Wednesday, April 30, 2014

art history

 
                                                   Fig .1.The goddess Durga as the slayer of the                          
                                                        Buffalo-demon Mahisha (14TH-15TH centuries



                         

                                                             Fig.2. Young warrior (early 16th century)


Fig 1 is the artwork from the part of southeast part of Asia, Nepal, in between 14th and 15th  centuries. The goddess in the picture is the Hindu goddess durga with 18 arms. She is considered the goddess of power and she demonstrates the victory of good over bad. She slays the demon that appeared in front of her as the buffalo.

Fig 2 is the European artwork from the early 16th century. It is the sculpture of the young warrior and the full length of this picture is supposed to show the spear in the hand so as to represent the nature of the warrior.

Both the picture clearly illustrates the difference in the artwork of Southeast Asia and Europe around the same time when the material used is concerned. However, both the shows some similarity as these represent the power. Fig 1 is the goddess that has the almighty power on the other hand fig 2 is the warrior who fought the battle, symbolize power.  While Southeast Asia designed the sculpture using the copper, Europe fascinated the art history with its uses of marble. Both the artwork has been able to clearly shape the each detail of the person it represents. The body of the warrior and his clothes details are seen clearly. While the hands and the body parts of the goddess are easily distinguishable.

Overall the art history during the 14th and 15th century can be considered as the developing one. Artist during that period has so been able to give the detail information about their artworks.

By seeing the similarities between these artworks ,we cant really tell that they know each other. Asia were using metals for their artwork in this period while Europe was using the marble.
Both the artwork deserves its place in the art history as they both holds their own importance . And they represents the art of the particular time zone.
 

Monday, April 21, 2014

food recipe


Aloo dum

Potato is something that I crave for. I love potato so I choose to write about the recipe made from potato. It is easy to make and also delicious. Aloodum is very common food in Nepalese  family. By its name ‘Aloo’ means ‘potato’.

Ingredients

1.        5 potatoes

2.       Vegetable oil

3.       Chili powder

4.       Turmeric powder

5.       Salt

6.        7-8 black cumin

7.       Coriander leaves

Process

First we have to boil 5 potatoes. Then peel the cover of it and cut it into smaller pieces. Take a bowl and make a paste  of the half spoon of the turmeric and 5 spoon of the chili powder (taste good when it’s spicy) and 3 tablespoon salt.  Mix them well. Then hit the oil in the pan. Then fry black cumin till it becomes black. Then pour the paste  prepared in the bowl and pour a glass of water. Then leave it for 2 minutes so that the ingredients on it will be cooked. Then mix the potatoes on it and cook until the paste becomes dry. Then put some cutted pieces of coriander on top. And now Aloodum is all set to be served. This will be enough for 2 people.
Fig. Cutted pieces of boiled potatoes

fig. paste of turmeric and chili

fig. paste and potatoes being fried

fig.Aloodum
 

There are different ways to prepared Aloodum but the one I mentioned is the fastest and easiest way to prepared. When we have a festival, Aloodum is served. Potato is the easily available vegetable in Nepal and there are many dishes that can be prepared using potatoes. Aloodum is my favorite.

Since the potato is the easily available all over the country, it is the most cooked vegetable and can be eaten with rice , bread , roti or just itself.

Food as metaphor


Yves Klein:

The artist so uniquely represents his art and invites people to view his performance using a very interesting way .i.e. food. His art deals with the color blue as he experiments different shades of blue in his artwork. He literally uses the idea of using blue cocktails alluring the viewers to analyze his artwork. His artwork was just an empty room with a cabinet painted white. The way he attracts the viewers to his artwork was the window that he painted blue accompanied by the blue cocktails. He so cleverly matched the color of the cocktails and the windows which is considered to be fascinating.

Thus the artist has a great way of presenting his artwork to the mass and most of all he used the blue cocktails (which is considered to be his color as he is also called “Klein Blue”).Here he has used food in an appropriate way to represent his artwork and the color of the food truly represents the kind of artist he was.

Andy Warhol:

Here the artist’s way of advertising food and its popularity clearly illustrates the dependency of the people on this fast food. Andy Warhol has created this art of highlighting the food in the cans. This makes it very easy for the people to choose what they want to eat as they can easily identify the food by its print on the can. Artist here visualize his art in the form of the food which drives people to use the product. The prints on the cans gives a brand name for the food which people can easily remember  .This shows that the American people were more relying on the branded food product and their less willingness to cook food as those product are easily available in the market.

Hence the artist has very interesting way of selling the products through the form of the art and American people were completely depended upon those products.

 

Bread and puppet theatre

Here Bread has been used as a medium to attract the audiences. The artist is trying to sell his puppet performance. Puppet was used as the symbols to protest against some political issues. Puppets were made in such a way that reflects the political and character and the act of puppet visualize the act of the politician. During this process audience were served with the homemade loaf of bread. This idea, I think is a good punch in the face of the political leaders. In a way where in one hand people are enjoying the bread and the show and on the other hand a political message is being conveyed.

Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party “Vs Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper”

Judy Chicago’s Dinner party is the set of the seats designed with specific designs. Her artwork of designing seats for dinner can be considered as the sophisticated one. An individual seat for the person has a very unique design as the plate was at the middle of the table and fork and knife on side and glass at the right side. Seats were arranged in the triangular form where people can see each other when seated. The plates have designs on it. Her artwork in plates remind me of the Chinese porcelain in 50s and 60s where the porcelain has the different designs on it. The most important feature that the “Dinner Party “ hold was those seats were made for the women only who would be honored to be seated  on those seats.

As comparison to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last supper”, Vinci’s art resembles male and females together having meals and conversation whereas Judy’s art was only for the females. Vinci’s art focused mainly on the behavior of the people during the dinner. His art doesn’t specifically point out the position and designs of the plates and the other utensils being used unlike Judy’s artwork which mainly focus on the design of the utensils.

Rirkrit Tiravanija’s “Theaster Gates “and Michael Rackowitz’s “Enemy kitchen”

“Theaster Gates” held Sunday dinners for people of any communities and races. Artist Tiravanija focused mainly on the social encounter and gains the idea of the whole party and he structured the position of the utensil in the form that looks as if people have used it. Being from the Thai origin, dishes served in the dinner were mostly Thai and in this dinner people were allowed to interact with each other about the taste, flavors, issues of the race and inequality. Here food has become a means to interact people and share each other’s viewpoint about the food and the races of people.

Michal Rckowitz ‘s project kind of shares the same idea of the theaster Gates but the food served are of traditional values and the motives of the interaction is to discuss mainly about the war (US invasion of Iraq). The artist has provides a means to people to enjoy the local dish and talk about the war.

Both of the artist used food to bring the people together and have conversation. However the purpose of the meetings differs in each case as the topics of the conversation varies.

Daniel Bozhkov’s “Befriend the Bacteria”

Artist has used his own selfie and the picture of the bacteria in the cover package of the yoghurt. I think the idea of the bacteria is relates to how the yoghurt are made from the milk (As bacteria helps in the formation of yoghurt). Through his design he is giving the consumer an idea of the food about how it is made. He has used a small part of the genetic science to represent the product along with his own picture on it. I would consider the artist work as a little more information about the product. This product on the other hand bears witness to the image of the artist. Here artist putting his self portrait on the product bears witness to his self existence. This is an advertisement of the yoghurt meanwhile it also reflects the image of the artist among people as the creator of the artwork in the product.

 

Overall, the entire artist has used food as the image to generate ideas, share ideas and transform ideas. Food is a great way to attract people and artists have clearly emphasis their art in the form of the food products.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

antonio's rope making process


Artist has a very unique way of collecting her memories and reflecting it as a form of art. Rope , that connects the fabric together has been used for a very special purpose as the artist has used it to connect the memories of her life. Artist has used the different colors of fabric and builds a rope as her art. Rope signifies something that connects things together. In her art she has used the rope so as to combine the different events that took place in different phase of her life. Basically rope is the timeline of her life. Through rope she connects people in her life and different memories. Even more, she has given the personal touch by using the fabric that relates to the particular person with the memories.

From her art, she tied up different events of life together and to be more specific she has used the material that signifies the particular events. As for instance she used the different colors of fabric to signify the moments of Christmas time. She shapes the rope into some memories and she tied up the things such as ring that connects the memories of the particular time period. She hasattached different material like ring so that she would remember her friends.

Since the rope are positioned in a way that sort of resemble the feelings or the moments but  one who is completely unaware of her art would hardly know the meaning the material holds. I had no idea of her work too. So when I see the rope I had an idea that she is connecting something together because rope is made by connecting materials. So, in her Moor she connects her history, her moments. However fabric she used hold its own meaning which I thing anyone cannot really tell if he/she has no idea of her work.


 

skills


Skills, I used to think that only knowing how to draw pictures or paint something or knowing photography or making something out of the woods, etc counts as the skills. And I have got none of those. I realized that the knowing how to plan things and organized it is also a form of skills. I would consider myself more organized person as I planned what I need to do next and what steps I have to take to get there. If one has a goal or a motive to do anything then the most important thing is to plan how to achieve the goals. My mom taught me to plan and move accordingly. And the most important thing that has to be by the side is the organization of things. The very simple example of the organization would start from my room. I would love to organize everything in my room. I have the section where I kept my books and my clothes are where it should be. I also have a section where I keep my god and it should not be in the foot part of my bed. God should always face the door as per our religion. When I am in trouble or when I am happy or when I have a test then I always pray my god to help me .And yes a plant is a must in my room as I love greenery and nature. If one ask anything like nail cutter or tissue or anything then I would know where I kept it. I like the organization of my room. I have my documents kept safe and my belongings are where it should be.  My friends and my relatives when they visit my room then I get a lot of compliments about how I have kept my room organized.

Well I don’t really have the great of the skills that I can be proud of. But I really like organizing things and planning what should be done. The same thing goes to my education and my career too. I am an engineering student at LaGuardia community College and I planned to transfer to City College in the future.  I am taking the courses that would transfer to City College so that I won’t have to repeat the same class. So far I am going through my plan and its working. I hope my planning skills and organization skill would direct me toward my bright future. I believe organizing what one will do in the future and what paths one is taking is also the most impotent skills that one should have and I believe I have that skills in me that came to me from my mother.

Niki de Saint Phalle's art


Niki de Saint Phalle

This art draws my attention since it was kind of messy looking art. The outer appearance of the above paint didn’t really fascinate me with its beauty as things were kept randomly without giving any emphasis on anything. However, the top part and the bottom part accumulates various stuffs whereas the middle part has space on it as she has placed only one object,  looks like the top part of the shovel.  There were different strands of colors; looks like colors were poured from the top. Artist used material used in everyday life like axes, shoes, knives, etc. She had attached different materials in a wooden board painted white. The top part of the art has the small plastic bag filled with different colors. The colors she used are colorful .One can see blue, orange, yellow, green, black and mostly bright colors. May be the artist is trying to emphasis the brighter part in the whole art. Some of those plastic bag burst ejecting the colors inside it. This art as a whole looks dirty and unorganized as materials are placed randomly.
                                                       Fig. Niki de Saint Phalle

Nevertheless, it looks like the artist is trying to protest against something as we analyze her work in a deeper way. Her use of the gun, shoes, axes, metals, etc in the art, sort of reflects violence and the colors pouring against these pieces represent artist disagreement on violence. I would say that this form of art is more of a representational form as it looks like artist is trying to represent some sort of protest against violence.  The use of the material like shoe, knives, gun, etc and covering those with different colors paint, gives the art a different meaning. It looks as if the artist wants to hide the violence with different colors.
As the saying goes by "Never judge the book by its cover.", I can tell for sure that the art doesn't hold any specific emphasis on anything but if we analyze the meaning hold by the items used in the art then it looks like the artist is trying to cover the negativity or violence by the different colors.