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Arlene Shechet is a 3-D artist with a studio in New York City. She creates artwork through sculpting ceramics and making paper from paper pulp and casting it into paper reliefs. Arlene says that she makes decisions quickly while creating and works on 5-6 pieces at one time. I’m most interested in her creative use of paper; molding it to objects she makes to make the paper pulp into 3-D artworks. I could see why she turned to paper after pottery because I can imagine the pulp feels similarly to slip in pottery. Arlene also said that the large correlation between working with paper and pottery is that they both never look as good as they do dry as they do when wet. Many layers go into each paper piece, not all are able to be seen in the end result. She said that she likes to believe that the energy of the effort to make the layer/of the layer itself is still present and impacting the spirit of the artwork. I love this framework of thinking about the artistic process. All of the effort put into a piece does impact it and gives it more character even if it can’t be seen visibly.

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“Stories” 2013 part of “Slip” show

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“Hop” 2018

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“Torma” 1999

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Michael Rakowitz’s artwork and projects are all about bringing missing culture and history to light by haunting the west. Michael has Iraqi-Jewish heritage which inspires his work that challenges colonization. His team works to recreate 8,000 artifacts that were violently taken from where they belong with a twist. In order to haunt modern western culture, the artifacts must return differently than they were when they first appeared. Michael and his team work to add textures and elements to each artifact that has cultural significance. This is done to reveal more about the history of the people the artwork originated from rather than the museum it is currently in. I’m most interested in his works in his “The invisible enemy should not exist” exhibition. I’ve seen so many of these artifacts in my first art history course but his work gives them new context. During Covid quarantine, his team all spent weeks working from home on a piece individually and would join around every 3 weeks in their outdoor spaces to collaborate.

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“The invisible enemy should not exist” 2019

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“The invisible enemy should not exist” 2018

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“April is the cruelest month” Installed in 2021

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The piece I mainly want to talk about by Kevin Beasley is his work examining the past in the south and if the past has a sound. This piece is of a cotton gin from Alabama was in operation from 1940 to 1973. Kevin uses the sound of the gin’s motor, cotton, and the gin itself in the exhibition to talk about the past. The past does have a sound, and this is it. The invention of the cotton gin was meant to reduce the amount of slaves needed to operate a cotton farm but the opposite happened, more were needed. Plantations grew, amount of cotton grew, and so did the number of slaves used to run the cotton gins. In our time black individuals are often encouraged just to forget and move on. When Kevin was driving by a cotton field, there was anger an unresolved feelings. This piece allows for conversation of a large part of our history.

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“A view of a landscape: A cotton gin motor” 2019

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“The Road” 2019

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“Untitled” (filament) 2016

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Guan Xiao works in her studio in Beijing. A large part of her process is centered around resisting expectations of our modern era. In her studio she leaves distractions caused by her phone and computer at the door and goes into a meditative state in order to create. I personally struggle with this. It is very rare for me to have a distraction free work space, I distract myself on purpose. Since being in college most of my art professors have stated that it is important to work in a distraction free area on artwork so only your thoughts and the art are taking up space. I normally have a friend with me, a podcast, music, a movie or television show, and always my phone which is filled with many distractions. I honestly don’t know how to work without those things and when I try my mind in consumed with “maybe I should check this…” which is followed by an impromptu and distracted break. Guan says “your spirit is totally relaxed” and I’d like to be able to relate to this. In addition to breaking free of expectations of being plugged in, she also breaks free of Chinese expectations for artist’s work to have clear political meaning. “Everything an artist does is to express their sense of freedom. To break ideas free of the frames that are holding them in. That is actually what is political.”

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“Din Din Jaarhh” 2015

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“Rolling Beating” 2014

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“Slight Dizzy” 2014

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David Altmejd is a Canadian sculptor who uses sculpture as a way of drawing. He likes to use the forms of a head and body for the framework of his ‘drawings’ in his sculptures. I was intrigued by David because of our body project coming up. David uses the body is a unique way to explore how it can be represented and remade with different elements and features. He mentions in an interview that he is going to keep using the head for his artwork because everything is in the head, the way we view the world and how our bodies function. In his plaster sculptures he likes to explore contrasting images of menace with sensual tenderness. Meaning in David’s works do not exist before making the artwork but during the making process. Sometimes I get too caught up on what the final result will be that it stalls me from starting the project. I could learn from him that the point of the artwork is making it and it doesn’t take on meaning until the making process starts.

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“Rabbit Holes” 2013

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“Spirit” 2019

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“Magic Loop” 2017

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Lynn Hershman Leeson started to create artwork to have a voice because for so long she didn’t have one. Lynn’s artwork addresses deep seated gender biases that have caused her and other female artists to be excluded in their art careers. Lynn is experienced in many forms of media including drawing and wax sculpture. She learned how to create wax busts from a class at UCLA and made busts of herself to start. In 1965, she nearly died after a complication during her pregnancy which affected her breathing. Lynn shares that when you are fighting for your life and are near death, it makes you much more aware of time. Several of her sculptures were featured with an audio of her breath to encapsulate the symptoms/feelings she had during her almost fatal experience. Her own suppression and lack of ability to have a voice showed her how important it is to have one and to express it. In my own life I’ve experienced having my voice and point of view discouraged, disregarded, and ignored as a women. It’s refreshing when it is talked about.

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“VertiGhost” 2017

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“X-Ray woman in a bathing cap” 1966

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“Breathing Machines” 1966

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Ann Hamilton is an installation and textile artist. Ann combines soundtracks, cloth, footage, organic material, and objects into her exhibitions. She sees verbal language and visual language as one in the same and interchangeable. I’d have to agree because a picture is worth a thousand words, she is just phrasing it a little differently. One of Ann’s recent exhibitions caught my eye, “the event of a thread”. This exhibition is meant to be interacted with and played with. There is a large, darker room filled with large swings and there is a wall of white fabric trailing down from the ceiling with flowing movement. You are meant to interact with the swings by swinging on them and interact with the fabric by watching the movement. Ann was surprised that many viewers laid underneath the fabric for some time just watching the movement with no other distractions while some families spent three hours of their day swinging together. This display was meant to bring a sense of comfort to viewers.

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“The event of a thread” 2012

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“WTC Cortlandt” 2021

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“Bodies of Work” 1984

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Barbara Kasten’s artwork includes sculpture, abstract photography and video projections. Barbara asks viewers to question what they are perceiving as her work intends to question political systems. Barbara’s photographs redefine forms of structures and objects through lighting, optical fragmentation, and color. Her work is about exploring how a two dimensional, flat form can be photographed to appear three dimensional. Barbara’s early cyanotypes in the 1970’s weren’t shown for years. “For a long time I thought they were too beautiful,” she says, “In the 70’s the rest of the world thought that beauty was a weakness, but the reality is, it’s a strength.” It is so sad how much we allow external pressure dictate what we do and what we present. Barbara clearly thought these cyanotypes were beautiful but because they would be thought of as a weakness, they were hidden.

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“Untitled” (cyanotype) 1975

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“Progression Four” 2017

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“Transposition 3” 2014

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Stephanie Syjuco is a photographer, sculptor, installer, handmade crafter, and digital editor. Her work challenges assumptions about history and the tension between the authentic and the counterfeit. I’m most interested in her pieces that were exhibited in the Smithsonian where she made colonial dresses hanging on manikin forms. This work addresses how deeply rooted our assumptions/perception of history is in America and that the bias is almost invisible to us. To represent this, Stephanie chose to sew the three dresses with green screen material, something that is not meant to be seen. On Art 21 Stephanie discussed how it is hard for her to find a balance between her artwork and the paperwork side of being an artist. To clear her head, and also to research crops used in colonial farming, she has used gardening outside of her home. I really find value in taking care of my houseplants, I find this is a good way to get out of my head and into something else that is living that can’t make judgements about me.

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“The Visible Invisible” 2018

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“Dodge and Burn” (Visible Storage) 2019

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“This is not the Berlin Wall” 2014

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Yinka Shonibare’s artwork explores racism, why Africa got the short end of the stick, and not wanting the next generation to be full of hate. He is an artist that uses photography, painting, sculpture, and film in his work. Textiles are an important part of his work because they carry cultural weight. It would be nice in some ways if particular materials could have their former meanings erased but this isn’t how our world works, we can’t erase the amount of pain caused and what materials mean culturally to people. It is helpful to see artists talking about how materials can be used to exemplify past impacts of how the material was originally used. In our class there has been emphasis on choosing materials based off of what we want to convey to our audience. I don’t think it was until researching these artists like Yinka and Kevin where the gravity of the materials clicked for me fully. I’ve already been very intentional in my projects while choosing materials and why I’m picking them but not from a political standpoint. There is so much art can say through many different means. In the future I’m going to consider the cultural implications of my material choices more closely.

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“Moving Up” 2021

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“Wind Sculpture” 2018

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“The Swing” 2001

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Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 and later immigrated to the America. She studied at many schools of Paris where she was born and continued her education after moving to New York. I’m firstly amazing at how long this woman lived, she almost made it to 100 years old but cut it short at 99 years of life after passing in 2010. She continued to make art through most of her life; she began with engraving and painting mediums but in the 1940’s expanded through sculpture which she is now known for. Her sculptural works were often comprised of wood and took on abstract and organic shapes due to them being inspired by the work of surrealist artists after World War ll. In the 1960’s, she expanded on wood by making her sculptures in bronze, rubber, and stone. Louise’s work also became much larger and were themed by her childhood. Her works play with the juxtaposition between innocence and sexuality in childhood and stem from the relationships in her family growing up. I regularly avoid making artwork that is unappealing to look at and looking at Louise’s art makes me uncomfortable. Often art is supposed to make you uncomfortable in order to speak to you, it is not always about being beautiful.

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“Spider” 1994

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“Mamelles” 1991

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“Eye Benches l” 1997

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Kiki Smith was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1954. She is the daughter of the American sculptor Tony Smith and grew up in New Jersey with her father. Kiki has been a sculptor from a young age as she assisted her father in making cardboard prototypes for his geometric sculpture projects. Kiki’s focus in her artwork in the 1980’s has been the body. She’s used the approach of depicting organs, cellular forms, and the human nervous system in her pieces and also incorporates mythology, folk tales, animals, and domestic objects. Recurring themes found in her artwork are life, death, and resurrection. Kiki has been awarded several medals and acknowledgements through her career as an artist and has been featured in numerous museums. I find it interesting how consistent her color palette stays in the majority of her work and also the kinds of animals she chooses to relate with/interact with in her artwork. The color palette being simplified allows me to focus on the message of her piece as symbolic items.

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“Lying with the Wolf” 2001

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“Rapture” 2001

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“Sirens” 2005

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Andrea Zittel was born in California in 1965. She went to the San Diego State University to earn her BFA in painting and sculpture in 1988 and continued on in her education to get her MFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1990. It is very reassuring for me personally to be reading about many of these well known, contemporary artists who did go to college to progress their skills and went to state schools. It helps me to believe what I want is attainable in my future career after being told being an artist isn’t feasible. Andrea takes aspects of everyday life and transforms them into her artful and experimental interpretations. She explores the relationship between freedom and security. Freedom can be too vast in options while security can easily turn into confinement. Andrea’s artwork responds to the need to match our energy/needs of our body to the surrounding environment we inhabit. Often what we’re surrounded with can be taken for granted and not thought about; her artwork is about examining it and intentionally bringing attention to it.

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“A - Z Living Unit” 1993

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“Sprawl” 2002

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“Functionally Fixed and Functionally Unfixed Panels” 1998

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Lucia Koch is from Brazil and she currently resides & works in São Paulo. Like Andrea Zittel, Lucia’s artwork also brings attention to the overlooked parts of our environments. She does this through photography, videos, and architectural installations. Lucia uses items like fabric to block and redirect light to alter spaces in her artworks. Light and air are the emphasis in her creations and the atmosphere is the focus rather than color or other art mediums/conventions. To me, her artwork translates to giving an intended mood to a space. The artwork is how the space is perceived and not what fills the space. Spaces can be altered drastically through ‘simple’ means rather than having something grand. Many of her works also involve simple spaces like the inside of a cardboard boxes with cutouts while others are larger rooms with projected/inserted effects.

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“Helmet” 2017

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“Elephant” 2020

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“Night Fever” 2012

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Brian Jungen is a Canadian artist who’s drawings are inspired from his family’s ranching and hunting background and is also well known for his very large sculptures. He is inspired by his Dane-zaa heritage while making his sculptures from deconstructed consumer goods. I remember seeing Brian’s sculptures in our class lectures so it is fun to make the connection to him as the artist through these posts. He has transformed many ordinary objects like plastic chairs into whale skeletons, garbage bins into a massive turtle shell, sewing tables into a basketball court, golf bags into totem poles, and Nike shoes into ceremonial masks of British Columbian tribes and sculptures. Brian uses illusion in his artwork to deceive the eyes into seeing these common consumer goods as their transformed recreation. His attention to detail is strong in order to keep these pieces looking so clean. I love how he also maintains the original color and textures of the objects so that they’re still identifiable upon closer inspection.

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“Western Stars” 2020

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“Carapace” 2010

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“Shapeshifter” 2000

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Tania Bruguera is a politically motivated performance artist and explores activism and social change in artworks to examine the social effects of political and economic power. She is from Havana, Cuba. Most of the time as an artist, we are the authors of the art. Tania views and describes herself as an initiator rather than an author of art. She chooses to collaborate with several institutions and people so that he art is fully analyzed and adopted by others. Often Tania’s performance art features herself performing solos but more often is about a staging participatory event so she can gain an experience from it and interpret meanings of politics within the performance. Her works encourage viewers to reflect on political realities hidden by government propaganda and the media’s interpretation.

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“Mudam” 25 year long traveling exhibit as of 2020

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“Tribute to Ana Mendieta” 1985

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“Tatlin’s Whisper #5” 2008

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Aki Sasamoto was born in Kanagawa, Japan and now lives and works in New York. She is an installation and performance artist who works with many different materials to respond to the conditions of the world around her. Aki works with other artists, scholars, and mathematicians to make her installations. Her performances have taken place in galleries, theaters, and in unconventional places. Aki builds her installations from existing objects and her performances are made to engage viewers. They sometimes transform the viewers into participants like in the coffee/tea installation. Ali’s fascinations with food, health, hygiene, and orderliness are represented in her meticulous presentation of her works. I enjoyed looking at her exhibitions that were meant to be interacted with and create a physical experience for the viewers.

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“Coffe / Tea” 2015

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“Delicate Cycle” 2016

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“The Last Call” 2015

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Mel Chin is the first of his family that was born in the United States. He was born in Houston in 1951 and lived in a neighborhood where the people were predominantly African American and Latino. Mel was taught classically but his artwork style is difficult to classify. He focuses his art installations in unusual places like deteriorating homes, toxic landfills, and television to explore art’s ability to provoke awareness about our social culture and our responsibility to it. He includes areas of study into his work like botany, ecology, and alchemy and they are politically engaging pieces. He intends to convey that the artist isn’t the only power in a piece of artwork, that the setting can fill it with meaning. Mel has worked with ranges of individuals to grow ideas, he’s worked with students, neighborhoods, and engineers to gain new perspective and engagement.

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“Gate of the New Gods” 2018

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“Vertical Palette” 1976

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“Fan Club” 1994

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James Turrell was born in Los Angeles and currently lives in Arizona. I can definitely see the influence of Arizona in some of his pieces! The light hues he uses makes me think of when I lived in Arizona, in particularly the sunsets reflecting on cloudy skies. He first started his college education with studying psychology and mathematics and later pursued art in graduate school. His work focuses on using light without words to impact the eyes, the body, and mind with spiritual awakening. “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.” He uses illusion through colors of light like at sunset or the glow of a television to create an experience for his viewers. James’ work encourages self silent contemplation, patience, and meditation while observing the lights in his exhibitions.

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“Meeting” 1980

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“Aten Reign” 2013

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“Double Vision” 2013

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Maya Lin is a child of two immigrants and was born in Ohio. She had an influence of artistic culture through her parent’s professions; her father being the Dean of Fine Arts at Ohio University and her mother being a professor of literature at the Ohio University. Maya went to Yale University to study art and architecture and was discovered as an artist in her senior year after winning a national competition for a Vietnam Veterans Memorial to be built in Washington, DC. Her artwork is culturally diverse and draws from a variety of sources including Japanese gardens, Hopewell Indian earthen mounds, and American earthwork artist designs from the 60’s and 70’s. Like her memorial structure in DC, her artwork and architecture represents culture and allows for it to have a voice along with the people it is remembering. I admire how much her works connect to nature and to issues impacting our environment.

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“Ghost Forest” 2021

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“Ebb and Flow” 2017

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“Storm King Wavefield” 2009