#bremueller

Rag Paper, Photo Album Protecting Sleeves, Waxed thread, Sharpie

May 2015 

Once again, I’ve delved into the realm of illusionary art and interactive art. The same artists as I’ve mentioned before, such as Dorosz, were huge influences. Especially since he even experimented in larger, more interactive worlds such as ‘The Painted Room’ below. 

However, larger and less delicate works such as Whiteread’s ‘House’, 

display opportunities for actual interaction. 

It’s only recently that I’ve realized that the best learning I’ve done is when I’ve been able to physically interact with what I’m seeing, such as the children’s museum when I was young. I don’t think that we change much from children to adult, and interactive art/entertainment should monopolize that. 

It’s works like Paul Nulty’s interactive light design...

that reminded me that art can be beautiful and inventive, but without a connection from the audience, the art may well be useless.

Digital Photograph Manipulations 

Spring 2015 

Each of the digital photograph manipulations above is another extension of the portfolio mentioned in yesterday’s post (surrealism on perspective medias). 

However, this series titled ‘Media Portraits’ is a group of photographs loosely based on works such as ‘Rene Magritte’ by Duane Michals ...

(1965)

and, ironically another work by Magritte himself, ‘A Friend of Order’:

(1964)

Both works make a statement on the depicted individual in retaliation to objects surrounding in silhouette. Michals’ work displayed the painter Magritte in silhouette against an easel, speaking to who Magritte was. 

Magritte’s work speaks similarly to the silhouetted individual. 

My works are based on self-made media, and each silhouette speaks to eh media that the portrait-ed individual utilizes to display themselves. In this way, the portraits are  more self-made then displayed by myself.

Digital Photo

Spring 2015

This semester I’m participating in a digital photography class. For my final portfolio I’m covering a topic utilizing surrealism techniques while creating a photographic conversation on modern perspectives of media.

While exploring my topic I came across several famous surrealist artist however, the section of my portfolio shown above, tilted Window Screens is loosely based on works by Rene Magritte.

In modern education, Magritte may be most famous for his portrait Son of Man.

However, when exploring his works, I found myself drawn to two of his works, both with the same title: The Human Condition.

1933

1935

Both works adhere to an artistic style referred to as ‘a painting within a painting’, and make a statement about the artist and what interior may truly mean. 

Tea Lights, Foam Core, Fishing Wire 

Fall 2014 

This year, I’ve become less interested in what my art means to me, and instead more intriqued by what the audiences sees or responds to. Because of this, much of my art has started to become more audience-interactive. The sculpture above is no different.

Skeptic Circle is a piece ‘in the round’. It’s a sculpture meant to be viewd from all sides, with changing views from different viewer heights and angles.

When orignially beginning my project, I was intiqued by the works of Elba Bairon, a Latin American artist. She works with simplified in the round sculptures carved and sanded from blocks of paper. Below is a sample of one of her shows, Contemporaneo 30.

Each of the individual sculptures is stylized so that shadow helps to create the form, and the viewer interacts by moving through the crowd of sculptures.

Though Bairon’s style was intriguing to me, the way she utilized light and physically placed her audience within the work, I found myself pulled to illusionary art. Below is an example by Chris Dorosz titled, Stasis 79 (The Duchess of Alba’s Wedding).

Though this isn’t a sculpture in the round, I found myself particularly drawn to Dorosz’s installations. He creates his work by artfully placing acrylic blobs in such a way that the image may only be properly viewed from one angle. This forces the viewer to interact and sometimes react through placement.

When I created my own piece, I decided to move the audience in the same way as Dorosz, while at the same time playing with light to create emphasis like Bairon. When viewing Skeptic Circle the viewer must walk around the sculpture until the small units align and the individual is able to see the triangle clearly.

Digital Poster 

Fall 2014 

The poster above was the culmination of a semester long project aimed at developing a graphic theme. The theme I cultivated evolved into one simple word: KIDtech. This was meant convey the combination of children and technology that has become increasingly common especially in respect to childhood education, communication, and creativity.

When creating my poster, I spent copious amounts of time researching the evolution of technology, especially communicative, which is how my poster design took shape.

The basic structure, or grid format, is based off of print press advertisements. Specifically, advertisement from the time of the industrial revolution. When technology was growing in leaps and bounds, as it is today, and still followed a block-printing pattern.

Notice the easy to view grid-like pattern on the advertisement above.

While researching, I also learned that as far as font was concerned, printers had to make due. In typecasting, using a letterpress was the preferred method for 19th century newspaper printing, and often creating a forced – grid pattern.

I also found myself intrigued by the type itself. Printers were often forced to use whatever type was at hand and ready to use. Jumping off of this, I decided to force myself to use early Macintosh fonts. These fonts, such as Chicago (example below) have come to represent a pivotal moment in personal technology growth. This I found to be directly applicable to my KIDtech report, and so used such fonts in my poster.

Pencil and Sketchpad 

Spring 2014

While studying abroad in the spring of 2015 I drew the sketch above. I found myself prompted to draw by combinations of local native art and architecture and the Spanish. Pictured below is one such structure. It is the Catholic Church of Santo Domingo in Peru which was built on the Ruins of the Incan Temple Coricancha.

It was churches like this, and the interior works of native and Spanish combination-design influenced my sketch.

The alpaca, still an important Andean symbol and major industry today often represented the native person in Incan art.

My scetch dresses the Alpaca in 16th centaury Conquistador armor

Adrian Johns’ opinion on the nature of books in terms of trustworthiness is disheartening. On page 69 of his book The Book of Nature… he describes the factual nature of the novel as only pertaining to how the reader sees the text.

“Printed texts were not intrinsically trustworthy. When they were in fact trusted, it was only as a result of hard work, fixity was in the eye of the beholder, and its recognition could not be maintained without continuing effort. At no point could it be counted on to reside irremissibly in the object itself, and it was always liable to contradiction.”

 Johns appears to believe that only the invention and execution of regulating principles, a copyright, and the author’s name as perceived by the audience lend credit to any work in particular.

 Kristin Master of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America explains the history of copyright infringement. Strange enough, that sometimes the novel itself is not being copied, instead it’s the author’s name. Several famous authors throughout history have found their names to be misappropriated and used to sell books by anonymous authors. It appears to be the name itself that lends credibility:

https://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/1528-book_collecting_basics_pirated_editions.html

 This idea of a work only being credible if the audience believes it to be so makes sense to me. It’s the whole ‘boy that cried wolf scenario. We’re more likely to believe someone who appears truthful -or in the case of authorship, happens to write some really great books – over someone we don’t know or someone who has a reputation of lying.

 In contrast to Johns and Master, world famous author Jeffery Archer explained the sale of an estimated 50 million pirated copies of his book Cain and Able in India:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00e0Qk1ZaeU

His reasoning for those sales is not the trustworthiness of his name or the well-bound nature of those books, but the lack of an Indian translation of the book sold from his publisher. Well Archer sells millions of legal texts in other Asian counties, India is an a market with a high demand and absolutely no supply of translated novels.