The Final Project of Art 343

The article I applied into my project was Détournement/Culture Jamming from the series of reading Society of the Spectacle. My plan for the project was to mock the actual value of luxury goods and bring up the audience’s attention to the consumption problem. Since a logo is the primary symbol of a company, I decided to slight change the logos and put them on daily products as a construction. In summary, the project would be five separately installations. The luxury good company would be: Apple, Burberry, Coach, Godiva, and Swarovski.

Starting with brief introduction of the reading. Détournment, also called culture jamming, is a technique Situationists use for their practice. According to the article, Détournment/Culture Jamming written by Zack Malitz, changing the cultural image as a way of mocking is easier to bring up people's attention and stimulate them to think what the purpose is. Because people are often more aware to the things they are familiar with, a tiny change can certainly lead to a strong reaction. Détournment is one of the applications of Situationist. Speaking about Situationist, it was originally established as an organization named Situationist International in 1957. Even though it was dissolved after 15 years later, many artists are still practicing its core concept all over the world.

You can always see how the crowds are so crazy about luxury products in every selling season. However, you also see several times a day just how people waste the things they can purchase easily. Throwing unfinished lunch or pulling ten pieces of paper towels at once to dry hands then throwing them all to a trash can seems to be so "normal" that we do not even realize we are creating a serious wasting problem. On contrast, many people buy luxury products which have less benefit for daily lives, but they would put efforts to maintain the products' condition. That is, we treat necessity goods and luxury goods in the completely different attitudes. We care less about the things we need for everyday and over-concern the goods with more expensive price. Thus, the goal for my project is to make my audience be more aware of this problem.

Apple Products

Apple is one of the most influence companies that have led the world to the new age with touch-screen technology. Even though Apple keeps developing new products, most of they are just the devices containing same content but in the different sizes. Apple Products was a three-set installation. Apple logo was put on an apple and two bottles of apple juice. I want it to show the construction between what people waste (food such as apple and apple juice) every day and what we hardly see people throw them (Apple products) without any concern.

Furberry

Human has a long history of using animal fur as a way to insulate the body from coldness. However, it is now a symbol of showing a person's social status. In this October, an animal protection organization Four Paws launched an online activity against Burberry to save foxes from fur farms. I made three bands with Burberry logo and its classic pattern on them. Then I tied them around the fox plush toy's feet, tail and eyes. I thought the message in this installation was strong and easy to understand. However, the only problem was that the installation was kind of unique by itself. In other words, it was more like a single project compared to the other installations which still had a level of connection with each other.

A Pack of Coach

The Coach installation reflected the consumption problem of tissue. In every Black Friday, I go to Coach outlet just to help my friend's to buy bags. I often see people check out with lots of bags. Coach has a restriction policy about one person is allowed to purchase only ten bags for maximum at once. The limiting rule on luxury goods and the wasting of paper products were the inspiration for this installation, which was a poor-made Coach purse contained a stack of facial tissue.

Lady Godiva Riding on a Pony

The installation meant to be viewed in a joke. The pony doll I got was a toy from McDonald. Instead of the horse on the logo, a low-cost pony constituted a sharp contrast to the lady Godiva symbol that represented high quality chocolate. In order let people see it from any angle, I made an image of the backside of lady Godiva. I was really satisfied with that part while working on the project.

Swarovski's Rice

Swarovski has been famous for its glass figures and other jewelry products. Because its logo has a fog-like effect at the posterior side of the swan, I used rice for an attempt to mimic it. At the final, I also spread glitter on top of it so the image looked more like a glass products. This was the most time-consuming works and my most favorite installation among the others. But fortunately, the feedback from my audience wasn't good as I expected. Perhaps the connection between rice and glass figures was too hard to be figured out, since rice is not exactly the staple food in the U.S.

During the final critique, I was suggested to make a performance video which was like throwing an Apple into a garbage can while playing with my iPad, in order to allow people to receive the message more easily. But after thinking about it for a while, I still considered the installation was a better way for my project. I wanted the message just popped out in front of my audiences' eyes, no matter if they got it immediately or not. I wanted them to figure out by themselves. On the other hand, I made my project with less-abstract content so the audience could understand what it's about by thinking slightly. I hope when people saw my installations they could start to concern about the wasting problem of necessity products in this country. But my final goal was to make people use necessity goods more moderately.

Reading Assignment 6: Notes on Photograph & Accident

As it described in the title, this reading was a quote collection and the exploration written in a diary style by Moyra Davey. Her primary goal was to find out the meaning of “accident” in photograph and why it is still important in current practice of photography.

Davey mainly referred to how Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, and Janet Malcolm defined accident in photography. Benjamin believed it meant a truth, a tiny truth that could be captured by a camera. Sontag thought it was about surrealism. She mentioned, “Surrealism lies at the heart of the photographic enterprise…has always courted accidents, welcomed the uninvited.” Then for Malcolm, who thought about accident based on psychoanalysis, it represented the unconscious of our vision.

At first, Davey provided a very subjective definition, saying accident was something that originally stayed out of the composition. However, after doing more research, she concluded accident was the “chooser”. That is to say, a picture and an accident choose when and how to be taken by photographer. Accident is not literally an accident; instead, it is a selector.

           Among the definition given by the three artists and Davey, I agree Benjamin’s the most. Because of various photo-editing software, now it is extremely simple to change photos in whatever way we want. An accident in a photograph tells viewers what was happen at the certain moment. As how Benjamin thought, it becomes a truth. But I also think this definition will be changed soon. As I mentioned about the editing software, it is already capable to fix the “accident”. Photograph has always been used for recording the truth. But when a truth can be changed or adjusted easily, it is not a chooser either. Then, what will be the meaning of photograph & accident?

Project 4: Light Box

      When thinking about the light, sun was the first thing came out in my mind. Then I used sun as my basic idea. When I first came to the U.S, Las Vegas was the first place I stayed. I had been in that city for three years. In Vegas, you can have sunny weather almost everyday since it's in a giant desert. So I drew a landscape of desert, representing the classic view of Vegas. I didn't consider about drawing casino because I didn't feel any connection with it. In the class, I was asked why I chose cactus rather than Joshua tree. I think it was probably because of my brother. He likes to take care of cactus, so there are many potted cactus in my parents' house. I used to see them a lot and I feel more familiar with cactus than with Joshua Tree.

      Unfortunately, I did my image with the wrong size so it ended up with being trimming a little bite. But I thought it still worked great on the light box.

Reading Assignment 5: Clusterfuck Aesthetics

The author Jerry Saltz is a famous art critic in the U.S. In this article he talked about the meaning of clusterfuck aesthetics thought his reviews on some artists’ pieces and installations. Clusterfuck aesthetics is the beauty in a huge amount of chaos. In the way of how Saltz described, it is "a manic-depressive panic attack in the face of information overload; a disagreement to minimalism; and a way to fill space to grab attention.”

The author Jerry Saltz is a famous art critic in the U.S. In this article he talked about the meaning of clusterfuck aesthetics though his reviews on some artists’ pieces and installations. Clusterfuck aesthetics is the beauty in a huge amount of chaos. In the way of how Saltz described, it is “a manic-depressive panic attack in the face of information overload; a disagreement to minimalism; and a way to fill space to grab attention.”

Saltz used John Kessler's the Palace at 4 a.m and Mike Kelley’s Day Is Done as the examples of clusterfuck aesthetics. Kessler’s project was consisted of various objects. These visual complexes were related to the global issues we have today. Then Day Is Done was a project that contained 365 installations. Based on Kelley's plan, they were all independent works but could also connect with each other. Most works in Day is Done came from Kelley's personal experience of growing from a teenage to an adult. Both projects were built with multiple media, following the basic idea of clusterfuck aesthetics.

It was not an article that can be understood easily. Like Maria Lind's Returning on Bikes, Saltza hided his thought behind the artists' works. Therefore, knowing the example he gave is helpful to get his message. Clusterfuck Aesthetics requires readers to know not only the article itself, but also the projects Saltz had talked about. At the first sight, this beauty of chaos seems only to contain disruption without any proper meaning. However, inside this huge chaos, every detail is arranged in a perfect order.

Artist Lecture: Dada Local Artist Talks

Some Reno Dada artists had displayed their works in a gallery of UNR and hold an evening talk in October 17^th. Unfortunately, I didn't go to the talk on time, so I didn't hear all the artists talk about their works. The ones I felt very interested in were St. Twinkie of the Sacred Heart by Nancy Peppin and The Meeting (three works) by Erik Burke.

The Twinkie project was divided into two parts, a structure sketching of Twinkie and a little piece of Twinkie placed in a 3/2-inch long metal chamber. Peppin started the Twinkie series in 1975. She said she chose it to be a symbol of culture image in the food in the U.S. Because she has worked with this little snack for over thirty years, she had an idea that "Twinkie lasts forever." Therefore, she did many works with Twinkie into them as the role of eternity. The one in a tiny chamber also expressed the same idea. Peppin's main goal was to put things out of context all time. That is what she keeps trying to focus on in her Twinkie projects and other pieces.

Erik Burke explained the Meeting was actually a triptych, consisting of a painting, a photograph, and a door taken from a vehicle. Burke believed art was about relationship, so he emphasized the relationships in this project. They were: two trucks in the middle poster, which Burke thought they had interesting connection because he always saw one was out while one was stayed in the parking space. Burke sprayed the sentence "It's Just Not The/Same Without You" on them. Having the experience of being misunderstood by police made him think about how working artist, graffiti, and police were related to each other. The painting of a police car without its door and the real car door were how he expressed this relationship. 

               The reason why I pick these two pieces to write about is because the choice of the mixed media Peppin and Burke applied to their pieces were incredibly creative. Peppin used the real Twinkie to express the concept of eternity perfectly, and the triptych Burke made emphasized the relationship. Without any of them, the Meeting would just not be that effective.

Exhibition Review: Justin Maes Return of the Gold

Sheppard Gallery had displayed Justin Maes's works from October through the early of December. Return of the Gold was a series of large-scale installations presenting the theme of Western American culture. Accroding to UNR website, the sculptures were the exploration on iconology, a studying about the connection between the meaning and the symbols in an image.

A short interview video projected on a wall introduced the process of Maes's two works, Almost Cotton and Chicken Feed. Almost Cotton was the pink sheep sculptures. Originally it was a black sheep but Maes repainted it with the color pink to illustrate cotton candy. He thought it was a bad joke to show that every sheep's dream is to grow cotton. Chicken Feed was also repainted for this exhibition with the candy corn color based on the nickname "chicken feed"  named by a candy corn company. The design of shadow for chicken was mentioned in the interview as well. The long projection represented the big attitude of this small rooster.

Chicken Feed and Golden Cactus were two of my most favorite works in the gallery. I really liked how the shadow was set up for the chickens and the cactus. Personally I thought it reinforced the spatial perception, making the installation be able to impress the viewers more effectively. Overall speaking, Maes's works were often vivid and colorful. Because of that, I found that I was really attracted by this exhibition. Western American culture usually relates to cowboy, desert, pioneer… and other images with almost brownish colors. However, Maes perfectly employed colors in his work Return of the Gold. He brought out a different but playful way to view Western America culture.

Interview video played in the gallery: