Honestly, there wasn't too much at Anderson that really blew me away, I would like to talk about a few creative pieces though.
The first pieces I want to write about were video pieces by Ryan Gothrup. When I saw them at the opening, I was unimpressed. I didn't spend much time watching them because of the crowds and because I didn't have very long before the gallery closed. When I went back the following Monday, I loved these pieces.
The first one was a baseball piece. You saw a guy in his living room hitting baseballs... and naturally they were smashing up the area. It was mixed with so many clips of actual professional baseball games that you didn't have time to think about where the baseballs were being thrown from. I assumed he had a machine throwing them outside the camera's view. After a while, however, the secret is revealed. The whole "living room" was just a set created in the middle of a baseball field and there was an actual pitcher throwing balls through the door from the pitcher's mound. Seeing the secret at the end made it so much more interesting.
The other piece Ryan Gothrup made was a basketball piece. You saw an athlete shooting basketball after basketball into the hoop at a park. Randomly... some basketballs would shatter! You realized some of them were real rubber basketballs and some of them were made from glass, but looked indentical. After watching this for a while, it got old. Really old. Then this random man comes up and starts screaming at the athlete. He apparently works at or near the park where this was being filmed and was furious they were breaking glass on the black-top where kids play. The cameras suddenly split into four camera angles and show a good ten minutes of screaming between artists and angry neighbors. The neighbors say they are calling the cops, start mocking the actions of the artists, and then it stops... you never find out the ending. This piece would have been only mediocre without the brawl in the latter half. But with it, it was a suspenseful, intense thrill to watch.
^ The other piece I liked was a cross between a sculpture piece and a photography piece. It was a clear mask they made over the faces of lots of different kinds of people. The size of the printing was really great and the amount of prints was as well. I really enjoyed just looking at the differents in these people, but how similar their expressions are because of the mask.
The first pieces I want to write about were video pieces by Ryan Gothrup. When I saw them at the opening, I was unimpressed. I didn't spend much time watching them because of the crowds and because I didn't have very long before the gallery closed. When I went back the following Monday, I loved these pieces.
The first one was a baseball piece. You saw a guy in his living room hitting baseballs... and naturally they were smashing up the area. It was mixed with so many clips of actual professional baseball games that you didn't have time to think about where the baseballs were being thrown from. I assumed he had a machine throwing them outside the camera's view. After a while, however, the secret is revealed. The whole "living room" was just a set created in the middle of a baseball field and there was an actual pitcher throwing balls through the door from the pitcher's mound. Seeing the secret at the end made it so much more interesting.
The other piece Ryan Gothrup made was a basketball piece. You saw an athlete shooting basketball after basketball into the hoop at a park. Randomly... some basketballs would shatter! You realized some of them were real rubber basketballs and some of them were made from glass, but looked indentical. After watching this for a while, it got old. Really old. Then this random man comes up and starts screaming at the athlete. He apparently works at or near the park where this was being filmed and was furious they were breaking glass on the black-top where kids play. The cameras suddenly split into four camera angles and show a good ten minutes of screaming between artists and angry neighbors. The neighbors say they are calling the cops, start mocking the actions of the artists, and then it stops... you never find out the ending. This piece would have been only mediocre without the brawl in the latter half. But with it, it was a suspenseful, intense thrill to watch.
^ The other piece I liked was a cross between a sculpture piece and a photography piece. It was a clear mask they made over the faces of lots of different kinds of people. The size of the printing was really great and the amount of prints was as well. I really enjoyed just looking at the differents in these people, but how similar their expressions are because of the mask.
Interesting response. I have a couple of questions for you. In the Ryan's piece, how do you think the piece would have ended IF there hadn't been the intervention of the neighbors? I know that it was not staged so it brings into question what "was the piece," and what "did the piece become?" Was did the intervention do to/for the piece?
ReplyDeleteAnd the second question is what are your thoughts on the idea of the mask? Who made the mask? What does it appear to be made of, etc? Do these questions add anything to the work?