Final Project–Marvin

Final Project

Image Link:http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/olivier-de-sagazan

I applauded the first time I clicked on Olivier’s De Sagazan’s “Transfiguration” performance video on the internet. I clicked. And I clicked again. And then it began, the crossover in trying to understand the art of performance. Everytime I watch the video, he rattles my insides and leaves me shaking with a new found passion for performance art. I constantly watch it and re-watch it  like a favorite song by my favorite bands. In the future i plan to replay this performance in his honor. Using simple tools like paint, water, clay and dirt he transforms himself into different characters or demons and taunts us with strange hissing languages and body gestures. The commitment to the work is what i derive from this performance. The ability to step into the character of performance and own it, is what I wish to achieve in my own work. And Sagazan is a great inspirer.

Image Link:http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/saltz/saltz10-14-2.asp

Another pillar of visual excellence is non other then the handsome and athletically fit, Matthew barney. the In his films, videos, and sculptural installations, Matthew barney’s primary interest has been the transformation and metamorphosis of  the physical body. Barney addresses such themes as endurance, androgyny, autoeroticism, and spectacle. Best known for his art films The Cremaster Cycle (1-5), Barney’s art vision of believing in his art no matter how disturbing and problematic to the audience it may be, strengthens the core of what I am and what i want to become.

Photo credit: James Mccaffrey

image link:http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/e-misferica-81/gomez-pena

Guillermo Gomez-Peña. Who is Guillermo Gomez-Peña? you might ask? He is a man is a Chicano performance artist, writer activist and educator. Gómez-Peña has created works in performance, experimental video, experimental radio, multimedia, video, photography and installation art. His political views on immigration, white people, brown people, and considers himself a spanglish man who lost his path. As he once said in his poetry reading titled Art and life, and Life and Art, he states, he states “..the only difference between a madman, and a performance artists, is that a performance artist has an audience, so thank you for not letting me go mad.” The message in his work politically is so important and especially hits home with its spanglish additions and mexican comedy. He reminds me a bit of my father and I like that.

Image credit: http://blogs.walkerart.org/filmvideo/2011/11/29/u-of-m-student-responds-to-semiotics-of-the-kitchen/

And lastly I would like to add Martha Rosler’s Semiotics in the Kitchen, for the alphabetizing of the kitchen utensils as if she’s teaching us their usage for the first time. It focuses on the role of women in the 1960’s and how boring and tedious housewives were expected to live. I have taken a similar approach to my video project and hope to entice the viewer into coming to a conclusion themselves rather than be told. Best known for her work dealing with collaged photo elements of media, war and the role of women. Rosler has lectured extensively and her teachings and writings have been widely influential nationally, and internationally.

photo credit: Marvin Arevalo

I wanted to create a series looping videos that all recite different objects in a list and have the audience engage the video in trying to decypher the list. Much in the way Jeopardy is played, I would list an answer, and the audience shall try to name the category. For example if i were to read off the monday, tuesday, wednesday….your conclusion might be the days of the Week. But what interests me is “Who is doing the reading?.” Masked as a colorful ninja or vibrant terrorist, I wrapped my head in a common militant headwear worn by most gorilla fighters around the world, made of a tied t-shirt. My eyes are the only visible physical attribute uncovered and it keeps some of the esoteric nature. the visual field and mask grasps ur attention as if he’s reading off negotiations or a ransom, but once the dialog ends, there is only a strangeness and quizzical look. The key to this work is to surround the audience and bombard them with these colorful militant videos and see if the cacoffeny of the voices creates any uneasiness. I call it Negotiating with Terror-Lists.

Image credit: Marvin Arevalo

I’ll admit it did take some digging around to find this small and simplized project. I wanted to keep it clean and simple with little addition to the video as possible. I didnt want to inject too much into each video or it would get lost and unentertaining. The focus is to engage the viewer with one video and move to the next if it still grabs you. It has a very playful side of deciphering this simple code, but also visually challenges you with the question of who am i looking at. Using only a 15 second video time on my phone, I set myself limits so I wouldn’t weigh down the project. I wanted to keep it light and airy. The colors are friendly and are visually pleasing, but the abruptness of the face, and the wrinkle of the eyebrows lead you in a different direction. I do think this first series has a lot to do with some of my earlier paintings on wood. Both contain heavy solid use of a single color or two, and their intensity is always present. Keeping large bodies of color express a straightforward color emotion. A color emotion is changed when the color does as well. So switching between these colored masks, i wanted to create a different character or accent. Although I’m sure it probably needs more work on this end, this allows me to continue the work in the future to perfect it.

[Editor’s note: video documentation of Marvin’s Project can be seen here.]

I love art. Drawing has been the only thing I was ever good at in my whole entire life. I basically winged everything that wasn’t related to art. I took all the foundation classes I could to learn on how to be better at drawer, and then i learned painting, and then Ilearned sculpture. When I took my first art history class, it blew me away. I felt there was a whole new world of knowledge that i just stumbled into. And it wasn’t boring as my peers had described. It was enthralling and the textbooks never seemed to end. I love art. I can’t explain why I only read the arts section in the times magazine, or why i wake up and read all my emails, internet articles, and fresh youtube videos on art other than the simple reason of “I love art”. I have my favorites and least favorites but all in all it doesn’t matter because everything is related. A professor once asked a question in class “what is art?”, and a student who i believed was the smartest artist in a rational sense, not artistic sense,  said “ it’s everything.” She continued by explaining how all the courses taught at that university are involved in  art, the desk, the chairs, the birds, and the bees are in art. And I realized, she was right. There is nothing more important to me then art. It surrounds me in a bubble of thought. And I’m beginning to almost love looking at art more than I am creating it now. Its like Im coming to a new chapter. The ability to appreciate it, the way an artist only can. I love art. So what I’m trying to say is that any new knowledge i gain from any source is valuable to me. This course has let me begin some new work and I’m not sure where it will take me. But I’ll cherish it and recall the summer of 2013 as the year i began to understand, video, installation and performance. This is my last class before i receive my Masters in fine Arts degree. It’s been a long journey, but its all to prepare oneself for the beginning of another. I believe in myself and i believe in the work i do. And do you know why? Because. I. Love. Art.