Cai Gou-Qiang

Cai Gou-Qiang's sculpture uses twisted human forms to show motion. The front figure is leanign towards one side and it is balanced by having its left leg lifted up. This figure shows motion because viewers anticipate his fall. It is an anticipated motion since the figure's upper body is shifted all the way to his right side and the weight is over his right leg. This week, we learned about the illusion of motion. This figure illustrates the idea that even though it is a still sculpture, viewers can feel the anticipated fall.

Maya Lin

This is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Maya Lin. She used black stones and carved the names of the soldiers onto the surface. The carved names makes the people who went to see the memorial want to touch the surface of the stone. The smooth cold stone gives a feeling of lost, confusion, acceptance, and removal. The surface of the project brings out memories of the people. The black stones also reflects back the image of the viewer.

Marcel Duchamp

Duchamp does an excellent job of using different techniques when it comes to creating a feeling of motion. Here, the bodies are cropped, repeated, and overlapped to make it seem like the man is walking down the stairs. Our eyes immediately follow him, in a downward motion. Very beautiful piece.

Maya Lin

I find this piece by Maya Lin to be brilliant- it evokes not only sight, but also the feelings of touch. One can know what it feels like to touch the grass, just from the texture that we assume it has as we look at this picture. It is compounded by the repeated pattern of the little grass hills, the shadows- the contrast with the brick building in the background and the lighter tree makes the grass stand out and make me want to touch it.

Motion Artist

Marcel Duchamp - "Sad Young Man in a Train"

In this piece Duchamp uses several techinques to imply motion. Of course, there is use of the multiple images. The figure of the "Sad Young Man" is repeated many times across the piece, each one a snapshot of a slightly different time. We perceive this as one motion much like a video or flip book. He also makes use of blurred edges to further communicate the movement.

Pattern and Texture Artists

"Rapunzel 3" by Jennifer Steinkamp
I like this piece a lot. There are 3 separate patterns at work here, those of the pink, blue, and yellow flowers, respectively. They combine to form a larger conglomerate patterns. Although the patterns are not strictly repeating, for example the pink flowers get less dense toward the bottom of the piece, there is a clear evidence that there was planning involved with the location of each flower and there is a pattern present.

Elijah Gowin: Falling in Trees12

Elijah Gowin utilizes several techniques to create the illusion of movement in his 2006 work “Falling in Trees12.” There is little question about the fact that the viewer gets the sense that the boy represented is actively falling in this image. The artist conveys this idea by using anticipated motion. Much of the motion we seen in art comes from our own memory and experiences. Therefore we have a good idea of what should happen next in this image or what further movement is to follow. Gowin’s work also exhibits blurred outlines and fuzzy details, which is frequently used to suggest fast movement. (We know that when photographing a subject in fast motion the resulting image is often blurred.) Lastly, the plant’s stalk on the right serves as a line of force. Its verticality shows the pathway of movement and seems to pull the boy towards the bottom of the page.

Maya Lin: Avalanche

In Maya Lin’s 1998 sculptural installation “Avalanche,” the artist creates both pattern and texture by playing with the viewer’s perception and the materials. She utilizes abstract forms to make a connection between the man-made materials and patterns seen in nature. What makes this work particularly interesting is the ability of the viewer to approach it from afar. In this particular image, the blue shape in the corner appears to be one smooth, shiny piece. Yet this shape is in fact a pile of blue-green sea glass, which acquires an entirely new texture as one comes in closer proximity to it. The pile of glass shards is so colorful, glittery and alluring that one might want to touch it. The smooth, gentle texture of the waves in the center of the room contrasts starkly to that of the pile of sea glass. I find it very exciting how drastically the work changes depending on the viewer’s perspective and how the artist plays with pattern and texture to make the work visually interesting .

eadweard muybridge: picturing motion

eadweard muybridge was one of the earliest practitioners of motion photography. he utilized the camera's unique ability to freeze motion to capture events that had never before been observed by the human eye. although it is widely believed that his studies of motion are always sequentially true, in her book picturing ime, art historian marta braun argues that muybridge actually inserted images that were not from the orginal sequences to enhance the feeling of percieved motion in the images. one reason he got away with this is due to the blind faith people had in photography to transcribe transparent truths.

jennifer steinkamp is well known for her three-dimensional installations that utilize aspects of computer animation, painting, film, architectural space, and motion. her works walk the line between virtual and real. Oftentimes, her work destroys the gap between viewer and the works of art themselves by incorporating the viewer's shadow.

Maya Lin

I really enjoyed this piece by Maya Lin titled Systematic Landscapes. I thought that the texture of the artwork gives the viewer a very strong visceral feeling. The material that she uses to create this piece gives a feeling of dryness and roughness. Both the texture and the shape of the piece reminds me of a desert with a massive sand dune.

Marcel Duchamp - The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even

While this piece is notoriously abstract, I think Duchamp has done an excellent job of evoking a sense of movement and energy in this piece without implying any discernible objective forms. The cracks in the glass provide the viewer with lines which seems to travel diagonally from right to left across the top of the first frame and vice versa in the bottom, implying both a sense of motion as well as potentially the passage of time. This is reinforced by the varied repetition of the cones in the bottom panel, which like multiple-exposure photographs evoke the sense of a figure rotating through space and time.

Maya Lin - Avalanche

I think this piece's extremely creative use of pattern and texture provides a very interesting contrast both between the elements of the piece itself and the piece within the gallery space. While it's hard to tell from this photograph, it seems as if in front of the glass pyramid the floorboards have either been modified or wood has been laid on top of them to create the illusion of wavy bands swirling around it. This provides a nice counterpoint to the angular form of the pyramid, but the soft and delicate texture of the glass as well as its luminosity lends a quiet and stillness to the whole piece.

Emphasis and Focal Point Drawing

focal point

mark bradford

This is Mark Bradford’s painting “Kryptonite,” composed in 2006. The picture uses a loose grid structure and rectilinear, non-objective shapes to create what appears to be a map of a city as viewed from above. Bradford overlaps these shapes to create a larger, more organic pattern. The focus of the painting is from the black center, then the red square pattern to the left, and then looping clockwise back around. The scratches across the page accentuate the central focus. I really enjoy looking at this painting; it feels like organized chaos, with all the pieces coming together to create a logical whole, similar to the structure of a metropolis in reality.

Elijah Gowin

This photo is part of Elijah Gowin’s series “Of Falling and Floating.” The focus of the photo is on the man, who is falling from an undetermined point to the water below. Everything about this photo conveys motion. The man is in mid-fall, and the fact that the viewer cannot see where he fell from implies that the motion occurred before the picture was taken. The effects of gravity ensure that the motion continues after the snapshot. His stretched arms and spread legs imply air resistance. The water below the man is choppy, implying the motion of waves moving up and down. Even the lines running through the photograph and the blurred edges imply fluidity that is associated with motion.

Trapped

Muybridge

Muybridge's Animal Locomotion evokes the idea of motion. By using the technique of repeating figures, the elephant appears to be moving from one frame of the image to the next. Each piece shows the elephant in a slightly different position from the previous one, and the viewer gets the feeling that the elephant is slowly walking.

Jennifer Steinkamp

This piece, entitled "Rapunzel 3" by Jennifer Steinkamp is a prime example of using pattern in art. Her use of repeating colors, lines, and shape creates a sense of unity in the piece and a tranquil feeling. This is emphasized by the organic and natural subject matter of the work. In addition, her use of pattern in the direction of the piece, bringing the eye gradually and gently towards the bottom left of the work, adds to its calming nature.

Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge's Animal locomotion: An electro-photographic investigation of consecutive phases of animal movement, 1872-1885 included this work showing a walking elephant. By using multiple images and the repeated image of the elephant, there is a clearly implied motion in the work. Muybridge pioneered this aproach to showing movement that led to the development of the motion picture. I like this work because of the subtly of the walking and especially the movements of the elephants tail.

Maya Lin

Maya Lin's "2 x 4 Landscape" takes regular 2 x 4s at different lengths to create a rising, topographical form. I like the way she takes something so geometric and processed and turns it into something organic. The texture of the piece is especially interesting, because there is no variation in other aspects like color or material. There is considerable tactile and visual texture in this piece.

Emphasis and Focal Point

Focal Point

Above and Below -Maya Lin

In this Maya Lin succeeds in creating a tangible, nearly overwhelming three dimensional space.  The technique she used to achieve this is similar to that used in her other pieces that examined topography and mapping.  The altitude lines of both rocky and smooth formations seem to fascinate her. In Above and Below she uses this same method to create a shockingly realistic portrayal of solid, organic, natural space with a minimal use of materials.  The great amount of negative space in this sculpture is one of its strongest attributes.  The contrast between the almost airy, ephemeral quality of the pattern up close and the massive, rough, weighted nature of the piece from afar is quite striking.  

Elijah Gowin

This photograph by Elijah Gowin from his series “Of Falling and Floating” demonstrates motion beautifully. The diagonal lines of her legs and arms give us the sensation of motion, along with the fact that the outline of her legs and arms is rather nondescript – it fades into the background of the clouds and the sky. The outline on her body is rather blurry, also indicative of speed. Furthermore, even when I just glance at this picture, the way her head is lower than the rest of her body makes me feel like she is about to tumble over and plummet, head first. This anticipated motion makes me edgy and nervous, which is a powerful invocation of kinesthetic empathy.

Shrin Neshat

In this magnificent photo “Allegiance with Wakefulness” by Shrin Neshat, the flowing written Arabic looks just like patterns ingrained onto the feet of the woman. Everything in the picture is so natural and organic, including the writing, except for the tip of the gun peeking out from between her feet, which mars the pattern of the writing with its stark, metallic surface. While the picture is unsettling because of the seeming innocence of the woman contrasted with the weapon, the image is gripping at first glance because of the calligraphy. The beauty and evenness of the script was what first captured my eye, which then was shocked by the subtle appearance of the gun.

Jennifer Steinkamp "Loom"

It was installed in the art gallery of Ontario. It is a video projection. I like the patterns that the projector makes on the wall. Also I like the interaction that the veiw seems to beable to have with the peice.

Cai Guo-Qiang

This work, though captured in its visual interest in this photograph, is greatly misrepresented two dimensionally.  Cai Guo-Qiang's exploding car series is ineffably brilliant in person.  The scale alone of this work is something at which to marvel, suspending life size cars from the ceiling in dynamic positions.  Not only is motion purely captured in this installation, but the force of gravity is seemingly highlighted as the star of the show.  He utilizes many tools to create this intense, imminent sense of motion and flight.   For each individual series (only one captured here at the Guggenheim), identical cars were used in repetition to create the illusion that a single car was spinning through the air.  The particular placement of the cars in space also provides a time line to the car's trajectory, a sequence to its descent.  The neon lights emanating from each car add to the overall dynamism of the piece.  They act almost as lines of force for the energy of the car, which seems to be trying to escape its metal confines.  Interestingly, Guo-Qiang's work does not evoke a sense of destruction despite the logical consequence of the car's trajectory.  

Eadweard Muybridge "Head spring, a Flying Pigeon Interfering"

Eadweard Muybridge used miltiple camers to capture motion. I think this piece is interesting because you can really see how the bodies moves it balance. I also like how he put the pigeon in the photo which gives just adds more motion to the work.

In this work " Future Perfect", artist Brendan Fernandes implements the technique of blurred lines to emphasize motion. The blurring effect is used in the light coming from the storage containers as well as in the outlines of the figures in the foreground. As a result, the image seems to be one frame in the midst of a strange phenomenon that only the viewer is experiencing rationally (as the figures in the foreground are blurry themselves and the one man isn't even looking). In this way Fernandes not only shows motion but provides the audience with a specific viewpoint.

This work is called "Formation" by Jennifer Stienkamp. I was intrigued by it due to her realistic rendering of texture in the pieces of cloth through a projection. She displays her works on a white wall using a dell projector. In this way you must truly approach the wall and inspect the dimensionality of the piece to see that the texture is simply a visual illusion.

Emphasis and Focal Point

Emphasis and Focal Point

Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge's photographs are often of ordinary motions, but the pictures are taken so rapidly that the viewer can clearly see the minute stages of motions that are normally overlooked. This is the figure repeated method of showing motion, as the same subject appears in a different position in different frames. However, the temporal placement of the frames is more like the multiple image method, as it shows the tiny differences in motion; the images just aren't overlaid. I think that it's fascinating to see detailed views of what movement looks like frozen in time; it makes even the most mundane motion seem interesting when you can see the small individual muscle movements.

2x4 Landscape by Maya Lin

In this work Maya Lin plays with texture and, to some extent, pattern to create an object that is both accessible and interesting. She uses upright blocks to create a curvilinear landscape which the viewer can walk through and climb on. Unlike some artwork, which may call out to be touched but shouldn't be, Lin's work thrives off the notion that it's something that people see and want to interact with. When I first saw some of Lin's work, I thought it seemed somewhat boring, but looking closer into it and realizing that people could do more than just look at it gave me a deeper appreciation for/interest in her work.

Cai Gou-Qiang

Shirin Neshat

This photograph by Shirin Neshat provides very interesting imagery. To people who can't read Arabic, the script written on the bottoms of the person's feet looks like patterns, and the flowing artistic quality of the written language just adds to the texture. This very patterned, linear texture is put in contrast with the smoothness of the rest of the picture, like the light skin and the dark clothes and the shining gun barrel. The blurred background also juxtaposes with the sharp lines of the foreground, and altogether, the result is captivating.

Head On by Cai Guo-Qiang

This work by Cai Guo-Qiang just wonderfully captures the feeling of motion. It can be viewed in several different ways. For instance, one could see it as a few images repeated to create the idea of motion, a technique we discussed in class. On the other hand, all of these animals (which I think are wolves) are positioned in such a way that it seems as if all of them were running into this wall and time just froze, as if a truly 3D picture was taken. Though I didn't quite get the apparent intention of the work (which the Guggenheim website claims was to conjure the now-destroyed Berlin Wall), I do enjoy it for its aesthetic qualities and the thought that goes into interpreting it.

Mark Bradford

Motion

Cai Gou-Qiang is a Chinese artist who created the work of art named "Head On".  The piece includes 99 wolves flying through the air and then hitting a glass wall.  Though the wolves look real, they are sculptures created from painted sheep skin stuffed with materials like hay.  I think this work brilliantly portrays the motion of the animal in a realistic way that audiences rarely see. 

Fortune

Pat Keck uses motion in the literal and figurative sense. In this piece, he has included a motorized spinning top on the table which turns the woman in circles. With her arms and legs spread wide, it is as if she is trying to keep her balance on top of the table. The circles painted on the sides of the table also symbolize the motion of spinning in circles because of the rotation of the yellow design inside each consecutive white circle. I also really enjoy this piece because of the colors used. 

Blue Lake Pass

Maya Lin's Blue Lake Pass gets it's name from a landmark. With the use of vertical sheets of particle board, she cuts different heights and designs from each piece and when all put together, form the topographic lines of the landmark. The texture in this piece can be both seen and felt. The texture of the top of the sculptures, which have edges and curves,  contrast with the sides, which are flat and smooth. This is visually appealing to the viewer. In all her pieces of this collection, Systematic Landscapes, Maya Lin connects her passion for architecture with her passion for art by using natural, simple and architectural materials for her sculptures.

Elijah Gowin, Fall5

This photo uses anticipated motion to get the viewer to sense that the man is falling. Also, his body's outline is a bit blurred, helping to create a sense of downward motion as well.

I really like the red wash/streaks over the photograph, giving it an old feel.

Shrin Neshat, Speechless

I find it ironic how the title of this piece is "Speechless," yet there are words written all over her face, suggesting that even though she might not be saying anything, her facial expressions give away her emotions

I also like how the proximity of the cursive letters gives her face a grainy look.

Pat Keck

In this work, Keck utilizes multiple techniques to create motion.  First of all, he uses multiple images, that almost appear to be repeated, with the exception of the hair.  At first I wasn't sure whether this confused the piece, but I really think it helps to draw the viewer's attention  In addition, Keck has the feet open, as if the man were mid-step.  His knees are bent, and we really get a sense of the action because our minds fill in what is before and after this stage.  The patterns on the bottom, with the way they change, encourage the readers eye to move back and forth, also giving the sensation of motion.  I especially like the use of only black, white, and red because it helps the viewer to stay focused on the idea of the piece as a whole, rather than what it looks like in its parts.

Sam Taylor-Wood

I found this image while looking for pieces by Elijah Gowin. This piece, by Sam Taylor-Wood, is titled Self Portrait Suspended. I was drawn to this piece because even though the placement of the body implies movement, the position of the body seems to suggest a peaceful suspension. The result is a very beautiful but surreal image.

Emphasis and Focal Point