In April, I will be presenting my MFA exhibit here at UND. It is the culmination of 3 years of work and research narrowed down into a cohesive show and theme, defended to ones chosen committee, and then (assuming you pass your final review) opened to the public. Well, I have taken a route I do not recommend. As of days a week before Thanksgiving last year, I changed my topic anddirection for the show from large cyanotype landscapes to considerations of the archive and vernacular photography. While I still love the large scale landscapes, I was unmotivated by the work and I wanted to push on something more conceptual...and it ended up on the idea of the archive. Essentially it will explore the way we think about objects...any historical object really, but I am using the vernacular photograph as an expression of this. The show will illustrate...exhibit...suggest (not finding the right word right now) the different approaches towards said objects between modernity and postmodernity. Over the past few months I have built an archive of vernacular photos with the help of Ebay...2 venders in particular have been of immense help selling their wares to me at decent prices. For the past week and half I have been making frames...21 to be exact. These function as frames, but are meant to recall less framing and more specimen trays. Inside, I will mount a singular photographic object on a white back ground with a lithographed archive label that will be filled out by hand in pencil. These pieces will be one aspect of the "modern" direction of the show to suggests modernity's drive for isolating objects for objective readings.
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As an artist, showing in exhibitions is one of the primary ways to build your CV. My first semester, my photography professor started encouraging me to enter shows at the local, regional, national, and international levels. I am thankful for her push in this direction. Since starting at UND I have had multiple opportunities to show in ND, MN, MT, WI, KY, MO, SD, NJ, and South Africa. 2011 is off to a good start with pieces in 5 different exhibits already this year. Last night was the opening for the UND TournARTment, the annual student show. I had one piece selected by the juror, Brian Frink, painting professor from Mankato State University in Mankato MN. The piece Contested Spaces: Mount Rushmore is proving especially popular at shows as it is in 3 different shows right now (MO, MT, ND).
Re-posted from AOA on 4.2 I cannot believe the this is my last semester in UND's MFA program. It has gone by so quickly...three years. I have a hard time believing it when I write it. And in that time, I dont think I have ever put up pictures of my studio. I've put up pictures of my home office, the UND gallery and the printmaking studio, but not my personal studio at the Hughes. So here is my home away from home for the past 2.5 years. Personally I think it is the nicest studio...perhaps the second nicest spot of all the studios spaces...its large and of course it has the beautiful window that looks out over the UND coulee. The wall on the left displays a lot of my test proofs and various failures of many of my early prints. When I started, these were a novelty to me so I kept them around...now they go directly into the trash...as these will when I have to move out in a few months. Somehow, my studio mate and I have collected a high number of chairs...in this photo there are 4 chairs and 1 stool. Why? I have no idea. The graduate studios are open...no locks, doors, barbed wire. This was, and still is a bit unnerving to me. Some of us have hundred or thousands of dollars of materials out in the open. And yet, very rarely does something go missing. I think I have lost some paper, and an aluminum ruler over my time. It has been said that people are more likely to take/borrow your tools and materials than your artwork...not sure what that says about the artwork, but all the same I am grateful for the a very low thievery rate among the students. Such spaces are at a premium and most students share spaces with others working in similar mediums. They become strange emporiums of curious objects, hand-me-down supplies, failed work pieces, doodles, and lots of junk...as you can tell by the clutter of the area. This is my first real studio space...I had a cube area for painting in undergrad, but this space has been great. I will miss it when I leave...and what to do with all this stuff? I cannot believe the this is my last semester in UND's MFA program. It has gone by so quickly...three years. I have a hard time believing it when I write it. And in that time, I dont think I have ever put up pictures of my studio. I've put up pictures of my home office, the UND gallery and the printmaking studio, but not my personal studio at the Hughes. So here is my home away from home for the past 2.5 years. Personally I think it is the nicest studio...perhaps the second nicest spot of all the studios spaces...its large and of course it has the beautiful window that looks out over the UND coulee. The wall on the left displays a lot of my test proofs and various failures of many of my early prints. When I started, these were a novelty to me so I kept them around...now they go directly into the trash...as these will when I have to move out in a few months. Somehow, my studio mate and I have collected a high number of chairs...in this photo there are 4 chairs and 1 stool. Why? I have no idea. The graduate studios are open...no locks, doors, barbed wire. This was, and still is a bit unnerving to me. Some of us have hundred or thousands of dollars of materials out in the open. And yet, very rarely does something go missing. I think I have lost some paper, and an aluminum ruler over my time. It has been said that people are more likely to take/borrow your tools and materials than your artwork...not sure what that says about the artwork, but all the same I am grateful for the a very low thievery rate among the students. Such spaces are at a premium and most students share spaces with others working in similar mediums. They become strange emporiums of curious objects, hand-me-down supplies, failed work pieces, doodles, and lots of junk...as you can tell by the clutter of the area. This is my first real studio space...I had a cube area for painting in undergrad, but this space has been great. I will miss it when I leave...and what to do with all this stuff? In preparation for my final exhibit coming at the end of April, I've been picking up a few books to help guide some of my thoughts on the project. I've been thinking a lot about the photographic object itself...its history, lost images, how they are used etc. Too often we tend to look "through" the photograph to the referent, subject or what is imaged. And yet, the object nature of the photograph cannot be separated from its subject. The Art of the American Snapshot is a fabulous collection and history of vernacular photography. This is one of the first books I bought in this direction and it is definitely my favorite because of its diversity of photo techniques and essays, and sheer volume of images. Another similar, and much smaller text is In the Vernacular. This book also functions like a very select group of images from an exhibition. They also break the images into various categories of archive, proof, surrogate, and yardstick. The images and their functions are explored through these categories. I've also picked up a few texts on the photo album and its histories and functions.Suspended Conversations is the most recent text that I have purchased. More essays than photos, it looks to be a helpful guide. Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album runs the other way with photographs of and interpretations of various antique photographs. The book itself invites touch with its green embossed felt cover. It is curious to me how one experience can linger in my memory. On my first visit to NYC, I was walking with my spring service trip group from Northwestern College in Orange City Iowa, when we happened upon theFlatiron. I looked up and immediately recognized its form from Steiglitz and Steichen's images of it...(see below) It is one of NYC famous landmarks and most photographed buildings. That night as our group crossed the street below I pulled my camera from my coat randomly shot upwards with the flash attached. It created a remarkable image. Barely visible from the faint flash throw, the barrel curve rises from the bottom and quickly disappears into a sea of black. I've tried scanning and photographing the one copy that I have and fails to replicate the beauty each time. A few years later, I was in a taxi headed toward Battery Park and passed the structure. This time I stuck the camera out the window and snapped a few shots and was remarkably pleased with what came out. I love how the wire cuts across so nicely across the angle of the building. This trip however, I made time to walk around the building, taking it in, and more carefully constructing my shots. The next day, we ended up going up the Empire State Building which provided me another vantage point of one of my favorite buildings. Enjoy. Back in November I had the opportunity to go to NYC with several fellow students and our printmaking professor. For those of you who dont know, I love NYC. I will admit that I am a tourist...looking at the buildings, watching people, etc. For someone who grew up on the prairies and loves watching the light drift lazily over fields, trees, and elevators I think that my love of line and hard edges find its source in NYC more than any other city. I love how light moves over, around, reflects, in perpetually changing angles and intensity. I marvel at the architecture itself, but also the interplay between one building and another especially in the mornings when light begins to scrape over and flit through the gaps between the buildings. I've posted just a simple four shots of my favorites. Enjoy. Two years ago, about the time I started to take a more serious interest in film, I started cataloging the new films that Karina and see. I had been doing the same for books and thought it would be interesting to do the same for films. Ok...and I was semi-curious at how many films we actually watched in a given year. Over the past 2 years we have also been slowly working our way through AFI's original 100 greatest films list. It has been a fun project but we have gotten bogged down in that process at times too.
In 2007 we watched 104 new films and in 2008 we watched 110 new films. A few favorites that stand out in my memory are Modern Times with Charlie Chaplin from 1936, Everything Is Illuminated with Elijah Wood from 2005, Ostrov or The Island (a Russian film) about penance that is simply wonderful. Other favorites, Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Into the Wild (2007), King Corn (2007), Wall-E (2008), Iron Man (2008) and Babel (2006). Our complete viewing list... 1.1.08 Babel 2006 1.1.08 The Seventh Seal 1954 1.4.08 The Natural 1984 1.5.08 Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End 2007 1.05.08 I Married a Witch 1942 1.06.08 Girl In the Café 2005 1.07.08 Doctor Zhivago 1965 1.07.08 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 1.08.08 Pink Panther 1963 1.12.08 The Prestige 2006 1.13.08 The Life & Passion of Jesus Christ 1905 1.14.08 From the Manger to the Cross 1913 1.15.08 Koyaanisqatsi 1982 1.16.08 Dan In Real Life 2007 1.18.08 Good Luck Chuck 2007 1.21.08 Barbarella 1969 1.21.08 War Games 1983 1.22.08 Angels With Dirty Faces 1938 1.22.08 Roaring Twenties 1939 1.26.08 Iron Giant 1999 1.29.08 Reign Over Me 2007 2.4.08 War of the Worlds 1953 2.10.08 Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 2.11.08 Memento 2000 2.13.08 License to Wed 2007 2.15.08 Bourne Ultimatum 2007 2.18.08 Transporter II 2005 2.19.08 The Life of Brian 1978 2.22.08 The Wild Bunch 1969 2.24.08 P.S. I Love You 2007 2.25.08 Evan Almighty 2007 3.01.08 The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956 3.03.08 2 Days in Paris 2007 3.04.08 The Birds 1963 3.08.08 Wild Hogs 2007 3.09.08 Spirited Away 2002 3.09.08 The Jazz Singer 1928 3.10.08 Idiocracy 2006 3.14.08 We Are Marshall 2006 3.15.08 Everything is Illuminated 2005 3.17.08 Absent Minded Professor 1961 3.19.08 The Island 2006 3.20.08 Green Pastures 1936 3.22.08 The Perfect Man 2005 3.25.08 Little Children 2006 3.28.08 I Am Legend 2007 3.29.08 Unforgiven 1992 4.1.08 Goodfellas 1990 4.9.08 Gridiron Gang 2006 4.10.08 Modern Times 1936 4.10.08 Freedom Writers 2007 4.12.08 Night of the Hunter 1955 4.20.08 A Good Year 2006 4.21.08 Battleship Potemkin 1925 4.26.08 Juno 2007 4.27.08 27 Dresses 2007 4.30.08 Duck Soup 1933 5.02.08 Double Indemnity 1944 5.03.08 Iron Man 2008 5.04.08 Lars and the Real Girl 2007 5.06.08 Pan's Labrynth 2006 5.06.08 City Lights 1931 5.10.08 High Fidelity 2006 5.14.08 Friends With Money 2006 5.17.08 National Treasure II 2007 5.18.08 August Rush 2007 5.19.08 Cocktail 1988 5.21.08 Frankenstein 1931 5.27.08 Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull 2008 5.31.08 Jesus Camp 2005 6.02.08 Just Like Heaven 2005 6.03.08 Tootsie 1982 6.07.08 You Don’t Mess With the Zohan 2008 6.08.08 All About Eve 1950 6.10.08 Into the Wild 2007 6.15.08 The Game Plan 2007 6.19.08 The Godfather 1972 6.21.08 The Godfather II 1974 6.21.08 3:10 To Yuma 2007 6.22.08 The Goldrush 1925 7.19.08 Batman: The Dark Night 2008 7.20.08 The Departed 2006 8.04.08 Amadeus 1984 8.10.08 Cabaret 1972 8.11.08 In the Heat of the Night 1967 9.01.08 Bonnie & Clyde 1968 9.06.08 Shrek TheThird 2007 9.14.08 A Flea Market Documentary 2001 10.04.08 The Virgin Suicides 2000 10.04.08 King Corn 2007 10.10.08 The Bucket List 2008 10.11.08 High Noon 1952 10.12.08 The Third Man 1949 10.14.08 Baby Mama 2008 10.16.08 Grapes of Wrath 1940 10.18.08 The French Connection 1971 10.25.08 Fools Gold 2008 11.04.08 Be Kind, Rewind 2007 11.06.08 Get Smart 2008 11.10.08 Stagecoach 1939 11.18.08 Hancock 2008 11.22.08 Wall-E 2008 11.27.08 Quantum of Solace 2008 11.29.08 Black Snake Moan 2006 12.5.08 The Love Guru 2008 12.10.08 Leatherheads 2008 12.18.08 Forgetting Sarah Marshall 2008 12.26.08 Charlie Wilsons War 2008 12.29.08 Grand Theft Auto 1977 12.30.08 Burn After Reading 2008 Last night we went to the opening of Iron Man. While I’ve never been into comic books nor their superhero’s the film is excellent. Robert Downey Jr. is a perfect fit as the womanizing jerk Tony Stark. But after being betrayed and captured in Afghanistan by people using the weapons he designed Stark has a change of heart as he watches the man who saved his life die.
In one sense, this is a conversion story where the character goes from a producer of weapons to the protector of people. Stark creates the ultimate weapon but uses it for “good.” I loved the story, but I struggle with the individualized sense of ethics that Stark converts to. What are his orienting points that guide his new moral compass? Certainly his change is laudable, but what we need to think about is where do we get the framework for what is good in our life. How do we define what is good? Can we leave it up to the individual? The state? Can that individual help others achieve that same type of conversion? The struggle with individualized values is that there is no larger framework beyond the self to uphold and re-enforce ones chosen values. They can be matters of convenience able to increase or decrease in value (essentially what is profitable for that person) depending on the circumstances. The idea of value comes from the market economy built on needs, wants, and scarcity. Is this where we really want our moral values to emanate from? Values shift from person to person based on what is effective for their own self advancement or fulfillment. To what are we looking for the moral ideal? From whom or which tradition are we learning our behavior? Who’s traditions are we using and being used by? |
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