EWH

In continuation of the previous post, Blah, my mind has triggered on another thought process regarding the Rubell Collection. Charles Ray, another provocative and erratic artist featured in the Miami ware-house, has an ewh factor at first glance. An ewh that can be either a good ewh or a bad ewh. Regardless the ewh has a story. The conceptual art displayed as male statues are scattered amongst a large room. The statues are nude and exact replicas of Mr. Ray. Provocatively arranged, the statues are each "screwing" each other. There is no sensual-ness in the piece, only a sense of disorder.

The disorder, confusion, and frustration of the piece are used to convey the emotions that Charles was feeling at a certain period of his life. Emotional strife and distress caused turbulence in the artist's life. Ray used conceptual art to express the battle and anguish with his own demons. Through the portrayal of reflection, Ray's id is "screwing himself".

"Ewh" is what I first thought after seeing this piece for the first time. However, the word clever replaced the initial ewh after the revelation of the story behind the art.

Blah

This journal entry is about blah. What makes an article interesting and what makes it blah? What makes art interesting and what makes it blah? To a certain extent it is up to who is viewing or reviewing the oeuvre. If the audience is only experiencing an oeuvre with an uneducated or ignorant eye than any piece can be considered bland, plain, or uninteresting.

In terms of art I believe that it is the story behind the artpiece that makes the work captiviating or intriguing. History or an explaination can give an artwork a whole new dimension, a way of looking at something unknown. For example, when the Rubell's gave their talk they mentioned Jeff Koons and his plastic blow up flower in their Miami collection. This flower viewed at first sight may make the spectator wonder exactly what the concept behind the flower is? Is it abstract art? What type of statement is Mr. Koons trying to convey? Is that really a plastic flower?

Without supplemental information, a story, or an explaination the plastic flower demonstrates to me what Jeff Koons is known for, defying traditional high art. However, the story behind the flower is much more than a simple revolt. One night a few years past, the Rubells had an opening ceremony. The ceremony lasted until the wee hours of the morning. As they wrapped up the night and were getting ready for bed. A knock on the door startled them. Who was wrap tap tapping at the door? Why it was Jeff Koons! Jeff Koons had missed the party and wanted to begin a party of his own. The Rubells stayed awake and spoke with the artist until the sun rose and night was gone.

The night turned in to an unplanned magnificent evening. To thank the Rubells for their hospitality, Mr. Koons offered a flower as a token of his appreciation. The flower then entered the collection in the once DEA drug warehouse.

THE END.

Institute of Ideas

Culture Wars

Cultural wars can be the result of clashes between countries, ethinicity, and yes of areas of study or interest. My cultural war is between my two nationalities. I have always believed that my artistic sense and philisophical outlook has been provoked by my french nationality. On the otherhand I think my ideas for writing come from a compromise between my struggle of being a mut. Yes, I use the term mut to describe my two polar opposite nationalities. Although, I may get my artistic sense from my French background, I also believe that I get my business sense from the states. Maybe this explains the fact that I once was a pre-finance major, worked for a stock brokerage firm for two years, and dreamed of living in New York as a stock broker. However, one day while washing the dishes I decided to pick up all that I could fit in two suitcases and move to France, for good. Little did I find out how essential it is for a person to get degrees in the USA (if they have the opportunity, that is). The french educational system is a tough one, but a nurishing one. Never had I felt like a grad student while still placed at the undergrad status. Two exams a year that can make you or break you. Juries that interrogate you until you can't possibly explain more about 19th century literature and post-modernism. The french educational system at the collegiate level is nothing more than grad school in disguise of an undergraduate program. How much you ask? About $450 for the entire school year. God bless America and it's accessibility to intelligence!

The Yes Men

“The Yes Men”

Guerilla organization the “Yes Men”, was created by several young men who formed together to create an alternative organization aiming to expose and highlight certain negative aspects of the American government and society. This unique and rare organization was inspired and initiated by President George W. Bush, it then developed into a un upheaval against WTO to raise issues about global work and social issues in today’s society that can influence and have significant effects on the future.


BUSH/WTO (How)


ISSUES (What)
Certain issues

A specific example of a WTO impersonation the “Yes Men” are able to convey is on a television show entitled “European Market Ways”. Andy goes onto the show impersonating an employee of the WTO and faces people like Barry Coates from World Development. The idea behind the concept is to portray all of the negative elements that WTO stands for and to embellish it to the point of ridicule.

(WHY)

Celebrate the Arts!

Celebrate the Arts at Florida Gulf Coast University
Press release by Darlene Feuillebois

Florida Gulf Coast University's Department of Visual and Performing Arts presents three great cultural events in one evening: The FGCU Art Student Juried Exhibition, Senior Project Exhibition, and the Theatre Lab's production of Woyzeck. The celebration will begin on April 11th at 5:00 p.m. when audiences are invited to discover and explore the entire Arts Complex to experience a variety of events such as a live performance by the band Atrophy, a slide show highlighting life at the Arts Complex, sidewalk art, two galleries of senior art work, three outdoor installations of senior work, juried student work in the main gallery, theatre and an opening celebration providing food, drink, a DJ and introductions from the art gallery director and others.

FGCU students will be submitting their works to a jury comprised of art and gallery faculty on April 2nd and 3rd. Using a rubric of aesthetic criteria, this jury will select work for exhibition. Once the selections for the show have been made the 100 to 120 pieces will be displayed in the 2007 Art Student Juried Exhibition on view from April 11th through April 27th.

On the evening of April 11th Senior Project artists will introduce their bodies of work. The following art students will be displaying the culmination of their four-year journey:

"Untitled" by Stacy Finnell, "Elemental Being: a trip worth taking" by Amanda Van Ast, "Because We Can" by Sarah Caspersen, "Graven Images" by Anamaria Ryan, "Black Mass" by Jordana Bitner, "The Hurt Within" by Holly Miklas, "Nana's Grove" by Amanda Lidgard, "Am I Even Close To Me?" by Dena Ewing, "Every Body" by Sharon Mammano, "A Conscious Journey" by Carly Brock.

The pieces range from an array of art mediums and concepts like gender roles and domestic expectations using arrangements and assemblages of slip-cast ceramics. The inspirational and the profane merge in mixed media sculptures juxtaposing ceramics and music will also be seen at the exhibition. Other concepts such as Dena Ewing's collection "Am I Even Close to Me?", involve art and art therapy combined in mixed media and the exploration of self. Jordana Bitner's project exhibits good battling evil in a digital media graphic novel.

To end the eventful evening the Theater lab will be presenting the production of Woyzeck. The history of theatre is marked with a few dramatic works that simply stand above the rest in clear relief as the greatest of the great. One such work that rests secure in this illustrious canon is Woyzeck, a disturbing and fragmented play written by Georg Buchner. The twenty-six year old playwright died of typhus in 1837 before Woyzeck was finalized. So the world did not have an opportunity to marvel at its radical departure from the work of its contemporaries until much later when Berg introduced the story in his operatic interpretation of Buchner's play. New scholarship has now rendered a performance text that seems faithful to the original and this version promises to provide all the power, emotion, and beauty that Buchner first penned. Woyzeck is the timely story of the human animal demeaned into committing animalistic acts of violence in response to abject poverty, oppressive regimes, and a perpetual state of war.

Woyzeck will begin Wednesday, April 11 and continue through Sunday April 15. The play will then run the following week starting Wednesday April 18 through Sunday April 22. The curtain will rise at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday and at 2:00 p.m. for the Sunday matinee. Tickets are priced at 10 dollars for general admission, 5 dollars for Non- FGCU student tickets, 5 dollars for FGCU Faculty and Staff, and free to FGCU students. Students will need to present their I.D. at the front door. Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling the box office at 590-7268.

All are especially encouraged to attend the opening night celebration on April 11th. Festivities will begin at 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Come for the reception and stay for the play. This extraordinary event will take place throughout the arts complex. Be sure not to miss out! For more information please contact Assistant Curator for the Art Gallery, Anica Sturdivant at (239) 590- 7199.