Hi! I am in my second year, majoring in Studio Art, along with minoring in Creative Writing. I am someone who has always loved art from a very young age, consistently getting into some sort of supplies and going wild. Not only do I get to write about the creative flares that come to my head, but I also get to visualize and create them via drawing as well! Originally during my 12th year of high school I was going to go into the animation field, however, with the rise of AI I was concerned about the future of animation. This of course made me worry…for months, but after some time I thought ‘what is something that I can do for work that can still be art focused’ and the grand idea of teaching popped into my head. Which is why I am here now! This campus not only stood out to me from its looks, but also because my visual arts teacher from high school (who I deeply look up to) learned here as well. I want to be the type of teacher who is able to branch out into a array of mediums in my classes, which is where Guelph’s differing artistic options help to aid in my future endeavors. (I ALSO LOVE MY CATS!)
The Artist is Present Marina Abramovic
1. My first impressions of Marina Abramovic’s performance work is that she loves to create a sense of discomfort in the viewer. Her work has a sense of unconformity with ideas never before seen in the artist world. Many of her performances show her harming herself or placing her body / mind in danger. For example, her flaming star performance, or her use of razor blades on her own flesh. While I can admire her intense dedication for her craft, I can’t help but seeing some of her aspects of self harm being problematic. Her work can be extremely applaudable and strong, especially in some of her later pieces but her ease in harming herself is worrisome.
2. Abramovic’s work is very person oriented, with seemly all of her installations including people, and herself. She has been said to ‘challenge’ her audience, seeing what makes them squirm and all for the name of art. Many of her performances include the nude, see how far people will go, and whether they will back out or accept it and continue forwards. Performance art requires training in a sense, readying the body and mind to become ready for the piece rather than just simply creating it without thought. With her quote she elaborates that performance art is putting yourself out there fully, no curtains, no masks, simply who you are, when in comparison when you pretend you are someone else.
3. Performance art resists many elements of certain conventions in the artworld. For example the use of live nude models, along with Abramovic herself in many of her performances (even though it could be quite dangerous with growing popularity) is breaking the mold that the world is comfortable with. The idea of a nude body to the regular non artsy person can be a touchy subject, as the idea of being nude is something quite personal. However, with performance art, there is a breaking of this mold, as Abramovic makes it almost impossible to ignore her exhibits of live actors. Not only that, but the idea of being a constant hour(s) long exhibit is something that many would flat out refuse to do, simply for the exhaustive labor of it all, however, Abramovic took it face on 7 days a week as an installation.
“A KM” Assignment : Marked in Measured Petals
Concept
The concept that I chose to focus on for representing a kilometer was through the process of crocheted flowers. During a trip to Florida I went on recently there was an abundance of flowers that Canada was deeply lacking due to the cold weather. The sheer amount had caught my attention greatly, resulting in myself being inspired for this project. As someone who loves flowers in their many varieties I thought that this project would be a perfect outlet to not only show my interest flowers, but also start a passion project of faux crocheted flower garlands to decorate my room.
Precision of Measurement
The use of measurement was relatively easy to figure out considering my idea. I chose to divide 1000 by 20, 1000 being the total amount of meters in a kilometer, and 20 meters being the ‘length’ of each individual flower. The result of 1000 divided by 20 equals to 50, which is the total amount of flowers withing my project. Originally, the first idea that came to my mind was crocheting 1000 flowers! However, given that each flower takes roughly 3 – 4 minutes to complete, that wouldn’t be entirely feasible given our timeframe.
Materials
The media I chose was something that I enjoy doing in my spare free time, the media itself being crochet (as stated in the paragraphs above) . I had alternated between baby pink and baby yellow yearn, not only for its pretty colours, but also because of how soft it is. The colours themselves are also most commonly associated with spring and flowers, enhancing the project itself and it’s aesthetic.
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