What is an Image (MA)

What Is An Image?

            An image can be our most primal form of communication as well as our most complicated form of communication. We cannot escape images, yet, they are not a prison, they are expressions of freedom. An image can separate or it can connect. An image can be universal or it can be personal. An image can be fact or fiction. An image can be an idea or a command. An image can be good or bad. An image can be funny or serious. An image can be strong or weak. An image can be free or expensive. An image can be offensive or pleasant. An image can be theirs or ours. An image can be true or false. An image can be god or devil. An image can be dirty or clean. An image can be G or XXX. An image can be clear or blurred. An image can be interesting or boring. An image can be bright or dark. An image can be sweet or sour. An image can be words or pictures. An image can be seen with eyes open or closed. An image can originate from anywhere. An image can be made or taken. An image can be passive or aggressive. An image can be foreign or domestic. An image can be taken out of context. An image can be persuasive. An image can clarify or mislead. An image can be black and white or color. An image can be lost or found. An image can be loud or silent. An image can be imposing or modest. An image can be round or flat. An image can be right or wrong. An image can be graven. An image can be captured or shared. Image Comics. Image Awards. An image can be confusing. An image can be yours or mine. An image can be textured or flat. An image can be described. An image can be processed or natural. An image can be turned upside down. An image can be useless. An image can be useful. An image can be old or new. An image can be symbolic. Image = 1000 words. An image can be placed or removed. An image can be digital. An image can be a part of a collage or isolated. An image can be uploaded or deleted. An image can be edited. An image can be digitally remastered. An image can be language. An image can be love or hate. An image can be beautiful or ugly. Stock image. Royalty free image. An image can be still or move. An image can be positive or negative. An image can be powerful. The more I think about what an image could be, the more I realize that I may never have an answer. An image is infinity. An image is omnipotent. An image is God. 

This is a Forgery (MA)

Forgery

I have the ability to forge any painting in the world. It will be Madame X by John Singer Sargent. I have gone to the Met almost every day since the American Wing opened early this year and stared at this painting for hours on end. This is the type of painting I would covet for decades. A lifetime. I want to touch the canvas and imagine the care and intention of stroke that Sargent applied with his brush, as Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau stood close by, posing for days and months. I can imagine as he stares at her, studies her, records her, and breathes her in. I want to smell the age. I want to study the artistry, the skill, Sargent’s magnum opus. I want the painting to hang on my wall and be a part of my private collection; until death, do us part.

I will retreat into my studio and meticulously, feverishly, and relentlessly work to recreate a perfect facsimile of the masterpiece. I need to know that I too, can paint like a master. It is not good enough to create an original work of art. My desire is to fool everyone. The snobs and the critics and the rich and the conservators and the curators and the art historians. I need to replace the original with my own. If I could do this, I would be as great as Sargent. NO! I will be better than him. I will have to figure out how to make the paint appear to be from the late 19th century. The canvas. The frame. Yes, I would have to be brilliant.

Then there is the test. The real test. I must steal Madame X from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. No easy feat for sure, but, one that is not impossible. I know a couple less than honorable men who would be able to pay off a couple night guardsmen (they make shit for pay anyway) and from there it will be easy. I’ll meet them in Central Park, somewhere dark, like the North woods. I will have the copy of the artwork hidden. I will inspect the original work, before I pay, and then, a distraction (a cop that owes me a very big favor). I will only have a minute, but that’s all I’ll need to make the switch. By the time they recoup and focus back on me, I will reject payment. They will leave angry, confident that they will be able to find another buyer. Unfortunately for them, my cop friend will apprehend them less than ten minutes later. He will be the hero and owe me another favor. I won’t ever have to worry about him, you see, because I am the only person who knows where he buried his wife. He knows, that if anything happens to me, everyone will know what he did to her. I made sure of that. So, my cop is the hero and the painting is returned to the Met. My painting. My perfect painting. Yes, I will fool them all. I will have the original Madame X in my possession. I will never let her go. She will never leave me. I will have her forever…

MANIFESTO 2012

To follow are 139 statements towards a working Manifesto by the members of Eye & Idea 2012.

PAY ATTENTION MOTHERFUCKERS

1. Curiosity is my inspiration. The class is the reason I took this class.
2. My work is about the suspense that comes with the loss of balance, and the resulting tales that come with the process of regaining equilibrium.
3. Balance is:
4. …About things in moderation.
5. …Things in various perspectives.
6. …Expensive Jordans and an unassuming gait on Erie Ave.
7. …Understanding nature, yet avoiding animals.
8. …Using both experience and knowledge to inform lines.
9. …Knowing when to hang it up.
10. Art is for the birds, flamboyant types, but I couldn’t stand to let it go, the craft, the gaggle, so they kept flappin’ until I ended up in Manhattan where all of the artists live.
11. Was it better the way it used to be,
12. When we could all speak telepathically,
13. With no need for science, religion, or math,
14. Because we knew everything, and knew not to ask?
15. «We are circling around in the night and are devoured by fire » : I have no time, I have no more time, I am the burn, and I am elsewhere. We do not have enough of one life to taste what this entire universe harbors, every opportunity must be ceased.
16. get it out of your head
17. look
18. digest
19. execute
20. mock
21. be kind
22. primal
23. artificial
24. mislead
25. misunderstand
26. misrepresent
27. not always a wall
28. multiple
29. Everyone interprets truth differently.
30. Believe in something.
31. Love someone.
32. Love something.
33. Eat healthy.
34. There are people who manipulate. Avoid these people.
35. Treat people with respect.
36. Everything ok?
37. Hey, are you back yet?
38. What’s up?
39. Are you alive?
40. What do you want to do?
41. What’s going on?
42. Where are you?
43. What do you mean, “I’m not sure?”
44. Why?
45. What is your reasoning?
46. What’re you doing tonight?
47. What the FUCK?
48. Where are you?
49. What do you want out of this?
50. Pay attention
51. Frustration is an opportunity
52. Become a ninja
53. Be ruthless about your intentions
54. Embarrass yourself
55. Wax
56. Notice what keeps you up at night
57. Appropriate the accident for your own intention
58. emancipation
59. alien
60. memory
61. mythology
62. Are you doing art work to satisfy yourself or please others?
63. One day, I’m angry at the world and decide to do whatever pleases me, weird, exotic, odd, and random.
64. Strangers pass by, cold, numb, without looking at me, without answering any questions, until I finally find out that word, that password, for any reaction----Pick a random one, say “I love you”, say “Je t’aime”, say “Te amo”.
65. Open the third door, I fell into the gap between times and places, a journey begins, different scenes are altering in front of me, until I catch the real one, the concrete one, something not an illusion.
66. Feel it.
67. I WANT TO MAKE THE KIND OF ART I WANT TO INHABIT. I WANT TO STOP STUMBLING OVER CONCEPTS I WANT TO MAKE A SPACE FOR CONCEPTS TO BREED AND MULTIPLY AND DISSOLVE.
68. I WANT TO MAKE ART TO GET STUCK IN. I WANT TO STICK YOU.
69. I WANT YOU FORGET I WAS EVER THERE AND GET LOST IN YOURSELF. I WANT YOU TO PUT YOUR EAR TO STONE & OPEN YOUR HEART TO THE SKY EXCEPT NOT AS ANNOYING.
70. Language is death. Art points beyond itself.
71. THAT BLIND FARMER ONCE TOLD SKI THAT CHORE BIGGEST CRIME STUCK
A RAISIN IN THE SHADE MY BRAVE LIT TIL ENGINE [TH] AT COULD [STOP] THE PARTY UP HIS RALLY [ING] HAND EDUCATION
TO FRUITION ON MY PARTION BE TWEENS LIKE TO SUCKLE AND CU DDLEPUDDLEPU BURP SNEEZE NO
72. The history of the present institution is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these artistic minds. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. The Academy has refused enough freedom, the most wholesome and necessary for the artistic good.
73. Her Majesty
74. Trying to Not fall off of the back of bicycles..
75. This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2OdPDEG6aQ
76. Also This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHf7TD4qwjk
77. Also This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELxeSadruMI
78. Being Hilarious
79. Being Super F*cking Hilarious
80. Being Quiet. Chocolate Jesus. The Jerk. "You mean I'm gonna stay this color"
81. ONE LINERS
82. Everything about this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI8NuFAETMQ
83. It takes courage to follow one’s intuition and creativity but the rewards tend to be great. I like the sense of experimentation and collaboration in art. You can try something and fail or succeed, and look at the work of someone who had the same idea, and what they did with it: you’re never alone in your explorations.
84. Just need to learn to see it.
85. Photos - camera is eye.
86. No significant alterations though. (Where is the line drawn? Is there one?)
87. We all see things differently anyway. Who’s to say someone doesn’t already see it that way?
88. Closeups.
89. Me. For me.
90. Not creating - altering.
91. an event that is different from real life makes you think about "real life"
92. the opening as a performance, the exhibition is its afterlife and the objects are the artifacts
93. artist as producer, organizer, catalyst of object-making environment
94. MAKE 1 GOOD PAINTING
95. The object carries the story of how it was made but it is also beautiful, it can travel independently. The value of how it came to be is now inextricable from an object. So the object is a story.
96. the audience came freely but now they are trapped
97. CHOICE
98. lead me by the hand, spoon-feed it to me
99. "Trooping into her apartment as individuals, her subjects nonetheless left behind likenesses that formed groups along its walls and ultimately a crowd"
100. and then THAT happened
101. The way that you show it relates to the initial experience: if you were there, you know. if not you're still cool
102. אותי זה מעניין אז אותך זה יעניין
לא -- רק אותי זה מעניין. ואם אני רוצה שזה יעניין אותך אני צריכה לעניין אותך
103. Debris/piles of stuff/leftovers
104. Thigh Masters
105. Consumer Culture
106. Fabio, spokesman for fake butter
107. Reality TV
108. Disposable pop culture
109. Contradiction
110. Sweating to the Oldies
111. Amish livestock auctions
112. Interchanging Vowel Sounds
113. Whoever designs the packaging for generic laundry detergent
114. Plastic Surgery=New Media
115. Departures without arrivals
116. Unreal/ uncomfortable/ untrue
117. Eye sore
118. Eyeball
119. Delineate conditions of the seen
120. Absent arrivals
121. Looking and seeing
122. Modes of seeing
123. Is color that important?
124. Non-color dreams:
125. The continuous life span of found objects: object-hood
126. Found identity
127. Sexuality in excess
128. To Do / To Don’t Do:
129. Overanalyze
130. Overreact
131. Be stubborn
132. It’s not my fault
133. Learn to drive
134. Repeat mistakes
135. Be pissed
136. Forgive
137. Judge
138. Read literature
139. Let it go

Interior/Exterior (MA)

Political Image (MA)

Prompt 4: Change your world (MA)

Affecting/Effecting/Changing My World

I continually reflect on how my world changes. I started to realize that I needed to change my world about nine years ago. I decided that I was going to dedicate my life to art. This realization affected every decision I have made since. I want to make art that changes people’s lives. I want to dream and create and realize systems that replace inefficient ones with new sustainable and fair practice systems. I want the work that I do to have a positive impact in the way people live and interact with each other. I want to be an artist who collaborates with the community and is a part of an interdependent society. This does not mean that I would give up my own independence or lose my love of producing or enjoying all other types of art; it just means that I want to produce substantive art. I am currently part of a team that is designing a campus for sustainable food, agriculture, and entrepreneurship. We feel that the current food system is broken and we want to design a place where people can learn, create, and collaborate in order to change the way our food system works. I appreciated what Peter Fend said about artists being innovators and taking responsibility for moving society forward. I do not, however, believe that this is or should be the only role of the artist. I do like the idea that one can propose a social project that could potentially benefit the lives of others and it be considered art. For me, I want to think about what I am creating and most importantly, “why?” This is the question that keeps me in a state of flux. As I age, different things become increasingly important and I want to create art that constantly expresses this natural progression.

MA: There is Nothing to See So We Look

Our society looks when there is nothing to see. The 24-hour news cycle is notorious for averting our attention toward things without any relevance. Political attack ads are just as bad. Our politicians and potential politicians only strategy for obtaining office is to make other candidates look bad. They do not say anything constructive or meaningful. There is nothing said or done with any amount of substance. We look on like we are watching a reality television show, all too eager to know who will look like a fool next. Few find the grotesque irony in the richest men vying for control of our government while spending ungodly amounts of money during a recession. I am no better than any one else. Even when there is nothing to see, I look.

What Happens? (MA)

Many things come to mind when I see an old technology next to a new one. I wonder if these things are mutually exclusive. Do they reflect the old adage “out with the old and in with the new?” Is newer always better? Is there ever a compromise that occurs between something considered nostalgic and something considered state of the art? I think about technology and how difficult it is to familiarize oneself with the necessary tools required in the modern age. I find the newest technologies fascinating; yet, I am comfortable with the technology I grew up with. I suppose I’m trying to find the middle ground between “too old” and “too new.” So, what happens when these things are put together? In my opinion, creativity is born.

Prompt 1 (MA)

Frida Kahlo painting The Two Fridas, 1939

I admire Frida Kahlo and respect the contribution she made to art. When I see this painting I am reminded of the duality that is inherent in us all. I am inspired by her ability to display vulnerability and emotion with such raw intensity. I am mostly drawn to this painting because it makes me think of how all people are connected and how we are divided only by our respective cultures and the clashes between independence and interdependence. I suppose my main point is that when I see this image, it makes me think of things that I feel are important in relation to humanity.