Berger, Ways of Seeing Chapter 1
"The idea of innocence faces two ways. By refusing to enter a conspiracy, one remains innocent of that conspiracy. But to remain innocent may also to remain ignorant."
- The saying goes "ignorance is bliss", yet that is hardly true. The saying suggests that there may be comfort or ease in not knowing, however, the lack of knowledge and awareness may lead down an even more dangerous path. We must give up something in exchange for another, and in this case we must give up our innocence in exchange for knowledge.
"What the modern means of reproduction have done is to destroy the authority of art and to remove it - or, rather, to remove its images which they reproduce - from any preserve. For the first time ever, images of art have become ephemeral, ubiquitous, insubstantial, available, valueless, free. They surround us in the same way as a language surrounds us. They have entered the mainstream of life over which they no longer, in themselves, have power."
- The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci was once hung over Napoleon's bed in the Tuileries Palace in France. Before the means of reproduction, the only way to see this painting was to be in front of it physically, but now you can look at the Mona Lisa in seconds, depending on how fast your internet connect is. Berger explains that the power of art has been lost in the sense that the barrier between common folk and the aristocrats or bourgeois no longer existed. The same way I access Cindy Sherman's archive of Untitled Film Stills is the same way I can access all other artworks just from the click of my thumb.
Widewalls | Yoko Ono - A Groundbreaking Artist, Activist and Fighter
"Staged in 1964, one of her most famous works was the Cut Piece, where the members of the audience were invited to cut off pieces of her clothing until she was naked, thus making an abstract commentary on discarding materialism and its impact on society."
- I find the Cut Piece to be one of Yoko Ono's most influential and potent works to date. This piece allows the audience to have to liberty to remove pieces of Ono's clothing via cutting away the fabric. With this performance it demonstrates various aspects of the dichotomy between men and women. The uncomfortable tension is palpable as men begin to remove large portions of her clothing to reveal skin. Cut Piece may just be Ono's magnum opus.
"As she explained, art represents a way of showing people how you can think, and even though some people think of it as a beautiful wallpaper that you can sell, Yoko Ono rather perceives it as a direct connection with activism."
- With Ono being apart of the Fluxus movement, she and many others ushered in a new way of art that was contrary to the accepted mediums such as paintings and physical objects. Their performances were activism in it's core but provided a new thought process when it came to media that was not limited to works based on physical object but based on idea and intentions.
Hispanic Executive | Interview with Shaun Leonardo - Performance, Pedagogy, and Philosophy
"That project is entitled “You Walk”: as guests pass through this hallway, they encounter different text prompts that invite them to slow down. In the poetics of the text, I’m asking an individual to not only create their own associations with their lived experience but also imagine that same movement embodied by a very different person. "
- Shaun Leonardo's You Walk presents interesting ideas that spark introspective thought and present the audience with a reality that encourages thought regarding shared experiences amongst other people. Two people can look at one thing and see different images, and in the same way they can also see the same image. Leonardo makes it a point for the visitors of this exhibition to think not only themselves, as we are prone to do, but to also think about the shared experiences with other people.
"Artists need to take in, to process, to decipher, to separate from the noise and create things that are beautiful and impactful to the spirit. Artists have to offer a different type of slowness to work against the speed of today."
- Leonardo is right. In the age of hyper-consumption and instant gratification, artists need to operate on a different frequency than the one the masses are caught up in. The distractions are everywhere the eyes can reach, and patience has been exchanged in return for efficiency. Thus, Leonardo emphasizes the importance of "slowness" as a means to combat against the break-neck speeds people are moving at in today's time.
NYTimes | Being Marina Abramovic
"Ideas come from life."
- I relate with Marina Abramovic's sentiment that "ideas come from life." As an artist myself, I find that to be a rather useful approach when it comes to creation and art. Art is never made from nothing, it's always been informed in some form or matter. Whether that's from a conversation, an interaction, a happening, etc. it all falls under the umbrella of life. The experience of the human life is so vast and incomprehensible in it's totality that it becomes the ultimate source of ideas, the fountain of inspiration.
"The first step is to get an idea. Not an easy idea but one that makes me go, “Oh my god. No, no, no, no.” An idea that gets stuck in my stomach. Then, I get obsessed and, finally, I say, “OK, I’m going to do it.” That moment of decision is very important. Then I do it. But a piece always starts with an idea that I don’t like — something I’m afraid of — and going into the unknown."
- The inner conflict seems to be universal amongst artists, if not all people. When reading this I totally understood what she was going through as I go through this myself all the time. From fostering a thought, to realizing the idea, then translating it into reality is tougher than what most people think. I often second guess myself when it comes to making a decision when it pertains to my work, but like Abramovic, I too get obsessed and the idea never leaves me, so I have to put it down somewhere.
Khan Academy Performance Art An Introduction
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