Week 01

YOKO ONO: Where do you draw the boundaries around the artworks in this video? What are the artworks? What strategies and tools does Ono use to challenge the viewer? Do you like any of these concept works? Discuss.

When Lewitt refers to the idea as being the machine that creates the art, I believe he is trying to express that an idea can take control and begin a process that creates art similar to that of a machine operating. The idea is the beginning of the process and the actual physical creation is the art, implying that an idea is a machine and the outcome is the product. This is a particularly interesting statement coming from Lewitt due to his creative process which revolves around creating a set of instructions to go along with his creations. To have an idea is to have a cookie-cutter, the cut shape is the art. Lewitt is using this logic to allow for viewers of his work to have a detailed and complete guide to the creation of his art. His process alone is intriguing, let alone when he describes it in such an interesting manner. Regarding conceptual art, the physical hand is what allows for something to move past conceptual into something tangible; and the hand itself (sense of touch) is what allows anything, in general, to be felt/tangible. The hand is the tool that allows the idea to take place, without the actions of the hand the thoughts cannot be properly demonstrated/communicated.

Kilometre: “it’s a sign”

Week 02: Hour of Stillness

For my hour of stillness, I decided to give myself a well-deserved old-fashioned time-out. I set a timer on my phone for one hour and stood in the corner of the room with my nose to the wall; I even played a Judge Judy compilation in the background to really transport myself back to my childhood punishments. I vowed to stand still for the entire hour and genuinely reflect on my recent actions/how I could improve my behaviour. As a child, I found that sitting still and being quiet was the most torturous event in the world, and in second place was being by myself. Having a timeout thirteen years ago was brutal, but now sitting by myself and thinking is how I spend the majority of my time.

While standing still with my face in the corner, I found that the way my mind wandered did not make the time drag or cause me insufferable pain. Instead, it allowed me to explore my relaxed mind and allowed me to assess my overall mental state. It felt as though the hour was finished much quicker than I was anticipating, which caused me to think about how my patience has undeniably improved over the years. After the hour was over I contemplated how each time an hour passes, it becomes a smaller fraction of our lives; thus an hour to a 7-year-old is significantly longer than a 20-year-old. I even applied this to full years, they seem to fly by as a young adult, yet when I was younger it seemed that the years were double the amount of time.

It is interesting to see how differently you begin to see and think about the world around you once you have spent a surplus of time in a particular space. This act of performative contemporary art is incredibly fascinating due to the different relationships and experiences that people have associated with certain surroundings. How can one understand the world around them without having taken the time to get to know it? This type of art reminds me of how it is recommended we are looking at a piece of art for minimally twenty minutes in order to assess it entirely. This rule is referring to art, yet our entire environment around us is so complex and we are expected to already be entirely familiar with it. Marina Abramovic explores this concept by sitting still for hours at a time in The Artist is Present. She is explicitly interacting with her environment by remaining stationary and digging roots into the space that she chooses. Due to this thought process, I really enjoyed becoming more familiar with my living space and more comfortable about the passing of time. It was less about reflecting on poor actions and more about being aware of the space and time around your presence and reflecting as part of that environment.

Week 03: Defenestration

For this week’s assignment I brain stormed for a while and really struggled to land on something that I was going to enjoy throwing and further exploring. Eventually I decided that I wanted to try and mimic a human silhouette in the air. I contemplated for a while before deciding that I was going to use an article of clothing, specifically one that will recreate the form of a person. I purposefully selected a hoodie in order to allow for a complete, waist up, silhouette. This exercise started out very frustrating due to that fact that throwing clothing out of a small window resulted in pieces of fabrics getting caught on the edges of the windowpane. Thus I really had to master a throwing technique that would both allow for the entire article of clothing to exit the window, as well as throwing it high and far enough that it could transform into a human-like form.

The end product did not exact exemplify a human form, but more of a passive ghostly presence. I enjoyed the way the hoodie floated through space, and fills up with air to allow some life into the pictures. The extremity holes allow for some interesting dimensions and shapes due to the creases/folds in fabric, which contribute to the overall presence. If it wasn’t for the bright coloured hoodie I chose and the white background due to the snow, these forms would seem incredibly eerie. If I were to have used a black article of clothing instead, I imagine that the forms would resemble dementors from Harry Potter. It has fluidity due to traveling through the air while capturing it within the material. Despite being filled with air, the inner parts of the sweater are still darkened due to the absence of an actual body. These depths allow for an even more interesting and complex shape to be made.

Another avenue that I explored for this exercise was using my birth control information sheet, which I cut into the shape of a medical mask as well as circles to place over my eyes. I folded the paper specifically in order to have some of the more alarming side effects and tidbits of information on display, including liver tumours, gallbladder disease, cervical cancer, etc. I thought it would be interesting to play on the commonly used phrase “my body my choice” due to the context it is used regarding both women’s health and individuals’ view on masks, vaccinations, etc. My intention was to create a comparison to allow for a different perspective.

Week 05: Pandemic Portraits

Stranger – Madison: “Loneliness”

Friend – Addie: “Probably schoolwork, I haven’t done anything.”

Week 06: Buttons

My original idea for this was something kind of random, I wanted the pins to simply imply the anonymity of ownership. Phrases such as, “I stole this pin.”, “This isn’t my pin.”, “This is your pin.”, “steal this pin”, etc. I thought it would be hilarious to see these pins all over the place and create some chaos or curiosity about the people and objects surrounding us.

While brainstorming this assignment I was really stuck on the concept of cropping images. I found that the perspective of images when cropping and zooming in allows for an interesting new complexity to be revealed within each picture. While keeping this in mind, the concept was further solidified when we were asked to use our classmate’s images to create pins. I found interesting possibilities when I attempted to find something within the photo to focus on. Another thing that I appreciated about this concept, was the fact that within each image are thousands of smaller unique images; the pure amount of possible pins was so exciting. Once this concept was more solid in my mind, I elaborated on the idea of using faces as a means of inspiration for the buttons combined with the cropping or zooming technique. I first started with ears, taking multiple pictures of my own ears with different earring combinations, zooming in on crevices, gems, etc. This was an exciting start to this experimentation but I wasn’t quite satisfied with the images. This lead me to explore the avenue of eyes. I began taking pictures (with consent) of various people’s faces and cropping them down to show the unique detail of the individual’s eyes. Having both the cropping component and the endless amount of possibilities (as many buttons as there are people (eyes)(and that’s limiting it to just humans!)) was so satisfying and I am very happy with the end product. I think it will be very interesting to see where these pins would end up and the feeling that could be created by them. It is possible that these could be both endearing and innocent, or could even give off a creepy and eerie feeling. One may find beauty in the various colourful eyes, and someone else may feel weirded out due to not knowing who is “looking” at them. It may even be comical to have pictures of eyes floating in places that may seem a little suspicious or invasive. Once again the avenues that these pins could explore are incredibly vast and I am excited to see where they end up. If anyone is interested in one let me know! <3

Week 08: Audio Art

Something that was particularly stuck in my brain while considering this assignment was the taboo around mouth sounds. Yes I know, it probably sounds disgusting but I couldn’t get it out of my head, thus I explored this avenue. Due to the pandemic there has been progressively more attention to people and their habits while in public, especially habits pertaining to public health. It has been very natural to feel uneasy around people who are displaying bodily functions that could possibly be dangerous during the pandemic. But due to the fact that I enjoy smoking in my free time, it is a regular occurrence to cough in public from the aftermath. This has caused me to be a direct target for judgmental/worried glances, comments, etc. With this in mind I wanted to create an audio that is simply a compilation of myself coughing and to let the feeling of unease marinate or even disappear due to the genuine natural action of coughing. This was more so a tactic to bring attention to the sometimes unnoticed changes that can occur in socialization during a crisis; coughing wasn’t something that genuinely alarmed people in the past, especially out of context. Yet the pandemic has altered how we see those around us. I figured this audio could be both engaging and gross for people to subject themselves too but I think that is part of the fun.

Week 11: Conceptual Portraits

For this assignment, I partnered with Addison and we chose to do a comparative portrait. We gathered different products that are apart of our designated daily routines and posed them to see the varying similarities and differences. The outcome of this assignment was incredibly interesting, both our of products gave such a different feeling and aesthetic, alluding to our differences in personality. Something that made it especially pleasing for me was the fact that each set of items seemed to have a particular colour scheme, meaning both portraits come off cohesive and complimentary while still being true to our individualism.

I went through various ideas when considering what to do for this week’s assignment. I first started with the concept of taking pictures through windows or doors to bring attention to a feeling I have been experiencing lately regarding my identity and how I wish to be perceived. I then also considered having my friends take various 10-15 second portraits of me and use the compiled images to portray how I appear to others. While brainstorming I also considered taking before and after portraits of intoxication. I am glad that I decided to do this particular route with Addie due to the individualism that is obviously expressed and the pleasing aesthetic to the photo.