Collaboration

Project 4: Collaboration: Create a work with interdisciplinary input from 3 people (Critique April 22nd) -one person from history who you haven’t met -one person in the class who you have met -one person in a different discipline that have or have not met

For this project I partnered with Lily Strandberg & Natalie Frisinger from our painting class.


We were trying to come up with a frame of reference to do it in. We decided on the "Exquisite Corpse" which is a collaborative drawing activity which originated in the early 20th century by the Dada & YBA artists. Essentially, it is one unified piece of work that is broken up into equal parts, vertically, each person draws and then folds their portion under to pass it onto the next person. The next person, without knowing what preceded them, draws their own, and it continues on. Only to reveal a collaborative and very different firgurative image that lacks any preconvention.

With this concept with thought of our own bodies. And of course referenced Yves Klein as the historical reference. Yves Klein is known for his anthropmetries in which he painted women and had them press themselves upon to canvas. Sometimes he would drag them or move them around, other times it was done up against a wall. This was the first time that making of a painting was revealed; the process of creation was a very physical practice and became something of its own in Klein's work-- and very performative. These impressions create a dialogue not just about artistic practice and the creation that goes into the final product, but also a dialogue about authorship and feminism.

We decided that we would do impressions in blue, after trademarked International Yves Klein Blue-- monochrome. And we would use ourselves. We decided that we would ask a person from another discipline for a pose which we would all do on our piece of paper. Then cut up the paper at like points and put them back together, mixing one's upper body with another's legs and the last's torso.












We asked my friend Taylor Owen, an actor major who does yoga with me, to name her favorite pose. Her response, jokingly, was "corpse pose" or Savasana. This is the pose one does at the end of their yoga practice that requires absolute stillness and is intended to allow the body to absorb and take in, slowly, what they have just completed; to create muscle memory.


It was only after the fact that we made the connection that we were doing an exquisite corpse AND the pose was corpse pose!












With all the discourse of Klein's work considered, we were also adding another dynamic element. Which was that we were facing forward in order to make these, so while the image presented to the audience is of our backside, it is also a confrontational position because it requires us to be facing the viewers.

The pieces turned out great and managed to work with one another in a way that we could not have planned. The beauty of the collaboration was developing the structure or framework for our piece and then being able to perform our painting on our own-- which created varying degrees of color in the colbalt blue, the way we put the paint on and how we laid down, perhaps index marks of the experience were left, the minor shifts in positioning were made visible and certainly we emphasized our differences in stature.

 (My own scenario for the painting)



In the end, we come back together to create three collaborative works that are each new individuals, hybrids of the three individual artists. Beyond, they could be put back together in a different way, leading to new possible forms only achievable through collaboration.

In the future, we want to redo the project. I envision working with a more fluid surface, like linens or sheets and actually folding it into three parts where by we can all lay onto a uniform canvas, attain the same connectivity that the original exquisite corpses had.

Us with our backs covered in paint from doing the project. )

Art 21

John Baldessari:
- intrested in things that you dont call art. what could i do to this to make it art. how could i change peoples minds?-- challenges the limits of what art can be, soemthing can be art because i said it was.
- experiment, throwing three balls in the air to make a line-- not necessarily possibly, but why not? sort of like studies with no point or preconcieved end point
- Making art is making a choice; the decision to even make it all
- use of humor as a tool in art, because humor is part of life. why should that be separate?
-"what interests me in life is the absurdity in life"
- Bre! his assistant that printed my junior show is in the art 21!
- conceptual art, minimal art... a little boring... a lot of things i did want to shed, and one of them was being tasteful. right red with right blue. I decided to be systematic about it. and use the color wheel
- images being visually appeasing...
- religious upbringing, literature from reading bible, sense of moral obligation-- late starter in art, it didnt do 'social worker' miracles.
- teaching is about communication. have to see the light in the students eyes that they get it, try different approaches until they get it. art is about communication. the art i do is what im talking about in the classroom
- if youre looking at two things, dont look at them, look between them. we prioritize, space between is very important. 
- words and images are just a way we communicate. why they had to be in different baskets.
- juxtaposition of words and images, " humans communicate through words and images so theres no reason the two should separate"
- i probably have an idea that theres a word behind them, thinking like a writer or poet builds his words.
- dog walker, trouble with school and work, every monday had to bring work to JB, "i think he taught me to be human when it comes to the work, theres something very humble about the way he works"


Mark Bradford:

- selective system of choosing, "I only take signs that have to do with business"

- "its just information in the city, you see it all the time"

- “My practice is both collage and décollage at the same time.“Décollage you take it away, and then collage, I immediately add it right back... Sometimes you cant put something on top, you gotta retrieve something thats under the bottom"

- "issues of abstraction, modernism, abstract expressionism... people say the work is collage, if it's on canvas it's a painting”.

-"bodies of ideas... the post modern condition, i felt like i discovered friends in these books in these writers... got me really really enthusiastic.."

- "create the feeling being outdoors and indoors at the same time" (installation)

- antebellum skirt lakers-- idea of goal to shoot hoop but hinderance...always get up... regardless that theyre (roadblocks) are there, you keep going.. and I make the shot. I always make the shot"

Robert Ryman:

- Ryman’s work explodes the classical distinctions between art as object and as surface—between sculpture and painting, between structure and ornament—emphasizing instead the role that perception and context play in creating an aesthetic experience. Ryman isolates the most basic of components (material, scale, and support), enforcing limitations that allow the viewer to focus on the physical presence of the work in space.

- paintings are paradoxically "realist" according to the artist's own lexicon

- "the real purpose of painting is to give pleasure.. it can be the story, history.. but you don't have to know all those things to recieve pleasure from a painting... like music.. you can just listen to the sounds"

- "You played on a structure, learn your instrument, and played with in your structure....i would learn about paint.. and then I would learn what you could do with the paint"

- "in painting something has to look easy, even if it's not easy... it's important part of painting painting that it has to have that feeling that it just happened"

- "representational painting-- you tell a story with symbols, telling a story.....i wasnt interested in narrative, telling a story... i thought the painting should just be a painting and just be what its about, not about other things"

- "just to do whatever you wanted and the audience had to come to you, or not... i wasn't going to be an entertainer"

-" in all of my paintings i discover things. sometimes im surprised at the result. but i know what im doing. even if i dont know what im doing"

- “result of experiments. test things and materials. how fast things are going to work how the light is going to work”— i could do more exp.

- “solving problems working on the painting and a visual experience

- “i dont have any assistants. i like to do it all myself. i like to know whats going on all the time

- “i have to become not afraid of the paint.. the cost of the paint.. not afraid of wasting it...put some on my hand, wasted it.. so i would not be afraid of it

- “finding out what i can do. when i finish the problem i dont have to go on with it. im interested in finding out what else i can do,...more of a chalenge for me.

- “i would never show a painting i didnt feel right about. they werent not good. but not what i wanted at the moment. usually i work them through so they are okay

- “light is not painted into the painting as illusionisitic. work with light...

- “not abstract, involved with real, visual aspect of what you are looking at. wood, see the paint and the metal, how it works with the wall and the light, real surface. i don't use any illusion. its a real experience”— could use the room more.

- “paintings move outward aesthetically, go out into the space in the room. what you're seeing is what it is. anything else will dilude it or disturb it.

- “i never thought of white as being a color, white can do things that other colors cannot do. white has a tendency to make things visible. you can see more of the nuance.

- “square has become so natural to me, its an equal sided space that you can work with, didnt have the feeling of a landscape, or window or doorway that we associate with windows or doorways, its a neutral kind of space.

“after i finish a group of paintings I’m not sure what to do next… wait a while.. slowly things fall into place… slowly realize what could be done what interests me in the moment.

Bruce Nauman:

- Art as an action, any action we do in everyday life could be made art via the frame of repetition or over exertion or exaggeration. (speech and movement ) our actions as performance and thus art.-- true source of art is a rather simple concept. 

- recreation, Fountain piece referencing Duchamp.. which is also critical

- making things riskful, things that seem simple or mundane, reveling the complexity in the simplicity- mouse and cat being captured, "like a little meditation.. cant really watch any part of the screen because you'll miss something... being aware the whole time". not seeing through a frame of scrutiny [ ironic because the mouse is a symbol for scrutiny]

- "a true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths"-- artists dont reveal anything new, just show old truths in new light-- idea that I am after.

- looking at life from a more objective view, consideration for all the chaos, mundane, messy, gruesome things.. not just after the beautiful glorified object, in fact, glorifying the opposite. 

- "requires paying a lot of attention"

- "intentions that changes it... cuz i said so"

-mathematics, things that you can prove, change the structure of mathematics- hd to be really clear and elegant, having to say things out loud, forces you to be clear, cant just bumble through" "making sure that what i'm doing is really clear, then it's available... changes the structure of how you can think about art, and its there for you, and those are wonderful things"

Project 4 - Collaboration: "Make it Work"

Kaelyn Okuhata
Advanced Painting
Halloran: Spring 2015

"Make it Work"

     I was dreading this project from the moment I read it on the syllabus, because I personally find it extremely difficult to do a painting collaboration. However, I knew that I would get something out of the assignment because of the outcome of my piece from last semester's collaboration project. I decided to keep the collaboration element from outside sources on an idea basis, without my selected individuals physically altering the actual piece itself. I decided to ask both the individual in class and outside of class the same question, "what is the first thing you notice when you see or are approached by me?" I asked this question not only because I needed a starting point for this painting, but also because I am genuinely curious about what it is that people instantly notice about me from a first impression. 

     Although it is often said that it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, I find this statement to be somewhat false due to the fact that we consciously or unconsciously attempt to display how we feel or who we believe we are through our appearance each day. If we didn't show our emotions or personality through our appearance, then nothing about one's exterior aesthetic would matter. Yet, it is the first and sometimes only thing we notice about each individual we encounter. 

     My peer in class responded to my question, stating that I "seemed fashionable, and always have a smile on." My friend from outside of class also commented on my style and since she knows me pretty well, said that she knows i'll do something "crazy" to make her laugh when I see her. I found it extremely interesting how similar the two answers were, because it must not have been a coincidence. I know that I consciously portray myself in a positive way, through both my interactions with people and the clothing I wear. No matter what the mood of the day, or the rough situations being dealt with, I try to make the negative aspects of my life not reflect on the surface for everyone to see. 

     Because both of my collaborators commented on my fashion taste as an attribute, I decided that my last collaborator would be Tm Gunn from Project Runway. I thought he would be a perfect addition to the project, because his main slogan that he states in every episode of Project Runway is "Make it work." I believe that this phrase, although seemingly simple and un-empathetic when said by Tim, is actually an extremely important motto to consider. When life throws you a curveball or puts you in a rough patch, you need to just pick up the pieces of whatever you got, and try to make the best out of it to make it look like you have everything together to everyone else. 

     My painting displays aspects from all three of my collaborators, shedding more of a dark light on the toll it takes to "make it work" each day. The figure in my painting is broken into an abstraction, where only the lines of her corset (a brutal item used for strictly constraint and fashion purposes) and negative relief features of her face embody the person. The black yarns pull the figure together, keeping her upright, and also lifting her smile. The text around the figure is Tim's phrase repeated over and over again. Overall, I wanted this painting to represent how oftentimes in life you need to pick yourself up and put yourself together so you can be recognized by others in a brighter light than what you feel you are in, because oftentimes, we think we are worse off than we actually are, and need to be reminded by others to just "make it work." 

Tim Gunn Mashup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbMLXEAHTTo

Art 21 video Response

Cai Guo-Qiang: "POWER"

• "You have to learn that the materials are uncontrollable but then learn to control them."
• Flow with your materials --> have to see where to material wants to be taken
• Drawing is like love making... 
• "Making drawing"-- laying down paper, laying down the sheets of a bed
• In Chinese... One would say "Reading a painting or picture" as opposed to seeing/viewing. 
• Metaphor for actually experiencing and being with art illustrated through language.
• "Page by page, section by section we read art."

John Baldessari: "SYSTEMS"

• "Art making is about making a choice."
• Practice- systematic with the use of the color wheel.
• "Art is communication."
• Words & Images is the way we communicate in life-- there is no reason for them to be separate from art

Vija Celmins: "TIME"

• By redoing an image so many times-- the image starts to have a memory even if you can't see it (the artist re-sanding, re-painting the work)
• Building a painting versus painting a painting
• Includes more of the thought process and prep-work into the piece
• Creative le-way in photorealistic work...
• Letting something creative subconscious seep into your work-- something that your brain couldn't figure out by spending so much time with it
• When illustrating work that has no symbolic meaning (represented & interpreted by the artist)-- chooses surfaces that already have intrinsic meaning

Katharina Grosse: "FICTION"

• Art: Observing the world vs. actually being in it/present
• Artwork: Not idea based, more thought based.
• Thought- more fluid- feeling that gets feedback
• When she starts a piece she undergoes an agreement/judgement
• Instant feedback with the materials when working- changes the relationship to the agreement.. a non-fixed/written down thought process
• The power of iconic images- tree, soil, landscape --> bringing surrounding environment into her work

Art21 Homework Reflection

Kaelyn Okuhata
Advanced Painting
Halloran: Spring 2015

Art21 Practices

Catherine Opie - 

     When watching Catherine Opie's practice in her studio of selecting her subject matter for her photography series, I found it intriguing how she has so many options to work with. Opie would lay out her photographs all around the studio, and switch out certain ones after making constant decisions. I also appreciated Opie's statement about how she captures the setting of her photograph in the emotion that she is experiencing right in the moment that she is taking it. I think it would be beneficial if I were to experiment and see how my pieces would come out if I were to try to capture the mood that I am in when painting the piece in the piece itself. 

** Opie's series on "ice houses and surfers" was a very interesting concept behind how you can capture two completely different subjects in the same light, in order to highlight their connecting meaning (ice houses and surfers are always waiting on a body of water, able to slow down time and wait in that moment).

     

El Anatsui- 

     "Broken Pot" series, when a pot is broken it is not the end of its life. Regeneration, new life, new hope. Taking ones' lowest point and making it an opportunity for growth. "Destruction as a prerequisite for new ideas or new growth." 

I found this concept explained by Anatsui to be extremely relevant as an artist, because at times when creating a work, it may fail. However, scrapping the piece does not mean that you wasted your time on it and nothing came out of it, because in the end you probably learned something in order to continue onto the next piece and experiment with a new technique. 

**When Anatsui was re-installing one of his pieces in a gallery or museum, he was explaining how each time the piece is installed, it changes. He stated that there were "limitless possibilities" that can come from each piece if you allow it to change. 

John Baldessari-

     Interested in taking things that aren't art and making it into art in order to change people's minds. I found that Baldessari's take on what is art entertaining, because he seems to take the practice as something that shouldn't be taken too seriously. I especially was intrigued when he stated that "making art is about making a choice. " I agree that if one makes the effort to make something with artistic meaning, and present it as their own attempt to create art, then it should be considered art. 

I also found it relevant when Baldessari said that he quit painting because it was only about doing what is "tasteful." I often find myself painting what I think is tasteful and will appeal to an audience, and it is difficult for me to paint something that may be disagreeable or difficult to understand. 

Contextualization: Historic influence

Exploring the nature of birth, death, and the fragility of human life, in project 3 I examine the temporality of health and the manifestation of the individual. I referenced Auguste Rodin’s, The Three Shades, a bronze sculpture from the 1800’s that demonstrates a three part representation of a bowed single person in three different stages of suffering, death and sin. Originally, this 19.7×13.1×3.3 foot statue was commissioned to be a mount on top of the Gates of Hell, a door Rodin created depicting Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, specifically the scene of The Inferno; since then, there have been many plaster casts and molds of the sculpture held in various museums, some specifically being the Musée Rodin in Paris and Kunsthaus Zürich in Switzerland. Created in a similar context, I used the similar notion of a single person in different stages of suffering within my own self-portrait, creating an unknown plane of existence where the viewer questions both what is real and the state of the figures themselves.

Auguste Rodin: Three Shades

Gates of Hell

Smile of the Three Graces- 2nd Cent. Roman copy of Greek Sculpture

 Antonio Canova: Three Graces (Three Fates) 

Garden of Love II- Wassily Kandinsky

I also pulled reference from the Robert Longo’s Men in the Cities series. Photographing his peers in assorted movements in modern workday clothes, Longo in turn created large scale charcoal drawings based off these photographs; Longo constructs a narrative within the portraits of isolation parallel to urban alienation. These expressive movements loaded with shady meaning in relation to my own painting construct a similar dialogue of isolation even when surrounded by two other figures. I choose to illustrate sweatshirts as opposed to work clothes to connect more on an everyday level to the audience. Although any person might not understand on a personal level, the notion of being trapped within your own body, health reasons or otherwise; struggling to take off/zip your sweatshirt is an ironic reality every person withstands at least once in their life eluding to the juxtaposition of fate. Similarly presented to the three fates, of whom measured the thread of mortality in Greek and Roman mythology, this similar notion of life is put into question through the chaotic form of the figures.

Robert Longo: Men in the Cities

I used cool grey cel-vinyl for the under painting and soft sweatshirts, and finished by layering different degrees of potency of lamb black oil paint for detail of the forms. By using these two colors, I was able to create a very smooth and seamless illustration of my body and hair in contrast to stark white within the sweatshirt and flat dove grey of the background. The relationship of covered to uncovered demands the attention of the struggle between the unrecognized mental and physical states of an individual.

Vija Celmins: 

Fernando Vicente:

I read Fragments for a History of the Human Body Part 2, by Michel Feher, a French philosopher and cultural interpretist who unravels the relation of the body to the divine and at one point examines the Platonism idea that a soul of celestial origin is imprisoned or even entombed in the body. Moreover that concept that a soul dominates the body that it moves was the conceptual thinking and more aesthetic base on sublime for inspiration rather than the Narcissism of illustrating self-portraits.

My Photos:

Historical Reference

For the historical reference project, I was fortunately easily able to tie in my thesis show by making a work that I can also use in that series.

My thesis heavily references the book, Be Here Now written and collated by Ram Dass. I first looked into historical artistic influences for Ram Dass but could not find much. But I did know that the book was made in a collaborative effort by various artists who used stamp blocks, text, "graphic design" and of course illustrations.

Throughout my thesis I have taken snippets of text and imposed them onto the canvas alongside a visceral representation of the statement using paint, surface, technique and so forth. Though I keep the textual compositions true to their placement in the book, I have collaged bits and pieces in order to provide new commentary and meaning that is all ironic, sarcastic, humorous, existential and strives for authenticity-- and also to remove specific pronouns the book uses that might make the viewer of my paintings think they are about anything other than universality. In other cases, I have incorporated specific illustrations or drawings onto the canvas surface.








One composition I put together is as follows...
Here is one of the pages I borrowed from :

















In the end this was my final composition:

I was thinking about these hands. & more specifically, how they have been reproduced again and again and again.. what is the original source?

I learned about the first iteration of these hands was done by Albrecht Dürer in 1508.

The piece is titled, "Studie zu den Händen eines Apostels" in German, or "Study of the Hands of an Apostle". And it is a pen & ink drawing on paper that the artist made. 

I learned a bit more about the piece which surprised me. Albrecht had 17 siblings growing up in Nuremburg, Germany. One of his brothers, Albert was too, very interested in the arts. However, his family could not afford for them both to attend Art School. Albert and Albrecht flipped a coined to see who would go and become an artist and who would go to work in the mines to make money. Albrecht won the coin toss, and after years of his education and success as an artist, a festive was thrown in his honor. He raised is glass and made a toast to Albert, who had gone to work in the mines in order to pay for Albrecht's education. He said to his brother, "it's your turn to go and study now". As much as Albert would have liked too, he could not, for his hands had withered away during his time working in the mines. Therefore, Albrecht drew his brothers hands in homage to him.







What struck me most was that over the years, these hands have been interpreted and reproduced in a religious context. For example, people assume that this emoji is praying hands, but in actuality it is just a high five. Dürer's hands have undergone the same treatment and so has the symbolic icon of the hands.

 



So in regards to my composition, I felt that the text I chose, which was composed from two different pages in the book, seemed appropriate. The notion of having faith, in general, implies believing in something no matter what. That's what faith is, supporting, committing and undoubting a person, a motive, an idea, and so forth. And I felt that in the same sense, people-- in general-- have had faith in the notion that these hands represented anything having to do with spirituality or religion-- faith in the icon itself. And it doesn't matter where the original came from, what matters is that its essentially just a symbol that stands in for something much greater. It also makes me think about simulacra and originality. So the painting is both sarcastic and serious at the same time. It sort of pokes fun at religion and the hands meaning anything at all, but simultaneously asserts that having faith is to have faith and that's that. It really makes no difference what the image is, it is the underlying belief that ultimately matters.

I thought that because I was using the Be Here Now reference, the way that I could reference my historical figure more so, was to employ his aesthetics in the Hands Study piece. I chose to make pulp from shop towels because I learned that Dürer actually made his own paper in his original rendition. I am no stranger to shop towels and they are very prevalent in any painter's sphere of familiarity. I used payne's grey acrylic paint and various glues to almost paper maché the pulp onto the canvas surface and it also gave it a nice dark stain. I then used white pencil, as the Dürer did, to cross hatch the image.

Here is a cute video on how to make paper that I watched:

& here is my final painting: