(June 9, 2011)
OH HOW THE DAYS ARE BLURRING.
It feels like we have been in Venice for such a long time. It's cool, because I feel like we have "lived" here and not just visited as tourists. We have gotten to know this small special city, and seen some pretty cool stuff while we were at it.
Today we started the day later, around 10 a.m. We went and saw Glasstress 2011 today, which was a collatoral event for the biennale. There were some cool works in there, and as you would imagine-most of it was made out of glass. There was a really cool piece by Kiki Smith that I liked. There was another piece that was quite a hit among our group. It was a tabled covered in different size wine glasses. A light hung above the table and if you put your hand over the glasses creating a shadow above them, it would ring-similar to the chime you hear if you rub around the rim of the glass. You could move your hand around and create a chorus of ringing. There was also a piece called "Disorientation," that was pretty sweet. It looked like a big sheet of aluminum or something reflective stretched over bars and it was mounted on a wall that vibrated. It look like rippling water as it shook back and forth, and if you looked at yourself in the reflection it just looked like you were a melting blob. There were some fun pieces, and I am finding that I really like works that involve interactions between viewer and art/artist.
After Glasstress, we walked over to Pilazzo Grassi, which is like the sister museum to the Punta Della Dogana that we saw the second or third day here. I think I favored the Punta Della more, but there was still memorable works that we saw. A new painter I saw there, named Adrian Ghenies, had some pretty amazing work. I like the way he applied paint and when you walked up close you could see little bits of collage elements in there. Jeff Koons big pink dog was in there as well, and sad to say I really like his work now. In person, it is just different and you respect it differently. I bought a book on Marlene Dumas while we were there and a canvas bag.
The Andorra national pavilion was right next door to the Pilazzo Grassi, so Mckenzie and I went and walked through it. There was nothing particularly spectacular about this one-I didn't even take pictures inside. We went home, recooperated ourselves and then Lil, Mckenzie and I walked over to the canal side where Giardini and Arsenale are. We ran into this cool collatoral event called, "The heard and unheard: Soundscapes," from Taiwan. It was pretty neat and I picked up the cds they have, and that was the first audio pavilion/exhibition we have seen. There was a "sound bar," and various videos you could watch of musical performances. There was this one video called "Plastic Man," and this guy went around in what looked like a garbage dump and identified various plastics. He knew how each was made, their properties, etc. It was like his scientific knowledge helped him figure out how to make music with them. The cd of it had a little piece of plastic attached with it that was from one of his "musical instruments."
After that pavilion we went to Mexico, and I liked that one too. My favorite was a video piece at the very start. We kind of stumbled upon the Roma pavilion which was a collatoral event, not a national one. It was kind of about gypsy art but I really wasn't that impressed with it. It was comprised of all videos, and for some reason I'm not the biggest fan of video art--or at least in large amounts. Mexico being the exception for today. I feel like it takes too long to sit there and watch a 10 minute video, and for there to be like 15 of them in one room is a little much. I also really have to be interested in it from the very start to invest time in watching it. There have only been a few that felt worthwhile. It's the same with 2d media I guess. I need works to stand out to me in order to really pause and reflect. I shouldn't have to "work" to understand the artists concept, and that's really becoming apparent to me with the amount of looking we are doing. There simply isn't time to dissect every little thing.
We tried to go see Haiti's pavilion but it was inside a museum and you had to pay to get in. I remembered Matt said it wasn't that great so we decided not to go in. We walked around for awhile and found some cool shops were the shopkeepers were a lot nicer. Kenz and Lil bought some gifts for people back home, and then we made our way back to the house. We made pasta for dinner and then around 8:00 p.m. We would draw for 10 minutes at a time and then switch to modeling for your partner. It was really fun to sit there and draw the head, because in figure painting this last semester I always would avoid it. I really need work on my drawing skills and should probably just draw Brock when I get home all the time. Haha, I am sure he would love sitting there for hours while I draw him.
After the drawing session, Kenz, Lil and I went out to Campo Margerita again. It was alright but Kenz and I left maybe around 1:00 a.m. and then we talked by Accedemia bridge for what felt like an hour at least. It was nice to sit and talk to her one-on-one. She is a really sweet girl and I like to bond with people in that way, getting to know them.
OH HOW THE DAYS ARE BLURRING.
It feels like we have been in Venice for such a long time. It's cool, because I feel like we have "lived" here and not just visited as tourists. We have gotten to know this small special city, and seen some pretty cool stuff while we were at it.
Today we started the day later, around 10 a.m. We went and saw Glasstress 2011 today, which was a collatoral event for the biennale. There were some cool works in there, and as you would imagine-most of it was made out of glass. There was a really cool piece by Kiki Smith that I liked. There was another piece that was quite a hit among our group. It was a tabled covered in different size wine glasses. A light hung above the table and if you put your hand over the glasses creating a shadow above them, it would ring-similar to the chime you hear if you rub around the rim of the glass. You could move your hand around and create a chorus of ringing. There was also a piece called "Disorientation," that was pretty sweet. It looked like a big sheet of aluminum or something reflective stretched over bars and it was mounted on a wall that vibrated. It look like rippling water as it shook back and forth, and if you looked at yourself in the reflection it just looked like you were a melting blob. There were some fun pieces, and I am finding that I really like works that involve interactions between viewer and art/artist.
After Glasstress, we walked over to Pilazzo Grassi, which is like the sister museum to the Punta Della Dogana that we saw the second or third day here. I think I favored the Punta Della more, but there was still memorable works that we saw. A new painter I saw there, named Adrian Ghenies, had some pretty amazing work. I like the way he applied paint and when you walked up close you could see little bits of collage elements in there. Jeff Koons big pink dog was in there as well, and sad to say I really like his work now. In person, it is just different and you respect it differently. I bought a book on Marlene Dumas while we were there and a canvas bag.
The Andorra national pavilion was right next door to the Pilazzo Grassi, so Mckenzie and I went and walked through it. There was nothing particularly spectacular about this one-I didn't even take pictures inside. We went home, recooperated ourselves and then Lil, Mckenzie and I walked over to the canal side where Giardini and Arsenale are. We ran into this cool collatoral event called, "The heard and unheard: Soundscapes," from Taiwan. It was pretty neat and I picked up the cds they have, and that was the first audio pavilion/exhibition we have seen. There was a "sound bar," and various videos you could watch of musical performances. There was this one video called "Plastic Man," and this guy went around in what looked like a garbage dump and identified various plastics. He knew how each was made, their properties, etc. It was like his scientific knowledge helped him figure out how to make music with them. The cd of it had a little piece of plastic attached with it that was from one of his "musical instruments."
After that pavilion we went to Mexico, and I liked that one too. My favorite was a video piece at the very start. We kind of stumbled upon the Roma pavilion which was a collatoral event, not a national one. It was kind of about gypsy art but I really wasn't that impressed with it. It was comprised of all videos, and for some reason I'm not the biggest fan of video art--or at least in large amounts. Mexico being the exception for today. I feel like it takes too long to sit there and watch a 10 minute video, and for there to be like 15 of them in one room is a little much. I also really have to be interested in it from the very start to invest time in watching it. There have only been a few that felt worthwhile. It's the same with 2d media I guess. I need works to stand out to me in order to really pause and reflect. I shouldn't have to "work" to understand the artists concept, and that's really becoming apparent to me with the amount of looking we are doing. There simply isn't time to dissect every little thing.
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| The Sound Bar |
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| "Make our own songs sing our own things CLUB." :) |
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| Narrow street! |
We tried to go see Haiti's pavilion but it was inside a museum and you had to pay to get in. I remembered Matt said it wasn't that great so we decided not to go in. We walked around for awhile and found some cool shops were the shopkeepers were a lot nicer. Kenz and Lil bought some gifts for people back home, and then we made our way back to the house. We made pasta for dinner and then around 8:00 p.m. We would draw for 10 minutes at a time and then switch to modeling for your partner. It was really fun to sit there and draw the head, because in figure painting this last semester I always would avoid it. I really need work on my drawing skills and should probably just draw Brock when I get home all the time. Haha, I am sure he would love sitting there for hours while I draw him.
After the drawing session, Kenz, Lil and I went out to Campo Margerita again. It was alright but Kenz and I left maybe around 1:00 a.m. and then we talked by Accedemia bridge for what felt like an hour at least. It was nice to sit and talk to her one-on-one. She is a really sweet girl and I like to bond with people in that way, getting to know them.
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