Blog #2

The work on Alexander Apostol explores many of the aspects or modern day urban society. The images displayed in his exhibition In Lieu of Modernity show various rundown buildings which the windows were digitally removed. The work shows the ideas of isolation and and lost expectations. The ideas of our advanced society creating things to improve our way of life that just end up falling into disrepair and become landmarks of our poorer sectors, monuments to modern depression and frustration. The work of Chris Sauter on the other hand explores very much the same ideas but with a focus on a different sort of subject matter. Where Alexander Apostol focuses on covering up what's real with an illusion, we know only through our own intuition that somethings wrong, because something that we expect to be there is missing. Instead of creating a sense of illusion Chris Sauter shows us what is missing by use of negative space. His pieces Arena and Museum show the viewer what is missing from the exhibit, creating holes in the viewers field of vision, silhouettes as it were. The piece the Presence of Absence by Peter Horvath is a video exhibition that worked on a computers browser to show a series of short, vague video clips. The viewer moves their cursor around the image of a face to show the videos, which are only a few seconds in length and show vague and often static laden. They show things like a clock, or a man sitting alone in the dark. A point is obviously being made about the nature of isolation, pointed out through cryptic metaphors and darkly lit scenes which accentuate the shadow and thus hiding things from the viewer, the presence of absence.

I enjoyed all three of there pieces, I believe that Alaxander Apostol made the strongest point with his piece, The use of such strong social metaphors helps to strengthen his points and ideas. Removing something that we expect to be there through our own experience. It makes a strong point about the isolation and poverty created by our society. The buildings look foreboding enough in their present condition, but with the removal of the windows creates a sense that something isn't right. The effect of the piece speaks to nature of our society, the hope created by the construction of a modern building and the inevitable abandonment, the destruction of a once bright dream. The frustrations of the poor become illuminated by the piece and I believe the relative simplicity makes it a very successful work of art. Chris Sauter with his very intricate and hansom looking pieces shows the very effective use of negative space. His approach on this piece is the intentional leaving out of information, instead of covering up as Alexander Apostol does, he shows the hole that he left in the creation of the piece. The incompleteness of the section of wall raises many intriguing questions which while possibly not as heart felt as Apostol's work, shows what is perhaps a deeper and more calculated meaning. The video piece by Peter Horvath appears to be the most cryptic of all. Using a more mysterious and minimalistic approach, choosing instead to focus on what is not shown that what is. The nature of the videos while never explained expects the viewer to develop conclusions themselves by using a very open ended approach. The Piece is a conversation with the viewer in this way, about the nature of isolation and the meaning of absence. The dreary dimly lit scenes allow the viewer to fill them with whatever they themselves bring with them as opposed to spoon feeding a narration, the use of interactivity allows the viewer to be more connected with the work and creates a more immersive atmosphere which strengthens the open-endedness of the metaphors presented.    

Blog #1: Charles Coen Interview

In the interview with Charles Coen many of the artist's ideas and techniques were analyzed. For example the series called "Buff" was brought up a number of times and observed for its artistic ideas. The idea of using silhouettes posed in provocative ways to create a disconnect between figure and negative space, indeed the figure and negative space were one in the same for most of the series. Another subject of discussion was the series focused on time, in which silhouettes were placed instead of actual figures. The series focuses on subjects such as time and isolation. The artists talked about the idea of interactivity and how the use of hollow methods of "interactivity" in exhibits only acts to isolate the viewers further from the artwork.

What I got out of the interview was a greater understanding of the ways contemporary artists use deep seated themes and ideas in subtle ways in their pieces. In forms that can be perceived as minimalistic or even chaotic can be very focused on the very faithful portrayal of a very specific theme. The idea of disconnecting the viewer from a piece in order to make statements on the nature of time and isolation become very effectively communicated with the use of focused imagery. The thing that I will take away most is the treatment of negative space in the "Buff" collection.  I've always been fascinated with the idea of negative space and the use of cropping in the picture plane. The idea of using the frame and cropping to show the viewer the most honest idea of what you want them to see. The idea of negative space as the figure or focal point of a piece of art is a rather interesting idea, it very bluntly calls the viewers attention to the use of negative space, and seems to pose several questions about the way negative space is created in art. He is literally sculpting a piece of art around the negative space created by the silhouette, and using such a strong provocative image makes for even stronger messages.