Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Vito Acconci


Vito Acconci think of himself mainly as an architect, but he is an istalatio artist and also did some video stuff. Most of his video work used himself as the the key point. His work varys greatly, but some of his stuff can get a little strange like his blow up doll series. His one piece called "Seed bed" happens to be very strange. He had a ramp installed at the gallery and he hid underneath it and vocalize it so the people viewing the gallery could here him maturbate. Another one of his works "Dirt Wall" which is a wall built twenty four feet high out of glass and steel. Inside he filled it with volcanic rock, different sands, red dolomite, and topsoil.


Some of his work is interesting to me. I like some of his architectural pieces like the "Dirt Wall" I find it very interesting and think it looks very neat. It's just like a piece of the earth has been sliced out and lifted up so we can see it. His "City of Words" is also interesting a looks pretty neat and I love how your eye just flow through it. A lot of his work I find to be a little too strange for my likings though. I'm not a big fan at all of "Seed Bed" that is kind of disgusting and wrong to me. I'm not a big fan when artists start to do sexual provacitive pieces, I don't feel its really neccesary and I don't really want to see it but I guess some people do.

Paul Pfeiffer


Paul Pfeiffer is a video artist. He often uses lots of found footage and edits them to his liking. His work is very time consuming and meticulous. His work often take him a very long time to complete. In his work "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" he edited footage of a basketball game and cut out all the basketball players except for one. Then in " The Long Count" he edited out George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in thier fight. Another example of his work is "Live From Neverland" where he cut out Michael Jackson's voice in his press conferance about malesting children, with eighty children reciting his words.



I think the "Live From Neverland" idea was pretty funny by him. I really don't understand his other two popular pieces though. I don't think that taking out the other nine basketball players make it that interesting. I guess it may look a little strange in some shots but from the few I looked at it it actually looked pretty normal. In fact at first I just thought it was a normal picture of a basketball game. Then "The Long Count" really doesnt make sense to me. The whole purpose of that clip is to see the two fighters fighting and then he removes them. I don't think there would be too much left to see, I guess maybe the crowds reactions and I guess maybe the person telling you about the fight.

Transform!!!

This is Megatron transforming into a dragon in a card board city.

Losing Streak

A strange critter stuck in Einstein's theory of time continually repeating itself.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Pipolotti Rist


Pipolotti Rist is also a video artist. The human body, gender, and sexuality are usually her subject matter. Her works are also usually only a few minutes long. Her works also tend to change color, sound, and speed as they progress onward. Many consider her work to emit happiness and simplicity throught their music and color.



Her work is very interesting to me. I like the colors and distortions she uses throughout her work. I'm not the biggest fan of nude art but hers aren't too bad, I guess its just portrayed very differently. Then again some of it is very strange. I'm not too sure where people people get happiness from it just seems more strange too me. The more I look at her work though the more I get confused. She has quite the variety of work.

Bill Viola


Bill Viola is a video artist. He mainly uses slow motion to present his pieces which also mainly deal heavily with human emotion. In one of his pieces the video is so slow that every minute change in the person could be seen as they expressed their emotion. His works feature many different types of human emotion and he usually doesn't give a backdrop or any clue of why they are expressing that emotion, just that they are. His work also tends to relate to differant religions and even medieval and renaissance devotional art.



From the pictures that I have seen his work looks very interesting. I can only imagine that if the images were moving in slow motion they would be quite impressive. I like the images a lot they are very dramatic and have a mystical quality to them, probably also further enhanced by the slow motion. I really like his photos that deal with the water, I'm a very big fan of water and they just real make it seem like and out of this world spiritual experiance. A lot of his color choice is monochromatic and cool colors as well, which I like because it isn't so bright and lively but mystical and unkown.

Mathew Barney


Mathew Barney works with film, video, installations, sculpture, photography, drawing, and percformance arts. He thinks of himself as a sculptor mainly though. A lot of his most famous works seem to be short films though. The actors are dressed very strange and colorful in an oriental style. His work is filled with all sorts of different symbols and meanings as well and can be compared to surrealist artists.



Mathew Barney's work is very eye catching and different to say the least. I'm curious to know what his films are about and what the characters do and how they act. Some of the characters that he has created I feel are pretty interesting but some of them are a little overboard I do feel. I also feel that thirty or more minutes of is film might start to get boring though. I'm also kind of curious why he calls him self a sculptor when most of his famous works are films, maybe its because he thinks of the costumes as sculpting himself.