Final Presentation for Art Appreciation

My final presentation experience was really fun overall. I had a great time working with my group and had some awesome experiences spray painting our boxes and preparing for the final in class presentation. My group was well focused and eager to get a good grade so I was very happy about that. Everyone in the group did their parts equally and efficiently. My group was nice and everyone got along very well we all had a great time making the props and preparing the presentation for our in class experience. I only wish we would had more time for art appreciation because the class overall was very fun and I’m glad I got to experience it with the people I did. Again though my group I think had a lot of fun as well and I only hope that everyone else had as much fun and a great experience as I did.

After Group Presentation in Class Experiment

My group’s experiment was on Olafur Eliasson and his artwork “Your Blind Passage.” I really liked Eliasson’s work and the overall idea was really cool so writing about it and producing a powerpoint on it was fairly easy. I feel like overall everyone in the group had a fairly easy time with one another and put in their fair share. We should’ve had more visual representation in our group like some of the others but as far as the presentation of the material goes I think we did pretty well. We didn’t win the 10 points either but then again it was probably because we needed more participation or interaction from the group members that weren’t speaking at the time. In my group’s defense it is pretty difficult to come up with some kind of skit or presentation of “Your Blind Passage” mainly because the artwork itself is just a 90meter hallway with fog and lights in it. Still though I liked my group and everyone in it did an amazing job.

 

Artworks viewed in class for blog entry 9

I apologize for having some of my blogs mixed up here near the end but the blog about Damien Hirst should’ve been for this one but since I already used him as an example I’ll talk about another great artist. Lalla Essaydi and her artwork “Dancer” in the work there’s a beautiful young lady who looks like she’s wrapped in a elegant silk dress and Arabic text all around her in the background. I just look at the girl and she…she looks right back at me, I don’t know what she’s thinking but she appears diminished. She looks like she’s feeling put down or almost neglected like the world is slowly passing her by without a care in the world. I just don’t know what it is but this photograph just completely stole the show for me out of all of Essaydi’s works. I felt as though she just captured the image with all the emotions, feelings, ideas and thoughts that she was looking for.

After viewing artworks in class for blog entry number 8

Out of all the artworks viewed in class that day there was one that had the biggest effect on me. I now realized that my blogs are a little disorganized and some of the artworks are not in the correct order that we viewed them in class so to give some credit to Tabaimo she’s an amazing artist who produced a really interesting work known as “Dolefullhouse.” The artwork itself is a visual representation of one of her drawings and in the drawing its a well yeah it’s a dollhouse in which is flooded before opened then while it’s opened two hands constantly work on and touch up the dollhouse. Not only is the drawing behind the artwork spectacular but the motions and everything that happens is just perfect, the piece falls together perfectly and everything the hands do compliments the artwork. She put the piece together wonderfully and I can’t imagine anyone ever doing a better job at something like this. Just wow, I really didn’t even know her name at first I was just so lost with her artwork but luckily I remembered the name of her artwork and was able to find out the genius behind the work. Overall an amazing artwork and I was upset with myself for not posting it earlier on in my blog posts.

After viewing artworks in class about “Women in Art”

After viewing some of the works about women in art I found that one particular piece spoke to me more than the rest. The piece that really spoke to me the most was “Women in Mourning” by Shirin Neshat. It wasn’t until professor Lemeh told me that her “earring” was actually a gun barrel that I truly felt the piece for what it is. It’s an outcry to the women in Iran and other middle-eastern countries who are living in harsh, anti-art, male influenced societies. That work honestly made me really think about the artist herself and what maybe she has gone through. She’s a very outspoken artist who comes from a country where both women and art are frowned upon. So to see her out there still making masterpieces and doing what she loves really hit home to me. I’m proud that there’s artist like her out there making heartfelt, deep paintings/photographs like “Women in Mourning.”

 

Shirin Neshat talking about Zanan bedun-e mardan (Women without men) at the Gartenbaukino in Vienna. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After viewing artworks in class for blog entry 6

One of the artworks I saw in class really seemed to grab my attention it was “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” by Damien Hirst. It’s just a big shark in a tank and the coolest part was that it is real!! I can’t even fathom how amazing that is but overall with the shark in between all the frames it just seems so real and like its coming at you. I haven’t really viewed any of Hirst’s other works but so far I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re just as spectacular. If anything I’d like to know why he’s so fascinated with death. From the video we viewed in class he was completely obsessed with the idea of death. So much so that he made a skull entirely incrusted with diamonds. I don’t know why he’s so fascinated with death but he certainly is making the best use out of it with his artworks.

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst (1991) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

After seeing all the works viewed in class by group presentations

Out of all the artworks viewed in class today through group presentations the one that truly spoke to me was “Your Blind Passage” by Olafur Eliasson. The artwork itself is a 90 meter tunnel filled with fog and a variety of different colors, normally one person would start at one end of the tunnel and the other on the opposite end.  You then walk towards each other and go through the variety of different colors of fog. I’d have to say it was the thought of walking through the fog and being almost entirely “blind” to your surroundings that really attracted me to this artwork. It’s as if the person is going on a journey through their mind, it’s as if they’re soul searching. You don’t know where you’re going but it really makes a person think whether or not they’re life is blocked by fog and what they’ll see or feel when going through it. Olafur has a few other works in his gallery but out of all of them I feel that “Your Blind Passage” has the biggest affect on people.

English: Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Still image from the 2010 documentary “The Future of Art” by Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Deadeye by Martin Puryear

After participating in the class clay demonstration

After working with clay in class I can without a doubt say that I have a new found respect for sculptures and artists that work with clay, wood, marble, etc. It isn’t easy in anyway shape or form. Trying to mold the clay into what I can picture in my mind is quite a daunting task but Ms. Raheleh makes it look easy. From now on when I see sculptures or any kind of wood or clay piece I have a certain understanding and respect for the artist that made them. For example Martin Puryear’s “Deadeye” looks like a relatively easy sculpture to recreate does it not? To answer that bluntly “Hell no it isn’t” (pardon my french) nothing about creating that piece is easy. I judge pieces differently now that I did when I first showed up to this class. I judge them by the genius of the piece, by its authenticity and now by the level of craftsmanship that went into it. Thanks to the clay demonstration I have a new perspective on judging art:)

My analysis of a work of art with the presumption that I’ve read chapter 4 of “Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary”

Berthe Morisot, 1872 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Of all the works we viewed in class there was one above all that really stood out to me. It was the work of Berthe Morisot and her artwork “Study: the Water’s Edge.” Everything about that painting stood out to me, the colors, the design, the essence of it, the arrangement of everything in the piece. They all had me begging for more answers. I wanted to know how the lady in the painting lived, what she was thinking of or what she was studying, why she chose the water’s edge as her study area? All of these questions came storming my brain upon viewing that work of art. I wanted to know of the artist herself as well. I wanted to ask her “What made her make such a piece?” “What made her choose that color scheme with all the greens and blacks?”  I just wanted to know everything, that work of art moved me and I’m grateful I was able to see it and think about it.