Downtown Presbyterian

My first impression of the Downtown Presbyterian Church was how large the sanctuary appears to be. The tall painted windows, tall doors, and rhythmic columns give a sense of grandeur and importance. However, the room itself is not all that large. Also the hypostyle trompe l'oeil paintings accentuate this effect. Our group agreed that the style of architecture gave this impression of vastness and importance. While I thought the sanctuary was beautiful, it did seem a little bit out of place in a downtown church in Nashville. We briefly discussed the implications of paganism and other conflicting religious views that may be inherent in incorporating such distinct architecture. I would love to discuss this further to understand more what the population of Nashville during the church’s construction felt about the architectural choices made. 

Tokyo Up, Down

          Xavier Comas’s black and white photography series, Tokyo Up, Down, seeks to explore the “basic paradox of personal alienation in urban living: the inescapable physical proximity countered by emotional distance” (Comas). His series, available in the online version of Lens Culture: Photography and Shared Territories, captures the strangers of Tokyo’s upscale business skyscrapers as well as those in the Red Light District as they take their short rides up and down in the elevators. Comas looks for the “subtle interactions between strangers on the shortest ever journey” (Comas). Some of his images are composites, showing a lonely figure against the sharp Tokyo metropolis. Others bring to life that uncomfortable, too close feeling we can get in a crowded elevator or dark building. Visually, the images are strikingly contrasted and eloquently composed—despite their voyeuristic style. 

Lens Culture link

http://www.lensculture.com/comas.html?thisPic=7

Palette of Narmer

    I have always been fascinated with ancient Egyptian art and culture. For a long time, my sister and I were plotting to move to Egypt to belly dance. Then we realized we would have to gain fifty pounds for our bellies to be worthy enough spectacles. Reality has set in, but ancient Egypt is still a place of awe and inspiration for me.

   In class, we looked at the exquisite carvings of the Palette of Narmer. This artifact reveals so much about Egyptian art conventions, culture, and writing style. King Narmer, with the use of hieratic scale, is portrayed larger than his enemies. The enemy, who is about to be bashed over the head with a club, is inferior to Narmer’s larger frame. The palette also uses phonetic symbols to represent the King’s name.

   However, what is most interesting to me is the symbolic portrayal of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt with the twisting of two elongated lion heads on the opposite side of the palette. Although this palette is thought to be an extraordinary version of an ordinary object and was probably never used, the twisted lion heads make up the round area where pigment would normally be ground into eye shadow. The image of ancient Egyptian men and women alike wearing eye makeup has always seems like an eccentricity until we discussed the need for such make up (protection from the elements). However, even knowing this, it is hard for me to understand why such an important event as the unification of Egypt would be carved onto the form of a makeup palette. Any theories? 

splIt

I began with a stack of images from magazines that I had ripped out in hopes that I would be able to use them at some point—either as references or subject matter. Obviously, we all know I adore surrealism by now. I had this flyer from the Frist’s “Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film” expo which I cut up, using the title and two different sized images from Un Chien Andalou. I picked out drawings, contact sheets, and strips of film that all related somehow to this vision. There is a separation between snow-covered mountains to the left and a constructed city to the right with a figure in between. One of the biggest decisions I have to make within the next year and a half is whether to go to New York or out West to Utah or California for film school, so this division represents that decision (as well as that looming battle between people and the earth).

Decisions: Because what I chose to include is visible, I will say that I had to reluctantly exclude some elements that were too literal and didn’t fit with my theme (for example I omitted an image of a snowboarder in the mountains, letting the mountains themselves be representative of my favorite pastime and place).

Color: Blue and red, I have realized, are my “go to” colors. Even if I do not plan to use them, I somehow reach for that cadmium and Prussian—bold and calming.

Light: I tried (only somewhat successfully) to create a gradient from dark to light to evoke a sense of perspective. In the future, I’ll know that poster board and acrylic is rather sticky.

Texture: Because I used cutouts from different snowboard magazines for the mountains, I went through with paint and a sharpie to try to unify the textures without covering the images completely.

Volume: The two figures from my sketchbook at the top left seemed flat so I went in with a medium blue to shape them a little more.

Line: I used contour lines on the mountains and tried to arrange the figures so that their gazes would mostly lead to the figure in the center, creating a sort of x axis when implied lines.

Space: The city and the gradient probably provide the best sense of perspective in the composition. The buildings are larger in the foreground.

Scale: A “cameo,” if you will, of my mom is in the bottom left corner. The original drawing was much too large for the board, but kept her relatively big and in the foreground to represent her importance.

Symbolism: I think I could pull out a lot of symbols from this, but I will go for the main ones: 1. The entire piece represents an important decision. 2. The brain in the bottom right corner is a symbol for the importance of knowledge. 3. The mountains represent peace and retreat for me. 4. The two nuclear power plant towers in the distance represent my childhood and home on the Tennessee River (When I was young my mom would tell me that the Sequoia towers were there to make clouds).

Subject Matter

Me: I’ll try not to be redundant and just point to things I haven’t addressed yet. The toilet above the brain represents my love for potty humor. Farts are funny. I love the geometric aesthetic of staircases so I through a red one in there (double bonus). Also, I love cheesy horror films—I did a murder mystery series for photo class a few semesters back and included some of those contacts at the top of the right building.

Friends and Family: If you look closely at the cityscape, there is a little blond cherub boy popping out—that’s my then 2yr. old nephew, Walker. The bottom left corner is home to my mom and the hand of my best friend from high school, Amy. Also, my family usually goes out West over Christmas to ski and snowboard so the mountains make me think of my family. My brother and I used to want to be storm chasers because we love lightning so much.

Town, Community, Home: I could see the nuclear towers from my lake house and my high school—both on the Tennessee River. I also used a Shakespeare quote (at the bottom left) that I cut out of a program from a Belmont play. As for my home and community, those are a little bit in flux these days.

My country: This is honestly not something I thought about while creating this collage, but maybe we are a little bit divided. Perhaps my love for red and blue stem from a deep dormant appreciation for the USA?

The World Today: We are killing the planet and ourselves. We are wasteful and corrupt (chemicals in food and consumer products) and yet still reluctant to listen to the people who are actually trying to better this situation. This is another reason for my division of the mountains and the city. We want to control everything, but there are forces stronger than our own.

Art: I like to believe that art has a greater purpose than what I am about to say. But honestly, I love art because it entertains me, pacifies me, lets me escape from the hum drum of everyday life. I don’t particularly enjoy talking about art in terms of what it means. This is a depiction of a world I would like to step into and see what kinds of bizarre characters I may meet.

History: Everything in my life—my interests, experiences, and genes—has led me to who I am now. Most of the elements I have included are things I have experienced or loved in the past as well as hope to experience and love in the future.

“Film, Freud, and Paranoia: Dalí and the Representation of Male Desire in An Andalusian Dog”

Ignacio Javier López’s article “Film, Freud, and Paranoia: Dalí and the Representation of Male Desire in An Andalusian Dog” has a three tiered thesis: First, López argues that Dalí and Luis Buñuel’s 1926 film, An Andalusian Dog, exemplifies the “aesthetic theories of Surrealism” that compliment “the Freudian notion of persistence of desire (37). Secondly, that the motion picture, above all other media, was the “ideal form to portray sexuality” because it was free of the attached meanings and cultural boundaries of other traditional art media (38). Finally, López argues that Dalí’s work, including An Andalusian Dog and numerous paintings, deals largely with his fear of sexually transmitted diseases and the loss of self-sufficient sexual independence. I viewed An Andalusian Dog just prior to reading this article. The film’s symbolic and disturbing images made little sense to me before applying López’s thorough analysis (the two authors rejected all images that could be explained rationally). Each character and image is explained in terms of Dalí’s view of sexual repression and loss of self as a result of succumbing to desire. I chose this article because I am interested in the pairing of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and the Surrealist movement, and of course film. I was unsure of how this subject might relate to our class, but I noticed that López often mentioned the film’s relationship to the culture in which it was created. Buñuel and Dalí, although both from Spain, decided to premiere the film in Paris, where they felt there was an audience more open to questions of identity and convention in society. In terms of material culture study, An Andalusian Dog has plenty to say about its contemporary society and the reactions against it, the negativity toward homosexual relationships or sexual exploration. In addition, studying this short film and López’s analysis has explained many themes in Dalí’s paintings that were otherwise unidentifiable for me. Considering An Andalusian Dog is a moving image, I have posted the famous film still and cover of the woman who is about to have her eye split with a razor (sure makes you want to watch it, right?) López makes a comprehensive and compelling argument concerning the relationship between Freud’s writings and the Surrealist movement, the symbolism and narrative of An Andalusian Dog, and finally the underlying theme of male sexuality in the film.

Link to full film on Youtube.com 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJexaTmCVfI

Link to article on Project Muse

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/summary/v031/31.2lopez.html

The images we have discussed thus far in class have all contained examples of the elements of form that Horowitz discusses in “Reading Paintings.” Because googling “Jesus on the cross” was a disaster and needless to say unsuccessful, I will study and describe the painting and see if I can gain any insight as to when and by whom it was made.

The oil painting approaches photo-realism in its style yet is arranged theatrically. The diagonal line of the illuminated Jesus creates a dynamic focal point. The pyramidal upward motion of the composition not only implies movement and struggle, but as we discussed with the painting of the Madonna and Child, the pyramid was considered a perfect shape—representing the holy trinity. Although Jesus is being crucified, oppressed, executed, he remains above those who are persecuting him. He is thrust into the light while the other men remain mostly in his shadow.

Undoubtedly, in its time, this painting was an expression of the strength of Christ. If I had to make an uneducated guess (this is my first course in art history), I would think that this painting was done before the Enlightenment by someone painting in the academic or classical style. By the content and perspective (Christ literally held up), the artist and the painting’s intended audience were reverent and Religious people, empowered by the master narrative of Christianity