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

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.

 

I was just looking at news headlines on Yahoo when I saw this slideshow of optical illusions. There about thirty, and almost every one of them is worth seeing. I think this one below is my favorite, because it must have been really freaky to stand there, and then look down at empty sky. My favorite part was seeing the illusions and trying to figure out what was going on. I think that in general, optical illusions are interesting because they make you think twice about believing everything your eyes tell you. Sometimes you see a friend doing something crazy, and after thinking about it for second you realize your perception is just skewed because you walked into something in the middle. Posting the link so everyone can check it out.
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/optical-illusion-photography-slideshow/

At the Pace Galleries’ Irving Penn exhibit, this particular photo stood out to me the most. I had no idea what the significance a turkey’s head held in the world of beauty. The photo was a part of the Extreme Beauty section of the gallery.

However, after reading the review of the photo by Nora Ephron in one of the magazines they had on display, everything made sense. The writer started off by stating how much of the outward appearance of a person was fake. People cover themselves with makeup or accessories so that one would never know what lies hidden beneath this mask. However, the author states that one of the hardest parts to cover up is the neck. Apparently, the photo was placing a great deal of emphasis on the neck of the turkey. While people can look 35 when they are actually 45 nowadays, she claims that you can tell how old or aged someone is by looking at their neck. I never had much reason to stare at people’s necks and don’t plan on doing so anytime soon, but I thought it was pretty cool. It was an interpretation of the photograph I would have never come to the conclusion of making. It was interesting to see how Irving Penn even decided on taking a picture of a turkey’s head to be a part of the Extreme Beauty portion of the gallery.

I was sitting in the succah (jewish ritual hut for the holiday of Succot) in Madison Square park last Wednsday (the door to Baruch’s succah was locked), when I heard music playing. I listened for a minute or two before I realized that someone outside was playing Jewish music on a trumpet. I looked out the door, and I saw an older guy in a leather jacket who didn’t look Jewish at all, sitting on a bench playing the trumpet. I was glad to be able to have something to do while I ate lunch. I asked the rabbi who built the succah if he knew who that guy was, and he said he knew him because he always played outside their succah. I didn’t have time to ask this guy why he spent all day playing Jewish music in the park, but I certainly wasn’t complaining.

Early last week, Supreme, a clothing brand that caters to the “young counter culture”, released its latest collection in collaboration with the Basquiat Estate. This collection of shirts and sweaters highlight Jean-Michel Basquiat’s artwork and legacy. Like every other collaboration that Supreme has done with various street artists, I thought this collaboration was very fitting for both Supreme and Basquiat’s artwork. Both of these names became first known on the street. It was the street culture that gave them credibility and fame. Then as the hype built around their creations, did they get recognized in the elite art world.
It is collaborations like this, that Supreme is able to spread word to its cult-like following about artists that defined certain periods. I think that it’s pretty cool that through clothing we can learn a lot about art.

Irving Penn’s gallery was probably the most interesting exhibitions we went to, in my opinion. Two major themes were present at the gallery—animal cruelty and the mistreatment of women.

The first set of artwork that I saw was Morocco Vogue 1971. It features a set of women all covered up from head to toe in scarves. There are no colors in the photo. Instead there are blacks and grays. I’m just going to come out and say it, these photographs made me angry. My initial thought were the Middle Eastern countries, and how women are treated like complete crap. They are beaten if their dress is a little high and shows a part of their ankle. They are beaten if they only look at another person. They are beaten if they do not bear a son. Women are constantly being oppressed and mistreated, even if the reasons are complete nonsense. Now do not get me wrong, I respect the Islamic faith. And for anyone who is Muslim and is reading this, I do not want to disrespect you in any way and if I do, I will take the time now to apologize. Anyway, I understand why women wear the hijab or the burka. These clothing are sacred in that it shows modesty. But, when people, especially men, exploit that and use it as a way to keep women inferior, its just wrong. They are actually going against Islamic views by mistreating women. They keep women subordinate and deprive them of saying or doing anything to fight against the oppression.

Just as Michele said in her post, I also agree that Penn was trying to give these women a voice, to show how despite being locked up and despite not having the right to do anything, they are still human beings just like the rest of us.

 

 

The second photograph I saw revolved around animal cruelty. The artwork was called Extreme Beauty from L’Oreal 1986-2007. You all probably saw the photo of the dead turkey head. In one of the posts below, Karen mentions that this was symbolic of how one can find beauty in everything. While I agree with that statement, I do not think that is the case. I think Penn is trying to show how much of an effect testing makeup on animals can have. All of our everyday products—makeup, shampoo & conditioner, body wash, lotion, etc. may have all been tested on animals. And yet we are selfishly using the product. We are all technically supporting animal cruelty. Animals, like little cute bunny rabbits, cats, dogs, etc. are all being forced to subject to the torment. These products are harmful to animals and most, if not all, end up dying painful deaths from being forced to be test subjects. This photograph is an ugly reminder to think twice about that shampoo that “guarantees volumizing hair.” It was probably tested on some poor animal that was left to die right afterwards. Plus, chances are your hair will remain as flat as it was before (I would know, I have thin hair and am always looking for the best volumizing shampoo and conditioner). About a couple of months ago, I started looking and using products that were animal cruelty free and I feel like everyone should do the same. Besides, I started using this new shampoo that was not tested on animals and is actually working for my hair!