Entry:
Art Essay
Introduction:
This assignment was on 28th May, 2014. It was the final reflection about the art work I did for this semester.
Reflection:
I find the hardest part of this assignment was expressing my ideas about my art work through writing and looking for right and precise vocabulary to describe my work. I did well in clear structure and finding strong vocabulary. If I had to do this again, I would simplify and reduce some unclear and meaningless words. I learned to give more meanings to my work during the writing process.
Art Essay
Introduction:
This assignment was on 28th May, 2014. It was the final reflection about the art work I did for this semester.
Reflection:
I find the hardest part of this assignment was expressing my ideas about my art work through writing and looking for right and precise vocabulary to describe my work. I did well in clear structure and finding strong vocabulary. If I had to do this again, I would simplify and reduce some unclear and meaningless words. I learned to give more meanings to my work during the writing process.
My works are in a series and they’re based on the masterpiece “Composition Assemblage-Photogram” from Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895 – 1946) in 1926 shows. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was a master in painting, sculpting, photographing, and designing. He’s the one who experimented and worked with light as well as materials in the photograms. By doing so, I believe mine have been achieved a great result of composition, use of light and aesthetic perception.
First, composition of a work serves as skeletons in a human and it brings the strongest impression and direct-view to audience. The original masterpiece inspires me to use simple geometric figures for inner photographs and as the two works indicate, triangles, circles, and rectangles are used to compose and support each of the works. They form a balanced construction and reach a solid effect since all of shapes are connected with each other by using either other photographs or three-dimensional materials.
Despite making connections, dominance, fullness and emptiness, and multiple layers help to show balance and stability as well. Both of two works reveal dominance as well as special space relationship by placing a giant piece of photo on the dominant shapes and arranging different sizes of photos and figures for the rest of space. For the first canvas, the dominant triangle at right contains the first photo (Light diagonal and glass one) whereas a smaller circle at the left corner contains the second photo (Circle and shadow one). For the second one, the circle that contains the second photo becomes dominant and only a part of the triangle with the first photo reveals at the right corner. Except for the photos, background remains a type of emptiness. It’s entirely covered by painting and it’s supposed to be a medium to exhibit light direction. On the other hand, photos include many figures and elements, in particular different photos in the frame inside a frame and they show fullness. With the emptiness, it’s better to create a contrast. According to Moholy-Nagy’s masterpiece, developing layers helps to distinguish and understand each technique and material. In my work, painting is at the very bottom, photos keep in the middle and three-dimensional objects stand out the most.
Second, use of light is the essence of works and it’s expressed by using two-dimensional photography and three-dimensional objects. Lighting makes Moholy-Nagy do experiments many times in order to capture the best position and effect. Hence, taking photos and choosing materials took me much time as a part of experimentation. In my photos, there are natural light diagonals and shadow that follow the direction of light. Those light diagonals are taken beside a glass under the lamp while shadows show below a round metal towel rack in the bathroom under the strong light. The combination of light diagonals and shadows indeed indicate clear light direction.
Most importantly, the chosen materials are metal since metal is able to reflect or transform light and it matches the theme of photos. From the research, it’s worthy noting that Moholy-Nagy did use transparent or translucent materials, such as crystal, glass, etc., instead of opaque objects, to emphasize contrasts under the light. Back to my works, triangular glass prisms and metal staples perform a similar function. In general, photos and objects are designed to show lighting.
Coloration is mainly interpreted by photography and painting since the chosen materials are usually transparent and colorless. Grey and sienna are shown in the works as two values while burnt sienna is the only color. In the photos, everything remains grey purposefully except for sienna light diagonals and shadows in order to make the audience pay attention to the light portion and make a contrast between darkness and lightness. In the painting, there’s a gradation from dark grey to light grey to white and the grey part is enlivened by a bit of sienna, which corresponds to shadows in the photos and brings harmony to the whole work.
Furthermore, aesthetic perception becomes a necessary element of my works because of the entire effect made by photos, materials and background. Both photos are in an unusual visual angle, which brings audience an unfamiliar visual experience. For example, the one with light diagonal and glass is placed upside down since the light will go at the top. Background painting looks as illusion and works with the “unusual” photos to create aesthetic perception. A noticeable finding is photos are supposed to be realistic, but in fact they look abstract and unidentifiable in this case, which becomes a part of non-figurative aesthetic. (Source: fundaciotapies.org) It proves that these works are abstract art.
My works of photogram focus on composition by showing balanced construction, dominance, contrast between fullness and emptiness and multiple layers, lighting by using mixed mediums (two-dimensional photos and three-dimensional materials) and aesthetic perception by making illusion and coloration. Making photograms or playing with light requires many times of experiments. That’s what the master Laszlo Moholy-Nagy did for his works and people called the process “experimentation”. Besides experimentation, strong concepts and purposes and creative expression lead to the final aesthetic works. In this case, my work shows simplicity in order to reveal my concepts and expression.
First, composition of a work serves as skeletons in a human and it brings the strongest impression and direct-view to audience. The original masterpiece inspires me to use simple geometric figures for inner photographs and as the two works indicate, triangles, circles, and rectangles are used to compose and support each of the works. They form a balanced construction and reach a solid effect since all of shapes are connected with each other by using either other photographs or three-dimensional materials.
Despite making connections, dominance, fullness and emptiness, and multiple layers help to show balance and stability as well. Both of two works reveal dominance as well as special space relationship by placing a giant piece of photo on the dominant shapes and arranging different sizes of photos and figures for the rest of space. For the first canvas, the dominant triangle at right contains the first photo (Light diagonal and glass one) whereas a smaller circle at the left corner contains the second photo (Circle and shadow one). For the second one, the circle that contains the second photo becomes dominant and only a part of the triangle with the first photo reveals at the right corner. Except for the photos, background remains a type of emptiness. It’s entirely covered by painting and it’s supposed to be a medium to exhibit light direction. On the other hand, photos include many figures and elements, in particular different photos in the frame inside a frame and they show fullness. With the emptiness, it’s better to create a contrast. According to Moholy-Nagy’s masterpiece, developing layers helps to distinguish and understand each technique and material. In my work, painting is at the very bottom, photos keep in the middle and three-dimensional objects stand out the most.
Second, use of light is the essence of works and it’s expressed by using two-dimensional photography and three-dimensional objects. Lighting makes Moholy-Nagy do experiments many times in order to capture the best position and effect. Hence, taking photos and choosing materials took me much time as a part of experimentation. In my photos, there are natural light diagonals and shadow that follow the direction of light. Those light diagonals are taken beside a glass under the lamp while shadows show below a round metal towel rack in the bathroom under the strong light. The combination of light diagonals and shadows indeed indicate clear light direction.
Most importantly, the chosen materials are metal since metal is able to reflect or transform light and it matches the theme of photos. From the research, it’s worthy noting that Moholy-Nagy did use transparent or translucent materials, such as crystal, glass, etc., instead of opaque objects, to emphasize contrasts under the light. Back to my works, triangular glass prisms and metal staples perform a similar function. In general, photos and objects are designed to show lighting.
Coloration is mainly interpreted by photography and painting since the chosen materials are usually transparent and colorless. Grey and sienna are shown in the works as two values while burnt sienna is the only color. In the photos, everything remains grey purposefully except for sienna light diagonals and shadows in order to make the audience pay attention to the light portion and make a contrast between darkness and lightness. In the painting, there’s a gradation from dark grey to light grey to white and the grey part is enlivened by a bit of sienna, which corresponds to shadows in the photos and brings harmony to the whole work.
Furthermore, aesthetic perception becomes a necessary element of my works because of the entire effect made by photos, materials and background. Both photos are in an unusual visual angle, which brings audience an unfamiliar visual experience. For example, the one with light diagonal and glass is placed upside down since the light will go at the top. Background painting looks as illusion and works with the “unusual” photos to create aesthetic perception. A noticeable finding is photos are supposed to be realistic, but in fact they look abstract and unidentifiable in this case, which becomes a part of non-figurative aesthetic. (Source: fundaciotapies.org) It proves that these works are abstract art.
My works of photogram focus on composition by showing balanced construction, dominance, contrast between fullness and emptiness and multiple layers, lighting by using mixed mediums (two-dimensional photos and three-dimensional materials) and aesthetic perception by making illusion and coloration. Making photograms or playing with light requires many times of experiments. That’s what the master Laszlo Moholy-Nagy did for his works and people called the process “experimentation”. Besides experimentation, strong concepts and purposes and creative expression lead to the final aesthetic works. In this case, my work shows simplicity in order to reveal my concepts and expression.