Wael Shawky - Documentarist

Wael Shawky's piece, A Glimpse of Clean History - 
Ceramics, Wood & Velvet comes from his fascination to processes of transition and how an understanding of local systems translates into global relations. The crusades are a prime historical example of a time in transition, of ideological and global expansion. In A Glimpse of Clean History, Shawky introduces his own transformation, albeit with a critical twist: a three-dimensional object in the form of a medieval marionette theater with ceramic dolls. A Glimpse of Clean History transforms the representation of history into a miniaturized theatrical event where the viewers' mode of consumption is mechanically controlled. I admire how he uses art to create and convey his feelings on history and then documents it.

John Cage - Sound in Art

As found on Pbs.org, "In 1952, David Tudor sat down in front of a piano for four minutes and thirty-three seconds and did nothing. The piece 4′33” written by John Cage, is possibly the most famous and important piece in twentieth century avant-garde. 4′33” was a distillation of years of working with found sound, noise, and alternative instruments. In one short piece, Cage broke from the history of classical composition and proposed that the primary act of musical performance was not making music, but listening." The video of the piece being performed by William Marx can be found here: 4'33" I am not in total favor of this piece per se. I like the idea Cage has of having music being common sounds itself, but I don't like the complete silence. Silence to me, is not music. There has to be something to listen to. But some of his other works are respectable and interesting.

John Chamberlain - Sculptor

 

 

 John Chamberlain is a sculptor who works in metal. Each one of his pieces is unique. They tend to have a lot of movement and flow which I find hard to do when using metal as a medium. Also, the color in his two works above really stood out to me. Plus, I admire how large in scale his sculptures can be.

Doug Aitken - Cinema

The first image is a photograph taken of Doug Aitken as he worked on Song 1.  The second image is a still from the final creation.  Wrapping the outside of a circular building in seamless 360-degree video projections took some work. But with Song 1, artist Doug Aitken transforms the drab concrete exterior of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., into a one-of-a-kind audiovisual spectacle.  Here is the video itself: Song1  I found that Aitken's video and music choice were seamless.  The idea of having projections and beauty on a museum itself is great.