What’s Innate?

This past weekend (March 16th-19th) my program department at Ryerson University went on a group tip to NYC to look at art, have fun and gallivant about the city. A few of my friends and I went to The Met to see a new media exhibit that we had heard was on at the time. Overall we were disappointed with the quality and amount of work that was on display except for one work that impressed all of us. The piece is entitled Motion and Rest #2 by Jim Campbell (American, born 1956) which featured a simple 24 x 32 white LED grid board. On the board was the silhouette of a man walking and then stopping but what was really fascinating was the illusion that the sparsely placed LEDs gave of a full silhouette.

I tried staring at it from all angles convinced that the black board behind it was also some kind of display that was filling in the gaps between the lights only to discover my eyes were tricking me. The sign beside the piece stated that it was done using motion capture techniques. The piece also reminded me of Julian Opie’s work here in Toronto in both the AGO and on Bloor street featuring silhouettes of people walking along the street. For me out of the ten or so pieces there at Closed Circuit: Video and New Media exhibit this was the work that stood out from the rest. It has sparked an interest in me to explore the basic concept of light in art and light as art.

Perhaps it was the minimalism that Campbell achieved through the piece in which he was able to strip the human motion of walking down to the most basic possible visualization. No clothes, no hairstyles, no eye contact with the subject but yet the way in which they walk communicates a large amount of information about the person. Campbell even emphasized this minimalist subject matter even further by parring his medium down to as little as possible consisting of a few hundred white LEDs.

I just came back from a 9 day vacation in southern California, my family + girlfriend stayed in a layed back surfer town right between LA and San Diego called Cardiff By The Sea. Some of the worlds top surfers live there do the beaches are great and there’s a nice easy going mood all through out the town. We spent most of our time in and around the LA area and on one of our days visited Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills. Ironically one of the few New Media/artistic type things I came across on the trip was here, one of the most “commercial” areas in the world. In the window of Louis Vuitton there was a series of large and bright lamp-like pieces of art shining out onto the street. The piece was by Olafur Eliasson who is a Danish artist that was commissioned by the fashion designer to create a Christmas window display. It’s an interesting creation that I find comments on the relationship between human nature, experience and desire. When a window shopper goes by the see this lamp that looks like an eye staring back at them while they also see the reflection of themselves in the window, as you can see in my photos. It also comments somewhat on window shopping and how many people look into windows with “eyes of desire” for a certain product. Louis Vuitton is certainly known for being able to create that desire for their fashion products in consumers. Overall it was an interesting artwork that made you stop and look at it deeply. Here are some more photos I took from different angles: