+ land art by Cornelia Konrads

German-based artist Cornelia Konrads creates incredible site specific installations using the materials naturally available to her at that particular location – be it branches, rocks or even snow.

The results are mind-blowing. Her pieces seem to defy the rules of gravity and create the illusion that things are starting to disintegrate before your eyes.

info sited: http: demilked.com/land-art-installations-cornelia-konrads/
artist website: cokonrads.de

+ Sumi-e Lecture review

Sumi-e master Shozo Sato of Japan gave a lecture this week thanks to the collaboration of the Asian Art Association and the Denver Art Museum. Sato has dedicated his life to painting and teaching the Japanese traditional arts and in one hour I learned a fascinating amount about the varieties of Japanese art and qualities of Japanese expression. Sumi means black ink and e means painting. Another art form discussed was Suibokuga made up of words translating to water, black, and art work. Sumi-e paintings in America are known to be impressions with minimum strokes, done in a few minutes. Suibokuga are more detailed using multiple brush strokes.
Sato mainly discussed the principles of organizing space within Japanese works and the dynamic between the art form and the viewer. These key elements and qualities are present throughout many forms of Japanese artistic expressions.
The first compositional structure that Sato pointed out is the grouping of threes. In all compositions presented, there was a dominant figure in the center, to its right (viewers left) the subdominant support, and to its left (viewers right) the subordinate. This organizational quality is clear and profuse in Japanese paintings throughout history.
A paramount quality throughout the lecture was the use of active empty space. There must be empty space to make room for the dark ink that has such strong visual weight. Sato states that the empty space in a composition is for the viewers’ sensitivity and that the purpose of a painting is to simply suggest the essence of the subject allowing the viewer to go beyond what is painted by using their imagination. Sato used a painting depicting a bird sitting on a branch as an example. The end and beginning of the branch are not seen and the top half of the composition at a diagonal angle is completely empty aside from a couple leaves at the top. Sato points out that the birds’ head is down and this grounds the energy to the center. How would the directional force be different if the bird were looking forward or upward? He encourages you to go beyond what you see, imagining a larger tree and compares this work with the small windows of the building the lecture was being held. The windows in the DAMs’ north building are small and leave it up to the imagination to fill in a surrounding view. Many Sumi-e derive their minimalism from Zazen philosophy, conscious to leave only the essence in display, as Shozo puts it. Zazen aesthetics are 60% expressed and 40% unexpressed, leaving a space for viewers to move, meditate, react, participate. A Zen phrase quoted was “The way of art is the way of the Buddha” meaning pure at birth, no thoughts, no “no’s” accumulating to create a personality, just pure awareness. And that is the essence depicted in so much of Japanese art.
A great example of the importance put on viewers’ appreciation is Noh Drama. Noh Drama consists of masked actors demonstrating extremely slow movements. The spoken words from the mask are made to sound as if “coming from nowhere.” The audience receives information about what is happening on the stage from a chorus and then puts these two elements together to form their own story. The abstract performers are the dominant subject, the general public is the conductor and the chorus Sato suggests, is the subconductor.
Another important principle mentioned was the pairing of ephemeral and eternal together. One art piece used as example was a very detailed painting of a landscape from the Ching dynasty. This type of landscape was intended for inhabitants of busy villages to be used as a visual meditation. Viewers too busy to trek to a temple can experience a visual journey by sitting and observing. The detailed painting Sato showed us depicted a temple in the middle ground, that could visually be reached by tree lined paths in the foreground. The background consisted of distant mountains and a waterfall that doesn’t seem accessible. The waterfall is a symbol for time and the constant unstoppable flow it persists. Large rocks and mountains along with the temple represent the eternal in the physical world as well as the spiritual. Depictions of small humans in the village are ephemeral, reminding us of our impermanence.
This lecture was very interesting and Sato had a pleasant, calm presence. The large body of art work slides paired with a masters commentary enriched the experience and deepened my knowledge and appreciation for Japanese paintings, rock gardens, acting, and even haikus. I hope to meditate more on the wisdom and awareness that goes into these Japanese works of art in the near future

+ La Ruche De Montparnasse

La Ruche De Montparnasse (the Paris Beehive), …a central building vaguely inspired by a large rustic beehive...These buildings housed artists’ studios: 80 in the three storeys of the central rotunda, plus an increasing number in the living quarters which were built around it…All artists received a warm welcome, irrespective of their aesthetic orientation, social background or country of origin. Empty studios could be occupied by the first person who asked for one: if one remained empty overnight Boucher would greet the next occupier the following morning without asking where he had come from or how. Soutine seems to have stayed there for seven years without any identity documents. A benevolent paternalism reigned in La Ruche in order to improve the education of its denizens and do everything possible to help them work.

Juan Antonio Ramirez, The Beehive Metaphor-From Gaudi to Le Corbusier Translated by Alexander R. Tulloch Reaktion Books, Chapter 3: Symbolist Beehive, Artistic Beehive pp. 70-72

+ Recalcitrant Memesis

On a cold January evening, I ventured on my bike downtown to the David B Smith gallery to experience the artwork of one, Liz Miller. Miller was asked to make a site specific installation as part of a celebration of the opening of the Clifford Still Museum here in Denver. This major piece of work, Recalcitrant Memesis 2012, was a gallery installation consisting of intricately shaped large felt pieces, hung in a rhythmic order, overlapping and connecting at diagonal angles, and suspended from the ceiling along one wall of the gallery. The colors used in this piece were warm hues of mustard yellow, crimson red, soft cream and rich plum. This gave it a striking presence within the white walls and caramel wooden floors of the space. The size of the installation was thirty feet long, 4 to 6 feet wide, and stretched towards the ceiling at 10 feet in height. The specific shapes of the felt pieces that made up this work of art were forms inspired by Still’s paintings. Miller’s thoughts on Still’s work are that it is aggressive and unbalanced which contributes to the power his work expresses to the viewer.
A theme that Liz makes clear in her work is her use of low tech methodology. For example she hand cuts her designs rather than having them machine cut. The low tech ‘immediate sculpture’ creates three dimensional forms in a painterly style by layering colors and using a flat material. Her low tech method combined with the use of symmetrical shapes and organic repetition achieves striking art work that harmonizes energetically with the bright colors and hard edges of the silhouettes.
Liz speaks of the constant layering and editing needed for this installation as if she is painting. The way she works with the unique feeling of this space shows how space itself is paramount to her overall methodology. The feel of each gallery changes the artists’ process, in turn shaping the way the piece will communicate with the viewer. Liz emphasizes the importance of a structured and planned idea to then enable the freedom of abandoning that formal planning. This touches on her desire to balance order and chaos within an artistic work.
Common principles of design that inspires Liz Miller are symmetry and repetition because of the calming and positive feelings a person can infer from these qualities. She achieves balance by contrasting flatness and dimensionality, painting and sculpture, order and chaos, beauty and devastation. Another theme is mixing organic and inorganic shapes, creating a “fiction of narrative” as she puts it, within her work. An example of this is a past work, Repetitive Deception Scheme 2011, in which she has taken the shapes of weapons and abstracted them by mirroring their image, then repeating this new shape in colorful felt installations reminiscent of a psychedelic dinosaur ribcage. Liz expresses that her current artistic practice resonates through new projects and she communicates that this influence happens consciously and/or unconsciously in all artists’ work. A friend observed in her Memesis piece, that she had “made a weapon out of Stills work.” This suggests strongly to me that there is an inherent interconnectedness of context and content, and making art becomes, as Miller states, “a dialog with your own life.” It is made obvious that the artist is aware of the concept of abstract art by her playing with the viewers perceptions through these shapes in the arrangement and color.
It was really eye opening to see someone’s work and hear them talk about themselves, their process, the things they are drawn to and why. It really communicated to me the importance of context within artwork and I connected so much more to the art once I heard Liz’ statement. Her strong Minnesotan accent colored the lecture, drew me into the stories she was telling, and made her presentation that much more interesting. I asked her after the lecture if she had any advice for a young person who makes art but isn’t fully self aware of her motives in her process. She reassured me to keep making art, and that kind of understanding can come later. This statement inspires me to constantly become more aware of my choices within my artistic process, to not be afraid to change things, ask myself why am using certain elements and how those choices are effected by space and use of opposing principals.