Writing
ARTIST STATEMENT: LINE PROJECT
In this project, I wanted to represent actions that I see in my daily life in a more abstract manner. This work is a visual map, of sorts, of observations I made based on actions that occured in my room throughout one night. I wnated to play with how humans contemplate even the most mundane aspects of our daily lives. I used composition, color, line, texture, and shape to help me emphasize my point. The art is purposefully conceptual, as to pull away from any sort of literal representations it could convey-making it both more interesting to look at and think about. A key is shown on the back of each image to give the viewer an understanding behind the abstractness.
RESPONSE TO PODCAST
This podcast spoke with an artist about how the news and media can be translated into art, into visual thinking. They began by talking about the origins of the internet and how it came into their vernacular so quickly after the newspaper. This lead to examining the role of the news in our everyday life and how humans treat it and react to it. In response to this, they concluded that humans are bombarded with the media, they have lost a sort of emotional response to the media. For example, if someone was walking on the street and saw a man jump off of a building, that person walking would be traumatized. However, if someone was watching the news and saw that a man had jumped off of a building, they would just be sad for a small moment then move on with their day. This influenced the artist to begin working with newspapers in her art, as a way to use the print the “afterlife of the print”. She did this by having the “image without text, to bring your own personal reaction to it” because “removing the text from the newspaper… [is a] new kind of looking to be able to see what is there”. This inspires me in my project- knowing I want to have an emphasis on the images. I want to highlight the “way in which images orient us in the world”. However, I do not want to remove all the text because I want there to be selective text in order to give context to my newspaper mashup. My newspaper mashup will be cutouts from different newspapers glued on top of each other. Like they said in the podcast, “different newspapers, different moments were significant”. The cutouts will be selective, they will serve to contrast the other newspaper cutout. This can be through historical narratives or seriousness vs. humorous. I want to viewer to be “interpreting history in visual form”. I’m going to do all this because I want “to create a way of seeing, visualizing. Method for re-looking at stuff” and producing new analyses.
RESPONSE TO READING
The first article, the technologically factual one, was a pretty hard read for me. I did not understand what the article was saying, for the most part, because I do not understand coding language. Reading it made me think about the internet in too much of a scientific way, not in a way that is much too interesting for me. The reading also felt very old, given that it was written in 1994, but it felt like I was reading a blueprint for the internet. In reading it, I understood that it was not talking about the internet as a whole but of all the different components that make it up and how harmonious it would be put together- endless. The second reading dealt with talking about the Library of Babylon as a whole, yet while simultaneously not failing to mention all the little components, or as they spoke about it: shapes, that make it up. It was a more abstract reading with beautiful vocabulary, but in this sense it was difficult to understand as well. What I did grasp, though, when relating it to the internet, is that the Library of Babylon was much like the Internet of its time. Walking through the shapes of the library is much like falling through all the holes of the internet. One place could lead you to another or another. Everything exists on the internet, even if that means on the dark web. Such as the library was described as never ending, infinite. However, not all parts of the internet or the library are easy to access. Through encrypted sites and hidden nooks, not all can ever be discovered. Lastly, with so much information comes misinformation. The internet is not always trustworthy, it is partially directed by the public. Similarly, not all books can be trusted, as they are written by the public as ell. One last idea that came to me when readings these articles is that it seemed as though they were glorifying either the internet or the library. Both readings were written by a biased author, and that significantly changes the way that I, or another reader, interpret the texts.
MOMA PS1 ART BOOK FAIR
COLORAMA is a printing and publishing company based in Berlin, Germany. They create short books, shirts, and posters that all feature the work of modern comic-arts. The comics that they choose to showcase are often non-realistic, abstract, or may even be considered childish. Many of them also often include typography and have a focus on color. COLORAMA relates to my personal interest because I have recently become almost obsessed with comic art. I love the simplicity and humorous aspect of them. They are enticing and yet simple. I like that they don’t usually carry a deeper meaning and are made purely out of creativity and passion. It relates to my own artwork because I too like to use humor in my work, especially when the piece is not intended to have some profound meaning to it. I also love using color and when I draw, my drawings are never realistic. In relation to the larger narrative of Visual Thinking, I think that COLORAMA does a fantastic job with translating its concept in a visual manner. Also, due to the abstractness of its publications, COLORAMA introduces artworks that one may never thought of visualizing. It is a type of artwork that is very current in art history. https://www.coloramabooks.space/products Pomegranate Press is an independent publishing house based in Richmond, Virginia. They showcase contemporary photography, writing, and other mediums of visual art via magazines, posters, and clothing. Their work tends to have a more editorial feel, specifically in terms of the photography that they publish. This work really speaks to me, especially in connection to my personal work: my photography. While being at the art book fair, I bought one of Pomegranate Press’ photography magazines and since then, it has become a source of inspiration for my photography. My photography and the photography that is typically published by Pomegranate Press is very similar, depicting intimacy, capturing still life, documentary photography, street photography, portraiture, and landscape photography while maintaining an editorial feel all throughout. I will continue to use this publication company as a way for me to research other photography and photographers that can help guide my future photography projects. Connecting it back to the class, Pomegranate publishes mediums of visual art and the visual thinking class allows me to be able to think about the publications in a more analytical and thoughtful way. https://pomegranatepress.club Extra Vitamins is a streetwear brand, design studio, and art company that aims to creating future psychedelic work, alter perception, and imagine new aesthetics. It does this through research and experimentation and is based in in Brooklyn, New York. They make clothing and accessories that have a unique, psychedelic, and abstract look to them. When I saw the shirts, I bought one! I had never seen any other clothing line like them and I really appreciate their creativity. While it did spice up my wardrobe, it did not relate to my work at all because I do not make clothing or any art that is similar to Extra Vitamin’s. Yet, maybe this will push me to be more explorative in my artwork. This company uses a lot of different signs and strange fonts in their clothing, making it something to really think about. Not to mention, it was probably difficult to come up with all of this. I feel like this is a project that we could have been asked to do in Visual Thinking; trying to come up with new ways to present ideas. In art’s history, Extra Vitamins would fit into the abstract scene- very modern and contemporary. https://extra-vitamins.com