Rosh Hashanah

Ardele Lister decided to cancel seminar in video today in the name of Rosh Hashanah. I decided to make the most of the no-class holiday by spending all day in the darkroom, first B&W then color. The first assignment for my photography class with Annie Hogan is to experiment with something, anything, be it a technique or subject or process. Since I haven't been in the darkroom for two years I thought this project was a good opportunity to experiment with printing- no deep meaning attached, just plain old printing. I used negatives of various images taken within the past year, both from my nikon slr and disposable cameras. After the initial scrambling around I found that I got right back into the swing of things. The truth is I love being in the darkroom, focusing the enlarger, testing the aperature, witnessing an image appear on paper in the developing bath, adjusting little by little. The entire process of creating an image on paper manually is completely taken for granted with digital work. I'm definitely going to continue working only with film for now. I always think about the process as opposed to the end result, and right now it's the process that is holding my interest.

Welcome Back show

Mason Gross faculty and 2nd year graduate students have a lot to offer in this year's Welcome Back show. I spent quite a bit of time (on separate occasions) in each of the gallery rooms. My first impression upon seeing the exhibition differs from my impression after having time to truly spend with the artwork. That my opinion changed after repeated visits shows me how important it is to be with the art for a time, rather than just glaze over it. I also found myself appreciating the exhibition more after hearing about the effort and consideration that went into designing the layout.

We were told to blog about aspects of the show that worked together or didn't; things we liked or hated. I honestly can't say that I hated anything- yet there were definitely areas of the gallery in which I tended to linger longer. Something about Diane Neumaier's photograph is really intriguing to me. (Not a surprise that I am choosing to talk about a photograph- I don't usually feel as comfortable critiquing mediums which I am not as familiar with.) Diane's "Untitled" is labeled as an ink jet photograph, which tells me that it is digitally printed. At first glance it doesn't look like any recognizable genre of photography at all. A gray background is accented by two cut-outs of blue and yellow and a thin sliver of a light glare. The different colors of the two shapes confuses the figure-ground relationship of the image. If they were the same colors, I would be able to see them as both the background of the image and the foreground. Instead, I am forced to accept that the gray matte color is containing the two ambiguous shapes (one of whose edges are more hand-cut than the other). This photograph reminds me of James Turrell- a light artist who has held my attention since seeing one of his exhibition's last year. In the past he has created enclosed rooms with ceilings that open to the sky. "Skyspaces".

These spaces leave a small shape of sky to be seen and contemplated, which is how I think of Diane's blue and yellow cut-outs. Through contemplation my perception changes how I view the image & I start questioning my eyes' discretion.

I think it was a good decision to pair this photograph next to a painting by Catherine Murphy called "Her Bedroom Wall". Larger in size, this is a painting of photographs of faces pinned to a wall. The title makes me think that the wall belongs to someone close to Catherine. The painting is divided by four corners where each of the picturese of faces are. They are all smiling. A couple of them have ripped edges as thouh they were torn in two or out of a magazine. The faces are cut off at the edges of the painting, which distorts the smiling faces in a strange way. The people in these photographs have a certain hostile edge to them in their piercing eyes and the jagged glares of light hitting their fake skin. The girl in the bottom right corner looks like she is actually engulfed in flames. Unlike Diane's piece which is containted within the borders of the photograph, Catherines painting emphasizes cropping. The placement of these two pieces next to each other causes me to wonder about the artists' intents compositionally. The two are united because both compositions are so simple (to the point of uneasiness) and intentional, though in regards to content they are drastically different.

Interview with Taos

Taos is a scupltor working with different types of metal and wood, large and small. He also makes and sells his own jewelry from sterling silver.

Taos: This was my final project for sculpture-II. It’s made from steel and enamel, and it was influenced by Robert Smithson and Richard Serra.

Me: Was it site-specific?

Taos: Yea, it’s heavy. I set up at the LAB. I was happy with this piece. It was helpful for me to really convey the ideas I was trying to convey about space and connections and the relationships that make up a whole. It’s about the single units that all combine together to create a cohesive piece in space.

Me: Why did you choose the blue color?

Taos: Because I had access to that material; there was a lot of that enamel paint.

Me: So do you work with found materials a lot?

Taos: Yea, you kinda have to. These materials are so expensive on their own. This is all salvaged steel.

Taos: This was an installation I did at LAB last year. I used the same concept of connections, points connecting and making up a whole. I did drawings beforehand. The theme of the project was tension. I anchored it to the celing, and then I drilled anchors to the floor. 

Taos: This is some of my metal working, made form steel.

Me: How do you bend the steel?

Taos: That stuff is pretty thin. It’s a sheet, pretty malleable, so I can actually bend it with my hands. I cut off the steel with a plasma cutter and then did a few different welds together, then just used force to put it together. It’s all cold fusion – no heat or soldering techniques. Its all bending and twisting. Again, it depends on the metal. Sterling is a pretty soft metal as opposed to something like steel.

Taos: This is some of my earlier work – a relief project. This is about sacred geometry. A lot of architecture is based off these ratios that also exist in nature. And that’s something I’m really fascinated with in my work. It’s a huge inspiration to me. I studied a lot of european renaissance architecture; there are a lot of cathedrals particularly built off this formula.

Me: Would you say that you try to create work that is representational, abstract?

Taos: Recently I’ve been moving towards more abstract ways of working. I initially had trouble with abstraction when I first started out with painting, but I learned how to deduce and learned more about abstraction, and that allowed me to go in the route I felt that my work needed to go.

Me: Do you always draw first?

Taos: No, I have different ways of working. Sometimes I’ll draw things out and I’ll do sketches. I’ll have a pretty cohesive idea of what I want to do. Other times, like with the blue metal piece, it’s more conceptual for me. I had an idea about these forms and this space I wanted to create, and I just worked and the piece kind of built itself. I worked in a different way than I’d ever worked before. And it was successful in my opinion.

Me: For me, sculpture seems like it’s more about the process than the end result. The process of working with the physical materials.What do you think?

Taos: Absolutely. I mean there are so may materials available. These are material objects; it’s not a painting on the wall. It’s something cohesive that you can touch, so I think proess is very important – being able to see process is important.

Taos: This is a wall relief, built out of a chair. The back of the chair is jutting out of the wall. It was representational of a landscape.

Me: I like the shadow it creates. Is lighting a big issue when it comes to your work?

Taos: I spent a lot of time lighting this piece, but that’s not the case with all my work. With indoor work yes. But I’ve been doing a lot of big projects outside. That’s what ive really been drawn to, which is a whole different animal.

Me: What kind of work do you think youre steering towards right now?

Taos: Right now the work that I want to be doing is related to formalism and some of those ideas about the deduction of a piece down to the pure essence of form and color. Nothing less and nothing more, and that’s just simple. It’s a way that Ive been recently drawn to as far as understanding abstraction.

Me: You mentioned Richard Serra as an influence. Other influences?

Taos: Robert smithson. Smith, however I disagree with some of his work.

Me: Beyond working with the space of an area, what would you say youre trying to say with your sculptures? Are you still exploring right now?

Taos: I’m absolutely still in exploration. I’m still learning a lot about my work, myself, and the ways in which I work. I think I want to go in the direction of processed-based work.

Me: Do you thnk you’d ever incorporate your jewerly-making into your sculptures?

Taos: Yea, I’ve tried to bridge the gap between my jewelerly and my sculpting career several times. My mentors are highly against it. They say that I’m too familiar with this medium. I know it well like that back of my hand, so it restricts some of my potential for creating better sculptures.

Me: I agree with that. I think these are really beautiful and wearable, but with your installation pieces you can go in so many different directions. Do you think sculpture offers you an outlet that another medium couldn’t, such as drawing?

Taos: Absolutely. The process, the building, the physical manifestation of an idea into a concrete piece is a very beautiful thing to me. It’s awesome to start with single idea and work through weeks or months, or however long it takes to exectute that idea. It’s very rewarding to have a substantial physical object to show for not only the time and effort but the original idea.