Kate Moore: Senior Portfolio: December 2009

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Amy Hauft Lecture: 12/02/09

Image of Installation at Western Michigan University "Counter Re-Formation" Oct. 2009

A professor in the sculpture and extended media department at VCU, Amy Hauft, spoke this evening at the Anderson Gallery where she currently has her “Counter Re-Formation” installed. She first installed this piece based around large architectural formats creating indoor landscapes at the University of Western Michigan Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery from September 10 to October 9, 2009. The piece inhabited a greatly different space when installed at Western Michigan therefore posing challenges on her when asked to install it here at the Anderson. She wanted the viewer to be able to view the white sugar like sculpture acting as snowdrifts, icebergs, sand dunes, and mountain ranges from a straight on view and a view from above. Because landscapes have a large influence on her work, she felt that it is important to see the landscape that you are standing in from above; essentially understand it in a larger picture. A part of her installation, the piece that stands in the center, is a mini staircase that is reproduced out of sugar. She initially saw this mini staircase at a Cooper Hewitt show and saw it as a modern elemental representation of a DNA strand. She was able to convince people at the museum to let her spend some time with the staircase that was then made out of wood and measure it and take some photographs of it as well. She then got in touch with culinary artist and one who specializes in ephemeral art in cooking, Ivan Day, who helped her enter the world of the sugar cane. They worked together and spent time over 16th and 17th century cookbooks that then encouraged her to incorporate the table that was modeled after Louis the XIV’s dining table. Her work began to be heavily influenced by the European Baroque era where they used to make small figurines out of sugar instead of porcelain because of the price; and it looked greatly similar.

Her exhibition at the Anderson had an extra piece to it. Because of the size constraints of the room she built a spiral staircase in the corner of the room so one at a time the viewer could maneuver up the stairs and see the piece from above. The tables appear to mimic continental form and when installed at the University she used white curtains that added a river like quality and movement to the piece. I appreciated her talk of how all of her pieces came from her attempt to create a landscape indoor and recreate moments that she has had outdoors. I enjoy the personal quality her work has and the movement that it takes on even with the materials of wood and steel being the bulk of the make up. I would have liked to see it installed at the University because being a site specific installation I feel like it may have had a different effect on me as a viewer. However, I thought the spiral staircase was a clever choice and the idea that only one viewer can shimmy up it at a time makes it even quirkier.

University of Western Michigan Show Website

VCU's Anderson Gallery

Thursday a.m. Idea Post 12/03

Instructional Dance "Macarena" # 5 Digital C-Print 10x8in 2009

For this performance, the location seemed to be more difficult to choose than the previous four. I have become more aware of my audience and the expectations from each shoot and because of those thoughts in the back of my head I became anxious and doubtful of my performance. Last weekend I researched improvisational performances and wrote about how it pertained to my work in my artist research blog. While performing yesterday I realized how much I already improvised during my performances according to who would come my way or what types of situations I would get myself into during these performances. For instance, yesterday there was this small goat that stood at the fence throughout the entire performance and watched. He was an engaged audience who was curious as to what my motives were and why I was there so early in the morning. I saw him mid way through my performance and moved toward him to see how he would react. How would an audience member react if I noticed them becoming intently focused on me and then moved in close to he/she? Also, during the last part of my performance there happened to be a VCU field trip passing through and making their ways up the path by the barn animals. I motioned them to pass on through and I had to change my place in the frame in order to let the whole class pass by. All of these instances were completely unexpected and therefore I had to react on the spot while on camera.

These performances this semester have encouraged me to test the waters and step outside of my box. All I wanted to do was turn around and go home yesterday morning. Not a lot of the animals were out, there was some employees fumbling around, and some visitors were all there to witness this performance. These performances have challenged me in several ways. They have challenged my anxiety out in public places, my ability to act as other and embody another character, and they have also challenged my self confidence and encouraged me to be more sure about my choices and what I do.

I am feeling satisfied and content with the body of work that I have produced throughout the semester. As my last "Idea Blog" in my college career here at VCU, I want to end this blog on a positive and optimistic note. Using this blog space as an outlet to write all of my current thoughts and ideas down has been a very beneficial thing for me. I have found that I use this blog space also as a different kind of journal. The work that I have written about on this space the last two semesters is work that I would like to continue working on post graduation. My present love for writing and the encouragement to use this space as a place to jot down ideas and receive feed back has been a staple and essential for my work's growth. Thank you Blog Space and thank you Tom for setting forth this challenge and therefore bringing me closer to a body of work that I have thought hours about and have come to really enjoy.