REFLECT: Does your report have the features of these examples?
Does it have the features of these examples? Example 1, Example 2
Does it have the features of these examples?
Example #1
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
December 10, 1997
The exhibit at the museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego was a display of the work of John Altoon. His art was displayed in a few different rooms, primarily distinguished through the year they were completed. Altoon apparently went through a variety of periods in which he displayed a variety of skills. There was a series of abstracts paintings, quite large, with bold colors and thick heavy lines. Another period was a series of ink and water color works in which an ongoing themes seemed to be sex. The theme of sex was not the sensual sexual play on emotion as is kitsch commercial art, but a satire on those very commercials and ads that sell products which have nothing to do with sex. (describes the time, place and theme of the exhibit)One of these paintings was called "untitled (Colgate)". This depicted a tube of tooth paste, a lizard, and a woman spread eagle in the center of the tube of toothpaste. This painting was an example of the satire on commercial advertising. The tube of toothpaste was open. Coming from the tube was pink toothpaste which created a connection between the toothpaste and the lizard's tongue which actually becomes the toothpaste. Within the tube of toothpaste, actually lying in the tube of toothpaste is a nude woman with her legs spread open erotically and her hand in her mouth. (identifies the single work and explains it in detail)
The overall picture is not especially aesthetically pleasing. It opens a door for interpretation, and that is the quality which drew me to it. The actual artistic quality of the work is incredibly well thought out and works well to deliver a satirical effect. The lizard is painted with water color. He is portrayed as vibrant and beautiful, licking with his long tongues the toothpaste which emerges from the tube. The woman, in contrast to the lizard, is outlined in ink and left absent of color and depth. This aspect of the painting gives a demeaning look at women who are usually used as the beautiful temptation in the average commercial scheme to sell a product with sex. Altoon shows examples of this in many of his works, many in which the sexual organs are completely disembodied and sometimes even smoking a cigar r dining at a formal dinner table. (formal elements are included here as well as personal interpretation)
What could be considered as a preoccupation with sex and sexual organs could also be considered an intellectual look at where society places sex in order of priority and worth. Altoon is successful in portraying the insignificance of an object by mocking it with the vulnerabilities of human nature and society. (places the work in a social/cultural context)
Why is this an example?
-The author clearly presents the time, place and topic of the exhibition.
-The author details the specifics of one work. She offers background information of the artist.
-The author includes her own perceptions of the work.
-The report is clearly written and organized.
Example #2
Faculty Exhibition by Li TieI am a thirty-five year single white woman. I was raised as a Protestant and grew up in northeast Massachusetts. I grew up being referred to as a W.A.S.P. (white Anglo Saxon Protestant) by the Irish Catholics of the neighboring towns in our area. I have a very positive outlook on life in my education, and in my career choice as an elementary school teacher. It is from this perspective that I will report on the Faculty Exhibition by Li Tie. (author identifies herself)
The Faculty Exhibition at San Diego State University Art Gallery featured many of the faculty and staff works of art. There were twenty exhibits in all to be viewed. The exhibits were made with various media from a hat made of silver wire, a sculpture made of copper, patina, and primacolor, to a digital print of a teddy bear collection. There wee landscape pictures, computer art, foral acrylic paintings and a messy chemistry lab. There was certainly enough different material presented for all tastes. (discusses materials)
The work I will discuss is by Li Tie, and it is called "Emerging Image 1997." Li does his pieces in a mixed media. There are two pieces in the exhibit both are made of hand colored photographs and wood. The coffin shaped pieces are approximately five-foot all and two and a half feet wide. Each piece is covered on the outside with very brightly multicolored paper. The colors and contents are different in each coffin. Each coffin shape is suspended from the ceiling with a heavy wire to about two feet off the floor. (discusses materials and formal elements)
The piece to the left has the bight multicolored paper on the outside as previously mentioned. The insides has brownish red paint smeared from the top where the head would be positioned (if it were a real coffin), to the midsection. The painting becomes a stone wall from the midsection to the feet. The stone wall is also colored a brownish red. Along the top where the head would lie there is one word painted in the middle of the smeared paint, that word is "TRUST". Just below the word is the face of a man enmeshed within the ying and yang symbol. Below the symbol is a photograph of a woman and a child who appear to be very happy in the photo. The photo is an 11x16 black and white with no frame around it. The photo appears to be of an Asian mother and her baby. Directly on top of the photograph is a photograph of a young Asian couple, they appear to be very happy also. The photograph was placed on a transparency and hung by a thin wire to the ides of the coffin at the midsection. At the bottom of the transparency is writing, the language looks to be Asian but I cannot translate the message.
In the second coffin the background is painted one color, a dark gray color. The gray color painted is not smeared or smudged; it is solid from top to bottom. There is a full frontal photograph of a young Asian soldier, which is also located from head to feet inside the coffin. Located at the midsection of his piece is another transparency of a naked man. The man is also a photograph done in black and white. He is standing straight up and rigid with his hands down to his sides just as the soldier is standing. Both men have dark hair, although the nude man has hair to his shoulders and a facial hair. Neither of the men have any type of expression on their faces.
I feel the man in the second piece is the same person. Just as I feel the infant and the young man pictured in the other piece are the same. They may also all be the same man over the course of his life. (author's own perceptions and feelings)
This work caught my eye with is unusually shaped pieces and is bright exterior colors. When I looked a the piece for a moment I was struck and my mind wandered through the happy life of a child to the mere existence of an adult. The pictures began in a happier setting, moved on to marriage, to the bitterness of war, through the rage of adulthood. I feel the subject matter is very real. The person is living day to day to find a way out of this life he has been living. The artist does a great job of showing e the reality of the world and how cruel it truly can be. Li Tie depicted one man's journey through his life from contentment as a child and young adult to pure hell on earth as an adult. (concludes with own interpretation)
Why is this good?
-The author identifies herself
-She mentions the time, place and theme of the exhibition.
-The author includes the materials used for the work.
-The author describes formal elements of the work.
-She conveys her own perceptions, feelings, and interpretation.
REFLECT: Does Your Report Have the Features of these Examples?
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