the stills are from their site too)
“Ryan Trecartin’s film A Family Finds Entertainment is a camp extravaganza of epic proportions. Starring Trecartin’s family and friends, and the artist himself in a plethora of outrageous roles, A Family Finds Entertainment chronicles the story of mixed up teenager Skippy and his adventures in ‘coming out’. In this over the top celebration of queerness, Trecartin’s film mines the bizarre and endearing in an unabashed pastiche of ‘bad tv’ tropes. Cheesy video special effects, dress-up chess costumes, desperate scripts, and ‘after school special’ melodrama combine in the fluency of youth-culture lingo, reflecting a generation both damaged and affirmed by media consumption.”
October 1, 2008
Faculty Show
What originally drew me to this piece was the smell of oil. It brings up imagery of motorcycle shops, heavy machinery, filth, and just general masculinity. The reflection of the glasslike pool of oil, with the glass amorphous object hovering just above the surface, gave me a sense of containment. Looking into the oil you see the ceiling, made of planks, resembling a hardwood floor and the tapestry hanging on an adjacent wall becomes an area rug. It is disorienting.
Occasionally bubbles form on the surface from some sort of pump underneath. I don’t know if the pump is there for any other purpose than to make these small changes in the surface of the oil. It breaks up the stagnation. When I saw the bubbles, I began to think of oil spills. I liked how the crisp, cleanliness of the hanging glass object was like a visual tug-o-war with the inherent dirtiness of the pool of oil.
Sitting with this piece for about an hour gave me an over all sense of peace, even though my mind wandered to these places of environmental catastrophes, motorcycle shops, and a negative sense of containment. Maybe the overwhelming odor had something to do with that…
September 24, 2008
South Street Art Gallery
This is my family’s gallery. if you know people who like plein air paintings you should look here
