16 Jackies

Andy Warhol, 16 Jackies, 1964 acrylic

 

 

This piece is one that I really like.  The title for it is pretty self-explanatory because the women depicted is obviously Jacqueline Kennedy and it’s done sixteen times.  The top and bottom row are images Andy Warhol took from Life magazine of her right before her husbands assassination.  The two middle rows are also taken from life magazine but after the assassination.  It was common for Warhol to appropriate images of famous celebrities for his prints.   It is a very common postmodern strategy.  It was also common for pop artists to use everyday objects in their work, which was also a big part of the postmodern movement.  In this case the images were common for the time because the assassination had such a huge effect on our nation.  I sometimes have a problem with refusal of mastery but in Warhols work it has never really seemed to bother me.  I actually never even thought about it until it was just recently brought up.  In my opinion I guess it just seems to go kind of unnoticed because he does such good work with color.  In this piece the blue works very well to convey a sort of tragic feeling to the viewer. 

 

 

 

 

www.walkerart.org

Cameron Jamie

Cameron Jamie

Lonesome Boogie Rattler

2006

 

 

I was kind of surprised after doing some research on Cameron Jamie to find that I have kind of a new found respect for him. At first glance I honestly thought wow another Ralph Steadman.  I remember thinking wow I have stacks of shit that looks like this.  After some research though I discovered that I had a much bigger apprieciation for it.  Cameron started out and became known for his work with film.  He uses many mediums for his work these days.  This gives his work a much more postmodern feel.  He spends a lot of his time studying different subcultures and how they adapt to their surroundings.  Places like homemade haunted houses and backyard wrestling to name a few.  His work has a much darker feel to it.  Some people I guess would consider it pretty vulgar.  I think from what I’ve seen it conveys the decline of our society and subcultures rather acurattly.   I have been trying to locate a trailer for a couple of his films but that is proving to be a bigger task then I thought it would be using any internet search engine.  Damn you James Cameron!  There is a film called “Kranky Klaus” that I’m most interested in.  If anybody finds something let me know.  I’m going to keep looking.   

 

 

http://mnartists.org/article.do?rid=119849

Midway Contemporary Art

This first piece I responded negatively to for a couple different reasons.  First of all its huge in the gallery and we were told it isn't at the collectors.  I could maybe deal with it a little if were much smaller.  Second I feel like I get the concept of it.  I even feel like I understand why its done with a spray can.  I just see it more as an unfinished idea.  Poor people steal spray paint.  Some times artists with money do too.  So just get a couple different colors or at least use the whole can. 

The second piece I thought was pretty awesome.  I don't know how long of a loop it's on but I did get to see what happens.  I don't really even want to write about what happens because I couldn't do it justice.  It wasn't what I expected.  I started off thinking that somebody was gonna get hurt like Americas Funniest Home Videos.  I was pretty excited but then when it did what it does I was kind of disappointed.  Then I got to thinking that the thing it did was so lame it was kind of funny.  I was told it was called shooting star but that isn't what it says on the sheet.  I hope it is though because usually wishing on one turns out to be a dud too.  I want to find out if it was done like that on purpose or not.  I hope not that would perfect. 

Add Poverty To Your Elegance

Monica Bonvicini

2002

Michael Sailstorfer

Sternchnuppe

2002

DVD

Instillation

Our group chose to use these two pieces from the M.I.A. for the Instillation blog this week.  I personally think that they both have a lot in common.  They both are made up of lines although one is vertical and one is horizontal.  More obvious to myself is that America is known for our professional sports.  With baseball being such a big sport in this country I thought it was a good fit that the bats are warped and cut on the one piece and it says try your best one the other.  The American flag also tying into the American dream had kind of a strange impact on it all.  I think the two pieces together have a good sense of irony.  

Top

"Rejects From The Bat Factory"

Mark Sfirri

1993

Bottom

"Give It Your Best"

Charles Toucey Coiner

1942

Postmodern Standpoint

I went to the Walker Art Center on Tuesday and chose a piece called Necklace CNN.  It was done by Thomas Hirschhorn and I picked it because it almost made me laugh.  For me I think it applies to postmodernism just about anyway I look at it.  Its a giant chain necklace made of plastic and cardboard with the CNN logo hanging from it.  It looked to be about fifteen or twenty feet high and is hanging  about twenty feet off the ground.  It was neatly wrapped in gold wrapping paper with tape to give it that "Bling bling."  It definitely to me applies to this day in age with the media and the cross references it makes as to what is popular.