Penelope Umbrico Lecture: 10/05/09

Suns From Flickr

Embarrassing Books

Mirrors

Image Collection # 4 "Instances of Casually Flung Clothing" 2007

The second artist lecture I attended was Penelope Umbrico who was part of the Photo and Film Department’s Visiting Artist Series. Photographer and sculptor, Penelope Umbrico, earned a BFA from Ontario College of Art in Canada and a MFA from the School of Visual Arts in NY where she currently lives and works. She is the recipient of the Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship Grant in 2008, the Harvestworks Scholar Residency award in 2008, and in 2002 she was the recipient of the New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship Grant that spring. She has public and private collections in museums such as the International Center of Photography in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art also in New York, the Museum of Modern Art, the Rhizome Art Base, and the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida.
During her lecture she spoke a lot about how her inspiration and ideas for all of her on going pieces come from magazines, catalogs, websites such as Flickr, and other media that tend to bombard the public with repetitive knowledge. She started her lecture out by explaining one of her oldest pieces that began right around the time of 9/11. She was currently living and working in NYC and her father called her and asked her to search Ebay for a specific dish. She became so addicted to “the search” that she started collecting all different shapes, sizes, and colored dishes off of Ebay and photographed each of them individually. She created a digital animation project with all of these photographs of the dishes. However, at that point it was risky to be receiving packages in the mail from strangers because of the anthrax scare right after 9/11. This process almost became thrilling and quite a rollercoaster ride.
Umbrico spoke about how she has always had an interest in catalogs and home repair magazines from places like Lowe’s and Home Depot that she began really studying them, their imagery, and their fictional characters. She talked about these home catalogs that are sent to you begin to invade your space. For example one of the projects she created out of this was one involving mirrors and how with out mirrors around she was getting a feeling of disappearance. She began looking at the placement of mirrors in spaces/rooms in the catalogs of home and living and made sculptures of mirrors by scanning the mirror images from the catalogs and printing them to actual size. The last part to her piece was taking all these prints of mirrors and mounting them onto plexi-glass and hanging them as “fake mirrors” on the gallery walls all together.
Her Flickr suns piece was one that I thought not only visually pleased the audience but it also quietly said a lot just being static on the wall of a gallery. Horizons, places one can never get or reach, are what were depicted in these romantic Honeymoon brochures she got her initial inspiration from. All of these aesthetically pleasing sunsets printed in this book enticing newlyweds to come visit here! Because of those horizons and sunsets from the brochures, she took to the internet and researched how many hits she could get when putting in the word sunset into the Flickr image engine. She downloaded 2,350 images of suns from different peoples flickr sites, cropped them, made them her own, and created an installation of 2,350 "gorgeous" sunsets. She showed this installation at the New York Photo Festival and it was titled "541,795 Sunsets on Flickr on 12/03/06". Each time she installed this piece into a new gallery space, she would check the number of hits on Flickr for sunsets and would change the number in the title of the work.

Penelope Umbrico's Artist Website
Arrythmia Digital Project

Monday a.m. Artist Post 10/05

This semester I am incorporating the audience more into each of my pieces and because there are many things to consider when it comes to your audience I have been researching and reading about directors for films and other performance type medium. A movie that I saw recently that struck me as an intelligent approach to grabbing the audience and capturing them for the entirety of the film was “500 Days of Summer.” Directed by Marc Webb and director of Photography being Eric Steelberg, these two directors brought a good amount of visual interest to the non-traditional boy meets girl love story.
Eric Steelberg, cinematographer living on the west coast, is a native of Los Angeles and has a great amount of background in still photography. This is quite evident in his work such as “Juno” and “500 Days of Summer” because of the strong compositional shots in between scenes. The photographic compositions have an artistic and pleasing way of carrying the audience and taking care of their visual wants and needs. On his artist website, it states that he shot his first short film at age 16 and won two national and one international awards for that film. Without attending film school, he worked on over 40 major US and international film festivals and gained his lensing, lighting, and compositional skills and talents from experience. In 2006 he won a Grand Jury Prize Award and an Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival for “Quinceanera”.
Along with feature length films, Steelberg has directed several music videos and commercials. His music video collection includes artists like the Postal Service, KDT, and Deep Dish. His commercial clients include Walmart, Sprint, Miller Light, Buick, Matsunichi, Century Council, and Sunsilk. When looking at some of his commercial and video work, I noticed how he can take the audience and give them familiar visuals to help draw them in and feel content while viewing the work.
When reading through Steelberg’s blog, he notes some of the difficulties and challenges that are presented to him and the film business when in the beginning stages of filming. Last week in a chapter in the Mike Figgis book for my digital film class, I read that many filmmakers do not make films because they claim they do not have the funds are are not willing to go to the lengths to find it or make sacrifices. I found it hard to believe when I read that the budget for filming “500 Days of Summer” was significantly less than the budget for “Juno” which creates problems. It was very informative reading through his blog posts and getting an insight into what he writes in his journal.
What I feel I can gain from his work is his connection that he makes with his audience using his talents in composition and lighting. I want to have a stronger connection and relationship with my audience and would like for my audience to feel the same with my performances. Steelberg turns the light on for his audience and I think it would be a great step for my work if I could turn and direct the lights on my work.

Artist Website
Marc Webb's Artist Website
Audience Research Web Page
Eric Steelberg's Variety Page

Thursday a.m. Idea Post 10/01

The idea of taking part in a performance…All of the components that are involved are important to the future success of my work. Seeing your performance from an outsider’s perspective is something that I have been thinking a lot about lately and how it can change the experience of the audience while attending a performance. The shape of the frame could potentially aid in explaining to the audience where they are and also be the deciding factor in how displaced they may feel from what is going on. When in reality they are the ones who have created this framing device and viewpoint. When I set my mind more on the audience and concentrate on what they see, I am finding that it really makes me want to incorporate the outside life and its dynamic environment into my performances. I am envisioning an upcoming performance set in a fast upbeat environment such as a very busy intersection on a main road in Richmond. With this vision, I am seeing how the performer reacts and interacts to the changing environment that is ultimately being created by the performer’s audience. The first installment of this collection from last semester was set in controlled settings where there were usually one or two people who made up the audience. What about making these performances public and gaining momentum and energy from the audience involvement? How can it bring about many unexpected changes to what I think will be the end result in my performances?

Monday a.m. Artist Post 9/28

Miranda July works include video, performances, web-based projects, and writing and directing plays. Miranda July was born on February 15, 1974 in Barre, Vermont as Miranda Jennifer Grossinger. She now works under the name Miranda July. As a young child, she moved to Berkley, California where she would grow up and start her visual and performing arts career. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Whitney Biennale, Cannes Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival to name a few. She currently has an interactive sculpture at the Venice Biennale titled “Eleven Heavy Things”.
Miranda July has made several films and done her fair share of performances starting with her collaborative performances in the early 90’s with music groups like Sleater-Kinney, Chicks on Speed, and Dub Narcotic. Other performances she is known for is one titled “The Swan Tool” from 2000-2002. This performance consisted of video, performance, live music, and helium. It is about a woman who cannot decide whether she should live or if she should die. While performing this on a narrow catwalk between two screens, she created an illusion for her audience that she was digging a hole in her backyard to bury herself in. Another one of her interactive works that I have found to be a strong one is titled “The Hallway” and was commissioned by the Yokohama Triennial in 2008. This project was made up of a 125-foot hallway and it was lined with 50 wooden signs with text inscribed. “The text acts as an internal voice saying, ‘It’s too late to go back now but the end seems far away’” as the viewer walks down the hallway that serves as a metaphor for the paths of life that we travel down. “And like life, the hall is filled with indecision, disappointment, boredom, and joy- and it does end”. I enjoy this piece a lot because the viewers can all have different experiences with this piece, according to how fast they read, how fast they walk, how patient they are, and if boredom sets in on them while they are walking down this extremely long hallway.
Her film “Me You and Everyone We Know” is July’s first feature length film and has gotten a good amount of positive feedback. Created in 2005, her first feature length film won a jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. From an excerpt about July’s film on her website states that “In July’s modern world, the mundane is transcendent and every day people become radiant characters who speak their innermost thoughts, act on secret impulses and experience truthful human moments that at times approach the surreal. They seek togetherness and through tortured routes and find redemption in small moments that connect them to someone else on Earth.”

Artist Website
Article on July
July's Web Project Website

Spencer Finch Lecture: 09/24/09

Visiting artist, Spencer Finch, was born in New Haven, CT in 1962 and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He earned a BA in Comparative Literature from Hamilton College Clinton in NY and a MFA in sculpture in 1989 from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. Before embarking on his educational path in the US, he attended the Doshita University in Kyoto, Japan from 1983-1984.
The painting and printmaking department put this lecture on and I went into this lecture thinking we were going to be looking at slides of oils, pastels, and two dimensional work. I was completely blown away when he not only began showing several slides of his paintings but he got into the science of his color making strategies and how he incorporates that into his sculpture. With a good amount of his work that he showed today, Finch would visit a natural area, soak up his surroundings, and either measure the light with instruments to get the right intensity and color or he would simply take his paints out to the site and patiently sit, mix, and compare until he got the color. One of his works that he spoke of for measuring the light and color was his piece titled Walden Pond. Finch went out to Walden Pond and measured the natural scenery by comparing the colors to swatches from a Monet painting. Finch uses his influences like Whitman, Dickens, and Monet to power the ideas in his work.
Currently, Finch is working on a project for the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He is working on the facades of both the child and adults wings creating an affect from the outside using specific colors of tinted glass. When he spoke about this project he said it was more about the construction and design aspect than creating a concept and making a piece from that concept. Another sculpture that he recently just completed was an installation at the Highline Park in NY, NY. He spent an entire day on a boat on the Hudson and matched the colors of the Hudson throughout the day. He then recreated the colors of the Hudson using colored glass and installing it square by square in a portion of the Highline Park.
I really enjoyed his lecture. I felt that he spoke intelligently about his work but still maintained humility and did not get ahead of his audience. I find it very great and rewarding how much travel and research he does before he even begins a new piece. It is clear to viewer that he solidifies his ideas beforehand and has a solid ground underneath each piece before he even begins production. Good choice Painting and Printmaking Department!

NY Times Article on Finch

Thursday a.m. Idea Post 09/24

After last week’s individual meeting and idea blog posting about how confused and out of sync I am with my work, I have spent the last six days contemplating many aspects of my life and how they are affecting my work. When I think of performances, I think about change, a process, a transition from one thing to another, progression or digression, movement, and action. Performances occur on a daily basis all around us and we may or may not choose to take part in the act. But performance for me has so much to do with what is changing in the action and ironically it’s the changes in life that I cannot swallow. I cannot handle when the norm that I have been accustomed to for so long is switched and I must adapt to a new habit. However, changes that don’t seem to affect me much I always notice but am not emotionally brought down by them. For example, tonight when I went into the bathroom at the restaurant I went into the third stall and the seat on the toilet was slightly pushed over to the right. This did not affect me much as you just sit wherever there is a seat. Nonetheless, I thought that was weird. Before I left the restaurant I went to the bathroom and used the same third stall and the seat on the toilet was slightly pushed over to the left. This stuck in my head. Me maneuvering around the cock-eyed toilet seats at the restaurant this evening was an act or performance in itself.
When I ask myself why I do performances my reasoning has come to be this: I do performance art because it is something I’m familiar with. I think of myself as a child as a non-stop performer. I loved the attention. Now, as an adult, I find myself still a daily performer but with different motives. I perform on a daily basis in an attempt to mask parts of who I am and if I’m very uncomfortable the performance almost becomes me conforming to whomever I’m around; all including my language, character, and my conversations. Really, we are all performers. Some of us are on the stage more often than others and some of us too naïve to believe we aren’t being true to who we really are when we act in ways other than ourselves; naïve or maybe just unwilling. I’m not sure if it’s more comical knowing you perform your life away and not doing anything about it or performing and pretending just to come to each closing day same person you woke up as. I want to grow. Becoming an artist, going to art school was my attempt and my vehicle away from my old ways and into a new life I want to make for myself. I want to tell the truth. In my youth, I was a happy performer. In my middle and high school years when obligations started to pile up, I conformed into the person/role model every one wanted me to be with very few outlets where I could simply be myself. This is not I complaining. This is a realization.
So I am either going to take part in the performances or be a part of the audience. I have been watching this tomato that sits in my kitchen window steadily decompose. It started out as a bright red, smooth skinned edible vegetable. With each day that moved forward, the tomato sat on the same windowsill in the same daily sunlight but steadily transitioned into a new form. I passed by this tomato every day, 10 or 12 times, and never felt the need to throw it away or do something with it. I just let it stay there and take shape into what it had already began to transition into. I was the audience for this performance. As the audience, I did remain passive but I was attentive and aware of the change that was going on. I would like to continue to explore situations where I can choose to be the performer or the audience.

Monday a.m. Artist Post 9/21

Zhu Ming, born in 1972 in Changsha, Hunan Province, and then moved to Beijing to pursue his arts in 1991. One year later, Ming hooked up with several other young Chinese artists to form the group the Beijing East Village. Other artists who make up this group are Ma Liuming, Zhang Huan and photographer Rong Rong. Some of his solo exhibits include two in 2008 at the Chinese Contemporary Gallery in Beijing and the other at the Galeria Estiarte in Madrid Spain. In 2007 Ming had another solo exhibit at the Chinese Contemporary Gallery in Beijing and in 2006 his “Without Boundary” performance was shown at the PYO Gallery in Beijing as well. In 2003 another one of his performances, the Liquid Sea, was at the Contemporary Museum of Sydney and another performance at 1995 titled The Anonymous Mountain Raised by a Metre Beijing, China.
Ming does a lot of different kinds of work but I have found his performances to be very interesting with a solid conceptual base. His work has been described as one “that deals with the passage of time, physical extremes, isolation, and attempts at communication or the futility and ephemeral nature of these attempts”. One of his performances, May 8 1999 he uses himself as a tool inside a large balloon. His tools include Chinese ink and fluorescent paint. An exerpt from an article by the Chinese Contemporary Art Gallery: “His body is covered with a fluorescent paint (probably toxic) and he paints the inside of the balloon with Chinese ink. The atmosphere inside the balloon causes the ink to disappear almost immediately and the artist’s time in the balloon is constantly limited by the slow and steady filling of the balloon with water”. The Chinese ink that he used is a symbol in historical Chinese art for both rebellion and tradition. As a member of the young art movement in Beijing, Zhu Ming’s work was very familiar with the concepts of rebellion and tradition in the Chinese culture.
Among the great amounts of experimental work the Beijing East Village has created their piece titled “The Anonymous Mountain Raised by a Metre” is their most famous. I was not able to find any images or documentation of this piece however much of Zhu Ming’s work is viewed very controversial in traditional China. Because of that, a good amount of his work and the work of the Beijing East Village is only shown abroad. “Zhu Ming’s performances, through his raw display of his naked body, are controversial works that call attention to the vulnerability and aloneness of all humankind. During the first decade of his performances, his works were banned from public display in Mainland China because it was believed that Zhu Ming’s works were polluting to the general public”.
Ming’s imagery and documentation of his performances are very strong and have a striking appearance at first glance. When I was going through the several images online I found that, while being a means of documenting his performances, each image had a gorgeous aesthetic to it. Each image could easily stand on its own not just as a part of the performance but also as a single conceptual piece. I find it very helpful to see a performance artist make pieces that can stand by themselves and not be dependent on the performance itself.

Chinese Contemporary Art Gallery

Chinese Culture Article

Chinese Contemporary Art Article on Zhu Ming