Garlandcomarob's Weblog

Rachel Whiteread

garlandcomarob — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:23:32 +0000

Whiteread’s famous art form is the sculptures made from plaster casts of the inside of rooms, buildings, etc. What I enjoy about Whiteread’s art is that it is shocking, but not in the sense that many of the other Sensation! artists were shocking by simply baffling and putting audiences in a discomforted awe. Aside from the sheer difficulty and skill Whiteread has in takign plaster casts and reconstructing them, I like Whiteread’s form in that experience the audience carries from it. In reconstructing essentially the inside of a room or building, she takes makes something out of nothing. The negative space in a room or an expanse takes form and has a separate, independent existence from the building and walls. The reason this invokes an emotion and a stunned experience from the audience is because she has built the part of a room that people exist in. People do not exist in walls or in doors or panelling. They live in the space, and by creating a phsyical representation of this space, Whiteread personifies a living space. She makes a room human and gives it an identity and a body.

John Ashcroft

garlandcomarob — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:10:12 +0000

According to an article by USA Today, John Ashcroft’s role in the draping of statues was minimal and it has been said that he was not involved in the decision. Many say that the drapes are a functino of press conferences and that drapes are a better backdrop for the cameras, but people’s understanding of the situation often say differently. Ashcroft is known to be a devout christian, which obviously makes people question the actual motive behind the drapes. In the 80s, former Attorny General Edwin Meese’s report on pornography and presenting it in front of two partially nude statues was the a popular joke among the media as ultimate irony. I would say in situations such as these, draping statues, which may prove distracting and make light of the Attorney General’s purpose, is not an effort to maliciously censor art. It is the same as if a teacher was speaking to a class, they would prefer their class’s attention to beon them, not on an intriguing image on the blackboard or elsewhere in the room.

IFA week 8

garlandcomarob — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:21:38 +0000

The built environment is yet another aspect of everyday life that we do not generally think of as a fine art. From arcitecture to the design and lay out of cities, the structures that make up our living situations require not only a level of aesthetic appeal, but they also must function in their purpose. This is the concept we discussed relating form and function. As we discovered, the built environment must project an image, serve a particular function, control movement and action, and finally, hold symbolic significance. The concept of form and function are held within these four provisions. The examples of the University of Virginia held that providing a place for students and professors to interact and study was achieved, but the architecture of the buildings was also symbolic of the federalists and of education. Form following function can also be exemplified in the Guggenheim museum from Frank Lloyd Wright in that the seamless design of the floors allowed for the continuous experience in viewing paintings. Another aspect of the built environment as art that I found interesting was not so much the aesthetic appeal of some of the “artists”, but rather the implications that the city designs that Le Corbusier created in his Vision of Paris. His intentions were to benefit the people, yet if one relates his work to other ideas that were becoming very prevelant at the time, the views shared by socialism and communism can be seen. Taking the masses and creating a standardized network and life style is not only a socialist doctrine, it was the goal of Le Corbusier’s Vision of Paris. I find interesting not only the visual beauty or novelty of the built environment, but also finding a balance between form and function and what ideas that the relationship between the two can lead to.

IFA week 7

garlandcomarob — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:49:12 +0000

The Awakening is Kate Chopin’s novel about the overall “awakening” of a woman as she learns more about herself and her role in the world. Edna Pontelier once accepted a submissive role as a wife and mother, but she slowly through the course of the novel comes to learn the depth and possibilities she has as a person.

The novel is commonly and majorly seen strictly through its feminist role. This is not surprising as the book was banned for a long time due to socially unprecedented ideas about women among other things. The Awakening also simply preaches ideas about breaking from the confines of social standards and cultural standards of living. Themes of discovery (in numerous aspects) and liberation permeate the novel through birds and flight and the actions of swimming. Aside from Chopin’s calm and reflective writing style, the novel displays great aesthetic qualities in the very fresh ideas that have become an integral part of our culture. Self-discovery and liberation on the verge of nihilism and hedonism are doctrine to Edna Pontellier and are portrayed as the ultimate destination she arrives at through her final liberating act at the end of the novel.

IFA week 6

garlandcomarob — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:44:23 +0000

The film High Fidelity followed a self involved idealist, Rob, whose current trauma is his girlfriend leaving him. Focusing on Rob’s coping methods, we can see how music is a defining part of a person’s life, not simply an art form. Rob, as well as his coworkers at the recordstore, use music as a personality not simply a hobby or passion. They define themselves by the music they listen too, and judge their own as well as other people’s success in living on knowledge and taste in music. Rob’s current state of grieving and contemplation sees him not only continue to see the world through music genres and bands, but he begins to build his own life on the music he listens to and has listened to. By sorting through and organizing his record collection autobiographically, Rob has officially defined his life through the music that has been a part of his life. His life is now made up of the albums that accompanied his life, not that his life has simply been accesorized by certain records. This goes back to the concept of art as an experience. Here, and throughout his entire life, Rob and his coworkers have seen their lives through the music, so every musical piece and any element of the music represents different experiences. By compiling mixtaps and top five lists, Rob, Barry, and Dick are collecting and organizing and prioritizing their lives in effect.

IFA week 5

garlandcomarob — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:55:51 +0000

With this weeks discussion, we made a transition from Kandinsky and an introduction to abstract painting to discussing the possibilities art held as an experience. Art as an experience holds that art cannot be confined to the conventional forms that one sees performed on stage or exhibited in a museum. Albers says that just as religion should not be confined solely to church on sundays, art should not be confined in any way. Art should be something that we all experience and create and view regularly.

What we discussed in class was that art is no more than a mode of living. Art is a part of our culture. An interesting part of our thoughts on the concepts of art as an experience is that the most reasonable way to get art as an experience, is through doing something and not seeing looking at or listening to something. While a part of our ability to experience art is through our observation of it, it is like reading an analytical essay or an explanation. While we can learn and gain something from reading, we gain a deeper and more complex knowledge of the subject by writing the analysis or explanation ourselves. In this way, experiencing art through creating the art (be it through painting, acting, or writing ourselves or being a part of an action that you find artistic even in the most unconventional ways) leaves a greater impact and thus experience than passively experiencing art.

Albers as well as through our discussion I think most of us agreed that the importance of art is granted in its organic form, but also importance is contained in an original, individual way through the observer’s and the artist’s experience of the art.

IFA week 4

garlandcomarob — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:47:01 +0000

In understanding particular types of art, in this week’s case abstract painting, we focused largely on Kandinsky’s paintings. A fairly smooth transition between stereotypes and then abstract arts was made as we had talked about the stereotype of artists as substance abusers and then seeing how entheogens can be used to alter reality. By altering one’s reality, portraying the world through painting is mostly done through the abstract genre. Kandinsky was one of the early players in the formation of abstract art, which is not a straight representation of reality. THrough early abstract art, such as Composition X, an emotion, idea, or an expression is presented in a non-representational form. Various shapes, colors, and basic elements of compostion work to manipulate the senses into recognizing these ideas or emotions.

I found this weeks discussion and particularly the anlyses of Composition X, very interesting as we were able to see how Kandinsky was able to take a painting and make a musical work out of it. Being able to examine the work and articulate what parts of it create the emotions and feelings in the observer was also interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing more examples of these types of works where the themes and meanings of a work are discerned by the audience and also in other genres.

IFA week 3

garlandcomarob — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:00:13 +0000

This week continued the watching of Amadeus. The film continued to show the end of Mozart’s career and the aftermath with Salieri’s guilt. Among some of the most interesting parts of the film was seeing how Mozart compared to the myths and stereotypes we laid out in the class before watching the film. Traits of artists that we agreed typified them incuded poor, eccentric, lonely, alcoholics or drug addicts, and mentally unstable. We found Mozart to personify a number of these. Later in life, he came to have a nasty alcohol problem, eternaly in debt, and after his wife left him, loneliness is a likelihood. This all fits our mold of the “artist myth” and what I find amazing is that Mozart, fictional or not, could still manage to write among the most profound music ever created.

In comparing and contgrasting Mozart’s character and Salieri’s, the most important discriminations between the two are their personalities. Salieri’s life is filled with diligience, prayer, and moral restraint. Mozart has known his gift his whole life and does not value his talent as does Salieri as agift from God to be cherished and respected. This accounts largely for Salieri’s actions and Mozart’s liberal sense of virtue and his conduct looked down upon by the court. Musically, Mozart may be remembered better, but we must remember that the two are both among the best composers of their time and of all time.

IFA week 2

garlandcomarob — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:24:32 +0000

The film Amadeus was a good choice fo rthis course I thought. We began watching the film on Tuesday, and though we could not finish and are still waiting on the last half, certain things about classical music and music in general are beginning to make an impression. Getting a an overview however brief was beneficial to understanding what elements of music and art were appreciated and more typical in their time period. Hopefully with a better understanding of the history of music and painting, the different elements of a painting or a musical piece will contain more weight.

From Amadeus, we found what values in the music most people of the period held and how the world of music was carried out in those days. Music was clearly for the higher classes who could pay to experience operas, performances, and the like. This is due to the fact that no form of recording was possible in those days. Thus music was far less experimental and far more formulaic.

I expect as we gat farther into the film however, the focus will become more concentrated, or at least our attention will be drawn more, toward the conflict and the plot rather than the music of the two composers, Mozart and Salieri. As I’ve explained what I have experienced this past week, I hope in this coming week to understand more, possibly, in the realm of the different periods of music and the characteristics of music from around the world and their classifications. I believe coming to know the established categorizations of music will allow us to understand other people’s references to music.

IFA week 1

garlandcomarob — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:19:34 +0000

The beginning of the semester was started off diving right into a couple of works of art. The start to the course was opened up by everyone searching for various diferent art forms aside from the obvious such as sculpture or painting. Recognizing the fact that art applies to so much more than this is more than imperitive; It is necessary to being able to legitimately analyze and interpret artistic works. How can we evaluate the artistic merit of a work if we cannot recognize it as art? It makes sense to me that in the course we will be looking at all forms of art because in all forms, the same goal is sought out. We as students and as the observers of art intend to sort through the context of a work, the form of it, and finally the content of the work. In sorting through all the functions and elements, we will hopefully come to find the argument behind the work and understand its purpose from the artist themselves.

Through looking at Picasso’s Guernuica and then a few works by Van Gogh, we as a class began our process of learning the inherent elements of painting but more generally all art. We analyzed the various figures in Guernica in addition to the context of Picasso painting it. Through this process we have brought our own interpretation into the work. As a class I think we essentially came to the concensus that Picasso intended for the work to represent pain and suffering in the town of Guernica from the Spanish Civil War and to speak to the world as news and informative representation of what was going on in this time. I found this exercize to give me guidance now about breaking apart works in a broad and simple sense, but still to find a purpose and meaning behind the forms of art. I look forward to not only getting more practice in examining art (also in other forms) but learning about more in depth ways to get more out of a work of art.