I went to CCP on Wednesday afternoon, and photographed my favorite pieces. This video by Kelly Wellis I found particularly fascinating. The drawing was soothing, perhaps because of the pencil going up and down, and I liked how in synch the girls were. At first I thought they were lovers or something, and then I realized they looked super similar and were probably just twins. Moving so close to each other in such a small space made it seem very intimate, but at the same time they had such blank faces and were doing such harsh movements with the pencil that it didn't seem beautifully intimate at all - it seemed quite cold really. But that's probably just me. It was odd, I don't entirely know how to explain why but I just really liked it.
I really connected with Vivian Maier's super 8 footage too. It was just her walking around taking videos of things she found visually interesting, something that seemed part of her everyday routine (that's not that surprising, she is a photographer after all). I guess I found it appealing because it is just purely documentative, and not changed very much. It seemed like someone's home video piece. Oh, and I take a lot of video footage as I walk around too, so I guess that's another reason why it appealed to me.
I didn't take any photos of Simone Slee's 'How long can I hold this up?' because it wasn't something that I felt overly excited by. I thought it was funny, and the large scale of the posters made it stand out quite a lot, however I didn't feel compelled to stay and look for very long. After going to her talk and hearing the stories surrounding her adventures abroad with the signs and her social experiments testing the works in public places made me appreciate it a little more, because I heard it's history. We've been talking about the idea of documentation as being artwork a lot, for example Agathe Gothe-Snappe using words from interviews as direct sources for her work, and this work that was at the WestSpace Contemporary Art Prize that included an entire wall of the letters sent in regards to creating the piece:
I think the idea of using documentation as a part of the artwork itself often leads to things being easier to understand, and in my opinion I think I'm drawn to works that seem to say something. Although I like art for the sake of being visually appealing, and there's just something about the pure aesthetics of some things, I think a lot of art I consider to be important or valuable is one that has a story and history and meaning behind it. I'd say meaning is definitely the key word there. And the easier it is for people to deconstruct that meaning, the more people will be affected. However, pretty much every artwork is saying something, even if it's quite small and not overly noticeable, and only reaches a small amount of people. I guess that's why there are so many artists and so many galleries around - so that people will keep thinking and seeing different perspectives. That's a pretty obvious thing to say. Anyway, moving on....
Aside from Slee's 'How long can I hold this up?', her other work really appealed to me. It was one of those pieces that perhaps may not have stood out to a lot of people, but that still resonated with me. It was cheeky and cute and contradicting everything I've just said about liking artworks because they change your perspective on things: I liked it cause the little tiny bits of body poking out were funny and sweet, and the contrasting bright colors were cheerful. It just made me smile.
The nose one was my favorite:
After seeing a slide show of her work I think I should also mention that I liked her project called 'my house is too small' or something - visiting other people's houses and living with and making art with them is always fun, and giving a name to and documenting that process is a very clever idea I think.
One thing I disliked about the talk was when she wouldn't stop talking about the type of paper she was going to use. I respect her passion and eye for detail in the type of paper that she uses, but I just wasn't that interested in her paper choice. It was very nice of her to show us that much intimate detail into her decision making process however. And also very nice to see shots she didn't use, and photographs she didn't print. She was very honest and open, and I appreciate that.
Dinner's ready, so that's all for now.
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