Barnstormer Brainstorm

I've always had this idea of how beautiful a town would be if every building had a mural painting on its sides. In Cameron, North Carolina a couple of artists had a visual idea similar to mine. The difference...they actually executed it. The Barnstormers by name alone to me was a complete turn-off. Maybe a little too rural for my taste like a rampage of farmers causing mayhem in barns. But, the Barnstormers are on the far side of the picket fence and from my perception the grass is a lot greener. These artists from both New York and Tokyo pilgrimaged from their urban settings to small town Cameron and bought the inner city to barn shacks, trackers, and almost anything rural but the cow with their massive collaborative paintings. Formed in 1999, these 25-30 artist turned old visually unattractive farms into a fusion of urban and rural mecca. It's not just the ending project alone. Much like the previous artist I touched on, Nick Knight, their work is about the process of it happening. Their process is recorded in stop motion animation videos where their collaborative works become individualized projects of change. The way these artist go about it is somewhat unplanned in the sense that they seem to have a go with the flow type attitude and build off of each other's work.

Art with Attitude: Kiki Smith and Jane Hammond

There's a tone I found underlining these two artist. Both seem to have a scattered mindset in the way that they create their work, often taking bits and piecesof media and cultural and developing it into something conceptual. To describe their work, i think of honesty in the way that what they create is up-front, opinionated often dealing with social issues such as women's perspective. Though, what I found to be the major difference between Kiki Smith and Jane Hammond is Smith's literal style of work and Hammond's metaphorical qualities.

Kiki Smith is just as much characterized as her work. Sort of foul-mouthed and uncensored there is no question to why her work can cause a wave of criticism, especially to one with an eye for conservatism. In her recent works displaying body art in a way that refers to the spirtual aspects humans Smith makes her forms with a sense of indestrucatibility of life. Life in which propells us can also stop in a second. In this matter she chooses to work with paper because it works tough and strong in a way it can bend and crumble but yet carries the essence of being fragil, much like life. In comparison to Hammond who constructs meaning with her work, Smith seperates form from meaning by taking out the aspects that give a form personality or acquaintance to the viewer. Instead she she's the form in spirtuality, without weight, translucent, and easily broken. It's the idea of not having a meaning and leaving the reason up to the viewer who might not understand the work but might connect their own personal experience to it.

Bridging the two artist is the pshycological aspect of their work in which their work is based off of seeing and relating . Hammond often relates her work to literature, or a mixture of past and present. Her work is viewed as metaphorical and much like Smith, is created with an opinionated stand point. With an intential basic color pallet of black, white, red, yellow, and blue, Hammond makes a connection between social issues and objects one wouldn't think would relate. The hype of "cure-all" marrow tea is presented as a collapsable box in one of her exhibits. There's an emotional reaction to the ideas of her work and she combines them with personal reference. She keeps a notebook of names ranging from pets to English Castles that she uses to represent parts of her work. There's a collage style to her work in which visuals and verbals are placed at random in a way that they communicate to each other. Unlike the work of Smith who devoids meaning from certain objects. Both artist I found to be innovative, and unique in thoughts of how life is viewed.

Nick Knight: Images Brought To Life

I became interested in fashion Photographer Nick Knight after visiting his exhibit “Fashion Revolution” at the Somerset house in London, September 2009. What drifted me towards Knight was the intensity of his work after visiting his interactive website showstudio.com. He believes the process of creation is just as much a work of art as the finished product. One of his pieces that I found to be compelling was his photograph of model Naomi Campbell who appears to be enraged as she shoots a gun towards the viewer. From the viewing standpoint the picture alone was powerful Enough that it drew me into reading in-between the lines of wondering what the picture meant, and simply how cool it was. Fortunately, part of the gallery exhibit of Fashion Revolution was the sequential steps of each work recorded. As a video, viewers could experience how the process alone was visual, and the photograph took on even more depth. Through-out the exhibit were more examples of how his work was created. On certain days Nick Knight himself would perform his steps in making these visuals live for the viewing public at the exhibit. Unfortunately I was unable to attend on those specific days.

What I admire about Knight is his passion to be innovative. He grew up in a household that was less creative but more scientific and it was expected of him to follow in the footsteps of his parents in the field of science. Instead he found a love for photography although science wasn’t completely void of his career choice. The internet to Knight became the best of both worlds. When we think of art as time, change, and motion the internet provided all of these in ways which Knight could present his work. Images could take on variations, including three dimensional aspects, and interaction with the viewer. These are the perks of showstudio.com, with the idea of bring the process of creation closer to the viewer. I found Knights work to be inspiring to all types of artist, from designs, graphic artist, photographers, and animators.

Below I posted a video of Nick Knight giving a tour of showstudios Fashion Revolution and some of the things I feel extremely lucky that I was able to experience while there.


Nick Knights Fashion Revolution Tour

And here's a couple of pictures I took touring the exhibit.

My brother posing in this room full of mirrors and lights.

Me watching a video with all kinds of cool effects.

Interactive sculptures of Naomi Campbell viewers could design on.