Final Project Progress

Plaster Sculptures

Since I started my project, I've been evolving my direction for it as I go. Currently I am finishing up the first five of my plaster carvings. So far I have a sphere, a cube/rectangular prism, a pyramid, an arch, and an arrow. I plan on adding a diamond shape to the collection as well. Once I get the basic shape down for all six, my plan is to clean then up as much as possible and make them look almost machine manufactured.

But after finishing these six I'm not exactly sure where I will go with it. I could continue making more and more complex shapes out of plaster and finishing them up to look very accurate, but that would be somewhat boring. I liked the idea that Eric gave me in class which was to attempt to recreate all of the "perfect" shapes simply by hand. Instead of using tools to help set up the plaster and instead of using tools to carve into it once it has dried, I would be shaping it entirely by hand as the plaster dries. I can see the sphere coming out well, but the other shapes might prove to be a little more difficult.

As of right now I like this idea so I will run with it and see what results I get. If it doesn't turn out so satisfactory I'll probably continue changing my idea. I do know though that I want to stick with plaster as a medium in order to stay consistent as well as the fact that I'm learning a lot about using it in general. 

Color Blindness & Appreciation

Color Blindness

I noticed recently how fascinated I am with vibrant colors. The art pieces that really grab me and hold my attention are those that utilize bright colors in a unique way. But what is interesting about this is that I have always been red-green colorblind.

Most people who aren't color blind who hear the term don't fully understand it's implications. Some people assume that if you are color blind than you can only see in black and white. Although I am sure there are some cases of this, it would be extremely rare. There are a few types of color blindness which all affect how people see color combinations. So for example I mentioned that I am red-green color blind.

This doesn't mean that I can't detect the colors red or green, but it just means they can get confusing at times. For me, its when these two colors start to turn different shades that I get confused. Seeing a dark red and a dark green might confuse me as to which color it is. Same with a pale green or a pale red. As long as the colors are vibrant enough I can tell the difference. It's when different shades and hues get involved that colors get tricky.

But I do think it is interesting how my color blindness hasn't influenced me to seek out other themes in art such as form and shadow. It's almost as if being color blind has caused me to be more appreciative of the colors I can see vividly.

Art & Society Project Update

Mayan Calendar

For my final project in my anthropology: art and society class, I was struggling initially with finding a culture and art subject to analyze and recreate. Over the past week I was brainstorming and considering many different options. I finally decided I would recreate a 3D mayan calendar, using plaster or wax.

I have always been interested in the pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas. They seemed to have a very strong motivation to mesh both art and technology or symbolism and function. For example the pyramids they built had many different symbolic meanings that also interacted with the sun during different times of the year. But they were also very important functionally. They housed the temples of gods as well as functioned as a city center that united the people in the area.

Along with having an interest in these cultures, I am especially interested in their astrological knowledge which allowed them to create such accurate calendars. I find it absolutely astounding that the calendars that they developed are still more accurate than the ones that we use today, even though we have much more advanced tools than those of the Maya or other pre-Columbian cultures. I never really took the whole Mayan apocalypse theory too seriously, but I still think it is interesting how well they were able to predict eclipses and other astrological events much farther into the future. Overall I think it would be a great art piece to recreate and explain, as I already have some background knowledge and a lot of interest in the subject.

Artist Research: Isaac Julien (Video/Digital)

Isaac Julien

Isaac Julien currently works in London, England where he was born. He studied painting and fine art film at St. Martin's School of Art, where he also co-founded the Sanfoka Film and Video Collective. He is most known for his audio-visual instillations but has also worked on a number of films as well. One of his main goals within his work is to dissolve the barriers that separate the many diverse fields of art. He combines areas such as film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture to create a final product that is visually powerful.

One of his most recent and popular installations, Ten Thousand Waves (2010), uses nine different screens to intertwine stories of China's history. The videos mostly focus on journeys of people across lands, especially those unfinished. After four years of production, Julien finally pieced together a work that has won him much acclaim. Attempting to break down barriers yet again, Julien enlisted the help of several influential Chinese artists including singers, calligraphic artists, music composers, cinematographers, poets, and more.

Zeds Dead Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1

Zeds Dead

As of the past year or so I have become increasingly interested in djing/mixing as well as EDM in general. I find it fascinating how different songs can sound when cut and spliced together in a new way. I've been exploring djing as a hobby for myself but I find it really helpful to listen to mixes and sets created by other artists in order to get inspiration or ideas.

Normally I go through lots of different mixes and have lots of different attitudes toward them. Some can be extremely flat and repetitive while others take you on a roller coaster journey though many generes and tempos. Recently I found one that I can't get sick of. It's a 2-hour Zeds Dead Essential Mix though the BBC Radio 1 network.

I enjoy this particular mix so much because of how successfully they bring variety to the mix. One of the hardest things to do in the EDM world of djing is to have a diversified and unique set. Many djs are lazy and string together songs with little flare, but there are still those out there who try and make each transition unique. Zeds Dead is a duo that has been together for some time now and listening to their music over a year or two shows how much they have evolved. More recently have I seen them using a lot more diverse sounds and genres, with a huge collection of remixes as well. I'm hoping to see a set from them again pretty soon.

Art and Society

In my art and society class we have a final project where we must take a culture that we haven't studied thus far and analyze a particular art form from that culture. After we analyze the art form and its context within the society, we are to create our own rendition of said art form and present it to the class. I still have very little idea what I will be analyzing and creating but I do have a couple of things in mind.

Ideally I would like to create something using the skills we've learned and the materials available in sculpture class. This could end up being pottery maybe, or a statue of some sort. But ideally it would be a 3D object that wouldn't take too long to create from scratch, and that exemplifies the art form well.

As far as cultures to study and analyze I am thinking about choosing a tribe of indigenous peoples from the Americas. I have always been interested in these types of cultures as well as their clash with colonies from Europe. As I come up with more ideas and progress with my project I will post updates and progress reports.

Jin-me Yoon

Jin-me Yoon

Jin-me Yoon is an internationally known artist who emigrated from Korea and now lives and works in Canada. Through her works, and especially her early photographs, she touches on issues of race, gender, nationality, etc as a means of identifying oneself. Her more recent work has shifted towards artistic videos and film, and exploring the relationships between bodies, cities and history. It doesn't take an expert to notice that much of her work deals with social commentary and using subtle humor or irony to express her feelings about a particular subject in our rapidly shrinking world.

Many of her works use simplicity as a means of mystery. I find it hard to really pinpoint the exact messages that she is trying to send to her viewers. It is also a lot more difficult to understand the context of these images and videos considering I am from a younger generation who hasn't seen a lot of these historical events first hand. Most of her works touch on some sort of crucial moment in history, many of which are not directly relevant to me or my life.