"Little Pieces of Infinity"

Hiraki Sawa

Dwelling (2003) video still

Hiraki Sawa is a video artist born in Ishikawa, Japan, but currently lives and works in London. His work seems to forcefully play with interconnected systems of space and time, probably as a result of living between cultures. This idea is evident in his first major film from graduate school, almost as a pensive questioning of the meaning of home. Dwelling suggests that his London based apartment belongs to what Hegel refers to as the Other, allowing Sawa to augment the cracks between the self that he was and the self that he is due to his intercultural entanglement. His work uses domestic narratives that are interrupted by virtual movement, resulting in this spatial dynamic that bridges the gaps between disparate places and points in time.

Eight Minutes II (2005) video still

Realism and fantasy are melded through the thoughtful juxtaposition of stillness and movement, affording a compounded complexity to his work through the percept of time. Sawa exploits motion as the evidence for space-time through the unexpected movement of inanimate objects and through the simple contingency that his aesthetic patterns require a lapse of time for its unfolding (it is a video). In Going Places Sitting Down, childhood remnants are also displaced among a domestic setting, seemingly showing how memories impact the present and how the present is ingrained in our perception of the past. 

Going Places Sitting Down (2004) video still

Realism and fantasy are also melded through the disorientation of subjectivity as perceptual indicators define space. In Dwelling, global connections seem to be occurring right in our own homes as we realize a cramped London apartment encompasses vast distances, or as our own familiar rhythms and routines become astonishing journeys. Perspectives are manipulated through the scale of miniature objects in such a way that notions of depth become unfamiliar. Sawa’s complex spatial arrangements cause familiar spaces to suddenly feel foreign. And not just figuratively speaking – while our subjectivity is disoriented, we still engage the rich textures of the objects and the impression of film, giving his videos a striking tactile sensation.

O (2009)

In a way, you might say that this tactility lends a physical feeling to time. This is one way Sawa possibly connects the systems of time and space. Going Places Sitting Down is a video triptych installation piece. Watching these movements through different spaces within each video and as they correlate between videos demonstrates time as both constant and fleeting through both physical and virtual (video) space. This was further enhanced upon realizing the settings for these films are in fact still-photography. I then became aware that the present becomes the immediate past similar to taking a photograph, and that the “proximity” of time is further complicated if the viewer experiences the video on a loop.

This brings me back to the contingency of time necessary for Sawa’s videos to unfold. It can be argued that the present marks a disruption in an otherwise continuous succession of time – and the viewer experiences Sawa's work precisely at this moment…

O (2009) video still

His work inspires mine, particularly as I use the repetitive form of the piano keys in ubiquitous spaces in the canvas. Their displacement disputes the physical laws of reality similar to Sawa's logic-bending juxtapositions. Their musical connotation also allows me to play with more theoretical notions within this pervasive context while granting an opportunity for the viewer to find their own possibilities. I could stretch and say that this musical notion is logically equivalent to Sawa’s artistic medium, both requiring time to transpire. But I think that we are both using respective vehicles for investigating personal changes through time and across cultural space. My new forms work investigates the rhythms that seemingly transcend the space between my 2-dimensional work and my 3-dimensional work. My paintings investigate how I join the surge of cross cultural sources and histories available to my creative processes. In this struggle, I am relieved by work that enables multiple narratives, such as Sawa’s. I too am reminded of the gaps between the self that I was and the self that I am. Watching his videos makes me wonder if displacement is what I have been feeling as I move through different chapters of my life, largely defined by cultural shifts. I don’t actually believe that, but his work still makes me wonder.

Deconstruction of a Drawing

Joseph D. Tarantelli, Colored Pencil Pine Tree, 2011, Colored Pencil and Ink on Paper 6" x 8 1/2"

I've been working on an animation that shows the deconstruction of a drawing. During the making of this piece I took a photograph every five minuets, in between drawing sessions, to document my progress. After I finished I used the photos to show the finished piece turn into a blank page. This sketch, it's processes and it's documentation will be reproduced in paint on a larger scale for another animation.

Deconstruction of a Drawing by Joseph D. Tarantelli

Robert Rauschenberg, Erased De Kooning Drawing, 1953, Traces of ink and crayon on paper, mat, label, and gilded frame with mount and hand-lettered ink by Jasper Johns on frame 64.14 x 55.25

Robert Rauschenberg is an artist who erased drawings. Erased de Kooning Drawing by Robert Rauschenberg shows how he is able to use a blank image as a complete piece. By removing an image by a famous artist, Rauschenberg's actions become part of the finished piece. This makes the finished piece a performance and a hanging picture.

Sources:

Katz, Vincent. Tate ETC. "A Genteel Iconoclasm." Web. 28 December 2011 <http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue8/erasuregenteel.htm>

Lydia. the art daily with Lydia. "Robert Rauschenberg, Erased De Kooning Drawing (1953)." 29 June 2010. Web. 28 December 2011. <http://theartdaily.blogspot.com/2010/06/robert-rauschenberg-erased-de-kooning.html>

Magic: Wanted & Found

Today I FINALLY had the lightbulb moment that I have been working toward for suspending the dang keys in the frame! I love the look of the piano wire that suspends the frame, but I really don't like the look of the wire that suspends the keys from the frame in my mini model.

Just a quick overview of the piece that I am continuing from last quarter:

Mini Model

My work typically uses the figure of the piano metaphorically, however I wont get into that since the technical explorations that are happening right now are far more interesting. In my paintings I try to reference three-dimensional elements through the use of optical devices, often defined by manipulating piano keys. For New Forms, I want to flip that by somehow referencing two-dimensional elements of design in three-dimensional form. Instead of using the canvas to elevate the form of the piano in a way that references reality, I wish to use a real piano to advance my painting by recalling two-dimensional maneuvers (in real reality).

I am doing this by engaging obvious visual cues, such as the use of a frame, or having the piano wire on the back of the frame much smaller than the wire on the front (exploiting principles of receding perspective). I am hoping that I may continue to conceptually deepen the piece by discovering more abstract allusions to two-dimensional design as I putter along. Unfortunately the technical problem-solving aspects have been demanding, and it seems challenging enough without advancing the concept.

this is what was happening at the end of fall - very boring

Tom has been telling me over and over that I need to just see what the thing does when it is hanging for real. I was putting it off because I wanted to first know how I was going to do it before I did it. I finally took his advice and just rigged it up - BAM! the solution arrived within the hour. With the biggest distraction annihilated, this project is fun again (two-dimensional problems are always fun because the rules of this world don't matter so much, but three-dimensional problems - meh).

Since last quarter, I have installed piano wire through the custom frame and equipped them with fasteners for easy mounting. Piano wire is ROUGH (but I cleaned up the bindings, Tom). I have sketched out ways to make adjusting the height a breeze via the mounting mechanism instead of adjusting where the wire is bound. I had them mounted to beams made to fit across two parallel walls, however I wanted to see what it was like hanging in a corner instead of in a passage. Shadows receive greater play, and certain technical devices are concealed if the viewer is unable to walk behind the work.

Best of all, using the corner orientation allows the keys to float.

 In mid air.

Without having to hang them from the frame.

Score.

Sleep No More

Does New Forms Theater equal New Forms Art? I have a sneaking suspicion that it does! I am going undercover on a covert New Forms mission to finally go do "Sleep No More" in February (unfortunately the weekend between weeks 9 and 10) ... but then I will write why it completely embodies what we do as New Forms Artists.

New Forms Video

New Forms Video Edited by Joseph Tarantelli

Proposal: Callographs and 3D to 2D

A callograph I created in Elizabeth Durand's Printmaking workshop,

printing a collage of bark, texture medium and incised lines and dots into matte board

Hides of Display, Installation view in the Undergraduate Honors Exhibition, Spring 2011

One of the first projects I had in mind to get started this quarter in New Forms was taking my sculpture/ installation "Hides of Display" and transforming it into a 2-dimensional series of prints using a Callograph method. Callographs are basically printed collages;moreover, various papers, textures, cloth, etc can be printed like a normal plate would be inked, either by carding for the intaglio surface or by using a breyer and printed through the press. In this case I will be inking my "hides" or destructed purses and printing them. This series of prints will be displayed together on the wall similar to the installation of the hides, I am curious t see the effects I will achieve through this experimental process.

Additionally I wanted to take some of the mixed media/ collages I was working on in the past quarter of Painting studio and transform them into the 3-dimensional, allowing them to take on a shape that has significance to the found images, papers and themes I have been working with.

Art in Environment

I wanted to share with all of you what I did on Friday Decemeber 2. This piece was done in Mendon Ponds Park, using materials found in the landscape as well as a found object that has been re-purposed as a compass. It evolved out of a piece I created on August 30th at Durand Beach, in another landscape and in another season, where land meets water.

I really love creating in this way, and I am very interested in land art/ environmental art; the name Andy Goldsworthy comes to mind as one of my favorite artists who work in this way, but I will be continuing to look at this type of art and artist. This exploration is one I plan on continuing throughout the quarter.

Introduction

Good day everyone... I wanted to just start up our blog that we are going to be posting on throughout the quarter.

I know that currently as I have been investigation what to do for our New Forms project of the quarter; my mind is boggled. There are many directions and ideas that one can do. So where do I begin? Do I investigate something I've been curious about for a while? Do I continue some works I've done individually? Or branch off into a complete different directions? Do I combine thoughts that travel through my head? These are questions I ask myself and not others.

So for now I am going to take it as it comes with an idea of history. Scientific. Possibly spiritually. And combine my excitement for movement through space and time.

Every thought I have pertaining to these crucial elements is being written down in my own private sketchbook. At times, I will divulge my own certain 'ephipanies' if there are any.

Inspirations of Now
These stem from my interest in the theories behind Cubism.

Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light. Written by Leonard Shlain
Tao of Physics. Written by Fritjof Carra

I am also looking at the works of Lois Greenfield and Dance pieces by Alonzo King.