Video Art

Ryan Trecartin

Typed up this artist in google to learn little about him before I blogged. I found myself on google images looking at colorful , makeup covered characters, portrayed by Ryan. A lot of these characters of his looked almost like clowns with their brightly painted faces and easily read expressions. I soon clicked open youtube and looked him up. After watching a few of his video works I could see that his work seemed to be very energetic stuff. Some of it just left me looking at the screen confused, but I guess thats what some artists want.

Pipilotti Rist

We viewed one or two of Rist's works in class. One of them being "I'm not The Girl Who Misses Much". If i remember correctly, we watched all or most of this video. The high pitched, fast forwarded video was a little bit creepy at some points, but did have a strange lure that kept me watching. The other Rist we watched was once again strange but entertaining. It was someone, pushing their face against a pane of glass, with the viewer behind the glass and seeing the smushed face sliding and pushing against the glass. A strange but very entertaining artist in my opinion.

The Residents

The first thing that I have to say about these guys is that they might be a bit off in the head. Other than that I can agree that what they were doing defiantly started a new type of art. We had viewed nothing like their short video clips in class prior. Not only does it seem like they had really helped to push video art into the light, they also made some of the first music videos, which we viewed in class. They might not be what you imagine when you think of a music video but regardless, thats what they made. Certainly an interesting group of artists.

T.V. Delivers People

This short video art piece was really quite interesting, and it make tons of sense. Every new paragraph as it rolled up screen got me thinking more about television in general. More looking at the structure of TV rather than the programs. When you look at TV from a different vantage point you can really see it true purpose in today's consumer society.
The music in the background, being very reminiscent of elevator music has a very settling affect. It is un-obstructive of the message being conveyed, but adds a very interesting affect to the piece as a whole. The message being pushed by the artist is that TV is a commercial and propaganda device. Everything on TV is specifically made to affect you, the viewer in such a way as to get you to buy a product. The TV show is just a cover for the real purpose. We like to think that commercials are the only advertisement we see but everything we watch is there for a purpose.

Performance art

Gilbert and George

These two really lightened the mood of the class after seeing all the radical performance art from the last classes. I found them extremely entertaining and comical. I personally thing that their performances are much more enjoyable than the rather violent and extreme ones we had viewed in prior classes. But then again, these two really weren't making any bold political statements with their performances. I thought that their singing sculpture was brilliant. I definitely enjoyed these artists