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Shealyn

Captivating Stories in Art


Everyone has a different story, depending on where they grew up, who their parents were, who their friends were, and how all of that impacted whom they define themselves as. The “Stories” episode of Art:21 is all about four artists who create stories with their work, no matter if it’s a real person or someone who is made up. Artist Do-Ho Suh demonstrates well the use of his life in his artwork by bringing back memories of Korea, with both family ties of his father being a painter and also the reference to the Korean military. Kiki Smith also demonstrates this in the way that she takes her life, her family’s life, and the lives that affect us everyday and creates sculptures and prints of the person’s life story. Trenton Doyle Hancock’s work demonstrates the use of a make-believe character to create a story, but yet it still represents his story and relates to the viewer.
The artist that I enjoyed the most out of this episode was Kara Walker. I thought her piece “Slavery! Slavery!” was interesting with the use of silhouettes, light projection, and the room that it was put in. I liked the silhouettes because it makes us look at the figures as wholes and not look at the facial features or anything. Also with the silhouettes the use of black and white was good, it made the piece a bit more understandable and also emphasized the role of each figure. The fact that each figure had it’s own story made it seem like the viewer could relate to the piece more or feel like they could go more in depth and find each story. I think the use of light projection emphasizes that in the way that it physically puts you into the piece and I think helps you feel connected to it. The idea of slavery in this piece I think is interesting because of the controversy of whether it’s ok to make it into art or not. I think the way she presents it works well and should be allowed by the viewers because she makes you feel like a part of the story, not telling it to you. It makes it more believable and not seem glorified. Also the use of the round room I thought was a good idea because it doesn’t have a beginning or an end, I feel it symbolizes how slavery may no longer be happening here, but we still keep talking and learning about it. It’s something in our country’s history that doesn’t seem to go away. This project was important to me because of the way it made me see how to incorporate my audience into a work of art. This has an effect on the art world because of the controversy it aroused; it makes artists think about what they’re portraying in their art and how it will affect the viewer. Kara Walker’s work has affected the society with bringing up history that may offend some people but yet puts them right into the scene.

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Word-word:

Trash/crackers is interesting because of the contrast of words. Trash makes you think of dirty, gross, etc, while with crackers you think of tasty, delicious, maybe cheery if you think of animal crackers or goldfish, anything like that. Putting trash along with crackers makes the crackers unappetizing and unpleasing. The fonts show the same idea, with the kind of “dirty” looking font on trash and the clean looking font I used on crackers.

Image-image:

Trumpet/remote is a contrast of society with the way entertainment has changed over the years. Before electronic entertainment, music was one way of entertainment whether you’re in the audience or you’re the performer. But now, people watch television, play video games, etc for entertainment and fewer and fewer people are interested in playing an instrument. Sure, we still have musical entertainment, but it’s nothing like classical or jazz where you’d have to go to a performance to listen to it, we all have it on our iPods now or else we just have to turn on MTV. I also like the way that the two objects seem to morph into one another in this, where the lead pipe on the trumpet attaches at an angle to the edge of the remote. The views on the separate images work well too because it shows the valves of the trumpet next to the buttons on the remote which essentially function the same (to change notes you push the valves and to change the channel you push a button on the remote). Also the perspective on the trumpet makes you feel like you’re the musician and the remote feels like you could pick it up and use it.

Image-word:

Horse race/craft is interesting in the way you think about horse racing in comparison to a craft. When we think of a craft, we think of a tangible object someone handmade, but it compares to horse racing as if the thought process a jockey goes through were a craft. For example, how the jockey decides to ride, their strategy for a specific outcome, how they change their strategy when the original plan fails, it’s almost the same thought process that goes into creating a craft. Creating a craft takes thought of what are you creating, what are you going to have to do to create the final project, etc. Also with the font of craft, it moves forward with the horse legs and the f seems to extend like it’s one of the legs running with the horses.

Shealyn

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