Category Archives: public art

Nighthawks

While walking to Baruch one morning, I saw this on the side of the Flatiron. I instantly recognized it as the first painting my art history professor gave us a lecture about. The painting features three people sitting at a café. One person is sitting apart from the others, completely engrossed in thought. The other two, a man and a woman, are sitting together but do not appear to be speaking to one another. My professor mentioned the painting was meant to depict loneliness. However, my professor did not mention to us that this was on the side of the Flatiron, a place that is usually busy and full of life. Why, then, is a painting depicting loneliness right in the heart of the city? Personally, I feel that it was put there to show that everything is not as it seems. People could be happy and full of life around other people but inside, they might be alone. Or maybe it is because of dimensions and overall shape of the flatiron mimic the shape of the diner in the painting. Or maybe simply because it is such a famous painting.

What do you guys think?

P.S. Sorry if it’s not clear. I tried to get the photo as best as I could!

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Lizards in NYC

Lizard in NYC

Wow, that’s really cool, Nick, because I’ve always wanted to see a caterpillar in real life, but I never got the chance. however, I did end up spotting a lizard near our college. My friend was going to squash the poor thing like a cockroach, but I stopped him. I felt like watching him move on the floor was a work of art in itself. As a matter of fact, the lizard was a work of art himself, because of the arrangement and beauty of the prints and designs on his skin.
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!

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...

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.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/arts/design/zhang-huans-colorful-skull-paintings-at-the-pace-gallery.html

http://www.pacegallery.com/newyork/exhibitions/12596/poppy-fields

 

Parasitism in action!!

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Art is all around us and can take many different shapes and forms. Sometimes nature itself can create fascinating things.  At first glance, you may think, cool a caterpillar!  But closer examination shows that this caterpillar is INFECTED with some sort of parasite!!…. 🙁  I found this caterpillar in my backyard hanging out on one of the tomato leaves and I immediately took a picture.  After consulting a friend who is very knowledgeable of bugs, I learned that this is in fact not a caterpillar at all but actually a Tomato Hornworm (Manduca Quinquemaculata) infected with the  cocoons of braconid wasp larvae.  The Braconid wasp is a parasitic wasp that lays its eggs inside of the Hornworm.  They feed internally on the hornworm, which eventually kills the host.  After a period of time the larva emerge to form cocoons on the outside of the worm. This is probably the state at which the worm pictured above is at.  After a few days, the wasps emerge and the cycle starts all over again.  Nature can be beautiful, fascinating and sometimes terrifying at the same time! Isn’t parasitism cool?!?!IMG_2343

Why, hello there Mr. Worm…..and guests!!

 

The Eye in NYC

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Today, I saw this at the 86th St. Station, The Eye of NYC. I completely passed by this without even noticing. Because of the delays, my eyes started to wander onto, coincidentally, onto an eye. From far away, it looked menacing and threatening, even. But close up, it was full of life, music, buildings, and culture. My favorite part was how theres a compass as the pupil. If I didn’t take a second glance at this, I would’ve missed the compass! I wonder what made the artist put together a piece that looks like an eye in the middle of the subway. Directly across the station, there is an identical eye but a different color. (I couldn’t take a picture because it was too far.) I also liked how this artwork is engraved into the tiles, and is part of the subway, part of NYC. Whose eyes are these? Why are the eyes across from each other rather than next to each other? Do you guys think there are other facial features in other subway stations?

Art is Everywhere!

One of the best parts about our walks to visit artists and galleries close to campus, is the public art.  Public art not only enhances streetscapes, it also tranforms communities.  At the Highline, we saw the ways in which its public art helps develop local business, improve property value, and inspire new ways to think about the value of art.  The Madison Park installation, “Ideas in Stone” by Giuseppe Panone, integrates natural and human-made materials so that commuters can take a moment to contemplate the City’s relationship to nature.  And Micheal Shvo’s surreal “Sheep Station,” with Francois-Xavier Lalanne’s sheep sculptures “grazing” in a former Getty gas station, helps us remember why NYC is the world’s art capital.  Here are some of the installations we saw today.  What are your impressions of the public art you see around the city?

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Happy (Belated) Mooncake Day!

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Just this past Thursday was “Mooncake Day” or also formally known as “Mid-Autumn Festival.” It is a traditional holiday for Chinese people to eat moon cakes on this day. There are different flavors and types of mooncakes and just recently, I began to wonder what the symbols on the cake itself meant. Ever since I was little, I didn’t question the food that was given to me. Inside the cake is usually made of red bean or lotus seed paste. The texture is thick and usually has a yolk in the center.

According to kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com, the imprints on top of the cake “symbolizes a family get-together and reflects the family culture and the special importance Chinese people attaching to the family reunion. The moon cake is not just a kind of food, but more of a cultural element deeply penetrated into Chinese people’s hearts, symbolizing family reunion and embodying spiritual feelings.” The cake was meant to be shared by a group of people, and thus is always a symbol for family union. I never knew that mooncakes had actual meaning behind just being food. It meant being part of a family and part of Chinese culture.

What other foods do you know have meaning behind it?