Pretty much same deal as last time. Same style as the red painting. Slightly bigger. It wasn't of anything or inspired by anything. It only became an astrological painting in the last 5 minutes when I added the white flecks. I'm fond of the final product because I think it has a lot of visual and physical quality. Visual quality is caused by layering and making bold color choices. Physical quality comes from texture.
In the next project, I think I should push texture and scale more. I also am toying with the idea of making abstract paintings based on everyday objects (see brick readymade/red painting combination).
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awareness. Julian Rosenfeldt is a Berlin-based conceptual artist that usually relies on elaborate multi-channel film productions and photographs. Many of his projects are environmentally, socially, or politically charged. Rosenfeldt studied architecture in Munich and Barcelona, receiving his MA in 1994. He began working with Piero Steinle, a university graduate, to create photos and videos shortly after graduation. One of his first acclaimed works is Detonation Deutschland (1996), which is a four-channel film instillation depicting the destruction of Nazi-era symbols and buildings, as well as post-war industrial buildings. With his photo series Munich -- The Unknown Cathedrals (1995), Steinle and Rosenfeldt shot wide 180-degree black and white photos of unknown, behind-the-scenes but stark urban places. Rosenfeldt's films and photographs were mostly exhibited in museums across Europe (including the Goethe Institut and the Royal Academy of Art in London) until the mid-2000s, when he broke into the international scene with works such a Asylum (2002), which depicts the plight of immigrants in Europe in an ironic tone, and The Trilogy of Failure (2004/2005), which depicts our "Sisyphean" and "vain entanglement with everyday rituals." Since 2009, Rosenfeldt has spent much of his time in the academic art world after winning a guest professorship at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and membership at the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts). In the 2010s Rosenfeldt's films continued to be exhibited around the world, including American Night (2009), which is an ironic play on the American Western, centrally addressing US immigration policy; Meine Heimat ist ein düsteres, wolkenverhangenes Land (My home is a dark and cloud-hung land) (2011), which looks at the role of the forest in German identity, history, and culture, as well as modern forestry practices in Europe; and Manifesto (2015), perhaps Rosenfeldt's most widely exhibited work, which depicts various artistic and philosophical movements of the twentieth century using highly visual or ironic imagery. Since 2011 Rosenfeldt has been professor for Digital and Time-based Media at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München (Academy of the Visual Arts Munich). Julian Rosenfeldt's style has a few hallmarks. Many of his instillation are multi-channel to tell many stories within one story. Rosenfeldt rarely relies on spoken language in his films, instead letting the ambient noise sing and glorify the camerawork. He also fully embraces cliched or stereotypical symbols, but frames them with plenty of irony to question or challenge them. Some of his work relies on drone footage, for example the 2017 film The Land of Drought, which depicts a post-apocalyptic world landscape. His films are both narrative and documentary. personal comments I am a fan of Rosenfeldt's work. Manifesto is perhaps my favorite, because it's thinking about thought, conducting a meta-analysis on society, politics, aesthetics ... everything. Rosenfeldt's use of visual imagery with the personas/microcosms in each of the thirteen chapters is on point, rife with symbolism and irony. These films show you that these philosophical manifestos are not some obscure, erudite discussion. We live and fight these movements every day in small ways. Questioning who we are as people and nations is anyone's and everyone's game. I'm not that interested in film as a medium. In terms of content and style, the most significant thing from Rosenfeldt's work to mine is his ability to communicate his ideas, many of which are similar to mine, in way that makes a poignant experience for his audience.
abstract expressionism? that's new. I originally set out to paint an actual subject. I was in the Christ Church graveyard in Philadelphia. This is the church that a lot of the Founders attended. In the graveyard lie the tombs of many old Philadelphians. War heroes, country builders, important statesmen. Ben Franklin is buried there. Walking through it, I found a somber, melancholic beauty. I noticed graves as old as I've ever seen, some dating back well into the eighteenth century. I then noticed decay -- obelisks, tombstones, flat slabs of stone -- all showed signs of cracks and wear over the centuries. I couldn't read many of the headstones because the words were worn off. Many of the grave markers had worn down to nothing more than stubs.
Enter death-related existentialism. We can live and die then put up ornate, massive stone markers above our remains. But as time passes, even the largest gravestones wears down to a stub, then a pebble, then nothing at all. The world does not care that you lived or that you died. Originally, I wanted to paint this graveyard, somewhat as I had captured in the photo above. But as I started blocking out for that painting, I simply realized that I did not care about painting that subject or any other subject. So I just started layering paint with little active color, application, or composition choice. It's arbitrary. Just like the human condition. Over the past couple weeks, I've come to really like this little painting. I can't exactly say why. I guess it's liberating to realize that there are no rules in art. I can make whatever I wanna make, and that's all art is. thats edgy. This is based on the Art Assignment's "Whitescapes," which challenges participants to explore concepts of color constructivism. I first found two objects I could identify as "white." These were an egg and a blank piece of paper. I then placed the egg on top of the paper, and observed the differences in color and quality. I then changed the lighting and observed further differences in color. Separately, anyone can easily identify these two objects as white. But we have to be more specific because the quality of the whiteness changes when these two whites are placed next to each other. The big idea is that all color is contextual and that all color is a construct. Which says something interesting about perception and cognition.
Great Force, ICA In the context of this exhibition, "Great Force" refers to the great force of history that it is "present in everything we do." History is not for the history books. It's a narrative that we carry with us.
At an individual scale, the narrative psyche is, in my opinion, one aspect of human intelligence. When I say "narrative psyche," I mean that humans have a sense of self over a period of time. The me that exists today is the same me that existed yesterday and will exist tomorrow. We keep our personal histories with us. Even if we don't remember every single thing that happened to us, we are not a new person when we wake up each day. This allows humans to articulate life experiences in a meaningful way and interact with their environment more deeply, because there is a sense of self attached to it. At a national scale, it's more complicated. Nations do have a narrative psyche as well. In the United States, ours is particularly strong. National identity and patriotic expression mean more in this country. Much of this is founded in American exceptionalism, the belief that the United States has a moral superiority and that we should take pride in our history because it is inherently different from other nations. National history is a narrative. Issues arise when different groups have different interpretations of their own national history. Much of this has to do with culture and education. History books and education in the last century have downplayed the role of racism in our Civil War. Many of those feel that the rebel flag and the confederate statues are not symbols of hate, but heritage. Many people in this area still have family connections to those who fought in the Civil War. I would argue that the uglier stains of racism in our country are not the statues or the flags, but the role that de facto segregation still plays in our society. After decades of residential and economic discrimination, our country is still segregated along racial lines. ft. lucy I'm coming toward the end of this project. My goals from the last project were composition, brush stoke, and secondarily optical mixing. I've just got a couple more things to fix but at this point I quite like it. Compositionally this is a huge stride from my normal paintings. Brush stroke is not quite as loose as I'd like it but also shows improvement. It would be difficult to have loose brush stroke on a subject this detailed. And as for optical mixing, it's a little heavy-handed but I don't think that's an issue. Optical mixing is a really important way of adding visual interest into a painting.
more rubbings. I think this brings the total up to around 40 rubbings. I’m interested in how information about an object or surface is conveyed in a rubbing—but it’s not complete information. I tried to remain ambitious with these, making rubbings for things that are not flat. I like the brick and wood ones the best. Something to consider is whether I want to somehow show how the rubbing was made from the actual item, for example with the rubbing of the six sides of the brick.
Please click on this link in order to view the video. The video is posted as "unlisted" in order to respect the artist's wishes.
Gradually working to build up detail and color. This is about 6 hours of work. My two goals for this project are brushwork and composition. Composition is much better but I need to continue to develop my brush style.
The Art Assignment – "Surface Test" The assignment is to find a surface that speaks to you and make a rubbing of it. I intend to do lots of rubbings. I thought it would be simple: grab a crayon and rub. But it turns out that it's not quite that simple. Like any kind of art, understanding your medium is key. Mark-making and applied pressure matters in rubbings too.
I only have interior rubbings to show today. More outdoor ones coming soon. |