Chloe Hohmann

Vanessa Beecroft is a performance artists that incorporates other women’s nude and nearly nude bodies into her artwork. Her goal as an artist is to show people how media demands perfection from women. She often uses models in her performances that she airbrushes and cosmetically enhances to make them almost into living sculptures. She wanted all her models to be very uniform, same skin tone, same slender bodies, and all tall. They were supposed to look mannequins that were not to be touched. Her living sculptures shared the beauty of flowers but also their fate, they both start to wilt over time. Which she did not mind, she wanted the perfect picture to eventually become real. Beecroft describes herself as a “postfeminist” who depersonalizes the female figure buy highlighting its image quality, and that in my opinion is exactly what she does. Vanessa Beecroft has defiantly helped me think about beauty and about what my art work is saying.

My presentation begins with a five minute video. The video contains High School students from Burke, Elyse from the after school program at Roxbury Tenants, and the kids who I read to at the Betty Powers Library. I asked them art related questions and while I was asking them these questions I noticed something. All these kids don’t have a lot of knowledge about art but they all have an incredible intrest in it.  They all really enjoy art and love being in their art classes. However I don’t think schools give enough options of art classes for their students. I think that if schools provided more options like jewelry making, ceramics, fashion, photography, and more than they could learn so much about all different types of art. Also I feel like most High School students have no idea what contemporary art is.  I don’t think that’s right, students should be given the opportunity to see and learn about whatever kind of art there is. Art should be important to every school and I want students to get as much information about art as they want.

Final Presentation

When I first walked into the list building I was excited because I had been there before and I know that the LVAC always has great shows. When we entered the LVAC I noticed how dark one side of the gallery was. Than as we walked toward that side of the gallery I instantly recognized Otto Piene’s work. The electric rose was the first thing we saw. It is an incredibly interesting piece of work. I loved all of the little light bulbs, to me it really does resemble a rose.

I was very impressed how they were able to completely put it back together. We went into the next room and I was amazed. I was overwhelmed by how beautiful it was. It looked like we were in space. Otto really did create a light ballet. Even the sculptures themselves were great. I never wanted to leave that room but we had to got to the other side of the gallery. The right side of the gallery had a totally different feel to it. It was bright and looked very natural opposed to the left side which was very mechanical.

Hans Haacke piece that I liked the most was this giant rippling piece of fabric that took up half of the room. It was gorgeous. Even though the piece is really simple it reminded me of so many things, like the ocean. Almost all of his pieces had something to do with nature which I am personally very interested in. When we went to look at his photograph I could see clearly were he got his inspiration from. I hope to see more of both Hans and Ottos work. They are incredible artists and I am glad I got to experience their art.

Michael Mittelman founded Aspect Magazine in 2003 and since than there has been 18 volumes published. Aspect is one of the first DVD-based chronicles of time based media. Michael talked a lot about the magazine and his art work. He mentioned how sometimes he doesn’t always like what he puts in his magazine. I thought that was interesting. Why wouldn’t you only publish art that you liked? The movies he showed us were both fascinating and disturbing. I enjoyed the first video he showed us and than the next movie that came on was very different. At first I just thought we were going to have a washing machine but than he added fish. I became very concerned and didn’t like having to watch the fish be forcibly thrown around the washing machine.  When it was over I was relieved. Being at Aspect was a rewarding look in to how a magazine is run.

When I walked into the Mills Gallery 22nd Drawing Show Residue the first thing I saw was this wall with all these little blue lines on it. When I got closer I realized that it was blue chalk, the artist used string covered in chalk to create her piece. I really loved the way the excess chalk built up on the ground.

The next drawing that really got my attention was this piece that by Elise Kaufman. I was amazed by her use of graphite and ink. I think her method of drawing is extremely beautiful and very delicate. Even though it is a small piece I found it to be very detailed.

I really thought that the 22nd Drawing exhibit was wonderful. I liked the fact that any artist could submit their work. It was a great show and it gave artists a great opportunity.

I had a great day. At first I was a little nervous about showing the Swampscott High School students around but when I met my group of five I got excited. They didn’t seem too enthused about being there and after talking to them I learned that my assumptions were correct. They explained to me that they were just excited to be missing a few classes. I wanted to change their minds about MFA and show them that it is an extremely interesting place. Once we entered we explained to them the rules and they understood, we than proceed to the Contemporary wing. They seemed to be very interested in the Contemporary wing even though it was very hard to tell. We were trying very hard to get more out of them but they weren’t making it easy. After a lot confused looks we moved on to the American wing. In the American wing I saw a lot more smiles but they were still very hesitant to say anything beyond “I like it”. I did manage to bond with my students, which was exciting, I got to kind of feel what it would be like to be a teacher. I hope that even though the students might not have loved the MFA that they at least took away a little more understanding about art.

After the MFA we returned to Mass Art to take a second look at the Shahiza Sikander exhibit with the students from the Boston Arts Academy. My student’s name is Jennifer and my first impression of her was that she was really shy but as soon as we got to really talking I realized she wasn’t shy at all. She told me all about her artwork and how she doesn’t plan on going to an art school. She even told me about how she hates her neighborhood and can’t wait to go to college. After a bit of getting to know each other we entered the gallery. We looked around for a little while than picked the painting that we were going to discuss with the rest of the group. Jennifer and I were both instantly drawn to it. It was a smaller painting with really great details and we both loved the way the guns were subtly forming a person. It is a wonderful painting and I think we presented it the best way we could. Meeting Jennifer was fantastic and I hope she doesn’t completely forget about art because think she is an extremely talented young woman.

On October 11th the class went to Cambridge to visit the Mobius gallery and the Harvad Art Museum. We headed to Mobius first and when we got there I thought someone had made a mistake. From the outside it looks like someone’s home but on the inside it looks like a quaint gallery space. When we sat down I got really excited to listen to El. I had never heard a performance artist speak before and I was looking forward to getting a better understanding about what performance art is. El began by telling us about Mobius, she informed us that Mobius is a non profit, artist run gallery.

She than went on to tell us a little bit about herself. She talked about her art and also showed some videos of her work. I noticed through out that her body is the main component. In almost all of her performances there is the presence of the color red. When asked about it she said it was just because she liked the color red. She realized that she used the color red too often so she decided to try to break that habit. El did a series of performances where for one week and each day was a different color. In all of the performances she used her body in different ways. She outlined her body in chalk, she blew bubbles, and she painted with her feet. Her body is always her tool and that is the fascinating thing about performance art. It has a spontaneity to it but at the same time it looks so fluid.

After Mobius we headed to the Harvard Art Museum. I was excited to go because I had never been there before.  As we entered I took a look around and I was very impressed. The architecture alone was a work of art. I was pleased to find out that the architect was one of my favorites, James Stirling. After admiring the building we toured the exhibit. All the pieces were very intriguing but the one that stood out to me the most was Robert

Gober’s Untiled piece, made in 2010-11 . Gober’s piece is made out of beeswax, plaster, human hair, cotton, leather, aluminum pull tabs, and enamel paint.

At frist glance I was actually pretty confused by this piece. I thought that it was just water coming out of a sink. When I got closer I realized that it was a children’s legs, which slightly disturbed me. The real hair on the legs and tiny shoes created the look of a child trapped in a sink. After really looking at it I started to appreciate it more. The craftsmanship is excellent and the way the legs come out of the sink just gives you an erie feeling. I command they way this piece was made. In my opinion any artist that is capable of making you feel that uncomfortable is a pretty amazing artist.  In general the exhibit was wonderful and I enjoyed the Harvard Art Museum very much.  I am defiantly going back soon.

My students name from the Boston Arts Academy is Jennifer. her art is very intriguing, she has a very distinct style. I really enjoy her theme of teenage insecurities. I personally think she is doing a great job interpreting teenage insecurities in extraordinarily fascinating ways.  Her use of color and tenique is very different. I’m a big fan of the darkness of her paintings. They almost frighten you when u first look at them which in my opinion is what kind of makes them great. I can’t wait to meet her and hear her talk about her pieces. 

Sydney, Curtis, and I plan on first learning the students names than we will precede to tell them the rues and regulations. We want to make sure that all the students respect the art before entering any of exhibits. After we tell them the rules we will than move on to the Contemporary Wing and eventually the American Wing.

We will begin by giving a brief overview of the history of some key pieces in each exhibit. We plan on giving the students around 20 mins to look at the work in each exhibit. After 5 min of looking around we will than ask them to pick a piece to either draw or write about. They can write whatever they want about the piece as long as they address what’s important or personal to them. Once they are done we will discuss as a group first how they felt about the exhibit and than we will get into their individual drawings or writing. We really want to know their in depth thoughts about each piece. It’s important not to give them our personal opinion or tell them what we see. It’s up to them to come to there own conclusions.

Shahzia Sikander was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1969. She went to National College of Arts in Lahore for her undergraduate degree. When graduated she than moved to the United States to attend Rhode Island School of Design where se received her MFA in 1995. Sikander, now lives and works in New York City. At the National College of Art she studied two types of miniature paintings, Indian and Persian. Indian miniatures are small in size, very detailed, and delicate in brush work. Persian miniatures offer arabesque forms, intricate decorative patterns, and calligraphic texts. Her training in both of these traditional art forms is very apparent in her works.

Sikander has said, “When I first left Pakistan to come to the United States, I encountered a new geographical space. Living in this fairly neutral space, I was interested to express in a personal voice antithetical issues concerning historical animosities between India and Pakistan, and to expose Western stereotypes about women from the Third World.” Her work often shows the chaos that is going between India and Pakistan, also she continuously uses her own experiences in her work which I personally find very interesting.

While walking around the gallery I noticed that her very detailed paintings where my favorite. The way she chose her colors, the way she layered them, and the movement of the brush was extremely beautiful. I wasn’t so focused on the political or social meaning of the paintings but more on the technique. Her choice of paper was very intriguing, she uses tissue paper like material instead of canvas. I assume this is because it allows her to be more free and light. Her miniature paintings caught my attention much more than her larger paintings and her digital work. I enjoyed how detailed and intricate they were. It made me think about my work and it gave me inspiration.

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