Author: Kelvin Castillo

This last 1st of August I went to see two of my favorite argentine rappers (Trueno and Milo J), the community was mostly hispanic with the majority being argentine. I don’t know how to describe it but people were dressed to go to a concert, almost like if the outfit could reflect the energy.  Even non-spanish speakers seemed to have a blast. I talked with this person who told me that she didn’t understand spanish, therefore I asked if she was liking the concert despite the fact that she wasn’t understanding what they were saying. She told me that even though she couldn’t understand the lyrics, she could feel the energy.

I think that that was the biggest thing of the concert: The energy. It was so cool to be around people who were dancing, jumping and overall excited to be around the artist they listen to. I feel that being there made me a bigger fan of their work. I even obtained this poster that I pasted in my room.

 

 

The piece of art I chose is in the form of architecture. I chose this building whose windows you can see from the High Line. Researching a bit about this building I found out it is a luxury condominium called “The lantern house” . What really captivated me about this building is the shape of its windows,  in reality there are two buildings, each with a different pattern on the windows. By arranging the windows in such geometry, playing with the reflection, and having the windows close to each other, it turns it into another piece of art on the High Line, almost like grenades or the shell of a turtle. It reminds me of a perfume my mother used to have that had a grenade shape, similiar to this photo:

I do believe that this design of architecture could be replicated in different mediums, like used in different buildings or  maybe souvenirs. But I believe, just like seeing a picture of a painting, it’s not the same as the original view from the high line. The high line provides a view from an elevated ground, which makes you feel closer to the windows and gives you a glimpe of the life of people staying at the building. Also when you are in the high line you have to look up at the building to appretiate it, and that act of looking up and admiring something gives the viewer a sense of awe which you can’t obtain when looking at it through a photo.

Last class we had Zoe and Nicie as visitors from the Queer Van Kult. Before they came to our class, we read an article about the Queer Van Kult and I remember looking at the Sappohosaurus 2,  a pink standing sculpture that resembled a dinosaur, and wondering what it was made of, therefore once they came to visit our class that was my question to them. Zoe ( the artist behind the Sappohosaurus) told me that it was made from recycled materials, like insulation foam, chicken wire, fabric and overall a collage of different materials. Then I asked about the structure and they responded that the body was made out of planks of wood, also telling us how the Sappohosaurus was incredibly large in size. Their answer was surprising because I wouldn’t expect someone without a background in construction or just building in general to create a piece of art that big. They also changed my interpretation of an art gallery, I thought of an art gallery as a room filled with paintings, I didn’t know it could be live performances or even be made inside a U-Haul truck, which for me was really smart because of the affordability and the flexibility of being able to move it almost everywhere. Something that also stuck with me was hearing their struggles when they had this massive building for themselves and had to fill every room with art. Also learning how they used to finance their art showed me the reality of many artists.

In my trip to MoMA, before going inside the galleries to find the paintings, first I went to the gift shop in front of it to see what paintings I would be looking for. I was surprised to see how many reapropiations where they on starry night. It’s crazy to think how when Van Gogh painted this it was considered a really weird painting, but now it is totally main steam and people gather around in big groups taking pictures around it just to admire its beauty.

 

I don’t believe the impact of the original piece of art changes because of it’s adaptations, but I do believe that both Starry night other Van Gogh’s pieces are perceived as more valuable because of these merchandise. I’m not saying that the works by themselves are not worthy of the fame they got, but they are definitively more known and have a bigger reach than if the pieces of art were by themselves in the museum. I can relate it to the Jordan sneakers, even tough Jordan was an incredible player, I believe that the Jordan sneakers multiplied his reach at least a 3x . It’s like the people can have a little piece of the person they admire. You could be a Lebron fan ,but I haven’t heard anyone complain about how someone stepped on their LeBrons compared to the Jordans.

 

 

When I was walking around MoMA I saw a group of people around a tiny painting but I never imagined it would be The Persistence of Memory, I was surprised to see how tiny it was. On the images I’ve seen at class, it’s easy to look at all the details but when you are actually in person it’s kinda hard to appreciate the details, maybe because of the continous group of people around it or it’s size . But overall I would consider it is different feeling seeing it in person, when you see the texture, you can imagine the artist painting it, compared to when you see it in a picture or in these case a key chain or a vest that just reminds you that piece of art.

 

 

I personally found impacting these two pieces:

• Ancient egyptian paintings/representations
• A garden landscape

 

These pieces of art were trully exciting to see. When you see the egyptian art through the TV you don’t really connect with it, but when you see it in person (even though it’s a replica) you can feel how long the human kind story really is. I didn’t know art could be from that far back, and I was surprised to see how well the egyptians painted.

 

This was one of the most beautiful pieces of art I saw at the museum. Tyffany Studios made these landscapes for a woman called Sarah Cochran that wanted to see her garden blossom in every season, which was in Long Island. I went with a guide and at this part she explained how these were made by a woman group called “The tyffany girls” and it had over 10,000 pieces of glass which seems crazy to me. As the light went through the glass at different angles it changed the colors. I though art had to be a painting or a sculputure, I didn’t know It could be made out of glass.