09.20.10 : Artist Entry : Jon Naiman

Jon Naiman was born in Philadelphia. He lived in Brooklyn, NY from 1992-2004 and currently reside in Switzerland. He attended University of Colorado, Boulder, Studied Filmmaking and Liberal Arts for a year, followed by a year at Temple University, Studied Photography and Liberal Arts and finally Rhode Island School of Design, BFA Photography for three years.

Natural Section

"What distinguishes Naiman's [Natural Selection] photographs, though, is that his subjects totally ignore the stuffed animals. The animals are props that are not being treated as props by the subjects, but are being treated as props by the photographer. That discontinuity is appealing." - Greg Fallis

Family Territory

"In the series Familiar Territory, farm animals and the people who keep them are photographed inside the family home. The unspoken boundary between the human and the animal is explored and brought into question. Taboos associated with cleanliness, propriety, order, safety come forward. The mundane mixes with the absurd. The objects, furniture, decorations, and architecture of these living rooms frame a moment in flux when two separate worlds come together." - Jon Naiman

"In this [Familiar Territory] series the human subjects are treating the living animals in the same way they treat each other, with the sort of casual intimacy and affectionate disregard we reserve for close friends and family. That matter-of-fact quality to the photographs enhances the incongruity of the image." - Greg Fallis


I was interested in Naiman's work because he takes humans and animals and puts them face to face. The intriguing thing about his work is that the animals and humans seem to have no relation to one another. They are obviously in the same space have little to no interaction. It an interaction between man and beast that I had to considered.


Source:

Fallis, Greg. "Sunday Salon." Utata: Tribal Photography. Web. 16 Sept. 2010.

http://www.photoeye.com/GALLERY/forms2/index.cfm?image=1&id=202056&imagePosition=1&Door=52&Portfolio=Portfolio1&Gallery=0&Page=78

Jon Naiman
Gallery
Article

09.16.10 : Guest Lecture Response : Wafaa Bilal

Bio : Iraqi born artist Wafaa Bilal has exhibited his art world wide, and traveled and lectured extensively to inform audiences of the situation of the Iraqi people, and the importance of peaceful conflict resolution. Bilal has exhibited worldwide including in Baghdad, the Netherlands, Thailand and Croatia; as well as at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Milwaukee Art Museum and various other US galleries. His residencies have included Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California; Catwalk in New York; and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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Favorite Quotes :
"Where is PETA for Iraqis?"
**"Even by refusing to do political art, that is a political act."**
" If I believe in it why shouldn't I speak out... you lend a hand for other to speak out."
"The worst thing that could ever happen to an artist is to relieve no response."
"The modern man has become the Trojan Horse. No place is safe."

**This quote is my ultimate favorite because it made me think of my own work in a political sense. Though I never intended for my work to be political, as I look back on them and my thought process many of them have political elements I didn't expect.
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3 Words : Iraq Political Awareness
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The most important thing I learned from this lecture was the impact of the body on artwork. The thing that impressed me more than anything was his willingness to use his own body as a guinea pig in his artwork for his overall message. After hearing him speak about his work, I understood why using his pain and body to influence his audiences view of the work was such a significant part of his projects. As a member of the audience, I cringed during many of his performances and I realized that that was the reaction he was looking and hoping for.
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Original Question :
Why do you choose to make your body the canvas for your work (referring to the ...and Counting project)?
Similar to what I wrote above. To get the audience to react to his pain and try to understand why he would cause himself physical pain for art. He is trying to get people to read past the surface level of his work and look for something deeper, something political.

Have you ever focused on one set of medium or media, since most of your work seems to be about documenting performances through video or photographing?
He explained that video was the majority of the time the most effective way of documenting his performances. Videos allow the audience to experience the actions with you instead of just viewing them from a distance.
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The project that I enjoyed most was ...and Counting.
Learning about why he chose to use invisible ink to represent the Iraqi and American people who have died in Iraq(which confused me before his lecture), I appreciate the project and presentation more. The hidden death and the visible names of the major Iraq cities makes the impact of the death stronger when they are visible.
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New Questions :
When and where will your next performance piece be held?

09.16.10 : Idea Entry : Ball and Claw Foot

Ball and Claw on a Chippendale Mahogany Desk and Bookcase
Wilton House Museum

The ball-and-claw foot is thought to have originated in China as a dragon’s claw grasping a pearl. Perhaps first adapted in Europe by the Dutch, it spread to England, before it was introduced to America about 1735. By the mid-18th century it had become firmly associated s the foot of American cabriole leg furniture in the Queen Anne and Chippendale, styles. The design lends itself to interpretation and there are variations associated with different parts of the 13 colonies. In America, a bird's claw was generally used, mostly the eagle's.

I become interested in this idea of incorporating animal feet into American furniture when I was cataloging animals at the Wilton House Museum. The idea that an animal claw would be places at the foot of a piece of furniture was a strange idea to me. I noticed it on decks, dressers, tables, chairs and stands. I wanted to learn the origin of it and why it was then translated to furniture.

Sources :

Heckscher, Morrison H., and Frances Gruber Safford. American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Random House [u.a., 2007. Print.

Kirk, John T. American Furniture: Understanding Styles, Construction, and Quality. New York: H.N. Abrams, 2000. Print.: H.N. Abrams, 2000. Print.

Landon, Eugene. "Carve a Ball-and-claw Foot." Fine Woodworking. Mar. 2010. Web. 15 Sept. 2010. .

09.15.10 : Guest Lecture Questions : Wafaa Bilal

Why do you choose to make your body the canvas for your work (referring to the ...and Counting project)?

Have you ever focused on one set of medium or media, since most of your work seems to be about documenting performances through video or photographing?

09.13.10 : Artist Entry : Charles Le Brun

Physiognomy of Heads

Charles Le Brun was born in Paris in 1619. He was a French painter and art theorist, one of the dominant artists in 17th century France. At the age of eleven, he was placed in the studio of Simon Vouet. He was also a pupil of François Perrier. Le Brun and Colbert founded the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and the Academy of France at Rome, and gave a new development to the industrial arts. Le Brun primarily worked for King Louis XIV, for whom he executed large altarpieces and battle pieces. He died in February 1690 from an illness.


Phys·i·og·no·my [fiz-ee-og-nuh-mee, -on-uh-mee] : the art of determining character or personal characteristics from the form or features of the body, esp. of the face.
Le Brun did multiple lectures on the topic of Physiognomy. According to him, physiognomy is judging characters according to the features of the face.

Le Brun created a series of drawing bases on the ideas of physiognomy and directed it toward the comparison and combination of animal and human faces. His drawing trended to humanize animals and dehumanize humans. He used geometric measurement to align the faces of the animals and humans to find the similarities between the two and utilize them in the drawings.
Le Brun states " all of the various manifestations that he had drawn, both animal and human heads, pointing out the features marking their natural inclination."

Gareau, Michel, Brun Charles Le, and Lydia Beauvais. Charles Le Brun: First Painter to King Louis XIV. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1992. Print.


"Le Brun attached great importance to the line of the eyes and eyebrows, and drew different conclusions depending on whether it was directed upward toward the soul, or downward toward the nose and mouth, considered to represent the more animal aspects of human nature. Le Brun inferred human personality and faculties and animal character from a geometric analysis of the structure of the head."

J. Baltrušaitis, Aberrations. Essai sur la légende des formes, Paris, 1983, p. 26.


I chose this artist because I am still intrigued with the idea of combining characteristics and personalities of animals and humans. The relationship between the two is really interesting to me. I enjoy seeing pets and their owners who share similar appearance and/or personality. I am just not sure how to portray something like that in a photography.

Louvre
Charles Le Brun

09.09.10 : Idea Entry : Half-Man Half-Beast

Example of Half-Man Half-Animal hybrids in Greek Mythology include : Centaur (horse-man), Echidna (snake-woman), Harpy (bird-woman), Mandrake (plant-man), Mermaid (woman-fish), Minotaur (bull-man), Satyr (horse-tailed man; later, goat-man), Siren (bird-woman), Sphinx (woman-lion-bird), Tragelaphos (goat-stag).


The best known of these Half-Man Half-Animal hybrids is the Centaur. According to The Book of Imaginary Beings, Centaurs are a well-known beast with the torso of a man and the hindquarters of a horse. Most are portrayed as savage beasts, but others can be well learned in many arts. Many mythological hybrid bring the the best feature in a man and an animal to combine them into a new creature that has more skills. Many of these hybrids were created in stories told of heroes who conquer these outstanding and powerful creatures.

Borges, Jorge Luis, Margarita Guerrero, and Andrew Hurley. The Book of Imaginary Beings. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.

Barringer, Judith M. Art, Myth, and Ritual in Classical Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.

Exhibition We Are Family
Sculpture by Patricia Piccinin

"Piccinini's works animate the promise and the perils of the runaway scientific developments that pervade our time. Her art embodies our dreams - dreams of perfect children, of perfect health, of life disease-free, and articulates the value of difference and uncertainty in human life."

Silversmith, Jane. "New Zealand Art Monthly - Articles." NZ Art Monthly - Home. Jan. 2003. Web. 08 Sept. 2010.


This idea of a Half-Man Half-Beast is very interesting to me since would like to continue to incorporate animals into my work, but an not sure how I would like to do it. Though creating these bizarre hybrids may be interesting, I don't know if this is were my work is heading.

09.02.10 : Idea Entry : Sand

Sand is a small rock fragment commonly made up of quartz and comes from the weathering of rock fragments by wind and water. It is used to make plaster, bricks, mortar, paint, paper, plastics, glass, and vinyl. On beaches, severe storms cause waves to pull the sand out into the sea that doesn't return which causes land and property behind the beach vulnerable. Beach sand comes from streams and river that bring eroded materials to the shore. The color of the beach is biased on the types of sediment. The sand on the beach is also a home for many organisms.

Quotes:
"In La Jolla, the beaches have a large proportion of clear quartz, which indicates that the cliffs are a significant source of beach sand," Driscoll said. "There's just no other way around it... Central and Southern California rivers carry a huge amount of sandy sediment to the Pacific Ocean during seasonal downpours."
"Often, the sediment-laden river water is denser than seawater, so when this slurry reaches the coast, it sinks and follows the bottom, escaping the shallow water region near the shore where it could replenish sand to the beaches."

Graham, Rex. "Coastal Bluffs Provide More Sand to California Beaches than Previously Believed [Jacobs School of Engineering: News & Events]." UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. 15 Oct. 2005. Web. 01 Sept. 2010. .


'Among the grains of sand is a microscopic ecosystem populated by sand-lickers, sticky-toed worms and four-legged "water bears."'
'Scientists estimate a bucket of sand might hold thousands of these tiny creatures; in a few square yards of beach, there might be millions.'

Fahrenthold, David A. "Nation & World | Beneath the Towel, the Beach Is Alive | Seattle Times Newspaper." The Seattle Times | Seattle Times Newspaper. 13 July 2007. Web. 01 Sept. 2010. .


Text:
The Ocean's Sand, a Natural Resource. [Washington, D.C.]: Minerals Management Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 2002. Print.

Packham, John R., and A. J. Willis. Ecology of Dunes, Salt Marsh, and Shingle. London: Chapman & Hall, 1997. Print.

Over the summer, I took a lot of panoramic and HDRs with beach sand. I am also taking a trip to the beach this weekend and would like to do a shoot for class while there. I want to explore this element as a possible theme for my concept.

Fraser Island, Australia
Photography by Andrew Watson