Final Exhibition Dec 7th

On December 7th we had our pop up exhibition called Solutions. My project was called Shame. It was all about body image and how each type of body is shamed no matter how perfect it is compared to societies standards. My project was set up in the black box theater in the CFA because i needed a large space that got really dark for my projections to show. When testing the projections before the exhibition, they worked perfect with the cardboard cutouts and were the right color. Somehow they got distorted so I had to make them all look like it was meant to do that. I actually like how they turned out because they weren't perfect. Overall I got a really good reaction from the people that came to see them.

Artist Talk Review: Phillip Zimmerman

Book As Experience

Phillip Zimmerman started his love of books when he was in high school. After high school he went to architecture school and decided that being an architect was not what he wanted in his future so he went to pursue art. Many teachers including Nathan and Joan Lyons, Keith Smith, and Gary Frost taught him. He traveled all over the world ever since he was young and found inspirations everywhere he went. After college he started Space Heater Editions. He was very interested in a visual narrative with the books he was making. One of the first books that he made was The Cure in 1977, which was pressed. The next one that he made was The Rusty Plate in 1979. This book included an audiocassette, which he would do in some of his most famous works.

            One of his biggest pieces was very rich and very attention grabbing with emotional depth. He called it High Tension. He used very little words and very large pictures. The quotes that he used were all from the current DSM of that time when he made it. It was all about stress in the modern day and stress related symptoms. The book included six different layers so you could look at the book in many different ways. It teaches the reader how to alleviate stress and as you go through the book, the pictures and quotes get more and more ridiculous. He did this all by his own hand with a press and pictures that he took.

His work interested me because I am very into artist books. I like to see that people are still getting these books out there. Usually people look at these books maybe once in their lives and put it down and never read it again which makes them less popular than novels or educational books.

Questions: What will your next project focus on? How did you come across the idea to create a book about book burning?

Artist Lecture Review: Dr. Cummins Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt in the News: Nefertiti’s Tomb?

Doctor Cummins is very interested in everything that has to do with Egypt. She came across an article that questioned whether or not Nefertiti was buried in the same tomb as King Tut. There are a lot of suspicions why this subject even came up. King Tut’s tomb seemed to be built for a Queen. Her burial has not been found yet and they think this could have potential. King Tut ruled when he was only nine years old. He died so young that his people had not yet prepared his burial for him. His tomb ended up being slightly smaller than other Kings had in the Valley of the Kings. They stuffed everything they could find in it, gold and personal belongings. His tomb was also robbed and messy when they discovered it. When Howard Carter discovered his tomb, they investigated it thoroughly. They found the robbers tunnels in the walls. They had to search for the doors to the other rooms, which were hidden and very small. To get the materials out, they had to make systems to get the belongings out.

            Nick Reeves is the professor that has come up with the idea of Nefertiti being in the same tomb as Tut. He has recreated Tut’s tomb about a mile away from the original so visitors won’t damage the tomb anymore. His first thought is that the tomb was built for a Queen. When you enter the tomb, the room where Tut was placed was to the right of the entry hall. Usually when tombs are built, that room is placed to the right for a Queen. He questions is her tomb is right next to King Tut’s because of this fact. There was artwork all over the walls but the wall that Reeves thinks is connected to Nefertiti’s tomb was slightly different. There was a special artwork that had baboons on the west wall. They meant that they were there to greet the sun and they show up in the first hour in the underworld of death. Reeves also has the suspicion that the mural that is on the unfinished stele was not Tut. It shows the King getting taken into the underworld and shows Ay taking his place to rein. Reeves thinks that all of these paintings of Tut are actually Nefertiti. Reeves has done a lot of research into this theory and has many ways to back up that this could be true.

Questions: What are the facts to back this up? Is it possible to dig and see if she is actually in there?

Art Exhibition Review: Lake Tahoe

The Tahoe exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art had many different types of mixed media from all different dates, all the way back to the 1800’s. There were many different landscapes pieces using oil paint to graphite and photographs, which were very intriguing seeing how the lake used to look compared to what it looks like now. There were also digital pieces and different types of sculptures showing parts of the lake or different things that are associated with Lake Tahoe.

            A piece that stood out to me was Legends by Chester Arnold, 2014. This piece came from the California Clark Gallery in San Francisco. This piece is oil on linen and when you first come across the piece, you first notice the size and the colors used. It is a commentary on how the drought is affecting the water level. Arnold shrinks the size of Lake Tahoe that almost looks like an evaporating puddle. In the description of the piece, he wants his viewers to see how the affect of human presence and consumption of natural resources over many years could be to blame for the loss of water.

            In the painting, he shows a lot of clutter left around the lake, like old cans and shoes. The use of color was very enticing and made me want to look at the painting for a while. There was so much detail in everything that he put into the piece. There was a snake in the painting and it looked very realistic, also had other wild life in the piece. In the description, it talks about how the snake sitting next to the lake could be an omen of what’s to come in the next years that could be very serious. Overall I think that this piece was very strong and he got his point across about the drought situation that is affecting the lake.

            Another piece that stood out to me was by Maya Lin. I was really excited that she was a part of this show and that I got to see her work so locally. She had a couple of pieces but the one I want to focus on is Pin River-Tahoe Watershed 2014. This piece is from the collection of the Nevada museum of Art. It is a large-scale wall installation made from thousands of straight pins showing the perimeter of Lake Tahoe and its creeks, streams, and rivers that flow into the lake. This piece drew me in because of how much work it must have taken to install the piece. There were so many pins in the wall that had to be nailed in individually. It shows how the lake works and how many thousands of different systems it features. I liked the simplicity that the piece shows in person but how it conveys the complexity of how the lake is so important.

            This show was one of my favorites that I have ever been to. It was so great to see how much local artist and people from all over the world came together to make this exhibition.
Questions: How long did it take to put this exhibition together? How did they find some many different types of Tahoe art from all around the world?

Art Exhibition Review: RAW

This exhibition, RAW, was located in the Fine Arts building right outside of the Sheppard Gallery. All the works from this show were student artworks. Raw art incases all types of indie artwork that includes photography, visual art, fashion and music. The term raw focuses on the local community but also included inspirations for the world overall.

This show used different medias and had a great variety of works. The majority was sculptural works with many different platforms. A piece that stood out to me was an old worn down dresser with three drawers that were open with different materials in the drawers. The artist wrote their name as h.r.g. in the artwork description. The first part of this piece held pages from a library book, entomology pins, and a frame. This part was called i want to be whole. This part was very simple and used found objects to portray the idea they were trying to get across. The second part was called i know that held carnations, paraffin wax, and an apothecary jar. This sat on top of the old dresser. The third part was called i forgive myself which was in the drawers. It held bleach, shoes, socks, pants, underwear, and a shirt. This piece all together looked natural and inviting because of its simpleness.

Eat Me by Kara Savant was another piece in the show. When far away from the piece, it looked very simple and like a normal scene you would see in a old house. When you get closer to the piece there were three frames with sculptures in them. They were just mouths with human hair in them. It seemed like sarcasm of art on the walls. The human hair threw me off because that is not something you are likely to see on a wall. But I think that was part of the reason that the artist chose to do this. There was a lamp and a chair that made it look inviting but when getting closer it pushed away.

            Overall, this exhibition was very different to look at. I thought that there were strong and weak pieces but it came together with it all in the same space. It worked in the Mcnamara space because it was nice to glance at while walking through the building.
Questions: What does this exhibition mean overall? What caused Kara Savant to make the piece she did?