Cornell University Campus
Last weekend, I went to visit my friend who is attending Cornell University. During my stay on the campus, it was impossible not to notice the extraordinary architecture for which the university is known, such as the physical science building, and the McGraw tower, which was designed by William Henry Miller and currently serves as Cornell’s most prominent landmark. As seen in this picture, it is a highly impressive structure, and in real life, it is even more remarkable.
McGraw Tower
Cornell’s Physical Science Building
However, Cornell does not only have amazing architectural structures, but also amazing dance teams. On one of the days, my friend and I went to watch a dance show that was put up by the numerous dance teams that the university has. The dance was performed in Bailey Hall, which is also a beautiful building that was perfectly appropriate for this performance.
From the very first moment, I was really impressed with the number of people that came to see the show. No seats were left empty, and as seen in the picture below, there are MANY seats in Bailey Hall!
Bailey Hall- Outside View
Bailey Hall- Inside View
Once the show began, I was captivated by the costumes that each group of dancers had. Each set of costumes matched the theme and mood of the dance, and it was evident that much effort was put into them.
There were different types of dances performed, such as belly dancing, hip-hop, contemporary, Latin, ballroom, Indian, and tap dancing among others. The dancers were very talented, though I especially noticed a few particular dancers. These dancers were so talented to the extent that they were able to not just dance for the sake of dancing, but also to become actors and get into the character that the dance was supposed to represent.
As we have also seen in the contemporary dance show Complexions, dance is a form of art that appeals to its audience with no words, and sometimes even with no music. Body language can be so powerful that it can tell us a whole story through the portrayal of emotions and different types of movements. Undoubtedly, the dancers of Cornell were able to do just that!
Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take videos, but I was able to take a few pictures, though their quality is not the best.
Belly Dancing
Belly Dancing
Hip-Hop
Indian Dancing
Salsa/Latin dancing
Latin dancing
It is needleless to say that I had really enjoyed watching this two-hour dance performance!
“Little red, little kidney, little mouth
singing, calling: I’m here! I’m here! I thought
the dirt would give you something to take hold of:
I’ve buried everything I’ve ever loved.” (Laurie Ann Guerrero)
Reading these lines along with Laurie Ann’s other poems on my own was fascinating. But hearing these words come directly from her, accompanied by a flow of emotions that almost brought me to tears, was a completely different experience.
The truth is, I never expected to be able to identify with poetry to the extent that I did this last Tuesday, when the poet Laurie Ann had given us the honor of coming and openly discussing her life and experiences in our class.
Laurie Ann has a tremendous talent, and certainly, she has been successful in making it public and enlightening us, the readers, with her work. During the discussion, she had stressed the fact that her primary intention is to bring the reader into her space; “to see everything that is happening through my skin,” and to use all senses in order to bring the poem into the reader’s life.
After she told us about all the difficulties and the challenges that she had endured as a child, I grew to appreciate even more her determination and courage. I suddenly recognized her poetry as something that was realistically crucial for her own survival and success. She further supported this idea with a quote that I will not forget: “Poetry is not a luxury.” Indeed, poetry is often viewed as a luxury, when in fact, it often becomes a necessity and a source of motivation to believe, and to never give up. As for Laurie Ann, writing poetry was a way of documenting the events in her life. It enabled her to break the silence that she had been forced into, and to discover her own body and identity. Her poetry emerged from a very dark, lonesome place, and after so many years, it grew to become something that is so beautiful and well appreciated.
In addition to learning about Laurie Ann’s life and struggles, I also learned to view poems from a different perspective and appreciate them in a different way. Poems are not just a blur; they are not just a collection of random words. Every word has a meaning, and every meaning has a value, and every value is significant for the understanding of the poem and our ability to perceive it as part of our own lives.
I am finally able to say, I have experienced a Picasso!
It was indeed a powerful experience to observe his paintings and drawings in the PACE gallery today on 57th street.
Picasso was born in the year 1881 in Spain, though he had spent most of his career as an artist in France. He is known for the development of analytic and synthetic cubism as well as surrealism- types of art that have ever since remained highly influential and appreciated all around the world.
In this particular exhibition, Picasso features his second wife Jacqueline as a beautiful, almost immortal figure. Jacqueline had accompanied Picasso for longer than any other woman had, and she’d been his artistic muse during the critical time before his death.
As I was looking at the various paintings in the gallery, I realized that many of them looked so simplistic yet so complex once you got a better, closer look. Picasso used many different variations of Jacqueline, painting her in different positions and colors, using cubism elements, or simply painting her portraits. Yet in spite of all these variations, it was possible to feel that she was greatly admired and loved by him through his art.
On one of the walls in the galleries I noticed a quote by Helene Parmelin that perfectly describes Jacqueline’s impact on this exhibition: “Jacqueline has, to an unimaginable degree, the gift of becoming painting… She unfolds to infinity. She invades everything, becomes everybody.” Undoubtedly, this is exactly what Picasso had intended to do: make Jacqueline become everything and everybody.
A particular set of paintings that I thought was interesting is called “Jacqueline With Multicolored Straw Hat”. This set consisted of 6 paintings of Jacqueline, each labeled by Picasso as an individual stage. Though all six are practically the same, the only difference among them is the color. This made me curious to know how was Picasso able to replicate the paintings 6 times, making them all look so similar to each other, almost as if he took a photograph of it and simply reprinted it in different colors. I found it astonishing that the details of each panting were so much alike. Perhaps, the variation of the colors (which were going from light to dark) was meant to represent the stages of life, the first being the lightest and last being the darkest, almost as if it was meant to represent life, death, and the stages in between.
Below is one of the paintings of Jacqueline With Multicolored Straw Hat:
“Jacqueline With Multicolored Straw Hat” (Picasso; January 17, 1962)
I certainly enjoyed visiting the PACE gallery today, and I feel proud to be able to say that I have finally really seen a Picasso.
“Reclining Woman on a Blue Divan” (Picasso; April 20th, 1966; Oil on Canvas)
“Reclining Nude & Man with Mask” (Picasso; September 5 1964; graphite on paper)
Last weekend I visited the National Museum of the American Indian.
As I was walking around, I noticed many different sculptures and artifacts that represent the history and culture of Indian tribes. However, one particular piece that was appealing to me was this sculpture of the maize goddess, known as Mexica Chicomecoatl, which also means “seven snakes”. I found it interesting that a female figure was given such great significance. Once I approached it and took a closer look, I noted that this sculpture was standing upright, and the goddess seemed to have a very determined, confident expression. I was really amazed at how clearly the features were depicted, given that this sculpture was made at the period between AD 1325–1521.
Noting that the goddess is holding two ears of corn in each hand led me to think that corn must have been a very important crop among the people who worshipped the goddess. I later learned that this female spirit of corn was one of the most respected deities among the farmers of Central Mexico. Many similar carved sculptures of her were produced, and while some of them were used for family worship in rural communities, others, such as this one, were placed in a temple.
It is truly captivating to see how such a beautiful piece of art was created as a result of spiritual beliefs. The fact that the sculpture is made out of stone makes it appear strong and firm as opposed to delicate and vulnerable. It was quite impressive to look at this complex sculpture and all its tiny details while knowing that it was made so many centuries ago. This single piece of art in fact unravels a great history of creative people who were able to portray important themes in the form of art, which we are lucky enough to be exposed to today.
Once entering the Rox Gallery in the lower East side, I could not avoid but notice immediately the beautiful, vibrant colors that characterized every single painting of “Heavenly Bodies”. Although at first, I must admit, the abstract nature of Tom Smith’s work made me feel confused and incapable of defining what it is exactly that I am looking at, after a closer observation of the paintings I finally found myself able to identify with their hidden meaning.
Undoubtedly, the usage of radiating, neon colors serves a very specific purpose: to attract the viewers and make them feel as if they are personally experiencing the landscape represented in the painting. As Tom Smith had pointed out during our discussion in the gallery, “the painting is shining a light on you (the viewer)”. As he further explained, the colors are meant to be seen in relationship to what is around them as opposed to when they are isolated. Therefore, the colors that are used in a single painting often contrast with each other to create a sense of depth in a two-dimensional painting. However, while I thought that the paintings themselves represent an infinite world in which the viewer is almost invisible, I thought that their frames in fact made the viewer feel restricted and contained within their borders to some extent.
Out of the three different sections of the gallery, I particularly enjoyed looking at the three dimensional paintings that Smith had created during his trip to Iceland. When I first looked at them (specifically the one below), it seemed clear to me that the work is meant to represent a sort of destruction in the form of fire and rocks. In my view, the 3D effect made these themes stand out even more because it awakened not only my sense of sight, but also my sense of touch. Although I did not actually touch the painting, I found it fascinating that just by looking at this particular work, I was able to almost feel the texture and the heat resulting from the radiating red color and the little wooden pieces glued together.
After looking individually at every work, I was able to recognize numerous themes that demonstrate landscape, such as fire, water, nature and sky. Coming to this conclusion, I realized that these themes established the foundation for the name “heavenly bodies”; while all these forms of different landscapes are meant to represent ‘heaven’, the viewers and the different perspectives that they hold represent the ‘bodies’.
After visiting the Rox Gallery and seeing Heavenly Bodies, I have truly learned to appreciate the value of abstract art. I am confident that Tom Smith’s career is awaiting great success!
One afternoon, I was wandering around Washington Square Park enjoying a beautiful weather, only to discover a statue of Miguel de Cervantes, one of the most influential and well known writers of all times. The fact is that this statue is located in a garden called Willy’s Garden on the campus of NYU, which seems to be dedicated strictly for this statue. Being a fan of Cervantes’s Don Quixote, I took a closer look.
The statue was relatively big, and its metallic structure made a strong impact, as if to represent the influence of Cervantes’s work all over the world. As seen in the picture, his left hand is holding a sword, and his right hand is holding a roll of paper. These elements definitely created a perfect representation of the man- who has a reputation of an excellent writer and a great fighter as well.
This statue, though being a form of stationary art, enables to bring Cervantes’s personality to life. It allows us to almost experience his presence by being able to approach it closely and observe it from different directions.
Last year, I was exposed to one of the most fascinating art forms I have ever seen: The art of The Brick.
This form of art, created by Nathan Sawaya in 2002, includes a variety of 3D sculptures and large portraits that are built of regular LEGO bricks in a very irregular way. When I attended the exhibition in NYC, I was really surprised to discover enormous structures, (some as large as a real human and some even larger), that are so impressive and attractive, yet they are made of something so simple that usually people don’t even tend to view as art.
In the exhibition, both kids and adults were very excited and impressed by this form of LEGO art. It was a very inspirational experience that taught us that with dedication and creativity, everything is possible.
Personally, this exhibition really changed my view of art. I realized that art could range from the most basic thing to the most complex- and it would still be beautiful and unique. I absolutely enjoyed it, and I would really recommend for everyone to attend whenever there is another exhibition in NY! (There are exhibition all over the world, actually.)
Here are pictures of some of the most impressive structures:
In the film Provenance, Amie Siegel represents the global trade of furniture from an Indian city to various parts of the world. The piece of furniture that she mostly focuses on is the chair. At the beginning of the film, we saw photographs of some very old buildings in India that serve as factories for the production of furniture. The factory looks practically dark and abandoned; however, the same photographs also reveal color and light, specifically sunshine. In one of the images that I have attached, it is possible to see a single chair standing outside in the sunlight. From that point, we begin to recognize its significance and value. Throughout the rest of the film, we see all sorts of chairs in different colors and different positions, sometimes surrounded by other chairs standing upright, and sometimes overturned on top of each other.
As the film progresses, we begin to see other styles and forms of chairs in distinguished shapes and colors, though the focus is always on the basic structure of those chairs, which remains the same all throughout. As the film begins to take a more modern setting, we are introduced to a myriad of other pieces of furniture that are capable of replacing that one, old traditional chair. In a series of photographs, we see couches, sofas, beach chairs, stools and a bed, but the one aspect the remains common to all of these photographs is the fact that the same chair is always present as well. In one of the scenes, a man takes an old looking, half-broken chair and begins to break it apart even further, leaving only its fundamental wooden structure. After destroying it completely, we suddenly realize that the chair has been transformed into a newer, modernized piece of furniture. It was absolutely amazing to notice the transformation of something so dull into something so beautiful.
At the final stages of the film, those pieces of furniture that were produced in the Indian factory are being transferred to other countries as merchandise. Once they arrive to auction houses in Paris, New York and London, I was surprised to discover that their monetary value is as high as $70,000 (!!!) Although this seems surprising at first, we quickly realize that the meaning behind this film is to represent the historical and artistic values that are hidden within those pieces of furniture. The film’s unique demonstration of the movement of the furniture around the globe points at its unique history, which consequently influences its fluctuating value. This film made me realize that something as simple as a chair may, in fact, have such high artistic significance that people often fail to acknowledge it with the proper recognition and admiration. The conclusion: don’t ever judge a book by its over.
Recent Comments