A Hunt for Hightech - Bart Hess

http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/04/-found-little-info-about.php


     The article is actually an interview with artist Bart Hess about his project A Hunt for Hightech.  His images show mutant skins, breathing shoes, and living furs.  Bart Hess worked to find new materials forecasting trends in fashion and culture.  Hess explained that he did not try to mimic real animal kingdoms but "create a fantasy world of [his] own."   He imagined fantasy animals, ones that could be genetically manipulated.  His ideas led to part robotic, part organic animal-like creations.  Hess uses materials that are not commonly seen in the fashion world such as blended plastics, metallic's, silicon's and technical foils.  Prosthetic technology and genetic manipulation inspired Hess to create this fantasy animal kingdom, future human shapes, and new body forms.  He says that his work "is blindly discovering a low-tech prosthetic way for human enhancement.

     At first, Hess's art is sort of creepy. But after viewing more of his work on his blog, I was able to at least understand part of his process for coming up with wacky but interesting creations.  It seems that you are able to group the suit-like pieces into categories. I like the fact that each piece is not completely random but instead many are simple variations of one idea. (The best way to describe this is grouping the art into adjective categories; bubbly, rolly, foamy, and jagged)  His work isn't too crazy for me after seeing the similarities.  Also, his colors and texture are sort of fun, and mostly all the pieces are visually pleasing (as opposed to a lot of completely random ugly contemporary art).

          

Bart Hess hopes to impact trends in fashion, product, or architecture with his work. He has some far out ideas about where technology could take his creations.  He says "Why kill an animal and re-form the fur into a shape? Why not have the animal already shaped to your body, have it living and breathing around you, like the shoes."  Obviously today's technology and ethical environments do not allow these extreme fantasies to become reality.  And it is probably unlikely that live animals for clothes will catch on in the fashion world.

MORE IMAGES >>>http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/6081/bart-hess-at-the-dutch-invertuals-exhibition.html

Votive Figures

The votive figures are limestone statues.  They date to around 2900-2600 BCE. The figures are images of worshipers themselves and they would set them up in a shrine before an image of a god.  In this way a piece of them would always be in reverent prayer.  The worshipper would be “locked in eye-contact with the god, caught perpetually in the act of worship”. This gives us insight into Sumerian religious practices and artifacts that accompanied them.

The sculptures are very stylized.  They are basically cylindrical shapes of both men and women, and each is in a praying pose. The clothing even emphasizes the cylindrical shapes. The genders are distinguished with men in skirts and women in longer skirts. Their eyes are enlarged in order to symbolize devotion and prayer to a god, specifically the moon goddess.  Arched brows were inlaid with dark shell or stone at one time and helped to emphasize the eyes.  Today these figures seem very cartoon-like, but were obviously very important in ancient Sumerian culture.  They help us understand religious practices and stylistic approaches used in creating human-like images.

Collage Project

I chose elements from the past to show how art, architecture, and other things play a role in history.  History is ongoing which is why the world map depicts mostly present day events.  The “message” of the collage is to show a lot of good things in the world, but subtly show a messed up world that is in need of help.  The world is in sin and death, and lacks a Godly direction, which is why Christ offers a hand.

Color: The items from the past are black and white images (what we think of when we look back in time). There is gradually more color sprouting off of these images, until you get to the right portion, which is almost all color images from our present time.

 Light: A large white portion in the bottom right balances a large dark area in the bottom left. The white portion connects to the white “ocean” space in the upper left section. This portion balances the dark areas to its right. 

 Texture: I created actual texture with folded notebook paper and instead of cutting each image, I tore the image out from the magazine creating rough-textured edges.

 Volume: Many of the images including the island head and statue of Christ show much volume with dark rounded edges.  Also the torn out images against the background can also seem like they have darker rounded edges.

 Line: In one case there is a diagonal that is formed from bottom left (up the statue of liberty) to top right up the arm of Christ.  But there is also a strong white diagonal from left bottom to top right.  This creates a sort of X shape.  The dotted lines from paper planes direct you across the world map. The camera lens underneath Christ is also focusing on Christ.

 Space: The illusion of depth can be seen in the images in perspective such as the statue of liberty, Christ, cruise ship, and the island head.  The background is created with notebook paper and the foreground is the images themselves.  Actual depth is created with the folded notebook paper. 

 Scale: The island head is largest because it is the oldest and so somewhat the most historical image. The statue of liberty is large both because I am an American, and also because of its importance in creating an implied line and triangle with the folded notebook paper.  The size of the statue heads and furniture are small mostly because they are not important but still add a feeling of the past. 

 Symbolism:  There is a lot of symbolism.  The train is a symbol for my hometown of El Paso, which was founded because of a railroad crossing.  The letters E and P serve as an school/community abbreviation for my hometown.  The clock and skulls in the bottom left portion symbolize our brief lifetime on earth.  The world map is created using images of conflict, disaster, terrorism, and aggression.  The clock by Christ gives even more importance to time for Christians and the world.  Christ poses for ever-lasting LIFE magazine.

 You: I am interested in history.  I enjoy playing the piano (the image is an organ but same difference). I enjoy music and listening to music on my iPod, and I like maps. I also like to be aware of what is happening around the world.

 Friends and Family:  My friends and I spent our free time making movies on any camcorder we could find.  The old man positioned next to the Statue of Liberty reminds me of how my grandpa dresses.

 My town, community, school: The train is a symbol for my hometown of El Paso, which was founded because of a railroad crossing.  The letters E and P serve as an school/community abbreviation for my hometown.

 The world today:  Is messed up.            

The world is created using images of everything bad that goes on in the world.  The bottom and right side of the collage are many of the things in this world that are good; human progress, interest, entertainment, vacation.  I like these things, but a lot of messed up stuff still happens and sometimes seem to outweigh anything good.  This is why all arrows point to Jesus, because who cares about the rest of the crap!  Repent, Do Work, Praise God, Get Outta Here.

 Your Country:  

My country is depicted in the map and is also acknowledged in the Statue of Liberty and the train, which has American flags on it.

 Art:  

My initial and possibly most substantial draw to art is whether it is visually pleasing or not…..my collage may not be…and in my opinion isn’t...sorry ha.  Art can be used for many more than pleasing viewers though.  I think art is very efficient at communicating ideas and spreading knowledge that would be dull in written form.  Many of us are visual learners, so images are important for education or communicating meaning to an audience. 

 History: 

Understanding history helps me understand where I am positioned on the time line.  It orients me and in some cases teaches me how to live or how not to live, or what I am able to achieve, and what I am not yet able to achieve. 

Individual Blog Part 2

http://www.terraingallery.org/Jackson-Pollock-Ambition-DK.html

In response to I. and II. :  The author attempts to make a parallel between the contradictions found in Jackson Pollack’s own life; his rebellious behavior and his attempt to “like this world” through painting; and the contradictions in his “knowing technique”; the “way weight and lightness, thickness and airiness, impediment and release” present themselves in his work.  The author seeks to prove this idea through intertwining descriptions of Pollack’s art and descriptions of Polack’s experiences/legacy.  Before I comment on these things, I would like to say that the “splatter paint” technique was new and unheard of.  To be the first and successful is a difficult thing, and for Pollack it involved much creativity.  Even the idea that each painting captured his movements and possibly the mood he was experiencing at that exact moment is very fascinating.   But I would not go as far as this author does, and like many have, to give some sort of spiritual existence, a heavenly “unrestraint and accuracy” to Pollack’s paintings.  Rather, I propose that Pollack painted “a coat” of unrestraint and then painted a second with accuracy.

Jackson Pollack had an eye for aesthetically pleasing elements and employed design techniques accurately.  If he did paint without restraint then I imagine he filled in areas he didn’t like intentionally.  This is OK because he had an eye for what pleases the human eye, mainly because he had a human eye! He uses high contrast in almost all of his works.  The lines and drips are dramatically placed, overlapping, circling, and spinning; consistently drawing our eye to a new place.  To rest, the viewer must resort to viewing Pollack’s painting again as a single piece or texture. His work remains fresh because of the difficulty to respond to every element in one sitting, all of the colors, directions, and harmonized shapes.  This is why I like his work.  His paintings please my eye because my eye responds to specific spatial, directional, and color elements.  I don’t have to focus on one thing.  I don’t have to worry about a message (unless his title guides me). I can stick it on my wall and enjoy it as an aesthetic composition.

Individual Blog Part 1

Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night 1889

The painting displays important formal elements.  First of all, blue and gold colors compliment each other, enhancing aesthetic appearance.  The large dark tree is balanced by the bright moon and light region above the hills. The tree plays a large role in making its specific space more interesting.  The swirling sky and stars counterbalance the hills that seem to flow downward and to the left.  The white region above the town acts as a strong diagonal axis for the entire piece.  The difference in texture and composition between the town and sky sets the town apart, making it peaceful and unmoving. The brush strokes in the rest of the painting consist of short dashed lines that move with and contribute to the swirling sky’s texture.

Van Gogh painted Starry Night while he was in an asylum at Saint-Remy. During earlier years, he struggled to eat and survive as an artist.  His works, such as Starry Night, were not traditional and were not commissioned (it is believed he only sold one painting in his lifetime), so he spent the majority of his life in poverty.  This leads some to interpret Starry Night not as a peaceful moment, but as a chaotic one.  In this view, the sky is churning and waves are rushing in on a helpless town.  The church is no longer tall to overlook the town but is now interpreted as puncturing the sky.  The large tree is interpreted as a flame. 

In this specific case, I think the problem with linking Van Gogh’s history to this painting goes further than Prown’s discussion on the dangers of speculation, in that this separate interpretation's purpose is to satisfy our longing for a twist.  We want a surprise, a hidden meaning.  While it seems that Van Gogh may have been adding elements to change the whole meaning of the piece and to make his title laughable, it is also very easy to believe the complete opposite.  Van Gogh liked stars, and the night; and so do I.