Reflections

My most recent piece is probably one of my strongest ones I made this semester. 

I tried some experiments with a small model set up with mirrors. My idea was a false-false image (a reflection of a fictional image).  I was inspired by a MoMA video with Isa Genzken, where she collaborated with a photographer. He made large, wall sized prints that reflected in large mirror wall sculptures by Genzken. 

The reflections caused a confusion of space, between what was image and what was reflection. I thought that was interesting. These are shots of my experiments:

There were 12 inches tall. If I were to actually make it, these would probably be 12-14 feet tall. It was interesting to try. I don't think I'll ultimately go this direction. Something that came up was that I realized I need a ground piece because it played in the reflections. The imagery was from one of my final pieces from last semester and I enjoyed reworking it into this new format.

Thoughts on New Work

It's been a slow start for me to start making new art this residency. I've made some of the suggested changes that were recommended during the January residency, but as for new work, nothing has completely clicked yet. I need more material to work with. I took several panoramics of the snow, which we have in abundance right now. Snow doesn't particularly inspire me. It can be a little difficult to photograph because of it's whiteness and possible glare, and the colors don't have the richness I enjoy. I did go up north this past weekend, and collected some image of the mountains and rivers while they were frozen, and visited an "ice castle" at a local ski lodge. Some of the results have possibilities:

The Ice Castle ones are interesting by themselves. I'm not sure how or if they would work in a montage.

These are a couple of my montage attempts so far. There's potential. I'm not sure about them. They're not hitting the mark yet. There isn't the strong sense of light that would bring make them alive. I might be able to work them over a little more to bring it out. The one on the left I fear is getting a little spider-like, and I wish I could make the chandlers look like they were swinging. I like it, but it needs something more. As for the snow castle piece, I like the sense of dusk, but I wonder about it feeling like Narnia too much. Also, when I had worked with my last mentor, we had talked about interior/exterior spaces, and the snow castle is all exterior.

     

For fun, to kind of shake things up, I tried this variation on the snow castle:

It seems like a popular design aesthetic right now to flatten shapes. Sometimes that trend appeals to me, but I don't see it as something I'll pursue, especially for the immediate. I'm more interested in naturalistic sense of depth, but I am interested in merging unexpected textures with architectural forms. It's simple in my sketchbook, but sometimes in the photo world, it's not right. It can get too busy or look forced.

My final thought for the night comes from looking at some of my panoramic source material from last semester. I saw three images from the same location next to each other in an interesting triptych.

It's too close to straight photography for me to work with comfortably. Too close to the facts to reveal the truth, or something like that, but they do seem to resonate. It reminds me of Noriko Furunishi's large photo collages. I like the proportion of scale and how the three work together even with different perspectives. Erik Johansson did a TED Talk and he said there were three main rules to photo manipulation: idea, same light, and same perspective. Obviously he speaking to a specific form of photo manipulation, but I feel inclined to not follow those rules.  His work is interesting, but borderlines on being shallow in my opinion. For example I love an image he has of a man laying down mirrors to reflect the city street he is on. Another image of him ironing the pants he is wearing however, feeling a little slap stick to me. I think that is the line I'm worried about, doing things because I can and being so involved in a technique that the content becomes less interesting. To have a sense of drama, but not to be like a Disney or Lord of the Rings movie. I'm not opposed to those impressions being present, but I don't want it to be simply entertaining and lacking depth.

One of the points of conversation I had during the January residency was about ruins, and a sense of decay. I've recently been reading some commentary on Romanticism and the movement's use of ruins. The sense of the organic, of decay appeals to me for similar reasons it appealed to the Romantics, and that is the idea that this is all temporal, and subject to change. I don't wish to be so heavy handed, but I've always had that tendency. I'm working on not needing to give the viewer everything. 

Mike Kelley

I visited New York on Monday to see the Mike Kelley show at PS1. I'm glad I made it before it comes down on Sunday. The show was an enormous retrospective, and did an excellent job at showcasing Kelley's vast range of work.

I found several things interesting. The first piece catching my attention was perhaps one of his earliest pieces in the show. My Institution Meets Your Institution attempted to demonstrate the need to break down the barrier between high and low culture by incorporating drawing found at a museum's loading dock with signifiers of high culture. I found the red ribbon engaging as it lead to a battering ram that could supposedly be used to break down the down leading to the loading dock.

I previously knew of Mike Kelley's work involving stuffed animals, but these interested me much more seeing them in person. I participated in a guided tour after scoping out the work myself. It wasn't very enlightening, but the guide did elaborate on the piece, More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid. The guide said Kelley focused on the hours it took for each stuffed animal and afghan took to be made, and how the stuffed animals represented the love the maker felt towards the recipient, as well as the love the maker perhaps expected in return. When Kelley first displayed the work, however, many people felt it reflected a dramatic childhood event and that critique initiated a series of work on suppressed memory. It's quite fascinating to consider making a body of work based on the idea you forgot something.

His roll as a "youthful rebel" however, seems contrived. Sometimes, the work felt as though he tried too hard. He critiqued the system, perhaps, but he played by all their rules. When people suggested he had repressed childhood trauma, he made art about repressed childhood trauma. Even his piece, My Institution Meets Your Institution is meant to "break down the barrier" between high and low art, it still sits very much from the place of "high art" in terms of scale and presentation. The battering ram is nothing more than a prop, a symbolic gesture that fails to actually change the status quo. During the guided portion of my visit, the guide said Kelley longed for the "hippie" culture he missed out on, and I can see that evidenced in punk culture in general.

His latest work, the Kandor series, was much less appealing to me personally. I can appreciate the idea of protecting a home world, and the idea of never being able to return to where you grew up. The work felt too polished though. It felt more like misplaced movie set pieces, and I missed the visceral energy I felt in his earlier work, in particular the work with the stuffed animals. The part of the Kandor series I did enjoy were the cities that looked as if there were made of old bottles (as shown in the right image below). This more reflects on my personal aesthetic however, and my attraction to found objects as art.

The most inspiring part of the show for me was Educational Complex, and the large suspended stuffed animal balls. The idea of suspension creates a great visual and literal tension. It works well in Kelley's comic-like style, and I wonder about incorporating a similar technique in my own art. In Education Complex, it intrigued me to learn the original installation allowed for visitors to lie under neath the display and look up into. This seems like a very interesting way to view art. During our last residency, Angela Dufrane spoke of negative joy, and I can feel that same sentiment throughout Kelley's work. I left the show with the impression of a deep, underlying sadness. Overall, the show included a vast range of work and versatility amounting in an impressive showcase.