Leandra Bourdot - Do Ho Suh, Andrea Zittel, Laylah Ali, Tim Hawkinson

I found the grouping of this week's artists interesting - each artist has similar influences rooted in childhood and personal history, but with the variation in experience come widely different pieces and sensibilities.
I was most drawn to the work of Andrea Zittel. I find her investigations into the simple, taken-for-granted components of everyday life and interaction with objects fascinating. The creation of her own world, as processed completely through the filter of her self, is an element of artmaking which I find one of the most compelling in my work, and the completely immersive spaces which result are interesting dissections of the backdrop of common experiences. I was particularly drawn to the piece Pocket Property - the elements of control, isolation, self-sufficiency and living are all part of what drives my own work, in ways that are both very different and uncannily reflective.
I am also fascinated by the process by which Laylah Ali creates her work. The degree of thought, planning, gleaning and organizing which informs each visually simple piece is astounding. I'm always interested in the precise process through which artists create their work; in Ali's case, I am astounded. The personally-derived nature of her work is very much mirrored in the systems of organization and development she utilizes; seeing the full skeleton of what she creates brings a new layer to the work itself.
I found Do Ho Suh's pieces incredible in their sheer scale; and the reconstructions of commonly experienced phenomena is poetic in pieces such as his monument and his Seoul / LA home. The ambition which informs each piece is incredible, and I enjoy the questioning rather than message-conveying quality of his work.
When it comes to Tim Hawkinson, I am impressed simply by the skill with which he makes pieces which are compellingly beautiful or fascinating and utterly repulsive at the same time. His bird pieces are ones which also resound with me, initially because of my personal working with them. Upon realization of materials, however, the pieces become nearly transcendental: they are delicate, beautiful pieces made of materials considered disgusting to the point of nearly taboo, and the pieces, ultimately, shed the connotations of good or bad, and simply are what they are.