Lecture and Exhibition Papers

Ericka Harrsch Lecture

             Ericka Harrsch is a well-known, international artist that has had many exhibitions all around the world. She was originally a painter, who has transitioned through many, many mediums. Her lecture focused around a series that she started on in New York, Imagos. This used photography, and did an incredible amount of research on the Monarch butterfly. She teamed up with a scientist and began taking photos of the butterflies, and making them into exhibitions with 3D type images as well by putting them in shadow boxes to make them look like actual specimen. Through this monarch project she also began relating these butterflies to female genitalia. She compared butterflies of different regions to the genitalia of women from those regions. To do this she had to find women in New York and some how connect with them and get them to come to her studio and let her photograph their genitals. For me, this is really inspiring, because if you have a vision, then it is important to go through with that vision and find the way it works best.

            She used Photoshop to combine the photos of the women’s genitals with the photos of butterflies. She continued with this in making two-sided prints of the butterflies on a type of paper that sounded like butterflies fluttering through the air, and folding them to look like butterflies. She did this to an incredible amount – thousands of butterflies were folded. She had much help in folding these, which was interesting, because the people who folded them were mostly volunteers, children, parents, etc. And through this, it caused much conversation between people, because not all the time did people realize what was actually included in the butterfly photos.

            When she took these to her exhibits, she put them in a small room, where the butterflies laid on the ground, about a foot deep. With this, the audience could communicate and throw around the butterflies, hearing the similar sounds they make to real butterflies. Often, they also took the butterflies home as a momento of the time in which they got to encounter thousands of butterflies at a time. For me this is really important to be able to interact with the audience, and in this case, the audience was a very large variety of people, from children to the elderly. She also did this exhibition in a very nature-like area surrounded by real butterflies and foliage. The location of this specific exhibition was really eye-opening for me, because it is important to interact with not only the people viewing, but the environment around, and make the sense in the context of what is going on.

            Moreover, she continued to do many more projects based on her butterflies. One that caught my eye the most was her passport project. Due to the idea of immigration and butterflies, she did a lot of research on passports, and created a passport of her own, using the monarch butterfly on the passport. This was really unique and different, but it became rather scary and frightening hearing that she actually went to post offices and had these exhibitions, making it look like people were actually receiving real passports, and being able to travel. One of the places she went to was near the border of Mexico and The Unites States – knowing that getting your passport and perhaps work visas from Mexico to the United States, it was difficult to just sit there and look at all of per pictures knowing that many of the people who participated did not know what was going on, and why they were not actually receiving anything valid. While I am sure there were people there to explain what was going on, it was hard to watch and not feel bad for the people around. The art in the passports themselves was beautiful and meticulous. The research that had to go into this project was astounding. This is really inspirational to me, because I would like to create art in the future that is based on real world ideas, and facts. Art that will teach people things.

            After this, she focused on her collaboration with musicians to help create the LED Cello. This was a very interesting and inspiring project, because not only did it take a very large dedication to the project, but a lot of working together to help create an amazing, and multi-media art project. Music has always been a huge part of my life, and the combination of video, lights, and music is truly an experience. The way that the musician interacts with the audience in not only a musical way, but with the lights that interact with the cello is really moving and incredible. On top of that, Harrsch created video that intermingled with her paintings, which plays in the background of the cellist. The emotional and moving experience created by this is overwhelming and really inspiring for artists everywhere. Knowing that it is possible to create such work with others who work in total separate mediums is truly amazing. I’m hoping that one day I will be on this level of work, and continue to create even more incredible work. This artists lecture was truly and experience of it’s own.

MFA Art Exhibition March 2014

The artists for this exhibition included Erin Shearin with their piece "Evolution," David Tilley with "Valley, Interior," and Mathew Aakor with "Synonymous." Erin Shearin probably had the most notable pieces there with small fetus-type sculptures made out of clay hanging in glass balls, and the string in which it hung on also had the clay wrapped around it to symbolize umbilical chords. With each new sculpture of the small fetus', there were some that had malformations, or horns to make them looks like beasts. Some even have tails. They describe their work to represent climate change and the adaptation of humans with it, causing the growth of tails, horns, and misplaces toes, etc. This was  one of the more interesting displays at this exhibition because it was 3-D and you got to look at it from every angle and walk around it coming up with stories for each 'child' and trying to understand the position that each of these little children were in. Some looked like they were really in a struggle with themselves in order to one. Here is a picture of one in particular:

It looks as if it wants to be away from the horns that seemed to have been forced unto him. It really represents the struggle. The technicalities in the clay were also rather impressive, the molding was consistent in each one seemed to be on purpose. The only thing that could have changed in my opinion was the clay on the strings. It seems to be sparse and thin in places; however, overall this seemed to be my favorite piece.

              The next set of pieces, from David Tilley, entitled "Valley, Interior" were a set of photos that had layers on top of one another with cutouts of other photos. And all of the photos were in Nevada, including casinos, and the valleys. He explained that it represented barriers, and life experiences. It was really interesting for me because I grew up in Nevada, and I definitely felt some connection to these photos as a whole because sometimes there are things that stifle you from doing things, even places you love.

              The last series by Matthew Aakor. He describes his works, which are sculptures, to represent marriage and family issues. One of the pieces was a balance that was balancing water and oil with a tray underneath that collected the oil and water that perhaps fell from the cups. This one truly resonated with me because while sometimes you don't get along with your family and you don't mix well, you can meet in the middle sometimes, and with oil and water, sometimes you are not meant to mix and be happy with one another. This honestly resonated rather deeply with me and was why it was also one of my favorite pieces.

Exhibition about The Future - April 2014

             Over the passed month there have been little sculptures created from the 3D print maching in the Digital Media lab. These focused on the idea of the future, and each small sculpture told their own story. They created these models first using a program called Blender, and eventually printed them out on the 3D print machine. A few of the titles of the figures include #12064, Talking Head, and Happy Pills. #12064 seems to be my favorite most of all because for me it is the most believable, because every time we turn around Google seems to be buying the new program we are using, or really everything that we are doing in general. The painting on this figure was also very well done. At first, on the figures head, it seems that there is hair, but when you look closer, the hair is in a barcode-like way. The lines looked like hair, but there were numbers underneath, signifying that one day we will be ruled by google and we are controlled by things on the internet.

            Talking Head was also a very interesting figure to me, because it is an honest fear of mine. Even right now I am not even sure who I am and what I am doing, and it seems this figure from the future does not know who she is or what she is doing. It seems that in the future we may be more reliant on things to tell us what to do.

           Lastly, Happy Pills really resonated with me as well. The description described the piece as self-medication becoming more popular and way out of hand and eventually the FDA decided to ban them, thus causing an amazing Black Market, and the figure is sitting on top of a beautiful chair and a huge (in comparison) tub of pills. For me, pills have always been incredibly scary due to the fact that they are so addicting and a lot of the country replies on them to live a normal life. I've always been skeptical about drugs and I always will be.

            Overall, I was impressed by these small figures and the work that went into them. Some of the painting on some of them could have been slightly more refined and taken more time, but they are overall impressive.