Hey Team 🗣️

My name is Sam Smith (like the singer), I’m in second year for studio art. I love painting and doing anything with oil pastels!

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A Kilometre

Description: 

A clay medal that is painted gold with an elevated map of the route from Sam Smith’s house to Alyssa Uy’s house. There are two images on the back (the one on the left is Sam and the right is Alyssa. This medal is a representation of a Kilometre.

Why is it precisely one kilometre?

This route is the walk from my house to my best friend’s house (Alyssa Uy ) and it is exactly one kilometre

Rough Work

This was the first ideas:

The next idea was to create 10 photos of me walking to my friends house (cause I figured out we lived 1km away from each other and ran with that)

• Each photo was going to be at the 100 meter marks and then I was going to create a little “scrapbook” of my journey
• Then I thought that was boring so I thought I’d involve my friend and we would meet each other half way
  • Both of us taking pictures at 100 meter marks and then the last one would be of the both of us
  • However, Alyssa got sick (get rest queen, feel better) and I rolled my ankle… so no joined walk

I then had to figure out if I wanted to go back to my original idea or do something new. Since I thought the OG plan was boring (and I literally couldn’t walk). I thought what if I sculpted it (I do not sculpt anything, I’m a painter I do not use clay… Why was this my first thought idk thought it would be cool I guess)

I wanted to also show that it was something for Alyssa and I specifically. I put a little stamp of me and a stamp of Alyssa’s character from her business card on the back of the medal 

• The paint colour is 100% Alyssa choice. It was originally white and when I showed it to her she said it would look better if it was a bronzy colour too look like it was engraved (she was once again right)

Materials 

• Crayola white Clay 
• Acrylic paint
• Metal clasp
• Ribbon
• Super glue 

Proof that Alyssa and I are friends and I didn’t make her up 😌

Artist Statement

“A Kilometer” is a 10 cm circular clay medal with a ribbon attached. The clay is painted gold with a path from one friend’s house to the other. The medal shows the gradual rise of the hill that one would walk on in real life. The gold is to represent two factors, the first being that gold is the highest medal that one can win in any major sports event. The second, is the initials of my best friend (Alyssa Uy) is the same as the element of gold on the periodic table. The periodic table is important to me because my father is a chemist and he had us learning from that table since we could talk. 

The piece is a representation of a kilometer but also of the friend ship that Alyssa and I share. We’ve been friends for around 18 years and she has always been a point of inspiration and someone who I care so deeply about. You don’t get any physical representation of friendship excluding the Claire’s BFF necklaces. So, in making this medal its almost an award for the years we’ve been friends for and for the distance we will be able to cross to see each other, since there will be a point were we won’t live this close to each other but will find away to continue to be friends. 

As I was creating this piece I would send her pictures and call her to get her feedback on it (she is a graphic designer and I value her opinion) so while making the piece she was with me making the medal a moment in time while each of us was at the starting and ending point yet still in communication with one another.

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Marina Abramović

Discuss the ways performance art resists many museum and commercial art world conventions. How does Abramović solve/negotiate some of these challenges, and do you find these compromises add to, or undermine the ideas at play in her work?

I think performance art is about the shared experience. It’s hard to put that element into a museum or as something that you can capitalize on. Capturing a moment in the performance seems like it wouldn’t do that whole performance justice. Having the ability to see the performer in front of you and be involved in the piece by just being there is impossible to capture. It feel like a sell out to have prints of that type of art, like you are trying to force your art into a space that is not the best format for it. The live elements, being able to see the people right in front of you changes how you view and interact with the media and the artist in the future. Talking that away dims the piece out like adding black to make a colour darker, it is one way to get your point across but not the best way to make it pop.

• However, I also understand that you have to make money somehow. I do love when art is accessible and having these prints in museums lets a larger amount of people to see the art (granted these prints are not being kept in a museum for people to see they are going to private collections in some rich persons house). 

Marina Abramović creates an environment where the performance art is elevated inside the museum. The way she does this is by incorporating both live elements, the younger generation of performance actors recreating her art and photos/videos, that are of her past works on the wall. In doing this she allows you to immerse yourself in the live elements but also sit with the videos and photos of the past performances. Creating a place where you get to see how impactful the live elements are and contrasting those with the memories of the past. I think the way Abramović lays out her performance art in a museum does not take away from the art. There might be certain pieces that are on the wall where it would be better to see them live but having the balance of still pieces and the on going movements of the performance acted out compliment each other nicely. It does not overwhelm you when viewing the installation, because it would be a lot to handle if it was just performance art after performance art, very overstimulating.

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