MERIDITH MONK: Artist as Ethnographer
Presentation at MICA (Falvey Hall): November 5th, 2007.
Meredith Monk’s presentation was amazing. She spoke of many things I am finding in my own work: many parallels. She spoke of the interdisciplinary aspects of her work, how she fits into many categories, which I find inspiring as I often walk a fine line between disciplines and media. She spoke of her heritage: Russian American and of her own personal vision condition. This I found to be very honest and humbling, I hope to carry my honesty into my work and to be humble. The woman just received a MacArther genius award and she can still stand up in front of an audience and talk about her vision and her mother; this, I respect greatly. Some of her works that I found inspiring included a video piece of her dressed as a doll, she created a head bubble out of wire and paper: and videotaped her self doing a specific performance with it. Much like Rebecca Horn (see below) her work involves the combination of performance and sculpture. This extension of the forms created in sculpture is something I seek to utilize to have my ideas fully realized this year.
TRISHA BROWN: (dance company)
Trisha Brown is a postmodern choreographer who became famous in the 60s when she began showing her work. Since then she has worked with many different media including video and sound. She has collaborated many times with infamous Laurie Anderson and other visual artists to create environment based peices. Her most recent exhibition was a recreations of her 1971 performance Accumulation at Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany (see below).
My Interest:
The combination of performance, video and installation, also her subtle repetitious movements.
Sculptor, performer, videographer, and installation artist. Her most famous works date from the 70’s women’s “BODY ART” movement . She created a series of appendages for the human body, which she would wear and perform in. Each piece was usually a reflection of her observations of different people who she encountered. She would document these peices on Super-8 film and show the videos as part of the piece, this process evolved into her period of video production, where she developed charecters and stories, the sets of her movies would involve peices such as La douce prisonnière (1978), shown below. In her recent work, Horn explores machine-like installation, working with engineers and sound artists to create kinetic sculpture and installations.
La douce prisonnière (1978) – Rebecca Horn
Pencil Mask (1972) – Rebecca Horn
My Interest:
I am inspired by her combination of sculpture and the body, relating to performance. Her video documentation and incorporation of her sculptures into these videos is something I want to experiment with. Oftentimes when I build something three dimensional, I can envision being part of a performance, it is sort of another dimention that I have to the peice that is either revealed or not (such as Grandma’s Chair, 2006 – see below).
Grandma’s Chair (2006) – Henken Bean
Simple elegant Jewelry Design (as seen at Double Dutch Botique in Hampden, Baltimore. This is an example of one of the many designs I have been looking at, hand-crafted jewelry and products that are simple elegant and functional. I like when the designs have a clean brand to accompany them, it inspires me to see such targeted and directed designers, who market themselves smartly.
Double Hoop Earring – BOE
My Interest:
Phi Earings (http://henken.etsy.com) (2007)
OSBX creative group: (and other interactive designers)
The integration of video and static content on websites.
WILLIAM WEGMAN:
Wegman’s early video pieces are inspiring as they capture very specific gestures by the artist. They are inspiring as a young artist because they show the potential for great works of artusing very few recourses. In many of the videos Wegman talks directly to the camera from his own apartment. He uses only what is directly in front of him to create pieces: including his dog. He is observant and responds to things he knows about his environment directly in the form of documenting himself via low tech video. These early works inspire me to add a touch of humor into my work by realizing that art can be both serious and fun.
