Language and Art

I believe that art and literature go hand in hand. Writing and creating a work of art are very similar, and I'm sure many writers feel what they do is just that. They both deal with being with a certain vision of what is supposed to come out of the experience. Both are a process, and the final result may not necessarily be what we had intended from the beginning, but it becomes a reflection of the process itself. These ideas become prevalent in the works of many artists.

Scott Kim is an artist known for his puzzles and art that he creates using language. He creates works that play on both the definition of the word and visual space in which the words exist. For example, this particular piece called Mirror, creates an illusion where the word "mirror" is actually a mirrored image of itself. Combines visual meaning with understood meaning. His work is very clever and often very elaborate.

I’m actually very interested in the idea of language as a game and connecting art with literature, because I have utilized these ideas in the past for my own artwork. I created a recent work of video art that deals with illusions in words and that there are many layers to words. I was a performance piece of video where painted on a larger piece of canvas while a video projected onto the canvas. The video was of myself painting onto a canvas as well. As the performance goes on, the viewer sees that I am painting the word “false” onto the canvas. The projection is painting the top half of the letters and the actual me is painting the bottom half. As the piece goes on, it becomes more clear that the actual me is painting the words “true,” but they appear to be “false” when paired with the projection.

The work plays on the idea that in the process of creating art we come reality and hyper-reality (true and false) in order to create art. Art cannot be created without first creating some sort of falsehood. Learning to understand art is a process of being able to separate the true and the false. By separating the two the viewer learns that a piece that appears straight forward, as many layers to it.

Making Art

Coming up with ideas for art projects can be one of the most difficult things about being an art major. I always have lots of ideas that I'm interested in for my work, but it comes to assignments its a lot more difficult. Every once in a while I might have an old idea that I've been wanting to try and it fits perfectly into an assignment. The majority of the time, however, this is not the case. I usually have no idea what to do for a particular project and find myself scrambling at the last minute to think of something.

I think a major part of the problem is how busy it is being a student. I usually have too many school assignments, church events, errands to run or too much time spent at work to really focus on my art. 90% of the art I make is for school, so I don't really have time develop my own work. Although a lot of my more successful works have been created in the midst of all this and with no time at all, I find its good to have time to spend relaxing or clearing my head.

There are a few things that work for me. I find a quick walk or running with no set goal, to be a really useful method for clearing my head. If I have a lot going on at the moment, I often find it is a good way of getting a way from it. In life, it seems we always have somewhere to be or something to do, but by running to nowhere in particular, I am able to get away from confines like time and destinations. Getting away from these confines helps to clear my head and allows me to think about things that I would otherwise be too busy to think about.

This is very useful when I am making art. I work and go to school and a lot of the time I am too busy with both to create art outside of school. Most of the art I make in school is very restricted in method and criteria, so it is nice to be able to get away every once and a while and create art that I am actually interested in. Unfortunately, if you sit down and decide you are going to make art right now, it is impossible to do so. Art is something that comes to you spontaneously and you can’t simply tell yourself to make art. When I need to get away from everything and clear my head for new ideas to come in, running is a very useful tool for me.

Street Art

Once again on my search for new and innovative art, I found something that peaked my interest. I came across a video interview with a NY artist named Joshua Allen Harris. The video is about how we got started doing what he does. In is work he creates these fairly large, inflatable creatures that fill up with air from the subway vents. It was something he just thought would be cool to try and has quickly became quite popular via the internet.

When making his work, he uses materials that are appear to be just trash (garbage bags and tape mostly) and shapes them into strange creatures. The work becomes interesting when the air fills up the creatures inconsistently, giving them life and animation. Each piece started out fairly simple, but as his popularity begins to grow he starts to create more and more complex pieces. In video, he unveils his newest piece, a large black monster made of trash bags.

It is interesting to see how art like this gets started. He has begun his road to fame with art without ever being hired, commissioned or getting in a gallery. He utilizes the street as his gallery space. It is only a matter of time before he starts getting grants and begins to create much more elaborate pieces. It will be interesting to see his work in a year or 2 and see what he is doing then.

It is amazing how the internet can shape an artists career. He never even put his work up himself, but some random people taking pictures and videos have caused his popularity to skyrocket. Perhaps this will inspire artists to really put their work out there. Although the internet is filled with a lot of crap art as well, it really can be an incredibly useful tool in getting yourself recognized. Joshua Allen Harris is certainly a name that I will remember now and I know I will show this to other people.

Movements of Art

I just finished a paper for my art history class about the transition into postmodern theory in sculpture. I was reading an article from 1979 by Rosalind Krauss as part of the paper. In her article, Sculpture in the Expanded Field, she talks of developing a historical map to find exactly where postmodernism began for sculpture. While writing the paper I became conflicted with certain ideas. Is postmodernism, as well as other art theories, more of a way of making art or just a particular movement of a group of people making art at the same time?

For example, if an artist created a piece of art in 1930 that adheres to postmodern principles, is it postmodern because of this or is it not because it wasn't made during the "postmodern era." This is something that has bothered me for a while, but never really had to think into to much until this paper. I've had several class where I have had to replicate certain movements like postmodern or fluxus art and if it the work follows that movements ideas or manifesto, then it is excepted as that. Does this same idea apply to someone who created art that follows a manefesto's principles, but was before the movement and wasn't created for any other specific movement?

I think a lot of it depends on the type of art. For something like architecture, it is much easier to pick out certain methods. Different types of columns, patterns and themes can definitively belong to a particular movement. Certainly earlier paintings are a little easier to define, because everyone was following the same principles. As time goes on, however, artists begin to create work they want and get more into theory rather than creating merely commissioned works.

The more I study art, the easier it becomes to see the differences and similarities in different styles. It becomes easier to tell when certain works were made and often who made them. I think my opinion is that art is made during a particular time frame or for a particular movement. They also can have elements that follow movements long after them or before them. There will always be ways to connect certain works of art to any particular movement, because when it comes down to it, it's all art. I've found that anything in art can be argued and more often than not, artists spend more time theorizing and justifying their artwork than they actually spend on creating the art.

Stop-motion

Continuing on with ideas in the previous post, I've decided to start doing some research into the art of stop-motion animation. I was surprised to find that the first instance in which stop-motion can be credited was in 1898 in The Humpty Dumpty Circus by Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton. It is a short film where a set of toy circus animals and acrobats come to life. It is always interesting to see where something began, noting what things have developed and what things have stayed the same.

I was surprised to find that stop-motion was used as a common special effects tool in a lot of movies in the 70s and even up to the 90s. Many major Hollywood films, such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Robocop, and Terminator, used stop-motion animation in many of the special effects sequences. Looking back, it seems obvious that that was how they did the sequences, but I suppose I never really thought about it. Stop-motion has very unique look to it, but I guess you don't notice it as much when your not as familiar with it.

It's interesting to see that a lot of movies are still using stop-motion. Movies like Corpse Bride, Coraline, and Fantastic Mr. Fox are still using these techniques, all of which were made in the 2000s. It can be difficult to tell if a movie is actually using stop-motion or if they are just simulating it's style, which is becoming more and more common with a lot of older animation techniques. It is very rare nowadays to find an animated cartoon that was actually hand drawn. It's much more common to just simulate the look to save time and money.

It's always nice to see movies come out like this that try to create a more interesting atmosphere by using stop-motion. The differences in styles between movies like Coraline, which is a much smoother animation, and Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is very rough and raw looking. Although I would like to use these techniques for creating art, I believe a lot can be learned from these movies. I look forward to seeing what other movies will utilize stop-motion in the future.

William Kentridge

Since I started working with video, I have always been interested in stop action animation. When I was younger, I remember the first job that I ever wanted was to be a cartoonist. I was fascinated with how cartoons were made. I even had the opportunity to tour through some Disney studios to see the process taking place. This only fueled my desire to become a cartoonist. I eventually became more interested in more conceptual arts and drifted away from this.

The more I work with video, the more I want to experiment with stop action. More recently I have been particularly interested in the art of William Kentridge, a South African artist who creates extremely powerful animated films, most of which dealing with political and social themes in South Africa. He is able to use animation to send a very powerful message that would never be as successful in any other media. He as created a style of art that is very unique to him, both simple and complex at the same time. This piece Felix in Exile is a perfect example of Kentridge's style.

Kentridge's work as a whole deals with time and change. He uses charcoal, a medium that is easy to manipulate, to convey this. By constantly drawing and erasing over the same image, he is constantly leaving behind marks of the previous drawing. The change over time is clearly visible through the eraser marks. This creates a very interesting effect, as well as support the themes and statements he is making in his videos.

Now that I am coming to the end of schooling (for now), ideas for Senior Thesis have been constantly floating by. Nothing is certain at this point and I want to go into the class with a relatively open mind, but I have been thinking about ways to develop techniques I have already used in previous projects. Since I have previously worked with animation and I have been looking for that next step or inspiration to help me reach that next level, I think Kentridge might help point me in the right direction. Whether or not I do anything with it I don't know, but it is something I definitely want to experiment with at some point in time.

Process

A Ray of Light

I was looking at some random video art pieces when I stumbled upon this. The video uses time-lapse to document this particular painting. Although I am not particularly interested in the painting itself, I am interested in the way the piece is presented. Showing the painting this way presents an interesting argument. Which is the art itself, the painting or the video?

I personally would not be interested in the painting, but by creating a video out of the work the artist makes the painting much more interesting for me. I am not able to see the actual painting so this limits my ability to judge for myself and the artist gives no real indication in his statement as to what his intentions are. Seeing the piece as is, I would have to say that it is a video over a painting.

The problem with that is that one could say that of any documentation. Once you take a photograph of a painting, it immediately becomes a photograph over a painting for someone only seeing the copy. Although the artist's intentions may be different, the experience itself is none the less altered. This has happened to me many times where I have seen the photograph of a work of art many times and then when I finally see the piece itself, it is completely different than what I thought it was through the photo.

Many works of art function as art merely through the process or action. Performance based work is this way, where the performance itself is more important than the finished product. Many artists make work the is meant to self-destruct and this act is the art rather than the finished product. It is difficult to say with something like a painting when it is already considered art by itself, but this idea of process is interesting to me.