REDO OF PROJECT 2

Here is a link to a  my video for my redo of project 2....enjoy!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvQwG8VHfP8&feature=youtu.be

Project 3 reflection

Mercedes Ortiz

Project 3

The Craftsman

I call this piece Turpiggin, and honestly I was really worried about doing and starting this piece. From where the initial idea was going and how it turned out is dramatically different. Originally I was going to depict a story about this creature who had the ability to regenerate these ready to eat meat parts. What it became was a visual representation of how crude the meat production and consumption can be. I have to say that I am really proud of this piece, from the execution to the final product and to the displaying of the piece. This is my absolute favorite piece that I have made for this class, because I was able to produce what I really wanted to and it was successful on many levels. Plus for this critique I got a lot of wonderful feedback on this piece.

              The feedback that I received hit a bunch of levels. I love the idea that one person said they feel the need to kneel to these creatures, almost like they were Gods or something to be worshipped. Due to the way I stylized the mark making there was a sense of primordial artist. I also got the comparison that this banner had a remanence of medieval banner like those of the renaissance. I was told that maybe as a possible installation piece would be a Renaissance festival next to a turkey leg stand. I could help but feel a sudden urge to find a Renaissance festival and ask to install it right away.

 The way I treated the rope and braided the ends together it gave a more refined and looked like one continuous piece of rope. I felt that the piece needed to have a sense of symmetry. When I only attached the banner from the corners I felt that the front fell forward so I added the grommet in the center as well, thus adding one on the bottom to keep the symmetry. One important thing that I would like to change would be to use either rope, cloth, or even add wear to the metal “new” grommets that I have on the piece right now.  People definitely and easily read meat industry and that grotesqueness of consumption. Tying with the readings I was playing with the idea of adaptation and sustainability. I wanted to draw attention to the disgusting amount of meat we eat and display that. The fact that people read that and then some made me very happy and felt successful.

Painting Water Blue Video, Process, and Reflection

For this project, I created a happening. Facebook makes this pretty easy now (links to event page).
A couple friends and I went out to a creek and gathered garbage from about half a mile of it. We used that pollution to make a water channel. The water channel provided the power to 'paint the water blue' using blue clay from the creek banks.
I learned about the medium of happenings through this project. Allan Kapprow has an essay titled 'The Elimination of the Audience' that give advice as to how to make these happenings as life like as possible. A problem I had was trying to have too much control. I had an idea of what I wanted to happen, and even though we achieved it, I didn't handle the most interesting part properly: the interaction with life and people.
Flutist ideology on documentation also influenced me. Unfortunately, my understanding of fluxist ideas was shallow, and I sacrificed basic quality of presentation in the name of not trying to disguise the video as a piece of art. My remake of the video adds more information to the event and gives the viewer more time to take in what happened.

Semester Reflection | Presentation

Here is a link to the presentation I made for this end-of-semester artist talk and reflection.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwPWi7RpqCgkejRjOEJxOUFfcTA/view?usp=sharing

Project 3 | Reflection

Writing in from notebook later today.

Arrangement of the wax into a chainmail/feather/armor is strong. 
Powerful yet delicate.
Gradient highlights the concept.

I am proud to have done a piece more experimental in nature. I didn’t obsess over how I would display it this time, I simply did many trials and experiments with the wax medium and then thought it would be best  in the center of a space hung from the ceiling, rather than my initial thoughts about it being on the wall. I like where this idea of feathering the wax strips into armor is going and I would love to do many more versions of this in the future. The wax was challenging to work with as it kept drying so I worked quickly and I would do it very slowly to improve craft. I would like to create this on hand-dyed and then hand-waxed silk and make the feather/chainmail pattern more apparent. I’m pleased with the overall stature of the piece, it takes on an unearthly presence and is dramatic. It comes to life with how it is lit and captures the spirits of the concepts I explored. I would love to add resin to the wax mixture and would love to paint the wax over silk and hang the silk so that it flows more freely and becomes an ethereal being. I want more life created by this overwhelmingly tall piece, towering with grace and strength. I'd love to continue the process of painting wax and take even more time so that the aesthetic of the layered wax looks natural but still very in control and not messy in any areas. 

Project 3 | Process

Project 3 Reflection

Overall, the piece came across as visceral and upsetting. The following fluids, gurgling noises, and vile colors were noted as having a disgusting effect, triggering a primal repulsive urge. The air pump also produced a churning noise which bothered almost everyone in the room, both for its noise and its interval. The inflating and deflating oxygen bags registered as breath, reminiscent of the slight rising and falling of a breathing chest. The choice of materials made a clear reference to modern medicine, both in the way they were used and recognized. As well, the chaos of the material created a complexity that felt confusing to many classmates.

The piece also had unfulfilled aspects. Some classmates felt that, while the piece was disturbing, it could be to easily ignored. This could be changed by integrating the piece further into the setting, making it more difficult to avoid—for instance, a web of oxygen tubes and electrical chords that would need to be maneuvered around in order to navigate the gallery. And while the piece had a great aspect of anonymity, classmates were curious as to the "person's" personality, at least before the medical happening. Adding nostalgic items could help inform the viewer of this past personality and remind the audience that extreme medical happening also destroy parts of personality. It could help humanize the piece. I have a "Chicken Soup for the Women's Soul" book that would fit perfectly. It's pages are even dogeared as to indicate what stories have and haven't been read. I also have a wheel chair seat cushion that should've been added to the piece. It would express concern for the "person's"

comfort. As well, the piece was a bit one-note like in the way that it was an idiom made literal.

While listening to the critiques, I couldn't help but notice that no one plugged the "person" back in. The class acted as if it would be a crime to the metaphor, that you could not resurrect the dead. But in reality, the piece was never alive. It's a Rube-Goldberg-esc contraption of medical supplies and motors that pump air and push fluids. Maybe pumping air and pushing fluids is a watered down description of our bodies, at least in a utilitarian sense. As un-alive as this piece was, it was fundamentally alive. This paradox would explain the slight hesitation I noticed in peoples speech when trying to refer to the object in the wheelchair. The class was torn on whether to call the object a thing or a person. This could be more indicative of a lacking in the English language, but regardless of the explication, the class felt for this thing like something in the uncanny valley. 

The most heartfelt reading was that the piece was "hard to look at." It describes my feelings toward my mom as she became debilitatingly sick, and it also describes an overwhelming attitude the general population has towards the sick. Like a mole or wart, no one wants to look at sickness. No one wants to understand the atrocity it creates. No one wants to have their empathic pathways overrun with pain. It's just too much and often causes people to look away, making it "hard to look at."