After your visit to the MCA and experience with the Paul Sietsema
exhibition and the Theaster Gates: 13th
Ballad installation, and the Alexander Calder, think about your favorite piece. How does a work change when you spend more time with it?
What else do you notice? How do you change?
Select a work – any work in the Museum – and spend a full 20
minutes just looking at the work. Why did it capture your attention? Why do you
suppose it is being presented in a Chicago museum – or why do you think it
shouldn’t be here? What is the deeper meaning? (i.e. thesis) What bigger picture does it
connect to? Analyze and try to formulate
your ideas in a thesis that you will use to direct your blog post.
Please write a review of the work.
Consider it in context of the artist’s other work – which means you’ll have to
do some research, in the museum (read the plaques), handouts? Consider it in
context of the rest of the work in the exhibition.
Tenyia Anderson
ReplyDeleteICW
Meg Reilly
Tues. Nov. 5, 2013
I choose the female artist name Cindy Sherman (American, b. 1954). This piece is titled as “Untitled #167, 1987. She uses different ways to disrupt that easy characterization. In the photograph, it looks like a trace hidden in the scattered artifacts of an apparent crime scene.
This picture captured my attention by the way the body parts were sticking out of the dirt and there appears to be someone staring in the mirror. I felt like the photograph was so realistic and graphic it caught my attention. Although the bio says she uses dolls and prosthetic devices to make us question her presence in the images. It looks like a crazy murder scene of someone trying to hide the remains of someone else’s existence. The picture also reminded of crime scenes I’ve seen on television from shows like Law & Order or Criminal Minds that I always watch with my mom.
Sense this art piece is based on characterization, I believe the deeper meaning is yourself. It’s so vivid that I also realize it was someone looking at the mirror too. It’s about finding yourself through all the buried and missing evidence of you. Therefore, the features are used to show the bigger picture within you. That’s what I came across while analyzing this photograph.
Crime, is it fact or fake just take a look and you’ll see there’s more then the viewers eye can see. An action punishable by law is never the answer; life is more worthy then something worth a penny. A work of art changes when you spend more time looking at it, because you’re trying to question the piece in your head. You start asking yourself millions of questions, like why or how to understand the meaning behind it. You start to notice details that you never would have came across if you were to just swiftly moving through the gallery. I could not tell you why this artist is in a Chicago gallery. It could be because of all the crime that happens in the streets of the city.
ReplyDeleteCrime is something I feel I will never get away from. I have grown up with thieves my whole life. My friends would steal merchandise from stores while in the city people will just steal for a bite to eat. I feel this piece of work May be here to show us that we don’t need to steal in order to get what we want out of life, because we might be risking are lives and not have a life worth stealing anymore.
For some people life is rare and we shouldn’t take that for granted. I don’t believe in stealing as other may. I strongly believe that this piece is here to make us question if crime is really the answer. I do think that it’s trying to prove a point too. Why risk life over stealing a piece of bread, I would rather die hungry then die a buried thieve with no one to help me beg.
Kati Adzima
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Meg Reilly
5 November 2013
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Art Analysis
The art piece, “Midissage” by the artist Jose Lerma pursues mood changes through
reflective material and lighting. The whole room was the art piece and it really caught my
attention because of the reflective color that would bounce from each wall. When I stand in
front of the color changing lights my shadow changes. To be honest, I have no clue as to
why the art piece is at the MCA Chicago. Jose Lerma is probably from the Chicago-land
area and people who lived in the city were his inspirations. If there is a deeper meaning of
this artwork being at the MCA location, I haven’t caught that meaning yet. The piece does
belong at the location in this exhibit because I get the feeling that it reflects on individuals.
Seeing Lerma’s other pieces in his exhibit they all involve people in today’s world and back
in history.
The deeper meaning I receive from this piece is it reflects on people’s mood and how it
changes ourselves. The different changing colors represent the moods and the silhouette
represents how our body language changes because of those moods. When I stand in front
of the lights and my reflection on the fabric changing, I notice variation from each color.
Making my silhouette seem visible, darker, smaller, and wider just by the color change. To
make everything connect together, the art piece makes the viewer realize how much
moods and emotions can change people. Wither we are pursing feelings of happiness,
sadness, or just wanting to dance it changes our silhouette. The art piece, “Midissage” by
the artist Jose Lerma pursues mood changes through reflective material and lighting.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAustin Herrera
ReplyDelete11/5/13
Meg Reilly
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Art Analysis
I walked around the museum looking for an art piece that would really stand out and be an interest to me. I hopped around to each photo that was displayed on the wall of the museum, starring at them, and honestly over thinking it. I would observe the photographs saying to myself what are the meanings, what is the purpose of this art piece? But I came upon, not a photograph, but an actual art piece that was called Lightfall I (plume) 2012. It was placed in the corner of the wall, on side of the wall was red and the other was white, then there was two pieces of metal with different shapes on it hanging from the ceiling, like a broken fan. I sat down and watched the pieces slowly turn clockwise around and around. I had no idea what purpose it had in the exhibit, but that’s what the awesome thing about this piece was. It didn’t really actually have a purpose or meaning, it was simply something different and unique. I starred at the pieces slowly rotating in the same direction, but each piece had a different colored background, which made me feel a certain way. I felt happiness and confusion at the same time. While I glanced at the one piece with a red background I felt a scene of happiness and warmth, and while I look at the other one with the white background I get confusion. I ask myself why? Why are there two different colors and why is this piece hanging from the ceiling? Why can’t it be placed on the floor or a table? But when I look at them together, I don’t ask myself any of those questions. I except it for what it is and I enjoy it. In a way, I feel that this art piece sort of hypnotized me or played with my mind because of how the pieces where moving, the angle and corner it was in, and the colors. You would think that an art piece that was very detailed would bring up a lot of questions but the ones like this particular one, which is plain, are the ones that make you question everything. There aren’t a lot of details or distractions in this piece to tell you the story or give you path to head down. It’s plain and simple, which makes the observer open his and be creative. The art effected my emotions and my pace. I slowed down and cleared my mind and observed every little detail the art piece had. I didn’t really remind me or made think of anything specific but just played with my emotions and made me feel calm and understanding. I enjoyed my visit to the museum and I’m glad I came upon the particular art piece. I defiantly enjoy and encourage more pieces like LightFall I (Plume).
Hello guys,
ReplyDeleteI chose the piece Undead 1963 by Larry Clark. I choose this piece because I'm kinda a sucker for black and white photography, but then again it caught my attention because, it just looks like a lonely girl sitting down. Then I starred at it for a while, and it made sense. The reason this piece is tilted dead is because this girl is dead to the world she has no friends, and she just sitting there all by herself.
It's like she's a ghost and no one sees her its almost depressing to look at if you really get in depth, and just stand there and look at the picture. There's loneliness, and sadness in her eyes. She's wondering if anyone will ever notice her or if she will ever start living life. This painting to me says don't let life pass you by, live it to the fullest. She just wasting away on that little bench in the park somewhere lonely and unhappy.
Rebecca Brunner
ReplyDeleteNovember 5th, 2013
Meg Reilly
ICW
Walking through an art gallery gives you many different thoughts. Each piece has it’s own way of telling you it’s story. The piece I have chosen to write about shows diversity, technique and abstract ideas.
I have chosen an Alexander Calder piece. This piece is made out of printed sheet metal and steel wire. Four of the eight parts of this piece are hanging, and the other four are placed on white boxes. All of the background is white. There is only two pieces that you can mostly tell what Calder is trying to show us. One is in the shape of a cat and one is in the shape of a human head with other parts to it.
This piece uses color, texture scale and proportion in many different ways throughout the piece. In his background, above, underneath and all around he uses white to really define the main parts of his artwork. Calder also uses texture in using metal and wire to project his artwork in a different way.
When observing this piece, all the white caught my eye. I can feel and relate to this piece because it has many things going on at once just like I always do in my life. As I stated in my thesis, this piece shows diversity because of all the different shapes, colors and dimensions it illustrates. As well as the abstract ideas and technique this piece brings to the table by it hanging, and the way the metal and wire is used is amazing.
I looked at eight of Calder’s pieces as one but the main one I kept my eye on was his piece titled, Mobile cat by Alexander Calder. Alexander Calder has a wide range of ideas but I feel this piece as one shows diversity, technique and abstract ideas and themes.