2013 Arts in the City

Recording Artists of NYC Colleges

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Music

In this performance, the music relied heavily on the french horns. I was surprised to see this because in other bands I’ve seen, the french horns were either completely not in the band or very small in number. Seeing them play a huge role in a production like this was like a breath of fresh air.

Music

Music in this performance was crucial to determine the setting of each scene. In the fairy kingdom, children’s voices were utilized to portray their young and whimsical life style.

Look and Look Again

Persian Telephone – Parvis Tanovoli

At my first look at this piece, I thought it was a representation of the human being, representing both men and women. The part protruding from the sculpture could have been the male gentital while the part that the protruding part could have been the female part of the sculpture. At first glance I believed that it was trying to say how men and women are both the same, emphasizing a probably androgyny in the time it was created. But looking at the title and blurb, the sculpture is a telephone. Looking at the detail of the telephone, there are spikes in both the base of the telephone and the number pad. This is probably trying to change objects that are known to Iranian society. Turning the phone into a phallic object could possibly be another way Tanovoli to change traditional compositions of that phone.

Spade – David Hommons

At first glance I see that the piece puts a black man on the face of a card. More importantly, he’s on the face of a spade which is the highest suit in a deck of cards. This is probably saying that the black man is powerful, that he can beat anything that comes against him. Looking deeper into the painting a second time, I saw that the man had features that are pinned to the stereotypical black man. He had big lips and an afro, both of which looked imprinted onto the card. Thinking about it, it seems as if the man had fallen onto the card like  maybe he was dropped. Maybe the man was forced there and was forced to be played like a game.

Lighting

The lighting in this production was very minimal, switching on and off immediately between the two parts separated by the intermission. One of the more obvious uses of lights though, was the portrayal of night and day, changing between scene and scene. Light was also used in the beginning of the play to separate the two families. A red line ran down the middle of the stage, creating a separation between the two groups of characters.

Music

The music in the third performance created a new dimension to the dance. The cello was very dissonant, making it feel like it was revolving around the piano. In perspective to the dance, the music made it feel lonely and small compared to the space that the music created.

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollack is really well know for his abstract expressionism paintings which look as if paint had been haphazardly splattered all over the canvas. The style at which he is known for is called drip painting and has been an example for the fact that art is baffling. His art style has been recreated by many other artists and as parody in television shows and movies where people accidently create a work of complex art. Pollack’s paintings have been remembered for being absolutely bizarre, but in the works the paintings seem to have it’s own order.

Pollack felt that a canvas on an easel separated him from the painting and preferred leaving the canvas on the floor so he could access the painting from all angles. This can be shown in most pictures of him – Pollack would be standing over his painting on the floor with his hand full of paint, sometimes stepping on the canvas and getting up close with the painting. He believed that each painting had its own life and he never knew what he was starting with. There would be a point of acquaintance with the piece as he started and then once he got into the painting, he would only deem them a mess when he would feel disconnected with his paintings. This is saying that his paintings were an expression of himself. With that said, he will always be remembered because his paintings will always be remembered – as long as they are adorned upon the walls of art museums. Jackson Pollock is an icon of American abstract art because of his unique style of drip painting and unforgettable pieces.

Art is…

Walking around the city or taking a train to your next destination, more times than not you should have passed an ad for a small storage company with the words: “Raising a baby in a New York City apartment is like growing an oak tree in a thimble.” Well through that logic, seeing the outline of a family on the side of a building is almost juxtaposing the individualized nature that is the outline of New York City citizens, and most definitely out of place from the hustle and bustle of the city. Families need a little peace and quiet to raise their children.

http://parentsandthecity.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/thimble.jpg