Hidden art in a foreign language

So art is suppose to be an international language. That might be true but trying to navigate an art website thats in a different language is extremely difficult. I just think its funny cause I ran across this website and I cannot figure out what its about or how to navigate it that well. I was able to figure out that the top 2 categories of links on the left hand of the screen bring you to different bodies of work on everything from urban settings to industrial parks. However I think there is something cool about not know what any of the images are about or were their from. It kind of reminds me of the classic movie "Logans Run" when the two main characters see the outside for the first time in their lives. The world is kind of deteriorated but becasue they have no idea what any of the object are or the back story behind them the bland world as we see it is fascinating to them. I have often spoke out against the use of artist statements on the basis that a work should be able to stand on its own without the aid of words. I think the pictures on the website support what I'm saying. These Images I ran across definitely stand on their own and and I doubt that an artist statement would make them any better. Its kind of like discovering a new world. You do it for the adventure and excitement. You don't always get what you want but you have to take the good with the bad. So anyways heres the website for any one that reads this blog and good luck trying to figure it out if you don't know the language. http://www.dubtown.de/

Also heres a couple of pictures from it to wet your appetite.

Paul Pfeiffer

So I had a hard time figuring how to best describe Paul Pfeiffer's work. In the end I decided to use the description of him given by the art 21 website. So this is a summary of what they had to say about him and his work. Again I got his from the art 21 website who's web address is http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/pfeiffer/index.html#

Paul Pfeiffer was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1966, but spent most of his childhood in the Philippines. Pfeiffer relocated to New York in 1990, where he attended Hunter College and the Whitney Independent Study Program. Pfeiffer’s groundbreaking work in video, sculpture, and photography uses recent computer technologies to dissect the role that mass media plays in shaping consciousness. In a series of video works focused on professional sports events—including basketball, boxing, and hockey—Pfeiffer digitally removes the bodies of the players from the games, shifting the viewer’s focus to the spectators, sports equipment, or trophies won. Presented on small LCD screens and often looped, these intimate and idealized video works are meditations on faith, desire, and a contemporary culture obsessed with celebrity. Many of Pfeiffer’s works invite viewers to exercise their imaginations or project their own fears and obsessions onto the art object. Several of Pfeiffer’s sculptures include eerie, computer-generated recreations of props from Hollywood thrillers, such as “Poltergeist,” and miniature dioramas of sets from films that include “The Exorcist” and “The Amityville Horror.” Pfeiffer is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, most notably becoming the inaugural recipient of The Bucksbaum Award given by the Whitney Museum of American Art (2000). In 2002, Pfeiffer was an artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at ArtPace in San Antonio, Texas. In 2003, a traveling retrospective of his work was organized by the MIT List Visual Arts Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Martin Puryear

Martin Puryear is another unique artist that I came across the other day. What interested me about him, besides the fact that hes a sculptor, was that he served in the peace corps for 2 years. The reason this is interesting to me is because I'm looking into going into the peace corps when I get out of college and then when I'm done with that I might try to become a professional photographer/ artist. So in hes kinda doing what I hope to do. Anyways back to Puryear. His work can be classified as thought intensive minimalist art. Often his pieces are very plain and simple yet with their simplicity comes a comment on life. An example of this would be his piece "Box and Pole." In this piece there is a four foot square box with a hundred foot pool sticking out of it. The comment made by this piece is that there are some things that people are bigger then yet there are also things that are bigger then us. The box being what people are bigger then and the pole representing ideas such as god which are bigger then people. What I think is great about his pieces is that if you look at them long enough you would probably come to the conclusion he wants you to. Another quality of his work that I like is how natural some of them are. Many of his pieces are made out of wood or rocks instead of metal. This means your focusing more on the meaning behind the piece then the meaning behind the material. All in all I am a fan of his work becasue of how simple it is. There are no hidden messages but simply comments on the relations of things in the world.

Landscape Photography

So I was looking around the internet tonight for landscape photography and I discovered that its getting harder and harder to find a landscape thats interesting. Its not that the landscapes being captured aren't beautiful its just that after a while they all look the same. I mean there have been so many pictures of sunsets that now sunsets look dull to me. Its strange though because I used to be a big fan of landscape photography. That used to be all I wanted to do. In some ways it is. But I think its to find something that is never before seen. To find beauty without the aid of a sunset. Its interesting looking over the images in National Geographic. What makes them successful and what doesn't. I hate to think that the only difference between one landscape and another is how far someone had to travel to get the image. That an image from Africa is better then one shot in the U.S. Except for the few magazines that use landscape and nature photos I think the main reason people take them is for sentimental value. Even professional photographers take landscape images probably more for themselves then for their portfolio. I guess this is what makes landscapes so unique. They create sentiment for the distant. They remind the viewers that they are away from some beautiful place. In a way they are the substitution for that perfect place in our minds. Whether that place be in Africa or in the neighborhood that we grew up in.

Weird as shit

So I was stumbling around the internet tonight when I came across some weird ass shit. All of these were taken by Joshua Hoffine. He said that all of these were done on studio and who only used photo shop for color and sharpness correction. I think this is awesome becasue a few weeks ago I got an assignment to shot something attractive yet disturbing image using a Holga. Now obviously these weren't shot using a Holga but I think these definitely qualify as something that is both creepy and attractive. What I like about it is how simple the idea is. I have seen allot of photographers use children to make something odd and scary but never in this way. Whats great about them is their not Childhood fears as an adult would see them but rather as a child would see them. Another great thing about them is the variety of the fears. There's everything from monsters to clowns and even dead mothers. I mean if I was still a kid this stuff would seriously be some of my big fears. And to top it all off all the sets built and everything involved in the process was done for free by the people involved. There were no paid models but simply people willing to come together to build sets and have a little scary fun. So I've included several images but here is the link to the site I found him at. http://www.soothbrush.com/children-fear-photography/

Mel Chin

Next stop on the artist train is Mel Chin. Mel Chin was born in 1951 in Texas as the soon of immigrants. He grew up in a predominantly black and Latino community. His artwork has been motivated by political, social and environmental issues that have come up over the years. However, instead of simply commenting these problems like many other artist do his work actually involves solving the problems. A good example of this would be his "Revival Field." In this piece he creates a piece of art using plants that are designed to remove heavy metals from the ground. So this piece not only comments on the problem and how to solve it but it also partakes in the solution. Looking over his career much of his other work does the same thing. They all take a problem and solve it in a artistic way. Whats great about his stuff is that he doesn't limit himself to one particular area of interest. He has been know to creates pieces and help out in places were ever he sees a problem. This could be in the middle of a suburb or several miles out of town. Because of this his work seems to more focus on the actual problem at hand then about getting attention. He once commented that making art is all about making choices. Whether it is the choice of were to make the artwork and what it should be about. Chin has clearly made the choice to use his artwork as a guide for people. A way to influence people into making smart choices that are beneficial to society.

Ned Kahn

Ned Kahn is what is called an environmental artist. No he is not about trying to save the enviroment through art. His work is about expressing the enviroment. About revealing things that cannot been seen and doing so in a artistic way. This would include making things that move when wind or water hit them. Changing the patterns of smoke through hair currents. Even revealing light in a new way through the effects of wind or rain. He would probably classify himself as part scientist part artist. Much of his work involves complex calculations and figuring out how to make the invisible environment visible. I am a very big fan of his work because of how he's trying to connect people into what cannot be controlled. Yes much of his work does have patterns but they are patterns that are uncontrollable. In a way, through his work he is trying to show the acts of the divine. How there is some supernatural force out there and it influences us in the same way that the unpredictable wind influences his pieces.