Monday, February 8, 2016

Second Reading Assignment; Charles Ray, Yukinori Yanagi, Scott Greiger

In no less than 250 words, please share with us your thoughts on the readings.  This should be in the form of a response to the readings, not a synopsis of.

6 comments:

  1. When first reading on Charles Ray, I found it intriguing how he tries to create an atmosphere that comes across as seemingly mundane. Yet, he finds a way to add a little quirk to liven up what most people wouldn't even give a second look. That fact that he at times sees himself as something that doesn't really need a second look in telling to the sort of out of focus kind of person that he comes across as. So it's interesting when he tends to put himself in his creations. It's almost as if he seems himself as mundane, but something to be noticed as well.

    Scott Greiger only had one piece to speak of. I shall admit to laughing at the term "swooshitka". His thought process in comparing corporate marketing, religious fervor, and the blind obedience, known as 'duty' in the military into a cocktail is pretty extreme. Yet, when considering it more thoroughly it makes sense. People do in a way become a slave to these concepts.

    Yukinori Yanagi decided to follow an ant around. Now, this is somewhat silly when written down, but that's what he wanted to do. I'm somewhat worried about what this practice could do to a person mentally. If you start following an ant around until you start questioning who's leading and who's following, who's trapped and who's free? Well, I feel that it takes a special kind of dedication to do this and not have an existential crisis to the point where you've gone insane. Still cool, though.

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  2. I found Yukinori Yanagi pretty strange but also unique in a way he made his works by following a single ant with a red crayon, I wouldn’t even think of doing something like that, is like the ant is the artist. He used the ant to determine the linear configuration of the drawing of the work. If I was there and saw him crawling on his hands and knees following this ant I would think he has a problem but the works he created were unique like the “Wandering Position” and “Asia Pacific Ant Farm”. Makes it my favorite works out of the other two artists.
    Looking at Charles Rays works I found them really interesting. It definitely caught my eye even though his works to most viewers may look dull like the one he made of himself and it seems to me that’s what he was trying to aim at. Kind of like tricking the audience thinking that his works are banal. He makes the audience question their judgement in unexpected ways.
    Scott Greiger only had one piece and it looks like meditation pillows, I may be wrong and on top of them are a wide variety of military camouflage patterns and colors and they all seem to face at the wall that has the world map that’s painted red. This was influenced when he was a child he was raised in the military. I like this piece because of its diverse colors of the camouflage. Also the word “swooshtika” was completely random to me.

    ~Christian

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  3. Charles Ray, Yukinori Yanagi, and Scott Grieger make an interesting selection of artists. Their attitudes or personas range from being childish to serious, so to speak.

    Charles Ray's work does not seem to be like my cup of tea. His work seems to be fairly cliche. Though, little did I know that it was his intention all along. I looked back at the reading and read the introductory paragraph and it mentioned that he convinces his viewers that they are looking at something ordinary. Though, it takes closer attention to find out what makes them more then what they are, which is something I have yet to find.

    Scott Grieger and Yukinori Yanagi both have artwork that I am more likely to be interested in compared to Charles Ray. To me, their work is much more mentally engaging for viewers to think about what was the artist thinking or saying. Grieger's Be Here Now! and Yanagi's ant artwork both have that balance of providing a hint or symbol that is just good enough to give the viewers a place to start. They both touch upon a subject that people might be familiar with. The "swooshticka" has its presence of power and the ant(s) basically represent ourselves. The rest is up to the viewer to interpret, which may vary greatly.

    Even though I favor Grieger and Yukinori more than Ray, I still look at them all equally as artists. Just with life, there is not one person in the world that can understand everything. I happen to be one of them with Ray's art.

    -Eric Francisco

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  4. CHARLES RAYS is an interesting character, honestly it was humoring to see how his work takes normal things and adds small abnormalities. It forces his viewers to pay attention to small details and although I am not a fan of his work, I can appreciate his efforts in drawing out that attention from people.
    SCOTT GRIEGER very spiritually focused art from what I understood in the text creating interesting art with logos that already exist. As well as creating a very ZEN environment. Personally I did not like any of Grieger’s work.
    YUKINORI YANAGI, definitely an artist I can get into I’ve learned to appreciate his fascinating art. He uses ant farms and ants to create intricate designs and overall it creates a beautiful art piece. The most interesting of his works involved many different national flags interconnected by tubes that was invaded by ants.
    Overall all three artist have very different styles and can be appreciate differently but they all deal with attention to detail. To be honest Charles Ray and Yukinori Yanagi use detail as the main focus, its that makes their work so great.

    - Michelle Soto

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  5. Charles Ray has intriguing artwork. I loved the description of how drugs make us aware that our lives are significant, and everything around us is important even though it goes unnoticed; you just have to pay attention. Even though the purpose of his work is to come off as dull, he wants us to notice the small nuances by taking that second look.

    Scott Grieger's art work explained the connection between religion, corporations, and the military. It's not hard to point out the blind followers of religion, the obsessed Nike sneaker-head, and the brainwashed soldier in war. They're all fulfilling a duty, and as Grieger describes it, it's a protein shake of similar concepts that people succumb to.

    Yukinori Yanagi's artwork resonates with me the most. As a vegan, I am against animal cruelty, and just behavior towards living beings as something that is less than human. We seem to have an egotistical view that life revolves around humans, when in retrospect the animal kingdom outnumbers us. Now I'm not saying we are separate, but we are in the same circle of life. Yanagi art reverses our perception of an ant and depicts it as a leader in relation to the artist. I feel as though Yanagi is showing that all life forms are equal with a matter of changing perception.

    -Brandon Pancham

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  6. Charles Ray was an intriguing artist. In the sense that he took thibgs that one would consider normal and or mundane and tinkered with it enough to make it something intriguing. One of his escapades thqt intrigued me the most was when he decided to replicate thw large public clock , with the twist being he told time. Yet he got bored and decided to move the time faster by 3 hours. He just seems like a quirky fellow , in the sense that he places himself down and uses his perspective of taking downplayed things and makes them interesting , the irony is what to me makes him so intriguing.

    Yanagi was one of my favorites to read about. How he took a subject like an ant as his partner in art was fascinating. Some might deem it weird but it made sense. I've conversed with a few native Japanese and they always brought uo a sort of conformity in their culture for Yanagi to want to explore escape and his identity with a species so set in their roles to survive was intriguing. Especially the pronect where he set up the flags with sand and by the end it was all meshed together making each country indistiguishable. I liked that a lot. Because it showed that a species we dont give much thought in is able to blur the lines and come as one. Something that we as a race still struggle with at times.

    Scott Grieger suprised me with his swooshtika. But with an explanation it made sense. To compare the power that large corporations have with their branding and how having luxury or what we would consider high end goods in the way it empowers us to the way a brown shirt and the swastika made rhe nazis feel empowered. Like its a jarring thought but i liked how with his installation Grieger got us to think about we normally would not want to and compare it at face value to something we can relate to.

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