Artist Presentation

On 10/21/11, Bri and I compiled an outline of topics for discussion within our 10 minute presentation. We sought to achieve verbal and nonverbal communication from our students, helping us to gauge their interest and understanding as we proceeded through the presentation. We also sought to synthesize their feedback with what pertinent information we were trying to get across. Art is such a subjective topic and expressive medium, and there is absolutely no justifiable way to discourage any discussion of opinion or perspective. Below are notes from that outline:

Outline

I.  Human Rights and Occupy Wall Street

II.  Ai Weiwei

• Sunflower Seeds
• Community of historical Imperial porcelain makers lost to mass production – hand-crafted ware
• Public Space - interactive
• Expansive – enormous physical and historical presence
• Political signs of government, population
• Organizing public awareness of history and current economy
• Breaking Vase
• Literal breaking of tradition
• “I do not think the issue of human rights can ever improve without a struggle.”
• Act of radicalism

III.  Jenny Holzer

• Recontextualizing architecture – contemporary ideas projected onto historical monuments
• Reversible – temporarily vandalist projections

IV.  Compare and Contrast

• How are these artists communicating their political/socio-economic views in their art?
• How does each artist respond to their country of origin and what relevance does that culture have in their artmaking?
• In your opinion, which artist’s method is more effective?