Abby

Week 1

Sol Lewitt expresses that the idea is the machine that makes the art by using instructions for others to follow. The idea drives the artist to make the idea into reality. Motivation becomes a machine to make the art. The only way that the other artists are able to create the art is from the idea of Sol Lewitt. Sol Lewitt’s hand has very little to do with the final work because he uses other artists as his hands.

I do not generally draw boundaries in artworks because I think there is no limit to what art can be. The artworks are the instructions she’s reading out. Ono gives out specific and easy instructions that can be replicated by others. She uses encouraging sentiments like “this is good for your health” to persuade people to complete the instructions. A lot of the tools mentioned in her work is about using yourself to create the piece. I like a lot of her works like standing outside barefoot and feeling the energy through you. Along with the listening to breathing concept where you listen to yourself breathe, listen to others, then listen to the city breathe. I found most of her concepts connect to being helpful activities for mental well being. It is helpful to ‘ground’ yourself in everyday life so it becomes easier to use the skill in stressful states.

The first piece is a performance of him walking back and forth along the square lines. The second piece Nauman dances/exercises around the square guidelines again creating a mundane experience into artwork. He’s incorporating himself doing an everyday action into artwork. It becomes framed as art because he identifies it as art with the self validation of his title as an artist. As we see validation from him and other that it is art it can change our perception on what the meaning is. Either the audience can overthink what each movement mean or the entire concept behind the piece becomes dissected faster than if it was not classified as art.

Kilometer

The aftermath of walking 1km outside and re-entering the house. Foggy glasses used as a measurement.

Stillness (week 2)

This performance piece was very interesting to accomplish. Although I look in good spirits here it was not long till I began to regret picking an outside location. At times it was lack luster but surprisingly entertaining when people would walk or drive by. People seemed to really enjoy a disruption in their day. I wonder if their reactions would have been the same if it was not a pandemic and lockdown. I felt a connectedness to my neighborhood that I have not felt before. Usually I just get in the car and leave or immediately walk away from the house. But this gave me the chance to take in the surroundings and feel the breathing of the city (referencing Yoko Ono).

Week 3

“Making Changes” by Lee Walton- reposition a diverse group of objects while walking around a city

“Sitting” by Lee Walton- sit directly beside a stranger when other seats are open

“Ladder Climb” by Jon Sasaki- climb a ladder without leaning it against something

“Dead End” by Jon Sasaki- drive a van down a dead end alleyway and make a u-turn

“The distance I can be from my son- Back Alley” by Lenka Clayton- measure the length you can personally allow for a young child to walk alone down an alley way

Yuula Benevolski- not available

Defenestration

Sadly all my windows have screens on them so I used the top of stairs instead. I chose to use 4 knives in this piece and I made sure that this was completely safe for me to execute. I was exploring the idea of dropping something inherently dangerous. Kind of like the idea of Russian roulette where people play a “game” of chance that can lead to death or injury. Example: a group of friends stand in a circle and throw a heavy rock in the air above them and whoever does not move “wins”. (I do not recommend this game). It also exaggerated the idea of losing control and power. When holding a knife you are in control of where it moves but mid air there is no control and a sense of danger.

Week 4

Adad creates compositions of subjects very tight to the borders and creates a sense of closeness. I tried to crop it similarly but it would not upload.

“Socialization”

Timber is the dog shown in the video and was adopted during the covid pandemic. He has had trouble being scared of people and objects because he does not get the same exposure as dogs not raised in covid. Because Timber lives in a house full of women he gets scared when seeing men, children and dogs on walks because he has limited socialization with them.

Week 6

In the new era of wearing masks where half of people’s faces are covered. Humans are visual learners and understanding emotions requires visual cues. In public it has become harder to read someone’s facial visuals to be able to read their emotions. Whether sad or angry or happy we lose being able to express ourselves and perceive others. Sometimes it is necessary to overuse other ways to communicate yourself like using an over enthusiastic voice. If someone happens to be sarcastic in a situation it is easier to misconstrued people intentions.

My main interest of faces they mentioned in the article was the medical masks face. It is very emotional evoking to think about all those who are hospitalized and cannot see their family and friends when they are struggling. It can make it very hard for those who have to go into a surgery alone and never see a full face of even the nurses and doctors. Even those who are dying of coronavirus and other illness they have to process the end of their lives alone which in itself is heartbreaking. These faces are so powerful with their drive and willpower to undergo long work hours, traumatizing deaths, and more.

Without my face I lose a sense of myself because people, especially women, are taught to prioritize how we look and present ourselves. I also love to do my makeup even when wearing a mask which is funny to prove you don’t wear makeup for others. Along with becoming more comfortable in no makeup. It also a way to focus more on other ways of expressing myself. Like relying on fashion more as a way to represent my personality.

1. I was looking to directly distort my face with physical force. Using the measurement tape coincides with the idea of always measuring beauty, attractiveness, structure, etc.
2. The second I was inspired by ‘fun house’ mirrors that distort your reflection of yourself.
3. The third was my attempt of an juxtaposing face mask. In which, my roommates hands were my mask which defeats the whole purpose of having a mask.

Week 7

Kelly Mark “I Really Should…” (2002)

The conceptual idea for this piece was about a list of things that run through the artists head in what they should complete. These can be seen as goals that the artist wants to achieve. It is unconventional to listen to someone’s personal list of goals especially when the goals are mundane or personal to the person. For example, if you don’t have student loans to pay back, they it is unconventional to listen to an audio clip of someone’s goal to pay back theirs. The artist says 1000 different goals all in the same tone of voice. The artist maintains interest by having different goals that other people may relate to. While she makes every goal different, she repeats “I really should” before every sentence. This effect of listening to this piece is thinking of your own personal goals and relating it to how everyone’s brain has a constant repetition of them. Giving the exhausting effect that can come with this anxious thought process.

Lee Walton and Laurent Estoppey “Listening to the C” (2018)

The artist plays a “C” note on multiple different pianos and although it is the same note it shows how different they all sound. Conceptually it can relate to celebrating how many people have similarities and are still different within that. Along with how even though they all sound different they can all still sound good. Conventional music would want all the tuning of the pianos to be the exact same to keep unity and harmony. Instead the artists chose to embrace having different tuning and timbre. The repetition of the same note kept attention and the changes in the sound keeps interest. The effect of this piece on me is wanting to think of more things that are the same theoretically but in fact are completely different in practice.

Christian Marclay “Guitar Drag” (1999)

The artist drags a musical instrument, guitar, along a road to create a new form of making sound with it. Although a guitar can create multiple musical sounds for its intended purpose it can also create sounds with unintended purpose. This plays into the conventional use of a guitar is to pluck the strings so unconventionally the artist drags the guitar. The piece has repetition in a sense that the audio/video continue for an extended period of time. Keeping the audience wondering how long the guitar will be dragged for. Listening to this piece peaked my interest in repurposing a conventional item to unconventional. Reminding me of dada “readymades”.

Audio Proposal

I was thinking of referencing using audio of the same sound but they sound different. How crying between people sounds different even if its for the same emotion. Then I began thinking of the similarities and differences between crying and laughing sounds. How sometimes even though laughing is a completely different emotion sometimes crying sounds very similar. Along with the concept of happy crying is interesting that it is the same physical reaction but not the same fundamentally.

Audio –

I completed the audio using clips switching between people laughing and crying. Often it is hard to tell when the change between emotions happens. The repetition of the two different emotions causes for confusion in what the brain wants to empathize with. This piece makes reference to Lee Walton and Laurent Estoppey “Listening to the C” because of the focus on how different our similarities can be.

Week 10

notes:

on Kawara- Self observation of post cards, maps, lists. All represent ways of recording himself and measuring time. Studio is wherever the artist is not a stagnant place. Kawara “I met” lists was lists of everyone he met. Kawara uses unconventional functions of recording time.

John Baldessari- made a repetition list saying “I will not make anymore boring art”. In a kind of chalkboard punishment fashion like in old movies children who in trouble would write out a sentence saying they would not make the mistake again. Also a sense of manifesting in repeated sayings in hopes that you will follow it even unconsciously.

Katie Patterson- used glaciers from Iceland that were pressed into a record which were then played on a record speaker until completely melted. She also did mapping all the dead stars. This made an unconventional way of recording time and life and death.

Adrian Piper- in the mythic being they explored the superficial factors of masculine. In the calling card they create a sort of business card to pass out to people as a preemptive way of identifying racism and social issues.

Sophie Calle- get multiple people to interpret a breakup email. Analyze how people analyze differently.

Spring Hurlbut-memorial portraits of ash

Felix Gonzalez-Torres- creates representations of people that died from aids.

Conceptual Portrait

proposal for conceptual portrait: ask people for picture of their collections. Compile photos for a collection of collections.

This is a combination of my collections and friends collections. Some collections have been lifelong and some collections have been found in quarantine. All document time from an accumulation of finding items for the collection.