Christian Boltanski Presentation Responce

I found Sabrina's presentation on the artist Christian Boltanski interesting. She showed us slides of his installations that deal a lot with the use of light. I learned of Boltanski's history with the Holocost and the profound effect it had on his work. His installations and sculptures deal with his relationships with life and death.

The installation titled "The Children of Dijon" is one that uses light in an interesting and different way. The light gives a soft glow and a calm almost somber ambiance. It also seems that this piece speaks of death and mortality.

Extracting Interpretation, Project Proposal

For my final project I plan on doing a series of images that combine photo-shop edited images with traditional materials. I'd like to show the developement of a character much like Tsung Tsai in the book "Bones of the Master". I'd like to utilize my new knowlege of photo shop in this project. I've aslo recently become interested in paper cut outs and would like to experiment and possibly incorporate them into the images. The images will be in a series of 3 and will be in chronological order. I'd like for them to be rather small, maybe 5x7" or so. I think that by keeping them smaller the details will be more precise and the images will feel more personal. I plan on having the character be cut out of the paper, and the back ground be the photoshop images. For source material I plan on using the Internet and scanned pictures from books.

Extracting Interpretations: "Bones of the Master" by, George Crane

Desciptive Words:
1. captivating
2. discriptive
3. difinitive
4. graphic
5. illistrative
6. authentic
7. poetic
8. picturesque
9. revealing
10. genuine
11. specific
12. lyrical
13. creative
14. legendary
15. colorful

When I read the book "Bones of the Master", the colors I pictured were warm tones of red, yellow and brown. To me they seemed to be shifting and changing, staying still for just a short moment at a time.

The scene that stands out most for me is when George meets Tsung Tsai in the 2nd chapter. The way George describes the scene is very discriptive. "But it was a morning so lovely: a few rambling clouds, a light pine breeze blowing, a waming sun that dazzled the snow..." The author gives the reader a feel of the weather and the smells in the air. The description of the sun dazzling off the snow causes me almost instictively to squint my eyes. I think this scene stands out to me also because it is some thing I can relate to, unlike the scenes in the 1st chapter which take place in Mongolia.

The author does an amazing job of describing the character Tsung Tsai. It makes it easy to picture this rather small, frail looking older man. With his tattered clothes and quiet demeanor he seems like a person that it easily looked over in passing. It seems that the outside of this humble inteligent man, although described in detail, is less important.

George, the other main character in the book, hasn't been describes in as much detail as Tsung Tsai. I get a sence of who he is, what he is about, and a little bit about his background, but not much about how he looks. I think that by not physically describing George the author allows the reader to fill in the blanks, and relate more closely to George. I am also curious of George's daughter, who Tsung Tsai says " This baby have deep Buddah roots." I'm interested to see if she becomes a more prominent character in the coming chapters.

"Born" 2002 by Kiki Smith

Fomal Discription of "Born" by Kiki Smith

“Born” by Kiki Smith is a life size bronze sculpture of a deer giving birth to a woman. It was the first image I came across on the Internet of her work. My immediate response to this piece was curiosity. It made me curious of what the artist was trying to communicate with such a bizarre sculpture. My first thought was that it could be comparing humans to animals, and to show the similarities between us. It sparked my interest in this artist.

“Born” is a life size sculpture of a young doe giving birth to an adult woman. The woman is fully exposed except for her ankles and feet. She is lying on her left side with her hands to her mouth. The deer is standing with her two front legs parallel to each other, and her the hind legs a step apart. Although the deer's ears seem to be at attention, the rest of the body seems to be relaxed and natural.

After researching Smith's work, I've learned that she prefers the concepts of her art be open to interpretation by the viewer. The composition and placement of the subjects in the sculture give the work movement. Naturally, we read from left to right and this picture of the sculpture reads from left to right and high to low. The way the light plays off the bronze gives the monotone sculpture monochromatic hues. The life size scale of the deer and woman helps the viewer relate to the subject.

Although to some this image may be disturbing, I think it is kind of beautiful. I think that the story relates to the relationship between humans and animals, how similar we all are. I feel that it could also speak of the reincarnation of humans into other earth creatures. I love that this piece can be interpreted by different people, each in their own way.

Alison Berger Glassworks

Before viewing the Design Life Now exhibition at the ICA I had a chance to scan through the book in class. Of coarse being a glass artist, I was instantly drawn to the blown glass. The glass vessels of Alison Berger Glassworks are simple in their form and color(or lack of color). My immediate response was to the simplicity of the classically shaped vessels and the weight they seem to have with the solid mass that occurs in most of them.

The vessels are displayed in a group of six. They are all blown of clear glass which allows the light to reflect and sparkle off of them. They vary in height from 10"-15". My favorite one is a solid sphere of glass at the bottom with a hollow neck of approximately the same length. The clear glass lets the small air bubbles and imperfection to show.

I feel that the variety of vessels work together and seem to form a single work of art. They all share similar traits yet no two are alike. The glass is left in its natural smooth texture. The lack color allows the light to add the colors reflected. The emphasis seems to be on the weighted bottoms which add balance.

I feel that Berger's designs directly relate to the history of glass blowing. A lot of the vessel shapes are directly taken from classic design. She took these classical shapes and added her touch on them without losing the strength of the original design.

Tibetan Painting Traditions with Pema Rinzin

Pema Rinzin uses the ancient technique of grinding stones to get pure color for his paintings. Stones, like malichite, are ground with water until smooth. The water helps to seperate the pure color from the dirt, the dirt floats to the top and can easily be removed. The stones that are harder have a richer color than those that are softer. The majority of the stones used are from Arizona, where they are plentiful, more affodable, and of the highest quality.

The paintings are done on a fexible canvas made of cotton/animal skin, and glue. Each canvas is dried in the sun and take about a week to prepare. The crushed stone colors need to be mixed with a binder so that they stick to the canvas and don't crack off as they dry. The binder is a glue made of cow/yack skin. The more common glue made of rabbit skin is less flexible and causes the paint to crack.

Painting is done in a very specific order. First a sketch is made in black ink. Then the larger areas are filled with color, starting with the mid-tones. Then the lights and darks of that area are added. Then so on until the small areas are filed aswell. Then the details and then the gold accents. The artist must work quickly so the areas of color will be consistent.

I found this lecture to be very informative. It's amazing to see where colors can be taken from and have been for thousands of years.

Kiki Smith, untitled 2002

Kiki Smith Research (so far)

Kiki Smith

Bio:
Kiki Smith was born on Jan.18,1954 in Nuremberg, Germany.
Her father,Tony Smith, was a sculptor.
Her mother, Jane Lawrence, an opera singer.
She had two younger twin sisters, Seton- an artists and photographer who now lives in Paris and
Beatrice-who died of AIDS in 1988
She was raised in S.Orange, New Jersey and moved to N.Y. In 1976.



Method, Style, and Form (work in general):
Uses many different mediums in her artwork, such as: prints on handmade paper, cellulose, terra cotta, bronze, ceramics, glass, porcelain, cloth, and wax.

She works to master every possible technique used in casting and printmaking.


Content of Work:
1980- the death of her father turned her work to themes of mortality and decay, focusing on human
corporeality. (example: hand in jar 1983)

1985- studied to become an emergency medical technician, her studies had a profound impact on her
work. (example: glass stomach 1985)

1990's- her investigation into the body continued into the 1990's, when she introduced the life size
human figures. (example: pee body 1992, tale 1992)


Working Process:
She likes playing around with different media, materials and techniques and to make reference to their different histories.

She believes her art is an artifact of a process and enjoys learning on the job.

She is inspired by curiosity and discomfort.

"L'Annunciazione" by, Carlo Crivelli

Color Grid