1. Gender
The person is walking slowly. Is it a man or a woman?
(My teacher, Marcus, mentions the title aloud: "Man Walking Down the Building.")
The man is walking slowly.
And, now with the title, I know why. He could fall; he is walking with caution and precision, because he is attached to the roof by a cable. He is walking down the side of a building!
2. Dying in Meditation
This demonstration reminds me of the Japanese artist-dancers who were held by rope or ribbon from their ankles, and hung nude from a building, meditating. One artist-dancer's rope broke; but he held his position, peacefully meditating into his next life.
3. A New Demonstration
The demonstration is in an exhibit now, it seems. The piece at this point in time had enough recognition to be displayed and compensated. However, the dancers walk in a different direction, across a wall instead of down. I wonder why they are considered dancers. I guess for this demonstration of wall walking, you do need balance at least, maybe grace, poise, and precision. Otherwise you might wobble and fall.
3.5. Bell-Bottoms
I love the bell-bottoms.
3.75 More Interrupted Thoughts
(Today in class we picked a letter from the English Alphabet and wrote down whatever words we thought of on old Monopoly playing cards.)
In order for the dancers to walk sideways at 90 degrees, they are harnessed to one particular side (left or right) at 90 degrees. I would imagine those harnesses would hurt after a while—dig in to whichever side they’re leaning toward
(Harnesses and Hurt. Those are two words I did not use in my card today. Woops)
Blood would rush the side of the body, too, maybe causing strains, muscle tension, and headaches. Such a simple-looking art takes more work than it seems.
4. Controversially Artistic
1970. The “70s”. The late 60s. That was such a controversially artistic time. Many questions and opinions came about regarding what is art and what isn’t. People demanded and/or experienced new freedoms in their lives. Some decided to express themselves artistically in unconventional ways.
I watch the small crowd people who watch the man go down the building. I feel that people appreciated art more back then—maybe because they were drugged all the time. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter though. That’s pretty cool…
4.3 Being a Dancer
(Video switch—I pause to watch the people on the wall)
I like that they’re having fun with what they’re doing, talking and playing with each other while walking back and forth. But does that break the audience’s experience in doing so? Is the art that the dancers are creating still the same art? Or is the art within the performance? Perhaps the art is in the performers being dancers—their grace and balance, their endurance even.
4.5 LACMA/Art for Art’s Sake
This piece also reminds me of 60s Modern Art Exhibit displayed at LACMA last year… I don’t know if I feel that some of the pieces should have been considered art—or at least art with meaning. Any art piece can and should be considered art, even if it is just for the sake of creating art and having new art living in the world. I personally call that art for art’s sake. Anyway, one artist spray-painted a six-pack of bottles as well as the box they came in. Another artist painted a large, bright, blue circle on a white canvas. LACMA had these on display.
4.7 Sprayed Gray Bottles and the Big Blue Circle
I see the sprayed gray bottles and the big blue circle, and I guess I am displeased with the lack of detail. And much of the art from the 1960s and 70s, and even through today, is like that—overly simple. These pieces may be considered art to the people who created them at that point in time. But this type of art, Modern Art, almost always makes me wonder what happened to the effort in creating art. Maybe I am just used what it conventionally considered art, such as Pierre-Auguste Cot’s Springtime or Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa; but nevertheless the I sometimes feel 60s and 70s artists emphasized in lazy art.
5. Confusion
What makes this man’s walk down a building art??? I’m sure there is some intention or concept behind this idea, but I don’t see it.
6. A Gift Given
The artists mock how people try to represent everybody’s daily life.
7. Intentions of Art and Politics
Art is a lot like politics—very deceiving in many ways, very controversial, sometimes with misplaced intentions, sometimes with no intentions at all, sometimes for self-satisfaction, a lot of times for self-satisfaction, most of the time for self-satisfaction.
7.5 People irritate me, especially when they lie.
The deception in both art and politics irritates me. I feel like yelling at people sometimes to just
Shut up!
Own up to your true reason for doing what you are doing.
Don’t mask yourself or your work to seem smarter or feel better about yourself.
:(
It’s a game, and a stupid one.
Art is supposed to be about honesty. At least that’s what I think—revealing the truth.
(Honesty. That’s another word I didn’t use.)
Some art is made for the sake of creating art. That’s perfectly fine! Some is made for a purpose, or with meaning, or a message behind it. That’s also great! No one art is better than another. No one person’s opinion is greater then another’s. People tend to forget that in favor of seeing their opinion progress to the public.
8. I want to be done writing but Marcus says to continue.
Marcus mentions across the room that some dance critics have expressed that this art reduces dance. But does it? Or does it perhaps expand the spectrum of what is considered dance. I would say that this demonstration is definitely not what we conventionally think of as dance, with specific costumes or music. However it still requires a lot of skills that dancers use. So perhaps what is going on is at least dance-esque.
9. Irony
The repetition of seeing these videos brings boredom to my mind. This is not an exhibition I would see multiple times on my own.
I wish the dancers would do something more interesting with what they are doing and what materials they have available to them. They are sideways, in harnesses, have two walls (or one, depending on the demonstration), lots of space, and of course each other, the windows, and the audience to work with. They could jump around, play with their space.
But I guess that would change the meaning and purpose of what they are doing—
if they had a meaning or a purpose.
That is actually not clear because toward the end the dancers begin to play with one another anyway.
Does this mean that they are even bored with their own art? That’s a little ironic.
10. Imprisonment
The audience sitting at the beginning of the man-and-building video looks somewhat boxed up—like they are imprisoned.
11. Cinematography and Sarcasm
The cinematography brings some authenticity and variation to the art. It gives it an age, and in a way a better understanding of the piece.
It also matches Marcus’ Media Player software settings, which are also colored black and white.
The marriage of the 70s and today. Wait! Is that art too??
7-2-09 1 If I Ruled the World
If I ruled the world it would not have as much hell and as much war. I am for peace, music, intelligence, happiness, and whatever heaven you choose to live your life for. I am also for helping out other people, places, and countries. However I would also help out my own people first, because I know that you cannot help others with helping yourself first. Nor would I help someone who didn’t want help, would be there for when they did. I would not harp on others for having different cultural existences, different religions, different ways of thinking, etc. In saying this though, if someone tried to significantly disrupt that peace—don’t think that I’ll hesitate to send him or her to hell (so to hastily speak). That would be a hair-raising experience I would not wish on anyone. I mean, what the heck? How could someone not be for peace and tranquility?
6-30-09 The red belly would dance the Bossanova.
The red belly would dance the Bossanova.
I do not know what I think of this Bossanova, this red belly head, face, mind.
A dance that is afraid, maybe of a pillow.
But it brings colors of orange, yellow, light and dark blues, purples
all mixed from the red.
Blurred people dancing on the street fading out in the distance,
dancing under a starry night, moonlight sky.
Others walking, sitting at a café nearby.
A painter watches and captures the moment.
The dancers hear the music in their heads, in their faces, in their minds. But unlike the red
belly,
they are not afraid;
and not inanimate objects of comfort that cannot move
but can only be moved/However, in a way they are like pillows
able to be moved, but only by
the music in their minds
and in their hearts.
6-30-09 Song-Song-News Mesh
Tainted
The dancers hear the musician Mr. Khatami, an ayatollah who came from their minds
Speaking
“And do I love you my river deep mouse?
Oh yeah.”
If he has not shown any signs of being lost, you—a senior scholar at Columbia University, who runs a website called Gulf 2000…
Just how far Mr. Oh-I-Love-You-Baby, by another unanswered question (the bang, boom, boom) would he demand for change to yield results?
He said, “I love you baby,” with flowing nuances of truth and deception.
In the earlier uprisings it was basically that same boom boom, by both the religious hard-liners, and the more pragmatists and reformists forces—jackin’ my style!
6-25-09 To Me a Drawing Should
My Opinions. My Words. My Art.
To me a drawing should make a statement—however small, ridiculous, ordinary looking, or not—reflecting an artist’s opinion. An artist should focus on his or her work as well as the message he or she is trying to convey, and not worry about how people will react to their piece. In fact, it is a compliment to an artist if any opinion or commentary is made regarding their work because that shows the artist’s message came across through their art.
The piece An Anglo Frenzy was created by artist Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds. The work was created with the use of rag paper (a paper material imbedded with bits of fabric) and an assortment of thick absorbent paints, applied with a thick brush, enabling Heap of Birds a bit of ease with his creation. The paper is divided in 15, three-by-five sections; and within each section are phrases or groups of words. Each of those words seems to describe a memory, an interest, a piece of the past, a physical characteristic, a personal present belief, etc.
I must confess that the name of the piece, along with the simple-looking, hasty, brush strokes was deceiving at. This artwork at face value, to me, looked quickly done, without much thought or effort. I initially pictured a Caucasian man painting this textured paper speedily and intensely, with a bit of anger or unrest in his mind. In all honesty I thought less of this work, believing it to have come from a stereotypical anger-posed artist who may have possibly created this piece in a fairly small amount of time, and then decided to call it an art that carried a deeper meaning, just so he could cause some controversy. But when I searched for Mr. Heap of Birds I came to the startling (and informative) discovery that he was Native American. His name made much more sense and his art took on quite a different meaning. I had preoccupied my thoughts with what the work looked like, not with who it may have came from, what it could possibly mean to the artist, nor a possible message behind it.
To go further into my initial reaction to An Anglo Frenzy, the piece looked like it could have been used as a sign in a protest, which is why I did not think much into it as art. It looked like a collage of signs to me. I paid more attention to the colors and the detail then what was written on the paper. A few words and phrases connected with me. The word “Anglo” reminded me of an English physics teacher I had in high school. He wasn’t racist, but he did carry that typical, British, dry, quick-witted humor about it. He always used to make random commentary on Anglo-Saxons. I thought “paint with memory” was a cool poetic phrase, and paired with “spirit of tree,” “bark,” and “grass,” I was reminded of the song “Colors of the Wind” from the Disney film Pocahontas. (After realizing who the artist is, I thought that was a little ironic). “Watch and act” also jumped out at me. I thought about it in connection with the thoughts of protesting that I had when I first saw the piece, and thought that was a little out of place. This was because, although protests; strikes; etc. are usually planned events, I have most often been of the opinion that many of the reasons behind those rallies are usually not put forward, and much of those events are there to make some noise. What I mean is that, again—to me, a lot of those events seem to harbor a lot of rebellion with lost or unvoiced causes. However, that is not to say that I do not believe they are effective. Protesting can be a very effective for a person or group of people to overcome an obstacle they are facing.
My initial reaction slightly shamed me after I saw who the artist is. Perhaps because he is considered part of a minority, I was keener to accept his art. Nonetheless, I feel that by seeing the artist who created this work, I feel as though I got a better understanding of this piece. The nature references made more sense; Native Americans tend to be in tune with nature. The word “Anglo” is more a term of reference than, and less a word put there to seek attention. The word “disengage” popped out; I did not realize that was one broken-up word. This work may now contain some historical references that I have forgotten about or am unaware of; or even maybe some opinions of Heap of Birds, or those of people he knows or has come in contact with.
The piece itself feels freer to me, perhaps because I put less mental restrictions on it. I came to the conclusion that although this piece looks done rapidly and without much thought or effort, that is more likely to be completely untrue. An Anglo Frenzy could have taken much more effort than it leads on. I thought about my opinions on the artwork in general. Who is to say that this collage of signs couldn’t be art? I can certainly be no judge of that. This piece also revealed my slanted view the artist stereotype, as well as my comfort with art that comes from a minority group of people, as opposed to the majority. I guess I am a little racist, but isn’t everyone?
I do not regret my opinions though, because in the end they are mine—just like with Heap of Birds. The opinions captured in his art are his. And just because they are painted on rag paper, that makes no difference than my words typed up on a computer. In this sense, my typed words are an art of their own. And I try to never have regrets with any art piece. If I do not feel it is done, then it is simply an unfinished piece that I can come back later to if I want. If I do not like the color, or phrasing, or style, then even though I don’t like it, maybe it was just meant to be that way, at least for that moment, because again, I can always come back to it and change it if I want. It is my art.
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