AlterModern? *under construction, ie... incomplete*

Bill Barminski

"Mickey Gas Mask"
Latex rubber and cannibalized gas mask parts, 2001

The "Mickey Gas Mask" by Bill Barminski is just one piece out of an installation called Filter.  Barminski uses the gas mask as a symbol of "filters". His work is concerned with the negative impact of mass marketing and consumerism.

"The filter is the act of self-censorship by the media that eliminates any message detrimental to commercial interests" - Bill Barminski, (Essay 1, 2001)

 "Mickey Gas Mask" could be classified as an Altermodern work because it is a reflection of our culture. Barminski is dealing with the issues of communication and identity, two major components of the Altermodern theory.

"Jane"Jane
"Jane"

2009
Fused, machine quilted.
Materials
23 1/2”x44”

 Ai Kijima 

Article Review- week 5

   I found an interesting article in Bomb magazine, "Procedural Musings: Erica Harris" written by Lynn Maliszewski, November 30, 2010. Erica Harris is an impressive collage maker, working with fabrics, string, various bits of paper, maps, photographs and text. She travels all over the world, working in what could be called exchanges or charity missions, offering workshops on a variety of artistic practices. In addition to gatherings bits and pieces for her collages, Harris collects information from the places she goes.
   The author of this article interviewed Harris about her methods and inspiration. Statements from the artist and the interpretations from the author combine to make this article informative and interesting. It is a well written piece, objective and fair to the artist. Reading this article has sparked an interest in me to find more of Erica Harris' work. Which I did. Her website is worth checking out, awesome work, woodcut prints too!

And now, picture time! 

"Fiddlehead"

 Erica Harris

mixed media

"Autonomous Region"

Erica Harris

mixed media

"Abigail Washburn"

Erica Harris

mixed media



Thoughts on Gesture

So the artist I am choosing to talk about here is Judith Schaechter. She is a stained glass artist (a rarity these days) living in Philadelphia. Incidently, she was teaching at the college my husband went to, The University of the Arts, which is how I was introduced to her work. Her website is here (well, the word 'website' is the link).
Judith's work, her gesture if you will, is in showing the beauty to be found in disaster. The characters in her pieces are distressed, she calls it moments of transcendence.  The use of a medium that is typically identified with midevil gothic churches is a meaningful juxtaposition to her choice of subject matter. It gives her images an air of sublime grief.

Here's one article that is pretty much just a profile about her medium choice and names her themes.

and THIS is her latest project, definitly worth checking out. It may provide a good reason for a trip back to Philly.

and an Eclectix.etc interview with Judith quotes her as saying,

“ ...beauty can be so powerful it can transform meaninglessness and atrocity into a union with the cosmic. Because this experience is so glorious, so fleeting, mysterious, erotic, traumatic, even, it is always calling attention to its own inevitable loss. Therefore, beauty embodies a healthy measure of anxiety and fear. It takes courage to take the risks of engaging beauty.”

I have to say that the above quote says a lot about the gesture she is making with her work. The "inevitable loss" is the beauty.

"Mother and Child"

 "Ressurwreckage"

                                                                    "Dreams of Cheese"

                                                              "Slut of the Year"

                                                                          "Vile Ghost"

                                                                  "Child Bride"

There were so many images I wanted to put up here. Her work is incredible. If you want to see more yourself, check out her website or go to to missioncreep to see pictures and read her hilarious bio/statement and find out about her new (and first) book!



Assignment #2 "Cannonball Press"

Cannonball Press is awesome. The prints at the SPACE gallery, namely the larger ones, were incredible. It doesn't seem to common for relief prints to be done on such a large scale. It all tied together well with the circus theme they went with. The gigantic circus print was impressive. What made it even better was being able to see the individual prints hanging on their own and going back to the "collage" one and seeing how they were made to fit together.
Judging from their absolutly hilarious artist statement and the theme of the exhibit, I think the messages they are sending are pretty clear. Cannonball Press seems to be saying that art should be something that everyone should have access to. Anyone can enjoy it. Everyone should be able to afford it. There's something for everyone, just like the circus. By making the exhibit have a circus sideshow theme they also send a message that says, the so-called 'art' world is just like a big circus sideshow, alot of talk and gimmick. The whole world, our society is sideshow.

there was more i had to say about the show but i'll have to get my thoughts in order. maybe there will be more, maybe not...

Assignment #1

Gutenberg was a major contributor to the renaissance and the modernization of the western world. He gave people a way to spread words across the world. When he developed an efficient and inexpensive method of reproduction he essentially redistributed the power of influence. Information, thoughts and ideas could be printed much faster in a greater volume than ever before. The renaissance and modernization were born of knowledge. Without Gutenberg the word would not have spread so far and wide.

It seems that throughout history the printing press has been used as a tool for politics. I don't see that much has changed in that respect. The printing press sort of opened the doors for more people to express their views and share them with other people. Printing lends itself well to "propaganda", for lack of a better term, because one idea, one image, one statement, can be printed over and over again. With multiple prints you can send your message to a wider audience and not place restrictions on who is going to see it.

Photocopier art is just awesome. It is the modern day printing press. Everything I've said about the printing press can be said about the photocopier. The photocopier has made it even easier and cheaper for ordinary people to print. Anyone who wants to can run out to Kinko's and make their own zine, spread their messages far and wide! And the photocopier, just like the printing press was primarily developed as a means to reproducing words, not images. Human beings have always been creative enough to find other uses for tools. Experimenting and playing with tools to see what they do often results in advances in art, well, sometimes it results in explosions, or accidental dismemberment....

Contemporary Print Works

This is a 37.5cm x 46cm screen print image done by

Helen Aldous

Yorkshire England

"Future Worlds"

  

Here is a wood block done by

Maria Arango

Las Vegas, NV

"Floating World II"

16 x 12 inch woodcut

This is another piece of Arango's work. It is a woodcut done on a cross section of a tree that she did not cut down to block shape. The round, natural edges of the wood are attractive and Arango harmonizes her image with the nature of the wood.

Vocabulary

• Fluxus- apparently Fluxus is an art movement that I have not specifically heard of...

Here is an explanation of Fluxus from one of the early originators:  

" It is simple things, taking things for themselves and not just as part of bigger things" Dick Higgins "A Child's History of Fluxus" http://www.artnotart.com/