We passed this building a couple of times on our way to the park on our trips, and it made curious. What was this big elaborate building? Thanks to Google maps and Wikipedia, I found out that its the NY Appellate building. It was built in 1899, and is a New York landmark. It has a few statues on the building representing justice, wisdom, and strength. I think its a beautiful building, but its also cool becuase its a remionder of what you can find if you just look around (and don’t get distracted by the big Credit Suisse building). photo from manhattansideways.com
Daily Archives: October 2, 2013
LOIS LANE by Keone Madrid featuring Rudy Francisco
When Professor Eversley first mentioned about the multimedia project, this video came to my mind. This video combines a few different works of art: spoken word poetry, music (more specifically, a R&B song called Lois Lane by Keone Madrid) and choreography. I really liked the structure of this video and how it connects these different aspects of art. The way the video is organized really makes it a great combination of spoken word and movement. It starts off with Rudy Francisco reading the poem out loud. He reads it with a strong tone and emotions, and this really sets up the setting of the overall theme of this video, which is love. Another reason why I love this video is because of the beautiful song that accompanies the dance; their choreography is so smooth! Some of their dance moves reflect the lyrics of the song, which I thought was really cool. I also thought it was interesting how they made choreography to this song, which is different from the usual hip hop, upbeat songs people dance to.
Lizards in NYC
When I used to live in Florida, I would see lizards like I see rats and roaches in New York. So in a way, I felt really happy to see the lizard, probably because I remembered the life I had as a kid back when I used to live in Florida. The lizard had swift movements, and it was difficult to take a snapshot of him, but I got him in the end.Afterwards, I thought about how quickly we destroy animals and little creatures like these, but do you think it’s fair that I didn’t let my friend squash the lizard, but allowed him to squash the roach or centipede we saw previously? The lizard was just too pretty to destroy. He’s considered exotic when in comes to city animals, so my friend and I just left him alone after I was done taking the picture. I’m going to definitely watch out for more exotic creatures, and so should everybody else who got a chance to see this!
Visit to Pace Gallery, “Poppy Fields” 9/24
During our trip to the Pace Gallery at 534 West 25th Street, we were greeted by one of the strangest paintings I have ever seen. Immediately after, I see a very similar painting in a different color and size only a few feet away from the first painting. I was appalled and stunned. Even more than that, I was confused.
It turns out that this was the “Poppy Fields” exhibition by none other than the artist Zhang Huan. According to his biography on the Pace website, it describes him as “one of the most vital, influential, and provocative contemporary artists working today.” (1) All of these are just so true, especially the provocative part.
Hey look! Colors on a board!
From far away, the painting looks like a mesh of colors. It’s quite impossible to tell what the painting is trying to convey. But, in an NY Times article about the exhibition, Zhang Huan describes it as: “The paintings represent the hallucination of happiness and the hallucination of fear and loneliness in this life as well as the hallucination of happiness in the next life.” It’s quite a stretch to give this painting such a wide range of emotions when it simply looks like an assortment of random colors. (2)
These creepy skulls stare straight into my heart…
But, close in, you get to see the details of each and every skull. You could see how each skull isn’t on the same plane. One’s a little higher than the rest; another one is a little lower than the rest. This almost gives the painting a 3D aspect, making the viewer examine the painting even more. The painting itself was incredibly detailed. There’s so much labor involved, making each skull individual. It almost gives the impression that each skull was created separately, and then collectively put together. Also equally noticeable is each smile of the skull, it was near unnoticeable from far away.
What do I think this painting means? I’d take a more as an outsider viewing humanity. From far away, you really can’t tell what humanity is like. It seems like a mess, just as the painting. But, as you move closer, you can see that each individual is different. I personally don’t see the “hallucinations” described by Huan, but everyone has their own take on paintings and exhibitions.
Some sources:
http://www.pacegallery.com/newyork/exhibitions/12596/poppy-fields
