Idea: Posture

I have been looking at the stance of my models and I, and how simple movements can make a large impact. In my first images, I wanted the models to be rigid with their feet together and their free arms to be at their sides. This helped give the entranced feeling and ritualistic look. When I shot the images where I was standing in the water, it was late, I was tired, and the bottom was soft and unstable. Tom could tell that I was tired from my body language and said it added to the picture. He suggested I look at Greek sculpture.

Key Quotes:

“The point is that for every situation there must be two elements to body language, the delivery of the message and the reception of the message.”

Julius Fast

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/126391/Body-Language---JULIUS-FAST

“Introspective and expressive body awareness are both faculties of their own, varying among individuals like any other talents, but, at the same time, they tend to go together.”

Cecilia Ryding

http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=11&sid=902f8066-9cb2-4265-a29a-932699cfd484%40sessionmgr4

“Body movement is seen as interdependent with linguistics, and with, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, and proprioceptive systems. Each of these senses receives information, and puts it in context. The matter is complicated by two factors: the context in which channeled information is put is also generated by the very information received- living is feedback and cross-referencing.”

Richard Schechner

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.vcu.edu/stable/1144846?seq=4&Search=yes&term=kinesics&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dkinesics%26gw%3Djtx%26acc%3Don%26prq%3Dbody%2Blanguage%2BAND%2Bart%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&item=1&ttl=938&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null

Annotated Bibliography

Hallett, C.H. “The Origins of the Classical Style in Sculpture.”   Journal of Hellenic

            Studies, 1986. Pages 71-84. JStor. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.vcu.edu/stable/629643?seq=1&Search=yes&term=kouros&term=contrapposto&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dcontrapposto%2BAND%2Bkouros%26gw%3Djtx%26acc%3Don%26prq%3Dcontrapposto%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&item=5&ttl=19&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null>

This article provides a brief summary on classical sculpture. I focused on the element of posture while reading it. Kouros is a term meaning male youth. This style of sculpture was popular during the Archaic period in Greece. These sculptures had a very rigid pose. The figures stood straight up with their feet together and hands at their sides. They referenced the god Apollo and according to some, were meant to represent mankind rather than a specific male. Their eyes are straightforward and their expression is quite blank. This stance seemed unrealistic and later “contrapposto” evolved. These figures had one leg, the engaged leg, carrying the weight of the sculpture and a free leg, which was bent. It was much more natural looking than kouros. The body doesn’t look so mechanical and stiff. It also provides tension, as the figure is shifting weight from one leg to another.

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/Kouros/VolomandraKouros.jpg

http://surveryofart.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html

Artist: Lucas Soi

After The Dance (2010) Pen & Ink 14" x 34"

Black Mass (2009) Pen & Ink 14" x 51"

Deep End (2009) Pen & Ink 14" x 51"

Glass House (2009) Pen & Ink 14" x 34"

The Witches (2009) Pen & Ink 14" x 51

Bio:

Lucas Soi is a Canadian artist living and working in Vancouver, B.C. His work focuses

on how the consequences of our actions in the past relate to the circumstances in which we find ourselves today.

Relation to Work:

While I couldn’t find too much on Soi, I found his work to be very refreshing to look at. I love the simple use of pen and ink, the repetition of dots, and the environments chosen. I also like the panoramic format, which I think adds to the strangeness. His style suggests cartoons or coloring books, yet the messages are very dark. I like his use of abrasive imagery and that he doesn’t feel the need to censor himself. These drawings give us a voyeuristic peek into odd rituals.

Inspirational Quotes:

“I think being young, you're closer to conception than to existence. Meaning you're really closer to death than life. If you're fourteen years old, surrounded by your parents who are, say, triple you’re age, you're closer to "just being born" than to "everyday life". So destruction, which is a kind of creation in reverse, is closer to your understanding, maybe?”

“So maybe the darkness that you see in these drawings is just the connection all youths have to that unknown place where we come from, and where we go when we die.”

“I wanted to reflect where we’re at in our culture right now, but show that we've always been here. We haven't changed that much. Ancient myths are really eternal truths, you know?”

Artist Site:

http://www.lucassoi.ca/

Interview:

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php/features-mainmenu-102/2253-lucas-soi-interview

Gallery Representation:

http://www.shootinggallerysf.com/

Artist: Josh Keyes

Entangle II, 30"x40", acrylic on panel, 2009 

Entangle I, 30"x40", acrylic on panel, 2009 

Island, 30"x40", acrylic on panel, 2009 

Lifted, 2009, 40"x30", acrylic on panel

Roar I, 18"x24", acrylic on panel, 2009

Bio:

Josh Keyes was born in Tacoma, Washington. He received a BFA in 1992 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in 1998 from Yale. Eighteenth-century aesthetics and philosophies, particularly those of the Neoclassical and Romantic movements, shape his work. Keyes is drawn to the clinical and often cold vocabulary of scientific textbook illustrations, which express the empirical "truth" of the world and natural phenomena. He infuses into a rational stage set many references to contemporary events along with images and themes from his personal mythology and experience. These elements come together in an unsettling vision, one that speaks to the hope, fear, and anxiety of our time. Keyes currently lives and works in Portland Oregon with his wife, graphic designer Lisa Ericson.

http://www.joshkeyes.net/biography.htm

Relation to my work:

This work is quite similar to Ryan McClennan’s, which I posted before. This work shows more of an interaction between humans, animals, and habitat. The paintings are quite simple but present a lot. I love the uneasiness, and sometimes violence, paired with the quiet beauty. The interaction that he portrays is both disturbing and beautiful. They are playful and dangerous.  The compositions and small details keep my eyes moving around and around the images. Lastly, I like his repetition of the characters and how each they often represent people in his life.

Inspirational Quotes:

“I have always enjoyed the use of personification in the work of artists. It is a way of stepping outside human perception, in doing so it calls attention to the human condition without depicting a human figure.”

“I am developing a cast of characters in my work to inhabit the fragmented landscape. The animals have a personal meaning for me. They often stand for people or events in my life.”

“The diagrammatic quality of my work refers to the human gaze, similar to the idea of the male gaze, it sees and takes in only what it wants to see or desires to see. The model I am using is the scientific gaze or perception. Things seen in quantity separate from the whole. A laboratory where animals, ecosystems, humans, are reduced to objects.”

“Though I am tempted at times to fill the entire space, I find that the minimal stage set helps to focus the attention on the narrative. I also use the minimal and segmented landscapes to bring clarity to a very complex word of events. It is a way of quieting down information.”

“Night Painter, like old Philip Guston, quiet, moon, dream time. I have tried working at the crack of dawn but the sounds of the world are distracting. I feel alert and intense when the sun goes down.”

Artist Site:

http://www.joshkeyes.net/

Gallery Representation:

http://www.davidbsmithgallery.com/

http://www.jonathanlevinegallery.com/

Interviews:

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=385&Itemid=92

http://www.thebrilliance.com/thebrilliance/interviews/joshkeyes/interview.asp

http://theeastsider.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/josh-keyes-interview/

Idea: Minimalism

I have always loved and tried producing photographs with minimal qualities. Negative space has always been fun to work with as well as limited palettes. Lately, my work is becoming even more minimal and I’m trying to figure out the right amount to include in an image. Too much and there’s unimportant information getting in the way, and too little means the message doesn’t get across. I’m looking for the perfect balance.

Key Quotes

“The organization of the pictorial elements is a challenge. Trying to fill the space without actually filling it. I like to orchestrate the angles and visual elements so that the viewer's eye moves continuously through the work.”

Artist Josh Keyes

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=385&Itemid=92

“Minimal art is not a negation of past art, or a nihilistic gesture. Indeed, it must be understood that by not doing something one can instead make a fully affirmative gesture, that the minimal artist is engaged in an appraisal of the past and present, and that he frequently finds present aesthetic and sociological behavior both hypocritical and empty.”

Gregory Battcock

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=lhMS8Ii73ZkC&oi=fnd&pg=PR14&dq=minimalist+art&ots=NcjivOu-FL&sig=sjQnb5Ihd5W0FFZx83ZMzIE2ecI#v=onepage&q=minimalist%20art&f=false

“The death of minimalism is announced periodically, which may be the surest testimonial to its staying power. The term itself, now common currency, appeared in the mid-sixties but was largely unheard outside of art and avant-garde music circles until the eighties, and no one seems certain how to define it even now.”

Edward Strickland

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=I0F13e62idIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA56&dq=minimalist+art&ots=FHTSeHi8nn&sig=7bTNcVOwBCnf8Fdce8WiDI50Zxo#v=onepage&q=minimalist%20art&f=false

---

Meyer, James. “Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties.”  Yale University Press.

2001. Google Scholar. Web. 13 Sept. 2010.  <http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=x3EYlwvRzvwC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=minimalist+art&ots=ofdh8CtWna&sig=LQ1d5Wf5NPGUhtrQ_SINVoLknvg#v=onepage&q=minimalist%20art&f=false>

This article provides a nice overview of minimalism. Meyer says that, “Minimalism is best understood not as a coherent movement but as a practical field.” Minimalism describes various forms of art and design, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features.  It is associated with the late 1960s and early 1970s.  It resisted interpretation and was so bare that many people thought it needed more content and complexity.  Some didn’t even consider it art.

Sol Lewitt states, “Recently there has been much written about minimal art, but I have not discovered anyone who admits to doing this kind of thing. There are other art forms around called primary structures, reductive, rejective, cool, and mini-art. No artist I know will own up to any of these either. Therefore I conclude that it is part of a secret language that art critics use when communicating with each other through the medium of art magazines.”

Mondrian.Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red, 1937-42, oil on canvas, 72.5 x 69 cm

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Name ist Hase- ich weiss von nichts (Rabbit is my Name, and I know about Nothing), 1927, Silver print,  8.4 x 6.6 inches

http://www.artnet.com/artwork/424884626/140972/mein-name-ist-hase--ich-weiss-von-nichts-rabbit-is-my-name-and-i-know-about-nothing.html

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy - The Olly and Dolly Sisters, 1925

http://iamallface.tumblr.com/post/61216327/laszlo-moholy-nagy-the-olly-and-dolly-sisters

Mino Argentino. Oil, Acrylic and Gesso, Grids, Pencil Lines 50" x 50"

http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=11085918

Artist: Barry Underwood

 Blue Line, 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 39.5 x 50 inches

Aurora (Green), 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 36 x 36 inches

 Headlands II, 2009, Archival Pigment Print,  39 x 50 inches

 Fish II, 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 38 x 50 inches

Lightning Bugs, 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 36 x 36 inches

Bio:

“Barry has received two Bachelor of Arts degrees from Indiana University Northwest in 1990 in Theatre and 1992 in Photography. He earned his Masters in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1995. In 2007 Barry participated in a thematic residency Imaginary Places, at Banff Center for the Arts, Banff, Alberta, Canada. In 2008 he participated in an Artists’ Enclave residency at I-Park in East Haddam, Connecticut.
Last summer he participated in a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. His work has been exhibited internationally: Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, in Santa Monica, California, Photo Miami 2007 in Miami, Florida, Altered Landscape, a two person exhibition at Summit Gallery, in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Recently, Barry’s work was recently exhibited at NEXT 2009 The Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art and Scope in Basel, Switzerland, and Earth Engines a two-person exhibition at Johansson Projects in Oakland, California. His work is included in several corporate and private collections. Upcoming exhibitions include Staged a group exhibition at Skew Gallery in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in January 2010, and a solo exhibition at Skew Gallery in May 2010.”

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Barry+Underwood/114861.html

 Relation to my work:

I have always loved Tokihiro Sato’s work and came across Underwood’s recently, which is quite similar. I really enjoy Underwood’s use of color. His images have such a theatrical quality that I can appreciate. His use of light exaggerates the landscape and plays with the viewer’s imagination. I can relate to his use of defamiliarizing common objects.

Inspirational Quotes:

“I’ve started thinking more about environmental issues. Wondering about the kind of damage that photography is doing, the damage that even I as an artist am responsible for, and how can I help change things.”

“What does it mean to be an environmentalist as a photographer? It’s almost in contradiction.”

“I think about all that and try to make these images very subjective, kind of hyper-real, or surreal, or a kind of heightened activity or performance. That’s kind of how cinema plays into it a bit. It’s an exaggeration, a stylized way of looking at something.”

Interview:

http://photographyinterviews.blogspot.com/2010/05/barry-underwood-metamorphoses.html

Gallery Representation:

http://johanssonprojects.com/default.htm

Artist Site:

http://www.barryunderwood.com/

 

Idea: Self-sufficiency

Self-sufficient

1 : able to maintain oneself or itself without outside aid :  capable of providing for   one’s own needs

2 : having an extreme confidence in one’s own ability or worth

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-sufficient

I have been looking at my own personal relationship with nature as of late, and also asking others about their feelings and experiences. While my work will focus on those of us who live in urban environments, Mark made a suggestion that I should research those who live exclusively in nature.  I think it’s remarkable that people are able to do this. I am very interested in how much physical and mental strength this must take. Being isolated in the woods everyday must take its toll on the mind and body. Do these people ever miss their old life? Will they ever go back to a so-called “normal life?” Those who live of the grid are fascinating.

Key Quotes:

“I can only speak to myself, but living the way I do allows me more time to digest the news and make sense of the world. I am fully engaged and aware of the world.”

“It’s a matter of temperament. What I see is that I have a more fulfilled life if I limit my stimulation, that’s my personal taste, that’s why I came to the woods. It’s all about what you want your stimulation to be; are you stimulated by running errands and the rush of the city, or watching the trees blow.”

-Jane Dawson

Living Off the Grid in Style: An Interview with Super-Homesteader Jane Dawson

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/living-off-the-grid-in-style-interview-homesteader-jane-dawson.html

“I started figuring this out a long time ago, one piece at a time. I came to it pretty slowly. I came to RE just because I wanted to live in the woods. But the more I learned, the more I felt I couldn't merely be a consumer (of knowledge or energy), I had to help pass it on.”

-Jennifer Barker

http://www.altenergymag.com/emagazine.php?issue_number=08.06.01&article=jenniferbarker

“I grew up on the 47th floor of a building in downtown Chicago, and I was so disassociated and alien to the world. Anyway, that was when I found my center in a way, you know I found my things made more sense to me when I was in nature. Things kind of pinned together and I started feeling more of this world. And I’ve always kept that connection.”

-Daryl Hannah

http://www.off-grid.net/2005/03/04/daryl-hannah-on-being-off-grid/

Lydersen, Kari.  “Green living: Off the grid families pioneer sustainable energy  

            lifestyles.”  Christian Science Monitor, 7 Aug. 2010.  EBSCOhost. Web.

6 Oct. 2010. <http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=112&sid=7eed8f5e-3796-482c-8b46-8e5f6587c44f%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVybCxjb29raWUsdWlkJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=52737744>

This article explains “off-the-grid” living without relying on the government or utility companies to provide electricity, heat, water, and gas. Many people are converting to self-sufficient living using sun, water and wind to provide heat and electricity.  There are about 750,000 self-sufficient homs nationwide. It has been estimated that this is increasing by about 10 percent each year. Some live on their own, while others form tiny neighborhoods and help each other in their lifestyle.  There have even been times when public power outages forced some to visit a man’s self-sufficient home for heat during a snowstorm.

This can be a costly shift in life, but in the end, these people’s investment will be paid off and beneficial. "There's a lot more return on investment than just money," Cirone says. "I believe inside our own basic spirit is the fact we want to do what's correct for the environment and, ultimately, the universe. We hope this proves to anyone who even considers [going off the grid] that if you don't want to give up anything in your lifestyle, you can use alternative energy and still have all the amenities you want." Many of these people have televisions, computers, and other electronics. They live pretty comfortably. 

Images from Keliy Anderson-Staley's series Off The Grid

 Hansons' Root Cellar, Whipple Pond, Maine

 Corbin's Laundry, Sebec, Maine

 A-Frame Outhouse, Unity, Maine

http://www.andersonstaley.com/gallery.html?gallery=Off%20The%20Grid

Julika Rudelius Lecture Question/Response

In many of your pieces you chose to omit your voice and questions from the piece. In what ways does this absence strengthen or add to the piece? How would the viewer's perception change if your voice was audible? Was this your initial plan, or did it come about after editing the footage?

In your piece "R+J," you found the young couple, then had them remain still for an extended period of time. Why did you choose to make this an almost still film piece rather than a photograph?


In many of your pieces you chose to omit your voice and questions from the piece. In what ways does this absence strengthen or add to the piece? How would the viewer's perception change if your voice was audible? Was this your initial plan, or did it come about after editing the footage?

In your piece "R+J," you found the young couple, then had them remain still for an extended period of time. Why did you choose to make this an almost still film piece rather than a photograph?

Response:

After the lecture, I felt that slightly disappointed. Seeing as how none of her work is available to view online, I was hoping to see more of it. Also the fact that she was hesitant to show her work because of the poor projector quality was frustrating. I would be able to better understand her work if I could view some of her work in its entirety. I thought it was very interesting to learn that she used to be only involved in creating documentaries and how this falseness led her to create art. I also found it interesting how much she controlled the subjects. Before the lecture I assumed these people were just documented then edited to her liking. This answers the first question that I had. The lack of her voice makes these appear as small documentaries, but really she is "creating" these characters and their events by directing. My second question was not touched on but I think that the slight movements of breathing and ripples in the water add to the irony of the piece.

Three words to define Rudelius' practice and artwork:

1. Truth

2. Interaction

3. Control

The most interesting quote of the lecture was in reference to her piece "Economic Primacy." She said that finding the subjects was, "almost like a sport if I could get them." Finding subjects became like a game, full of excitement and challenge. She became exactly like the men she filmed. They are powerful, wealthy, and charismatic, and use these qualities to gain more. Their clients are money and they "sell" themselves to generate more wealth. Rudelius, in the same way, must "sell" herself to these men in order to be granted permission to film. While she wants these sort of clients for her art, instead of money, she does profit from this. She and these men are both business people. 

Her piece "Rites of Passage," was the most compelling. It was such a strange relationship she showed/created between the older men and their young interns. The pairs talked in such a programmed language, it didn't seem human. Everything was a tactic, from their dress to their movements and expressions. It was all to emotional reach others and gain their support. The thing that I thought was most interesting about the piece was that she was manipulating the man, who was in turn manipulating the young intern. She calls the people in the pieces her "creations." I am wondering how much of that is true. While yes, she tells the subjects what to say and when to move, they still put part of themselves into it. She could tell ten people to do and say the same things. All would do it in their own individual way. Therefore it seems like somewhat of a collaboration between the two. 

  

Artist: Maria Friberg

 alongside us # 6, 2007, c-print, 140 x 113 cm

 alongside us # 1, 2007, cibachrome, 36 x 98 in

still lives # 11, 2005, c-print, 170 x 248 cm

still lives # 3, 2004, c-print, 150 x 197 cm 

 still lives # 8, 2004, c-print, 155 x 150 cm

still lives # 2, 2004, c-print, 120 x 163 cm

 Still from Blownout, DVD, 1999

C/O, 1999, c-print, 197 x 146 cm 

Me, myself and you, 1995-1997

Bio:

“Maria Friberg is a Swedish based photographer. A traditionally trained artist, she moved her medium over time from large-scale painting into large-scale photography. Her show “Transmission” is currently on show at Conner Contemporary from March 20 – May 8th, and features photographs larger than life making the audience sucked into them almost instantly. She’s exposing the vulnerabilities of men and further exploring how those vulnerabilities are, in fact, attractive. Friberg contrasts power suits and exposed poses in order to open a discussion on “how men think they should be” versus “how they truly feel”. This makes the men in her work not so much human beings but “signs of men”, trying to find their place in time of turmoil.”

http://i1.exhibit-e.com/connercontemporary/70c28665.pdf

Relation to my work:

I love how minimal Friberg's work is. I'm a big fan of the negative space. They're so simple, yet say so much. The interaction of the figures being engulfed by their surroundings provides a great deal of tension. The faces are glazed over and lack any definite emotion. This makes me more interested in staying with images because of the sense of mystery. It is also important that Friberg uses random people as models and allows for some level of chance. I believe that if too much of a shoot, or image, is planned then there isn't room for the situation to create itself and the outcome can become static. Allowing things to have a more natural flow will yield better results. 

Inspirational Quotes:

“I’m trying to let go of my need to have so much control. It’s impossible to have full control, and maybe not so interesting. I think more and more that it makes the art works too predictable, and that we need the uncontrolled.”

“The scale is very important. I like that the viewer can be a part of the photo physically. They are not windows that you’re supposed to peep into.”

“I ask people in the street, so I don’t really know the models. Basically, I just direct them the way a movie director would. Where to stand, how to move, etc. But they do add something with their presence. Since they are not professional models or actors they can not be totally controlled, which is a good thing in this case.”

“Most of my work revolves about themes of power, masculinity and man’s relationship to nature. In my images, I create ambiguous tableaus that challenge preconceived notions about identity, gender and social hierarchies.My most recent pieces look both outwards, to the challenges in contemporary society, and inwards, to a meditative state of mind. In these photographs and videos, the isolation and solitude of the individuals reflect issues in society at large.  The men in my images are signs for men, trying to find their place in times of turmoil.”

Artist Website:

http://www.mariafriberg.com/

Gallery Representation:

http://www.gallericharlottelund.com/

http://www.connercontemporary.com/

http://www.galica.it/

http://www.galerievoss.de/

Interview:

http://i1.exhibit-e.com/connercontemporary/70c28665.pdf