Art:21 Again

Each of the artists portrayed in the Art:21 videos took things that are not usually considered art and transformed them through different mediums into something beautiful.  The first artist, Sally Mann, used a 100-year-old bellows view camera to photograph her subjects.  She captured things around her that were of interest like dog bones and her children.  What was a tad unique about all her pictures of her children were that in each they were nude.  Later it was explained that she was raised naked and untamed until the age of seven and wanted the same freedom for her own children.  Her pictures are a way of expressing herself both spiritually and emotionally and each has a force behind it that gives them an ethereal quality.

The second artist, Mel Chin, worked in many different mediums transforming objects not usually thought of as functional or beautiful into pieces of art.   Video games were one way that Chin made something not usually thought of as beautiful appealing.  He used Turkish rugs to inspire his graphics in one game and each level was covered with the pretty designs.  He also took a burned out old house in Detroit and placed it on a pivot to try and change the stigma around the travesty; underneath was displayed life and beauty as symbolism.  Toxic earth was another defunct object turned into something beautiful.  With the help of agronomists he was able to create a garden with beautiful walls that became a living sculpture.  He says he is inspired by poetry and pragmatism.  He seeks to prove that art is the same as ever, in that it is never the same.

James Turrell connects a lot of his art to the sky.  He was commissioned to construct the design for a new Quaker house and used his grandmother’s inspirational words to help him in his design: Quakers are going in to greet the light.  So he added a very large skylight in the middle of the congregation hall allowing the natural light to enter quite surreally.  His ongoing project and love is the construction on the Roden Crater in Arizona.  He blends hard science with art to create an art piece with the sun, stars, and light in general as the subject.  The auditorium was the central construct and it was designed to convey the rotation of the earth.  It was fascinating how his ranch, that he didn’t really even know how to run, funded all of these projects.

The last artist, Gabriel Orozco, used many different mediums, but especially sculpture.  He created games based on his interest in changing conventional thought like his pendulum billiards table and his ping-pond table that played with four people and without nets.  He built a car that from the side could be seen as a normal car, but from the front was obviously too narrow for convention.  His photography was also based on the unconventional.  When going to the supermarket with his wife he would take different foods and switch up their locations and photograph the product.  Cat food ended up with watermelons and potatoes sat on top of notebooks.  Each interested him enough to spark his dedication and creativity.