Alexia’s Work

WEEK 1: Kilometer

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What does Sol Lewitt mean when he says that “the idea becomes the machine that makes the art” in his work? What does the artist’s actual hand have to do with the final work in a conceptual art context?

In conceptual art the concept or the idea is the main important part of the artwork. It’s not so much the process of creation and the actual hand. The artist’s actual hand is more of a perfunctory action. The artist doesn’t have to think about what they’re doing; they’re simply following the plan they came up with during the conceptualisation of the project. That is not to say that the actual hand is not playing an important role in the artwork → as we can see in the example of this video, Lewitt has a team of people collaborating to make a mural. There is something about collaborative perfunctory work that can bond a group of artists together.

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Where do you draw the boundaries around the artworks in this video? What are the artworks? What strategies and tools does Ono use to challenge the viewer? Do you like any of these concept-works? Discuss.

I think that Ono’s book is within the boundaries of art. My interpretation is that Ono’s book is a written conceptualization of the artwork, and the artwork itself is the readers/viewers imagining the scenarios that Ono has written. Ono challenges the viewers by describing scenarios in her book that require a lot of imagination and creativity to picture in the viewers mind. Furthermore, she challenges the idea of art by creating something unconventional; something that is not what we traditionally would call art → she created conceptual art. I really like her grapefruit book because I find that it exercises the mind and it is very soothing and therapeutic to read and imagine the instructions.

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Describe two works by Bruce Nauman (include images) where he frames every day actions (non-heroic, banal) as art. How are they “framed” as art, and what does the framing do to our understanding and experience of the actions?

1. GOOD BOY BAD BOY

Nauman frames Good boy bad boy as art by using everyday language in an unconventional manner. The actors in the video repeat the same phrases over and over and everytime, they say it in an angrier voice. This makes the viewers uncomfortable and disturbed. Art is a creation or a concept that makes the viewers feel something and that is exactly what Nauman does in Good Boy Bad Boy.

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2. WALL-FLOOR POSITIONS

Wall-Floor Positions is yet another artwork that makes the viewers feel disturbed. In this video, a person is switching from position to position. This may seem like normal activity, but the way he frames it makes it feel Wall-Floor Positions is yet another artwork that makes the viewers feel disturbed. In this video, a person is switching from position to position. This may seem like normal activity, but the way he frames it makes it feel uncomfortable. The odd positions that the person is doing, along with the silence and black and white poor quality video makes for an ominous ambiance.

WEEK 2: Abramovic

When my father was young, he loved to bother his little sister. The first instrument he ever learned was the accordion, and so when my aunt was around 3 years old, he would put her inside of his accordion case and lock it shut. This was not pleasant for my aunt, so I decided to sit inside of my dad’s accordion case for an hour to reflect on how it must have felt to be stuck in there. Obviously, I’m too big to fit inside of it with the case closed, so I sat in it with it open to at least get some sense of my aunt’s experience.

At the beginning of the hour, I found peace and comfort in reflecting on my aunt’s and my father’s childhood. However, as the hour progressed I felt more and more restless and bored. I found myself searching for ways to keep busy. For example, one thing I did was keep a mental scoreboard of how many times my toes cracked within the hour. By the end, even the little games I made up in my head were not enough to keep me entertained. All I could think about was how much my back hurt from being in the same position. After the hour passed and I finally got to move, it was the most amazing feeling; I don’t think I’ve ever felt a bigger appreciation for being able to move even though it is such a simple thing. I cannot imagine being in the same position for more than an hour, let alone months as Abramovic did. This experience has given me a new found respect for Abramovic and I can really appreciate her work so much more.

WEEK 3: Defenestration

For this exercise, I did not have a window defenestrate something out of, so I decided to use a public space. I had a hard time brainstorming ideas of public spaces that I could throw something off of without littering or leaving a mess. This is when I came up with the idea of throwing flour, that way if it makes a mess, it would not be visible because it is white like the snow. I thought it would be interesting to defenestrate flour because of the explosion of powder it creates when thrown. I decided to throw it off a playground because it was the highest and safest public place I could think of.

Above are the 4 stills of a video that I took of the defenestration. The first time I threw the flour, I opened the bag before throwing it and I expected all of it to fly out of the bag. However, as seen in the first photo, none of the flour came out. So, I ended up having to throw it 4 times before I got the effect that I wanted. The more I threw the bag of flour, the more it ripped. Each still in the grid above corresponds to each of the 4 times that I threw it in order.

WEEK 4: Pandemic Portraits

SOMEONE I KNOW: EMILY

“Uncertainty. In life, jobs, school, in the world.”

For my first portrait video I chose to film my roommate Emily. I go grocery shopping weekly with her at Food Basics and I thought it would be a unique environment to do this portrait. I wanted to show Emily doing something that she normally does on a regular basis, which is why I chose the grocery store as a setting. It is also why I chose to position her holding our full shopping cart. I think the vibrant colours in the background adds a captivating aspect to the portrait making it visually pleasing.

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SOMEONE I DON’T KNOW: JOSEPHINE

“I’m stuck, I’m petrified, and I can’t move on.”

For my second video, I found a small group of people holding signs for a campaign of some sort. They were University of Toronto students and they were standing near the University Centre. I them to be in my video and Josephine volunteered. I asked her to keep holding her sign in the portrait because I wanted to show a diversity of people and I wanted to demonstrate what she was up to during this time.

WEEK 5: Faces

Tape face

I wanted to play with material that would allow me to change the shape of my face. My first idea was to wrap my face in plastic wrap, but I realized that I would not be able to breath with that on, so I settled for clear tape instead. I think I enjoyed using clear tape better than if I used plastic wrap because of the way it allows me to distort my face in more interesting ways. I also enjoy the way you can see my face through the tape, while I simultaneously am unrecognizable.

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Yarn face

I wanted to experiment with the obliteration of my face. I found a ball of chunky yarn in my room and decided to wrap my head with it. Originally, I intended to wrap my whole face in yarn, but I decided to leave my eyes and nose out to give the viewer an indication that there is a face under the yearn. The image turned out to be very odd because of the way my head looks enlarged.

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Hair face

I originally came up with the idea of creating a right side up face on my upside down head. To achieve this, I laid down on my back on a surface with my head hanging off upside down and I put glasses, a mask, etc on my face to create a face that is right side up. However, this idea was not successful because it was difficult to take a picture while I was hanging upside down and to make it look natural. I then decided to take a picture of myself with the glasses and mask on, but with all of my hair in front of my face underneath the accessories. This picture was also difficult to take because I could not see what I looked like in the cameras with all the hair in my face. The final image did not turn out as intriguing as my other two. However, I do find it interesting how the accessories suggest the idea of a face even though you cannot see my face at all.

WEEK 6 & 7: Buttons

These buttons were inspired by the allergy bracelets that people wear to alert others of a specific allergy that they have. I decided to make buttons that encompass the same concept, but with a twist. Instead of displaying the sentence “I am allergic to _______”, like the allergy bracelets do, I changed the sentence to “I am not allergic to _______.” My intention was to create buttons that are practically useless in an ironic and humouristic way. The design of my buttons turned out to have an innocent and harmless appearance. This is contradictory to the unintentionally offensive nature of the statement on the buttons. I was hesitant to make these buttons in fear that they would be offensive to people with allergies. My hope is that these buttons spark conversation on this matter.

WEEK 8: Audio Art

Missed Call

For this assignment, I chose to use existing sounds and put them together to create music. More specifically, I recorded all kinds of telephone noises to create my rendition of the default ringtone of the iPhone. I have always had a fascination for vintage telephones, thus what my idea was inspired by. In my house, we have a variation of telephones from different eras, such as rotary phones, portable home phones, etc. I recorded the different sounds including the beeping buttons on the portable home phone, the sound of the phone hanging up, the sound of the phone ringing, as well as several others. I wanted the piece to feel like it has a beginning and an end, almost like a story. To achieve this, I started the piece with the sound of the rotary phone dialling. I ended the piece with the sound of the voicemail of someone I know, followed by the phone hanging up.

Final Week: Conceptual Art

Choir of Strangers

This is my rendition of the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” originally sung by Judy Garland. I really enjoyed the audio assignment of the previous unit. I also appreciate the concept of involving other people in my art, as we did in the Pandemic Portraits. To combine these two concepts, I came up with the idea to create a song using only the voices of others (this included my friends, my family members, my classmates, my partner, etc). I wanted to assign each person involved to one specific note and ask them to record themselves holding that note for five seconds. However, I had run out of time and was unable to recruit as many people as I would have liked, so I had to assign each person to two notes. I then took all of the recordings and placed them together to create my interpretation of the chords to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. I chose this specific song because it is a simple piece that would allow for musical creativity, thus providing me with the flexibility that I needed for this project. This song also has significance to me because it was the first song that I was ever taught to sing as a child. This is a common song that is used to teach beginner singers. The significance of this song plays a role in my piece because the majority of the people who are involved are not singers and this would be their first time being involved in the production of a song. If ever I have the opportunity, I would like to continue this piece and produce the whole song. I would also like to involve more people to make the range of voices as diverse as possible. I really want this piece to demonstrate that the small five second contribution of one person may seem insignificant, but when you involve a whole group of strangers and put them all together, it can create something really meaningful.