ART 21
El Anatsui:
El Anatsui is an artist from Africa, who mainly works with
found bottle caps in order to create cloth-like installations. He works with a
team, and really emphasizes the process of creating the work. Each time the
installation is set up in a gallery or anything like that, the end result is
always different, because he encourages curators to set it up how they envision
it. I really admire the way he emphasizes this team effort and letting everyone
not only be involved, but let their creative expression show as well. Process>product,
although the product is always incredibly beautiful. I also really like how El
says that the use of bottle caps is not necessarily recycling, but transforming
an object- and I like that he gives curators the opportunity to transform the
piece as well. The pieces are obviously incredibly versatile if they can be
rearranged infinite numbers of ways and still end up with a gorgeous product.
Laylah Ali:
I really related to Laylah when she was discussing how she
was influenced by cartoons, because that’s totally me—the reason why I wanted
to become an artist in the first place. Unlike her, I do find my process of
creating cartoons to be escapist in a way-- I like creating silly, trivial
cartoons to get away from the sucky reality of humanity. But I also like to do
art that makes statements about the issues pervasive in society as well. I also
thought it was really funny how she collects all these clippings—I too keep
notebooks and notebooks filled cover to cover of pictures and brochures and
magazine pages I collect that inspire me as well. Obsessed with her reasoning
and her choice to use paper rather than canvas with her paintings, comparing it
to the intimacy of reading a book. I totally get where she’s coming from. When
discussing the dancers that reenact her paintings, I found this quote to be
incredibly funny and relatable--“how do you deal with alive people???” AMEN.
Alfredo Jaar:
Right off the bat, I
thought his work was gorgeous; I loved the asymmetrical placement of the long
strips of light with the portraits.
I admire his outrage—with
his example of the 35,000 dead making a measly five sentence story on page
seven of a newspaper. So many privileged people look past that and make no
connection whatsoever-they don’t care, it doesn’t affect them, they yawn, continue
reading their paper, drink their coffee and complain about their office job. I
love the fact that he actually gives a shit and actually does something about
it. I love his dedication—6 years trying to accurately convey the struggles
going on in Rwanda.
I loved his use of identity
as a tactic-focusing on a real person to connect with people. People don’t
connect with numbers. I thought it beautiful to use the photo of the boy’s
eyes—eyes are so personal, they tell so much and it makes you think about what
those eyes have seen, what the owner of those eyes has experienced.
