Before or After Yourself: Robert Gill

Recently, I've thinking back to Robert Gill's project Before and After Yourself for a few months now, mostly because I couldn't remember his name and it was driving me out of my mind (albeit probably not anymore than usual) and also because it's becoming essential for many photographers to encompass the skills for video work. Gill is doing exactly this. A student of both SCAD and School of Visual Arts in New York, Gill's eye for composition translates into his arrangements for his video piece as well. For nine months, Gill worked in conjunction with nature to create his new, sculpted body. His video is both visually interesting and meditative to watch, exhibiting self-portraiture at its finest. After all, it is getting close to springtime and everyone becomes infatuated with getting those beach bodies built, so I would says it's appropriate to bring up his work as such a time as this. Not only is he thinking creatively about his video work, but he is also thinking of unique ways to shed the pounds. Defining our cultural obsession with physical appearance, Gill is using video to reveal the in-between scenes of his physical progress that links his photographs. All of the above and below catches my interest.

Check out his video:

Before or After Yourself from Robert Gill on Vimeo.

Above video and photo borrowed from beforeorafteryourself.com

Adventures in Atlanta's Art Scene

If you weren't out running around Atlanta this past Friday night- my advice to you: get your running shoes on and try to get out to see some of the amazing art that's featured around Atlanta throughout the coming months.

Jackson Fine Art presented a collection of works from contemporary photographer Todd Selby, alongside a little piece of history- Elliott Erwitt (and yes that is Erwitt in the above photo with yours truly). In curatorial terms, I can appreciate the combination of these two photographers. This exhibition is Todd Selby's first premiere show in Atlanta (or the US, for that matter) and Erwitt's third exhibition in Atlanta. Selby's images of "creative spaces of creative people" presented the working spaces of some of the masterminds behind companies such as Nike, Louis Vuitton, and Cole Haan.

His pleasantly over-sized color photographs complimented the traditional black and white documentary photos of Elliott Erwitt. Among my favorites is the image Karl. The photograph presents the working library of world-renowned fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld. Although the spaces appear to be somewhat contrived in presentation, the overall photograph is one that is visually appealing and fulfilling of the voyeuristic curiosity in all of us. In many aspects, the photographs operate as documentary portraiture and present us with an insiders look into the unique and creative environments of celebrities. Nonetheless, the interest within Selby's images relies heavily on the notoriety of his subjects and have little to do with his skill as a documentary photographer.

Such is not the case with the genius working behind the lens of Elliott Erwitt's camera. Let's face it, Erwitt appears to be at the right place at the right time... well, all of the time.

Documenting the streets and familiar faces throughout major cities around the world, Erwitt has an eye for capturing the irony of everyday situations. I had the wonderful opportunity to annoy Erwitt with stupid questions for the evening, among them being: What is your advice for living and photographing in New York? His response? "Good Luck." Something (or someone, rather) tells me my plans to live in the big Art Capital of America will be A. a pain in the ass and B. reliant on luck and talent. I'm excited.

Meanwhile, back at Georgia's Museum of Contemporary Art, Scott Belville exhibited a wonderful collection of prints and paintings pertaining to his theme for this exhibition: Trust. Now, if you know me personally, you probably know that I have a tendency to be attracted to politically challenging work and artists that likely have a loud mouth (not that I wouldn't know anything about that). Belville's work is precisely this. His collection of works for this exhibition reflect on his inability to gain trust in politics and people as they relate to the well-being of our environment, global issues, and the development of society. From the looks of the show and the "state of things" going on in the world right now, I'm not sure Belville will be finding that Trust anytime soon. However, his work is powerful in concept and his detailed handwork further reflects his talent as a fine artist.

MOCA's Movers and Shakers was also in full swing Friday night, exhibiting some of SCAD's very own talent: Ting Ying Han, Lucha Rodriguez, Omar Richardson, and Jay Fox (among several others). The show displays some of the emerging artists currently working around Atlanta and I must say, I was very impressed. Each artist had at least one piece in the show which attracted several art patrons and the "who's who" among Atlanta. If you weren't there, you should have been, because it was a great show with a great turnout. Hopefully, this means Atlanta's taste in art is on the rise and there will be many more successful shows to come.

Luckily for you fine folks, all of the shows I've talked about here will be on display until mid-late March. So, if you haven't gotten out to see them, pencil it in on your icals and smartphones and get to workin' on those art muscles.

(above image courtesy of Gene Driskell, Driskell Photography)

Oh, and if you would like your personal site linked in my blog, feel free to send me your URL.

Hide and Seek in the Arts

I would like to start off discussing something I feel many students aren't getting enough of in schools (yes, including SCAD): the censorship talk. *Yawn*. Which seems evident right? Censorship is bad and most of us know it. And while it may seem like this battle has been fought and won, a glance at some recent news will tell you otherwise. Seriously, this is something as artists we obviously need to talk about. Artistic expression does, however, fall under "freedom of speech" and by all means, artists should have access to it. And, by the way, if you consider yourself an artist, you should probably care about your rights.

Onto some recent news (local and national). Here are some of the issues showing up in current press:

Cinque Hicks, one of Atlanta's notorious art critics, wrote an excellent article discussing issues currently taking place in Atlanta and at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. As Cinque mentions, Georgia's new agriculture commisioner, Gary Black, plans to remove paintings that depict slavery and partially clothed Native Americans. Clearly these paintings are applicable to the history of our region and have been present within the Department of Agriculture for several years now. Not to mention, the guy doesn't seem to have too much of a grasp on the history of the pieces and fails to communicate exactly what he believes the paintings are about. As we all know, it's not easy to talk about slavery, the annihilation of Native Americans, and not to mention: nudity. Why talk about it at all, right? So, Gary Black is the new big guy working for our state now. Art history? Who needs it.

You can read Cinque's full story here here.

Another point mentioned in the article, which has fully permeated art news as of late, is the National Portrait Gallery's censorship of David Wojnarowicz's video piece, "A Fire in my Belly". Wojnarowicz is a gay artist that died from an AIDS-related death in the early 90's. His piece is a dedication to his lover, Peter Hujar (if you don't know his work, you should check it out, amazing photographer, also died from AIDS). The video depicts a crucifix with ants crawling on it which the Catholic League determined was "designed to insult and inflict injury and assault the sensibilities of Christians". The Catholics cried, the gallery bent: the piece was stripped from the show. But the public wasn't going down in silence. A protest was held by over 200 people chanting and marching down New York's 5th Avenue calling for restoration of the video. The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Smithsonian Institute which sets the standards for what will and will not go into art history books in the future. Now, maybe this is just my curiosity speaking, but I would like to know who is calling the shots here and why their opinion outweighs my opinion for what goes into the history books and what doesn't. I believe what I have to say is important and that my educated opinion matters. I also believe my artwork strives to exhibit my thoughts and interests and is therefore an element of my educated opinion. In my opinion, that is.

Watch "A Fire in my Belly" here, if you dare.

(Above image courtesy of artdaily.com)