Sculpture Studio Portfolio (SP10)

Summaries of Four Art Events

Susan Petry: Perception, Psychology, and Art

Guest artist Susan Petry discussed the role of a person as a viewer and what exactly he or she sees in her lecture “Perception, Psychology, and Art.” Petry first defined perception as a consciousness, providing “ongoing, automatic, organized, and meaningful experience.” Perception can either refer specifically to the person as a viewer, or the person as a creator: the creator controls (or attempts to control) what and how something will be perceived, and in what context.

Back to the basics, perception is a fundamental survival tool that gives information about the world and its individual spaces. It is a non-verbal tool and is initially experienced individually until a person creates words to try to describe it. One of the most important characteristics of perception is that it is experienced before cognition, that a person always absorbs the information first and then examines it.

But perception requires cognition in order for a person to make sense of that information. This is where illusory contour comes in, which refers to an image with implied lines that are seen with the use of cognitive and problem solving skills. Although some illusory contours may be seen immediately, people have created puzzles that require more contemplation, which once solved, usually generate a feeling of pleasure or pride in a person. This connects back to perception on its simplest level, and making something more difficult to be perceived develops the skill further.

Illusory Contour

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Digital Art Studio Projection Outside the Campus Center

The Digital Art Studio Class had a project in which they had to create a film that would be projected outside of the Campus Center onto the brick walls. This project was pretty successful; the videos came out clear, the sound was okay—but some projected better than others, and some kept the idea of projection in the context of the video itself while others did not. This actually ended up tying into the idea of site-specific/installation artwork, like the work of Jenny Holzer, by being public art and taking on a more sculptural form, and the videos were created with the idea of the location in mind.

“Feetsies” was a stop-motion film of images of feet with different shoes on combined to create the movement of walking and dancing. The steps of the feet are in tempo with the beat of the song in the background. This film did come off as being just a music video, and it would have been interesting to see the shoes around the area of where it was projected or something along those lines.

“New York” loops consisted of juxtapositions of repeated images, rewound and slowed down, showing things such as shots of the front and back of the same person. This film really emphasized movement that was often unresolved; i.e., it was never shown where the person was walking to, his or her destination, etc. “Sound Waves” had a similar theme of movement: the film was made up of juxtapositions of images of waves and water with various frames projected at one time, emphasizing the movement of the water to the soundtrack of standard cell phone ringtones and vibrations. Visually it would have been much more interesting if it had been projected on the moving water of the fountain near it, as it would emphasize water’s movement even further.

“Silhouettes” was a film of slowly moving black silhouettes of people, mainly having characteristics of young adults, in action, walking, talking, eating, reading, but in a broken up sequence, not fluid motion (i.e., the silhouette would mainly stay the same, but move around the frame). This video and another, “Bell Tower,” both seemed to address the fact that students would be watching this in a place of high student traffic. “Bell Tower” was a film of the movement of students in the daytime followed by the movement of students at night, turned into slow, ghost images. This film was silent except for the sound of the occasional ringing of the bell tower, which would be a familiar sound to its audience.

The most sculptural/had more of a dialogue with its space, “Untitled,” dealt with the influence of television by projecting seemingly random clips of T.V. shows, anywhere from well-known movies such as The Terminator to sports, fast food ads, pregnancy ads, clips of politics, ads for children’s toys, to clips of game shows such as Wheel of Fortune. In front of the projection was a small television (on the ground), programmed to play a recording of a person’s unresponsive eyes looking around upwards, seemingly at the montage of T.V. images. At a certain point, the films flipped, so that the television clips were playing on the T.V. and the same eyes were on the large projection, looking downwards, presumably at the T.V. This film directly responded to the idea of projection and took advantage of it by choosing to display video on two objects—the projection and the T.V. This was the only video that really had a message instead of just an aesthetic appeal, presenting a subtle yet negative view on what a person is really watching and how much time they are wasting by watching television.

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First SMP Opening at Boyden Gallery

I attended the first SMP show opening at Boyden Gallery on Tuesday. The show consisted of work of four different students.
“Small Odds” was a collection of paintings on a wide range of canvas size. The paintings were abstract and therefore focused on the exploration of colors and the paint itself. The artist seemed to let the paint itself create the shape and designs, emphasizing the paint as a material and object alone. The colors were more natural and of the browns, blues, and purples, which therefore suggested shapes of clouds, water or underwater scenes, and emphasized movement more so than imagery. The artist’s intention seemed to be to create a series of works that allowed the material become the subject by allowing it (almost fully) to create its own shapes an designs.

A collection that went along well with “Small Odds” was “Thought Wandering,” which the artist described had much to do with the idea and image of when sky meets water. The paintings were similar in color scheme and expressed movement like “Small Odds,” but the main difference is that in these, the artist’s hand was very present, and the paint and images were controlled. The long rectangular shapes of the canvases emphasized the movement of the images, which resembled water as well as draping fabric in a very fluid manner.

“Weathered” was a series of photographs of abandoned houses and structures. The photographs themselves (i.e. the paper) were “damaged” and distorted, creating two layers: the surface of the paper and the equally ruined building. The artist particularly chose buildings that were largely obstructed by trees and other vegetation, and the photographs were taken during the winter, which gave them an especially desolate look because of the dark, leafless plants and snow on the ground. The photographs were like an ominous reminder of what humans have left behind, which could have a range of meaning anywhere from acting as a metaphor for the decay of humankind to the destructive impact of humans on the environment.

Finally, “Igniting Love” was a series of paintings of constructed scenes between matches and candles. Based on the settings, the candles and matches seemed to stand as a metaphor for love and passion, further emphasized by the title. The scenes of romance depicted by the candle and the match included a suggestion of kissing and dating. The two matches, on the other hand, were ignited in each other’s flames in a fiery embrace. The following painting was a continuation of that embrace, but the candle and the match from the other scenes seemed to be watching, noticeably not ignited. The final painting, set apart by itself on the next wall, was of a burned out match. The narrative seemed to act as commentary on romantic relationships, suggesting that one of attachment or bond based on friendship is stronger and will outlast that of purely passion.

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Modern Drawings: Tracing 100 Years at the Academy of Arts Museum in Easton, MD

I attended a gallery opening of a show titled “Modern Drawings: Tracing 100 Years” in Easton, Maryland, where I live. The show included drawings of Pablo Picasso, Claes Oldenberg, Walt Kuhn, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., and had pieces by local artists, including both of my parents.

One piece that surprised me and was really cool to see was the drawing of Robert Smithson for his sculpture Spiral Jetty. (The drawing was titled Spiral Jett, Great Salt Lack, Utah, 1970). It was really eye opening because all it was was a simple little graphite sketch of rocks and an indistinct shoreline, with a very dark spiral drawn in. Although it was not complicated or technical or even detailed, it really shows that he used drawing to get his idea down, even though it is a massive earth sculpture. It reminded me that drawing is an essential part of sculpture, because it can serve as the fundamental development of ideas. The curator, Brian young, writes, “In Robert Smithson’s study for Spiral Jetty, we have the pleasure of seeing the genesis of one of the most famous works of Earth Art in its infancy as the artist crystallizes an idea onto the sheet.”

The show also included a drawing by Vito Acconci, which he gave to my mother. (She worked with him on Building Blocks for a Doorway at Graphic Studios in Tampa, Florida, and asked for his sketch of the “E.”) It is a really nice drawing of the character “E” on graph paper that served, again, as a piece of the whole, foundational to test ideas and create the best form of that idea into a larger artwork.

My favorite series of drawings was by Charles Dorman Robinson done during the earthquake in San Francisco in 1906. I can only imagine while the city is burning deciding to go out and draw the wreckage all around me in very dangerous conditions. But Robinson produced some truly beautiful drawings, using pastel to draw the fire in such a skillful way.

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