Performance Art

For my performance art project I went fishing into the International Mall in Tampa, FL. Since the theme of this project is happiness, I thought doing something ridiculous (like fishing indoors) would make people laugh, and it did. Although the video doesn't show it, many people on the lower level were laughing at the sight of me as well.

I also did it to inspire people to have fun outside. There is a finite amount of activities you can do inside, but outside the possibilities are endless. So while people were spending their Saturday afternoons spending their money and being cooped up in an echoing building, hopefully I reminded them of what you can do in the sunny, endless nature of Florida--for free.

I was only able to perform for about ten minutes before the mall cop came and told me that I could not fish in the mall. It was private property and a performance such as mine would distract consumers from shopping and hurt the businesses economically (yeah right, Gucci is going to go out of business because of me).

Anyway, I actually had a lot of fun creating this video and performing. It was very hard not to laugh because many people were also laughing or smiling and making funny comments. I honestly thought I would be much more scared to be acting so crazy in a public place, but it wasn't that bad. I think my disguise (hat and sunglasses) helped, but it probably made me look even more ridiculous.

David Bowie Everywhere in Contemporary TV

Recently in class, we talked about David Bowie's "Life on Mars" appearing on season four of American Horror Story: Freak Show. Apparently, television show producers are all a part of David Bowie's fan-club because that is not the only David Bowie reference made in today's television.

The hit ABC show, Once Upon a Time has a side series called Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. The show is really interesting, with both Aladdin and Alice in Wonderland characters. The classic Alice in Wonderland characters Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum make an appearance as servants to the Red Queen.

The Tweedles both have this make-up on:

It is very similar to David Bowie's "Aladdin Sane" album cover:

It makes me wonder if that is how the producers got the idea to add Aladdin characters. They were probably like, "let's have the Tweedles wear Bowie face paint." "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to have Aladdin characters to further make a tribute to David Bowie?"

It astounds me how everything always leads back to David Bowie somehow. I'll keep my eyes out for more.

Xerox Project - "Self Portrait"

I was inspired by Salvador Dali's skull portraits and Giuseppe Arcimboldo's still life portraits for this project. I thought that since I am using xerox copies of my self, I should decontextualize them and make them something else, just like Dali and Arcimboldo did.

                              
                                                            Guiseppe Arcimboldo

                                               
                                                                  Salvador Dali

I ended up making my project very similar to the Arcimboldo's flower portrait.

                                                                The final product

Here are some close ups:

I decided to use my hair as the background because, as I am blonde, it showed up really well coming from the machine. There was a lot of hair that I cut out and I didn't know what to do with it. I thought I should take up the space of the whole board, so I made it the background.

I used my hands and arms for the clothes because I liked the way my arms could drape around the neck and chest. They also take up a lot of space and as the fingers dangle, I thought it mimicked the furs on a coat.

I used my facial body parts for the neck and face because they were small and could arrange into lines and look cool on top of each other. Big parts would be hard because the face is such a detailed surface. I used my open mouth for a rosy cheek, a side view of my lips for the top lip, and fingers for the nose (with a mouth shadow) and bottom lip. For the eyes, the eyeballs are fingernails and the out line is part of my separated fingers.

For the hair, I used my hands again because I had a lot left over. They also had a good form enough to make a cool spiky 'do.  I xeroxed some of my money that I had just because, and I thought the coins and bills would make good hair accessories.

When I was finished, you could not really tell what was what because there were so many layers, so I had to color it to tell. The coloring didn't work that well because you could see the glue and cardboard texture imprint. Also, I was using Prismacolor Verithin colored pencils and I usually do not like them as much as the regular Prismacolors. I think these make the color too light. The composition is better seen from a close distance because the colors are not super saturated.

Overall, I think I did okay with this project. I think it turned out good, but I planned for better. The arrangement was difficult because I would find the perfect arrangement, but then I had to take it off to glue it down. I wanted some things to overlap so I had to un-glue somethings to make that happen. The cutting was the most laborious tai though. I had around 50 sheets and it took me two days of cutting to get each body part perfectly cut out.

The thing I like about this concept is that each of my body parts has been decontextualized; my hands and arms become a jacket and my eyes, nose, ad mouth become my skin. It is just a cool idea. I also like that even thought this piece does not look like me, it is still a self portrait because it is made of me.

Modern Un Chien Andalou

In class, we looked at the short film "Un Chien Andalou" by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali. The part where the man is pulling the pianos to show his devotion to a girl (7:50) reminded me of the music video for Bruno Mars' "Grendade." Throughout the music video, Bruno Mars is also pulling a piano, but he is singing about how he will do anything for his girl. Back in 2010, when I first watched this music video, I was really confused by this gesture. I thought it was crazy, like why is he pulling the piano; what's the point of that? Now I realize that it is a reference to Bunuel's short film because Bruno Mars wants to convey the same story--that he loves a girl and will do anything for her, but she does not love him back.

The Velvet Underground

I had not heard of the band The Velvet Underground until Santiago told us about them, however, I have heard some of their songs before. I've heard of the songs "Sunday Morning," "Venus in Furs," and "Heroin." I think I either heard them on the radio or in a movie. I think this band is okay; I like their sound, but a lot of their songs sound the same because the lead singer, I'm assuming Lou Reed, does not have a lot of variation in his voice. They kind of sound like an average indie/ hippie band with their soft guitar, tambourine, and sometimes strange sounds. I am not really that fond of their other songs, but I do enjoy "Sunday Morning" because it is a nice calm song that I do think expresses the feeling of a care-free Sunday morning. It is a nice song to relax to.

Picasso Look-Alike

The other day I went to my one year old cousin's birthday party. The theme was Peppa Pig, who is a children's cartoon character. I thought it was interesting because the characters look a lot like Picasso/ cubism art because each angle of character's face can be seen in a two-dimensional drawing. Both the eyes, the front of the nose, and the full mouth can be seen at once. I just thought it was interesting that this style is used in a kids show.