For the week of 10/27

Reading; Daniel Joseph Martinez
     A Los Angeles based American artist who focuses on using text in many forms of media including instillation, sculpture, and prints. His work is almost always political, or focused on asking controversial questions.
     I respect his work as activism, and I enjoy his exhibits as a whole more than his individual pieces. The collection of prints in his exhibits combined with his instillation's create interesting spaces. many of his pieces by themselves though seem boring, and I feel like many other artists who work with text create more visual interest using text.

Art 21; Krzysztof Wodiczko, Jenny Holzer

      Krzysztof Wodiczko was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1943. He later moved to the US, and resides in NY and Massachusetts. He is known for his instillation/performance pieces where he projects recordings of people telling personal stories on large monuments. Often times the stories involve gang violence or the loss of loved ones due to political situations. Wodiczko wants his art to remind people that the great and powerful monuments we see on a daily basis are somewhat hiding the gritty underbelly of society.

     I find Wodiczko's work to be extremely interesting, because I've never seen anything like it. Granted, some of his pieces are a little dated, but the concept is very cool. I bet with modern day projectors we can create incredibly life like holograms onto his selection of monuments, deepening the effect of an imposing creature formed by society. 

     Jenny Holzer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1950. Her work, like Wodiczko's, displays the perspective of others on large monuments. Rather than actual video, Jenny uses texts, but all text has been anonymously written about political and social issues.

     At first I found that the text seemed a little cliche, but after learning that all the text had been written by every day people and submitted, I feel a strong sympathy towards it. The opinions and statements projected on large buildings literally illustrate citizens screaming their concerns at government and big business. Not only are the words powerful, but they are visually pleasing. The way that the projected text can wrap and en capture large structures is really incredible.

(Below; Instillations by Jenny Holzer)