#4dfall14

For the final...

I honestly just wanted another chance to make a whole bunch of gifs!

I really enjoyed this class and actually took quite a bit away from it about post-modernism and video art that I had no idea about! In the end though the gif project was definitely my favorite and I always wanted to know how to make them, so for my final of this class I made 15 gifs. Five gifs of bad skateboarders, five gifs of silly dancing (including dancing birds), and 5 gifs of Fall Out Boy (cause the internet was lacking in fob gifs ;P)

Leah Rich

Art Statement for Performance Art Project #5

I wanted to make my performance about the viewer. I was unsure initially how to go about that, but I knew that I wanted to make the creative process participatory. Maybe not a great choice for a 1-minute time limit, but regardless I had fun trying to calm myself enough to stand still in front of the crowd. I get really excited being front and center, haha. Now You Tree Me attempts to prove the universal truth that the earthly world is whatever you choose it to be. All matter is just a matter of perspective. A tree is a tree. Yet what you think of that tree – it’s old, it’s gnarled, It’s young, it’s weak, it’s graceful, it’s big, it’s little, it’s ugly, it’s beautiful, it’s sturdy – is your own truth. Our perspective literally creates our reality. And the same goes for all things, situations, feelings, people. You can dress me up or down in whatever way you want to, but at my essence, I am just I. I am just. I am.

In the perfect performance, I would stand in tree pose, growing taller, swaying gently, my roots firmly planted and my branches reaching further. Public participants would add to me: branches, leaves, flower buds, bark, cones, etc. Eventually I would begin to shrink, and curl up with inevitable death. The AUM track playing in the background reflects the cosmic sound of creation (“ah”), preservation (“uh”) and liberation/destruction (“m”).