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ART 493 SMP 1/ ART 333 Adv.
Research and Writing for SMP Other Artists: Art Event and
Studio Visit Assignments Contrary
to popular opinion, art is not a solo venture. Being an artist means joining
the arts community by engaging in
meaningful exchange with other practicing artists. Attending visiting artists talks isnŐt the same
as remote research: hearing a practicing artist talk about their work is
valuable on many levels: á You hear about behind-the-scenes
things that reading about an artist does not reveal (motivations, how a body
of work gets developed over time, personal comments and backgrounds etc.) á You can learn by example: Observing
how an artist presents their own work is great preparation for when you give
your own artist talk in May. á It can give you insight into the
ins and outs of being a practicing artist (many of our visiting artists are
recent graduates who are navigating the challenges of starting their careers.) á It is a forum where you can ask
questions and give responses (donŐt be a passive audience). Assignment: Attend no less than 5 artist talks (see the list below) and
be an active audience: á Visit the artistŐs web site
before their talk á Ask questions á Write an engaged summary on each
event (400+ words) for inclusion in your document books (I have included some
great examples of summaries below and you will find more in the example
document books on BlkBd. Required events: á W
Sept 24 4:45-5:45, Artist Talk: Katherine Gagnon http://www.katherinegagnon.com á W
Oct 15, 4:45-5:45, Artist Talk: Cassandra Kapsos http://www.cassandrakapsos.com/ Attend 3 selected from
the following 5: á W
Sept 10 4:45-5:45, Boyden Gallery Faculty Panel (Bio and Art Exhibition) á TH
Sept 11 4:30-6:00, GP 195 Boyden Event Lecture: Neuroscience and Art (on
color), Dr. Bevil Conway á M
Sept 22 4:45-5:45, Gallery Talk: Alice Oh á W
Oct 1, 4:45-5:45, Boyden Gallery Talk: Lynn Tomaszewski http://www.lynntomaszewski.com/ á W
Nov 19, Artist Talk: Jerry Truong Due: 5 Artist Talk
Write Ups Create a individual word docs titled
lastname_event#.docx for each event and store it a folder titled
lastname_events on your class Google folder. DUE: Summaries must be posted no later
than 2 days after the event. Studio visits have obvious benefits as they
provide you with more opportunities to get feedback on your work from a
different perspective. But unlike class critiques, you initiate a studio
visit by invitation. The one on one discussion is also a great way to form
relationships and initiate exchanges (when our artist in residence holds an
open studio it is just as important that you go visit their studio.) Assignment: Students are required to seek
out and reflect on other feedback through no less than 2 studio visits. It is
the responsibility of the student to invite and schedule visit from any visiting
artist or other college faculty. Due: Studio Visit
1 Oct 29, Studio
Visit 2 Nov 19 Submitted as a word docs titled
lastname_studiovisit#1.docx etc. to your class Google folder. _________________________________________________________________ Two Art Event Write-Up
Examples (more
can be found in the document books posted in BlkBd) Example:
SMP student Jenny Metz writes an art event summary for
visiting artist lecture
by Chris Saah. Light
and lens-based artist Chris Saah spoke about 3 different bodies of works: Nightscenes, Displacements, and Untitled.
He began by speaking about how he got interested in photography. When he was
still an undergrad at St. MaryŐs, he was very interested in film but no
courses were taught on the subject so he took photography in order to gain an
understanding of the mechanics. After graduation, he interned at the American
Art Museum and then moved to Los Angeles to work for a production company. He
got his start on Nightscenes in Los
Angeles, taking photographs of the city after he got out of work for the day. Nightscenes consists of photographs of
places that are meaningful or familiar and depict LA as in transition from
Old Hollywood to the emerging corporate realm. The photographs blur the lines
between these eras, only showing small clues to reveal the era. Saah also
talked about the importance of light temperature to create color and thus a
mood. He said that he looked to the strategies of various filmmakers to
create a cinematic quality in his photographs by manipulating lenses,
perspective and light. He placed the viewer at a certain vantage point to
create a psychological enclosure, allowing the viewer to imagine themselves
within the space. He float mounted the pieces in plexiglass and projected
light onto the works to give them a very cinematic feeling. He said that
mounting the photos in this way detached the photo and transformed it into
its own little world. SaahŐs
next series of work, Displacements,
utilized a limited color palette to reveal spaces. He stated that each image
had pieces that worked and he looked to early photographers for inspiration. Christopher Saah, Untitle (for
Alban Berg), 2009, Electro-Cinemagraph His
last work, Untitled, uses
photorealistic material to reconstruct space and have the plasticity of a
painting. The photos use split point perspective to force the viewer to look
down and up at the spaces at the same time. He said that each photo is fully
constructed and that the places depicted do not exist in reality. Saah stated
that he chose to round the edges of the photographs as a reference to early
cinema and early photography that rounded the edges to crop vignetting. Each
image is subtitled after their influences: various early cinematographers and
photographers. He feels that these photographs have a kinetic energy and no
reference point, allowing the viewer enter the piece wherever. I think
SaahŐs work in the context of my SMP is very important because we both broach
the broad topic of place and constructing places. It is interesting to me to
see how Saah approaches this subject, especially how he described Nightscenes as being their own little
worlds. Example:
SMP student Elise Kielek writes an art event summary for visiting artist
lecture by Hanna Burns Hannah
Piper Burns presented her work to us today at her film screening and artist
talk. I was very engaged with her
experimental films using appropriated scenes from musicals. In her works, she takes these familiar
nostalgic old-time-movie musicals and makes them contemporary with text and
music that convey a new narrative.
Her work, to me, is as much poetry as it is artwork. The text and the story she creates
come through the rhythm of the dancers, creating this visual dance and
potency of lyric. I found
it extremely interesting that her work with SMP here at St. MaryŐs has
elements that she still finds relevant in her work today. I loved that she drew this connection
and it also provides some grounding for my own SMP. The work that I am doing here has
characteristics that I will probably keep with me in my work in the future.
ItŐs not necessarily directly translated, but Hannah can obviously see traits
that she still shares with her earlier work. She discussed hybridity, color, and
narrative as three main foci that she has always engaged in her work. Her SMP works Aborted Fairy Tales were multi media and used color in ways that
attracted major emphasis to certain parts of the work. Her images conveyed a narrative,
though perhaps it was not quite as forward as the videos she is making
today. She
discovered, upon leaving St. MaryŐs and moving into the real world with her
artwork, that she needed a more time-based medium to convey her
narratives. This caused her turn
to the field of video documentaries.
She showed us her documentary on MorgellonŐs Disease, a disease whose
validity is highly debated in the medical field. I found her use of appropriated documentation
and videos to be entrancing. Even
though some of the scenes were gruesome, I couldnŐt help but feel extremely
connected to the subject matter at hand.
These people were not being recognized as having a real illness. How was that possible with all the
material that existed from thousands of cases around the world? HannahŐs
other work, as I have already briefly touched on, addressed the changing of a
well-known and nostalgic narrative into something contemporarily ŇrewrittenÓ
with music and text. I love the
way the songs that she picks completely change the feeling of the dance number. They take something we recognize and
change it to something completely unexpected. The words add to this powerful
statement, creating an appropriated piece that provides a new message. |