Walead Beshty

In first observing the work by Walead Beshty in this brief video documentary, it appears to be somewhat overwhelming in size, but also monotonous in the sea of blue images that fill the entire studio space. As an artist, but one that has yet to take a photography studio, it was enlightening to listen to Beshty discuss this exhibition and how it came into being as a result of creating other works. To see a body of work presented as a formal artwork, even through it was derived from what he described as waste or byproducts or other projects seemed very poetic. His comment on how this exhibition portrays its own coming into being is quite beautiful and, I believe, a type of photography that is more honest and realistic than anything I have yet seen during this course. I enjoy the dichotomy of seeing the purely representational images of objects, while at the same time, they are not – they are ghosts of a product or image. I have always enjoyed work that has a deeper meaning than what may be seen on the surface of the work, and Beshty’s body of work is no exception. I feel as if I see this type of poetry and concept of work more frequently in media such as drawing or painting, so it was interesting to me to see this represented through a form of photography. As an artist, I am in love with the process of creating work and, therefore, being able to see work where that process is visible. In terms of the size of the exhibition, I believe that it was wise of Beshty to include such a large number of cyanotypes (12,000) as a way to fully express the magnitude of his creative process – a smaller quantity, I believe, would not have been as successful.

RIP: A Remix Manifesto

RIP: A Remix Manifesto was extremely interesting to watch because it tackled a topic in art that is so frequently used by artists all around the world, that being appropriation. While this film addressed the topic through the issue of copyright, I believe the concepts are very similar because they both involve using information previously generated by a different artist and then manipulating said information to make it into something new.

We see this issue constantly where people attempt to protect their ideas and try to make it so that no one else can imitate or reproduce the same or almost identical concept for his or her own. However, much of today’s art, along with the very foundation of art production, is based upon the inspiration that artists find when observing another individual’s work. If we look all the way back to the 1600s and even before, art works that circulated throughout the world were largely reproductions in a sense. Male artists would travel to different areas to recreate as exactly as they could the works they had traveled to see so that way they could bring these recreations back and show them to people that would otherwise never see these stunning pieces of art.

Even in studios today, students are encouraged to dabble in appropriation to create new and intriguing works of their own, myself included. In fact, some of my best works have been created this way. What I find interesting is that the concept of appropriation and copyright seems to change depending on what medium is being used. For example, appropriation through drawing or printmaking appears to be far less contested than in photography. However, even in the case of photography, altering or appropriating an image is still changing the original concept of the work and manipulating it to have a new meaning specific to the appropriating artist, thereby creating a new and original work, no matter how similar to the appropriated work it may be.

Top 3 Choices for Presentation 2

1. Michele Abeles
2. Elad Lassry
3. Richard Galpin

A Response to "What is Conceptual Photography? (Part 3)"

Listening to Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, along with Lucy Soutter, Sean O'Hagan, Louise Clements, is interesting in the way each artist/photographer views the term “conceptual photography.” Personally, I would have to agree with the mindset that “conceptual” is perhaps an inappropriate way in which to categorize photography, due to the way in which all photography is in some way conceptual. Every artist typically has some sort of concept behind his or her work, including work that is meant to be abstract/not representational. By placing works in to specific categories, like conceptual, this in turn can force an artist to categorize his or her work in a way that they otherwise would not, only doing so so that others may have a better understanding of it. For example, artists like Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin who have used photographic paper to create documentary photography would not consider their work to be conceptual – to them it would be purely representational and more true than taking more standard photographs of an event, such as the kind that are seen in the news. Because I am more privy to abstract or “conceptual” works of art, I also understand that these terms are frequently used by those that may not fully understand an artwork at first glance, especially if they do not see their idea of what is representational or figurative. I think of Pablo Picasso’s Cubism paintings when I contemplate the mislabeling of conceptual art. His work shows what I believe to be the truest forms of representation because of the way he intends a figure to be shown in multiple stages of dimension and movement as a way to counteract the way that most paintings portray a figure in a single moment in time. However, because many people cannot fully comprehend what they are seeing, it is inappropriately labeled abstract or conceptual. Like all artists, each work has some type of concept; therefore, it is redundant and unnecessary to label photography as conceptual.

A Response to Jason Salavon

I find Jason Salavon’s work to be extremely interesting because of the abstract quality to each piece and the concept behind it, such as with his series entitled 100 Special Moments. Each of the images that compose this series, I believe, serve as a clear reflection of the society we live in today – a society that does everything within its power to gain and maintain complete control over media and its distribution/presentation. What is also interesting about this series is that it reflects a sense of continuity and similarities in the life experiences most people choose to document and give significance to, in this case weddings, graduation, Christmas photos with Santa Claus, and little league baseball photos. In the case of Salavon’s series Every Playboy Centerfold, when observing these photos for the first time, they may be very abstract and unrecognizable to some; it is only when reading the title do we begin to impose meaning on the photographs. What is interesting to me about this is the fact that modern society and media give so much recognition and places an immense emphasis on sexuality and nudity, yet when we are presented with a composite image of hundreds of the iconic Playboy centerfolds together, suddenly, we cannot recognize or understand what we are seeing. I find these images composite images to represent reality far more than the individual photographs used to create the final image because it illustrates an evolution in photography over the course of thirty years. I question that came to my mind when analyzing these photographs, was why do we choose to place importance on certain categories of photography? What is it about these particular subjects portrayed in photography that we love to exploit and photograph over and over, despite the fact that we are essentially documenting the same situation over and over, just with different sets of people? It is because of this that I find Salavon’s composite images to be so captivating, realistic, and powerful.

John Pfahl Presentation

2016 Undergraduate Exhibition

The 2016 Undergraduate Exhibition has a wonderful range of work this year, especially when considering how selective the juror, Seth Fritz, was, limiting the 250 entries down to just over 50 to be displayed in the gallery. While I did find the selection to be well rounded, some media were so interesting and well done that I wanted to see even more examples, such as the lamps and oil paintings. Some of my favorite pieces included mixed media drawings from Life Drawing 1, a coat from Woven Textiles, and monoprints from Etching and Intaglio Printmaking.

The two drawings by Sara Kramer, both recipients of the Amie Award, were stunning and bizarre at the same time. Each piece was a portrait drawn on a large scale that depicted both the artist and another female figure, each one disfigured in a way that made them insect-like and rather grotesque, yet they were so well detailed and executed through medium and composition that it made each one aesthetically appealing. While the drawing depicting Sara herself made use of images of actual insect appendages, I felt that the accompanying work was even more insect-like, even without those particular appendages. The large and exaggerated head with bulging eyes, the proportionally smaller abdomen, and spindly arms, combined with the stained paper and controlled scribbled lines, made the figure appear almost alien and disturbing.

In terms of the coat by Miranda Herring, I enjoyed the vibrancy of color and the texture of the fabric she wove together on her loom. The way the coat was displayed was fresh and innovative by having it hang on a pole extended through the arms, suspended by transparent thread, thereby allowing it to rotate in midair and allow the observer to fully analyze and appreciate its form. As I have yet to take a textiles studio myself, this piece made me very excited about the possibilities of what can be achieved in that class and through that medium, in addition to making me more appreciative of the clothes I wear and the time and energy that goes into designing an envisioned work.

The etching by Sarah Gordon was well executed, enchanting, and delightful to look at with the delicately colored figure of Bibi Laloulette. The precision of the process of etching contrasted well with the flowing and airy watercolors applied over top, giving a sense of liveliness to the little boy, which made him seem more tangible and lifelike. I personally enjoyed this appropriation of Whistler’s original work – it felt much more soft and sweet, and even innocent; this etching worked well on a large scale, due to the looseness of line work in combination with color.