Andy Warhol Cinema

On the same day, I had visited the Andy Warhol Cinema. It was very quiet and dim with many different screens but it did not look like a cinema.

    First, I went to the corner. There were many televisions and earphones. The video in the televisions were that some people were talking or someone had a speech for about 15-20 minutes. Those screens were magnified and focused on their faces. In the videos, I explored that, when people were talking, there are many unobserved small emotions on their face.

     Then I walked to the front. There was a big screen showing a video of some people playing and having conversations for also about 15-20 minutes. However, it was silent so that we could only observe their motions and movements by eyes. I found that the director Andy had used some color effects on the video to make it be differently and we would see it with different feelings. It is because we didn't know that what was the content of the video, colors showed different motions.

Then, I went to the side of that big screen. There were two screens. One screen showed that two women standing far from each other and they moved separately. Another one showed theirs heads, which moved same but they looked standing closely. It is because Andy used different angles to close up the women’s face and look like they were close to each other.

     There were still a set of videos. There were many closed-up of faces with black and white screen. They were all quiet but moving and looking at the camera. That was mysterious as they were just like looking at me and really people standing in front of me.

 

     Finally, there was a big screen in front of the main entrance showing one couple kissing for about 15 minutes long. It focused on the movement of their mouth and they really enjoyed the moment.

     Andy’s style was simple but aesthetic. Andy was daring to try out new shooting methods to improve the existing shooting techniques that time. Those videos were his experiments of shooting movies. Most of them were focusing on people’s motions so that they didn't include the sound. For the experiments, people in the videos needed to repeat same movements for 15-20 minutes long. That was hard. I think that the videos were dexterous and shadowy, shy and shining, looming over. They let us thought that we were staying still and moving on in space and time. He did a great effort on it and he was arguably the most influential artist of the late 20^th century. 

Ferry Pier sound performance

On the 26^th January, I have been to the Kwun Tong Ferry Pier. I was confused as I didn’t think I would see art work there.

     Actually, that was a sound performance. First, Mr. Akio (the performer) took a rope on the floor and put the wood on it like the picture. The wood was very long. Then he started to nail some big and small nails on the wood slowly and randomly. It had “pop” sounds. I was really confused that I didn’t know what that means. Did we need to see him just nailing the whole wood? Then I discovered that there was a woman sitting in under the wood and she did some movements. Then her movements became faster when Mr. Akio had almost finished nailing. I expected that there was more amazing performance. Really, then Mr. Akio took two chopsticks and started to sweep the nails. Unexpectedly, different speed of sweeping created an amusing song. The woman came out from the wood and danced like a butterfly. At the moment, I realized that the woman’s movements were based on the sounds that Mr. Akio created. Then the woman finally stopped when Mr. Akio stopped.

This performance really impressed me. I think it told us a story of a butterfly’s life. First, the nailing means that the larva was growing slowly and didn’t move a lot. That was a bit boring. Then, the larva became a butterfly pupa. After nailing, the chopsticks swept on the nails means that it then became imago and flew freely to have a wonderful life. The size difference of nails and the speed of sweeping create different musical scales. I haven’t thought that nails and chopsticks do have a relationship. They can cooperate to be a piano! (haha)

Then they went to another place and stood oppositely. The woman took up the glass bottle on the floor and then started moving. The water in the bottle flowed out. She looked at Mr. Akio. Then, Mr. Akio took the bottle and hit the ground with “knock” sounds. Then, she knocked two bottles and continued to move with bottles, which were like to communicate to him. Then Mr. Akio blew from the bottle, which was like piping.

    I have different feeling of this part of performance. I think that they use sound to talk and communicate without using words. It was like alien language. However, when I listened indeed with heart, I found that the sounds were crisp and sweet-sounding. There were many ways to create sounds by glass bottles: a bottle hitting the ground, hitting two bottles, blowing a bottle and water in bottle flowing out. These sounds were common in our life but I have never listened them carefully. The best part was that Mr. Akio blew the bottle. He was very talented as that was not easy and the sounds were unique.

Performing sound art, the location is very important. Mr. Akio chose ferry pier because there is an open area with the sound of the waves, the sound of nature. Therefore, we can listen to the reflected sounds of nature through the performance and that makes perfect performance. In fact, I think it is true that the sound of nature is better than the sound that people made. Although pop music is pleasant to hear, it may let you be hyper instead of relaxing. Industrial sound is even noise. Therefore, the sound of nature, such as singing bird, moving wave and blowing leave, is more suitable for people to listen more, to relax then be energetic.

From this performance, I found that Mr. Akio is good at using objects close at hand to create pleasant rhythms and interesting sounds. He lets me know that sound art can be diversity and with different formats. Also, I have noticed more about the sounds around me, such as breaking glass bottles and hitting two metals, which may be also interesting. 

Michael Cheval -- the contemporary artist I chose

        Michael Cheval is the world's leading contemporary artist, specializing in Absurdist paintings, drawings and portraits. In his definition, "absurdity" is an inverted side or reality, a reverse side of logic. It does not emerge from the dreams of surrealists, or the work of subconsciousness. It is a game of imagination, where all ties are carefully chosen to construct a literary plot. Any one of Cheval's paintings is a map of his journey into illusion. His work is often metaphorical and requires a sharp eye to decipher the often hidden allusions.    

       Born in 1966 in Kotelnikovo, a small town of southern Russia, Cheval developed passion for art in his early childhood. When his family moved to Germany in 1980, the West European culture made a great impression on the young artist. In 1986, he moved to Turkmenistan and graduated from Ashgabad school of Fine Art. Absorbing Eastern philosophy and the character of Central Asia, he began working as an independent professional artist, shaping his style and surrealistic direction. His decision to immigrate in 1997 to USA began a new epoch for the artist. He returned to the Western culture that greatly inspired him in his German youth, but now he brought his own experience, his philosophy, and vision.

       In 1998, Cheval became a member of the prestigious New York's National Arts Club where he was distinguished with the Exhibition Committee Award in 2000. He is also a member of the Society for Art of Imagination since 2002. Cheval published two full-colored art albums—Lullabies in 2004 and Nature of Absurdity in 2007. His work is internationally acclaimed and can often be seen in USA galleries and abroad.


Reason for choosing him
I choose this artist because when I saw his paintings at the first time, I was really impressed. The people are drawn exquisitely and truly. The backgrounds are also sharp and complicated. However, the whole paintings become surreal. That is amazing and surprising. It seems that they were drawn for a long time with the painter's heart. I am touched deeply by his paintings. Therefore, I want to write about him to know more about his paintings and him.


Reference:  http://www.chevalfineart.com/