Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg was a ground breaking American Artist starting out in the 50s. He created art that captivated American popculture throught the use of silk screening well-known images that both complimented and juxtaposed eachother. He created a history of the American culture with his artwork. I enjoy his work because it is intense, fresh, and talks to you. However, it is a shame how his art work was used, along with many other artists' work, for the Robert and Ethel Scull to make an enormouse profit off of the auction of thier imense collection of contemporary American art. Rauschenberg confronted the Sculls about thier unfair use of his art without awarding Rauschenberg some entitlement to some of the profits. Royalty legislation for artists in the resale of thier works was never passed in the House of Representatives and to this day artist do not recieve a portion of the profit from resale. This was the beginning of the age when art became more of a peice of the market in America than a peice of culture. Through out history art has sadly become more associated with money and auctions than with the artists and ideas these artists have.

Man in a Bubble

I recently found this when researching performance art. I think it says a lot about performance art itself.  Theres something intriguing about performance art. As performance art cannot be bought or sold, it is brought immediately to the public.  The artist is able to skip over the process of going to a broker and a gallery.  In my opinion, this makes the art more pure.  Also, no two performance art peices are the same, therefore enhancing the purity of the art.  Many artists do rather odd works of performance art, such as this one as the man is sitting naked in a plastic bubble in the middle of the city.  What is intriguing is that it still draws people in.  There is a fairly large crowd, even despite the pouring rain.

The shock of the familiar

Fred Wilson's art is not about creating art but situation objects in a way that evokes some emotion or a thought that was not present before if these objects were to be isolated. It is the positioning and placement of the objects that is key to his art. Placing something one way or contrasting it with another object brings something out that was not and could not be there before. He mostly works with things that are ordinary to us but become extraordinary once he has arranged them according to his vision. For example he takes these museum items and arranges them in a way that evokes certain biases or ideologies that were not obvious before. Specifically about the stereotypes and biases towards African American people.

Big Bamboo

I saw this piece in my friend's facebook photos a few days ago and wondered what it was. She lives in the city and got a chance to see this beautiful structure. I like how its strong structure s composed of bamboo and how the onlooker is invited inside to really experience the inner workings of the structure and the essence of the structure. I read in an article that the structure is meant to resemble a cresting wave; the placement of the sticks does indeed give the structure a forward motion.

Human Carriage- Ann Hamilton

Ann Hamilton created art that was very gentle and soft. All of  her work focuses around writing and its similarities with thread and cloth. The installation at the Guggenheim Museum works very well with the architecture as the "carriage" moves in a fluid motion along the spiralling track, clinging with the bells and chimes that hang from it, as it brings unbound books from the top of the museum to the bottom floor one after another. The line of the track almost resembles a piece of thread or a line from a pen. There is a connection between thread and words and how they are the components that make up an entire work and depend upon one another; whether it be making fabric or writing a book. This is a theme that is resonant through all of her work.

This is the link to the video of Ann Hamilton's Human Carriage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuFuVBBrPuI&p=1B9265499F96BA00&playnext=1&index=8

Image Production Art

This is a piece of artwork created by Cory Arcangel in his Sharper Image art show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami. It is a computer produced picture..essentially anyone can recreate this image with computer animation software. Cory's art is very different and modern. It plays on the technological age that we live in now and illustrates how foreign computer technology and other gaming and communication technology is to humans. One exhibit that I thought was really interesting was the two computers indefinitely sending each other atomized out of office emails..his message was intended to show the onlooker how detached we are from technology and how it can exist independent upon humans even though we were the originators of its purpose. He also enjoys playing around with video games and pre-recorded images to make statements.

Unusual Art

These peices of art are quite unusual; the pictures of the toilets were submitted by Carlyn L. to The Society of the Happily Unusual website. There is no information about the artist since I do not think there was one artist that did all these peices. As I was looking through the toilet art gallery I was astonished to seee how many restrooms had been transformed into an art gallery. At first glance these toilets do not even look like toilets and it is the fun part about art. You can make anything ordinary into something extraordinary.

This public toilet was built in front of London’s Tate Britain Gallery as an art exhibit by an Italian born artist. What is special about this restroom is that it is made up of semi-transparent glass. The “visitors” of the public toilet (who need to defy their own fear and embarrassment) can see through the one-way mirrored glass but passers-by can’t see the person inside the restroom. This medium is very unique but it is a new medium to express onesself and also use humor.