Just another act to fool the fools again.

I love this man and his work. The way he pulls you in with the fluffy colors and characters then slams you with these odd and disturbing scenes is exciting.

“Viewers are initially drawn in by the comforting beauty of Ryden’s pop-culture references, then challenged by their circumstances, and finally transported to the artist’s final intent – a world where creatures speak from a place of childlike honesty about the state of mankind and our relationships with ourselves, each other and our past.”

I was flipping through an Art Forum magazine when I ran across an ad for an upcoming show. The ad was just an image of a little girl with her back towards me. Her hair was braided and was almost as long as her arms which were stretched behind her. Her hands were holding a pair of scissors that were open as if to cut her hair. At the bottom of the page was the artist’s name, Vee Speers.

As soon as I started to research Speers I instantly fell in love. “She sees beauty where beauty can be terribly absent…” I completely agree with this statement made by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and it’s something I can relate to as well. In many of my past projects I’ve photographed subjects that aren’t normally classified as beautiful. Speers claims that she didn’t choose photography, photography chose her. I’ve always felt that very same way. When I was a baby my mother bought me an AT-1 Canon camera. I was basically born with a camera in my hand.

Speers was born in Australia and has been living in Paris since 1990. She has been working in fashion, photojournalism, and fine art photography. Her first book was “Bordello” which was a series inspired by French Brothels in the 1920’s.

She has exhibited all over the world including, Paris, the United States, China, Singapore, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Tunisia, and Japan. Her work is in collections including the Elton John Collection, Michael Wilson, DZ Bank, and CB Tokyo.

The image that I saw in Art Forum was from a series called, “The Birthday Party”. These images are a series of short stories linked to the theme of an imaginary birthday party. The subjects are little boys and girls dressed up to go to a birthday party. These images have a creepy feel to them and I think it’s mostly due to the fact that the subjects are looking directly at the viewer. A common theme in all of her work is fantasy. Even though it has been said that her on-running theme has been watered down a bit in this series it is still present.

She uses simplicity to amplify visual intensity. I found it hard to stop looking at each image. The expressions Speers captures are so compelling. The body language and expressions on these kids faces is very adult-like and even what they are wearing isn’t very childish. Speers shot these photographs of children to confront us with the reminders of our own childhood; to remind us that a homemade costume can turn you into a superhero or a princess. These playful ideas disclose an underlying reality of the modern world which is full of conflict and violence. You get this underlying theme with the tension that is created with the children looking directly at you. Then you notice that not one of these kids is smiling or looks the least bit happy.

I believe the reason I’m so drawn to Speers and her work is because I can relate in so many ways.  She is what I want to be. I know that sounds creepy but it’s true. She has become my inspiration. She is an amazing artist and I hate that I’m only now finding out about her.

 http://www.veespeers.com/

Frieze

Issue 125 September 2009

“Depth of Field”

Pg. 113

Frieze was extremely hard to read. I had a hard time understanding what everyone was talking about. Every other word I had to look up which made it almost impossible to understand. I read an article called “Depth of Field”, which was a conversation between Christopher Bedford, Walead Beshty, Liz Deschenes, and Eileen Quinlan. The topic of conversation was abstraction and photography. I thought this article would be extremely helpful at this point in my life because I’m currently working on an assignment dealing with abstraction and photography, but reading this conversation just ended up to be a huge headache.

I didn’t get much from this article and I’m not sure if I would get anything from any of these articles published in Frieze. What I did get was some ideas as to how to approach my assignment. Documentary and abstraction can be the same thing. Documentary images become more immediate the less there is to see. Some parameters are that I can’t blur images or take close up photographs of texture, but this idea that images become more “abstract” the less there is to see, is something I will constantly think about while I photograph. Walead Beshty said, “I resist the term abstraction because it is a false delimiter, and tends to stop certain fundamental questions from being asked.” I think this is also important for me to remember as I photograph. Fundamentals are something not to be forgotten and should be present in every photograph. I need to always be thinking of lighting, texture, tone, framing, foreground and background relation, and perspective.

Something else that I got from not only this article but from this entire magazine is that I never want to come across as “I’m better than you” or “I’m smarter than you.” The artists in this article come off as being very snide and arrogant. I hope I’m always approachable and art friendly. The whole conversation was very frustrating.

I saw an ad for this body of work in Art Forum.

Each photograph, made through double exposure, has been composed by carefully combining two images whose compositions and themes work together to make one image.

“My work is like a diary. I do it for my soul.” – Tierney Gearon

Aperture

Summer 2009

“DANIEL AND GEO FUCHS: IN THE HALLS OF THE STASI”

Matthias Harder

I read a lot of really interesting articles in Aperture and I was going to write about Edward Hopper and how he has been said to one the most influential photographers in history even though he never took photographs, but I couldn’t stop thinking about a different article .

The images Daniel and Geo Fuchs have been etched into my mind. At first glance the images look like just well composed rooms, but if you dig deeper into the history of these rooms they begin to mean so much more.  It was in these rooms that thousands of citizens of the former German Democratic Republic were detained and brutally interrogated. Those that were brought to these rooms never knew where they were and passersby couldn’t see in due to the high wall surrounding the prison. On maps these buildings weren’t present or were represented by blank white spaces. The rooms were sound proof to keep in the screams of the prisoners. Because of these facts the Fuchs brothers named their series of photos, STASI- Secret Rooms.

The prisoners were accused of trying to flee the Republic or help others escape, careless political statements, or the possession of press materials from West Germany. The Stasi secret service consisted of about a hundred thousand full-time employees. These employees would inform on suspects and even their family members. Thousands of surveillance recordings and files are now housed inside these buildings, some are organized and others just thrown about.

The Fuchs brothers display one of the final stations of the Socialist system. The rooms are now empty and the prisoners can only be imagined now. Most of the rooms just seem like ordinary rooms are first glance but then some of the photographs you can tell something happened there. There is a strange unknown uneasiness in these photos. The Fuchs brothers pay close attention to form and detail. The rooms were set up by the brothers in a certain way to add to the photograph. Even though these photos were set up it doesn’t feel set up at all.

Something that the Fuchs brothers have done is something that I have been trying to do in my own work. That is to tell a story without giving all the information at first glance. Like I said before, when I first looked at their work the photos seemed like just well composed photographs of these crazy looking rooms. The use of lighting and color pulled me into the photographs and made me want to know more and as I read about the work it really inspired me. I haven’t been able to get the images out of my head and not only the Fuchs brother images but the images of what happened in those rooms. Their work is so compelling. They let the spaces speak for themselves and inform people of all the tragedy that has happened in these rooms.

The way they used color and lighting has inspired me to really pay attention to those components as I’m photographing. Without such intense color and dramatic lighting these images wouldn’t be as strong and I believe that is what is lacking in my work.

I talked about the Gregory Brothers in my Studio 360 post.

Here is a video of their work.

I love it! I laugh so hard everytime I listen to it.

Enjoy!

Smoking

Art Forum

Winter Preview January 2009

“Youth Initiative”- Nick Stillman

Pg. 115

It has been said that the youth of America are being snubbed by galleries and collectors for a more reliable, older kind of artist. The cause of all this seems to be the crumbling of the stock market and the economic crisis. The youth of America may be the future but in the art world it seems as if the youth doesn’t have a chance. Being one of Americas Youths, these statements put me in a bit of a panic but this article sheds a ray of hope.

The New Museum in New York launched a new triennial. Its first edition is “The Generational: Younger than Jesus” on the 8^th of April. All of the fifty artists involved are thirty-three, the age of Jesus when he died, and younger. All of the artists are from countries that aren’t usually represented in American group shows like, Algeria and Armenia. The article was short and didn’t give much information so I had to go dig around to really get a grasp on what this show is all about.

This exhibit is the only one of its kind in the United States. It is a collection that includes 145 works that span from painting, drawing, photography, film, animation, performance, installation, dance, internet-based works, and video games. The article posed the idea that maybe that all these mediums in one show will be too confusing, but I’m not sure if I agree with that. I think showing all of these different works made with different mediums is exciting. I think it will show other artists what can be done and the future of art.

The idea to create this show was inspired by the fact that some of the most influential gestures in art and history have been made by young people. “Younger than Jesus” shows the diverse group of creators and allows the general public a first-look into how the next generation makes of our world.

It’s scary to think that as a young artist the odds are against me. I’m not sure if I’m creating work that is new or exciting. My work is more of an inside view into my life and what I have to deal with day to day. That might be exciting for someone else, but I’m not sure if I’m doing what these other artist involved with “Younger than Jesus” are doing. It worries me. This article made me realize just how hard it is for young artists to get recognized, but it also gave me some hope to know that people are interested in what young artists are doing. I’m hopeful because I now know some people are open to new ideas. They are not turned off by inexperience; instead they are excited about it.

The Generational: Younger Than Jesus

Flash Art: International Edition

No. 263 November- December 2008

“Cecily Brown: The Aura of an expanded painter”

Pg. 61

While reading Flash Art I came across an article about a female painter, Cecily Brown.

She is said to be an “expanded artist”. An expanded artist is one that pleased to be called misunderstood and takes advantage of it. The article goes on to talk about her “don’t care” attitude and her wildness, and when they mentioned her collection of sexual penetration watercolor paintings, I had to see.

When I researched this paintings I was expecting to see obscene images, but I was presently surprised. Her paintings are beautiful. She has taken a private act and displayed the beauty of it. What I really love about these paintings is that the act is hidden, which gives the work another layer. Sex is usually behind closed doors and private and even though she is displaying the act for everyone to see, she has still given the two figures privacy. She has camouflaged the figures with brush stroke after brush stroke of blending colors making the painting seem abstract and as if all that is on the canvas is color, no composition. The brush strokes aren’t broad and flowing, they are aggressive flicks of color making the acts seem violent.

The subject Brown is dealing with, sex, relates to what I’ve recently been making work about, stereotypes. We are both dealing with content that people normally don’t want to openly talk about. She has succeeded at making work about a sensitive issue without making everything very literal. She makes the viewer work for something, which I’m having a hard time doing.

August 21, 2009 (Show #1034)

Let me start out by saying, Studio 360 is amazing and made this addition just for me. This show featured, George Dawes Green, The Gregory Brothers, Laurent Cantet, Lisa Kudrow, and Mark Stewart. I laughed almost non-stop the whole show. Not only was I completely entertained but a special bit by Mark Stewart really helped me break- through a creative block.

Mark Stewart, or “Stew”, created a Tony- winning musical about his life as a young black teenager who leaves LA to become an artist in Berlin. The rock musical takes on juicy topics like, race, identity, and mother-son relationships. The cast is an all black cast but they play all different races and nationalities. The musical has been turned into a Spike Lee motion picture, “Passing Strange”.

The part of this segment that really made my ears perk up was the race and identity issues. My current project has to do with those exact two subjects. Stew talked about how he struggles with constant identity issues. He is always questioning if he is black enough but also dealing with that fact that since he is a black man, he is feared. I can’t tell you how much this topic hit home with me. Being both black and white, every day I’m confronted with the question of blackness, but also whiteness. I’m always being told that I’m acting too white or the opposite. I’ve been faced with this problem for some time now and to see someone solve it successfully gives me hope that I can do the same.

Stew goes on to talk about why he chose to move to Berlin, and this part made me smile. He says that Europe is like a whole different planet where there are actual human beings; no one cares if you’re black, white, or both. In Europe, he says, you can be just a man walking down the street, not a black man walking down the street.  I’ve been told this once before, but to hear it again is hopeful. Hearing Mark Stewart speak was just the inspiration I needed.

Mark Stewart inspired me so much in his short segment on the show that I had to find out more about him. He has done a lot of music dealing with the subject of being black. I think further research of his work will help me sort out my own identity and in turn help me with my creative process.

Besides the segment on “Passing Strange”, the show included George Dawes Green. Green is a thriller writer and has had two bestselling novels. He has recently come back from a fourteen year break with a new and chilling thriller, Ravens. Throughout this segment Green reads a bit from his new book and explains how he writes. The part that I particularly liked was a short bit about people and books. He talks about how people today are too jittery for books; we’re too fast. We want things now and if we don’t get them instantly we move on. Green attempted to solve this problem by starting a story telling group, Moths.

Moths have been very successful. It’s a group where people get together in a room and tell true stories; things that happen in their lives. Green explains the start of Moths happened one night with a group of his friends, a bottle of bourbon, lots of conversation, and a broken window screen. As the moths scattered into the air and the stories flooded the room, Green and company declared themselves the Moths. Green went home and started a blog where people could tell their stories and instantly it became a hit.

After all this heavy, serious talk, some comic relief was in order. Enter The Gregory Brothers. I’m sure everyone is familiar with auto tune. Auto- tune is that annoying effect every rapper and singer uses to make themselves sound robotic. Cher was one of the first musicians to use it in her song, Believe. Auto- tune has become hated so much, Jay-Z made a song called, D.O.A, Death of Auto- tune.

The Gregory Brothers took this annoying and overused technology and made politicians sing. They took politicians speeches, applied auto tune, added some catchy lyrics, and made political songs. I laughed the first time I heard these politicians singing their speeches, but a second listen made me hear what they had to say. The Gregory Brothers made a point that these politicians and their speeches are so boring that no one really stays tuned in to hear about important topics, but by making little songs out of these speeches more people not only listen but remember the issues and positions.

“The Class” by Laurent Cantet is a French film that is based on a memoir by a teacher. It’s been said that this film looks so real you might think it’s a documentary. I really didn’t get much from this segment. I was bit bored listening to him drone on about how real this film was and how awful French students are. This bit was right after The Gregory Brothers, so my mind was still singing along with Steve Buyer and Joe Biden.

Lisa Cudrow was more entertaining to listen to than Laurent Cantet but not by much. The segment was spent on talking about her role on “Friends” and her current movie Band Slam. They played a bunch of clips of her work while she laughed along like it was the first time she ever heard the words. Something interesting though; Cudrow never wanted to be an actress, she studied Biology in college. As to the story of how she got into acting, not so interesting.

Every person on the show today took some sort of problem or annoyance and turned it into come form of new and creative piece of art. Green took storytelling and turned it into a trendy thing to do, The Gregory Brothers took the dreadful auto-tune and boring news stories, put them together and created catchy political songs, Laurent Cantet made the life of a teacher into a successful film, Lisa Cudrow took comedy to a whole new level with her comedic timing on “Friends”, and Mark Stewart turned his struggles into a successful rock musical.

Another underlying theme of the show was stories. All of these people had a story to tell and they came together on Studio 360 to tell it. Like these artists, my work is based on stories of my life. I think all artists are telling stories, we just tell them in different mediums. We are all Moths.