Third Mentor Meeting

My mentor has been willing to meet with me every three weeks to help make up for some of the time lost at the beginning of the semester when I had to switch mentors. I am so grateful for that, but it does keep me on a very rigorous schedule. Balancing studio and academic assignments always is a vicious tug-of-war with my time, but it's all beneficial. Most recent piece marks a divergent from my other work, but I think it is perhaps the most focused of my pieces so far.

The more I research and evaluate my art, the more I realize the importance of time is to my work. It has always been something I've contemplated, but at the moment, I find it moving to the fore front of the work. I researched atemporality for my last paper, and found it extremely compelling. Bruce Sterling and Kazys Varnelis both contribute to this concept, which basically describes the time period we are currently in. Because of technology, history has become open to us in a non-narrative, non-linear form and this flexibility in time puts us in a state of continuous now. With the piece above, I am thinking of it as expressing multiple movements of time existing at one suspended moment.

Karl and I discussed the potential issues with some of the more concrete elements in the piece, such as the boats, buoy, and manhole. These all serve to remind the viewer of present day, whereas the rest of the piece is more ambiguous. We talked about conveying a message without being as direct. I feel think piece is helping my work mature in a more satisfying way. While the surreal architectural pieces were interesting and visually, very rich, they were perhaps more obvious and easily understood. Karl said they almost compensated for this with their beauty, but perhaps not quite enough. After trying to working in the same manner after last residency, I felt they were lacking a depth I wanted to get to. 

While talking about ambiguity, we went to look at a book in the Boston College art library called the Somnambulist, published by Ralph Gibson. A somnambulist is a sleepwalker, and the photographs imply a subliminal narrative. The images invoked a specific yet evasive feeling of something just beyond the viewer's grasp. Ultimately, I think this feeling is what contributes to lasting art that stays with you. I keep thinking of the work in Somnambulist, and am reminded of similar impression from work by Catherine Opie, and other artists I admire. I am seeking out the balance of specificity and ambivalence. My "breakthroughs" these days seem less sudden and enlightening as I would wish, but I'm getting there.

An unfinished sequel in the series.