The Work of Cao Fei

In my Contemporary Art and Theory class I took a few semesters ago I came across the work of Cao Fei, a Chinese artist based in Bejing known for her multimedia installations and videos.  She mixes social commentary, popular aesthetics, references to Surrealism, and documentary conventions in her films and installations.  One of the most interesting and famous works of Cao Fei is entitled RMB City.  RMB City (2007) is a part of her online works built in Second Life, a vast 3D online world that has operated since 2003.  Users can purchase real estate, set up businesses, and engage in all manner of virtual interactions.

"Named after Chinese money, RMB City shows a perverse view of Beijing- a blend of communism, socialism, and capitalism.  Like Beijing itself, it is constantly under construction, candy-striped smoke stacks suggest continuous industrial production and ships move good swiftly in and out of port.  A giant shopping cart, filled with skyscrapers and religious monuments, floats nearby; and Tiananmen Square has been converted into a swimming pool"

Her work comments on the rapid urbanization and economic development of China and its effect of social interactions.  Her work is unusual but nonetheless interesting and powerful.  The use of an online virtual world, that have become so popular for teens and young adults in past years, to create artwork allows viewers to interact with her work on a whole other level.  While her digital prints of her virtual world can be found in galleries around the world, viewers can login to Second Life and not only view but play in her computer made world.  Her work is another addition to the vast world of digital media art.  I hope you all enjoy her work as much as I do and for more information click on the link to her website below! :)

http://caofei.com

Kimsooja

Kimsooja

Kimsooja is a Korean born artist, who lives and works in New York, Paris, and Seoul, and specializes in video, performance, photography, and installation art. Kimsooja addresses the issues of the displaced self and questioning conditions of humanity.  One of her most famous works, A Needle Woman (2005), is a six channel video projection on a 10:40 loop that shows the artist standing still. with her back to the viewer,  "in the middle of main thoroughfares in various cities throughout the world" (http://www.gf.org/fellows/17420-kimsooja).  This piece brings up questions of issues dealing with identity, gender, culture, and migration.  This piece is very interesting in the way it draws the viewer into the piece, almost as if there are standing with or in place of the artist herself.  The lack of sound and anonymity of the still figure are intriguing and make for an unsettling atmosphere.  The subtleness of Kimsooja's work invites the viewer think about the message being given and its implications. 

A Needle Woman (2005)

6 channel video projection, 10:40 loop, silent

Intersection Zine

For my Zine project I wanted to pay homage to my artwork I have made this year and use it as a reflection of my Senior Exhibition project.  I've worked with this concept on other projects but my Zine actually shows work i've made, artists' works that inspire me, and inspirational or meaningful quotes.  Never having made a Zine before I am quite pleased with the final project :).  This will be a great addition to my art portfolio and a keepsake of my senior year work.  Hope you all enjoy!

The Work of Nancy Burson

Nancy Burson is an American artist and photographer who lives and works in New York.  She is accredited as being one of the first artists to combine digital media technology with photographic portraiture.  Burson’s career soared in the late 1960’s after her collaboration project with MIT engineers to develop an aging machine.  This technology, later used by the F.B.I. to search for missing children and adults years after their disappearance, allows one to age enhance and alter the human appearance by warping and stretching digital portraits.  Burson applied this technology to the development of composite photographs that are showcased in her book, Composites: Computer-Generated Portraits, published in 1982, that includes her famous work First Beauty Composite (1982).  Burson expanded her work in 2000 with the creation of The Human Race Machine, a computerized console that allows participants to resemble other races.  Nancy Burson’s work combines “art and innovation in a way that [challenges] photographic truth at the birth of digital manipulation”. 

Both The Human Race Machine (2000) and First Beauty Composite (1982) aim to challenge photographic truths and act as globally uniting works to rid gender and racial stereotypes.  Burson’s work takes unusual and varying forms that draw the viewer in with their ‘perfection’ or ‘stereotypes’ and invites the viewer to confront these social stigmas and breakdown how we perceive ourselves and others in society.  The far-reaching implications of Burson’s work make her not only a powerful artist but also an important activist for social change and individual and communal acceptance.

First and Second Beauty Composites (Left: Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe. Right: Jane Fonda, Jacqueline Bisset, Diane Keaton, Brooke Shields, Meryl Streep), 1982

 The Human Race Machine, 2000