Architectual Experience

Architectural Experience

          Before I had architectural experience through assignment and art class, I wasn't really interested in architecture. I knew that the downtown Chicago was famous in architecture. But I didn't look any building closely.

          Blogging about a skyscraper I knew made me to remind about every skyscraper that I encountered in the past. Then I remembered the most famous skyscraper in Malaysia, the PETRONAS Twin Buildings. While doing research on the buildings, I realized that there were interesting facts about those and surprised how much I took granted to look them closely.

           In the class, I saw many skyscrapers in Chicago and their backgrounds, like why were those built in that way. Some skyscrapers were even more interesting than the Chicago's public art. While going back home, I looked my surrounding environment more closely. The structure, the shape, the color and the location of a building approached differently. Buildings were one part of visual entertainment in Chicago! It gave me an opportunity to observe other things too. And I started to question everything and be curious about its existence. For example, why this building is placed in this location and why are there such a large space in front of it.

             Overall, architectural experience gave me the reason to look surroundings closely and made those look interesting.

  

VP5: Shadow Image

Visual Project 5: Shadow Image

Loop Public Art Tour

Loop Public Art Tour

Picasso Sculpture at Daley Plaza

                As I am living in the downtown of Chicago, I always pass by public art installations. At first, I didn't recognize those as public art but as a part of the surrounding buildings. This shows that those installations are merged well with the city. And I think those make Chicago look more attractive.

                 When I pass Picasso Sculpture which is installed at Daley Plaza, there are always kids sliding down from its tilted metal sheet. It is like a little playground for the kids who live in downtown. Playing on the famous artist's sculpture, who will dare to expect this in any museum? Moreover, Its simple curvy lines and metal sheets reminds me a soldier's armor. When the sunlight directly falls down on it, the metal wires supporting on both sides gives a shadow like a helmet. So it seems like a brave soldier keeping eyes on the city. 

                  One of the most famous public art in Chicago, The Bean, is a hot-spot for tourists. In my opinion, it always gives different looks. It sometimes seem to reflect the materialistic world, the selfish city, the beautiful nature and so on. When you go inside of The Bean, it reflects you back but gives a different visual image of yourself. You may be stretched, squeezed, twisted etc. as if it is trying to say that you can be seen differently by others. And it is like a blank canvas. The reflected objects and figures on it always change and those are part of it as art. So people are engaged in art if they are standing near to it.

The Bean at the Millennium Park

Twisted People inside The Bean

                       The another public art that I always see is Flamingo by Alexander Calder. Its beautiful and unique lines were shouting to me, "I was made by Calder!" Although I didn't know its title, it was attractive like a flamingo. Its passionate red color and the curvature resembled the lines of a flamingo.  And it gives different impression at night. The lights are shone from the ground and the shades and brightness emphasize its shape.

Flamingo by Alexander Calder during the day

During the night

                      Although I couldn't mention all the Loop public artworks, all of them give good impact for the city and makes it more attractive for both residents and tourists. In this city full of skyscrapers, those artworks are like an oasis in the desert.

Text as a Texture

Art 21/ Artist VII: Trevor Paglen

 

Art 21/ Artist VII: Trevor Paglen

Prototype for a Non-functional Satellite (2013)

              As technology is becoming more developed, a field for an artist is becoming broader. Trevor Paglen, an American artist and a geographer, applies the developed technology into his artwork.  

              The above image shows one of his main works, Prototype for a Non-functional Satellite. It weighs less than a pound. It could be put on a rocket so it goes up into a low-earth orbit. From there, Paglen can send a signal to it which will make it to inflate itself. It becomes so huge that people can see it from the ground. But it will appear like a star slowly moving across the sky. It will last for few weeks. Then it will accumulate too much of atmosphere and lead it to burn up.

               Paglen further studied the world by geography. He was looking for different ways to try to find a language in which that allow him to think about what he was doing. And he end up coming into geography. He thinks geology includes everything, especially history. He started to photograph landscapes. He commented, "It is something that I think about being in dialogue with."

And He will never stop developing and expressing his ideas based on technology.               

    

STSS-1 and two unidentified spacecraft over carson city (2010)

Untitled (2010)

Art 21/ Artist VI: Lynda Benglis

   Art 21/ Artist VI: 

                  Frankly speaking, I normally do not like video artworks because those are normally hard to understand due to sound effects and mysterious motions. But Lynda Benglis, a video pioneer and sculptor partially broke this prejudice. She used different art materials to do installations all over the country. While she was working on video and polyurethane artworks, she commented:

"They were like statements of the reality that you feel in the conversations that artists have with each other and with the world and with their times."

"I found my space, so to speak, because I was particularly interested in painterly materials and also form and space and where the gesture could take the material. All of them were drawn with either a bucket of a can, the use of the body, the use of the hand, the use of the movement of the body."

Still from Now (1973)

                  When I saw her intention and what she was trying to show, her works looked much more interesting. One of her work installed in India seems to represent a snake. She drew up the exterior image as a snake. Then crossing its body could be seemed as knots, which further represents the beginning of life. I was amazed how she put those altogether to make a deeper meaning into her work. Other artworks, wrapped pieces of gauze, were to depict the canvas wrapped in the structure of the wire. However, people's reactions were apathetic. They saw those as Kotexes. At first, she felt insulted by them. But later, she began to understand their opinion and tried other way to present the same material. She tied them into simple knots to create a space. And her change made by hearing the viewer's opinion got a Guggenheim for those. 

                    Throughout the video, I could feel her passion on what she was doing. She was really enjoying it. So I became to admire her "state".

Wing (1970)

  

The Graces (2003-2005)

Art 21/ Artist V: Jeff Koons

Art 21/ Artist V: Jeff Koons

The reason I chose the video about Jeff Koons is because I was interested in his artwork and wanted to know more about it. And I could clearly remember his works, especially Ballooned Dog, because those were so unique.

The video showed his idea about art clearly. To make it short, for him, art is really powerful. It could embrace viewer's emotions and thoughts. It could empower their feelings. His presented works seem as if he was trying to prove that he was right. From the video, he comments that there is an unchangeable thing for all of his artworks. And that is the reason for making them. That desire to be in that moment of that time when you want to make something, just diving in. That kind of sense of abandonment and just going for it. I was impressed by every single word of his speech. I could feel his proud on his work. He is certain of what he is doing.