Closing Regards

This semester has been a combination of discovering newer forms of art as well as developing prior interests that I have had.  One artist that I had never heard of before that I have really taken a liking to is Dan Flavin.  His use of bright fluorescent lights in combination with minimalist and abstract forms, as well as architecture, is a concept that truly interests me.  It is something that I will look to incorporate into more of my work as an artist.  Sticking with the topic of architecture, our discussions of Frank Gehry and Frank Lloyd Wright have truly allowed me to better understand what I would like to potentially do with my future.  Another aspect of art that I will be taking more of a consideration in after this semester is the technical side of things.  I feel that it is important to not only enjoy a piece for its aesthetic value, but to also be able to understand what is going on behind the scenes of the work.

Exhibition Pieces Continued

Here are two videos of my piece from our end of the year exhibition last week.  The two videos show how the lights are interacting to the beats of different songs that are played in the background.

Exhibition Pieces

“Untitled (to those interested in light and sound)”   

"Hoboken: Day and Night"

Artist Statement

            Abstraction, bright lights, and neon colors are always an attention grabber in my eyes.  With that in mind, and a newfound love for the artist Dan Flavin, I decided to create a fluorescent light box, using the basic materials of wood, paint, and cold cathode tubes of light.  Much like Flavin, the idea was to keep the amount of colors used for the lights limited to just a few, so that I could test the different ways the lights reacted to one another.  Most of Flavin’s works were constructed in a symmetrical pattern, so that the lights formed uniform interactions.  With the idea of abstraction in the back of my mind, I thought of new ways in which to arrange the lights.  Upon sketching many ideas, and inspiration from yet another artist, Piet Mondrian, I decided to create an asymmetrical “grid like” design of both horizontal and vertical lights.  In order to add another element of interaction between the lights, I placed a layer of highly reflective aluminum foil along the back wall.

            With all of these considerations in mind, I hope to have created a piece that is aesthetically pleasing to all who are interested.

Walter Benjamin: The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

            In Walter Benjamin’s work “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” many aspects of art and technology are discussed, more specifically the idea of mass production of the image.  In the early part of his essay he writes about how the production of newspapers and photography led to the inevitable production of film that was accessible to a wide variety of audiences.  He wrote about how as time went on, there was no stopping the technology from continually advancing as well.  According to him, these technological advances had a huge effect on the culture and how the different classes of people were able to interact.  With artwork being recreated so easily, at a much more rapid pace, different classes of people were opened up to the arts availability.  For Benjamin, this is where the troubles of reproduction came into play.  He felt that authenticity, uniqueness, and the “aura” of a piece were completely ruined by the fact that it could be so easily replicated.  Now that the entire population was able to see artwork that only the wealthy were able to see before this time, the pieces seemed to become less meaningful in a way.  Although many would see this as a problem, there were also those who felt that with the reproduction of works, pieces lost their false importance that they once had.  All in all, the unique distinction that art once had was diminished by the age of mechanical reproduction in the masses.

Frank Lloyd Wright

      Frank Lloyd Wright was a very well known American architect.  He designed more than 1,000 projects and finished nearly 500 of those.  He influenced the architectural world in many ways.  The different styles that he undertook in designing his buildings were very unique.  His organic architecture was truly breathtaking.  In these homes he used many of the materials that surrounded the area.  He also used the natural landscapes to his advantage and built the homes on top of them while accentuating some of the features.  He is also well known for both his Prairie style homes as well as his Usonian style homes.  Although many of his works took place during the early to mid 1990s, they still seem extremely modern in today’s eyes.

      One of his most well known Organic homes is Fallingwater, which was built in southwestern Pennsylvania.  This house is truly remarkable.  It makes excellent use of the natural surroundings.  This home was partly built directly on top of a waterfall, which adds amazing aesthetic value.  This house also makes spectacular use of different cantilevers, which was seen as architectural “genius” during that time.  Wright got some of his stylistic ideas and features of this house from Japanese architecture.

      This house has received many different awards and recognition’s such as “the best all-time work of American architecture” in 2007 as well as twenty-ninth on the list of America’s Favorite Architecture according to the AIA.  Frank Lloyd Wright is an excellent influence on me as I look to architecture for my future.

Warhol Reaction

When Pop Art came about in the 1950s, it was seen as a radical movement that developed from the ideas of abstract expressionism.  Its main focus was to take images from mass culture and reproduce them in such a way that imposed a sense of irony on the viewer.  One of the masters of this type of art was Andy Warhol.  When he was developing his ideas for painting someone had told him to paint what he loved.  So keeping that in mind, his first major exhibition consisted of 32 of the exact same canvases with identical screen-printings of Campbell’s Soup Cans in the center of them.  The only difference being the flavor of the soup, which was meant to represent each of the flavors available at the time.  When asked about why he created a piece such as this one, he simply claimed it was because he had a can of Campbell’s Soup for lunch every day of his life!

Flavin Idea

Today, we placed a lot of emphasis on talking about ways to incorporate work in the Babbio Atrium for our final exhibition at the end of the year.  After walking over and taking a look at the space, and keeping the work of Dan Flavin in mind, it would definitely be interesting to incorporate some kind of fluorescent lighting in the space.  The pictures shown here are from a display Flavin created for the store front of Louis Vuitton in Paris.  Not only are the lights themselves interesting to look at, but the reflective and metallic surfaces that surround them add an entire new dimension for the viewers eye.  Thinking about Babbio, an installation of lights along the large glass windows would have somewhat of a similar effect.

Physical Connections

Last week in class we discussed different pieces of art that were developed through the unifying principal of physical connections.  We took a look at artist Jackie Winsor, and used her piece "Bound Square" as a source of inspiration for our pieces.  After discussing her use of wood and twine as the mediums of her work, I was able to understand and develop my own idea using wood and glue.  Having an interest in architecture was also another factor that helped me develop this small scale 3D piece.  The idea was to use all different size pieces of wood and construct a sort of tower that would continually build up.  To do this I used the wood and glue and made each layer as a single piece, waited for all of them to dry, and then placed them in varying directions and locations atop each other to create the whole.  Although I had pictured a more tower like structure, that would have consisted of many more layers and materials, I like how the piece came out.  I think the most interesting part for me is the varying angles that the pieces of wood jut out at between each other.

Lighting Projection 2

This is another image from the projection piece that was created.  Here you are seeing a snapshot of a fireworks video projected to show up behind the skyline.

Lighting Projection 1

The last two classes we have been discussing the uses of projections and lighting to create different types of work.  We learned about cutting out cookaloris' to project through in order to make different shapes and patterns.  We also projected different images onto different surfaces and tested out reflective surfaces.  During this time, I cut out and created props that resembled what a city skyline would look like.  I then used a projector to make a silhouette of the "skyline" on the wall, while projecting different images onto the background.  This image was interesting because of the different colors and movement the lines and waves in the background created.

Packaging Study 2

Continuing with our discussion of packaging, and creating boxes from templates, this week we added the concept of having a universal theme that our piece could represent.  While we were discussing themes and artists in class, the idea of "Dia de los Muertos," or "The Day of the Dead" came to mind.  The vast amount of color and the unique design used in mexican art is something that interests me a lot.  Because of this I decided to use a coffin template, as the holiday is a celebration of the deceased.  It is not meant to mourn their relatives deaths but rather celebrate their lives, hence there use of lively color and design.

Packaging Study 1

In class this week we started to talk about orthographic drawings, and we discussed different ways to go about drawing and creating them.  This led us to talking about product packaging  and design.  Our assignment was to use a template and create a packaging with some type of design on it.  Here, you can see that I have created a "Take Out" box, that has chinese characters and their english translations placed on each panel.  When creating the take out box and choosing how to design it, the idea of  these words came to mind with the thought that they could be seen as thoughts, themes, or ideas that one could "take out" of life and apply each and every day.