RGB

Hi Everyone! I'm back from Mexico and full of inspiration for how I'm going to make Tracing Perspectives better. Before I start the re-haul, I want to feature an installation called RGB by a design group called Carnovsky which is made up of two Francesco Rugi and Silvia Quintanilla- an artist/designer duo based in Milan.

From their website:

RGB

Color est e pluribus unus

RGB is a work about the exploration of the “surface’s deepness”.

RGB designs create surfaces that mutate and interact with different chromatic stimulus.

Carnovsky's RGB is an ongoing project that experiments with the interaction between printed and light colours. The resulting images are unexpected and disorienting. The colors mix up, the lines and shapes entwine becoming oneiric and not completely clear. Through a colored filter (a light or a transparent material) it is possible to see clearly the layers in which the image is composed. The filter's colors are red, green and blue, each one of them serves to reveal one of the three layers.

RGB’s technique consists in the overlapping of three different images, each one in a primary color. The resulting images from this three level’s superimposition are unexpected and disorienting. The colors mix up, the lines and shapes entwine becoming oneiric and not completely clear. Through a colored filter (a light or a transparent material) it is possible to see clearly the layers in which the image is composed. The filter’s colors are red, green and blue, each one of them serves to reveal one of the three levels.

Don't you want to just stand in there and soak it all in?

I also really love that they went with the encyclopedic drawings. 

Here are some more pictures:

Those pictures are all of the same room, with a different color light to highlight a certain layer. SO COOL. 

Can I have this on a wall in my house PLEASE?

This work of art makes me feel like the blogger at The Jealous Curator because I'm SO JEALOUS of this idea. It's amazing. 

I hope you all enjoyed. and thank you Katie B. for showing me this! 

2013 BFA Senior Exhibition - Un/Controlled Outcomes

In addition to being an intern, student, barista, and sane(ish) person this semester; I also am participating in the Cardinal Stritch University Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Exhibition! (CSU BFA Senior Exhibition)

More pictures and info after the jump!

Aurie Ramirez

Inspired by this great article on outsider artists, I decided to do a post on Aurie Ramirez. Inspired by the Addams Family and the Band Kiss, Ramirez takes her influences of punk rock, 18th century dandyism, neo-Victorian decorum, and psychedelia and rehashes them into colorful, vibrant pieces. 

The wiggling lines in this remind me of the energy of van Gogh's paintings... Although her lines are definitely more deliberate, I think they both convey the feeling of movement, a flux that is communicated not only through the variegated lines, but also the diverse hues of color. 

I think a very big difference between these paintings is depth. With a lot of folk artists, you'll see a lack of perspective and everything is very 2-D and flat. With van Gogh's room, we have the angle of the bed and the chair to give us a feeling of roominess. It must be pointed out that although Ramirez's piece above is arguably flatter than van Gogh's painting, she does have the bedside table and the slight angle of the bed frame that let us know there is a level of sophistication to her work that shouldn't be dismissed. Also, if you're itching to know more about van Gogh... check out this amazing video on van Gogh! 

Back to Aurie!

Ah! Isn't this so great? I love the contrast between the woman and the outlet. It's the scale that makes this piece so interesting to me. A little more on Ramirez: She was born in 1962 in the Philippines. In a press release from a gallery, it was said that  “Aurie has a condition that shares many characteristics with autism. Notably, she both speaks and writes in a language of her own devising.” According to this very thorough biography of her: Matthew Higgs, who guest-curated the show at the Jack Hanley Gallery, has been careful not to present the work of Aurie Ramirez as a species of outsider or self-taught art. Indeed, such terms would not accurately describe Ramirez’s history or practice. Ramirez is one of many artists associated with an Oakland institution called Creative Growth Art Center whose stated mission is to serve “physically, mentally, and developmentally disabled adult artists, providing a stimulating environment for artistic instruction, gallery promotion and personal expression.” 

So, she's not exactly a "folk" artist. I think I would more define her as an intuitive artist. The tricky thing about folk art is that it is extremely difficult to define. But that's a whole different post.

I hope you enjoyed Aurie Ramirez as much as I did! 

Artist Spotlight - Rob Mulholland - Vestige

Deep in the forest of Aberfoyle, Trossachs (Scotland) there is an installation by Rob Mulholland. This is definitely one of my favorite pieces of installation art. It combines the beauty of nature with a voice of ecological responsibility. Throw in some really cool mirrors and BAM! Art! 

Scottish sculptor Rob Mulholland creates these eerie mirrored sculptures out of Perspex, a kind of acrylic glass. The pieces blend into their surroundings, at times appearing almost completely camouflaged and then they become visible as your perspective changes. The mirrors reflect the forest and distort the reflection, making the human (or animal, like below) outline barely visible. 

Rob Mulholland with one of his mirror sculptures

From Mulholland's website: His work explores the human relationship with the wider environment. His approach is not judgmental, more reflective and questioning about the ever-changing world around us. The human desire to leave a trace of ones-self for future generations has always intrigued him. It's a driving force to create and leave a semblance of our-selves as individuals and as a society. The reflective figures ask us to look again and consider the symbiotic relationship we have with our natural and man-made environment.

I find this dialogue that Mulholland creates between man, our made environments and our natural environments extremely fascinating, as well as vital to our future. This installation says to me: "You reflect your environment, you are your surroundings." 

Here is one question from an interview with Mulholland: In what way do you think your installations, ‘Vestige’ being a good example, teach us about the world, and why is ancestry so important to you?

I have always been interested in history and how the past shapes our present and future world. ‘Vestige’ gave me the opportunity to express some of my own feelings regarding ancestry. I wanted the visitors who came across the installation at the forest trail in Aberfoyle to reflect on how much has changed in a relatively short time and to consider and ponder the lives of those who lived and worked on these hillsides in the recent past. On reflection ‘ Vestige’ could be adopted in many locations throughout the world. It’s a common theme of lost communities and displacement.

As someone pointed out - before you see them, you see you.