Mel Chin was born in 1951, in Houston, TX. He exhibited artistic tendencies at an early age. In 1975, [he] graduated from Peabody College in Nashville, TN. (Wikipedia.org) He has been making art professionally for over three decades now, and over his career he has accumulated numerous accolades, including: three honorary doctorates from prestigious universities; a feature in the PBS lecture series Art 21; and a feature of his design for a new "World Trade Center" building, as part of a group exhibition, in the Seventh Architectural Biennale in Venice (Wikipedia.org), to name a few. There will be a retrospective of his career, opening in 2014.
Chin is a conceptual artist; however, due to his various working methods and media, his projects cannot be categorized in the traditional sense, and, as stated on Wikipedia' site "his work is not limited to specific venues." He collaborated with a scientist, Dr. Rufus Chaney, to create Revival Field 1989-, a three-year experiment that used certain types of plants (known as hyperaccumulators) to extract heavy metals from contaminated soil. This project was replicated at sites in Pennsylvania and Germany. It is evident in Chin's work and in his presentation that he is very interested in environmental, scientific, political, and cultural investigations. Chin states that his passions are arts, science, humanity, and poetry. One of his pieces that combines his political and cultural research is Extraction of Plenty from What Remains 1823- (1989) a sculptural piece that consists of: a) two full-scale replicas of two White House columns and b) a handmade cornucopia wedged between them, made of mahogany, banana, mud, coffee, and goat's blood. It is a statement about the implications of US foreign policy in Latin America. In formulating this project he researched the story of Capricorn, from Greek mythology, the product history of Chiquita bananas, and went to the White House in Washington, D.C. to survey and measure two columns on its portico.
In talking about his process for this project, he said the first thing that struck me. Chin realized, while collecting the goat's blood, that he too had the capacity for cruelty and inhumanity. He said, "I'm delusional to think I'm special." Being 'special' was sometimes a conflicting idea when I was young. I realize that no one is any better than anyone else; but how I take it depends on who says it and how it is said. Within the context of Chin's lecture and the way that he stated it, it came across as an important revelation in shaping one's world view. However, if he had said it in a moralizing way or in a correcting tone, I would have been offended. Another thing he said that I managed to take down is:
"Sometimes art can just be something that shows that you're thinking about someone else. It doesn't have to always be about yourself." This idea is related to the first in that it criticizes egocentrism. It is a beautiful thought, and he said this when he talked about Setting Sun Fan, a homage to Martin Chin (no relation), a Japanese auto executive in Michigan, who was killed by a mob in 1982 because of the racial tension created by American's fear of job loss to the Japanese auto industry. Throughout his projects and processes, Chin notes important details and gathers the most relevant research using free associative thought processes to lead him to a variety of resources.
When making Setting Sun Fan, Mel Chin noted that Martin Chin's head had been bashed in with a baseball bat, so he used a sliced baseball bat, silk, and his own blood, pooled in a circle at the center, to evoke the Japanese flag, to create this piece. However, many of his projects involve collaboration at one stage or another, whether it's with weavers, casters, scientists, ordinary folks, and even the EPA. Once Chin has staged a project like the "Fundred Dollar Bill project" under Operation PayDirt, however, he says it is no longer his project because it moves into the realm of community involvement and community perpetuation.
Since my evaluation ended up being so densely packed, I hope that it is evident to the reader that this lecture was very informative. Mel Chin is visibly very intelligent; he is thoughtful, serious, and scientific. He also has a great sense of humor, a genuine personality, and a musical-inclination of sorts (he's not the best singer but he did play some good guitar). The lecture went over an hour, and there is so much that I could say that I had to leave a lot out, otherwise this would turn into a dissertation. Chin shows no indication of slowing down, and he even has a graphic novella "9-11/9-11" (2002) and has collaborated with a Chilean animation team to make into his first animated film. In short, Mel Chin does everything! His goal is to "fight insignificance with action through making art," (approximate quote) and so far, he's done that and more.
--please note that because some of the information was stated so fast that I had to go to Wikipedia to make confirmations where my notes were insufficient--
Showing posts with label lecture series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lecture series. Show all posts
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
If anybody at all is still reading this blog
I have one more quick post to add. The last MCA lecture of the semester, Jack Myers and some quick comments about the two senior shows.
Jack Myers is an MCA alumnus who graduated sometime in the early 90's; I don't remember if it was '90, '91, or '92. Regardless, he talked about his experience at MCA, what made him decide to go to art school and become an artist, and the importance of staying up-to-date with the changing technologies to stay relevant and on the market. His advice to us:
Jack Myers is an MCA alumnus who graduated sometime in the early 90's; I don't remember if it was '90, '91, or '92. Regardless, he talked about his experience at MCA, what made him decide to go to art school and become an artist, and the importance of staying up-to-date with the changing technologies to stay relevant and on the market. His advice to us:
- Keep learning; graduating is not the end of education
- Learn a different skill set
- Don't get too comfortable; you don't want to get caught in a position that you can't find anything else to do with your career because you have a limited skill set and no alternate plans.
- Never get caught three versions behind in a computer program (snicker, snicker)
- Be brave or fake it until you gain more confidence
- Produce your own work, and put as much of it out there as possible, even if you don't like it
- Promote yourself; times have changed, and it's a good idea to have a portfolio of your work handy.
- Most importantly: Work Hard. There's no smooth-sailing in the professional art world; you'll always be busting your butt, just be sure you're busting your butt doing something you love.
Drawing Comment, the beginning of the Spring lecture series
if anyone as actually still looking at this blog.
I believe the special lecture toward the beginning of the semester, was the first visiting artist lecture we'd had. For two months, the upper gallery was fitted with a display of three long-practicing illustrators' mass-published work, illustrations featured in magazines such as Time magazine and national newspapers such as the New York Times. These three acclaimed illustrators were Steve Brodner, Anita Kunz and Luba Lukova.
Drawing Comment: Illustration & Social Commentary was, in my opinion one of the highlights of academic events of the semester. Joel Priddy moderated an open discussion panel with the artists and the atmosphere was exciting. We should all be thankful for how privileged we are to get to meet and discuss with professional artists. But, lauding aside, it was an entertaining educational experience. I say 'entertaining' because everybody on stage had a sense of humor. Each artist talked about his or her journey as artists and illustrators and what being an illustrator means to the world and how illustrations affect the audience perception of a given issue/event. Brodner's story about Martha Stewart was a hilarious account about the responsibilities one has as an illustrator and as a visual artist in general. Kunz spoke a bit about the process of gaining an audience as an illustrator, how to reach the point where you are commissioned to produce your own work, and the changing technologies and how they affect the field of illustration. Lukova talked about responsibilities as an illustrator as well and being aware of what type of audience will be viewing your work and the reactions you can expect from it.
With the addition of comprehensive answers to good audience questions, the panel gave great advice about being a visual artist, how to stay relevant in today's far-reaching media environment, having both traditional and new-technology skills, self-publishing, staying in touch with your audiences, the general work climate of illustration, past and present, and how to be productive, not only as an illustrator but as any type of visual artist.
I believe the special lecture toward the beginning of the semester, was the first visiting artist lecture we'd had. For two months, the upper gallery was fitted with a display of three long-practicing illustrators' mass-published work, illustrations featured in magazines such as Time magazine and national newspapers such as the New York Times. These three acclaimed illustrators were Steve Brodner, Anita Kunz and Luba Lukova.
Drawing Comment: Illustration & Social Commentary was, in my opinion one of the highlights of academic events of the semester. Joel Priddy moderated an open discussion panel with the artists and the atmosphere was exciting. We should all be thankful for how privileged we are to get to meet and discuss with professional artists. But, lauding aside, it was an entertaining educational experience. I say 'entertaining' because everybody on stage had a sense of humor. Each artist talked about his or her journey as artists and illustrators and what being an illustrator means to the world and how illustrations affect the audience perception of a given issue/event. Brodner's story about Martha Stewart was a hilarious account about the responsibilities one has as an illustrator and as a visual artist in general. Kunz spoke a bit about the process of gaining an audience as an illustrator, how to reach the point where you are commissioned to produce your own work, and the changing technologies and how they affect the field of illustration. Lukova talked about responsibilities as an illustrator as well and being aware of what type of audience will be viewing your work and the reactions you can expect from it.
With the addition of comprehensive answers to good audience questions, the panel gave great advice about being a visual artist, how to stay relevant in today's far-reaching media environment, having both traditional and new-technology skills, self-publishing, staying in touch with your audiences, the general work climate of illustration, past and present, and how to be productive, not only as an illustrator but as any type of visual artist.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Summary: MCA Design Candidate Lectures
As I am sure we are all aware of, there were several "Lunchtime Lectures", this semester, featuring candidates for our department of design. I missed the first one, but attended the remaining three.The first lecture I attended was Shawn Simmons': She works primarily with bookmaking. I should have taken more thorough notes. I thought I did, but I probably tried to retain it all. Anyway, I remember that she does have teaching experience and that she works with digital as well as print media. She talked about the importance of teaching students the basics of using the evolving digital tools. An example she showed us and talked about was a project she had her students do recently, in which they had to make some page layouts, and the pages had animated text. The purpose of this assignment was to give students experience in successfully creating a graphically-interactive text document that preserves form and functions.
But the lecture's focus wasn't entirely one-sided. As important as it is for design artists to develop expandable digital skills, retaining the ability to adapt layouts to the printed page is also important.
The artist also showed some very interesting book arts work of her own, featuring hand-crafted books that employed sculptural aspects. This was an exercise she also gave her students; not only were their final products to be well-designed and well-crafted, but they also were to maintain readability.I'll try to be more brief from here-on-out.
Phil Winfield: He gave an informative lecture about design and its importance and demonstrated this point with a survey of his career at LSU, rebranding their imagery, website, etc.
The part about the actual updating and the necessity of redesigning things was somewhat interesting. The most memorable point to me during this stage was when he showed and briefly described the original LSU brochure, and then showed us the documentation of the design process he used to recreate LSU's logos, brochure layout, revise its web layout.
Unfortunately, the lecture as a whole was for the most part boring because Winfield had so much to say about everything he and the design department at LSU worked on, publishing, distribution on campus, printing versus PDFs and web documents, etc.
But the lecture's focus wasn't entirely one-sided. As important as it is for design artists to develop expandable digital skills, retaining the ability to adapt layouts to the printed page is also important.
The artist also showed some very interesting book arts work of her own, featuring hand-crafted books that employed sculptural aspects. This was an exercise she also gave her students; not only were their final products to be well-designed and well-crafted, but they also were to maintain readability.I'll try to be more brief from here-on-out.
Phil Winfield: He gave an informative lecture about design and its importance and demonstrated this point with a survey of his career at LSU, rebranding their imagery, website, etc.
The part about the actual updating and the necessity of redesigning things was somewhat interesting. The most memorable point to me during this stage was when he showed and briefly described the original LSU brochure, and then showed us the documentation of the design process he used to recreate LSU's logos, brochure layout, revise its web layout.
Unfortunately, the lecture as a whole was for the most part boring because Winfield had so much to say about everything he and the design department at LSU worked on, publishing, distribution on campus, printing versus PDFs and web documents, etc.
Willie Cole Lectures at the Brooks Museum
The first lecture I went to this semester was back in February, when artist Willie Cole came to talk about his featured exhibition, Willie Cole: Works on Paper. It is one of the best lectures I've been to since I came to this school. The exhibition is still showing at the Brooks through May.
Cole started out giving a brief overview of his starting projects. His first major project was a series of cardboard cutout bodies with Xeroxes of Nelson Mandela's face posted on them all. It was an installation, and it had a track of, I think it was Nelson Mandela's speech, playing over and over again, he said. Mind you, this was done back in the 1970s, during the Apartheid epic unfolding in South Africa. Cole has a broad avenue of interests, and although he went to art school and majored in 2D media, he has made works in sculptural media and work using digital technology as an aid. He also made a digital video, which he talked about at the lecture, is called Sumsara (2010), featuring eight actors on three different screens, crying, in a repeating cycle. He said that the repetition is based on the Buddhist concept of birth, death, and rebirth. I think the word "sumsara" is the name of this concept.
Although Cole uses digital tools, his work is mostly 'analog' media. The highlight of the exhibit are his works featuring irons, the "Works on Paper". In his compositions he explores the concept of the iron as a representative figure. The poster advertising the exhibit, for instance, shows his photograph of himself wearing African tribal garb; the garment being made of iron plates that were Photoshopped onto his print. But as aforementioned, the phase of iron-driven design is not his only set of 2D work, and the exhibit is definitely worth seeing.
Cole started out giving a brief overview of his starting projects. His first major project was a series of cardboard cutout bodies with Xeroxes of Nelson Mandela's face posted on them all. It was an installation, and it had a track of, I think it was Nelson Mandela's speech, playing over and over again, he said. Mind you, this was done back in the 1970s, during the Apartheid epic unfolding in South Africa. Cole has a broad avenue of interests, and although he went to art school and majored in 2D media, he has made works in sculptural media and work using digital technology as an aid. He also made a digital video, which he talked about at the lecture, is called Sumsara (2010), featuring eight actors on three different screens, crying, in a repeating cycle. He said that the repetition is based on the Buddhist concept of birth, death, and rebirth. I think the word "sumsara" is the name of this concept.
Although Cole uses digital tools, his work is mostly 'analog' media. The highlight of the exhibit are his works featuring irons, the "Works on Paper". In his compositions he explores the concept of the iron as a representative figure. The poster advertising the exhibit, for instance, shows his photograph of himself wearing African tribal garb; the garment being made of iron plates that were Photoshopped onto his print. But as aforementioned, the phase of iron-driven design is not his only set of 2D work, and the exhibit is definitely worth seeing.
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