Part of 2 on exhibits
My favorite piece was definetly the Pixcell- Elk#2 by Kohei Nawa.
The room was bursting forth with light; the Elk seemed to posses a talent of drawing people to it. Nobody walked into the room and said 'Yuck! Lets move on.' It was so amazing, I felt propelled to touch it. Thankfully, their was security to make sure we didnt even breathe on it. Sculpting is always my favourite form of art to look upon. The meaning of this sculpture is fairly obvious after studying its form for a while. A beauiful beast, encapsulated in our perceptions of nature. At first glance the Elk is beautiful in its glowing shrine. However, the glass beads enlarge and distort objects around the room. The Elk reminds me of our environment. We dont live with nature, we take from it. We beautify and perfect everything. But our world is far from perfect. This sculpture captures what we have really done to nature. It is beautiful, yet distorted. We have altered nature to suit us and this is the result.
That is how I interpreted the Pixcell-Elk#2
My favourite experience at GOMA was the Liminal Air exhibit by Shinji Ohmaki
The definition of the word Liminal defines a threshold of physical and psychological response. The room I walked into was like nothing I had seen before. The closest thing I could compare it to, in my opinion, would be a wheat field. The long strands of wheat, swaying to the winds rhythm seems a like version to the white strings swaying from the roof in that small room I visited today. All of my senses were involved when walking through the room. The association between touch and emotion, that would be the best way to describe this work. A physical experience that has you thinking deeply. The room had a pleasant, lighthearted feel. It seemed to involve the right handed side of my brain. I loved this experience most of all. How very sad it was when the guard asked us to leave. I could have stayed there all day.
Part 3 on cultural context.
Immortalis by Thukral and Tagra
The Indian background of these artists effects their art work.
The immortalis room includes art work using paintings, sculpture, video and consumer objects. The ultimate meaning to their work was conceived around the dreams of young people in India, in particular the Punjabi people of the countries north, where dreams involve emigrating to other countries, often at great cost to themselves and their families. In this work, the tension between aspiration and reality is filtered through a highly constructed domestic space.
(APT 6 Guide Cinefile special edition)
These artists cultural backgrounds heavily impacts their artwork. In this piece, their Indian culture is expressed through the tension in society at the time. The dreams of young people have high ambitions and hope, this is shown in their work with bright colours and images and sculptures that symbolise hope. An example of the controversy of dreams and reality, would be the sculptures on the wall. They have roses flowering over their body and smiling faces to symbolise their ambition, hopes and dreams; and upon its face is a blindfold, to suggest it is oblivious to reality. The room's atmosphere seems happy, the colours pictures represent this. However, the cultural context is obvious with not only representations of their young people in society, but through religious artifacts and images.
Part 4 on QAG
Metaphysica: Red Fish by Ah Xian
The analysis I made of this beautiful sculpture whilst I was scketching it, was different to that of the information by the gallery. This may have been because I focused on one of the sculptures, instead of them as a whole. This sculpture I particualary like because of the contrast in colours. The woman was a bluey green colour. The hue is cold and seems to represent saddness. The sculpture seemed distressful to me, very far from 'joyful' as they were called in the info tab. The fish seeemed to be the key to her distress; by the way she holds her head, as though it is a burden to carry. If you look closely at her face, it looks as though she is crying. The fish symbolises her burden she patiently carries, whether it be an issue of ethnicity expectations and traditions; or a great loss. This sculpture infulences me emotionally. Ah Xian's work seems to show me the persepective of these woman's lives, and gives me insight to their grief.
