gangstaknifewieldingcrab-blog

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Helmut Lang, ss 2001

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#030

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3 precedent websites: killerandasweetthang.com livmartens.com grailed.com link: https://codepen.io/isabellabailey51/pen/OqzoLB?editors=1100 file:///C:/Users/Belly/Desktop/PHOTO%20WORK%20page.pdf

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https://codepen.io/isabellabailey51/pen/MxbVmz https://codepen.io/isabellabailey51/pen/pYNmEN https://codepen.io/isabellabailey51/pen/ZPGXqp

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https://codepen.io/isabellabailey51/pen/ZPGXqp?editors=1100

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I got my inspiration from two of my favorite Air Jordan’s. The first being the iconic Shattered Backboard Jordan I’s. I took the back heel from that model and pasted it onto the Jordan 3 silhouette. I then replaced the concrete Mocha leather from the 3′s with the black leather on the rim of the toe box of the 1′s. I also gave my shoe a bright orange bottom like that of the low ‘Citrus’ Jordan 11′s.

It took me a long long time to even figure out what I wanted to do for my collage, and then I thought, why not make a shoe? I pulled inspiration from multiple shoes and actual diced and warped pieces from other shoes to create my Backboard 3′s. It was extremely difficult at first and I was frustrated, but once I figured out the same shortcuts for making masks and layers, it was a breeze. I just did it.

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“Customizable Realities” by Mathew Zefeldt

I recently saw an exhibition at The Hole Gallery in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It was called “Customizable Realities” by Mathew Zefeldt. As I walked into the small room that held the exhibit within the gallery, I was immersed into what felt like a glitched computer program. The room was printed with the same picture stills from the video game Grand Theft Auto repeated over and over in black and white that covered the floor and the walls. There were also the eight main paintings presented in the collection which followed a similar pattern of repetition that covered the walls and floor, but they were colorized paintings.

               Zefeldt used acrylic paint on canvas to complete his collection of eight paintings. I think that the literal medium of acrylic paint was appropriate in his portrayal of video game culture because he presented a medium that we are so used to seeing on a screen and produced digitally in a different way. With the acrylic paint, the viewer could see the brush strokes and the imperfections of the repeated images, whereas if a computer were to have formulated the images, each would be exactly the same with no flaws because you can just copy and paste identical images over and over to create a tiled computer background, which is what his paintings looked like.

               I would also argue that beyond the literal medium of acrylic paint that Zefeldt used to create his project, the gallery worked as a medium as well. The artist could have tried to get his work into the Sotheby’s gallery or a small gallery out of a brown stone on the Upper West Side, but he chose this niche gallery in the heart of the Lower East Side where people are attuned to quirkiness and a vintage vibe. While the game that Zefeldt based his exhibit on is not necessarily ‘vintage’, it is an older version of a game that is updated almost yearly. He chose to use the 2013 version of the game as his source to appeal this medium to an audience that would recognize it because it is quite possible that back in 2013, they were in the age range that people generally play video games.

               The immersive experience of the room painted floor to ceiling is another way in which the artist utilized the medium of the gallery. The room enveloped the viewer in a way that the rest of the gallery could not, thus presenting his work in a way that engulfed the viewer into thinking about the multiple mediums the artist used. The project was not just a collection of paintings, but an experience, and I believe that that kind of use of media is the most effective way to showcase what one may think is important or expressive.

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The Medium is The Message

In today’s social and economic climate, the medium in which we present information through can often be more about that medium than the actual message. This is most seen in businesses that want to stay in business, and thus appeal to consumers through fluff that visually entices consumers’ interests toward a product. McCluhan writes that “to reward and to make celebrities of artists can, also, be a way of ignoring their prophetic work, and preventing its timely use for survival.” This undercuts the purpose of the artist because they lose the ingenuity of making art for the sake of self-expression. It becomes about what will get them the most exposure and pay the most. This also undermines the purpose of who exactly can be an artist. McCluhan makes the point that if people started to understand art as advanced knowledge in how to cope with technological advancements, then everyone may be an artist. I do not agree with this statement since the production of art and content is at the artist’s discretion. If they create art for the sole purpose of revenue, then that is what they feel is worthy of being art. If an ordinary person wants to finger-paint to let out emotion, then they become an artist from the moment they feel the need to express themselves through some sort of display. I do not agree with McCluhan that there are limitations on what art is and who is truly an artist. Everyone has the ability to be an artist so long as they are living and breathing, and no one can tell them what art is and what is not, so long as they are creating content that they feel contributes to their end goals, despite the medium.