Quiz Make Up

The first thing that I found very interesting was when El Anatsui said, “I do not provide installation instructions for my works of art as a matter of principle.” This seems to say a lot about the flexibility of his mind as the way he envisioned the piece put together may be completely different from the way it is constructed as his client’s site. The ceramic arts of work seemed to have a deep meaning for him as they were all done at a time when Ghana's economy “was at its lowest point” as El Anatsui described it. The fact that these destructive pieces give rise to hope and new possibilities seems paradoxical, but at the same time a unique perspective to the suffering of the people of Ghana.

Probably, one of the most powerful pieces I have seen on this website is El Anatsui’s bottle cap artwork. At a first glance the piece looks very colorful and appealing to the eye. However, as he starts to describe the significance of the bottle caps and that they are from liquor bottles and how liquor relates to Africa, the piece really comes alive. Essentially, the Europeans brought liquor to Africa and traded it for slaves where the slaves were then transported to the Americas to harvest more sugar cane and produce more liquor. After, that realization and looking at the tiny metal hooks that linked all of the bottle caps together it was easy to see how small links between people and objects could have a significant effect on history. The one piece I didn’t find that interesting by itself was the one which represented the river made of ceramic bricks, but as a metaphor for the constant change and for El’s work it seemed very appropriate. 

Quiz Make Up

The episode “Change” was very representative of the artist Catherine Opie and her work. Catherine as an artist seemed to have gone through her own transformation of what she thought was important to represent in her photographs. She described herself as a street photographer in the beginning of her career which transformed to more aesthetic landscapes in the mid to late part of her career. Now, it seems that she is returning back to her street artist roots and trying to connect more with the community and other people.

The first set of photographs of different people with tattoos and strange clothing was very interesting because seemed to record the non-mainstream population representing themselves to the world. However, I enjoyed the photographs she was commissioned for by the hospital because it seemed to represent the passage of time and different states of the same location. For example, she took a series of photographs at Lake Erie at different times of the day and under different lighting conditions such as sunrises and sunsets. It seemed appropriate for a hospital setting to show the changing states on a lake as if it represents the natural cycle of life. The one thing I didn’t like about her work was how she was upset that the birds were flying in her photograph. I understand she was trying to make a consistent image, but it seemed unnatural for an artist photographing a landscape to react this way. Finally, I also liked how she was taking pictures of local shopkeepers in her neighborhood which again seems like her attempt to create a historical record of our time.