Note: Due to unforseen technical problems, the original format of this presentation had to be altered. It will likely be changed into the newer format eventually.
Art
Is
Eternal
Art has been a vital part of human history since the very beginning. Through the centuries, it has shifted and shaped through culture. Even over the span of twenty years, the meaning and style of art has changed drastically. This is a curation of art from two time periods: the 1990's and 2000's.
The 1990's
The 1990's were the end of the Baby Boomer culture, and this was heavily shown in a shift in the art style. While the 1980's focused mainly on ostentatious pieces, fame and fortune; the artists of the 1990's tended to focus on the smaller things. Ordinary people and everyday life was the vital theme of the 1990's. Many artists used unconventional materials to represent a then unconventional subject: social issues such as racism, sexism, and poverty. Playwrights wrote about the drug culture and the AIDS crisis. The newest books were about the seismic shifts in culture and mental illness. Everywhere you looked, new ideas were flooding into culture, transparency was coming to the art world.
Prema Murthy, Bindi GirlFirst created by Prema Murthy, the infamous “Bindi Girl” was an interactive figure on a website. Visitors could manipulate her figure any way they wished. This prompted many to make her assume a series of erotic poses, all while traditional South Asian music played softly in the background. “Bindi Girl” shows how even though we wield control over the interpretation of images, marginalized communities continue to find themselves at the whims of more dominant cultures. In the modern information based society, images have replaced the realities of the people they depict. With “Bindi Girl”, Murthy calls Western fetishization into question, reclaiming control over the increasingly sexual portrayals of Indian women.
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Doug Aitken, PassengerWhile Aitken is most widely known for his video installations about how our consciousness is changed by our technology-driven existence, his Passenger was part of a 1999 series of prints of
planes in flight. In addition, Aitken’s large-scale, glossy prints are heavily reminiscent of the media that condition our world. Passenger pays homage to the “two ships passing” statement, while simultaneously showing how we perceive reality. The one thing we cannot see is ourselves seeing, and therefore our understanding of the world is always incomplete. |
Tom Friedman, UntitledTom Friedman is well known for his thought-provoking art made from the simplest of materials. He uses supplies from drugstores, candy stores, supermarkets, and the human body. Untitled is formed from hundreds of toothpicks, joined together in a shape reminiscent of a starburst. According to the director of the exhibit, the piece is “a mentality based on atoms and physical fragments”. Friedman’s work is linked strongly to 1960s conceptualism, but goes beyond its precedents, creating his own unique visual language.
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Sharon Lockhart, UntitledSharon Lockhart’s work is characterized by her precise observation of the everyday and her nearly “dictatorial” location scouting. This piece, “Untitled”, is possibly the greatest example of her series of large-scale prints. It depicts a young man in an apartment, at the hour between night and dawn. Lockhart creates a nearly hallucinatory atmosphere in her photo, with the interplay of reflections in the window thrusting the man forwards into our space, where he stands with us in place that pushes imagination and reality onto a single plane. Lockhart’s work is about the “process of perception”, what we bring to the experience is equally as important as the photograph itself.
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Emily Eveleth, SpentEmily Eveleth’s name has become synonymous with her artwork; dozens of wildly sized traditional paintings- all of jelly-filled donuts. She explores the donut’s capability to represent diverse emotions and moods. Using glossy brushwork and monochromatic backgrounds, she paints an atmosphere that heightens the mood she wants to portray. Eveleth’s uses of lighting further enhance the atmosphere’s narrative.
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Liv Downs, UntitledThis piece was done in the style of the 1990's by Liv Downs, using watercolor on traditional media. It is meant to represent Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The solitary figure is standing on a crumbling foundation of control, with the constant void of disorder encroaching. The overall atmosphere is one of intense loneliness, with the distorted blues blocking out everything else.
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The 2000's
Glenn Ligon, RuckenfigurGlenn Ligon is well known for his interpretations of race, sex, and identity. In 2009 he created this piece, America’s name in lights, facing the opposite direction. The term “rückenfigur” generally refers to a figure in a painting that is seen from behind; contemplating a landscape. Ligon is implying that America has turned its back on the viewers, and looking towards something that doesn’t include them. This was and still is an extremely relatable piece for many Americans who felt that their nation was not working in their best interest.
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Taryn Simon, ContrabandTaryn Simon’s Contraband features a series of 1,075 photographs, all taken within the span of five days at the John F. Kennedy International Airport. Simon took pictures of every item that was confiscated by security; items ranging from drugs to food, weapons, and even animal skeletons. According to Simon, they represent “an attempt to control what is considered threatening to economies, to personal safety, and to a nation.”
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Chris Burden, Urban LightSince Chris Burden’s Urban Light was installed in front of the LACMA, it has become the landmark of the museum. Burden began collecting streetlamps from the 1920s and 1930s
in 2000. His collection soon became Urban Light, 202 restored street lamps arranged in front of the LACMA that brought new illumination to the facade. Even after the installation is gone, it will be remembered as transformative and beautiful, even though it existed outside of the museum. |
David Hockney, iPhone DrawingApple’s iPhone was full of untapped potential after its debut in 2007; with a touchscreen interface making it a big hit to everyone. While some people used it for games, planning, and surfing the web, David Hockney saw a more fanciful use for the touchscreen. He created a series of iPhone drawings in 2009, which have the same painted quality as his previous
works. The similarities assuaged people's fears that the influx of technology would ruin the art world forever. |
Christian Marclay, The ClockThe Clock is a twenty-four hour montage composed of excerpted moments from television and cinema, depicting the passage of a single day in clock time. Marclay sifted through an innumerable number of sources to find each moment and thread them together into a single timepiece. The Clock serves as a reminder of the abstract nature of time; being both a keeper and distorter of time while seamlessly functioning as a clock the entire time.
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Damian Hirst, For the Love of GodWhen Damian Hirst’s mother told him: “For the love of God,
what are you going to do next?”, he took that as inspiration to create For the Love of God, a platinum skull set with 8,601 flawless diamonds. The piece took $23 million to make, and was auctioned off for a total of $50 million to an anonymous group. Hirst says the skull was inspired by death, the fact that our existence on Earth is so very short. “You don’t like it, so you disguise it or you decorate it to make it look like something bearable- to such an extent that it becomes something else.” Hirst explains of his work. |