4 Exhibition Visits - Essay Example

4 Exhibition Visits by The of the The of the School The and where it is located The Date 4 Exhibition Visits Bill Viola Exhibition at St Paul Cathedral Martyrs is the name of the exhibition which was presented by Bill Viola at St Pauls Cathedral. I liked visiting it a lot because of several reasons. First of all, the artist was able to generate the atmosphere of fundamental fascination with the primarily elements, such as fire, wind, earth and water. I believe that the success of this exhibition can be explained by the fact that he exposed people (figuratively speaking – the audience and literally – the people in the videos) to the four elements making them interact with the forces that once were thought to be responsible for life on Earth. In other words, I particularly liked the exhibition because it returned the essential elements of passion and uncontrolled energy into it. Another interesting point about the entire installation is its religious ambiguity. On the one hand, the very name of it is closely associated with Christianity: it implies that the subjects that are depicted in the video have a connected to martyrs who suffered a horrible death because of their beliefs. On the other hand, the author of the installation is known for his sophisticated viewed with regard to religions. In addition to that, he wanted to create pieces of art that would be pleasing for both believers and non believers. That is why he tried to find the perfect balance between the secular art as well as religious feeling. So, this exhibition can be recommended to people who are religious as well as those who are not. Finally, I would like to point out that the big emphasis that was placed by this exhibition is not focused on suffering that is produced by the above mentioned four elements, but the inner state of the people who experience it. Indeed, one should take a close look at the faces of the people that endure the torture. One might think that they would be agonizing; however, they seem to have found peace inside their soul. This is probably the peculiar aspect that differs martyrs from any other saints: they were able to direct their sight into their heart and practices faith in times when any other person would have lost it. In other words, their torture simple served as a background which contrasted with their inner development. Performance Art influence on Ahmet Ogut Ahmet Ogut is surely one of the most interesting artists that I encountered. I particularly liked the idea that he used while making his presentation: it focused on the ability to combine a live event with film installation. In other words, this person wanted to expand the limits of creativity and show that one particular format may place limits on the freedom of expression. That is why contemporary artists might be willing to be active in different ways in order to engage the audience into the creation of the aesthetic value. This means that the more different activities are combined, the better it is. It was quite exciting to see how Ahmet Ogut was able to cooperate with different people in the course of his career. It is generally though that artists are often limited to a circle of people who are engaged in the similar activity. However, Ogut shows that it may be particularly important to find new horizons of cooperation and make sure that they are able to reflect the creative energy of a person. For example, among his collaborators there is a hairdresser as well as a firefighter. These two professions seem to have almost no connection with art and between themselves. Nevertheless, Ogut could find a common ground for them with the help of his creativity. Moreover, all of them contributed to aesthetic value of his work. One would not make a mistake suggesting that the major message of the artist might be formulated in the following way: the meaning of art is continuously created by the audience as well as the person who created the work of art. In other words, it is wrong to think that there are certain limits on creativity or the group of people that can participate. Literally everyone who is willing to open one’s heart to something new is able to make his or her valuable contribution. Ogul shows that he was able to effectively collaborate with people who belong to different professors; however, it was this diversity that allowed him to create some of his best works of art. Anish Kapoor Exhibiton at Lisson Gallery The exhibition which was prepared by Anish Kapoor amazed me very much. It would not be an exaggeration that there are two sides to the talent of this person: being a painter and being a sculptor. In spite of the fact that the objects that are presented are three dimensional, it is obvious that the author creates them from his imagination and puts them into an illusory space. In other words, just like other artists try to present new worlds and objects in their paintings, Kapoor does the same, but uses real objects for this purpose. This means that the talent of this artist crosses the boundaries between different genres and provides new medium for the creativity of a person. The materials that were used to create the objects that were presented in the exhibition can be broadly divided into two groups. First of all, it is the group which involved resin or silicon as well pigment. With the help of these, Kapoor was able to create objects that startle the audience. They are two alive that one can hardly believe that they are not parts of a living organism. Indeed, this is exactly the kind of emotion that the artist wanted to provoke, namely to experience a part of the living body directly. That latter is impossible in real life, but with the help of talent Kapoor was able to create objects that are ambiguous. They do not have a particular form, but surely remind people of something. The next broad category of materials that were used includes stainless steel, gold and other metals. The artist utilized a completely different approach to creating an object of art in this case: contrary to the complex forms of the objection made of silicon, those created of steel have a defined shape. What is more important is that they are polished; so, the audience inevitable see itself in the work of art. In other words every time the viewers will see themselves in those objects which is likely to reinforce the connection between them and the object. This also shows that art should not be perceived independently, but taking into consideration the immediate environment that it is situated in. Secret 7 Exhibition at Somerset House Secret 7 is by far the most interesting as well as amusing exhibition that I was able to visit. One of the peculiarities of it lies in the fact that it combines music and art. In spite of the fact that these two manifestation of human creativity often go hand in hand, there is a tremendous gap between them. Nevertheless, there is one object that literally combines art and music: the album art. The latter is the first that fans see and often refer to it for clues about the songs that the album includes. However, the artists who participate in Secret 7 exhibition were able to develop this idea even further. One of the major messages that is made by this exhibition is that every song as well as every piece of art is unique. In spite of the fact that one is able to make a cope of a song or a painting, the original will always be unique. That is why the artists who participate in the exhibition teach the people who buy the record to value this originality of each album art as well as the originality of the song. In other words, the artist place emphasis on the freedom of expression and argue that there is literally an endless array of different variants; that is why a person will always be able to find something suits him or her. It must be noted that unlike other exhibitions this one also makes use of mystery: the people who by a sleeve with a vinyl do not know what song they end up buys; neither they know the name of the designer. As a result, this makes a purchase even more desirable for before they can know for sure, they will only dream about what they might buy. This means that the audience should be able to have a room for its own imagination. In this case the experience that they get from the exhibition will be amplified by the anticipation. Since people are always interested in learning more information that they already have, this will be the driving force that will encourage them to visit this exhibition. Project evaluation I believe that I achieved everything that I noted in my proposal. I was able to see that art is able to cross the conventional limits and it is senseless to do it only in the studio. I visited exhibitions of artists who proved that with their own example. I do not think that the project that I actually carried out changed a lot from my initial proposal: of course, I was not able to envision the specific artists the exhibitions of which I would visit; however, every experience contributed to a better understanding of what art is which was the goal that I wanted to achieve. Speaking of breakthrough that occurred during the project, I might mention the fact that I bought several vinyl records while I visited Secret 7 exhibition. I think that this is an important even since for the first time in my life I was not able to objectively choose between two works of art and decides to buy both. This reflects the impact that this exhibition had on me. Due to my concentration on the peculiarities of the works that I observed, I was able to develop in technical terms. For example, I saw how resin and silicon can be used to create objects of very naturalistic shapes. Secondly, I learned to a sleeve for a vinyl record is able to provide a lot of space for a creative mind. All this resulted in the fact that my research greatly influenced my project outcome: I moved the limits that are usually placed on the human creativity even further, having been inspired by the example of the artists that I observed. The most successful aspect of my project focused on my ability to locate different artists that were able to cross the conventional limits of creativity and literally create a new meaning with a new form. However, the least successful aspect was that the artists that I engaged were so different that I struggled with finding a common ground for them and working out a unified explanation that would fit every individual. As a result, I had to evaluate each artist independently and did not make any connections between them. If I were able to start the project again, I would spend more time while choosing the artists so that they would all have some kind of a trait that they share. In this case, it would be much easier to find a common ground and compare them. This might be considered to be a ‘dead end’ idea that I would like to explore more. Indeed, it may be rather interesting to analyze the peculiarities of artists that have almost no connection between each other. Yet, from a broader perspective they are similar. That is why this ambiguous similarity may be explored further. I am strongly convinced that I did well while organizing myself as well as my time during the project. I had a sufficient time to visit every exhibition and to take note that would later become the foundation of my project. In addition to that, I always have enough time to make small adjustment that would make my work even better. References References Anish Kapoor. (2015). Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor--13 Exhibitions Ahmet Ögüt. (2015). Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://chisenhale.org.uk/exhibitions/forthcoming.php?id=173 Luke, B. (2015). Bill Violas Martyrs, St Pauls Cathedral. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/exhibitions/bill-violas-martyrs-st-pauls-cathedral--exhibition-preview-9407726.html Secret 7. (2015). Retrieved April 24, 2015, from https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/secret-7 Read More