Donald Moffett @ the Walker

Donald Moffett

Paintings

Walker Art Center

One piece that I found particularly interesting was this piece by Donald Moffett. It is interesting because, like so many pieces of art from the walker, it was is so simple, which many people would question whether or not it is really art. Some might make the argument that their 5 year old could do this, however, their 5 year old did NOT do this. Whats beauteous about this piece is that it is not something that a 5 year old could do if even if they wanted to. This piece focuses a lot on texture, and is not simply paint on a canvas. This post-modern, 3 dimensional piece is a confusing one, but still interesting. Again, some people may argue that due to its simplicity, it might not qualify as art, but it is not necessarily as simple as people may think. This complex piece is indeed art; moving your eye through the work just as art is supposed to do. I think that something that people can take away from this work that just because it is simple doesn't mean that it is not art and doesn't mean that there is no meaning behind it.

Difficult Work: Tetsumi Kudo

When I saw this piece, 'Olympic Winners Platform' by Tetsumi Kudo, I was instantly disturbed. The colors of the piece are so bright and cheery so that at first glance, one would almost miss the severed pieces of a body strewn throughout the platform. It made me think what would provoke someone to create something like this. The piece as a whole has an almost tragic feeling. It was designed as an irony pairing "Human tenacity and the communion of nations" with the decomposing human body parts. Kudo designed the piece after the playwright Eugene Ionesco. I think this irony is what makes the work so difficult. Not only are the colors bright and happy, but the whole idea of the olympics bringing together a whole world full of people seems to reprisent a sort of global unity. Then the viewer sees these cut up body parts littered around the platform and all those dreams of unity and happiness are instantly crushed.

Photo and research information comes from: http://www.artsconnected.org/collection/110797/event-horizon-a-study-set?print=true

Fonts

This Walt Disney font is one of my most favorites. It reminds me of my childhood.. I was, and still am, in love with Disney movies. It doesn't necessarily make me giggle out loud or anything. But it definitely does not put a frown on my face.

This font isn't exactly used in everyday typing. It

is used for a certain logo and promotion towards Walt Disney.

Anyone can recognize this font in a heartbeat, mostly from the W and the D (obviously.) It's not a professional type of font, either. It's more playful and most likely could be used in some sort of children's circumstance.

http://www.searchfreefonts.com/free/walt-disney-script.htm

The closest thing I could find for a title is

"Dead Celebrities Made Out of

Fonts."

I'm not exactly sure what type of font was used. The reason I picked these images, is because they're very intriguing. It

's unique and fun. These pictures are also on the happy side. They create a lively spirit, and it is obviously mimicking famous celebrities that have passed.

Other than posting these images throughout the web and on posters/other entertainment reasons, there is no use for these pictures. The font itself is actually composed of multiple types--manipulating the style, fluidity, and placement to create an accurate image of a celebrity.

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/10/dead_celebrities_made_out_of_f.php

Century Gothic. My favorite of the standard fonts. It's a geometric sans-serif typeface designed for Monotype Imaging. This font also resembles "Futura," another simple font. It reminds me of something simple, yet interesting. Just like a lot of

my own art work can be. I like the simple things-- none of the

curlies in the typing such as Times New Roman, Arial, and so on. It's there, I get it, let's type with it. This kind of font isn't generally used in books, promotional fonts, etc. It's used in simple everyday things such as an email, picture captions, letters, and other basic websites. It's not necessarily unique, but it's still plain and easy to look at.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Gothic

Hybridization- the new black?

Greetings on this soggy post Thanksgiving Monday!

I hope you all had a great T Day and are ready to dive into the final stretch of OAD..

Zebroid, courtesy ODDEE.com

HYBRIDS...

Mercedes Hyper concept courtesy PHYSORG.com

If you google this term, you can come up with everything from animals, (some of my favorites being the Schnoodle (Schnauzer and Poodle) and the Zebroid, or  Zorse -combinations of the zebra and the horse) to hybrid bikes to the new brands of hybrid cars rolling off the assembly line quicker than a striped lizard on hot 
asphalt.  


This week we will be taking a brief look at hybrid art forms.  Some of you may remember this term from our discussions during our WAC tour, in reference to works that combine several technologies and media to create a new genre or artform.  We will be touching on this term as it is being and has been used in several art genres, from public artworks to sculpture and performance to early examples of hybrid installations.  So once again, bring your laptops (research) and process journals (to jot down artists and ideas...) as well as an open mind for our discussion. 

But before we launch into this new query, we will take a few minutes to discuss the readings from the last few very busy weeks.  Bring two questions to contribute to our discussion of the Stewart readings (Ch. 5-8) and/or Barrett, Ch. 6, Writing about Art.  We will also de-brief from our action packed  class discussion/presentation on 'Difficult Art' during our last session, so if you missed the show, you need to check out the pdf version of the presentation I've uploaded as a Google Doc for you asap... 


This week's art-junk question may best be answered in a review of the material covered in the last few weeks.  Here goes...

• Which artist from the 1990s combined text and image to comment on culture and society? (and worked at Conde Nast Publications?)

Good luck, stay dry, and finish your blogs! See you Thursday, if not before...

heading into the final countdown...

The Walker

I chose to write about the piece by Nelson Leirner titled "Homenagem a Fontana II". This piece is very interesting to me. It is so simple that it almost doesn't make any sense. It is just different layers of different colored fabric all with horizontal zippers. Doing some research I learned that Nelson Leirner has always been interested in challenging the way people see art and the way people give commercial value to arranged objects. Leirner was inspired heavily by Lucio Fontana, an Italian artist who was famous for his cut canvases. He would take large canvases, and do nothing but put large gashes in them and show it as art. After knowing this history, it makes it a little easier to understand Leirner's piece "Homenagem a Fontana II" (which translates to "Homage to Fontana II".

Biomimicry

Gecko Tape is a fairly recent invention that uses nanoscopic hairs like those found on the feet of gecko's. The millions of nanoscopic hairs are flexible and produce "Van Der Waals" force upon surfaces creating an adhesive effect. The most useful applications will be underwater and zero gravity use.

Another current example of Biomimicry is Self-Healing Plastics. Much like the way a body can produce scabs and scars to re-heal itself, they are working on plastics that can do the same thing. They use hollow fibers filled with epoxy resin so that if damaged, they would release the epoxy resin which would heal and dry into a material nearly just as strong as the original. They are working on developing these materials further to be used for automobiles, airplanes and even spacecraft.

One more amazing biomimicry advancement is the Bionic Car. The company DaimlerChrystler has created a new car concept for Mercedes-Benz. This car is shaped after a strange tropical fish. They have achieved aerodynamics that cause 20% less fuel consumption and up to 80% less nitrogen oxide emissions. This car runs on biodiesel and would get about 70 miles to the gallon. They are still working on this car and hope it to be released sometime in the near future.