Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Exhibition 2 (Jeff Barnard)



When I first got in to the museum, I went to see that art film about an airplane trip on the first floor. The animation of the piece was very basic and the sounds were typical airport noises. But I felt the narration of the piece was very well done with the animation matching the sounds we heard. This seems, though basic in nature, that it would have taken a lot of time to get it nailed down correctly. After that, we went on to the 3rd floor where there were paintings from various artists.
One such artist was Georgia O'Keefe who made a lot of flower art and had it displayed throughout the 3rd floor. The dates on these pieces ranged from the early 70’s through the 80’s but all having a similar theme to them all. In all of them, there was vibrant color ranging from reds to blues and even colors in between. These were all paintings and they all were about the same size ranging from 3 feet by 3 feet to a few that were 3 feet by 4 feet. But he often seemed to use a close up on the stamen of the flower as though he was saying it was the most important part to him. Was he trying to send a message through his art be it sexual or not? I'm still not sure to this day as to what the intention is.
My next venture was the video called "Rock My Religion" which was completed in 1984 by Dan Graham where the goal of the piece was to suggest that music, particularly Rock and Roll, was an art form. You could tell the piece was a bit old because of the people featured and the graininess of the footage that was featured. This piece was shown through a projector in a dark room on a screen that I would guess to be at least 8 feet by 8 feet. It seemed to say that music was an experiment in conceptual art and was used for different purposes such as religion and politics. In the piece, there were featured artist such as Jim Morrison and Jimmy Hendrix as part of the subject matter. I've never really thought of music in that way because to me music was just something to listen to and enjoy. Although, I do notice that throughout history music has reflected the cultural theme of the time it was made in. In the end, the trip was a bit of a learning experience.

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