Throughout week 2, I continued my media capture and continued my research. I continued viewing exhibitions and continued capturing media. This week I focused on capturing media using Super 8 film and 35mm film. Through my continued research this week I focused more on finding scholarly resources that could be used in my research paper for this project.
Additionally, I experimented with editing software to figure out a possible way to mix digital and film footage without it being jarring. I have created two test clips from the same original footage and although the aspect ratio is wrong to mix them, they fit fairly well together.
This coming week, I will transition to a full-on writing mode where I will begin creating my written research paper and full exhibition review, which will be concluded the following week.
Throughout this week I began my physical research and media capture. Throughout this week I visited several museums, visited the archive, and began to capture media around the city.
MoMA
The first exhibition I viewed was New Order: Art and Technology in the Twenty-first Centuryat the Museum of Modern Art. This exhibition took works from MoMA’s permanent collection that dealt with the ways artists are experimenting with technology (both in correct uses of materials as well as misuse) to challenge the ways people currently use and experience these technological forms.
Photo by author.
Photo by Author.
Photo by Author.
The works in this exhibition ranged from a self-playing and generating video game, to a simulation presented as a 16mm film video and a work that examines the history of video and sound mediums as a way of exploring infrastructure and the ways technology influences the collective understanding of time. Overall this exhibition is an interesting way to see how artists are currently pushing the boundaries of technology.
Guggenheim
At the Guggenheim I viewed the exhibition Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now. This exhibition is first and foremost a retrospective of Mapplethorpe’s work. It includes pieces throughout his entire career and includes not only his photos but some of his constructions as well.
Photos by author.
NYPL
In commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, the NYPL has the exhibition Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50. This exhibition presents items from LGBTQ history as well as photographs from the library’s archives to show how Gay Liberation exploded.
Photos by author.
Archives
This week I visited the archives at the New York Public Library Schwarzman building. In this visit I specifically focused on viewing materials about masculinity, sex roles, and other related topics. This archive has some of the most extensive collections in not only physical documents like ephemera, photos, and ads, but also video, interviews, and scholarship. Overall this visit gave me a different perspective to look at the topics I am dealing with in my art.
Media Collection
Throughout this week I also began collecting media for the creative portion of the project. Overall, due to the sheer amount of changes in NYC from the last time I went (read gentrification) I am not finding the amount of media that I would like so I will be also adding materials from rural areas as part of my project to provide that final part of the contrast and strengthen this work.
Street
photography and videography in a most general sense is about capturing candid
moments in time. It becomes about capturing the ephemeral in order to express
the spirit of humanity and those who occupy the space. In general street
photography is defined by its lack of defining characteristics. While there are
quite a few artists who focus on street photography and videography, there are three,
1 filmmaker and two photographers, that begin to stand out based on the works
they are creating.
Tim Sessler
Tim Sessler is a German born
filmmaker working in New York City. In his works he seeks to tell the stories
of people and places in visual and engaging ways (Sessler). While he uses
stabilizing equipment to get his shots his goal is also to not allow the final
product to become to sterile while also testing the limits of the equipment (Brooklyn Aerials). His storytelling is seen
through two of his works WOLAKOTA (fig.
1) and MOMENTS // NEW YORK CITY (fig.
2).
The term Wolakota stands for the
Lakota’s sacred way of life and stands for “peace, harmony, good relationship
and respect between human beings and all forms of life” (Sessler). By using
this term and juxtaposing the imagery from the Lakota reservation and New York
City, Sessler is contrasting two stories that would fit this same way of life.
In MOMENTS // NEW YORK CITY, Sessler wanted
to capture the lives of everyday people in New York city along with how “awesome
and inspirational” the city is (Sessler). In a sense, Sessler wanted to make
the everyday extraordinary through this street videography in New York.
Phil Penman
Phil Penman
is a noted British born photographer working in New York City. His work seeks
to show the various kinds of people in the city and capture the emotions around
him in order to force the viewer to reconsider their perspective of the world
(Photolemur). His work currently is showing the juxtaposition that is New York
currently with the influx of the super-rich forcing those with less money out
(Photolemur). This juxtaposition becomes clear through two of his pieces, DRUNK IN MIDTOWN, NEW YORK, 2018
(fig. 3)and DOWNTOWN GRAFFITI, NEW YORK, 2011 (fig. 4).
The image DRUNK… shows a woman in Midtown
Manhattan who is displeased with something and needs to get her fix (fig 3).
This image is not something that a tourist bureau or city government would want
out about their city, but the image depicts the reality of some individuals
there.
The image DOWNTOWN… also shows a large
juxtaposition that Penman captures in his work. In the background of this image
there is construction going on for a new building and there are these pristine
other structures, but in the foreground, there is a mass of buildings that
aren’t particularly clean and are covered in graffiti (fig 4). This image
captures the reality of the city not just the pristine marketing front.
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus
is a noted street photographer from the twentieth century. She produced work
where she depicted the lives of those who lived outside of society’s norms
(MoMA). Additionally, when taking street portraiture, Arbus befriended her
subjects instead of objectifying them, which resulted in intensely powerful
works (MoMA). Two of her more important works are Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 (fig. 5) and A young man in curlers dressing for an
annual drag ball N.Y.C. 1966 (fig. 6).
Identical
Twins… notably has important implications, which further adds to the uncanny
nature of this photo. Even though these two young girls are physically almost
the exact same there are little details that show the viewer glimpses of their
differing personalities. For example, one is smiling and slightly forward while
the other is slightly farther back and frowning (fig 5).
A
Young man… also has important conceptual implications in her work as a
whole. It depicts an individual who is openly defying societal norms during a
time when norms were conformity was preferred above all else.
Figures
Figure 1. Tim Sessler, WOLAKOTA,
2019.
Figure 2. Tim Sessler, MOMENTS
// NEW YORK CITY, 2015.
Figure 3.Phil Penman, DRUNK
IN MIDTOWN, NEW YORK, 2018.
Figure 4. Phil Penman, DOWNTOWN
GRAFFITI, NEW YORK, 2011.
Figure 5. Diane Arbus, Identical
Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967, The Art Institute of Chicago.
Figure 6. Diane Arbus, A
young man in curlers dressing for an annual drag ball N.Y.C. 1966, HarvardArt Museum.
