Outlet by Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz is a Brazilian artist that creates a work, photographs it, and displays the finished product as the photograph. My perspective on Vik Muniz is that his works are very creative and intuitive. This piece to the right is titled Outlet, it was dug upon a large land mass by several large construction machines, then the picture was taken by Muniz from a helicopter surrounding the landscape. Another gallery of his that I found interesting was that of his work with "junk". He created depictions such as Saturn Devouring One of his Sons. He manipulated rusted metal and other random things in a large room to recreate this image through a different medium.

Altermodernism

Altermodernism is a departure from postmodernism and is a phrase and movement created by Nicolas Bourriaud. Bourriaud coins the term as an interpretation on globalization, in his own words Bourriaud compares altermodernism to a "sort of dream catcher attempting to capture the characteristics of modernity, specific to the 21st century. The picture at the right is an image of Marcus Coates performing one of his works where he talks to the animal spirits in somewhat of a meditative, shaman-like experience. Below is a link to the video where he explains his work and how it relates to the altermodernist movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfBgWtAIbRc

"Fountain" by Sherrie Levine

Appropriation art is to borrow, adopt, or recycle man-made objects for use as art. This work is titled "Fountain" after Marcel Duchamp's piece. Since Sherrie Levine is an appropriation artist much of her work is borrowed or adopted from previous works of art. I think this piece should be titled "A Copy of a Copy"; I do not think that Marcel Duchamp's (the original) version of the fountain was in any way a creative work that creates some inspiration or reaction by me, other than frustration that its price tag is worth more than my life. Seeing this piece made me even more frustrated because its the same as its predecessor just bronze, I don't understand how this kind of stuff ends up in an art museum or is sold for an outrageous amount of money.

Siena Student Art

This is a drawing done by a friend of ours named Brittney Wineinger. She completed this in her drawing class right her at Siena College. I feel this is real artwork in comparison to some of the "artworks" we viewed in class such as Damien Hirst's "Platinum Skull" or Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain". This drawing (though similar to others who had to draw the same thing as a part of the class assignment) is at least an original work created from scratch by the artist. Might I also add that this is a particularly good piece and took a lot of time and detail to complete, trust me I've witnessed her shade for hours on one drawing.

Earthworks - Vik Muniz

This work is part of Muniz's Earthworks collection which has been featured in various exhibits throughout the U.S. and also internationally. Other Earthworks pieces include a pair of scissors, pipe and footprints among others. This is an interesting piece because its actually sculpted into the natural terrain as seen from the aerial picture. The photo allows the viewer to understand the true magnitude of this work by being able to compare the size of the cars to the Key itself. There's hills and valleys surrounding the work of art which adds to the natural element aspect of Muniz's Key. Obviously it took great precision in order to create this work , it was carefully planned out because any small mistake would force Muniz to start from scratch. I like this work because its unlike most other pieces, there's no paint or art studio that was necessary the artist simply used his natural surroundings as his canvas.

The Mona Lisa Curse

In his broadcast The Mona Lisa Curse, art critic Robert Hughes presents his view on the current commercial art market and how the price of a work of art has become more significant than its meaning. Hughes argues that the price of a work has more so to do with promotion and publicity rather than the quality of the works themselves. In The Mona Lisa Curse, he traces back to the rise of the commercial art market beginning with the arrival of the Mona Lisa in New York in 1963. According to Hughes the Mona Lisa was treated like a celebrity, and as a result collectors began purchasing works primarily for financial gain. He argues that art is the largest unregulated market in the world apart from the drug market. He claims that art collectors are largely to blame because after they purchase a particular artist's work, they continue to bid up that artists' work in order to increase the value of their own holdings. The surge in prices of works in the contemporary market has led to several undesirable outcomes. First off art tends to be viewed as a commodity, its something owned as much as it's appreciated. Hughes uses artist Damien Hirst and his works as a prime example of how commercial art has transformed into a commodity rather than something intrinsically valued. Second ordinary, average people are beginning to have less access to popular works because museums and galleries are being overtaken by the wealthy who can afford them.

First Harvest in the Wilderness with Pileated Woodpecker by Valerie Hegarty

I chose this piece from the 20x200.com website because I loved the juxposition of the woodpecker onto a well-drawn yet bland wilderness landscape. The background is actually Asher B. Durand’s painting from 1855 entitled First Harvest in the Wilderness. It looks like the woodpecker is actually confused by the realism in the painting and is trying to peck holes through it because it thinks the work is real. There can be so many different interpretations of what this means, but Hegarty offers one clever explanation, which is that as industry began taking off in the northeastern U.S., the pileated woodpecker lost its habitat and faced extinction. This is its revenge on people, which I find to be hilarious!

Living Unit by Andrea Zittel

Andrea Zittel is an American installation artist who began making fuctional pieces of art in the early 1990's. Her main focus is on creating compact "living units" that provide all of a person's needs (food/water, clothing, shelter) in one, small area. Most of her works are artsy and appealing to the eye in addition to being functional for living in. In fact, as part of her exibitions, Zittel will often live in her creations for upwards of months at a time. She states that her goal is to show that perfection is not something that we actually want; instead we wish to have continuous improvement and progress in our lives.

Logorama (Part II)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7URxWTb6hE&feature=related

The second and final part to this short film continues with Ronald McDonald taking hostages (including Big Boy and the Esso mascot) inside a Wendy's restaurant. As the Michelin men swat team moves in on him a gigantic earthquake begins causing chaos in the downtown Los Angeles setting. During the commotion, Big Boy and Esso escape the crumbling city as it collapses in on itself and becomes sunken under a sea of oil. The movie ends with the camera panning out into the depths of space and eventually total blackness. I really enjoyed the parodies in this animation and was amazed at the shear amount of logos that it incorporated. I think the primary message that it was trying to convey was the dangers of our incessant desire for consumerism, oil, and money, and how these will eventually be our downfall as a society.

200x20 Art

This piece is titled "Filter Samples" by Jessica Eaton. I chose this work from the 200x20 website because I like all the colors and creativity that went into the work and it really caught my eye while I was browsing the other works. Jessica created this work by arranging Lee Filter sample packs by color to create a rainbow. Lee Filters are a type of filter used in high resolution photography cameras. I really enjoy the arrangement of colors and the textures that the different filters patched together create.

The Babe in the Negro Leagues (www.20x200.com)

This painting titled The Babe in the Negro Leagues is purely hypothetical but yet still a very interesting work of art. The original was created through the use of acrylic on canvas but as for the prints, they were created using archival pigment inks on 100% cotton rag paper with a luster finish. The main reason why I was attracted to this piece is because I enjoy sports and played baseball for many years up through high school. Babe Ruth is considered the greatest baseball player in the history of MLB and ironically in this painting he is presented as a member of the Negro Leagues. Signs that date back to the period of the Negro Leagues are included in the background which is cool to see because no longer do stadiums have various advertisements appearing on their walls. I also found it interesting that while the majority of Ruth's body is large his hands and lower legs are quite small compared to the rest of his body. Not sure about the artist's reasoning behind that but nonetheless the image is very detailed especially when it comes to Ruth's facial features.