Danielle Kuhn

Art 21, etc
I always really enjoy watching the art 21 videos. Mike Kelley discussed how he is interested in repetition and how art itself is repetition. He also said that his art has to be available to the lazy viewer and the sophisticated viewer. I think this is very true even though I’ve never thought of it that way before. This way it can appeal on many different levels. I remember watching the Identity chapter before, and I really enjoyed Kerry James Marshall. The introduction to this chapter was great too. Marshall discusses making things seem fresh even when they’re not. This is certainly something we’ve been discussing in class recently. When every subject has been covered already, how do we present it in a new way that doesn’t seem played out? I really enjoyed the piece Marshall does on home. People are obsessed with knowing what others are doing in the privacy of their own homes. In the chapter about Fantasy Cao Fei discusses the understanding of society as a whole. She recognizes that many people are discontent with their roles in life. People play out fantasy lives to try to get something that they feel like they are missing. Another section I remember watching is the Structures video with Matthew Ritchie. He was one of my favorites in the series. He recognizes that we can only process so much, and that to understand anything we have to continually tune out things around us. It is how we get through the day. I love his Universal Cell piece and his ideas on everything being a part of the same thing, a continuum. I found Lucas Sarmaras’s auto interview to be very humorous but also sad. It is very honest and true; it is a very intimate interview. I think it is a wonderful look at someone inside their own head. He mentions that art is dealing with people on your own terms. This gives being an artist a sense of control. You chose how much it is necessary to show. You chose the interaction of the viewer with your artwork. He also says how he isn’t interested in reaching out to the masses. He is interesting in reaching the equivalent of himself amongst those masses. “For continuity” he says. I found the Warhol quotes to be very surprising. I’ve never been interested in his work but I would see it everywhere. His approach to his own artwork is unlike what I’m used to hearing. He says the more you look at the same exact thing the meaning goes away and the better and emptier you feel. I found this surprising, since it’s such a depressing view. He also says he is not a social critic, which I assumed he was. He simply paints what he knows best. He doesn’t think, he just paints; his work is very distant from himself. I’m not sure how seriously to take some of his quotations. There is obviously some truth to what he says, but it is hard to believe he isn’t thinking about what he’s doing. It seems like he does think very much about how to portray himself.