Fibers!

                                        

              As a class we were asked the question, “ What is Fibers?” We seemed to all be taken back a little by the question because even though it seemed like a straightforward question, we knew that there was going to be some trick involved. Our class as a whole depicted the art of fibers as working with fabrics, weaving, small components, dying and surface techniques. Well we were kind of right. This week we had another guest lecture speaker, Sara Rabinowitz, come to our art class and discuss her style of art with us. This weeks presentation I thought was very different and to me, very unique. When I think of art I imagine paintings, drawings, digital arts etc, but this weeks art was, as I say again, unique.  We were shown art created by the use of Fibers.  The art that was shown on the slideshow was really cool, from pieces created by agave to a life size images created from fabrics.  One of my favorite pieces of work that were displayed on the slideshow had to be the work done by Claire Zeisler. She is an artist that also works with fibers but what was neat to me was how her artwork was able to be free standing. I’m not quite sure how she was able to perform that task but from the images it looked pretty unreal.  Other artists that had an impact on me were Karen Reimer and Do Ho Suh. Do Ho Shu especially because it was amazing seeing his work and just the scale of his pieces; it was really cool.

            

              This week’s readings and media focus on two crazy and visually creative artists, Ann Hamilton and Cai Guo-Qiang. Ann Hamilton’s work from my point of view goes beyond just artwork. After reading about her and how she works, I got a sense of unusual depth and creativity from her.  The way that she goes in depth with her art, such as researching and how the outside world influences her, is very cool. She also likes to put herself in front of the work and visualize it from another perspective,   “And so, as a viewer, to come in, it's the experience the minute you cross the threshold: it's the smells, it's the sounds, it's the temperature, it's how all of those things have everything to do with the felt quality of ultimately what the thing becomes.” She understands that as an audience member and looking at a piece we should be able to feel the art and overall experience what the piece has to offer. A piece that I thought was interesting and very different was her suit made of toothpicks. She tells us how she felt vulnerable while in the suit because she too is also on display, but to read how she felt about herself in her artwork was neat. To me it showed a unique sense of creativity, I would have never even thought of doing something like that, a quality that is also found in the other artists as well. A trait that I found interesting about Ann was the way she puts herself into her work, “And so it's interesting to me to think about needing to work at that edge, but then actually living physically in the middle.”

            

              Our other artist that we read and learned about this week is Cai Guo-Qiang. I mentioned this artist in my previous blog because I find his work really creative and just plain awesome. I have seen some of his other works that weren’t shown in the readings and they still blow my mind. This artist is again very creative, I want to emphasize again on the creative part because it’s so true, from explosions to huge pieces that would hang over your head to pieces that most people wouldn’t even consider art. The reason he considers it art is probably why I admire his work so much. Work that he has done that I found interesting and radical was his work with explosives. His reasoning for using explosives is this, “Why is it important to make these violent explosions beautiful? Because the artist, like an alchemist, has the ability to transform certain energies, using poison against poison, using dirt and getting gold.” What I found interesting was that the final piece, after the explosions, was unpredictable. He mentions that he will either like what was produced or dislike it.  I also liked how he compared his drawing to love making, he seems to really enjoy his work and has so much passion for what he does. In the video “Inopportune: Stage one” the artwork that he does is just beyond me, but what I thought was cool was how he saw this gallery and immediately imagined the space as a road. He then mentions that he took that idea and it began to flow like walking. It is cool to hear an artist speak about his work and how he processed the idea of creating it.

        

            Sara, Ann, and Cai all take their artwork to new brilliant levels. They all seem to use their culture and backgrounds to create such amazing art. Whether it is knitting, using explosives, or using the space that was given to us and making something beautiful with it. What I thought all these artists had in common was how they used their background to help influence their art. In Sara’s slide she mentions Ann Hamilton and shows us a video based on a gallery that she did involving textiles. I enjoyed seeing how Ann was able to take the history of the area and use that in her art to help show culture and her influences. Cai I thought did the same but used his traditions to help show where he came from and what influenced him.