P&I Multimedia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2zxtDh0wlM&feature=player_embedded#

I think this is hysterical and relates to what we have been talking about in class.

Rudelius was one of my favorite artists in "Dress Codes." I think that we all are guilty of being self-conscious. Although we may not be as obsessed with our appearance as some of the characters in these clips, it is definitely relatable in the sense that in current culture we are always aware of what we look like.

Wangechi Mutu's work is probably the first one that surprised me. Since I did some art in high school, I know how hard and complex it is to complete one collage. However, Wangechi Mutu did an amazing job putting everything together. In The Ark Collection (2006), she revealed sexuality and fashion in 32 pieces of postcards especially focused on African women. I loved looking at every single postcard because it was all too perfectly done. The theme was shown clearly and the color matched well. I could not feel any weirdness or awkwardness with every single part in college. I enjoyed Dress Code show at ICP a lot. There are about 4~5 more artists I loved but Wangechi Mutu was the one who amazed me the most with her work.

Hu Yang's Shanghai Living captures individuals in there homes from all different classes in the city of Shanghai. What is most interesting about this series is that they seem so personable and revealing, something that is difficult to do in a culture that is not welcoming of strangers. Even though they are all constructed around this Shanghai Living theme, each photograph isolates and depicts the subject as an individual, something that seems nearly impossible when living in such a large and glitzy city.

It is convincing that the clothes we wear are an extension of our individuality, but what happens when the clothes we wear are other people’s clothes, better yet, clothes we found in the streets that use to belong to a stranger? Self described “serial collector” and participant in Dress Codes, Thorsten Brinkman, confronts the question of how we construct our individuality through the use of found clothing salvaged from the streets and flea markets. Brinkman photographs himself wearing extraordinary costumes he creates entirely out of abandoned clothing and discarded household objects, and while echoing the formal posing conventions of classical portraiture. In Hopi Green Holding Kni, Brinkman presents himself in a heroic pose that conveys the same pride and elegance conveyed in a painting by Courbet. But unlike Courbet, Brinkman’s subject is dressed in a bizarre costume made from the clothing of strangers and found objects, which includes a single sandal and pink fabric that covers his face, possibly due to the fact that Brinkman is the sitter in the photograph. Brinkman’s decision to mask his face in all his photographs, through the use of lampshades, purses, and tennis rackets disrupts our expectations, but lends to a feeling of anonymity which is persistent in his photographs. Brinkman’s choice to use the clothing of others relates to the idea that our identities are constructed from the different people we interact with throughout our lives. Just like he constructs his outlandish costumes piece by piece from the past possessions of different strangers, our identities are constructed trait by trait from those closest to us.

-Silvia Kolbovski
explores the disappearing distinction between art and fashion.
now so, more than ever these two facets of culture coincide into one entity each taking part in the other.

and

-Jeremy Kost
explores NYC nightlife (celebrities + notorious club kids) recorded on a Polaroid camera, offering us some candid insight into their eventful nights out.

quite simply, i just like the way these images look and the subject matter they choose to show.

some random semi-interesting things found on none other than the internet:
http://weburbanist.com/2009/09/28/digital-painters-old-world-art-meets-modern-tech/

Maya Deren

Maya Deren @ senseofcinema.com by Wendy Haslem

Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren
Meshes of the Afternoon is one of the most influential works in American experimental cinema. A non-narrative work, it has been identified as a key example of the "trance film," in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and where the camera conveys his or her subjective focus. The central figure in Meshes of the Afternoon, played by Deren, is attuned to her unconscious mind and caught in a web of dream events that spill over into reality. Symbolic objects, such as a key and a knife, recur throughout the film; events are open-ended and interrupted. Deren explained that she wanted "to put on film the feeling which a human being experiences about an incident, rather than to record the incident accurately." - from moma.org

more on Deren at the auteurs (a great film site to know about)

Lynn Hershman

Lynn Hershman Leeson by Jean Gagnon

www.lynnhershman.com

AND for future reference

Man With a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, 1929
The man with the movie camera. Speed of vision, speed of truth? by MARKO DANIEL
the last section, "Real life versus dream factory: the status of reality" is most interesting

a short essay from the DVD Times