Curtis Grynkewicz

Seminar Art ed Final

Otto Pienne

Otto Pienne- born 1928 in Germany-works currently in Groton, Massachusetts in his studio. He studied Philosophy and has taught at many different schools, mainly at MIT in Cambridge, teaching Environmental Art.  He’s apart of a group of artists named “Zero” who create art together and separately. It was formed mostly to put a name on the type of work they create, all of which is different but related to the environment.

It could be considered “science art”, for instance Pienne has been experimenting with light since 1959. In his piece appropriately named, “lightballet”, he moves light through a series of stencils in a windowless room. It almost creates a moving mosaic with shapes of light dancing across the walls.  It’s currently being displayed at MIT in show with Hans Haacke.

light ballet

Hans-Haacke  is also a member of the art group Zero. He is currently a New York based artist and like Otto Pienne, born in Germany. Blue Sail is an example of Haacke’s work and clearly shows the interest of environment and cause/effect. Along with Otto Pienne’s “lightballet” shown at MIT, Haacke’s piece named “Condensation Cube” is also being displayed, but not for the first time. It has been in a show at MIT in the 60′s. The cube shows the condensation in the gallery depending on the humidity and weather in the room. Water droplets collect on a clear cube and really speaks to how things connect with each other. Everything communicates with the environment it’s in. Haacke’s interest in this idea is as clear as the ‘Condensation Cube’.

Condensation Cube, Hans-Haacke

At the ICA and their New Media program for teens they try to keep things simple and also share ideas. By keeping things simple the students start with a concept and eventually get into more complicated things by executing an idea and experimenting. Questions that are important are, How to hook kids in and Grab their attention, and how to get the kids to come? Firstly, we learned that it is necessary to break down the “awkward wall” between student and teacher. Then immediately allow the students to use their hands and mind or else they’ll lose interest and stop showing up to class sessions.

Also the purpose of the new media program is to allow teens to show work through the ICA’s website. This showing of work is somewhat professional with artists statements and bio’s. This really is a great opportunity for teens in the Boston area, not only do they get a place to show their work but they also get the chance to meet professional artists that are showing work at the ICA.

The New Media Program is wonderful to see because it gives kids freedom with structure, and there should be more support for such programs.

Artists for Humanity

The purpose of Artists for Humanity is to culture local teens in the Boston area, and to also mentor young artists . This program is very much entrepreneurial because they sell work and pay these young artists to produce work and complete projects. I think it is a fantastic idea and also a great way to get kids into a very safe and inspiring environment. I really want to become a mentor there at some point because I was blown away by the way things were run there. I think it could be a rewarding experience and I’m going to stop by there with my portfolio after the semester is over.

Aspect Magazine

Above is a video advertisement for Aspect Magazine in Boston. The seminar II class met with Mike Mittleman–an artist, and Aspect editor of their video submissions. The purpose of Aspect Magazine is to collect video’s from new media artists around the globe and “share” them. Mr. Mittleman made sure to point out that the purpose isn’t to show “good” work, but rather all types of work, so people can see what artists are making with video and how. Not only does Aspect show professional artists in their dvd’s but an intern suggested to Mr. Mittleman that they do something for students so they could also share their work. Aspect eventually labeled this as “Aspect Easy”. So overall Aspect isn’t selling artwork, however they are selling dvd’s for educational purposes as well as a way to get the word out about what’s going on elsewhere in the world with this particular medium.

Aspect does this by breaking up the new media world in separate issues. Their most recent issue was a DVD on new media artists from China. They have also done a DVD on Middle-Eastern artists, Latin American, and so on. The beauty of Aspect is that the company is able to show work that normally wouldn’t be allowed in America because of other countries copy write laws since it’s not actually being showcased in a gallery.

Our class was able to view some of the pieces in their latest DVD. One of them I enjoyed very much by a Chinese artist named, Tsang kin-Wah. His piece was labeled, The Second Seal, with a sentence underneath reading, “Every being that opposes progress should be food for you”. The video was a projection in a room with red text scrolling down walls stopping at the floor and ceiling. The phrases sort of snake and then audio of rain begins to play. As the rain begins to pick up the red text begins to move faster and eventually fills up the entire walls with red. We watched another video that disturbed me, with live fish in a running washing machine. Mr. Mittleman again emphasized that this is apart of the new media world. You are going to see things you don’t necessarily want to.

It was a very insightful morning, especially since I did not know much about the new media world. Much of the time at Aspect was spent talking about ideas surrounding art. Questions such as, Can you own an idea? or do you like the video? were answered and passed back and forth. All the while realizing that all art is subjective and when put in a position such as that of Mike Mittleman, you have to let go of your own artistic preference. As an Art Educator this is something you must learn to cope with and try to better understand why and what someone is trying to say or do.

China Isuue Ad

The Mills Gallery:

Above is one of the pieces being shown at the Mills gallery on Tremont St. in Boston. The show is titled “Residue” and is apart of the 22nd drawing show. Other pieces in the show weren’t even drawings, some were photo’s, video’s, and other types of medium. Much of the afternoon was spent talking about the concept of residue and how broad this idea is. We constantly are leaving a mark, in fact using a pencil is leaving the residue of the mark on paper. So this left the show open for interpretations. Overall i thought the show was very minimal, which isn’t a bad thing.

Some work I felt needed a stronger connection to this idea of residue, however I enjoyed the conversations that took place between my peers and the director of the Gallery. On another side note the atmosphere that the Mills gallery supplied was very appropriate for a showing of an artists artwork. I pictured what my own artwork would look like up on the walls. I believe that the Mills Gallery shows much respect for the artists and their work no matter which piece it is or which artists it belongs too.

I’m going to keep the 23rd drawing show in mind for next year and possibly submit a few pieces just to see what happens.

Overall, I feel that after a lull in the beginning of the field trip with the students from Swampscott high, the field trip went okay. It took me awhile to get the students in our group to even respond to me, however I felt as though I got students who clearly don’t usually have much to say about art to talk about why. This was a very valuable interaction and made me somewhat proud and confident about becoming a teacher. I even received a compliment from Mrs. Balliro–the mother of the mother–who said I was able to interact with students, “who are for lack of a better word, impossible”. Sometimes you have to bring yourself back to when you were at that age. I thought about the people I used to know and the friends I had. I could understand where a lot of these kids were coming from, and after I did so I really tried to make them feel comfortable, so they could say what they really think.

Admittedly, a few of the students in our group were stubborn, but after cracking their ego’s I felt they enjoyed talking with me because I was honest. I chose this approach because I wanted them to be honest as well.

BAA students:

I know these students well from doing my observation hours at the Boston Art Academy. After I found out we were talking them around the Sikander show at Massart I knew they would have valuable and interesting input and observations about the work. They are very verbal and honest students. I was paired with Taylor, who likes to do clay sculptures primarily. We sat at one of the animations and not only talked about the work but also about being an artist in general. We tried to decipher the animation, but eventually the conversation turned to, “does art have to have a meaning?” Taylor stated that he likes to work intuitively and just “do it”. I agreed that in a lot of the cases I work in the same way, however, I was quick to respond that Shahzia herself states in interviews that her work doesn’t necessarily have a specific meaning.

This conversation went on for awhile, because at BAA the teachers try to enforce–especially to the senior students–to give their art meaning. I don’t think that this is a bad thing at all because as a current art student at Massart, I have learned how to talk about a work of art, whether it be my own. a peers, or a work of art in a gallery. I think that getting the students to think about their own work differently now will help them in the future if they plan on attending a Art College or University.

Afterwards all the BAA students and my fellow peers shared our thoughts and observations. It was very nice to hear what all the BAA students had to say and see my fellow seminar I students interact so well with them during these conversations. I knew that this field trip would go far smoother that the trip to the MFA, but both were valuable experiences with two very different schools.

Mobius:

“Mobius”, was founded in 1977 and it’s purpose was to create a place to share artwork. We met with El Putnam, a member of Mobius and a performance artist. She showed us her artwork and spoke confidently about why she does what she does. The “gallery” we met in was a very small room, roughly 15 feet x 15 feet. We learned that the artists they show in that space use many different mediums. I clearly remember her describe the artwork as “experimental” more than a few times making it apparent that sound and dance is included. Very valid points were made that art doesn’t have to be on paper and can exist only for a certain period of time. Only until recently has it been made possible to record moments in time easily with current technologies and have video of performances to share.

As conversation progressed and as the history of Mobius began to be revealed we realized that this was a way to have dialogue about work in performance art. The focus was clearly on the art-makers and again the need for documentation in performance art, even though video’s and photos are at hand there is still a need for a space to perform for a live audience. El Putnam said, “I turn into a different person, or and alter ego of myself, when I perform. Everything becomes intuitive in front of the audience.” This is how she “talks” to other artists and the audience.

El Putnam during performance

Harvard Art Museum:

Leonard Baskin, "The Hydrogen Man"

Above is one of the pieces I viewed at The Harvard Art Museum in Cambridge, and by far the piece I looked at the most during the afternoon. It really inspired me to try and take a wood-cut class at some point. It’s by Leonard Baskin titled “The Hydrogen Man” and is roughly a 6 foot tall print.  Other artists we talked about and viewed were Sall Luette, Jasper Johns, Henry Moore, Emil Nolde, and more. Sall Luette actually painted the entrance way to the museum with students from Harvard. I feel like I’m spelling his name wrong so please correct me if I am.

The tour guide we had focused on works that incorporated the human figure. We talked about sculpture’s paintings and work done with other mediums. The tour guide was very good at making us talk about the works of art and asked us many questions. The gallery didn’t have a lot of work up, but the work they did have was very interesting. Admittedly Some work I didn’t much care for but still worth appreciating because I had heard of most of the artists before.

The most rewarding thing was again, seeing the print by Leonard Baskin. When I got home from the Museum I spent an hour looking at some other works by him. I really like the aesthetic quality of his pieces. I had seen his work before when I was far younger and didn’t appreciate it nearly as much as I should have, however the memory of seeing his work probably made it all the more better.

Above is a drawing I did with a child at the Boys and Girls Club in Dorchester. It absolutely made my day, laughing and sharing something with a student really made me realize why I wanted to teach in the first place. The students varied in age; most of them were between 7 and 10. Although I do not plan on teaching at the elementary age group it still was very insightful and enjoyable to be able to engage a student’s brain. The student challenged me to a motorcycle drawing contest, and once he saw my drawing, he told me to title it, “the worst motorcycle ever to live”. I believe I will keep this “work of art” until the day I die. Afterwords more students asked me to draw them more motorcycles, it seems that it was inspiring to them at the time.

Museum of Fine Arts:

Before my peers and I went to the Boys and Girls Club we met up at the Museum of Fine Arts to discuss a field trip that we will be coordinating. We will be chaperoning students from two different high schools around the museum to ask questions and spark conversations about opinions and ideas. My goal for the day is to not talk as much as listen and respond. I really want them to ask the questions and I will try to strike up opinions the students have with the work we will be viewing.

The day was spent mainly in preparation for the high school students and to organize how the day will go and make sure the field trip runs smoothly. We planned out a specific order of what work the students should look at and which pieces of art to focus on in each gallery. I look forward to hearing from the students and what they honestly think.

The Bakalar & Paine Galleries are showing Shahzia Sikander’s exhibition-The Exploding Man and Other Abstractions-and my peers and I went to view it together. The Curator of Education for the Gallery at Massart, India Clarke, met with us and explained ways to “look” at any work of art and also then vocalize the observations. She told us firstly to walk around the gallery and find one piece to look at alone. I sat down immediately in front of one of her animations that was projected very largely on one of the walls in the gallery. It was very abstract and was accompanied by ambient music. You could tell the use of her hand and her own art work as the animation progressed. The colors were mainly pale colors except for the concrete image of a man dressed in a Colonial style outfit that is very intense red, and as the title of the exhibition suggests, at the end of the animation he  explodes into a bunch of tiny pieces. I noticed also the use of symbols and patterns that are commonly used in Islamic culture and artwork. I got the feel that the Colonial Man image was infiltrating the more mellow images. Also the use of layers was clear as a lot of translucent colors came through the layering.

We met up and talked about the piece Confrontation, a very large painting done on an enormous piece of watercolor paper depicting an exploding man…everyone participated, I talked alot about the possible meanings with connections to the exploding man theme. I learned of Shahzias interest in the Qur’an, which I found interesting because I’m currently taking an Islamic Art and Architecture class. While watching the video before meeting with my peers and Ms. Clarke, I noticed that some of the images Shahzia uses are similar to symbols, such as the vines, flowers, and calligraphy in Islamic art. It contrasts well since she chooses to use this Image of an “Exploding Man” that is dressed in colonial garb. It contrasts because no concrete images of the human figure are used in Islamic art and she chose to combine these symbols and images with a very concrete image of a human from a very different culture than Islam. I then learned from Ms. Clarke that Shahzia is very interested in the history of Imperialism and The Opium Wars. This intrigued me and I had got the feeling beforehand while watching the video that this was a statement on imperialism.

After the class met together, we paired up and talked one-on-one with our partner about the pieces we viewed alone. I found this to be a lot of fun and interesting. I appreciate how Shahzia uses a lot of layers and mixed medium since these methods are familiar to me in my own artwork. She lets the actual color of the paper-that she sometimes makes herself- show through in her art, which we found refreshing because most artists consider the  negative space that the paper creates to be unfinished. I bonded with my partner about this and how Shahzia’s use of text is very intriguing. Again, I add to the conversation that I use text a lot in my own work. This method was more enjoyable because the conversation never stopped and led my partner and I to view the rest of the work and continue discussing our likes, dislikes, and observations of the whole exhibition.

Research:

In an article written in 2003 Daniel Belasco states the she, “explored timely questions of hybridity and nationalism”. This is something I stated similarly from my own observations of the gallery at Massart. I said that she fused similar styles of Islamic art-something that is localized to her nationality -with concrete imagery of a colonial soldier, that speaks of a different sense of nationalism. In the same article the author describes a different animation than the one I had viewed as something rotating and changing, “emphasizing the Pakistan-born artist’s fascination with shape shifting and metamorphosis.” This fascination was clear to me as I had observed the way in which she layers the translucent images to create or form something else and in some cases disappear all together.(Art in America, June 2003, p.123-124 Brant Publishing INC)

From each article I read I learned more and more about Sikander’s history. She “trained at the National College of Arts in Lahore in miniature painting, an art form dating back to the 15th century…Sikander uses contemporary iconography and breaks the rigid structure of traditional paintings, adapting the techniques of Mughal miniature painting to contemporary art.” I’ve learned from my Islamic art history class that the Mughal empire ruled Pakistan and helped spread Islam further east into India and Asia. This knowledge of her major in school brings more understanding to her obsession with Islam and imperialism. Not only this but how she incorporates these nationalistic ideas in her larger work, separate from her miniature’s.(Art Asia Pacific , March/April 2009, p.124 issue 62)

I also got the feeling from Ms. Clarke at the Bakalar Gallery and from my professor that there have been some political arguments over her work in Pakistan. I found an article that confirms this feeling where Sikander, “complained that when she visited Pakistan not long ago she was peppered with questions about her politically charged work.” It was easy to tell from the context that questions like these annoy her, when in reality “Sikander seems to be saying her work is more about growing up surrounded by a wide range of visual stimuli-from the traditional Muslim world to pop culture-than about the cultural symbolism of the imagery.” These quotes confirm mixed emotions and questions I myself thought of while viewing her work. I didn’t know if she was trying to make some grand statement about imperialism or if the history of it intrigued her. I now know that she merely was inspired by it and also by where she is today in this wide world with a variety of influences.(Art Us, Dec 2005, p.12 issue 11)

The day started off very early, gray and rainy I arrived at the subway stop a half an hour early. I sat watching all the high school students in transit to all the various high schools in Boston. At one point I wondered if some of them might go to the schools I was about to be visiting. My fellow peers eventually showed up one by one and group by group. In good timing as well because I began to think I was waiting in the wrong place.

As I entered the Jeremiah Burke High School through a metal detector I realized how different this high school was from my own. However, feelings and old memories came through me as I walked through the hallways. I remembered how awake I would have been by now when i was in high school–and when the first class entered the art room, it confirmed my memory–it was like a gust of energy entered the room. Chatting loudly and surprised to see a full class worth’s of college students standing awkwardly in the corner of the room they exclaimed, “What?! Who are You?” Who are they?”We, my peers and I, immediately jumped in and asked questions about what they were working on. Some students were more talkative than others, and some had trouble speaking English all together. I seemed to be able to bond well with some talking about sports and music as influences in not only their lives, but my own, and how it can inspire artwork. I specifically remember talking to a student about his t-shirt, which depicted an artist i am familiar with in the “hip-hop” world. It was nice to bond with a student.

I learned that only about fifty percent of students at the Jeremiah Burke High school graduate. Some students had only been in America for a few weeks; it was amazing to learn from them about how school here was different from where they came from. It really made me realize that I wouldn’t mind at all teaching art to these students. Before Observing that art class I was concerned about teaching at a High School in a lower socioeconomic neighborhood, but since i speak Spanish and the students were so lively and full of energy, I’d be delighted to try to help students move forwards towards their academic goals no matter what the circumstances. I’d almost prefer having experience teaching in that environment my first few years out of school so I can learn how to help students and develop ideas and lesson plans for future classes.

Dorchester Academy:

Already Inspired by the students at Jeremiah Burke, I had no idea that I was about to be meeting a woman with true enthusiasm and control for teaching. Her name was Ms. Chandra Dieppa Ortiz and she for lack of a better word is “awesome”. Although we did not get to experience her actually teaching a class, her energy and liveliness was inspiration enough to understand how much she loves her students. I remember a few quotes from her that really left an impression. When she veered off topic of a question from one of my peers she makes a hand gesture and says, “you know there’s nothing better in the world to plant a little tiny seed, and watch it grow inside your students faster than you could of believed and…Bam! It’s an enormous plant.”

She relates so well with her students and cares about what she can do to help them create any form of art. She even started a music program at the school and received donations of instruments and music software so students could learn to record music. On her dry erase board you could see the names of her students favorite artists, most of them were musicians.

Learning about what she’s done with so little time, undoubtedly proved her ambition, determination and what is possible in an art educator’s career. After meeting with her and talking casually and conceptually I don’t think I have ever been more excited to become a teacher of my own.

Firstly id like to point out that the way in which the article was written confused me. I felt as if the writer thought I already knew what he/she was talking about–I don’t know much about art in which people interact with, so far in my art career I’ve been more focused on studying how to make art on my own, however the idea does intrigue me.

One of the ideas from the reading that did intrigue me were how “activation, authorship, and community are the most frequently cited motivations for almost all artistic attempts to encourage participation in art.” I think most art that would ask for people to participate, should involve the community since the reason you made the piece(or performed) was to have people do it themselves and experience the art for some purpose or feeling. Also authorship would then let the community know you, and what you stand by, not only an artist but as a member of the community. Finally activation I understood as making a point, or getting the community to again, participate and activate some thought as well as physically being apart of the work.

I like the idea that the inspiration from some art could be limitless and that the viewers/participants may learn or come up with ideas of their own that the,”authors might never have dreamed possible.”

Finally I would just like to add that getting people to experience something together, such as making a song, or participating in performance art, will allow for many people who think differently to work together. That in itself will break a barrier that I think all performance art is trying to achieve, political or not.