Close to Art by Coincidence

      This week lecture, it’s little harder for me to figure it out, because a lot of academic words I can’t understand. But I have tried to note the evaluation which I can understand, and after class to search for the relevant information. When I give my plain opinion, please forgive my slow of understanding.

       Through Professor Sara Rabinowitz’s lecture, it was the first time for me to get knowing about ‘fiber’. In wikipedia, it said that fiber art is a style of fine art, it’s an academic meaning for me. From my own perspective, I think that fiber is fine, long, take the form of lines. I really like the lecture Mrs. Rabinowitz gave to us, from the pictures she showed to us, I know that fiber has a wide range of manifestation, they can be tree roots, hair, knitted sweater with the tinges of art, or the abstract earthworms. One picture made the deep impression on me is the ‘colorful kitchen’ (sorry I forget the name). I like this work not only because the likable colorfulness, but also because that this site is full of geometric. Even more, from these abstract factors, I can feel the vivid flavor of life, and even I saw the Tide in the corner. When an art work is related to life closely, my interest is suddenly become more. From here, I think that I can be closed to art by coincidence, maybe I will get the inspiration from the next street corner~~~~~~

From the Anni Albers’s experience, I know more about the origin of fiber art. From Anni’s foundation, I saw a piece of text which written that ‘ Anni experimented with new materials for weaving and executed richly colored designs on paper for wall hangings and textiles in silk, cotton, and linen yarns in which the raw materials and components of structure became the source of beauty.’ The special icons can be expressed in many different ways. Anni Chose the new material to express her idea, feeling and thoughts. Little by little, during her study on color, shape, the plane and three dimensional illusions, she found the delicate relationship among them. These all the miniature of fiber art. Thereby, from her later creation which related to fiber art, I think her style is simple and object, filled with fiber elements and geometry. Comparing to her work, I think Paul Klee’s work is more poetic and musical sense. Anne has said that ‘If you answer fiber materials, will have a number of possibilities.’ This sentence reflected the creative wealth of fiber art.

Not like anni Alber’s work, I can read rational sense. But in Paul Klee’s work, I see more emotional thought. Paul Klee has created a unique way of expression, and a new visually abstract art. In this artist’s fashionable work, what we see is a unique art which can stimulate out direct and indirectly sentience. In short, in Paul Klee’s work, everything is representing in a visual angle. Those helped us to discover the things what are broken by him into lines and colors. And then makes a discovery in itself generated by these components. Paul Klee’s work under the implied consciousness of the world, which can make us forget the reality in the real world. He denied the normal perception of the world, his eyes trace his pencil, with the flow of pencil, his dream was made up by fiber. He can be closed to art from his own world by coincidence.

In Cat Mazza's KnitoScope Testimonies, I also think that she can be closed to art by coincidence. She used fiber art in many interesting ways, these ways was related to our daily life. The iphone covers, bus logos, although in knitted sweaters, she put art closer to life. My friend said that she like the iphone covers which designed by her. It worth mentioning that after Tyrras’ class, I think the most obvious improvement of my progress is that I can found many details which related to art in my daily life~~~~~It’s a good beginning !Go!

As Chinese person, I knew Cai Guo-Qiang because of he is an art designer of gunpowder in Olympic Games in 2008 in Beijing. Discharging 29 giant footprints which showed by firewoke to the ‘bird's nest’, this behavior get the whole world astir. (By the way, Tyrras, I think if you have time, you should watch the opening ceremony of Olympic games in Beijing in 2008, it’s really amazing. You will find a lot interesting and traditional Chinese elements in here.) At the beginning, in my view, the use of gunpowder in Cai Guo-Qiang’s hands that is no different from when I played fireworks. The firecrackers which I played is just a special result which someone else have already designed, but Cai Guo-Qiang designed his own explosion effects, and was largely by his own control. But then I found that this goes far beyond this. Cai Guo-Qiang's work is on a special paper, the paper is made up of fiber which can be preserved the explosion of the paper. This is really an amazing thought!!! How clever and daring he is. He used another use of fiber to creat a new kind of art. Through his interview, I remember he said that this inspiration is from his life accidently. After I watched his video which Tyrras put in BB, wohoo~I think I like this guy!! Because Cai Guo-Qiang's work always has a strong sense of the country, Oriental metaphor challenge to Western values. Gunpowder, one of the four great inventions of ancient China, symbolizes the power of traditional culture in the arc disaster preparedness, joyous and peaceful, while in modern society, which in turn and extreme cruelty associated with war. I like the sparks which shock out of by the two different civilization. And I also enjoy that he can find the new materials of art in daily life. His work gave to me a faith that I can be closed to art by coincidence.

Naive is a luxury

       Before this class, I have already known Murakami Takashi, and he is one of my favorite designers. At first, the reason why I knew him just because that he designed “Cherries Bag” for Louis Vuitton in 2003. The white and delicate cherry blossom petals and the happy smile face made him famous around the whole world.

After I watched the video --© MURAKAMI, I had more comprehensive understanding of him and his production. I was deeply agreed with Marc Jacobs’s opinion. In the video, Marc Jacobs discussed his collaboration with Murakami Takashi, it’s mentioning that Jacobs is really gorgeous and cute!!! In just a few minutes of access, I can read out the taste of fashion from his clothes, behavior and words~~~~~~It’s amazing! Jacobs said that he was deeply moved by the power and strength from Takashi, I think I can understand this feeling. When I saw the beginning of video, the pink background was brighten my whole eyesight firstly, then with the colorful little daisies that appear on the screen, my mood was mobilized and I feel the atmosphere ever more perfect. This is also the point which I appreciate Takashi Murakami—he expressed his ideas and feeling through every small details. In his exhibition, he mentioned the signboard. This signboard in common people’s eyes is really general, but when he explained it, I know this signboard is integrated a lot of initiative ideas, including the stars, two different colors and so on. From such small details, Takashi Murakami connected the Japanese culture and American culture together, and still adding his own creative minds in it. I remember an interview I've read which about Takashi Murakami, he said, Japanese has no resistance to accept and imitate the Western Culture. He wanted to through himself to creat the productions which are really belong to Japanese culture.

Thereby, in his exhibition, it’s easy to see that the Japanese unique culture in his designing works. From the human form sculptures to Mr. Dob, and then to the sun flower, All these works’ manifestations are Japanese culture’s content: cartoons, animation, cartoon character modeling, illustration, design and photography, as well as the world which Japanese young people were growing up. Takashi Murakami has said his observation about young Japanese: indulged in comic books, video games and cartoon, they almost all grew up in this circumstance, and even he had also become a part of this scenario creator. These represented the Japanese contemporary society, some kind of life and living values-oriented. Because he knew that there exist a big difference between Western contemporary art with Japanese artistic creation, the key is that how our generation can creat the essential things which are not depend on any inherent cultural system. Whereupon, in his creative works, I can see the both culture mixed together. The most famous creation in his work is “Mr. Dob”, in my own opinion, he is a colorful and playful Japanese version of Mickey. When he introduced his exhibition, countless of Mr. Dob appeared on the screen. They have all kinds of smile, some are fantasy, some are lovely, some look fierce, and some even have sharp teeth. When I first saw Mr. Dob, the first word appeared in my mind is "childish", the big eyes, colorful head and different smile attracted me deeply.

Prior to that, I always think that famous artist's work is hard to understand. Under their abstract vision, the feeling and inspire which they wanted to translate to me is hard to catch. Probably because I was too superficial, probably because their levels are too high, I can’t find the resonance in their works. But Murakami's works are different, however, every time I see when I will feel warm. Although someone said his production is naïve, I really like ‘Sun Flower’, I like they are colorful, it’s fantasy that I can get the different feeling when I saw the ‘Sun Flower’ in different color, I understand the charming of color from this work. Takashi Murakami's art, especially "Sun flower', awaking I thought of the fairy tale story. The image of his works is always so cute, naive even dreaming, profusive in color, filled with a strong visual impact, giving me a boost of fresh and beautiful. I would like to say that the most powerful point of Takashi Murakami's work is that his work image is flat, in the face of his works, they are like dolls, like model toys, blend of lovely, fantasy and extreme violence in one production, but judging from the internal, these works actually insinuated the connotations of Japanese cultural. As a work of art, they are difficult to get off the commercial elements, but everyone can admire and understand his intention.

Takashi Murakami used the clear notion to creat his production. In the Tokyo Plastic, the simple lines and shapes iconic images gave me a different feeling. I know that the simple colors, abstract images and special background music make everything looks like creative, but I really have no feeling on this, these images can’t bring a shock to me. I only can see some Japanese elements in here, without this point, I can’t understand the designer’s idea. Like I just said that the feeling and inspire which ‘Japan Plastic’ wanted to translate to me is hard to catch. Comparing to Takashi Murakami, I really enjoy the production from him, when he introduction in the museum, the environment of the museum was very warehouse like, with minimum color and open ceiling, all art works in here really became the focus of the space. I could feel the energy and joy from vibrant colors of paintings and sculptures. I like every design from him,  including the cartoon character which created by him, all about ' sunflower ' subsidiary of goods, and even his design of Louis Vuitton’s bags, scarves, and etc….I wanna say that: Naïve is a luxury.

Art is an attitude

At the beginning, I would like to state that I am not a native English speaker, thereby, when I want to write something have ‘more feeling’ response, it seems not an easy thing for me. Please forgive my grammar mistakes and not accurate insights. I will try my best to write more literary and artistic articles, please try your best to reach the soul integration with me~~~~

Originally, I thought I knew what is art. It is simple, like painting, sculpture, dance, music, and so on, to a certain extent these are all known as art. But after I listen to the Tyrras’s class, I think I’m so shallow, although everyone has their own interpretation of art.

From all the materials which Tyrras showed on our class, I found there is a common feature among them—attitude. They are all related to art, although they have different manifestations, something works about ancient Roman art of 16th century, something about contemporary street art, one of the most impressive point is that the attitude of creation. When I saw the ceiling frescos in Sistine Chapel, I was deeply shocked. Aside from Michelangelo’s unique creative, aside from those cumbersome process steps, and aside from the gossip during the creative process, I saw Michelangelo’s attitude—careful, serious and the pursuit of perfection. Firstly, when I saw the ‘the Creation of Adam’, my first impression is that the composition and the form of the whole piece is very simple, from the unprofessional perspective, I think the benefit for ordinary people is easy to remember. Secondly, I found that the image and action in this work was given the grand momentum and dynamism, all the limbs and movements was endowed with strong constitution. Because I have studied history, I knew that in the 15^th century, the wave of the Renaissance was swept whole Europe, there has been a recurrence of ‘human’, Michelangelo integrated the social trends into his own creation. From this point, I got his attitude about careful and serious. I think that art doesn’t great in itself, the really great thing is the attitude of the creation of art. Like ‘R Mutt’s Urinal’, Tyrras said that a lot of people discussed that whether this work can be classified as art or not, in my opinion, I think it really doesn’t matter. Mr. Mutt chose ‘urinal’, an item from real life, rearranging it so that it has more useful significance under the new title and view. He used the new attitude to look everything, the new attitude to create new item. In my own opinion, the new attitude to an item must be classified as art.

Another video which left a deep impression on me is ‘Shepard Fairey’. I have to say that I really like his work and I think he is cool. In last year, at Tianzi Fang (It is a

street in Shanghai which concentrated the most avant-garde art around the whole world. This is the official website: http://www.tianzifang.cn/. I’m sure, Tyrras, you will be interested in), it’s the first time for me to see this pop style painting which from Shepard Fairey. I was attracted by the refreshing style!!! Like Shepard Fairey said in his video, his work always mixed a variety of styles together, emphasizing the novel and unique, using the exaggerated colors. One of his work I like best is ‘Hope’. I know if I said this, someone may think: oh, it’s just a mainstream taste, a lot of people love this piece. But it’s okay, it’s fine, I’m a superficial person. I really like ' hope', I like Obama under the red, white and blue; I like the angular face under the shadow, I like the Obama’s expression is full of determination and militancy, I like it all because that I saw the new American dreams in this painting. A kind of dream—hold hope to chase your dream firm and hold hope to change the current situation, this is really amazing and inspiring! From his unique method of creation and expression, I can read his attitude about art—innovation. He used his own innovation to explain the ‘pop art’ style in new meaning, he used his own innovation to make his works abounded in the modern atmosphere, including his own fashionable brand—OBEY, I can see this innovative attitude about art.

However, everyone has the different definition about art. In ‘Colbert Takes on Steve Martin about Art’, it seemed unbelievable that the value of a self-portrait is not higher than that of a parallelogram, in Martin’s eyes, the creation of this parallelogram is closer to art. Thereby，in my mind, I also have the different view, I don’t know how to define the value of art like Martin did, but I think art is an attitude, an invaluable attitude.

(Hi, Tyrras, this is my 1^st blog. Remember I told you that I have pasted the wrong paragraphs last time. Sorry for my careless, and thanks for your time and understanding!~)