Idea 5: Scale

Scale 

“A scale model is a representation or copy of a larger or smaller than the actual size of the object. For instance, when an architect wants to sell the look of new construction will create a scale model to be evaluated by the buyers. There is a scale model of the Tower of London inside the Tower of London.” (Ask Jeeves)

Scale models specifically are a copy of an object that is usually larger in size.  Scale is an important factor in my project I want my photographs to fit in the dollhouse as if it was really in the dollhouse.  However I want to play with the scale factor making the people and objects I place in the dollhouse standout.  I have been looking more specifically at the scales of objects as I have been working on my project.  When I place a photograph of a person or of another piece of furniture in the dollhouse space the scale is often slightly off.  I am attracted to this awkward look of objects slightly being out of place. 

“Children's dollhouses are commonly in 1:16 or 1:18 scale (3/4" and 2/3" scale respectively, 1 foot is represented by 3/4 or 2/3 of an inch)” (wikipedia)

 

Restaurant scale model, Archiform 3 D

Sites 

http://www.archiform3d.com/scale-models/07-rocksugar-scale-model/rocksugar-scale-model.php 

http://answers.ask.com/Reference/Other/what_is_a_scale_model 

Artist Post 4: Mark Cohen

Mark Cohen

Mark Cohen was born in 1943, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.  Cohen attended Penn State University as well as Wilkes College.  Although, Cohen was almost completely self taught.  Cohen received his first camera at age thirteen from his cousin Sylvia.   In 1966, Cohen opened a commercial studio. Cohen’s first photography exhibit was in 1969, Vision and Expression.    Cohen has also been awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships. Cohen has permanent collections of work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the George Eastman House.

 Cohen is known for his street photography.  Cohen shoots mostly wide-angle photographs of people from his hometown, Wilkes-Barre (a coal mining town), and Scranton, PA.  According to Cohen, “I was trapped there for the next fifty years and became a surrealist because I kept walking around the same blocks. I took a picture of a guy’s shoe.  I don’t know what I was doing exactly; I was just being led by whatever I saw.”  Cohen took photos of streets and people he would just run into.  Cohen said, “With the flash in the one hand and the camera in the other, I would be looking at somebody’s ear. And click.” Cohen would just go up to people and photograph things and people that attracted his eye.  Police would often visit Cohen, due to the people who would be upset with Cohen taking photographs of them on the street. 

Cohen’s photographs especially the photos that are featured in his book “True Color,” appear to be similar to documentation. Cohen’s photographs make me think that most “hometowns” during this era of 1970s-1980s would have similar events and people around. I am attracted to the casualness to Cohen’s work.  

Mark Cohen, Family Walking, 1977

Young, Limbs, 1981

Mark Cohen, American Taxi, 1975-7

Mark Cohen, People on Porch; 65, 63, 1977

Mark Cohen's last exhibit was in 2005, at Grim Street Bruce Silverstein Photography in New York.  However, Cohen has permanent collections of work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the George Eastman House.

Interview with Cohen: I could not find

Although I could not find an interview link, here is a link to a you tube video of Mark Cohen talking about his work, and films him while he walks around taking his "Street Photography." 

Mark Cohen: Street Photography

Text: Mark Cohen: True Color, Powerhouse Books, Brooklyn, NY

(Cohen's book, based on color photography he completed throughout the 70s, and 80s.)   

Works Cited

Mark Cohen (photographer). Wikipedia.  26 June 2010. 21 September 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cohen_(photographer)>. 

"Mark Cohen: True Color."  Powerhouse Books. Brooklyn, NY 2007.

Idea 4: Repeat

Repeating Event

–noun

-the act of repeating.

-something repeated; repetition.

-a duplicate or reproduction of something.

-a decorative pattern repeated, usually by printing, on a textile or the like.

The definition of repeat is a duplicate reproduction of something.  Recently my parents began converting family home videos from VHS to DVD.   Excited by this new change I began watching these old movies and realized that all the events that took place were all in the same chronological order.  The only differences were the location and the people being filmed.  Each movie followed the order of Christmas, my sister’s birthday, my brother’s birthday, my birthday, Easter, summer vacation and thanksgiving.   and then it would start all over again a new year on a new DVD.   

“Repeating events,” the idea that people share and document similar memories in the same way throughout time is where my project is heading.  People share the same memory although it is all slightly altered based on the individual and the location.  With my project I am accentually trying to show how memories and events are shared and repeat over time.

Artist Post 3: Georges Rousse

Georges Rousse

Georges Rousse was born in France in 1947; he received his first Kodak Brownie camera at age nine.  While Rousse attended Medical school in Nice, Italy he began to study professional photography.  Soon after, Rousse opened his own studio and became a photographer.  Rousse primarily focused on architectural photography however after discovering Land Art Rousse began to alter his focus.   Rousse started to make installations dealing with the relationship of painting and space.  In 2008, Rousse was granted as an associate member of the Belgian Royal Academy. 

Rousse began photographing primarily architecture later he began to expand his creative work by adding illusions to space, Rousse stated, “… I wanted to speak on the photographic space itself.  Not on the image but the reality directly.” (Menossi) Rousse mainly creates illusions in abandon or close to being demolished spaces.  Rousse paints geometric shapes in these abandoned spaces creating a two-dimensional illusion in a three-dimensional space and then photographs it.   When looking at Rousse’s final products (the photographs of the space) they almost could be passed off as Photoshop altered images.

Rousse said, “When I arrive in a space it’s like painter in front of an empty canvas, he’s intimated by the emptiness of the space or the emptiness of a canvas and to break into that empty space is a joy for an artist.” (World News)

I am attracted to his work because of the way it tricks the eye.  For my project, I want to try and find a way to blend my images within each other.   I also appreciate how Rousse’s work makes you think, “what’s painted and what’s not?” it makes you linger longer and spend more time with each image. 

Georges Rousse, Vitry, 2007

Georges Rousse, Metz, 1994

Georges Rousse, Geneve, 2003

Georges Rousse, Dravert, 2007

  Video of how Georges Rousse's work is made  ( I can't figure out how to add a video on here sorry) Georges Rousse video  (http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=8QC7JfSX62Y&feature=related)

Interview with Georges Rousse

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.evene.fr/arts/actualite/interview-georges-rousse-photographie-1418.php&ei=lA-UTIv5LcP48AaK4diSDA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dgeorges%2Brousse%2Binterview%26hl%3Den%26prmd%3Dvo

Georges Rousse has two upcoming solo exhibitions, one is at the RX Gallery in Paris November 12, 2010- January 12, 2011 and the other exhibition is at the Catherine Putman Gallery in Paris November 6, 2010- January 7, 2011.  

Works Cited

Georges Rousse.  World News. 17 September 2010. <http://wn.com/Georges_Rousse>.

Menossi, Matthew.  Photographer of the Invisible.  Evene, Toute La Culture. May 2008. 17 September 2010. <http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.evene.fr/arts/actualite/interview-georges-rousse-photographie-1418.php&ei=lA-UTIv5LcP48AaK4diSDA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dgeorges%2Brousse%2Binterview%26hl%3Den%26prmd%3Dvo>.

Georges Rousse Biography. Georges Rousse Website. 17 September 2010. <http://www.georgesrousse.com/english/informations/biography.html>.

Georges Rousse. Wikipedia.  21 January 2010. 17 September 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Rousse>. 

Artist lecture- Wafaa Bilal

Waffa Bilal Questions

Your history and past has left a huge impact on your artwork, being the inspiration of most your work. How do you work with a topic that is so personal to you?

With your recent piece “…and counting,” was it difficult to decide to use your body to create this permanent map of Iraq on yourself? 

Artist lecture- Wafaa Bilal Response

Lecturer Wafaa Bilal was very informative.  I was very uncertain when I first glimpsed over Bilal’s work but after hearing him explain each piece I appreciate and am fond of his work.  Bilal’s concernment for connecting his audience to his artwork was endearing.  Bilal’s project, “Domestic Tension” permitted people to shoot at Bilal with a paint gun and also allowed Bilal’s “bedroom” into his audiences homes 24 hours a day for a whole month.  Building an audience and artwork relationship appeared to be very important to Bilal and his work which represents strong messages and therefore seems necessary that his messages connect and leave an impression on his audience.  I value how Bilal finds ways to include his audience with his work as it is occurring. 

Wafaa Bilal seemed to answer both of my questions during his lecture.  Bilal noted that he created most of this work due to his brother and fathers death as well as the Iraqi citizens who died during the war.   Bilal’s artwork reflects Iraqi culture and the war issues because he has personally and emotionally been affected by it.  Because Bilal’s work is so personal to him, he physically puts himself into his artwork. Bilal stated that he “I allow myself to go through physical pain which transfers to my audience, it’s painful but I know it’s for a good cause.”

I admire Bilal for not getting discouraged after running into so many difficulties with each project in the past. Knowing that Bilal still managed to carryout the majority of his projects by finding solutions was enlightening to be aware that every artist has obstacles.  It is interesting to recognize how many limitations there are towards what you still can and cannot do in the art world.   I found Wafaa Bilal’s lecture refreshing, the fact that Bilal puts himself into his work both physically and emotionally makes me appreciate it that much more. 

Idea 2: Nostaglia

Nostalgia     Dictionary. Com

 –noun

1.

a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days.

2.

something that elicits or displays nostalgia.

1.a yearning for the return of past circumstances, events, etc

2.the evocation of this emotion, as in a book, film, etc

3.longing for home or family; homesickness

Nostalgia

When looking up the word nostalgia I was surprised to discover the definition had more to do with family and homesickness than I would have guessed.  Nostalgia to me is something that is old, familiar, and almost like an idealistic scenario. 

“The term of "feeling nostalgic" is more commonly used to describe pleasurable emotions associated with and/or a longing to go back to a particular period of time.” (wikipedia)

As I mentioned in the past I want my work to reflect a vintage feel.  Also, I want to recreate scenarios that are familiar to everyone as well as nostalgic memories that most people share.  Memories are familiar and reoccurring, people retain the same memories but remember them in different ways.  A Christmas family portrait is almost always taken in front of a Christmas tree.   Even though the family changes, the room and the size of the tree may differ it is still a portrait of a family in front of a Christmas tree.  I want to try to expand on this idea and topic with my project.  Therefore, I want to recreate nostalgic scenarios (memories) in the present day and put them in these old scenarios that I am going to create. 

Text on subject:

Book that references this topic: Nostalgia : sanctuary of meaning

Wilson, Janelle L.  Nostalgia: sanctuary of meaning.  Lewisburg.  Bucknell University Press, c 2005.

Works Cited

Nostalgia.  Dictionary.Com. 14 September 2010.  <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nostalgia>.

Nostalgia.  Wikipedia. 14 September 2010. 6 September 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia>.      

Wafaa Bilal Questions

Your history and past has left a huge impact on your artwork, being the inspiration of most your work.  How do you work with a topic that is so personal to you?

With your recent piece “…and counting,” was it difficult to decide to use your body to create this permanent map of Iraq on yourself? 

Artist Post 2: Annette Messager

Annette Messager

Annette Messager was born in 1943, in northern France.  She attended the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris France.  Messager has been in numerous shows both solo and group exhibitions her most recent solo exhibition was at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in 2010.  Messager is known for her installations and her usage of mixed media.   Messager has worked in painting, sculpture, photography, video, embroidery, and installations. 

 What attracts me most to Annette Messager’s work is her usage of mixed media and how she plays with materials and scale.  I find myself magnetized to her usage of everyday materials, such as stuffed animals, fabrics, and embroidery.

Annette Messager has referred to her work throughout the decades as “false biography,” portraying herself as different characters, the Collector, the Artist, the Trickster, and the Practical Woman.  Messager said, “I wanted to look for an identity through others, I asked myself, 'Who am I?' I am nothing. So I asked what people said about women. I appropriated the identity of others." (Riding) Messager’s work relates to my idea regarding everyone plays a role as a character.   At the Hayward Gallery in England Annette displayed work that reflected upon her many titles and characteristics she has given herself.  For example, the “practical woman” can sew and knit as a result, fabrics are hung on the wall representing the “practical woman.  Messager stated in reference to giving herself specific characteristics, "I didn't have any titles, so I gave myself some, in so doing I became an important, clearly defined person. I found my identity through the wide variety of these characters." (Hustvedt)  I find Messager’s work to be very alluring, and interesting to witness how these characteristics have molded her work into new ideas.

Family Remains II (Family II), Haywood Gallery, 2009

Pikes, 1991-1993, Collection Musee National d' Art Modeme, Centre Pompidou, Paris

Inflated-Deflated, 2006, Marian Goodman Gallery Paris, New York

Annette Messager’s Current Exhibition: Museo De Arte Contemporaneo De Monterrey (Mexico) however it ends September 12, 2010.

Interview (Annette Messager and Natasha Leoff) :

http://www.jca-online.com/messager.html 

Works Cited

“Annette Messager.” Journal of Contemporary Art, Inc.  11 September 2010. <http://www.jca-online.com/messager.html>.

“Annette Messager.” Marco: Museo De Arte Contemporaneo De Monterrey. 11 September 2010. <http://www.marco.org.mx/>.

Hustvedt, Siri.  “Puppet Master.” The Guardian.  21 February 2009. 11 September 2010. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/21/annette-messager>.

Riding, Alan.  “Annette Messager: A bold messenger for feminist art.” The New York Times.  26 June 2007. 11 September 2010.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/arts/25iht-messager.1.6316141.html>.

Sooke, Alastair.  “Annette Messager’s work is funny, cruel, and its on the way to the UK.”  Telegraph. 18 February 2009. 11 September 2010. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/alastairsooke/4690683/Annette-Messagers-work-is-funny-cruel-and-on-its-way-to-the-UK.html>.

Idea : 1 Puppets

"Puppets"

When I began doing research for my idea, I looked up a familiar artist Laurie Simmons at the library. “The Puppet Show” book which contained some of Laurie’s work was listed so I checked it out.  As I began reading the book I started thinking about how puppets and dolls relate to real life.  Puppeteers often use puppets to act out stories or events that are relevant in their lives. For Instance, in “Being John Malkovich” Craig Swartz, the puppeteer “can only properly express himself via his puppets. When he hides behind the curtain and the puppets speak, then Craig Schwartz can accomplish great things.”  (Greenfield) People obtain interest in puppets and dolls because they can act out or play changing the pretend into ideal situations. 

I researched puppets to think in more detail about how dolls are used to indulge on a lifestyle or a particular scenario.  For example how people or kids want to experience certain scenarios when they are older.  When little girls play with Barbie as children they more often than not make Barbie get married to Ken, have a career, and then they have a baby (family).  Puppets are a little more abstract in that anyone can play with them at any age, using them to replay a variety and extraordinarily complex situations.  The Puppet Show, exhibit was designed to make the viewers relate to their “inner puppet.”

“In puppetry, the thing becomes a being because of an implicit contract shared: the event depends on a triangle linking the audience, the human performer(s), and a inanimate object.” (Taylor, pg. 53) I’m hoping that I can create this triangle with my work and have my audience relate to my performers (subjects) when viewing my photographs. 

Music by Regret, 2006 Laurie Simmons

Music by Regret, 2006 Laurie Simmons

Music by Regret, 2006 Laurie Simmons

Works Cited

Otero, Ana. "Laurie Simmons at the Metropolitan Museum on Sunday."  25 January 2008. 7 September 2010.  <http://blog.art21.org/2008/01/25/laurie-simmons-at-the-metropolitan-museum-on-sunday/>.

Greenfield, Daniel.  "Being John Malkovich- A Philosophic Journey into Human Identity." <http://hubpages.com/hub/Being_John_Malkovich_-_A_Philosophical_Journey_into_Human_Identity>. 

"Laurie Simmons The Music of Regret." 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. 7 September 2010. <http://www.kanazawa21.jp/exhibit/p_complex/special/index_en.html>. 

Taylor, Jane. 

The Puppet Show. Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia . 2008 

Artist Entry 1: Peter Callesen

Artist Biography
Peter Callesen was born in Demark in 1967; he graduated from Goldsmiths College in London in 2000.  Callesen has been in numerous exhibitions both solo and in-group exhibitions.  The majority of Callesen’s exhibitions have been in Europe however Callesen had his first solo exhibition in the United States in 2008, at the Peter Rubenstein Gallery in New York.  Callesen takes a two-dimensional object particularly a white piece of paper and turns it into a three-dimensional object.  Callesen’s primary materials consist of snow, ice, paper, and watercolor.  

In alternative processes I really enjoyed the Henry Darger inspired project that I executed using a collage and cutouts.  Thus, I am toying with the idea of incorporating a storybook theme in my senior portfolio.

When I searched for an artist to write about for this weeks blog I was looking for an artist that had similar creative thoughts and I found Peter Callesen’s website.  On Peter Callesen’s website he talks about what interests and inspires his work.   Callesen stated that, “Recently I have worked with the notion of complexity in the piece ‘White Diary’. It presents a human head with a sketchbook in the centre. Out from the pages of the book grows a complex thought-process as an imaginative landscape filled with details and fairytale stories.”  I find his whole storybook aspect of his work to be very appealing.  When looking at his pieces they are very witty and extremely detailed.  What excites me about Callesen’s work that each piece I can make up a story to go with it and I admire each cutout relates to the other cutouts in the image. 

Furthermore, Peter Callesen stated, “Another returning theme in my work is the reinterpretation of classical fairytales associated with a more general interest in memory in connection to childhood.”  This quote grabbed my attention because I am playing with ideas of storybooks relating to everyday stories and how everyone can fit into a specific character.  

Callesen's images

Half Way Through (detail), 2006

Snowballs, 2005

Snowballs (detail), 2005

Impenetrable castle, 2005

Alive, but Dead, 2006

Artists website:  http://www.petercallesen.com/

Callesen Currently does not have any work in a gallery.  His last solo exhibit was Out of Nothing     at the Hauger Vestfold Art Museum, Tonsberg, Norway  

Link to Hauger Vestfold Art Muesum : http://www.haugar.com/  

Link to a review of Callesen's Artwork:  http://dailyserving.com/2009/01/peter-callesen/

Works Cited

Callesen, Peter. “About.” Peter Callesen.  4 September 2010. 

<http://www.petercallesen.com/index/index2.html>. 

Curcio, Seth. "Peter Callesen." Dailyserving.  4 January 2009.  5 September 2010. 

<http://dailyserving.com/2009/01/peter-callesen/>. 

Visiting Arist 1: Valerie Fletcher

Obviously, you have a major interest in modern art and have an upcoming lecture on surrealism at the Pompidou Museum in Paris but if you can select one focus in the art world what would it be?

As Senior Curator of the world-renowned Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden what do you consider to be your biggest challenge?

Artist lecture response

Select coordinate Art-show

Guest lecture Senior Curator of the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Valerie Fletcher gave a very unique insight for how difficult it is to coordinate an exhibit.  I was impressed by her lecture in which she incorporated interesting facts and revelations about a variety of works of art so much so that I didn’t even notice that an hour had gone by the time she finished. What I liked about Fletcher’s lecture was that she showed us how she chose and organized the exhibit based on what each piece of artwork revealed or the meaning behind each piece.   I have never been drawn to surrealist artwork but after hearing Valerie Fletcher analyze some of the artwork I see it’s artistic value and appreciate it more.  Fletcher noted during her lecture that she wants the exhibit, Surrealist Sculpture to attract new crowds who wouldn’t normally come into an art museum.   

During Fletcher’s lecture I was satisfied that she answered one of my posted questions. Fletcher mentioned that one of her biggest challenges especially for this particular exhibit is that working with other curators who differ in placement of particular artwork for an exhibit.  Before Fletcher’s lecture I never gave much thought about how much analyzing goes into arranging the order of an art exhibit.  I appreciate museum exhibits even more now.

Overall, I found Fletcher’s lecture to be very intriguing.