Lindsay McCormick’s MFA Exhibition

            Before going to this exhibition, I remembered seeing part of this series during the symposium last fall. I remember her discussing on the lapse in environment can influence flow and that these workers were claiming ownership to their new space. Seeing the whole series together was really interesting to me because what gives way to a “relaxing environment” of a break room’s atmosphere was very chaotic in most of the images that she captured. I remember just seeing one break room out of the whole series that was the tidiest of all and I think it was from an accounting firm. I liked how she had displayed her show with the titles of the pieces on a separate area and images were arranged with a number. I enjoyed this because I didn’t have any preconceived notion of on the type of break room it was and I wasn’t trying to associate each image with anything else.  I really liked comparing the break rooms with one another and I liked the display of the mini fridges, although I did not open them up.

             

Undergraduate Exhibition

        I really enjoyed the Undergraduate Exhibit because I thought it was really amazing to see all the hard work that the art and design students have been doing this past year and were able to show case it in this exhibit. There was a very large variety of works in all different types of mediums. I went to the exhibit a couple of times and walked around and each time I was there, I was blown away by all of the work each student had done. 

       There were several pieces that I admire such as the coffee table, I was so impressed with the craftsmanship and the concept of the table alone I thought it was a really remarkable piece. I also admired the different metal works that were on display as well, some of the pieces were very intricate and it had to take a lot of time to perfect these pieces. I really loved the camera tea diffuser, I thought it was really cool and had very nice details.
       I was able to be a part of the show this year with having three of my works selected. I felt like it was a great experience from start to finish and I really enjoyed the reception and seeing who was all involved to make the show possible.

Favorite Presentation

            I really enjoyed all of the presentations because we were able to learn more in depth about each artist. My favorite was Dohgyoung Ahn’s presentation on Sandy Skoglund. Seeing her work already in lecture and in previous classes I was already drawn in wanting to learn a little more about Skoglund.

         I thought Dohgyoung presented very well, she kept me intrigued and I thought she was very thorough with the information that she gave. She seemed very confident and not nervous at all.

         I was even more interested with Sandy Skoglund because of the images that Dohyoung first presented, they were of portraits that were captured in every day house items. I have never seen this body of work before and I thought it was really amazing because of the way it was done.

         I think Skoglund’s work is really remarkable with the different color pallets she choses to design her vision. I learned from these images, she believes that food ties and serves as the global language. My favorite image from this body of work would have to be Gathering Paradise because of the way this image was setup. I love how the outside of the house is all pink with the purple squirrels and then looking inside the house is the opposite of the outside.

         I am also amazed with Skoglund’s recent work, Fresh Hybrid and how this installation is built with pipe cleaners. I think of the man-hours this must have taken to plan and construct this installation and all of her works is pretty amazing.

Robert & Shana Parke Harrison presenting on Monday 2/16/15

Documerica

I really enjoyed this exhibition because it captures a time in America when awareness like pollution was starting to come to a forefront. I felt like these photographs really captured what Americans were experiencing a change in our environment. Growth in every direction from building on rural land to booming highways and ever growing factories our country was going through a pollution crisis.

 One of the photographs that stood out to me were one in which Arthur Trees did, Breezy Point. It looked as if he captured an abandoned apartment community that was now in the middle of a wasteland. This image looks like where all the junk in the world goes to rot.

Another photograph that stood out to me was Tomas Sennett’s in which three men were standing out in front of an environmental office. I like this one in particular because of the fact that one of the men is standing with a bike. I feel like this reflects of pre-pollution and the start of “going green” with riding a bicycle. I thought it was kind of ironic. I also liked his photo of the California Western Rail Road because the train looked abandoned in the way in which he had captured the image. It is like this place is the resting grounds for trains because highways had replaced railways.

I think my most favorite image from this series is by Flip Shulke. This image captures three elderly women sitting out on the front porch of a retirement hotel. I love this image because of the sign in the background stating the name of the hotel, “The New Bolivar Hotel” and then these older women are sitting under the sign. I felt like there is a little bit of satire there.

I think Documerica is really amazing because it helped me visually see the struggles in which America went through with pollution. I still feel like we are struggling with this in some aspect, but we have definitely have come a long way.

Touching Strangers by Richard Renaldi

I thought the exhibit Touching Strangers by Richard Renaldi was very powerful. I love the idea that he had with bringing strangers together and posing them in a way in which how close one would be with a loved one. I think it is interesting on how he was able to photograph two complete strangers in such a way that the majority of the people looked comfortable. I felt like there were only a few instances in which the poses looked uncomfortable, but I feel that would be expected between complete strangers. I love how he had most of the subjects look directly into the camera because I feel like it makes you more connected with that person. I thought it was interesting in how Renaldi brought together people of different races and ages as it shows how really connected we are as a society regardless of how different we really are.

My favorite image from this exhibit was of the older woman and the man who was kneeling in front of her their hands interlocking together. I love how these two people are so different in age and they are giving the exact same expression. It is almost like they are reflecting their pose to make the viewer more connected to them, like they are one person. I think it is a really great exhibit because with these portraits I feel like one can picture their self in each portrait. It makes me wonder how comfortable I would really be if I had to be this close to a complete stranger. I would feel like I would give an awkward pose showing how uncomfortable I really would be, but looking at these portraits I feel like you really do not get a sense of that. I think really the only ones you do get a sense of people being uncomfortable are the few where some of the subjects are not even looking at the camera, giving us insight of these are actual strangers brought together to create a powerful portrait.

Day 1

I've never blogged before so this will definitely be an interesting learning experience.