Museum Research Project.

Human Rights Memorial -

 I believe that the display at the memorial is informational, it helps to viewers understand what people were going through back them in the times of the holocaust, civil rights and war. They have a collection of quotes from inspirational people and a couple pictures to go along with it. As I read the quotes it really brought an emotional feeling to me. I learned about the time in my history classes in high school -  but standing and reading actual quotes in front of me was really a dramatic effect.

 The way that the architecture and the way that it was displayed really had an effect on it also, it was simply yet bold. The information was very beneficial to not only me, but the other viewers. When I was reading and observing the memorial I started to think and really ask myself, "How did they get through it all," "What was it like," and "How they have grown and dealt with it throughout their life." Even though I have all these questions that can only be answered by the ones that experienced it, some of the quotes and stories that were writing on the stone helped me answer the questions that I had.


 As you walked down the display there seemed to be a "Tableaux" display -  It started with the earliest time and ended with the most recent time. As it was telling the story in order. Even though it was only words it helped communicate and spoke to the viewers. There wasn't a display or somewhere saying who the architect was, but what was more important was the information that was given and displayed. There were not only quotes and stories from the adults, but children at a young age as well.

 I really enjoyed the memorial because i appreciated the information that it gave, it was written and displayed for the viewers to actually picture what was going on. It can be very educational to the ones that aren't clear about the hardships back then. It was beneficial to me and really made me have respect and hope for the ones that had to not only go through that times of hardship, but experienced it. The ones that were suffering and the ones that died for standing up for what they believe in.

Here are different pictures that I took of the memorial. You can see and read the different quotes and stories that have been told. Some of the inspirational people that have quotes there are: Anne Frank, Martin Luther King, Jr, Henry David Thoreau, Helen Keller and Eleanor  Roosevelt

Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare uses batik in costumed dioramas to explore race and colonialism, he also does painting, sculpture, photography, and film in work that shows cultural identity. He shows western civilization with its achievements and failures. At the same time, his sensitive use of his own challenges (physical disability)and he provides a perspective to show emotions and paradoxes of not only his examination of also of the individual and political power.  


His piece called "Black Gold II" really got my attention because when I look at it displayed and everything it seems as if the pieces really changes the space that it is installed into. It is very bold and would be the first thing that i notice. Yet, it has dark colors the piece is very vivid and is almost breathe taking. He is representing just one of the many other resources that muti-national corporations exploit especially in Africa for all the people that suffer and starve. Most of his work is a powerful subtle message. Looking at his work not only this piece but other ones as well, i don't walk away scratching my head or wondering "why" about his work. I like that his work is sharp and solid -  it allows me with a fresh memory and to rethink about Africa and how often people forget about their past and present struggles. 

Tim Hawkinson

I really enjoyed the piece called "Drip" - I think I really appreciated this piece was because of the rhythmic pattern that it creates when the "droppers" release the water because blind people can also appreciate and enjoy the art piece as well. The art piece is in the shape of a octopus and at the end of the tentacles the water droplets fall onto aluminum pie dishes that are in buckets and the sounds that combined are what makes the musical rhythm.  Hawkinson attached long stripes of plastic wrap to a drill and then turned it so the plastic would twist into tight curls. I really thought that it was an interesting way, i've never seen it done that way and i think that is what really caught my attention to the piece.

One day Tim was walking into his studio and there were buckets all around the floor catching the drips of the water that was coming through the studio ceiling. He liked the sound especially in the space that it was in, so he wanted to use dripping water somehow. He explained how he didn't want just random drips -  he wanted something that you could dance to. Each bucket makes a different sound, and that is how he got inspired to his piece "drip"

First Project Drawings.

I gave you the hard copy of my drawings out of my journal when i turned my artist statement in.

Body Project - 5 Artists.

Ann Hamilton:

Ann made a piece called "toothpick suit" she used thousands of toothpicks and layered them like a porcupine style along a suit of clothes that she wore. This piece represents and shows the human body because it reveals her vision of the constructed body and how it may be understood in space and time, but also how it can be read differently in different moments of time. It was presented in photographs -  but was served to three directions of her art making of: objects, installations and performances.

Ana Mendieta: 

Ana's piece called "Facial Hair Transplant" -  she implies a fake beard to her face and she used to her friends facial hair. Her scientific objectivity is shown challenged in her other works like this by her own physical shapes and form of her body/face. The photograph is a side view and her face is also shown serious. She is not looking at the camera, but looking down. It also seems as though she tried to make herself like a man because the way that she slicked her hair back.




Jana Sterbak:

Jana's piece called "Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic" was made to describe the 17th century dutch still life of rotting meat, gutting candles and skulls. They were intended to fleet the nature of life, death and spiritual life.  She points the viewer towards ideas that animate her work. She shows the alienation of how humans feel from their own flesh, aging, and mortality. As you look at the dress -  the aging process takes places before your eyes. It addresses the issue with fashion, women and the body. 60 pounds of raw flank steak was stitched together.



Nick Cave: 

His "Sound-suit" pieces are usually in shapes of creatures and undefined bodies hovering a human and abstract form. He as diverse groups of the sounds suits made out of found fabrics,buttons, sequins and beads and they are all sewn together to make patterns and designs. He first makes a metal armature with a objects that range from ceramic birds, flowers, ornaments, to beads. The top figures serve as headdresses that provide a visual and textural contrast of the soft bodysuit.

Background Behind - Running Emotions: Journal Entry

I wrote this piece to allow others to see the background of my Running Emotions Project. It really makes you think.. answer the questions in your head. It's hard to share such horrific memories and thoughts with you, but art is all about expressing emotions and either taking pictures, sculpting, poetry and so many other things. I believe this is art. I am expressing my past in a poem that i wrote. I hope you enjoy it. 

Do you know what it's like to live with fear? 

To be afraid every day of your life, and to know you can't escape from the the source of your fear?

Do you know what it's like to struggle for acceptance, and find only

criticism and condemnation instead?

Do you know what it's like to wake in the morning and know that nothing

you do today will be right?

Do you know what it's like to wake in the morning and KNOW that today you will be hit.  To know that if today is a "good" day, you'll only get a couple of slaps across the face, and if it's a bad day, you could find a hand around your neck, shutting off your windpipe until you pass out.

Do you know what it's like to hear words such as "you're useless", "you're

stupid", "no-one will ever love you", and to hear these words so often you

believe them?

Do you know what it's like to feel as if every breath you draw is a waste of

oxygen. To feel as if suicide is the only option, but be too afraid to do it.   Do you know what it feels like to think you are so useless you can't even kill yourself?

Do you know what it is like to reach for help, only to find none, and then

find things are actually worse because the one causing your pain now holds

another grudge against you?

If you answered no, then you are lucky, 

because it means you have never been abusedIf you answered yes, then I pray you have had the courage and strength to turn your life around, and find all the beauty and goodness buried deep inside you. Because it IS there, no matter what anyone else tells you. The healing road is long and hard, but it is worth the journey.

Damien Hirst: Journal Entry

When you showed us this artist in class i was really inspired and appreciate his work. The piece "Dead Ends Die Out" really caught my eye. I really appreciated this piece because I am against smoking. I believe that you are committing suicide. People that smoke see and hear the stories about people dying from lung cancer. I really connected to a quote Damien said about the piece "Dead Ends Die Out" - "I thought hard about the ashtray being a sort of graveyard, a death ... The whole smoking thing is like a mini life cycle. For me the cigarette can stand for life, the packet with its possible cigarettes stands for birth, the lighter can signify God which gives life to the whole situation, the ashtray represents death" -  Damien Hirst

This is a quote that you shared with us in class that was said about the piece and I thought it was really interesting and it definitely gets peoples attention. "The cigarette packet is possible lives, the cigarette it's own actual life, the lighter is God because it gives fuel to the whole thing and the ashtray is a graveyard, it's like death". Damien is also fascinated by the fact that smoking is a "theoretical suicide" in the sense that it is not deliberate self-inflicted death, but people know it will kill them and they continue to partake. He stated that "the concept of a slow suicide through smoking is a really great idea, a powerful thing to do".