Dennis Hopper: A Second Look

Alright, so I have already confirmed with myself that one visit to Chelsea was not enough. Thus I returned to take another glance at a gallery that peaked my fascination the last time. The exhibition in which I'm referring to is Dennis Hopper's "Signs of the Times", an exploration of iconic 60's photographs, or so they say. My first impression of his work was nothing too special; a bunch of photos lined up against the wall, with a few blown up sized images sitting right next to them. I thought to myself, "oh Christ, not another one of these photo galleries, been here, done that, I've seen it all".

















Hopper does a good job in making me feel inferior

Yeah, that's what I thought, until upon closer inspection I noticed that the large scaled photos were not photos at all, but in actuality photo realistic paintings. Let's just say that my mind was blown out of proportion. Never in my life would I have ever imagined seeing such an accurate representation of a photo at such a monumental scale. Hopper's attention to detail and sensitivity to realism made even the best copy machines in the world look like a mockery. I may be a graphic designer, but that's just my concentration. When it comes down to it, I'm a hardcore fan of the fine arts.


















Strike a pose! (detail... THE DETAIL!)

Interview with Alan Cano

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZTEnyz7O3c

Uhhhhhhh yeah, this was my interview with Alan Cano if you haven't realized it by now. The video pretty much covers most of what we talked about, except that the battery for my camera died during recording, so I'll talk about the rest of the interview below.

Aside from talking about his inspiration and work, Alan mentioned and I quote, " I don't consider myself an artist; the word artist in my opinion is too objective." To follow up with the last statement, I in return questioned the identity of his work, that if he didn't consider himself an artist, then what would his art be considered as. His reply was "a release, a visual diary". To him, the term artist is a word that should only be given to those of high regard, such as the old masters of the Renaissance; thus in that regard, the term "artist" has died. I took the time to also asked him about his future plans and where he plans to take his work after graduation. His response was to simply be known, to make an impact in the world through his work, and that the key to achieving that is to do whatever it takes to make it there.

3 Weeks Old Chelsea Visit

Okay okay, so I'm three weeks behind on this blog post for thesis. I realize this and I know it's not a good thing to be behind, but there's no point in crying over spilled milk. The fact of the matter is, I don't enjoy posting stuff on the internet. Procrastination it may be, but I just find the whole process to be mind numbing. But alas, for my own personal sake, I mustered up my determination and kicked my own lazy ass out of the bed of laziness.

So apart from that, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Chelsea art galleries. A lot of the work that I saw gave me the huge rush of visual creativity that I was craving for, quite the opposite from the New Museum where I felt nothing in particular. If I had to put it in three words on why I enjoyed my visit to NY this time around infinitely better, it would have to be:

1. Weather (it was perfect, not too cold but a bit breezy.)

2. Variety (every gallery had something different to offer. The mediums were different and the scale of the works went from small to immense.)

3. Concept (As much as I appreciate and respect political work, I just can't help but admire a subject that goes beyond issues of society.)

Speaking of concept, good lord was the Maya Lin exhibit amazing.

I honestly can't say anything better than that for Maya Lin. I was impressed enough by looking at the piece from outside of the gallery; but upon closer inspection I realized that what I was looking at was a wondrous behemoth consisting of 50,000 2x4's. 50,000?? REALLY!? All that was running in the back of my head was, "as expected from the individual who gave us the Vietnam Wall Memorial".

The James Turrell exhibition was also intriguing with all of the colored lights and mirrors. In addition to that, the vastness of the gallery space and the lack of ambient light apart from the colored light used in the work really brought about a very enjoyable and exhilarating atmosphere.

______________ IT!

This is an assignment for my Advanced Design class. Where the objective is to create a new cliche and find a way to distribute and advertise it. The concept for this cliche is to use the blank as a source of interaction for the viewer, where in this situation they can write or draw however they please over the line. In connection to the IT! part, the result will be a strong response to other viewers, who in turn will be provoked to created their own response.