Robert Smithson (Extra Credit #1)

Robert Smithson was a land artist. He was born in New Jersey in 1973, and studied painting and drawing in New York. Some years later he began writing and was interested in landscape architecture, these writings then lead him to his future artistic medium. In 1969 he started to produce land art pieces, one his most famous creations is "Spiral Jetty".Made out of basalt and placed on a salt lake in Utah, Smithson had to move and shape tons of earth, salt, and basalt to form this creation. Broken circle is another of his famous works, and was created the year directly after Spiral Jetty.

James Turrell

James Turrell was born in 1943 in Pasadena, CA. A hard worker, he received his pilot’s license at the age of 16 and his BA in 1965. Turrell is best known for his work with the Roden Crater. He got the crater in 1979, and it is located in Flagstaff, Arizona. Turrell’s main focus with this volcanic crater is to turn it into a naked-eye observatory, so that people who enter the crater can see the natural celestial phenomena in the stars. The majority of his other works deal with the perception of light and space. Another of his famous works is called “Sky space” and it deals with just that. Turrell also produces light tunnels, and light projections that deceive the eye. Turrell even has his own museum. The James Turrell Museum opened in Argentina in 2009, and he personally designed it.

Hussein Chalayan

Hussein Chalayan is an internationally regarded fashion designer, and was born in 1970 in Nicosa, Sicily. He grew up there, and graduated from the Turkish Mariff College of his hometown. In 1982 he moved to England; here he began to study design in London. He completed his graduation degree in 1993, and with it presented a wonderful presentation of garmets that he buried underground to see how they would decompose. This collection was called “Tangent flows”, and before the year was over the collection was purchased and put on display in a luxury store in London.

In 1995 Chalayan won a top fashion design award in London, and by the time he was 25 he received financial backing to participate in Britain’s capital Fashion week. So already at a young age, Chalayan reached great feats of success. Chalayan started his own clothing line, and in addition to that he was able to create designs for three years for the New York Knit label TSE. Chalayan still continues to produce many different collections and fashion shows for his label. Chalayan puts a lot of thought and effort into the production of his garments, he even includes abstractions in his pieces like: vampires, tombs, constriction, and darkness. Chalayan debuts many collections every year, and his clothes are sold in the U.S, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Hong Kong, and Japan.

In 2008 Chalayan was appointed as the creative director for the German sportswear label, Puma. That same year he teamed up with Swarvoski to create a series of Led dresses for a showcase in Tokyo. He has even created dresses with built in walking sticks, headdresses, a disposable collection, and a table dress. He has also been nominated twice as top designer of the year, and along with his many other awards was awarded the Design Star Honoree, in New York. He has also expanded his portfolio to menswear. Things continue to improve for Chalayan, he continues to produce collections that are showcased all over the world.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

I made the trip to the Museum of Jurassic Technology today, May 15th. Initially I thought the museum would have something to do with dinosaurs and prehistoric times since the title of the museum has the word “Jurassic” in it. I was wrong, the museum wasn’t about that at all, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a completely new experience for me, I had never been to a museum like this before. The museum is dimly lit (there is enough light to see where you are going), so as you travel around you encounter rooms with different levels of brightness and light, and different sounds in each room. I did enjoy how the exhibits were lit, each one had something different and interesting about it. The type of light that they chose for each exhibit attracts your attention, and makes you look at the item longer than you normally would. From that you were able to think a little more about what you were actually looking at, and come up with more questions and even opinions about it.

The music in the museum was also very unique. Certain rooms and exhibits had different types of music to go along with them. Some of the music was very calm and soothing, and the others I found a bit eerie. Especially in the darkest rooms. I liked that the museum was interactive, they had exhibits where you could look through things to see the certain images, or how things worked. There were working models, and my favorite were these interactive paintings that would light up when you stood in front of them. The light had a positive and negative effect on me, I loved how it showcased the different types of art, technology and machinery. But in certain rooms it was very hard to take pictures since you are not allowed to use flash photography in museums. I had to leave out some of my favorite pieces because of the lighting.

It was very interesting to take a look at the technology of the past. To be able to see how it was used in different applications like; art, science and theatre. My favorite was the theatre section, there were mini working models of stages they used for the plays of the past, backdrops, and props. This museum has an experience all its own, I think that it will have different feel for each person who visits. I’ve never encountered a museum like this before, with all of the darkness and light. The music, and some very interesting and unusual exhibits.

My Earth Art

For my art project I wanted to make a statement, it’s subtle and some may not understand it at all. I titled it “our takeover”, I wanted to show the human impact on the earth around us, and how humans have taken over what nature used to have. I have a potted plant in my home, and I decided to use it in my earth art piece as well, because plants are a part of the earth (this one just happens to be in a vase). I wanted it to look like the potted plant was invading on the space and territory that the rooted plants have, making its own path into their world. I dug out a path to show the route that the plant took in its invasion.

The potted plant represents humanity and what we have done to nature. In many parts of the world people have cut down trees, and deforested large areas just so that people can have what they want. Our own invasion into the world of nature, i.e. the potted plant. I used a plant to represent humanity, not only because it is linked to earth art, but because people and plants both need the earth to survive, and I saw that there could be more connections that way. Everyone might not understand it, but that’s what I have to say.

Vanessa Beecroft

Vanessa Beecroft is an Italian contemporary artist. I couldn’t find much about her early life, but her current works and exhibitions are very well known. Beecroft’s work is a form of fusion, she fuses conceptual issues and artistic concerns to create her works of art. Beecroft is very versatile and skilled in many forms of art, including drawing, painting, videos and photographs. Much of her work involves the use of female models, and her performances are encounters between the models and the audience. Each performance is made for a specific location and often referers to the political, historical, or social associations of the place where it is held.

Beecroft’s performances have been seen as “art, fashion, brilliant, terrible, evocative, provocative, disturbing, sexist, and empowering”, reactions to her work vary from each audience member. Beecroft has produced works and performances for very notable and important art institutions and museums. She has had her own exhibitions, and even produced works for the famous brand Louis Vuitton.

Allan Kaprow

Allan Kaprow is known as one of the most famous pioneers of art. He was a painter and a performance artist, he is also the creator of “happenings”. Born in 1927, he began his education in boarding school and then pursued his education in the arts. He received his master’s degree in art history, he taught for a little while, and after he started his studio art career. During this time he became less focused on the object of painting, but the action itself. These actions lead to the creation of the happenings.

In the beginning, the happenings were very scripted. Here the audience and the performers had to do certain things to experience the art. Kaprow said that the happenings were “events that, put simply, just happen”. His happenings were a form of interactive art, a way for the audience and the artist to physically see and react to the piece, the audience could become the art. As time went on, the happenings evolved and became less scripted. In all of Kaprow’s happenings, his main focus was to encourage the audience to make their own connections to the happening and have their very own unique experience. Kaprow wanted to integrate art and life through his happenings, it allowed him to experiment with different things and still have the audience involved.