Day 5 Installation

we just returned from our mid term brake, so we were not really tired but lazy. So was our Narendra who decided to show us three movies that day. They were 

1) In The Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai)

2) A documentary on Matt Rothko

3) Pollock (Ed Harris)

The thing about these movies is that they did show the story of the artist but they also showed the 'artistic process' of the artist. The two documentaries especially not only showed their life stories but also explained their thought process. The movies also captured the development of their ideas from one style to another and so on.

Wong Kar Wai's film was indirectly informing us about a certain situation in south eastern Asia. This has been showed through a simple story of two couples. Complicated relationships develop between the couples and somehow this was connected to the situation in South Eastern Asia. There were metaphors in the way he took his shots and the way he directed his scenes. He established the relations of the countries through the people. The movie also showed the impact it has on a place afterwards. Very subtly done.  After watching the movies Narendra asked us to write about our own artistic processes.

So my artistic process obviously involves an idea or a thought around which an idea is created. This idea always comes to my mind as words and words alone. Words, to me, convey along with the word, a vibe that appropriately describes the word. The vibe is the reason we respond to another person, subjective to the vibe. A word can be spoken with different expressions hence different vibes. So when I get a word I try converting it into an image with one thing in mind. The image I create must embody the essence of the word. This is how I think. I have always thought in terms of words and never in terms of images. This way of proceeding helps me understand what I want. I never proceed until I'm sure of what I want. This is my artistic process. 

Day 4 of Installation Art.

The fourth day had a lot in store for us.We discussed the terms minimalism, conceptual art and pop art. The class was divided into three groups. Each one discussing one of the three topics assigned to them. The group I was put into was assigned conceptual art. While discussing we came across many examples. These examples exemplified that the art was more to do with the concept and the delivery of the concept rather than the aesthetics or the way it looked. The art was about the thought behind it. After discussion we shared this information with the class. The other two groups shared their information as well. I learnt that minimalism isn't about incorporating small things but using small simple elements to describe and more importantly capture the essence of whatever is being conveyed. As for pop art I learnt that the art form was all about popular culture. It was more about glorifying popular people or practices.

After this discussion we were further divided into groups and our group (Karishma, Rhea, Aarushi and obviously me) was asked to create an artwork in the lines of pop art. We started brainstorming and we wanted to do something with Flappy bird. Flappy Bird is a game that just released a few days ago. Everyone was hooked onto the game and the game itself was very controversial. So this was our theme but we really did not know how to proceed. WE first decided on buying balloons of different and using the balloon as a Flappy Bird. 

This is the picture we had used of Flappy Bird on which we ultimately worked.

So we decided to fill the balloons and place it along side this image which was to be projected onto the screen. But it felt very disconnected. Aarushi then suggested that we should place the balloons in front of the projected image. We tried it out an dit looked much cooler than before and also looked very pop like. 

The final composition of Flappy Bird.

Obviously we did get feedback. The feedback was actually quite helpful in terms the image we wanted to create in peoples heads. The name we gave it was "Tribute to Flappy Bird" as the game had been removed from the net. But our facilitator explained to us that it necessarily did not have to be about the game itself. It could have just been about the bird in the game. He said that the work must be open for interpretation. Making it specific would not allow the people to view it with an open mind.