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.

Notes for Jan 12th 2022:

Sol Lewitt: 

Sol Lewitt is an American Conceptual artist that uses his written preparatory work as well as the final piece as a collective work of art. Sol Lewitt meticulously plans his works out in detailed form, so that his work can be moved and reproduced by others without him being there. 

Now, this doesn’t sit right with me. It kind of reminds me of when you are in a group project and one person doesn’t help and gets the same grade as everyone else who worked hard on it. I understand that he made the idea and did the detailed process work for the art, but as a person who is very task oriented in a sense, I wouldn’t like the feeling of other people making my final work without me; even if they were following exact details.

When Lewitt says the line about the idea becoming the machine that makes the art, I believe that he is talking about how all art comes from an idea, whether conscious or subconscious. In turn that idea gets you thinking (like a machine) and generating ways to produce the final artwork/end result. The process of creating is often spoken about as a sort of machine or generator, having either your brain go over what the option for the final artwork may be or actually physically creating drafts of art in different mediums or sketches. 

The artist’s physical hand in conceptual art doesn’t really mean a lot for those conceptual artists, or at least what I’ve seen about them. The final artwork really is about the process it took to become the end result, all stemming from that original idea that the artist generated.

Yoko Ono:

Yoko Ono is a Japanese born multimedia artist, with most of her popular work being performance art. I find most of her work odd and different; not in a negative way but in a confused way. I think in the world of performance art specifically she is so different from what I usually expect from performance art and it’s too different for me. There are some of her performances that I enjoy but, a vast majority of them I don’t seem to grasp the concept and/or I don’t particularly like.

In the video it seems like she’s giving us as the viewer prompts to do either a performance piece with them, or to do even just a plain artwork from these prompts. I think the real artwork in the grapefruit book is the ideas that she’s thinking of while writing down each prompt. Each page is in its sense its own piece of art and then as a collective all these prompts and all these pages of the book equate to another art piece. So what we are actually looking at when watching the performance or when we have the physical grapefruit book in our hands is an art piece made up of the foundation blocks that we use to create art, which are ideas.

Ono speaks in a way in which it sounds like she’s assigning these tasks to us in order for us to actually take on the ideas to do them as art pieces themselves and this really challenges the viewer because it doesn’t seem like it’s a performance it seems like it’s an assignment like you’re being given by your teacher. As I said in the beginning, I’m not a huge fan of performance art and most of Ono’s work. However, there were a couple of prompts that were interesting and made me think about doing, however as I said I’m not a big performance fan so I would probably end up trying to change that into some other medium like drawing or painting.

Bruce Nauman:

Okay so I actually really like Bruce Nauman’s work and not because I think it’s beautiful or anything but I really like it because it creeps me out. It genuinely makes me unsettled in a way and there’s one of his works that is shown in the video where he stands in a corner and bounces off the wall for an hour. The way the camera is positioned and the silence filled by a thud against the wall is just unnerving. I don’t know particularly why but it unsettles me like I would not want to be locked in a room with him if he was blank faced in a corner hitting his back into the wall like it’s really creepy and it’s almost a horror movie kind of horror. I just think that is really cool. I love art that really moves you because I think fear is one of the biggest things that can really shake/move you in life so I like seeing artworks that can make me afraid/creeped out in which this particular performance did.

In the video the performance is framed and set up in a way in which it looks like a catalog (at least to me) and with the videos being in black and white it kind of gives the viewer a raw experience. What I mean by this is like there are no colors coming from the videos that distract the viewer in any way. The viewer themselves is solely focused on the motion that Bruce is doing. Looking at the motion a couple more times it looks like a motion that a kid would do when they’re bored and were put in time out. I myself used to do this as a kid to help me distract myself or not get bored. However with the POV being at an odd angle, this simple action makes it look creepy and feel eerie.

So, for Bruce Nauman’s ‘thank you’ video I honestly had a small sensory overload because of everything that was going on in this video. There were so many names on the screen and he was yelling “THANK YOU” over and over again really loudly, so it was very overwhelming to watch and listen to. However the video made me think about how many times we actually say thank you in a day and how by saying these words of gratitude, we might actually be killing the word itself. I mean that’s just what I thought from this, it honestly could be way off, but that was my initial thought when I first saw it.

Kilometer Assignment:

So, for my kilometer assignment I had originally intended to go for a walk to a park that is a kilometer away from my house but then I forgot to do it during the daytime, so then I had to do it at night. In freezing cold temperatures. Then on top of that I was told to take my dog. So I have a video of my 20 minute or so walk to the front edge of the park that I was talking about and then a little bit after that because I turned around. The main part of my assignment that I wanted to capture was how I deal with going outside as someone who gets overwhelmed by sound easily (either a lot of sound or a lack of). I usually have headphones that I wear but unfortunately this was another part of my plan that didn’t go well: my headphones had died. In the end I was going outside in the dark with no headphones, so in the video you will see me look around a lot and I also talk to myself a lot as well as the dog. I feel like you could take this in a way where it’s like ‘a girl outside at night that’s kind of scary’ but I think I was more afraid of the coyotes than getting attacked by a man at night because there are coyotes where I live. I even hear them towards the park so that’s why you’ll see me turn around and walk back when finishing the kilometer. 

Week 2:

Notes:

Marina Abramović’s work in general is very hard to watch at some times. Now, I’m not one for performance art in general, but Marina’s work is something that I’ve admired for a long time. I believe that art should create a visceral feeling when you see it, either one of fear, disgust, love, anger or other strong emotions. And while I don’t get that feeling from most performance artists, or contemporary artists in general, Abramović’s work does just that for me, in which I love. Her performance piece “Art must be Beautiful” where she is repeating the same phrase over and over again while she is combing her hair in a way in which it looks like she’s ripping it out looks like something from a thriller horror movie. It unsettles me. It creeps me out. I love it.

With her performances in The Artist is Present, the one that I actually cried about was her performance in which Ulay came and sat across from her in silence for a minute. You can see how they were communicating without words, all through the eyes. The fact that they hadn’t seen each other in so long, the longing to hold, touch and talk was so loud throughout that minute of silence. Maybe I’m just a sucker for the longing trope, but I was literally crying when she saw and recognized him. It was all too emotional for me.

Be Still Assignment:

For my hour of stillness, I tried to stay still in my chair for an hour. Above is the time lapsed video of my hour, in which I did fail almost immediately with moving around in my chair. I set up a few limits for myself, with one being not to use my computer, phone and other electronics, another being not to talk. Now, I was feeling really depressed at the time and thought it would be a good idea to see if I could, within the hour, make myself calm down while not using the traditional ways I usually calm myself down with (phone/music/talking/moving).

Week 3:

Notes:

Lee Walton:

Now this guy is just a shit disturber. I kind of love it though. The idea of just adjusting minor things around us questions what is right in our eyes versus someone else’s. Seeing him do all of these minor adjustments reminds me of people who suffer from OCD, with things not being the exact way they need it to be, wether that be perfectly neat on in an exact position made by their own hands. When he was just going up to people and sitting near them though, I thought it was pretty funny, but also I felt bad for some of them, because if that were me I would be very uncomfortable, and would probably leave after like a minute of him sitting down. I would be cool as a series though to see how many people got up and left after he sat down right next to him and how long it took them to do so.

Lenka Clayton:

Now watching this video was really funny and stressful at the same time. While I thought it was funny that all of the build up lead to her just like sprinting towards her child, I was also very stressed out the further the kid got away from the camera. The silence also gives a feeling of prolonging something bad happening, which made me nervous and wanted her to get him sooner in fear of like a mountain lion coming out from the bushes and grabbing him.

Defenestration Assignment:

For this week’s assignment I chose to take photos of some of my stuffed animals on my bed as I projectile launched them at my window. Since my room is on the basement floor, and I can’t open my window, I decided to just throw them at it rather than out of it. I also have a relatively dark room, so as I played around with the ISO and shutter speed on my camera the only good photos coming out were ones with a dark red hue to them, and as cool as that sounds, it made the image really tonally flat and uninteresting. So, I had the idea to use the flash on my camera. Now, I use my camera mainly for photography and I usually shoot in manual mode with no flash, so using the flash felt really odd to me. For the final set of pictures I really enjoy how they came out, as they give off a kind of party-esqe 2000’s disposable camera vibe. For some reason it reminds me of Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night” music video – I don’t know why exactly, it just gives me that vibe.

Week 4:

Notes:

This week, we learned about Pandemic Art in this new way of living, one in which we cannot easily ask for others help and stand side by side with them. What I find interesting about this pandemic, is that people are always so quick to blame or complain about the things keeping them safe rather than accepting them and interacting them into their daily life. With this pandemic I think it really helped artists to explore isolation and loneliness as well as tenderness and kindness in these times. With Jill Magid’s tenderness photo, it really exposes the intimacy between people that lots of people are craving right about now. I think that she does a great job in conveying that yearning to have just a small amount of contact with someone, for any type of contact with another.

I myself have struggled with this pandemic, but in terms of isolation and wanting to connect with others, I think I’m actually alright, with myself not really liking talking to others much and being less verbal when I don’t need to be. However I can see the struggle myself when looking at these art pieces, the vulnerability of someone to want to communicate and connect with others around them is truly sad to watch unfold in-front of your eyes.

With Adad Hannah’s portraits of others, it gives us that communication between others that we’ve been wanting, but in a unique way. Hannah like many artists, like to adapt to their situation rather than resist; this is something that I really admire with artists. With his portraits they give of this freeze frame pose, almost like a tableau that you would do in drama class, or like the mannequin challenge that was going around in the early 2010’s. This slight movement gives life to the subject/person while also capturing that sense of pause that we feel that the pandemic has done to our lives.

Face Changing Assignment:

For my face changing/different mask assignment, I decided to do a series of sorts, and put different types of bags on my head. To start, I put a plastic bag on my head (do not try this at home), then I went with a Rexall bag and then a dark and thicker computer bag. Now I like the idea and the funny look of them, but if I had to change anything, I would have chosen a better place to shoot. I don’t really like the yellow in the background, but as it is my fool tarot card tapestry I think it kind of lays into the message I’m trying to send about bags and consumerism. Now the fool isn’t actually a fool, it’s actually a good card if you know about tarot, but I’m just using it as a literal term here for people who choose to use plastic bags over reusable bags which can contribute to many animals like turtles and birds dying because of choking or strangulation. If possible I might reshoot these if I can make a white background set up, and repost them below on the blog, but for now I’m pretty happy with how these turned out and all the messages that people can derive from it, whether hit be the one I intended or not.

Week 5:

Notes:

For this week, we learned about masks and the ways that they can be alternated, used or even poke fun at the use of them in general. In terms of the artists we spoke about, I was really interested and drawn to Jan Hakon Erichsen’s Work, with it being really high quality photos, as well as the playfulness he brings to his subject matter. With his “How to survive a deadly global virus” series, it’s very clean ad organized, which makes it very attractive to look at as a set or series in this case. The use of normal everyday objects that you can find laying around in your house to use as a mask in such a professional looking portrait is very striking to look at upon first glance, second glance too.

I also enjoyed Nina Katchadourian’s work, with her work being very funny and dramatic in a way, with a vine like quality of images (I guess that’s why I think they look funny – RIP vine 🙁 ). The idea of her sneaking off to the bathroom of an airplane to make these elaborate outfits made mostly of toilet paper and towels is so funny to me yet it’s so amazing that she can do this because all I can do with toilet paper is fold it and half and possibly make one of those cootie catchers that kids made n public school for fortune telling. Anyways, I think that she needs to invest in her own plane or something because plane tickets aren’t cheap, but I would like to see this series continue, or perhaps a new series of her own made up characters in the bathroom would be cool to see.

Pandemic Portraits

Week 7:

Notes:

This week we learned about artist multiples and replication of artworks in the art world. Two works in particular spoke to me when during this week’s lecture. Firstly – the work titled “Money Isn’t Love”, where it is a printed out set of instructions to build/create your own Chinese Money Envelope that instead of saying “Happy New Year” on it, it says – “Money isn’t Love”. I thought that this piece is so interesting because it made me realize/notice that not just in Chinese culture people receive money en lieu of affection, but literally everywhere else, and that you could probably do a set of these spanning across all cultures (which would be cool to see). I know that when I was a kid at least receiving money instead of a gift was nice, but there was something always off about it to me. Now that I’m older, I see receiving money instead of a gift as a kind of sad thought, knowing that the person giving it to you – this especially hurts if you are really close – doesn’t know/care enough about you to get you something that you may actually like. I have a feeling that the piece probably meant something different to the artist, but this is what I got out of it as someone who is not apart of that culture.

The other work that I really enjoyed this week was the work titled “Plants you can’t kill” by Shannon Gerard. I also really enjoyed her “Guts” series as they were so large in scale and also due to the fact that I really enjoy biology and sciences, so it was fun to see the overlap in her works. I really like how she combines this cute and cuddly substance into these giant versions of body parts and tiny houseplants that you don’t have to water (although they may not supply you wth much fresh oxygen). In hewing her website out, all of her works have this playful feel to them, and I think that the choice of medium and how easy it can be to just sit down and go on auto pilot while making them is for her.

Week 8:

Notes:

This week we learned about the works of John Cage, more specifically his work that surround the idea of silence. His work 4’33” in particular is quite interesting because it is not what you think it is when you think of a piece surrounding audio. This piece is one in which you have your own individual experience with the silence, and what that presents for the listener. I enjoy this work as something that you can listen to whenever and wherever, and just take in the sounds of the world around you as a composition that result in many thoughts emerging (or at least they did for me)

Another work that we looked at other works like Steve Reinke and his “I’m practicing my cartoon voices” audio piece, in which I found to be quite amusing and fun to listen to. I feel that with this work, it feels as thought I am with my friends and we are all trying to get that perfect impression of a certain cartoon character that we just got right once but somehow can’t get it again without going through all the variations. This work stood out in particular to me because of that, and because of how the choppiness of the audio/how it goes non stop/no brakes, and how that indicates to me that a lot of effort and love must have went into this project.

Audio Art:

For my audio art, I chose to try and drink all of the water from my 946ml Hydro flask within a minute. As I failed at doing so, and I knew that I could not drink anymore water in fear of throwing up, I decided that I would edit the approximate two minutes it took for me too drink all of the water down into under a minute. I was really interested and fascinated with the Resolve program that we had used previously in our Pandemic Portrait assignment, so I was really happy to delve deeper into using it for this assignment as a whole and playing around with the audio.

So, what I did was I cut my audio up into three different clips and layered each one on top of one another, making the final product seem as though I was drinking the water very fast, when in actuality I was struggling immensely. You can even hear my struggles within the audio itself, as its not easy to chug a lot of water, especially if you are not tired or thirsty.

Week 10:

Notes:

This week we learned about On Kawara’s works, along with others like John Baldessari, Kelly Mark, Micah Lexier, Katie Patterson, and Felix Gonsalez-Torrez. Some of these artist’s I had previously knew of, but for the most part I didn’t recognize any of their works. However works like Katie Patterson’s “Map of Dead Stars” and her “Fossil Necklace” were really interesting to hear about and to see the artist’s process of creating the work. I am both a big fan of astronomy and geology (whenever I’m not overwhelmed by how small and insignificant we are), and I used to be very into the study can classification of rock and minerals which I could say is somewhat related to digging up fossils from the earth (they go hand in hand in my opinion). So by watching the video about her mapping out all of these known dead stars was both exciting, beautiful and also a bit scary to witness. However I thing my awe-ness was more overpowering my scariness, and I always enjoy when art can generate that kind of response from a person, so I’m all the more drawn to her works now.

On the topic of artists that I was introduced to this week – Micah Lexier. I found his David works quite interesting as a form of documenting both time and relationships through name. I think that people have this likeness people other people who they don’t even know through their names, like whenever I meet someone with the same name as me, I start off liking them but having this weird sense of “hey that’s mine name not yours” to which I think that everyone can somewhat relate to. So its really interesting to me to see how Lexier takes this relationship of people named David and turns that into a question of “What does a David look like?”.

One of the works that I knew from beforehand was Felix Gondalez-Torrez’s work called the Portrait of Ross in LA. It’s shows a deviating story and it always makes me tear up and get emotional whenever I see it. I think that not only how painful it must be for him to make work on someone who he loved so dearly, who is no longer here with him, but how strong their love for each other must have been – and how his works signify this eternal love that transcends life and death. To me that’s the most beautiful part of this work, as well as his other related works.

Conceptual Portait Ideas:

• Do a portrait on my grandparents and what they left for me
  • audio of me repeating the way to spell beautiful (my grandmother)
    • only problem with this is I will definitely start to cry, but that might be interesting to include because of how hard it is to do and speak about
  • video of how to draw a canoe (my grandfather)

• Monologue on grandparent’s deaths / saying the goodbye I never got to say
• Self portrait of myself
  • take a picture of my room every morning and night – show how clean/dirty it gets/ how I feel each day
  • what I wear every day (but not on me – on my chair (my chair is weird shaped)
  • what I listen to in a day
  • state of my bed in the morning/night

Week 11:

Conceptual Portrait:

For my conceptual portrait, I decided to create an audio portrait, as I still wanted to play with the software on the computers, and because I felt that you can really tell a lot about a person from what they/who they listen to. So for my final assignment, I recorded myself reading off the list of my most listened to songs of the month, then supercut them to sound like they were going back to back. I wanted them to sound like I was cutting myself off, but I had a bit of trouble doing so, so only a bit sounds the way I wanted to. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with the outcome, if I had to add anything to it given more time and/or knowledge, I would probably have made a video of sorts to go along with it – possibly going to find all the titles of the song names I’m reading out in public spaces and cut them together; I think that would be cool now that I’m thinking about it.

WEEK ONE

Hey all, I am very excited to explore contemporary art together this semester and I can’t wait to see what you have all come up with for the kilometre prompt! Here are my reflections on the contemporary artists we learned about this week. Here is my wish tree! (My wish on my first house plant, an Aglaonema or Chinese evergreen).

Sol Lewitt

When Sol Lewitt states that “the idea becomes the machine that makes the art”, he makes sure that any creativity is used in the process of creating the detailed instructions for the work, so that the art comes directly from those original instructions and not the creative interpretation of them by others. You can have help from other artists to execute the vision, but those other artists will not be making any extra creative decisions as they will be following your detailed idea.

I found one statement in the video rather intriguing, when Lisa Freiman mentioned that Lewitt views his plans like a score for a piece of music and everything that happens afterwards is the artistic interpretation of that original score. I think this is the best way to look at conceptual art. In music, an original song can be composed with a certain instrument in mind, a certain melody, and a certain emotion behind it, but anyone who makes a cover of that song can choose how much they follow those original “instructions”. In a similar way, the instructions set out by Lewitt for the group of artists to carry out the recreation of his large artwork “Wall Drawing 652” were the instructions for the perfect execution of the original idea. These artists were set on recreating the piece exactly, not creating a “cover” of the artwork based loosely on the plans, making many calls to Lewitt to make sure they stayed on track. In his work, Sol Lewitt makes sure that the execution of the artwork requires no extra creative thought because he has already produced the artwork in great detail on paper. In the transition of this artwork to a new location, Lewitt did have to make a few adjustments to the plan, but, again, he as the artist made those calls and not the individuals who helped him execute the artwork.

The artist’s hand is found in the plans and the written diagrams and outlines, not always in the execution of the plan. With conceptual art, the main feature is the concept, which is where you see each unique artist’s perspective or “hand”, just like in painting you can see the artist’s hand through the brushstrokes used to create the final image. Without the unique ideas of the artist, the final product would never have been realized and in that way, you can see the artist in the concepts their work approaches.

Yoko Ono

As Yoko Ono was reading from her book, Grapefruit, a pattern emerged. Each “artwork” was a concept and a very simple set of instructions to carry out the concept. I drew the boundaries around the artworks as they were separated by titles. Each introduction of a new concept meant the introduction of a new artwork. I think that even though the instructions are only written on paper, and this allows others the opportunity to go out and make visual products of the instructions, the artworks are the written instructions. If you were to go out and carry out the instructions for “Paint to see the sky”, you would go out and cut two holes in a canvas so that you can see the sky, changing the location of the painting to see if the skies are different. In the execution of this artwork, you aren’t making many creative decisions that aren’t already prescribed in the instructions and therefore you are just continuing to execute the original artwork. Just like I mentioned with Sol Lewitt’s work, Yoko’s ideas are what make the artwork original and anyone who uses her instructions to create something would still be following that original artwork.

I was really moved by the pieces about seeing the sky or the clouds, such as “Painting to see the Skies”, “Earth Piece”, and “Cloud Piece” because I always find myself admiring the sky and taking in the natural world when I go on walks outside and so I like what the prompts entail. A lot of Ono’s work in Grapefruit resonates with me because of its simplicity and its mindfulness. I appreciate that many of the works are attempts to get us to connect with the earth we live on and I think there is a lot of beauty in that connection.

Bruce Nauman

Coffee Spilled Because the Cup Was Too Hot (1966-1967)

This image produced by Bruce Nauman depicts a coffee cup that has been jolted enough to spill coffee across a surface. This would normally be seen as an accident, a mistake, and we would rush to clean up our mess, but Bruce took this common occurrence and used light, colour, and framing to make it into art. When he takes a photograph of this coffee mug, he forces the viewer to examine the scene closely. He makes us take a second look at an otherwise common scene and we start to pick apart the formal aspects of the image, the shape of the cup and the splatter, the light and where each colour intersects with another. This work doesn’t make me feel as uncomfortable as his other video and audio works do, and I think I like the fact that the image frames this “accident” as something beautiful and worthy of a colour photograph.

Wall-Floor Positions (1968)

This work is made up of short videos and stills of Bruce putting himself in awkward positions between the floor and a wall. In the short video we watched in class, this work is described as a work of sculpture with the least amount of material possible: your body. I appreciate the humour in the wacky positions and also thought it was very interesting to view these body positions as art or as sculptural forms. I guess the body is 3D and being contorted and documented in those contortions resembles the documentation of 3D sculptural work and so we can view it as such. I think that again, while the video might feel a bit unsettling as Bruce abruptly throws himself into these positions, there is some beauty in the simplicity of the work and the fact that he is documenting the human body and its flexibility as art. This work reminds me of trying to do random handstands and other weird gymnastic-style moves as a kid. I used to do one when I would lay on my back and swing my legs up into the air and lift my bottom half off of the ground and suspend my legs and hips in the air by holding them up with my hands and leaning on my shoulders and back. (I tried doing this to demonstrate but found it a tad more difficult than it used to be). This work brings a fun, child-like aspect to making art and moving through space and I appreciate that.

MAKE A KILOMETRE

For this exercise I brainstormed a few different ideas of playing with the scale of everyday objects such as bread tags and seeing how many it would take to span a whole kilometre but I soon found myself gravitating towards the movement aspect of the concept. I decided to document a one kilometre walk through an audio recording of my train of thought throughout the walk. I wasn’t sure if I would want the final piece to be the audio file (which was 14:48 long) or use a transcript of the walk. In the end I decided I liked the look of one continuous sentence transcribing a 14 minute, 1km walk. It ended up fitting perfectly onto one page and the chaos of the never-ending sentence with no punctuation felt like it captured the essence of my random train of thought. I often stop stories in the middle of telling them to go off on a completely different tangent, leaving my friends wondering where I went off to with the story so I thought that rambling through time would match the concept of a kilometre as a distance travelled over time. I quite enjoyed this exercise and it was interesting to try and approach a widely used concept (common measure of distance) in a new way.  

I documented the walk length on my phone’s health app, you can see that the specific walk I went on was 1km long.

WEEK TWO

Marina Abramovic

I have seen “The Artist Is Present” before and I remember the moment Marina shared with Ulay which I found to be quite moving as he showed his support for her long three month journey as a former partner and artist. I appreciate that she took the older performance, Nightsea Crossing, she did with Ulay, where he was injured from sitting still on the chair for so long, and brought it back with the empty chair that anyone could fill. I think it is a moving piece because of the unconditional love Marina brings to each individual who shares a moment with her. Many of us rarely take the time to sit and have such an intimate moment with someone else and it is such a powerful gesture. Each person who came to the table brought their own experiences and emotions and got something completely different out of the experience. The interactive format made the piece more poignant.  

I have always struggled with performance art like Marina’s for a few reasons. I understand the motivation to be as far from conventional beauty standards and push the envelope in terms of what is perfect art (graphic images versus picturesque romantic scenes) and how human nature can dissolve into very violent tendencies after very short amounts of time. I do feel very unsettled when I look at Marina’s work and often have to take it in small chunks over a few hours or days even because it always upsets me very deeply. I knew I would struggle with the concept this week because this type of performance art always brings up very strong emotions for me. I will say that while I think it is incredible how much stamina and strength Marina has to be able to put herself through all of these gruelling performances, a lot of it touches on very real and dark emotions or habits that are associated with mental illness or abuse.

[TW: I briefly mention self-harm and abuse in the next paragraph]

Some acts like cutting your skin or engaging in physical violence with a partner are very harmful and are associated with real mental health issues and I don’t really appreciate people who will do it as a show or a performance. Having loved ones who have experienced these very real issues I cannot fully appreciate someone doing something like this to their own body to make a statement or to perform a message, however strong that message may be. People who struggle with self-harm are not doing it for show or to perform for others, so I find it difficult to appreciate Marina’s works that show them as very deliberate public performative acts. I think there are other ways to achieve some of these messages without bringing up some very triggering imagery. I do understand that Marina has definitely struggled in her own life and has found a way to cope with her own upbringing in a very public form of art, but it is definitely not for everyone. I do believe there are more constructive ways of depicting mental illness to bring awareness and I am not sure I agree that we need to shed light on the evils of society when they are quite present every day in the news and around the world.

Maybe my strong reaction towards Marina’s work means she was ultimately successful in provoking emotion through art, and it validates her methods. I’m interested to see what we all share in our discussion on Monday!

Act of Stillness

For this exercise I chose to be in my room just because I couldn’t find any great unusual places in the rest of my small rental to sit in. I decided to take the place of my laundry basket which sits in between my mini fridge and my closet. I originally wanted to sit inside of the basket, but it turned out to be too small to fit inside. I also contemplated whether I should stand or sit, but I figured I would be able to get through the hour with more stillness sitting rather than standing. 

I set out in a very curled up position, I wanted to replicate the compactness of my laundry basket as much as possible because I was just taking up the space it usually takes up. I got to be tucked away in the corner just being present in that space and I didn’t feel too exposed, I was just part of the furniture. This was a difficult topic for me to explore this week as I struggle with a lot of Marina’s more violent works and so I wanted to finish the week off with a safe position tucked away somewhere so that I could feel secure and be still. I found this to still be a very difficult position after a while because my back and tailbone started to hurt a bit and it is so incredible how quickly you become aware of all the little discomforts when you are silent and still for an extended amount of time. I have always known I could never have the amount of strength and discipline that Marina Abramovic has while she performs, and I was gentle with myself for this exercise because I knew it was only an hour and I was in a safe space. Over the hour I switched between keeping my mind blank and my body still to fidgeting a bit to fix my position to having my mind wander off to all sorts of different places. I was reminded of some loved ones this week while exploring the more graphic of Marina’s works and I often found myself thinking about them over the hour and it was an emotional experience for me. Maybe I shed a tear or two.

WEEK THREE

Defenestrate objects. Photograph them in mid-air.

This week we looked at a few different conceptual artists who experiment with text based work and video work that follow pre-determined instructions but make unique interpretations of those instructions or rules. I have always enjoyed Lee Walton’s work, especially the “Making Changes” video series. I love how it becomes quickly evident what the artist’s task is and there is so much humour in the execution of the action in all sorts of different places and around different individuals. I really appreciate the simplicity of the textual works where the art is the written instruction or idea.

I had fun with the prompt this week, and I almost wish I had more time with it. Maybe I’ll take more of these photos in the future in different seasons and somewhere where I have access to a proper window to experiment with different framing of the objects. I liked the look of the objects against the blue sky so I tried not to include too many other distracting objects in the frame of the images.

On the one hand, I had some ideas of the reasons I decided on my objects (bras, a pair of socks, and a bag of popcorn), but on the other hand I just appreciate the movement of the objects in the air and how they exist as formal objects. The image with just the bras flying through the air made me think about the past few years and how staying at home and not feeling the need to be “presentable” for certain settings have made many rethink the clothing items they wear every day and their comfort levels. While there are definitely pros to having support, many people who wear bras on a regular basis will tell you it is very freeing to take them off at the end of a long day and I thought of this image as the action of someone liberating themselves from the constraints of that darn bra.

The set of three images felt more like a combination of items one could find during a solo movie night. I really liked how the objects interacted with each other in the air and how they created this new form with weird appendages and different textures. It is a friendly clump of objects, familiar clothing items and the ever popular bag of microwave popcorn. The act of “defenestrating” gives a sense of excitement to the scene, almost as if the individual throwing the items was very eager to prepare for this event. The popcorn was very fun to work with because it felt so wrong to be throwing an open bag of popcorn through the air, making a mess.

Some attempts that didn’t make the final cut…

I had some technical issues with getting the exposure of my photos right, maybe I’ll try filming the objects next time and use stills from the videos, maybe they would be a bit clearer. I also liked when the objects took up the whole frame of the images, so these photos didn’t make the final cut because they just felt too small and their position in the frame didn’t feel balanced. I really liked how they froze in mid-air, though, and so I still wanted to share them. I especially like the last two images because the popcorn bag and bra (respectively) look like they are propelling themselves through the air instead of being thrown.

Final two series

I decided to choose two “triptychs” to make the final cut as I felt they were the most interesting in terms of formal quality, movement through the frame, and composition within the frame. There is a lot of action in the first set with three different coloured bras flying through the air. I appreciated the blur in these images as they whoosh through the air, although if I tried this again I would definitely try and get an even clearer shot that shows them really frozen in mid-air. The second set I really liked because each item is connected to another and they create this interesting creature mid-air.

Set 1: Ahhhh

Set 2: Ready to go

I am not sure how I feel about my decision to include the trees in the bottom of the shots. I figured it was helpful to have some small background feature that established where the ground was, but looking back at these images, especially the second set, I would like to see them without the trees in the background.

WEEK FOUR

Pandemic Portraits: What’s pent up?

Here are my two video portraits in the Adad Hannah style. I found this assignment to be particularly scary as I am really not comfortable asking strangers questions as they go about their day. I took this class to push myself into ways of making art that make me uncomfortable and I am very proud that I was able to accomplish this small task. I struck out quite a few times before Billy was gracious enough to let me film him. His message is very moving and made me understand why this form of art making is so freeing and important. You can take a snapshot of a person at one point in their lives and share that moment with them forever, even if you never see them again. It was also encouraging to me that he felt comfortable enough to share such a personal statement and the significance and the story behind that statement didn’t fully sink in until we had parted ways. It wasn’t my place to push for follow up questions and if I was able to provide Billy with an opportunity to let out some thought that he has had pent up then I feel that this short exercise was successful.

I stopped Billy as he was exiting Stone Road Mall.

Billy

“Anniversaries aren’t the same once you lose the person.”

I am also so thankful to live with one of my best friends, Lindsay, and over the years she has been so open to helping with all my random art projects. I really appreciated her taking part in this project and I know it was hard for her to have something personal be filmed, but she is just so great and fearless and I am glad we can add her to our collection of individuals. She is working very hard on midterms right now and took a bit of time out of studying to help me film this.

Lindsay

“Um, I feel like I guess I’ve just been passively living my life lately.”

WEEK FIVE

Change your face in three ways

Works in progress

Final three faces

Face #1

In class we read the essay “Turn and Face the Strange: Darcey Steinke on Our New Life with Masks” and the work elaborated on quite a few different examples of how faces and masks are integral to our everyday life. I found some of these examples very interesting such as the section about pareidolia, which is when you can see faces or other pictures in any object. We often associate the features of a human face with emotions, sentience, and identity and when our brain sees a pattern that resembles a typical human face, it makes us double back and take a better look. For my first face transformation, I wanted to explore this checklist of features that make a face, a face. With my sunglasses perched on the back of my head, I posed for this portrait and it created this face that makes you stop and think for a second. You might instantly associate sunglasses with eyes and then subconsciously assume that there are eyes directly behind these glasses. Even without other features like a nose and mouth, the sunglasses seem to be enough to create a whole new face on the back of my own.

Face #2

For the next face, I started experimenting with covering up my face with different items such as a bunch of string lights, Q-tips, and band-aids. I chose the band-aid portrait because I really liked how sculptural the pile of band-aids became as I kept adding layers. I didn’t count how many I used, my only goal was just to cover the majority of my skin with them. We usually use band-aids to cover up wounds, they protect us when we are hurt, and I like to think of this mask as a protective layer. It could be protecting the subject’s face from any number of things, internal struggle or external attacks. It reminded me of some of the transformations that Jan Hakon Erichsen created for the “How to survive a deadly global virus” series, specifically the maxi pad being adhered directly onto someone’s face. Our face helps us not only to communicate and emote, but also to eat, drink, breathe, and blink and it can be unsettling to adhere something to this multi-functional part of your body, especially if it interferes with these basic functions.

Face #3

For this face I decided to explore the work of John Baldessari when I saw the reference to his coloured dot photograph works in the examples of Jackie Nickerson’s portraits. The concept that John explored with his works was how, by painting or covering someone’s face, their fame or popularity becomes less important and you start to focus on what is actually going on in these pictures. Some are of business men or politicians shaking hands, cutting ribbons, and you start to focus on the business being done and less on the identity of the people involved. Without their unique, identifying facial features, are their actions more or less important? Does it matter who is at the ceremony or does it only matter that something has been built, agreed upon, or proposed? This was my take on making myself a new face that allows the rest of me to come into focus.

WEEK SEVEN

Artist Multiples: Buttons

This week we worked on developing conceptual button designs that could be quickly reproduced to create cheap artist multiples. I had a few ideas floating around, but I remembered that I have been collecting bread tags since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. At first, the collection was a product of wanting to have something to look forward to (collecting random items in the hopes of making something in the future, especially easily found items since we were all stuck inside), but as time went on it became interesting as a commentary on all the small mass produced plastics we make and discard every day. My family continues to collect their bread tags for me almost two years later and I have basically amassed a collection of these tags that tell the story of living for two years in a pandemic.

I thought about how this passage of time could translate into a collection of buttons and I decided that while this collection demonstrated the passage of time in my life over the past two years, the buttons didn’t necessarily need to speak to just my experience. I decided to create a series of 15 buttons with all the most unique bread tags I could find featuring one for each month of the year plus a few extras that were very unique. I also created the series in a rainbow pattern to showcase the variety of these little plastic pieces we use and discard so regularly every day.

I am interested in this collection showcasing the prevalence of these mass produced plastics in our lives as the buttons display dates from a whole year, the individuality of each of these tags even though they are mass produced, and the idea of mass producing something (buttons) with the image of another mass produced piece of plastic (bread tags). Where does the loop end? Thinking about the series, I think it brings up some good discussion if someone asks you why you have a button with a random bread tag on it, it opens up the question of why that button makes the bread tag seem any more important. It highlights the hierarchy of value we place into certain items based on their aesthetic qualities and usually a button is worn to provoke while a bread tag is made to be thrown away. I thought this would make for a fun button collection.

Bread tags

Bread tag buttons in a bread bag held closed by a bread tag

Collect the rainbow!

WEEK EIGHT

Audio Piece Ideas

• “Like Mother, Like Daughter”

When I answer the phone at home I often get mistaken for my mom by her colleagues and even our own family and there have been many occasions where my mom and I will be out somewhere and we say the exact same thing in the exact same tone of voice and it sounds like only one person spoke. I thought it would be interesting to write a one minute script (not sure what it should be, maybe a poem? maybe something written by someone else or made up by me) and have my mom record herself reading it. Then I would also record myself reading the script and play the two audio clips over top of one another to see when our voices and intonation line up. Maybe the script could just be a string of common phrases like “Hello?”, “Love you!”, “Oh goodness”…

• “Notes App”

I would use the minute to read out the first sentences/titles of each note in my notes app. It will be a funny mix of grocery lists, drafts of text messages and emails, and reminders for random things. This collection would be interesting because it would give an intimate look into my day to day life and things I deem important enough to make note of.

WEEK NINE

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Final Audio File

So here is my final audio piece! It was really interesting and fun to do something collaboratively with my mom, even if she was far away. Because of the time restraints on actually recording (with JAS this past week being crazy busy) my audio ended up sounding more muffled than hers! So I’m impressed with her technical prowess.

But anyways, the concept I stuck with was to create a script that could showcase how similar our voices are through intonation and catchphrases. I tried so hard to find definitions of mothers, daughters, heritability of voices, even scientific articles on the subject but I basically found nothing. There seems to be a strange hole in research around why children can sound so similar to their parents. So instead I had to write a short script for us to read to create this piece. In the end, I am worried it comes across as too literal, too cute, too “scripted”, but I had really gotten stuck for ideas so I decided to see this one through with what I had come up with.

I’m not sure what I had in my head that I couldn’t translate into the audio work, but I now have a healthy respect for any artists who work primarily with audio as I found it quite difficult to conceptualize and record. I do feel that with a bit more time and practice I could get this piece to an even better spot, but this is what I have for this week.

I did like the whimsy, fun feel of some of the audio examples we heard in class like the Art History comedy piece or the cartoon voices skit, so I can see how my script went down that road. I think for the concept, I got it pretty good, but the execution could be better.

Editing

Here are some screenshots to show just how similar our two recordings were. I was consistently amazed when I tried to match everything up and the recordings fit almost perfectly sometimes.

“Oh goodness! *sigh*”

“Loveee”

“Like Mother, Like Daughter I guess.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. You tell me.”

FINAL PROJECT

Conceptual Portrait

I can’t believe we made it to the end of the semester already! I really enjoyed this course and I feel like I have stepped out of my comfort zone enough to be able to create much higher quality art that is more thought-out and less literal. I can’t wait to keep creating more and take more time to perfect some of the concepts I had this semester.

For this final project, the conceptual portrait, I knew I wanted to further explore text-based art in some way so I started out with that medium in mind when deciding on my concept.

My family always tease me when I’m home because I have a habit of leaving a tiny bit of food or one inch of a drink in a glass instead of finishing everything. I find that at school when I get very busy and stressed I accumulate many glasses and mugs with tiny bits of drinks in them and I decided I wanted to document some of this habit. My conceptual portrait ended up becoming a portrait of a week of food for me, a portrait of my diet as a student, a portrait of me based not on the things I ingested but of the things I decided NOT to eat.

After discussion with Diane and classmates, I decided I needed some images to go with the text and it was suggested that I create a zine to showcase this collection. I liked this a lot as this also touched on artist multiples which I quite enjoy so I set out to photograph the leftovers on my plates and in my glasses for four days. I photographed the images very scientifically as if I were documenting observations for a research report and edited them so they would stand out on the page. The following images are of the completed zine. I am quite happy with the outcome and the images of the food started to become almost sculptural in nature and I think it is a very unflattering portrait of me, which is something I am proud to create.

Title of zine

After the critique with the class, I decided to name the zine “leftovers” as it explains the concept that these items were left over, but still leaves room for interpretation of the images and collections.

Final pages for zine conceptual portrait: leftovers

Zine distribution

I decided to create a final zine the size and quality I would prefer for this project on full 8.5″ x 11″ printer paper and bound it properly with thread.

Mini-zine distribution

I also wanted to make smaller zines to give to the class to have and due to paper and ink costs I decided to make the zine smaller so that they were easier to make and distribute and used less materials overall. The formatting wasn’t as perfect as the nice final zine was, but it still honours the easy distribution of artist multiples. Here are a few of the small zines I made up, I made 18 in total!

I am overall pleased with how everything turned out and I think I might perfect these zines in the future even more! I might add a fun cover (something colourful) and I think this collection would be really fun if I continued it for many more weeks. I look forward to sharing my leftovers with friends and peers in future zine-swap events!

Conceptual portrait

Weeks *10* + 11 + *12*

For my conceptual portrait, I worked with photography as a medium. It encapsulates an idea of portraiture of a collection of people who all belong to the same family using objects to portray them, among other things. Along with the objects included, there are many aspects of each picture that allude to a difference in personality, era, familial ties etc., of each person or people depicted.

Each photo utilizes a different gel when lighting. The first used a warm-toned gel, the second a cool-toned, and the third uses both. In my final edits I did play with the colours, whites, blacks, saturation, and all those fun tools, to really highlight was I wanted to show with each photo.

The first one, Helen and Frank, appears duller and more flattened than the other two, as it depicts my grandparents who were not only from a different time but have also sadly passed. It also depicts a bouquet of dead roses as well as a lit candle. These motifs appear through all 3 images and change slightly, to play with the traditional idea of memento mori used in still life, as well as to show the passing of time in a way that the objects could not portray as accurately. I chose to light the tall candle in this image as candles are often lit at the end of life, signifying safe travel into the next chapter, whatever that may be to the person. My grandparents were religious people and since candles are also often a signifier of the light of Christ I chose to use it here to honour their beliefs and help the continuation of their spirits endure.

The second photo, Tammy and Gergely, depicts my parents and plays with cooler tones and sharper image quality. This photo begins carrying some objects over from the first, which I will discuss more in-depth in a moment, as well as starting to open up visually. This can be seen with the direct opening of the wooden box which was seen closed in the first image. This plays with the idea of time passing and generations adapting to the world around them. I am lucky to have such open and accepting parents and this is something I wanted to highlight throughout the series. In this photo, the bouquet of flowers also changes to a bouquet of live carnations and daisies. Daisies often are used to symbolize innocence and purity, which is accurate as my father was very young when he met my mother and has loved her ever since. Carnations often depict love and strength and were actually one of the flowers in my parents’ first wedding in Hungary, so I thought it was fitting. (Just for reference, my parents had 2 weddings as they had to get married in Hungary so my dad could legally immigrate to Canada, it was very small and basically an elopement, they had a large wedding in Canada once they moved here). The candle in this image is half burned down, showing the passing of time more than anything else.

The third photo depicts myself. This one was the most difficult for me as it was harder to pinpoint objects that could accurately represent me. I must admit I did not do myself complete justice, however, I love this image and it highlights what was necessary for the series. The lighting in this one utilizes both the warm and cool tones as I am very connected to my family and am extremely analytic when it comes to my own personality traits and where they may stem from throughout my family tree. The flower chosen for my portrait is a singular rose. This is not only because my portrait depicts only me and not a couple, but also because my middle name is Rose and it adds to the portrait even more so, with a secret easter egg of my name. Roses are often tied to romantic meaning, one generally means “love at first sight” and the fact that this Rose is light pink indicates that it represents youth and beauty.

Though each image has objects that are meant as secret easter eggs for the viewer, I am going to list off and explain choices for some. Mostly because I want to. BUT YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED. if you do not wish to know and enjoy living life in mystery then please, feel free not to read the next paragraph or two.

Helen and Frank

depicts (from left to right)

• bouquet of dried roses
• closed wooden box
• small painted metal cardinal
• gold and emerald ring
• traditional Hungarian candlestick holder with a tall lit beeswax candle
• Players’ cigarette container filled with old photos of Helen and Frank and their lives
• deck of playing cards spilled out (with the 2 of hearts as the only upturned card)

Tammy and Gergely

depicts (from left to right)

• opened wooden box
• leather banded watch
• gold locket
• matches
• photo of young Gergely
• photo of young Bella and Tas (Tammy and Gergelys daughter and son)
• gold ring band
• jade droplet earrings
• deck of playing cards (barely shown)
• small painted metal cardinal
• bouquet of carnations and daisies
• fabric bag with forints and a button
• Hungarian handkerchief
• traditional Hungarian candlestick holder with a half-burned, lit beeswax candle

Bella

depicts (from left to right)

• small black artists sketchbook
• traditional Hungarian candlestick holder – sans candle
• box of incense cones
• a single pink Rose
• solid perfume in soapstone
• open wooden box
• beaded mask chain
• gifted resin penny art from Sudbury based artist “FOR LUCK OR YOUR THOUGHTS”
• deck of playing cards (barely shown)
• all previous photos used (barely shown)
• sticker from Haliburton
• clear quartz
• lucky silver stone
• spell jar
• small pinecone
• 3 matchboxes
• acorn
• silver acorn
• small painted metal cardinal
• Hungarian handkerchief
• leather banded watch
• small jewelry dish (which contains a safety pin, multiple pendants, jade droplet earrings, gold locket)
• daily rings (silver braided band, peridot ring, emerald gold band and thin gold stacker, braided silver knot, engraved silver moon signet, thick silver band, silver Claddagh, blue opal ring, gold band, 2 thin gold stackers) *My rings each have a meaning and they mean quite a lot to me, I have included a PDF of a “zine” I made about them at the end of this for your own perusal)
• gifted carved wooden mushrooms from Manitoulin Island – Gore Bay, based artist

The clearest object used in all 3 images in the wooden box. This box once belonged to my great grandmother and was handed down to each woman in our family as sort of an unspoken heirloom. It actually has the word mother written on it in cursive on the top, which is not shown in any of the photos.

The next item that is seen in all 3 in the candlestick, though I have already spoken on that.

The third and final item used throughout all 3 photos is the small painted metal cardinal. Cardinals mean a lot to our family. Ever since my grandparents passed, they have come back to us in the form of a cardinal to let us know they are safe and well and watching over us. I am aware we’re not the only family who has had experiences such as these. IN fact, I have a tattoo of two cardinals which I got for my grandparents and it has sparked many a conversation with people in similar situations. Cardinals are seen as messengers from loved ones who have passed on and so I wanted to include it throughout each image as a representation of the fact that though my grandparents are gone they are still with us and still cheering us on in our journeys.

Other items threaded throughout are the playing cards, the handkerchief, the watch, the jade droplet earrings and both the emerald and gold banded ring. The handkerchief is actually something I was gifted by my grandmother on my father’s side, whom I don’t get to see as often, nor do I have as strong of a connection to because of the distance and slight language barrier. The emerald ring was a gift to me from my grandmother and one she used to wear when she was young. The watch and the gold banded ring are both pieces from my mother and she wore them in her 20’s and when she went to Guelph for her undergrad. The earrings belonged to her as well, and were a gift to her from my father.

Clearly, I have very strong ties to my family and I enjoy celebrating these quietly in my everyday life. I am a sentimental person and making art that surrounds my family has always been a big love of mine. I loved creating these images and the thought I put behind them truly shows how true that is. I’m very happy with the final products and love the idea that one day it can be continued with future additions to the family.

*This is the PDF of the zine I mentioned in my list under Bella that highlights each of my rings, if you feel so inclined to learn*

***the gold stacker rings and the peridot ring are not shown as they are the newest addition. The peridot is a sister ring to one of my closest friends not in the Zine and the stackers were gifted to me from another close friend***

Audio Art

Week *8* + 9

My first audio art idea surrounded the idea of being a classically trained singer and learning music on my own in the pandemic.

Though I’ve been training for many many years reading music is still somewhat of my weaker points in the art. I was never taught music theory, so I can “sight read” to an extent, but would never be able to tell you what note I am singing.

When I started to record this idea I realized 3 things. I could not for the life of me cut it down to a minute with it still sounding interesting, the more I recorded the more I learned the piece and the more authenticity was lost in turn and in the end, it sounded boring overall.

I think it could be interesting to record myself for an entire practice and pick out all the “unappealing” moments The burps, the swears, the voice cracks, and the exasperated sighs. And this was something I was planning on trying, however, I got sick and couldn’t safely practice. Though I do plan on doing this for my own interest in the future.

My second audio art idea is my favourite and one that I believe turned out really well.

It’s is a piece of layered campfire songs. I know MANY campfire songs and have always loved to camp. One of my favourite places to be is at a campground and I have so many amazing memories made there.

When reminiscing about these memories while booking a trip for this summer, this idea came to mind.

I “sang” a handful of campfire songs in my repertoire and layered them on top of one another. It sounds like pure chaos and I love it. Camping is often a calm time, especially at the end of the night when everyone is sat around the fire. This chaos brings irony to what is actually being represented while singing these specific tunes.

I love how you can hear different random aspects throughout the chaos in the beginning and once they die out to three or four songs you’re able to focus on something more. I also think the ending is just perfect. Throughout the whole piece each song is fighting to have the last word and just when you think it’s been a tie, down by the bay comes in strong.

I did end up making a second version of the campfire song audio art and editing the layers so that it has a little more *thought* behind it, so to speak. I curated certain phrases to line up so you can connect different songs together, as well as splitting and heightening some parts of songs that are comedic or just silly.

I think this one definitely turned out a lot better, though I believe even further editing could go into it. However, I didn’t want to exceed the time expectations TOO much, as it’s already over a minute long. (2 and a half minutes)

I had a lot of fun with this project. It is definitely not a form of art I generally create, in fact, I have never before created an audio piece in this fashion. Of course, there is the argument that each piece of music is a piece of audio art, but it is not necessarily looking at it with a conceptual lens such as this.

An artist that really spoke to me during the lecture was Janet Cardiff. I fell down a hole of watching her audio walks, and most definitely want to immerse myself in one when I am one day in a place where I can do so. Her 40 piece motet is a piece I don’t doubt I will think about for years to come. I ache to see that installation in person. I’m very interested in the idea of ‘swimming in sound’ and this is a piece that definitely enhances that idea.

Buttons

Week 6 + 7+ *8*

I have IBD, along with a list of many other things. Because of this, my health has always been at the forefront of my life in a different way than many others. It has helped shape who I am today in many ways; how I deal with things, comfortability with medical information and images, and different boundaries overall. THIS BEING SAID my sicknesses do not define me, nor do I want them to, even though they are an unavoidable and integral part of my life.

This introduction is simply because I want everyone to be VERY CONSCIOUS of the fact that I do not want any pity. I don’t need it and it is not welcome. I’m not here to assume that that’s what you’ll give me, but I’ve been diagnosed long enough to know that often it’s just a natural reaction for some people, so watch yourselves, I’m scrappy.

For my buttons, I wanted to play with the idea of my health. I wanted to toy with it and make it a sort of matter the fact thing, without purposely invoking a conversation about it.

The majority of my buttons depict medical imagery of the inside of bodies, mine, and others. They’re mostly from scope procedures, both endoscopies, and colonoscopies, and depict; Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative colitis, Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC), and esophageal varices. A choice selection off my list.

I hope that if you wear them and people say “hey what’s that?” you can say “my friend’s colon” or “a girl in my class’ liver” because I think that’s hilarious, and I urge that to be your answer.

I’ve always been very open about my health with anyone who inquires about it so this is just another pathway of that.

I also made 7 buttons of the types of stool from the bristol shoot chart. Which, if you don’t know, is basically a chart of how your poop looks and what it means. I feel like this doesn’t need much of an explanation as to why, but the bristol stool chart was a very big part of my pediatric health journey to say the least.

Pandemic Portraits

week 5

someone I know: Gergely (father)

“people who don’t understand the difference between cause, and what causes things. The complete lack of understanding of a simple process of logic.”

*disclaimer; he simply wasn’t wearing a jacket outside as it was quite mild, he was honestly out in the world like this*

I understand there was some trouble viewing the video for a bit, hopefully, this has been remedied with the repost.

someone I don’t know

“I wish weddings were not so expensive and it’s stressing me out how much I’m gonna’ have to spend to marry my best friend.”

Conceptual Masks

week 4

TW: blood (bloody nose)

I had way too much fun thinking of things to be used as “masks”. I must admit, not all of them have a deep conceptual meaning behind them.

Below is a grid of extra photos I took, that weren’t my top choices. I’ve chosen a couple favourites to be shown larger underneath.

I feel I must warn you though, I did envoke a bloody nose for one, so there will be blood. I’m pretty desensitized to it but if you’re squeamish maybe look away?

Final #1

In this first favourite I’ve wrapped my head in cellophane. I thought it was kind of ironic considering some face shields or masks don’t actually look that far off from this. I also really enjoyed the overall aesthetic of the picture. plus its a slight nod to chicago…

Final #2

I talk a lot, not that you’d know from this class but I’m quite the oversharer. This is a trait of myself that I don’t like, as I have accidentally crossed other people’s boundaries while talking about myself. This mask was born from that insecurity. I often want to do this in conversation as I can feel myself oversharing but for some reason, I can’t shut up. It’s as if my brain and my mouth aren’t connected.

Final #3

TW: blood

I get a lot of nose bleeds.

This mask started as just the panty liner on my face but after I sent it to a friend she said that she think it would add something if there was blood, considering, and knowing I get nose bleeds often.

I then continued to mess around with the bridge of my nose until it started bleeding and continued to take pictures of myself.

Final #4 1/2?

I’m really interested in the idea of narcissism and so this mask plays into that idea.

The first is one side of the mirror and is what I began with, the other is the convex? concave? side of the mirror. (I must admit I don’t know which refers to which at this point in time…) I think these are great because in the photos I’m able to see myself back and back again but when thinking of it as a mask out in public it would force other people to see themselves in the reflection.

Defenestration

Week 3

defenestration: the act of throwing someone, or something, out a window.

While thinking about this prompt I, first of all, thoroughly enjoyed the fact that defenestration is a word, and when looked up in a dictionary it first references throwing a person out a window, and then refers to a thing.

I live on the second floor of a townhouse, so it’s not too far from the ground, though I wouldn’t want to throw anything fragile or heavy out of the window. However, I was willing to have my roommate fling clothes at me from it. Which is exactly what I had her do.

On a day when it was not so gray outside, I popped off the screen to my window and instructed (after asking very nicely) if my roommate would throw an outfit I had laid out on the bed, piece by piece at me standing below.

I liked the blue sky background of John Baldessari’s Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty-Six Attempts) and because of the angle I was stood at, holding my camera relatively perpendicular to the ground, I captured a similar background myself. Some include different parts of our roof, tree, or house.

The outfit thrown consisted of; undergarments, a dress, a sweater, a coat, a hat, and a pair of shoes, as well as, a shot of everything thrown together, as a full ensemble. I did not include any of my jewelry because I do not take my jewelry off, and so do not require to put it on when getting dressed. (also I didn’t enjoy the idea of throwing 12 rings and a necklace into the deep unshoveled snow of my backyard).

I chose an outfit that I would not generally wear for 3 reasons.

1. It would create a better flow of fabric and a more interesting photo in my own opinion.
2. I wanted to express a more feminie outfit, that I currently am less comfortable in in general, as I don’t enjoy the male gaze. However, I enjoy my feminity.
3. I don’t get to wear an outfit like this often nowadays, as I’m commonly at home, and in trackpants, which I did not want to capture in time at this moment.

Though I am currently not wearing this outfit, or an outfit such as this as often at the moment, I view my collection of photos as a sort of self-portrait. One very focused on my feminine side and mood.

I would love to do this again but with an outfit focused on the other common mood I have, with more of an androgynous energy to it. I feel both of them displayed together would create an intriguing self-portrait of me and my two dominant personalities.

An Hour of Stillness + notes

Week 2

Marina Abramović

I’ve enjoyed Marina Abramović’s work for many years. I was first introduced to her in high school and have since been continually interested in her art. One of my favourite pieces has been and remains to be Imponderabilia, more commonly known as the “naked doorway” or “living doorway” piece. This piece was first done in 1977 by Abramović and her partner at the time, Ulay. The couple stood naked in a doorway as museum-goers passed through them.

Art considered to be ‘controversial art’ always interests me. Artists like Abramović challenge viewers and inspire thought and emotion.

While watching the film I was completely starstruck. I am continually in great awe of artists such as Abramović and this film allowed me to learn deeper about her as a person as well as her art. I enjoyed all the background information for pieces we got during viewing. Seeing this raw side of the toll her pieces may take of have taken on her allows the audience to gain a deeper appreciation for her and her work, at least that is what I believe. Abramović is an inspirational artist and I’m so happy to have looked at her work in this course.

One Hour of Stillness

Approaching this assignment I already knew it would be a difficult one to complete. I, like many others, do not sit still very easily. It is human nature to fidget and think and react, so an hour of doing nothing seems quite daunting. This makes Marina Abramović’s piece just that much more impressive. I could not imagine sitting for so long looking at another person, or people. Whenever I look at someone for too long I get anxious about the fact that my eyes dart back and forth between theirs, something I had never realized I do until one day someone so kindly pointed it out to me.

Nonetheless, I am always up for a challenge and was filled with nervous excitement to complete this piece. Now came the first of the tricky parts though; creating a base concept; where would I sit for my hour?

I often overthink my own art. I believe in a high level of effort and commitment, which is a strength, for the most part, however, this sometimes becomes my downfall in artmaking, making me less willing to simplify.

After dwelling on many ideas I settled on a bus bench. The idea of waiting for nothing in particular while sanctioned at a spot where waiting for something specific often occurs was incredibly intriguing to me. There must be an easier way to say that but alas.

I began my journey by getting on the first bus I saw and riding it until I felt content with my surroundings. I sat in a sheltered stop, hoping and praying no one old or pregnant would come along and require me to stand and give them my seat, being a good samaritan but in turn, failing my act of nothingness. I wore headphones but listened to no music, simply so people would *ideally* be deterred from talking to me. Luckily not many people came by the stop as I sat, and thankfully no one pregnant nor old came by so I had no need to relinquish my seat.

As I sat, I was very aware of my body. I could feel all my jewelry on my skin, my fingers felt cold and slow, the tips of my ears were chilled, there was condensation of my breath in my mask, my back ached and my kneecaps were frozen. (In fact, when I got home afterward, thanks to my auto-immune side effect of terribly body temperature regulation, my kneecaps were on FIRE for approximately 40 minutes once I was in warmth)

I sat for an hour, as still as I could be, trying not to think of how badly I needed to crack my back and once it was over I propped my phone up and took a photo, recreating my stillness as best I could.

As I assumed I did not overly enjoy this hour of nothing, I meditate at home but in practice with meditation, breathwork, and mindfulness. It feels very much the opposite of nothing for me, whereas this stillness felt loud and blaring. Maybe it was because I was doing it as an assignment, or maybe because it was outside in the elements. I am not too sure but I don’t think I ever will be.

Conceptual Kilometre + notes

Week 1

Sol LeWitt

“The idea becomes the machine that makes the art” speaks to LeWitt’s belief that an idea itself is the artwork, rather than how the creation of such work may occur. When first learning about LeWitt I was unsure about how I felt about this idea of conceptualization; unaware if I agreed or disagreed on his stance. Thinking more about it I’ve come to find that I do not stand strongly on either side and remain neutral in the argument I created for myself. There is a quote I found from LeWitt that states “I wasn’t really interested in objects. I was interested in ideas”. This summarizes his main system of belief neatly into a statement. The idea of the artwork is in turn a work of art, the actualization of the idea does not necessarily need to be with the artist’s own hands to be credited to that artist.

Along with this, LeWitt’s work is very mathematical. He constructs a solid and complete plan to be following through thoroughly to achieve the results he envisions during his process. Without his concept and instruction, the piece would never be created in the first place. Every piece of art begins with an idea and this conceptualized artwork becomes actualized after the fact.

The way that Sol LeWitt goes about the actualization of his pieces reminds me of how an architect may be viewed when designing a building. LeWitt is the architect of his artwork, creating the blueprints and articulating each detail. The artists who are producing the idea into a tangible work of art are the engineers in the process.

Yoko Ono

I adore Yoko Ono. Many of her pieces have deeply intrigued me for many years. I was first introduced to her work in high school when I was shown “cut piece”. Ever since then I’ve been taken by her activism and place in the world of conceptual and avant-garde art. After the lecture I got my roommates to write down a wish for my very own wish tree, and now when anyone comes into our home I have them write one as well. I’m a big believer in putting energy out into the universe and getting positive responses in advance and because not everyone believes in divine types of manifestation I am glad to be able to keep their wishes safe and hopeful that they come true. I do not have an actual tree in my room, so I’ve hung the wishes on my Pilea Peperomioides (Chinese Money Tree).

When thinking about Yoko Ono’s book Grapefruit “boundaries” is not a word that comes to mind. In fact, this book provides many artworks that seem limitless. As discussed in the lecture the idea of “feeling the earth moving” is a limitless feeling. Yoko Ono is opening viewers’ eyes and minds into ideas of art that are simplistic yet intrinsically difficult. Similar to the act of meditation, to ask one to “feel the earth moving” is an ask that may seem simple at first but is in fact, a very challenging act of mind, body, and spirit. The art in Grapefruit is accessible and up to interpretation, as is most of Yoko Ono’s own performance and visual art pieces.

I enjoy many prompts given by Ono in this collection of concepts. The connection to the earth that she threads throughout them is a specifically intriguing factor for me. Along with the connection to oneself she seemingly links throughout. These prompts allow people to slow down and take time and think about what they are doing and how they are doing it, while simultaneously allowing them to interpret the promts in their own way.

Bruce Nauman

“I needed a different way to approach the idea of being an artist”

https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s1/bruce-nauman-in-identity-segment/

This quote (which is also a partial quote from the one underneath the Art21 video), is one that is very important when approaching the art process of Bruce Nauman.

In the piece Wall Floor Positions, Nauman created black and white images of himself in different positions on the floor. Each frame is filled by his body but it is not a piece that speaks as a self-portrait. Nauman himself is the content matter in a different way. In the Tate video, it is said that he uses his body as the ‘sculpture’ and I think that is very apparent in this piece. This raw actualization in the piece draws viewers in and allows them to think about what they are seeing and why they may be seeing it. In this piece, and many others he’s created; even some that we looked at, such as Walking in an Exaggerated Way Around the Perimeter of a Square, Nauman challenges the question “What is Art?” by creating pieces that seem mundane but he has labeled as art because he is the artist.

In another piece discussed in the Tate video Nauman frames a spilled coffee cup and titles it Coffee Spilled Because the Cup Was Too Hot.

This piece is visually very stunning and in stark contrast to the “dullness” that the previous black and white images above provided viewers. It uses colour to fill the space and highlights a very human thing to appear as something more than it may be. Nauman uses everyday objects, tasks, mistakes, and qualities and frames them in a formally artistic way to enhance the viewer’s understanding of the piece.

My Kilometer

When I first began to brainstorm what I could do for a kilometer I thought of many things. Some felt too big and others too small. I thought of walking or driving, taking the bus, or calculating a route. I wanted to work on something that felt bigger without having to over-exert myself in ways that I simply didn’t have time for in this exercise. I also wanted my final product to be a true kilometer. However, I didn’t know quite how to do that.

That is until I began to focus on my interests. I thought about creating something that was a true kilometer but also had some kind of underlying idea woven within it. It didn’t necessarily have to be some deep profound thing, but I needed it to be something for my own personal satisfaction.

In the end, I decided to work with the concept of deconstructed clothing. At first, I imagined it to be a full-body shot but once I began taking my photos it came to my attention that working from the shoulders up may be a more striking image.

I took a ball of yarn, which is approximately 10 meters, and began to wrap it around my head, neck, and shoulders. All the while thinking of the crochet balaclavas that are currently all the rage within many parts of the internet. I then wrapped it around my wrists and arms, trying to use the whole ball of yarn in the process. While I was doing this I set up my phone and began to videotape. I recorded myself wrapping and unwrapping my body with this ball of yarn hoping one of my roommates wouldn’t walk in during the process, though this is admittedly not one of the weirdest things theyd’ve caught me doing.

Once I was fully unwrapped I began to rewrap the yarn into a ball as successfully as I could.

The next step was to take this video and use it to create an image that would capture a true kilometer; since the ball of yarn was only 10 meters.

I took screenshots of the video and then took this collection of 100 images into a program so that I could layer them all. After messing around with the transparency of the photos I had my final product. An image with a true kilometer of yarn captured within it.

Though my final kilometer is one that is captured in an image, it is captured within a conceptual actualization, rather than simply taking a photo of a kilometer. I created my own kilometer and the image is simply a way of producing a more tangible piece of the idea.

WEEK 1

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Sol Le Witt’s work captures the idea that “conceptual art was a way of working around the power structures of the art world.” In the traditional art world many people believe the artist has to create the work. However, Sol Le Witt would create the idea and the blueprint of the work and the execution would be done by the rest of his team. In this way he challenged the idea of what an artist is; the artist creates the idea. 

Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit piece highlights the idea that “the machine makes the art”. A series of event scores and instructions are published in this piece, which the viewer can then follow or not. In that sense, the book is the machine that holds the original idea that makes the art. As it passes through the reader’s mind, the work of art is slightly different depending on whether the reader follows the instructions or not. I like this piece because it is a perfect example of what Lewitt says “the idea becomes the machine that makes the art”. 

Bruce Nauman’s embodies the idea that “conceptual art is a dematerialization of art”. In his work he would often use his body as a form of sculpture, or any medium he could really find. He would play around with sound or light or colour to create humorous conceptual art pieces. Whatever he would experiment with in the studio was art, and he did not need traditional materials for viewers to identify his work as art. 

I like that his work often comments on how life is absurd. I like this light sculpture because it was different than his previous mediums and it was an idea that he was trying to figure out in his work, that the “the true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.”

Another piece by Nauman that really captures the absurd. I like this piece in particular because people can react to it in so many different ways. A dirty universal hand symbol of sex, put into a gallery. Reminds me of the start of Dadaism with Marcel Duchamp and the urinal. Technically, it is also amazing work with clay.

KM Assignment

I scrolled on instagram for exactly 1 km. Here is the video:

Back when technology and apps did not exist, we would probably be walking a lot more. At least in my case, there are days where I barely get any exercise, so it was difficult to think of an idea for this kilometre assignment. Once I started thinking about a kilometre in a conceptual way, I asked myself what is something that I do almost everyday for at-least a kilometre? Scrolling. Scrolling on Instagram, on Tiktok, on Facebook, on Reddit and more. My screen time is proof of that. The number one app that I scroll on the most according to my screen time is Instagram. I downloaded a chrome extension that displays the amount in km that I have scrolled. So, I screen recorded and went about my day as normal, scrolling away.

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WEEK 2

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This assignment is clearly an endurance piece to me. I tried to take it a step further to find one of the most uncomfortable places for myself to endure. For me, that is my studio sink. Not only is it in the basement and in a disgusting little corner, but the sink itself had to endure so much that it has rusted. I physically don’t like being there unless its to wash my brushes really quickly. So I tried to challenge myself and sit there for an hour in an uncomfortable position. At first it was very difficult but after I closed my eyes and focused on my breath for so long, I felt like a weight was lifted off me, and I wasn’t thinking about all the aspects around me that made me uncomfortable. Similar to “The Artist is Present” I felt like I was finally relaxed and present after focusing on just my breathing. The pain in my legs seemed to subside as well… that is until I got up.

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Week 3

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At first I disliked the way these pictures turned out. Why can’t I see the object clearly? It was a mix between the lighting and the dark of the night. I chose to buy two old home phones and take a picture of them falling through the air. In the first picture you can clearly see the object as it is on the ground. But after many attempts all I could see in the sky when I threw the object in the air was two small sticks of light. I imagined redoing it with a different object, but I think this is a perfect depiction of the object that I showed. I picked it because it was an object that has almost disappeared from everyone’s lives as smartphones have developed and the glare in the sky reflects that in a beautiful way.

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Video Portrait:

The first woman is a stranger. The second is my partner.

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It was quite awkward asking a stranger from work this question. For the second person, I asked my partner. I find it interesting how different their responses are in relation to how they know me. My partner is so comfortable and talks quite freely and has a longer response. The stranger only says one word, and their stance is quite different.

Face Mask #1. Plastic Drop Sheet. Transforms my face somewhat into an older woman with wrinkles…

Face Mask #2. Chives in mouth. Interesting how looking up changes the image in an interesting and somewhat sexual way…

Face Mask #3 Chives in mouth and nose, somewhat make me look like an older man with a beard…

The goal for my facemasks was to not only create a conceptual face mask, but I wanted it to transferm my face into something else that was recognizable. I went through many different shots of the first face mask with the transparent sheet, trying to get the write angle to create the vision that I had.

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Week 7/8

For my button assignment, I started with my face mask pictures. I then realized that once I transferred those pictures to the button, the shape of the button made it look like the figures were trapped. Especially in the face mask with the sheet cover. I then chose some figures and artwork to try and create the same effect.

Audio Piece: Studio Ritual

For my audio piece I edited several sounds from my painting studio. I tried to capture the order in which they appeared one after the other. The ritual that I go through before beginning to paint, and the sounds that I can’t avoid, such as the water running when I fill up the paint brush jar.

Conceptual Portrait: My Obsessive and Compulsive Mind on Auto pilot

This is my most vulnerable piece. I recently found out and was diagnosed with OCD last year. I also figured out last year that I sleep talk, after my partner discovered it when we met. Being a psychology student, I was fascinated by both these things and it really put things into perspective for me. The misunderstandings about OCD is why I never realized why my thoughts work in the way they do. They get stuck in a loop going through the same phrases and movements to get an intrusive thought out of my head. These loops can happen for a couple minutes per a thought. At certain points in my life they would be more frequent, to the point where my head would feel heavy every day, as I would have to – almost automatically – complete these rituals over and over again while continuing with my daily tasks. These rituals, the subconscious and my unconscious mind is what I tried to put together in the video. The sound is from recordings of myself sleep talking taken by my partner.