Idea 11/17 - Moment

mo-ment

definition - A brief, indefinite interval of time. A specific point in time, especially the present time. A particular period of importance, influence, or significance in a series of events or developments. Outstanding significance or value; importance. A brief period of time that is characterized by a quality, such as excellence, suitability, or distinction.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/moment

When it comes down to it, taking a picture is really taking a moment in time. Capturing an instance, so to speak. But within my series I am taking that one step further. I am trying to capture multiple moment and weave them into the same image. Since memories can span from one second to years at a time, I found it difficult to just pick one singular moment and recreate it. This is especially true with the memories I have that are distorted and unclear. I feel it helps to include the important elements into the image, not necessarily in sequential order, in order to create the mood and idea that I want.

"How does a brain integrate sensory information that is gathered over a time period on the scale of ∼0.5 s, transforming the constantly changing world of stimuli into percepts of a “moment” of time? This integration is a general problem essential to our representation of the world. In audition, the perception of phonemes, syllables, or species calls are examples of such integration; in the somatosensory system, the feeling of textures involves such integration; in the visual system, object segregation from motion and structure from motion require short-time integration; in the olfactory system, sensing odors during a sniff involves temporal integration. Linking together recently acquired information into an entity present “now” is a fundamental part of how the perception of a present moment is constructed; a key issue in this regard is how such integration over time can be carried out with neural hardware. "

Hopfield, J. J. Brody, Carlos D. What is a moment? “Cortical” sensory integration over a brief  

             interval. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

             2000. Web. http://www.pnas.org/content/97/25/13919.full

Visiting Artist 11/16 - Alexander Singh

I was really intrigued with the performance that Alexander Singh presented to us. It was really nice to see art outside the realm of photography. I did find his work a little bit confusing, maybe because I was unfamiliar with it. Singh has  a really interesting way of telling a story/narrative. I was really glad that he actually performed for us, rather than just showing us slides and dcecribing what his perfomances are like. I found him very captivating in that way, where as at times it is hard to follow other artists as they click through every slide. I really enjoyed the piece at the end, where he had a voice over for inanimate objects. By creating these simple sculptures and creating this "critique" by these other inanimate objects, there is a weird commentary on people and how we interact with things. I especially find this true for the comment they make about putting humans on pieces of wood and setting them up as sculptures.

Artist - Hannah Starkey

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/hannah_starkey.htm

Hannah Starkey is a British artist born in Belfast. She now works and lives in London, England. Starkey has been producing work since the 90's and has been in several group and solo exhibitions. Her work has been shown interanationally from Germany and Scotland to the Tel Aviv. Starkey uses actors and ordinary set ups to create her images. Her images read as a "moment in time" or a freeze frame of ordinary life.

Hannah Starkeys work is very inspirational to the series that I am working in at the moment. I love the way that she can create a narratives through her images. Her work is dynamic and evokes motion. I strive to create that kind of relationship between my characters in my images. I am also a fan of the lighting she uses. Her lighting is in a way cinematic and dramatic, but still simple. The lighting is realiastic to the setting but still evokes a mood, almost nostalgia.

"Using actors within carefully considered settings, Hannah Starkey’s photographs reconstruct scenes from everyday life with the concentrated stylisation of film."

Saatchi Gallery. Selected Works by Hannah Starky. 2010. Web. http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/hannah_starkey.htm.

"...she likes to explore "everyday experiences and observations of inner city life from a female perspective". She does so by using generally female actors to create large-scale tableaux, in which the protagonists act out carefully staged scenarios. Her images often portray moments of quiet drama, touching upon areas of experience which are familiar but which remain unspoken or below the surface. "

V&A. Exploring Photography:Photographers: Hannah Starkey. Web. http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/photographerframe.php?photographerid=ph062

http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artist.php?art_name=Hannah%20Starkey

Artist - Gregory Crewdson

http://www.gagosian.com/artists/gregory-crewdson/

Gregory Crewdson is a photographer/ visual artist who is well known for creating very surreal and dramatic dreamlike images of suburban America. Crewdson studied photography at SUNY Purchase in the 80's. He received his M.F.A. from Yale and has taught at Sarah Lawrence, Cooper Union, Vassar College, and currently at Yale. Crewdson has had several publications and exhibitions. He has shown work at the BlumHelman Warehouse in New York, the Feigen Gallery in Illinois, and even the Galleri Charlotte Lund in Sweden.

I picked Gregory Crewdson in my work this week, because I feel he truly captures the cinematic feel that I would like aesthetically in my work. He also creates these narratives within his imagery that are incredibly surreal though only use every day items. These are all elements that I strive for in my images, but am struggling to create. I find great inspiration in Crewdsons work and use of lighting, color, and substance. So far I feel that Crewdson's work is aesthetically and conceptually closest to what I want to portray in my study this semester.

"I think that, in a sense, there's something about photography in general that we could associate with memory, or the past, or childhood. I never literally made miniature trains, tableaus, or anything. But there is something very childlike in the process"

Lopez, Antonio. Site Santa Fe. 2001. Web.

      http://www.sitesantafe.org/exhibitions/virtualgalleries/frcrwan/crewdsonqa.html

"Gregory Crewdson doesn't so much take pictures as make them. Some critics say the photographer and artist is reinventing the genre by using film techniques to stage pictures. Crewdson's carefully constructed tableaus generate more questions than answers,"

NPR. "Gregory Crewdson's Photo Alchemy". 2006. Web.

         http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5157819

http://www.whitecube.com/



idea 10/7 - identity

I have found, recently, in my work I am beginning to deal a lot with identity. Most importantly I am dealing with self identity. I am seeing this work as a reflection of myself and how I have developed as a person over the last 21 years. I am interested to learn how trauma, joy, and the other range of emotional experiences affect human development. I find it important that I acknowledge that I am doing work about my own personal identity. In bringing that theme to the forefront I feel I may be able to push it further in the long run. On my last critique blog it was mentioned to maybe find models to convey emotions that I have felt if I am having trouble conveying them myself, but I feel it is important to the theme of self and identity that I remain in the images.

Guardo, Carol J. Bohan, Janis Beebe. "Development of a Sense of Self-identity in Children". Child
         Development. 1971. Print.

Summary
This article "Development of a Sense of Self-identity in Children" approaches how children learn and develop. Guardo and Bohan discuss what "self-identity" means and why it is important."It refers to an immediate, intraorganismic experience whereby the individual is aware of his own being and functioning"(1910). Why is self-identity important in human experience? Why do people work so hard to discover "who they really are"? Guardo and Bohan state that the four dimensions of self identity stem from "humanity, sexuality, individuality, and continuity" (1910)

key quotations
"A sense of self identity involves the experience of having or being certain characteristics which are essential to the human individual in that they contribute to "personeity," that is, to this experience of himself as a person with a unique identity" (1910).

"In summary, a sense of self-identity or "personeity" encompasses that experience whereby the individual is aware that he is one being with a unique identity who has been, is, and will be a male (or female) human person seperate from and entirely like no other" (1911).

Visiting Artist - Julika Rudelius

Julika Rudelius is a native German artist who predominently works within the subject matter of social classes and interactions. She has produced work in multiple countries, including the U.S. Rudelius stated that her work first stemmed from anger and discomfort that she herself experienced. She has produced controversial work dealing with pornography (in a non-traditional sense) and the objectifying of women in culture. Most of her later work, however, deals more with social class and the wealthy. I found her film on the women of the Hamptons to be very comical and insightful to the life that the wealthy lead. It was interesting to hear their concerns and thoughts on the world. Ofcourse they lived up to the stereotype that society gives them, which is what most of Julika's work seems to do despite her efforts to steer it elsewhere.

I will say, I do wish I did not know that Rudelius' is mostly under her control. I was more fond of it when I thought that these people were saying and doing these things out of their own normal routines. Though, I do understand as an artist why you must manipulate your work to make it do or say what you want it to do/say. I feel Rudelius does a great job of manipulating her subjects to stand where she wants them, talk about what she wants them to, etc. without it being too obvious about what she is doing.

I do think it would have been nice to see more of Julika Rudelius' work, and was bummed about the technical issues that arose.

Artist - Julie Blackmon

http://www.julieblackmon.com/

Julie Blackmon is a photography based visual artist who currently resides in Springfield, Missouri. Over the past 6 years, Blackmon has been in several shows and received numerous awards. She has shown work at Drury University (2005), Claire Oliver Gallery in New York (2007), and Catherine Eldeman Gallery in Chicago (2008). Her work also appears in several private collections, such as University of Arkansas at Little Rock, George Eastman House (New York), and Museum of Fine Arts in Austin, Texas.

I find Julie Blackmons work very inspirational to what I want to create this semester. Her imagery is beautiful and I love the way that she captures these scenes in a very dynamic way. I feel as if I am looking at a single slice in time. Her use of contrast and rich colours are also fascinating, and something I push for in my own work. I also am very fond of her subject matter, how she uses her children to create these scenes that at first glance seem kind of normal, but at the same moment it seems as though something is out of place.

"The Dutch saying “a Jan Steen household” originated in the seventeenth century and has come to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings. The paintings of Steen, along with those of other Dutch and Flemish genre painters, are the direct inspiration behind the layered domestic scenes of Julie Blackmon’s photographic work. "

Nordstrom, Alison. Artbook. Radius Books. 2008. Web. http://www.artbook.com/9781934435045.html

"It’s all ignorant bliss, until you notice the pool glimmering on the left with the naked tot at the rim, and a boy’s body splayed just under the water’s surface. Blackmon pushes the dramatic tension with her stringent composition, which veers toward abstraction. A bull’s-eye beach umbrella opposes a round chair. The pool’s corner fills out a perfect square on the upper left. It’s a harmonious world. Only the people throw it askew"

McQuaid, Cate. Intensely Controlled Chaos. The Boston Globe. 2010. Web. http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/03/24/julie_blackmons_photos_speak_of_intensely_controlled_chaos/

http://www.ggibsongallery.com/

Artist - David LaChapelle

                                                         http://www.lachapellestudio.com/

David LaChapelle has been photographing his work since the 1980's. He attended the North Carolina School of Arts, Art Students League, and School of Visual Arts. Soon after he began working Interview Magazine. Since then, LaChapelle has been photographing celebrities and ad campaigns that shock and strike the viewer. Outside of his commercial work, LaChapelle has had work in many galleries such as Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Jablonka Galerie, the Robilant + Voena Gallery, and Maruani & Noirhomme.

I am fascinated by the work of David LaChapelle. His use of vivid, nearly surreal colours is something that I strive for in my work. I am also a big fan of his skewed/exagerated reality. With the subject matter I am working with in my senior portfolio assignment it is easy for me to find inspiration from LaChapelle's work. I am not looking to create such extreme images, but I do like the feel/mood that he has and the aesthetic properties that his work possesses.

(on his work)

"initially distinguished by his campy fixation with white-trash culture, LaChapelle is also known for his groundbreaking use of computer manipulation and futuristic fashion shoots and for placing hollywood celebrities"

Design Boom. September 2001. Web. http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/lachapelle.html

(on his use of colour in his work)

"When I look back I can see when I switched to color; it really was exactly the time that I realized that I did not have HIV… It was almost as if a weight was lifted off of me, because I had seen my first boyfriend die of AIDS when I was 19 years old and he was 24. So for many years I thought that I was going to die the same way. Everything was in black and white because there was, for me at the time, no access to color and I felt very seriously about things at that time. My early pictures from then are black and white; they’re moody and dark, and I did this for six years."

Mercurio, Gianni. American Suburb X. November 2008. Web.          

           http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/02/theory-conversation-with-david.html

http://www.fredtorres.com/

Idea 9/22 - Relationships

I am finding that the root of what most of my memories are coming from really stem from my relationships with other people. In fact, even with the added aspect of memory distortion/ false memory and surreal aspects, I still find myself reliving the relationships I had/have with the people involved in said "memory". I've started thinking "why is this an important event?", "why is this person important?", and most of all "why do we remember these things years later?". As human beings it is only natural for us to want to build relationships with the people around us, and when we remember an event we often think of the people we were with when it happened. Wether it is traumatic, exciting, etc. for whatever reason we feel closer to the people we experienced something important with.

Artist - Alex Prager

http://www.alexprager.com/

Alex Prager was born in 1979 in Los Angeles, California where she still resides today. She has been in several group and solo exhibitions to show her work. In April of 2007 she was publish in Polyester, and in 2005 her work was published in the book The Book of Disquiet: A Story of the Seven Deadly Sins. Some of her awards include the IPA award and Lucie award in 2009 and also the London Photographic Award in 2006.

I find Alex Pragers work to be very inspiring to what I am trying to accomplish. Her images possess movement and the ability to almost walk right off of the page, which is something I am always trying to do with my work. I attribute this feel to come from her dynamic lighting style. The lighting she uses creates and cuts through space, so that what was once a flat photograph is now a three dimensional box. I also feel that Alex Pragers slight surreal feel through mundane activities is also something I strive to accomplish in my work. Much like I said about Alison Brady, I often find myself looking at Alex Pragers work as inspiration for where I want to go in my work.

"Customarily, Alex uses wigs, wardrobes, and props, reminiscent of the 1960s, and some are quick to attribute Alfred Hitchcock, Guy Bourdin, and Cindy Sherman to her aesthetic. More rewarding, however, is examining the influences she has affirmed: photographers like William Eggleston, Mitch Epstein, Brassaï, Helmut Newton, and Jeff Wall, and painters like Lucian Freud, Manet, Balthus, and John Currin."

Tung, Tommy. Juxtapoz Magazine. 17 November 2009. Web. http://www.juxtapoz.com/Features/alex-prager-enjoys-a-month-long-week-end

(on her photographs)

"They all start out premeditated, but once I get on the set, all plans can go out the window. It really just depends on the moment. It’s pretty rare that I come back with the shot that I had in mind before I started, even though sometimes I’ll plan out a single picture for months, or sometimes I’ll think of it on the same day I shoot it"

Zavos, Alison. Feature Shoot. 13 July 2008. Web. http://www.featureshoot.com/tag/alex-prager-interview/

M+B Gallery http://www.mbart.com/

Visiting Artist - Wafaa Bilal

Wafaa Bilal is an artist orignating from Iraq, who has relocated to the United States. His controversial work and political views have forced him out of his own country, and often causes complications with his new life in the U.S. Most of Bilals recent work has been in response to the death of his brother and father, and the hardships of the Iraqi citizens. He creates work that revolves around issues of the American occupation in Iraq. His work "Shoot an Iraqi" allowed viewers to log online and shoot him at anytime for 31 days straight. Despite many complications, Bilals site took off and allowed two significant things. One he allowed the viewer to participate in the narrative of his piece and two he crossed over from artist in a gallery to artist in peoples homes across America. The other highly influential piece of work that Bilal has done was his video game "Virtual Jihadi". I found it fascinating that he took a video game that was shared both with American officials and Terrorist alike (the only difference were the characters in the game) and created an inspiring and thought provoking piece that was to show the faults in terrorism of all kinds. Even though the main focus of the game was anti-terrorism, he was unable to show his work due to the controversial nature. This resulted in the rally of "Art is not Terrorism".

As an artist and a person, I am incredibly inspired by the work and work ethic of Wafaa Bilal. His work itself if thought provoking and compelling. He breaks the boundaries of what is acceptable in a post 9-11 country and pushes people out of their comfort zones. I feel that if people could learn to look past the initial title or review of his work they would find that he is making a profound statement on humanity itself . I am also fascinated by his will to not give up on his art. It can be so easy sometimes to get discouraged and give up when someone tells you that you can't do something, but Wafaa Bilal has taken the opposite approach. It seems that no matter how many "you can't do that's" he gets, he still continues to try to get his work out and seen by the world.

Overall I was highly impressed by Wafaa Bilal, the person and the artist. I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to hear him speak and become exposed to his work.

idea 9/15 - memory

The main focus of my work this semester will have to do with memory and memory distortion. As individual beings, we each have individual experiences. This allows for innacuracies in our recollection. Perception changes from angle, to age, and even culture. I am interested in how I remember things that shape the person I am and how they relate to the memories of other people. Of course my memories are specifically my own and can in no way be experienced by another person exactly as I experienced it.

Koriat, Asher. Toward a Psychology of Memory Accuracy. http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/~bwhitlow/Courses/Learning/humanmemory.pdf%3E%20Annual Annual Reviews. 2000.

Summary

This article approaches the idea of memory distortion, false memory, and memory illusions. It delves into the psychological part of memory and really breaks down the science. What really intrigues me is the psychology behind memory psychophysics. "Memory psychophysics (see Algom 1992) embodies the view of memory as the perception of the past, bringing perceptual issues and techniques to bear on the study of memory."(490). This discusses the act of creating a memory and perceiving it as an actualy event. This is especially interesting as we often view memory as fact as it appears so real to us.
Quotes

"The same psychophysical transformation that operates on the sensory input to produce a perceptual representation is reapplied to the perceptual representation to produce the memorial estimates (but see Radvansky et al 1995 for alternative accounts)." (490)

"People’s ability to monitor their own memories is not just of intrinsic interest; it is also a critical component of the strategic regulation of memory accuracy...  showed that monitoring and control processes operating during memory reporting can have a substantial effect on the accuracy of the reported information."(515)

Alison Brady - Photographer

http://www.alisonbrady.com/

Alison Brady is an artist originating from Cleveland, Ohio but is now working and living in New York. She has a MFA in Photography Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, New York. She has shown work in many group and solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally. She also has work in many private collections such as that of Sir Elton John's. Currently she has work up in a show at ADA Gallery (Richmond, VA).

I first stumbled upon Alison Brady's work in 2008 and was fascinated by the subconcious emotions, fears and desires that present themselve in her work. Like Mark Jenkins, she intrigues me with the sense of dream like or surreal situations that arrive in each scene. When I view her work I imagine that I'm looking at someones nightmare or twisted dream or maybe even a severely mixed up memory of twisted reality. I am totally infatuated with Bradys work and often find myself searching her new and old photographs for inspiration when I hit a block.

On her work:

"The strong formal contrasts - rough carpet on smooth steps, dark hair against pale skin - subsume any implied noirish narrative. The same holds true for more engaging images in which Brady deforms her idealized figures."

Harris, Jane. Time Out New York: Art Review. New York. June 2007. Print.

"... seem to pick up where the sweetly kinky set up images of Jimmy DeSana (1949-1990) left off; not a bad place to start."

Smith, Roberta. The New York Times. New York. June 2006. Print.

Mark Jenkins - Installation Artist

http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/

Mark Jenkins

Installation Artist

Mark Jenkins (b. 1970) is an artist originating from Fairfax, Virginia. He currently resides in DC and creates compelling street installations that not only attract attention, but also turns everyday settings into surreal obscure settings. He is considered a street artist, but is not your typical 'graffitti artists putting pieces up on walls'. Instead he creates public art by using installations that leave it's surroundings unharmed. 

It is not only the fact that Jenkins changes public spaces with his art that draws me to his work, but also the questions that are raised regarding the psychology behind it. These installations make me think of dreams and altered memories, which is something I am quite fascinated with. I wish to incorporate psychology, dreams, imagination, and memory recollection in my work. It is a subject that has pushed me in different directions as an artist and though I am not looking to become an installation artist, I do find his work to be inspiring to what I will continue to work on.

Interview with Myartspace Blog:

(on the relation of music to his work) "A good live show for me is a lot like my street work in that it causes people to react, interact, or even get on stage."

"My Art Space > Blog". February 4, 2008 http://myartspace-blog.blogspot.com/.

Interview with "The Morning News"

(on the making of his work) "Making tape casts of objects is a trick I figured out when I was a kid. It must have been in second or third grade that I cast a pencil in class. The teacher told me something like “don’t waste tape” and I kind of left it at that until 20 or so years later."

"The Morning News". March 30, 2006

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/let_no_man_scare_you.php