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Flood's "craft" objects turn tools used for mundane tasks and activities into one of a kind, handmade objects. While working on an assembly line, Flood became interested in the ideas of function and aesthetic. At the beginning of his arts career, Flood focused on jewelry-making, as do most metal smiths in the arts, but he soon became interested in the original uses of metalworking, i.e. toolmaking.Flood's popularity was founded on his pizza cutters, which are modeled in the likenesses of motorcycles, hot rods and choppers. The pizza cutters, to him, are "objects that speak to culture today." Oftentimes, people question craft artists, posing questions like "Why are to spending so much time of that?" and "Why don't you just buy a table or a pizza cutter at Target?", but even we photographers realize that there is a certain lure to creating something with your own hands and through your own ideas and concepts. As artists, that lure is almost irresistible, and as consumers, without the innovations of one-off art pieces, we might not have the beautiful and pieces that come off the assembly line.
Landscape (Formal)As far as aesthetics go, my current project has taken on many variations. In the end, it seemed to work best using traditional landscape elements. Of course, when the word landscape comes up, we immediately think of "happy trees" (which the first picture actually has). But instead of happy trees, I focused on the wide angle view, obvious horizon line, and traditional compositions. This helps the viewer understand the gravity of solitude that is taking place within the photograph, and also allows for the focus to remain on the subject.
*These two paintings are photographs taken off of bobross.com, presumably painted by Bob Ross*
Paul ShambroomShambroom seems to have an interest is the unconventional subcultures of America. His photos of corporate spaces ("Cube Culture"), Nuclear weapons facilities, local meetings and security training facilities are normal photographically, but when look at for their content leave the viewer realizing that something was happening right under their nose. The fact that these places appear so normal in their own context and yet so abnormal in everyday society is intriguing, as well as is the fact that most of these places could be right around the corner from your mother's house.Although the other series were interesting to me for their content, I found my interest lying in the office photography. Many people have done photos of office "cube culture", as he called it, but few have done it from the vantage points that he did. I'm intrigued by his drive to push away from the average deadpan aesthetic, at least with this one series, and curious to see if I can break my own self-made machine of aesthics.
All I can say is Wow! Hyde was brought in, via the Windmueller series, to talk about what he dubbed "Cultural Commons and Collective Beings." Hyde explained his side of the copyright debate, which admittedly has me now reconsidering some of my views.One point that resonated with me, was the point Hyde made about being "self taught", saying that no one can actually be self taught, since you are learning off of source material in every circumstance. You might sit in your room and learn to read Spanish, but someone had to write the book you're trying to read in order for you to even think about learning it. Thus his point about thieves actually being hosts to artistic, conceptual, and intellectual "properties" began to make sense.Had Hyde lectured prior to the Copyright series I did in Concepts class, my thoughts on the series would have been different.
StagedIn middle school plays, the stage is decorated by the students, with general direction given by their teacher. Before the curtain opens, the audience is free to speculate about what they are getting ready to see. Often the images in their heads don't match up with what is in front of them. When something is thought out and staged, ...the viewer sees exactly how someone else interprets a scenario. In a sense, you're seeing something from its creator's point of view.I want to interject this feeling into my work more. The mismatching of one person's vision to another's would disconnect the viewer further from the pieces, forcing them to see the photographs as something they are witnessing while subconsciously trying to recreate it themselves.
*This image was found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hokyumgrl/3249057879/*
Absence (The photo above is actually one of mine)You know that feeling you get when you've been around someone for a very long time and then. through whatever circumstances, they suddenly aren't there anymore? This feeling has long been of interest to me.Absence plays a key role in this series. Fundamentally, without the absence of people these photographs would just be average. But by leaving out key parts of the scenario, viewers can invent their own narrative as well as question mine.
*The above image is mine*
I believe could possibly have been biased against this artist before I even stepped into the lecture. I am not personally a fan of most video art, and it takes some really intriguing videos to really make me focus on the message. Pearlstein's videos didn't do it for me. That being said, some of her concepts and notions did stick with me. Although her adaptation of the No Manifesto didn't make much sense to me at the time, the idea behind the Manifesto as a set of rules to not abide by makes me want to attempt interjecting a similar set of rules into my work.I also like the fact that her work seemed to rely heavily on gesture. With vacant white backgrounds, the viewer can no longer look to it for details. There is no time and place, and the sound doesn't match up with people's mouths, so you're forced to draw conclusions from a singular source, which is discomforting in a society that relies on multi-sensory understanding and continuous stimulation. Another thing that intrigued me was her use of the real versus the unreal. Her "unreal" seemed to be in actuality a distorted representation of her reality. I also enjoy playing with these two elements, but hadn't thought of the unreal in that way until her lecture.
UnrealAs has been drilled into us, photography is real and documentary. We photograph what is there and, without significant post production, not too much more. To me, it is the artist's job to show the viewer only what they want to be seen, and nothing more. To me, the question should always remain in a viewer's mind of just how real a photograph is.In this series, as with most of my other work, the viewer's sense of unreality is very important to me. I want the viewer to realize that this cannot possibly be a spontaneous scenario while also not quite being able to figure out what happened to it.
InteractionObviously, interaction with others is a big part of being human. Without this interaction, we envision ourselves turning into characters similar to Tom Hanks in Castaway. Our fears of psychological breakdowns and talking to a volleyball, as well as our mental makeup as human beings, keep us grasping for the attention of other. Sometimes this too is detrimental to one's health.What I've been questioning lately in my current body of work is whether or not these people are crazy. They are sitting in a given place, conversing and interacting as if others are there, and yet there is no one. Had these people been on the street I would definitely consider them crazy. But in the photograph, I'm finding that I replace the empty chairs and swing sets with other people. Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder exactly who would be the crazy one: The person talking nobody or the person that sees two people talking to each other.
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