In the meantime - don't forget about your facades! I have included some images here to get the juices flowing.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Banned/Censored Art and Facades continued... with a bike accident on the side!
Most of you have probably heard now that I had a little mishap on my bike on Mother's day. Nothing broken, just moving slow. For this reason I have decided to move the banned and censored art theme to our next meeting on Monday June 9th, 6:30 pm. All the links are on the right.
In the meantime - don't forget about your facades! I have included some images here to get the juices flowing.
In the meantime - don't forget about your facades! I have included some images here to get the juices flowing.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Banned/Censored art: Sexuality, Religion, and Politics......and facades!
At the end of our last meeting the topic of banned art was suggested for May 12th (thanks Joanne). The above short list basically hits the key reasons why art works are removed from view. Often, it is the work that is censored or banned that leads to new ideas, new understanding, and new acceptance - eventually. Hindsight, as the saying goes is always 20/20 and can be great at providing insight. This is a very large and complicated subject that I will just scratch the surface on with the links included. Many of the links have their own links that I highly recommend you follow to see images of the art works in question. Below is the final paragraph from the Art Asia Pacific Magazine link:
"And as for art? Art is what makes us human—or at least allows us to ask and understand what it means to be human. Art, as well as its sanctuaries, need to be recognized and safeguarded as that necessary space of exception: the safety valve of expression in any society. No stranger to the state as stern and unavoidable bedfellow, art is necessarily an ingenious, inconvenient paradox."
Monday, April 21, 2014
Photography "Outsiders" *
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| Front of the card |
By consensus for our next meeting we decided to examine a contemporary photographer, Kyle Thompson. He is just starting out but his work is very accomplished. To balance things out it seemed interesting to add one of the grand-daddies of photography: Alfred Stieglitz. As is always the case with a lively conversation, one artist brought another to mind and Diane Arbus was brought into the mix. Her work got us
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| Inside of the card |
Contemporary art is often difficult for the those outside the art world to "get." Many art works that are now part of the art canon were also viewed this way in their own time. Let 50-100 or more years pass and all bets are off on how we might view the work. Another factor that may make the viewer extra fascinated with an "outsider" artist is how the artist manages to produce the work (in some cases large amounts for many, many years,) with no outside support or feedback. How does the artist keep going? In some cases the work is found posthumously - how would the artist feel about the discovery of their work and was it ever intended for anyone else's eyes? We can add to these questions during our next discussion. Photography is a really interesting medium to think about these ideas as the artist often uses themselves to make their work (as Kyle says because he always has access to himself.) These self portraits can become a stand in for more universal themes of identity, something the medium of photography is eminently qualified to consider. And then there is the issue of the "truths" photography speaks because of it's quasi-representational nature. Perhaps we will pick up the thread we began when Julie Casper Roth showed us her video. Lots of links to look at and read - can't wait to see where the conversation takes us. See you on the 28th!
* A working definition of an "outsider artist" - Art produced by self-taught artists who are not part of the artistic establishment.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Documentary and Digestive biscuits
Having Julie Casper Roth come to show us her work and talk to us about the fine line that documentary work always walks between reality, truth, and fiction was really interesting. As an artist Julie describes herself as a story teller who is always interested in how she can play with combining her love of history to create speculative fictions of the past or the future.
We rearranged the chairs and use a drawing pad as movie screen for this evening’s presentation. And what a lively conversation, in spite of being in the main part of the library (we were only reminded to lower our voices once!) Several really interesting films were mentioned that folks may want to try to see including: Catfish, Johnny got his gun, (both can be requested by inter-library loan through Chatham Public library,) and Exit thru the gift shop, (available to stream on Netflix or to rent at video visions.)
For our next meeting on Monday, April 14 we will try to catch our breathe and take some time to “digest” all that we have read, seen, thought about and talked about. Using the term “meta” may be appropriate here (see the definition of this below*,) as we begin to talk about what we have been talking about and how effective/interesting this form of talking has been. It is also time to talk about what we will do next ( I have a few ideas!) I have included just one link for this week so as not to feel too full! And this is where the digestive biscuits will come into play. Of course we will try them with and without chocolate, milk and bittersweet! We will be back on our regular day, regular time, regular location - hope to see you there! (Monday April 14, 6:30-7:45, in the teen room.)
If you would like a little more reading material to hold you over until our next meeting please stop by the Bagel Cafe at 41 Main Street. While having a bite enjoy reading a chapter or two of one of my art books I have temporarily loaned (and covered with fabulous fabric covers) located above the drinks cooler just waiting for you to open them up!
*
Monday, March 17, 2014
Guess who's coming to Chatham?
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| Meet Julie at the library 3/26/14 6:30pm |
Julie and I became friends while we were in grad school together at the University of Albany
and she will be coming right here, to our Chatham Public Library on Wednesday* March 26th at 6:30pm - upstairs by the fireplace. Come one, come all, and enjoy this free event where Julie will show us some of her work and have a conversation with us about the fine line between fact and fiction. Take a look at the links on right that Julie provided to get ready!
*This is a special night for our ongoing reading and discussion group which usually meets on the second and fourth Monday at the library. We will go back to our regular schedule in April, meeting on the 14th at 6:30pm.
One field trip, two artists...
This show, “Big Shoes to Fill” has now ended but you can learn more about Kate Hamilton’s work from her website. I also want to thank Marie-Claude Giroux of the Thompson Giroux Gallery for helping make this wonderful evening happen.
I would also like to thank Joyce Goldstein for allowing me to use the gallery during the winter months when the gallery is usually closed.
Feeling Lucky? Here is an interesting list of links folks from the reading and discussion group have shared:
Saturday, April 5, 2-5 PM
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Threads of an Art Conversation...
Click the green flag to start and the red stop sign to stop.When all those "conversation" squiggly threads appear and start jiggling press keys a,b,c,d,e,f to see what happens next! (Be Patient, this animation takes a moment to load.)
Ok, so much I would like to share with you all, and so little time or perhaps too many threads to follow. That is a good segue to talk about our Feb. 24 meeting at the library. We had a very interesting conversation on the two artists (Sara Sze and Gregory Crewdson) we had looked at. Several key points floated up to the surface in the conversation that I hope will stay with us as we continue. Rather than use language here to describe these ideas, I used a simple, kid-intended, programming language called Scratch to make a little animation. This program was developed by MIT and is quite user friendly (particularly if you are a child, so the learning curve was a little steeper for me.) One of the key features that really drew me to using this form is it was a way to connect our little community with another, though virtual one. This application is completely free. You can see how others made their works, borrow ideas and ask or answer questions. This open source system contains a lot of ideas of what a community can be. Follow this link to see the Scratch website and an alternate version of my animation that includes sound (I recommend head phones if you are viewing this in the library!)
For our next meeting on March 10, we will look at a couple of artists that will in some way prepare us for our first field trip on Friday March 14th. We will be visiting the Thompson Giroux Gallery at 57 Main Street and then Joyce Goldstein Gallery at 16 Main Street. We will start at the Thompson Giroux Gallery at 5:30 where we will see Kate Hamilton’s Big Shoes to Fill, a show where quotidian forms of clothing are transformed by scale and become a stand in for one’s identity. Then on to Joyce Goldstein Gallery to see Kelly Bruneau’s Side Kicks and Friends, colorful, exuberant, drawings on paper and the walls. Check on the right in the “what we are reading” box for links to all of the readings. I can’t help but also include a few other links that include artists from the last meeting, or are just too wonderful to not share. Enjoy!
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