Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ART PROFESSIONS
LINKS
SUNAIRI SUPER BLOG ARCHIVE
SUNAIRI SUPER LINK
- Aakash Nihalani
- aakash nihalani and his work site
- Aakash Nihalani projects
- Aakshi Nihalani Frost Free
- Ashley Martin
- Brent hallard
- center for urban pedagogy
- Emily Coxe in her own words
- Hrag Vartanian - A blog of art, culture, photography, writing and ideas.
- ISABELLE PHILIPPE and JULIA BURLINGHAM's films
- Lindsay Aikman
- Lindsay Aikman retouching portfolio
- Matthew Valia Photography
- ON EX-TIBET
- ON SATO SAN
- Pixel Pour (By Kelly Goeller)
- Pixel Pour by Kelly Goeller
- Pixel Pour by Kelly Goeller by 53TABS
- Re:Public, Masters of the Ephemeral - Aakash Nihalani
- Timur Civan Cinematography Reel 2008
18 comments:
this work made me think about the whole facebook/myspace culture and what it means to photograph yourself again and again doing different things. often, i think people use pictures on these sites as a means to prove that they were somewhere, that they did something. i read a lot of that in this piece. also, on a more surface level i like the way your expression remained constant and how tighlty you cropped your self portraits so that the background or your differing stances became almost superfluous in regard to the total image.
i agree completely with what quinn has said. i had the same reaction.
it was funny to watch her doing to piece, it was rather frantic, yet her expression did not even quiver.
also interesting to put the nonchalance of the facebook picture into an art context by calling them self-portraits. you knows, perhaps all those wonderful digital pictures of people with their friends will be considered artworks one day.
I was rather actually impressed with Caitlin's act of taking pics of herself in front of everyone as a way to frame everything around it. I felt that she was very conscious of the light and how the natural light or available light composed a great scene. In some ways, the location she choose seemed like she knew very well about photography. So we are witnessing the beautiful pictures being composed of the time frame of her taking pics with her Polaroid, however, since it is the nature of Polaroid, flashing every time it takes pics, the images gets flattened and stays very similar. I liked the contradiction.
If you have noticed,and I tried to capture in my documentation, her Polaroids were still developing as she put them up on the wall. For the short amount time, the colors were changing as she completed putting them up on the wall. In some ways, it was like seeing a season change.
like hiroshi, i really liked the part when the pictures were put up while changing colors. for me that was the most exciting part - watching the pictures develop. i also liked how her expressions didn't change throughout the whole performance. i think it was one of those pieces where during the performance i didn't really have to think - it was more like, i wanted to watch the whole performance first and then interpret whatever i had to interpret from it.
while i was watching her taking photos, i felt as if she almost forgot the presence of other people. i noticed not many people were actually followeing her. yet,she did not care whether people followed her as she was taking photos moving from one place to the other. Just like the title, this work seems to be something that's just for her,something private maybe.
i agree with all the above comments... However, the way the photos on this web page are presented are a nice alternative to the piece. they too function as a beautiful representation of framing your performance of face. you did loose complete absence from the rest of the class and didn't break emotion which was a nice touch. I think that your choice in polaroids was perfect because it made me think of change and developing not as a photograph but as you progress in life's stages. This was a beautiful way of expressing yourself through change.
I actually thought this piece was really funny. It seemed so perfectly myspace-y with her arms in the shot. I'd love to see all of these as the only pictures on a myspace profile. I agree with what Quinn said about people wanting to document or prove they've been somewhere. I like the way all the photos look lined up, I think the fact that your face stayed the same was really important.
it was interesting and but it gave me uncanny feelings. As she taking a photo of herself, she had no expressions whatsoever!! Even though she had different standing position, her facial expression was same and this was the most interesting part of the piece. Also I liked how she labeled each photos with how she was positioned and how you displayed on a wall!
It will be awesome if you had more of these!
I hope you didn't plan out where you were going to take the pictures beforehand. Then it would really be like Hiroshi said, instinctively gravitating towards the best spots for photos.
I like that you can't really tell the background in the photos. Sort of. Without the words it would have looked like you were rotating in one spot. Maybe. I like how no one said anything, and you didn't acknowledge us at all. That's how a performance should be, haha.
The use of the Polaroid is an excellent decision. There was something really intriguing and a bit nostalgic about seeing you slowly come into existence on photo in a place you had just left.
totally agree w/ quinn's blog culture comment. sometimes the act is so arbitrary, and yet becomes the entire photo...gives meaning to the photo...makes it more than just another self-portrait.
your expressions were so emo; your actions so methodical. it was like a trance-like ritual for just a few moments. trippy. interesting. like it. my favorite was when you lifted your leg so self-assuredly, as if it was meant to be your next action. i'm of the mind that a lot of the choices were spontaneous moment by moment decisions which i like very much. but contrastingly, the writings on the pictures are so decided-no questions asked.
annie cho.
I agree with a lot of the above comments about myspace/blog/facebook culture. There was this intense, private self-absorbtion going on in the piece for me, and I loved it. And again formally it was really nice, from the framing of your face to the developing of the photos on the wall, which again spoke to the urgent nature of the piece. I found this to be very successful and relevant, elevating that culture into the fine art context.
I agree with grace, I liked how her expression didn't change throughout the piece. The act of labeling the pictures in front of us was also interesting because the whole process of taking the pictures and putting them up was done so quickly. I also was captivated by her actions, the piece held my attention because she was carrying out the performance in such a robotic and stoic way.
I agree with Annie when she says that the performance seemed methodical…it was conducted in such a way that each step was thoughtless, but at the same time not predetermined…if that makes any sense. I guess what I’m suggesting is there was a confidence in the performance that seemed apparent, in a way that it was as if she was not following a plan, which could or could not be the case…but ultimately didn’t matter. While I could find inspiration in the work from myspace/blog/facebook/whatever culture, I don’t think there was any elevation of this “into the fine art context” or even any comment on it for that matter. I think I liked the performance solely for what I saw it as, a quiet girl, maybe or maybe not deceivingly soft in personality, turning up a more brazen and confident gesture and displaying it expressionlessly on the wall…the piece confused me, but I think that is good.
-Brenden
There was a moment of anticipation when she posted the photos up. They were cloudy and I was so curious to find out what was written on all of tem and what the images were going too ook like. Remarkably they all look the same. It was impressive how stoic you could be.
i like how you seemed to ignore the fact that you had an audience. it felt like we were observing a private self reflecting act, which was compelling. really liked how the writing on the polaroids was done instantaneously (in the same way the photos were taken since they were polaroids) and in private. This had us anticipate how the piece would reveal itself. In the end it was great to have the performance open up to us all with its display and development of the photos on the wall.
I wish I could have seen this in person. I think small details are relevant in understanding this kind of performance. I have questions like how long did this performance last? Did she wait until they were developed to hang them, or did she put them up right away? Did she write on them after each was taken, or all at the same time? Also, I can't see what was written on them anyway. I bet this was surreal watching someone do this in class. It does make me think of the silliness of facebook pictures.
Definitely myspace/facebook. whenever someone holds their camera out with the arms and takes a picture - especially with a dead-serious face. I just get these images in my head of teenage girls in their bathrooms taking pictures from downward angles. It was nice how you defined yourself (in writing) by where you were when the picture was taken. Like, maybe they were test strips or location scouts - especially all hung up together almost as a storyboard.
The idea of taking a photo of oneself projects an image of vanity and arrogance. however, because she had no facial expressions, the process seemed almost robotic and therefore lost that element of vanity. The idea of a self-portrait also provokes the idea of trying to leave a mark somewhere, telling people you were once here.
Post a Comment