On December 9th, 2015, me and a couple of my classmates, decided to take a trip to MoMA. To be honest, finding a piece of art work that I actually liked was very tricky for me considering I'm not really a big fan of modern art. After walking through the entire museum and only seeing a couple pieces that I liked, I finally stumbled across the Ocean images: New photography gallery. In the gallery, you're greeted by a video of a man in a wig and make-up moving in slow motion, smiling and looking very intensely into the camera. Automatically I knew I would like this section. Almost every piece that I looked at I loved. Down to the security guard who jokingly told me that I would be able to take home one of the pieces I was looking at, for free. Out of all the amazing artists that I could've chosen, I choose Lieko Shiga. Shiga decided to do a series of stills titled "Rasen Kaigan" that bordered the line of offensive and beautiful. What caught my eye is the use of color, and value. Definitely the big thing that Shiga decided to play with was how dark and light she could get the photos to specify how important the colors are. According to the wall label, "Shiga moved to the Japanese village of Kitakarna, she became its resident photographer, documenting events in the region and collaborating with it's inhabitants. Rasen Kaigan (Spiral Coast) is a series of 250 dramatic images (eleven of which are seen here), show before, after, and during the 2011 Tohoku tsunami that battered Japan's coast. BUt the series is not documentary in the traditional way. Shiga uses filters and blatantly manipulates the negatives, creating vivid and ghostly scenes: a man who seems to be impaled by a tree; a woman with a bike careens down an impossible ravine; a birds eye view of the earth reveals scrapes and scars; hands reach towards a limp female body. Shiga tells the history of the land through the bodies of her neighbors, nature and humanity linked in life and death." To Shiga, her best way to document the tragic event is to use her photography. The decision to try to make the works seem so ominous is probably one of the best uses of filters that I've ever seen. She really is something special.
During this class I've learned that art is so much more than just a picture in a frame. It has emotions of its own and it has layers on top of layers that need to be peeled before you really understand what it's about. I've learned so much about the effect that light and dark have on a photo, or that what you chose to title your work could have a huge impact on the meaning of the piece. All in all, this class was by far my favorite class that I've taken this semester.
On December 9th, 2015, me and a couple of my classmates, decided to take a trip to MoMA. To be honest, finding a piece of art work that I actually liked was very tricky for me considering I'm not really a big fan of modern art. After walking through the entire museum and only seeing a couple pieces that I liked, I finally stumbled across the Ocean images: New photography gallery. In the gallery, you're greeted by a video of a man in a wig and make-up moving in slow motion, smiling and looking very intensely into the camera. Automatically I knew I would like this section. Almost every piece that I looked at I loved. Down to the security guard who jokingly told me that I would be able to take home one of the pieces I was looking at, for free. Out of all the amazing artists that I could've chosen, I choose Lieko Shiga. Shiga decided to do a series of stills titled "Rasen Kaigan" that bordered the line of offensive and beautiful. What caught my eye is the use of color, and value. Definitely the big thing that Shiga decided to play with was how dark and light she could get the photos to specify how important the colors are. According to the wall label, "Shiga moved to the Japanese village of Kitakarna, she became its resident photographer, documenting events in the region and collaborating with it's inhabitants. Rasen Kaigan (Spiral Coast) is a series of 250 dramatic images (eleven of which are seen here), show before, after, and during the 2011 Tohoku tsunami that battered Japan's coast. BUt the series is not documentary in the traditional way. Shiga uses filters and blatantly manipulates the negatives, creating vivid and ghostly scenes: a man who seems to be impaled by a tree; a woman with a bike careens down an impossible ravine; a birds eye view of the earth reveals scrapes and scars; hands reach towards a limp female body. Shiga tells the history of the land through the bodies of her neighbors, nature and humanity linked in life and death." To Shiga, her best way to document the tragic event is to use her photography. The decision to try to make the works seem so ominous is probably one of the best uses of filters that I've ever seen. She really is something special. 
During this class I've learned that art is so much more than just a picture in a frame. It has emotions of its own and it has layers on top of layers that need to be peeled before you really understand what it's about. I've learned so much about the effect that light and dark have on a photo, or that what you chose to title your work could have a huge impact on the meaning of the piece. All in all, this class was by far my favorite class that I've taken this semester. 
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