Tag Archives: inspiration

1619

The 1619 Project – New York Times

The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times led by Nikole Hannah-Jones, observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are. Read interactive version online or you can download a pdf of the entire August 18 New York Times Magazine here: https://pulitzercenter.org/sites/default/files/full_issue_of_the_1619_project.pdf


Meryl Meisler: Vintage 70s Self-Portraits 

Playing dress up and shooting self-portraits at her parents’ house in the suburbs coaxed Meryl Meisler out of the closet and into herself.

Vintage 70s Selfies Show an Artist Discovering Her Sexuality

“Growing up in Long Island during the 1950s and 60s, Meryl Meisler had the typical suburban life: girl Scouts, ballet and tap dance lessons, and prom. But while she loved her family and friends, she didn’t quite fit in. She quickly realized she didn’t want to be a housewife, teacher, nurse, or a secretary—pretty much the only options available to young women at that time…” [read more]

{They should be referred to as self-portraits! http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/whats-the-difference-between-a-selfie-and-a-self-portrait/}

How to Be an Artist, According to Louise Bourgeois

“Art is not about art,” Louise Bourgeois once declared. “Art is about life, and that sums it up.”

4 Art Lessons from Louise Bourgeois

  • Lesson #1: Make art about your life
  • Lesson #2: Find inspiration in all of nature, including spiders and maggots
  • Lesson #3: Revisit the same themes over and over again (but also keep experimenting)
  • Lesson #4: Never stop making art

read entire article

Regarding the Pain of Trump

Regarding the Pain of Trump – Los Angeles Review of Books

by Rebecca Chace

A brilliant reflection on re-reading Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others and the power and danger of images and need to be more than passive witnesses.

Images of suffering and atrocity now have unparalleled access to our most intimate spaces. Most of us keep that connection open in our pockets or in the palm of our hands….

We are vulnerable to images just as we are vulnerable to propaganda. Our visceral experience of violent and disturbing images has changed not only because of the unprecedented speed of their transmission but also because there is no longer any mediation between these images and the viewer. Media outlets used to edit what images were permissible to share with the public. Now, if we have access to the technology, we can share directly with each other in real time. There is true political power in the removal of the mediator, but as there is more to respond to, there is proportionally more emotional instability.

Read entire essay >

 

The Forms and Functions of Photobooks


“A book in an object, and its very properties cannot be approached without considering its content.”
The Forms and Functions of Photobooks (1)

The Forms and Functions of Photobooks (2)

The Forms and Functions of Photobooks (3)

The Forms and Functions of Photobooks (4)

The Forms and Functions of Photobooks (5)

from Joerg Colberg’s online photography magazine, featuring photographer profiles, interviews, articles, and book reviews.

Doris Salcedo inspiration

One of my art heroes who continues to inspire me…

“The act of sewing together each piece of cloth in an act of reparation, of knitting our own peace and is especially important at this time of uncertainty,” -Doris Salcedo

Participants in an artistic intervention by Doris Salcedo at the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, Colombia, Oct 11, 2016 Photo: Leonardo Muñoz/EPA

Participants in an artistic intervention by Doris Salcedo at the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, Colombia, Oct 11, 2016 Photo: Leonardo Muñoz/EPA

DORIS SALCEDO, has covered Bogotá’s central plaza in a massive white shroud.

In an act of protest against a civil conflict that has raged for more than 50 years, the plaza was covered in a massive white shroud bearing the names of the war’s many victims.

The public statement of mourning by artist Doris Salcedo was temporarily installed as the country grapples with the rejection of a peace deal with leftist Farc rebels that would have ended the war. [read more]

More on the intervention in an article on Hyperallergic

Watch this video for more on/by Doris Salcedo >>

And even more on this great artist on Art 21

And her Guggenheim exhibition is a great resource.

Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik is considered by many to be the inventor of video art.

Electric Superhighway, 1995

Electric Superhighway, 1995

Nam June Paik links in honor of his exhibition at the Asia Society until Jan 4, 2015

Comprehensive list of works and full bio

VIDEO LINKS

Great short video discussing how Nam June Paik predicted the Internet Age

Good Morning Mr. Orwell
(Initially broadcast on New Year’s Day, 1984)
Nam June Paik’s rebuttal to Orwell’s dystopian vision of 1984, is the first international satellite installation by Video Art pioneer Nam June Paik. Paik’s transcultural satellite extravaganzas links different countries (France, Germany, US), spaces, and times in often chaotic but entertaining collages of art and pop culture, the avant-garde and television. Paik saw Good Morning Mr. Orwell as a rebuttal to Orwell’s dystopian vision of 1984.
>> More Info on project from Asia Society

MORE RESOURCES
Nam June Paik website has a good overview essay on Paik’s work, The Worlds of Nam June Paik by John Hanhardt, former film and video curator at the Whitney and Guggenheim and is now the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s video-art curator.

Nam June Paik on ubuweb

Nam June Paik and Modern Technology Timeline

TV Buddha, Buddha and video with live feed

Watchdog, TV robot

 

Lori Nix + Kathleen Gerber

The Photographer Who Captures Tiny Post-Apocalyptic Worlds

From Petapixel on the work of Lori Nix + Kathleen Gerber (Nix+Gerber).

“Since 2005, Nix has been working on an project titled “The City,” which shows various scenes from a post-apocalyptic world... Pretty much everything in each scene is created by the two artists, and each scene takes about 7 months to create and shoot, from start to finish.”

Excerpts from their project The City

The Drawing Room created a 8-minute mini-documentary about the work of photographer Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber, a duo now known as Nix+Gerber.

Lori Nix website