Harmony

Accumulation Project

So, this whole semester I've been collecting buttons. At first i wasn't too excited about the idea of having to collect something for an extended amount of time but as I collected them, I began to realize something. The buttons I had been collecting had started to acquire similarities to people. As each person is unique in their own way, so are buttons. They are varying in size, color, weight, texture, and etc. I honestly dont think I have two of the same kinds of buttons. Each one has a different past, a different story to tell of how it arrived to me. Initially I had no idea what to di with all the buttons once I was finished collecting them, but then I began to think about ways to build something out of them, and then connecting them with either string, glue or other means. For the longest time I wanted to make a sculpture, something large out of them, but I could never think of what to make.

I think we did this exercise because it largly relates with alot of the artists that we have learned about this semester. Concept artists take one thing, and completely change the meaning behind it and create something completely different. I notice that a lot of the artists that we had talked about/viewed in class had used some form of accumulation. A lot of artists used an abundance of one or more objects. That signifies that they had gone out and collected these objects over a period of time, no matter how short or long. I also think we did it becuase our professor enjoys collecting random items. I remember several times where she mentioned how she collects this, or collects that, such as tacks or dandelions, random items like that. With that in mind, I think that she was curious to see how we would handle a project which is based off of one of her hobbies/interests. To see if we are as interested and excited by it as her. That is just an idea...

It wasnt until the end of the semester where I thought of an idea. I took the concept that each button was like no other, unique. With that I decided to have them symbolize people. Now one issue that has existed since the beginning of time is equality/peace/harmony. It still struggles to succeed today but in reality, such a thing will never be achieved. IT just isnt in human nature for the most part. But, we could always improve for the good, make small gestures toward the impossible. My project will aim to do just that, try to push people towards equality and harmony.

First I will start off by collecting billions upon billions of buttons (talk about large scale, ftr, this is why im doing a proposal, I came no where close to even a million buttons, let alone a billion) Then I will have hundreds of copies large maps of the globe printed out. Half will be dull in color and the other half will be glossy. The scale of the maps will be around the size of the sides of ware house buildings. I will attach the maps to large iron walls, which is made from elements of the earth, which is where we ALL live, which further emphasizes equiality.

On the dull colored maps I will used the same technique used to lay down bricks.(the cement adhesive, which is also made from teh earth, same concept as the iron) I will use that cement adhesive to attach the buttons to the map. However, each country will be represented by a different color. I will cover the countries on the map with buttons, and then pile more buttons on top of that. When the buttons are piled on, we will be able to distinctly identify each country. This is not our goal. We should not be able to tell a difference since everyone is equal. So on the glossy colored maps, I will do the same porcess, but instead of different colors for each country, I will used a mix of colros for each country. This way on this map you will not be able to tell the difference between the countries once all the buttons are placed. In will simply looked like a collage of buttons, all types. This is what we want, equality and harmony, everyone getting along and no one being the majority, no one has more power.

Now that I have applied the billions of buttons to the hundreds of glossy and dull collered maps and then attached those to the iron walls, I will selectively place one of each type of map wall in every country in the world. They will be placed in the largest/busiest/most touristy city in each country, that way more people will see the maps. They will be placed in an open public space, for example, for the US I will place it in New York City and have it somewhere in central park. I will have it out in the air because out there it is not under any restraints, it is free to be seen by anyone and everyone, out in the open air, which is connected to every individual on earth. The dull colored maps will face west, where the sun sets. This way it will be cast in shadow in the morning, dawn of day which symbolizes the negativity of such inequality. The glossy colored maps will be facing East, where the sun rises so that way it will be cast in light in the morning. This will symbolize a new start for each day to try and make the world right, positivety.

repetitive action minus action

site specific project

Duration: 2 minutes and 4 seconds

Materials: Recycled Newsprint, Wood, toilet paper, notebook paper

The sources I used are Andy Goldsworthy and Tara Donovan. We just recently viewed them in class and after watching the film on Goldsworthy, I found myself wanting to work with materials made naturally, found in nature. Then after learning about Donovan I wanted to try and make something out of simple, cheap, not normal art materials. My other source is the awareness of Earth Day. So, with the combination of Goldsworthy's natural materials and donovans simple materals and then the idea of Earth day, I decided to do my project on a concept tha tenvironmentalists enforce to better the earth: Recycling!

My audience will obviously be those individuals who push and celebrate Earth day regularly and those who are fighting to properly take care of the environment. The audience will be engaging in the work by looking at the photos since the format of the presentation will be in photos. I think that presenting this project in photos will present the clear "picture". The audience can take in the project at their own rate. It will make the concept of the project permanent in a way, solid.

So I kept seeing all of these references to Earth day while I was brainstorming for project ideas and I decided to do my project on it. I tried to look for a site that had a tree and a pretty plain areas surrounding the tree without any grass. I decided to make a recycling symbol around the tree. I made sure to keep the tree in the middle since it's the original source or paper (which we recycle) I then made the three arrows out of three different objects. I made the first arrow out of wood chips that I collected around the site. The wood chips represent a form of the wood before it is processed into paper. I then assembled then into an arrow shape. The second arrow is made up of layers of notebook paper because that is one form that a tree might eventually take. The second arrow is made up of toilet paper, because, like the notebook paper, that is another form. These arrows point to eachother to show how the circle/pattern repearts itself, in an effort to conserve/save trees which in turn helps to save earth. Hence earth day.

Sources:

-Goldsworthy, Andy. Thomas Riedelsheimer. Rivers and Tides. Skyline Productions Ltd. (2003)
- Donovan, Tara. Ace Gallery. Brooklyn, New York. <http://www.acegallery.net/artistmenu.php?Artist=8> April 18, 2008
- Earth Day

consumerism roolz; consumerism sucks

TIME BASED PROJECT

Duration: 1 minute and 19 seconds

Materials: Shredded reciepts and Advertisements from magazines, newspapers, etc..

Do you ever feel sick of seeing so many Ads, do you just want them to go away, to leave you alone?

So, I decided to do my piece on the omnipresent qualities of consumerism. As people, we are bombarded with advertisements. We can't go anywhere without it's presence. That's just our society, that's our world. So in my piece I decided to show a person struggling with this overwhelming invasion. The person portrays someone who is a particular subject to consumerism (just like everyone else) she loves to buy anything and everything. She is surrounded by ads every waking moment, she just cant get away from them. They are everywhere! To escape their presence, she goes out into nature, where one would think that consumerism has not yet ventured to. But, to her surprise, consumerism has it's presence in nature too. It begins to engulf her, physically overwhelm her.

I decided to shed reciepts, newspaper and magazine ads, anything that has the resemblence of an Advertisement. I shredded the items because on every reciept, every magazine you recieve in the mail, there is some record of your identity on the object, whether it be your credit card number, of the time you purchased an item, or the name and address of your home. Either way, you are involved with the Ad. Today, identity theft is a growing issue, and having my mother work in a bank, she is constantly having me shred any piece of my identity so I wont fall subject to suck as ordeal. However, saving myself from identity theft is not the main reason I shredded all of those papers, it's because as a consumerist, we aren't looked on as individuals. Everyone is grouped into categories:

middle aged single mom
retired military
teenagers
bachelors
toddlers
etc
etc

There is no individualism in the Advertisement world. Everyone is a nobody, just a somebody to buy their products. So to portray this idea, I shredded the ads just like a person would shred their receipts to hide their identity since our individuality means close to nothing to the consumerist driven folk.

Now, I know I made this into a powerpoint presentation sort of still frame video sort of thing, but I had originally wanted this to be photographs (at least 15X21) laid out next to each other, like a series that way to can view the peice at your own rate and maybe get more out of it.

citations:

-Jhally, Sut. Advertising and the End of the World. The Media Education Foundation. 1997.
-Skoglund, Sandy. Sandy Skoglund Art Site. (http://www.sandyskoglund.com/) 2008

art resources for all!

So in class we were all given two art magazines to try and find two art sources for our project due next week.  One artist that I found was ELIZABETH MURRAY and specifically her piece called The sun and the Moon.  The piece is very vibrant and bold, full of energy.  It has a very comic book/cartoon feel to it and I like that about it.  It uses a wide variety of bold lines and bright vivid colors.  I LOVE all of the colors she used in this piece.  I also enjoy how she cut into the shape of the original canvas and created this irregular shape of a canvas.  It reminds me of a piece that I recently did in 2D-Design where we used only a variety of black and white media and cut into the original shape of the canvas to create this new shape.  

Her gallery is very colorful and energized.  It looks almost like graffiti art, cartoonish.  It's so much fun to look at and I would LOVE to have some of her artwork in my home.  I feel that it would give off a positive vibe to my visitors and myself.  Her work intrigued me! I choose her because I absolutely love color, color makes objects, life more beautiful, whether it be black and white or all teh colors of the rainbow at once. Also, her incorporation of the use of abstract shapes and lines, very geometric was captivating. It made her work bold, stick out. It was very dynamic and had so much to look at. It wasnt borng at all. That's why I chose her.

I plan on looking up some more of her work and probably using her for inspiration for my next project.  I now want to use a variety of lines and bold vibrant colors for it but Im not sure how to incorporate time into that with a use of bold shapes.

Another artist that caught my attention is WILL RYMAN who makes sculptures.  Of course, they aren't the normal sculptures; they aren't really eye appealing and don't look as if they require that much skill but when you take into consideration the media that he uses:  resin, PVS pipe acrylic pipe, wire mesh and papier mache then you realize that the sculptures he makes do in fact require a good amount of skill since the materials he used aren't really the normal materials used to make sculptures.  They look a bit like the playdough things I used to make as a kid but a little bit more skill oriented.  

You can tell that he paid attention to detail; not with the people particularly but more with the trash standing next to the lamp post. I choose him because I've always been fascinated by sculpture but i've always been timid to actually try making sculpture. It had a nostalgic feel to it when I looked at his work, the whole playdough resemblence. I think that's what initially caught my attention. 

Porcedure for Identity Project

False Accusations = Insecurity

Identity Project

Dimension: 1.5 feet by 1 feet

Material: Miniature Manequin man, food, wire, paper, tissue paper

I did my identity project on something that happened to me back in 7th grade. I was in P.E. class running when my teacher stopped and asked me if I was bulimic.Now, I ahve always been really skinny but never relaly thought much of it...until that point. After that I became really self conscious about my weight and then proceeded to try and gain a couple pounds. From then on I found myself eating, and eating and eating. I have never had any eating disorder, I've just always had super fast metabolism and to this day I still struggle to gain weight. Fortunately, I don't worry and stress about my self image as much as I did back then. I have come to accept the way my body works. Anyways, back then I had a hard time coping with such issues and was always insecure.

So my piece is of a little art figure manequin in the running position and I have it vomitting to signify the fake assumption. Instead of puking food, words relating to self image, insecurity, and weight issues are pouring out of the manequins mouth. I have the head wrapped in red tissue paper to symbolize bashfulness and feeling the need to want to hide myself from everyone. The food scattered around is mean tto symbolize the large amounts of food that I would eat daily in a feeble attempt to gain weight to assuage such false accusations. I have the shadow visible behind the manequin to symbolize how this self image issue of weight seems to follow me.

Adolesence

Material Invention Project

Dimensions: 8 ft by 4 ft

Materials: Mixed Media

I transformed space by taping and nailing particular items to the walls and ceiling. My experiment had three parts: The wall attachments, the floor piece, and the wind piece. The wall attachments included string, pantyhose, trash, and an apple. The floor piece included the rest of the objects except the feathers and sheer material, which made up the wind piece.

We used a fan to have the sheer material blowing to show it "being transformed by the wind" and spilled the feathers on top of the material. The floor piece acted as a decorative mess, allembly of objects strategically placed together to give a feminine nostalgic look.

The yarn attaches a young girls innocence to sin and temptation (the apple in the pantyhose) which the older she gets (the farther up she goes) the more she will be exposed to such things. The sheer material acts as a fog or "distraction". It partially blinds her from the right path, the devil's charm.