11/21/09 Guggenheim Museum

Kandinsky at the Guggenheim:

I visited the Guggenheim Museum. There were long lines to get tickets for the Kandinsky Exhibit. Although the museum was crowded the exhibit was easily viewed. The Frank Lloyd Wright design allowed for adequate spacing of the art works in a way that it could accommodate large crowds. The spiral design was basically a long corridor which wound itself to the top. The viewers proceeded in an orderly fashion in one of two directions, bottom-up or top-down. The flow of viewers did not have to fight for optimal viewing position since each individual saw the art works in the same way. I found this to be less tiring.

Kandinsky was forced to move around to many places because of political and economic reasons. But, he never came to America, although he was invited to come, 'home' was always in Europe. Because of his 'inner need' to express himself through art, he never finished his university studies in law and economics. He believed that art should express the innermost feelings of the artist, a new spiritual reality. A vocabulary needed to be developed to allow for this kind of expression. Much of his inspiration came from the his association with Arnold Schoenberg, an innovator of contemporary music. As much as the twelve-tone system of Schoenberg was used to break away from traditional conventions, Kandinsky also wanted to break away from representational art and become more abstract. His first truly non-objective painting was "Black Lines" done in 1913:

His color palette was changing from vibrant primary colors to subtle pastel hues. This conveyed to me a truer sense of spiritual regeneration. A later work, Movement I (1935) demonstrates a sophisticated vocabulary:

In this colorful galaxy, ribbons of color float amid complex geometric structures against a backdrop of circles large and small. Their edges are irregular. By now Kandinsky has stopped using the compass to draw his favorite motif, he wants to achieve the evocative powers of the circle:

1) the circle is the most modest form, but it asserts itself unconditionally.

2) it is precise but an inexhaustible variable.

3) simultaneously, it is stable and it is unstable.

4) simultaneously, it is loud and it is soft.
5) the circle is a single tension that carries countless tensions within it.

--indeed, the circle is the ideal symbol for this image which suggests infinity.

"Yellow-Red-Blue" is an important painting of the Bauhaus era.

While teaching at the Bauhaus, he collected images of embryology, zoology, and botany. He used these images for his lectures and re-formulated them into his abstract vocabulary. Blending the natural sciences with formal abstraction and Surrealist elements, Kandinsky worked in a free-flowing style. A style in which I can appreciate freedom of form while retaining the motif of opposing forces that has always been pervasive in his work. I can feel how he is creating tension in his works and then finds resolution of this tension. So, it is free of conventions, a more personal style which is internally liberating and self-motivating. Kandinsky's view was that the "inner necessity" of artists could be translated into universally accepted statements that could offer a regenerative vision of the future.

November 13, 2009 MFA Show

MFA Show

Installation of show in the gallery space:

I think the overall installation of the art works was done well. The space was used wisely. Since there was a pre-dominance of art work on the walls additional partitions made sense, by increasing the amount of wall space where art works could be hung. This was done in such a way that the largest hanging piece had an unobstructed view from a distance.

The walls allowed light pieces to be hung. They were not solid enough to have heavier pieces of art to be hung on them. The mobility was important since the location of the art piece needed to be illuminated in the proper perspective. The light could cast a shadow from the piece making it very interesting.

I am interested in land forms. The black and white photos and videos of Megan Flaherty dealt with those land forms in a wonderful way. For me, there was a feeling of sentimentality similar to "film noir" only in photo style. The photos had low-key lighting creating a chiaroscuro effect. I love this effect since it accentuates the contours of the landscape and trees. The video that was presented did not achieve the same effect, but it did provide movement of the scenery to the landscape. Importantly, the arrangement of the three unframed photos on one wall with the video on the opposite wall worked well with the longer wall with the six framed photos in between. I like the balance on this side of the room, compared to the crowded opposite side of the same room.

Christopher's Guerra's pieces of 'Spaghetti' and 'Life forms' had a lighter feeling and playfulness about it. I loved the colors, especially the intense primary colors used on the objects suspended from the ceiling. He invited me to his studio to see how he made the pieces. The processes to breakdown the newspapers to be applied to the chicken wire seems ingenious. But, what was exciting was how he built up his canvas with the processed newspaper before applying the paint. He threw the processed newspaper on to the canvas. The two of us were excited that we were both using recycled newspapers for similar environmental reasons for our art works. Actually, we came up with some ideas that may be useful to me in the future.

Overall, most of the art works were interesting. I am very optimistic about the graduate students and their abilities. They have a fertile imagination. But, some of the pieces seem to be unfinished.

Additional Image Collection for BFA Thesis

Jaime K. An-Wong
BFA Thesis Image Collection



















Jaime K. An-Wong, Untitled, 2009

Experimental model for BFA Thesis sculpture.
Newspapers layered underneath soil and growing grass in a glass container.

Proposal for BFA Thesis

Jaime K. An-Wong

Proposal for BFA Thesis

I am concerned, as many people are, about the environment and the effect humans have had on it. We are the only species that can destroy all life on earth as we know it, and we are the only species that can save it. It is hard for me to express what art means to me. But, as I am working with my hands, I am thinking. Sometimes I am lost in deep contemplation and that is when I am closest to my soul. My other sanctuary is in the great outdoors. The more pristine the environment, the closer I feel to the truth. It is a place where I can gather my thoughts. At times, it arouses the subconscious bringing forth memories and emotional attachments associated with the past and present, but also, hope for the future.

In Aldo Leopold, we find a reverence for nature in the outdoors. Leopold gives you a sense that we have much to learn from observing nature and listening to it. Although we can learn most principles thru science, only thru contact with nature and contemplation do we gain that reverence toward it. And, then we gain the determination to preserve it. In doing so, we will be perpetuating our own existence. I believe that many of the principles we discover about life and behavior crosses most of the disciplines. In discovering these principles we are unifying all knowledge, called consilience. This is best described by Edward O. Wilson.

The earth beneath our feet or the land which we live on, has always had a special place in my heart. It is the well that I can continually go to for sustenance. It is always there for me, especially when I need it the most. Appealing to me in a different way is Land Art. Working in the wide open outdoors brings a very special setting and a complex set of environment factors to work with. One dilemma I have wrestled with is how to bring the same vitality and life to the indoors. However gradual and subtle the processes in nature are, I hopefully can bring a bit of it indoors. One very important aspect to Land Art is the need to “know the land” well through investigation of its physical forms and spiritually connect to the land beginning with its primordial stages. Whatever we do to destroy the environment we live in, the question is not whether the earth survives but whether we are on the land to enjoy it. I prefer to be present with my children or my children’s children.

Humans have battled against the elements from the very beginning of our history. We have survived all natural occurring obstacles thus far, but are we going to help ourselves from our own destruction? The photographer, Mary Mattingly, has a very specific but very dire prediction of the future. She is warning of the coming apocalypse. Mattingly is sure the land will be here, the only question is whether humans remain to enjoy it. Her photos and projects are attempts to bring attention and consideration of the inevitable. What are we going to do about it? With one scenario, climate change will bring a rise in sea levels inundating the coastal cities and lands.

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In certain regions, such as the Netherlands, they have been fighting back the sea waters and claiming further land to build upon. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned and appreciated. The land needs to be appreciated and treated as one of our precious resources. Living in a sustainable way requires us to understand it and to stand up for the “land,” to be stewards of the land. In addition to the land, the materials we consume are of limited quantities. Do we have a responsibility to future generations to conserve some of the resources for their enjoyment? After all, most of us have a direct interest to this end, since we are talking about our children and their future offspring. Are we that selfish or can we find alternatives or at least recycle our precious resources?

I want to investigate the relationship of my artwork to humanity. Am I doing good? Am I doing something to help improve the human situation? I want to think big, about the natural forces that we all contend with, whether they are violent and powerful like a hurricane or whether it is gradual and slow moving as geological forces may be. More importantly, I want to have people look inward toward their psyche. It would be wonderful to be able to stir up enough motivation to get people to commit to the grand ideas that are out there. There are shared commonalities among all of us, so we are really in the same boat. The most assured path to transformation within us, is through self-examination by each individual. This is where art fits in. Art has the ability to reach “the masses,” and if successful, art will get them to commit to the cause. Only through collective means are we going to solve some of the global problems. We owe that to the future generations.

There are alternative paths to a better future, than our present materialistic, consumer-driven society. Think of the scale of the problem. The newspapers or soda cans were collected over a short two to three months this summer by our family. What is the scale of the problem for a small town, a large city, the state, or the country? What becomes of all the garbage and are there any other alternatives? We can be more creative. We just have to get people to consider it important to find the right solutions. It starts by contemplating about the problem and getting the critical mass to consider it important enough to commit to make the situation right. This is where art can be effective and it may excel in this role.

I had an opportunity to learn about the works of Steven Siegel last semester. One particular sculpture, “Scale” at the Abington Art Center, I followed for several years. “Scale” is an outdoor sculpture composed of recycled newspapers. It was expected to survive 15 to 20 years before decaying. The sculpture actually collapsed earlier. The idea of trees arising from the soil to be subsequently made into newspapers, and finally, the sculpture of newspapers will eventually decay and become part of the soil for future trees was an interesting life cycle. Steven Siegel had been greatly influenced by “deep time” and the geologic processes that are always at work. This aspect is apparent in his work. The question is can this translate into better stewardship of the environment.

Finally, the story of Arshile Gorky is very tragic, yet interesting to me. He had mostly taught

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Jaime K. An-Wong

himself skills by studying the masters who came before him. Gorky’s own “distinctive art” comes only

when he re-discovers the memories and associated emotional overtones of his youth in Armenia. What aided this development was establishing his studio in rural Connecticut and also visiting a farm in Virginia. Being back in natural surroundings quickly brought out his creative abilities and inspired him to produce amazing art works. Although he came to a tragic end, I feel that nature and natural surroundings have a similar stimulus for me. But, more than anything else, it is being productive in art that sustains me. I am at peace with myself when I am in the studio. I have time to think and experiment. I want to make this a better place to be and this is where I find my piece of mind.

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Jaime K. An-Wong

Annotated Image Collection for BFA Thesis Proposal

Jaime K. An-Wong
Annotated Image Collection for BFA Thesis Proposal

Walter De Maria, “The New York Earth Room,” 1977. Long-term installation at

141 Wooster Street, New York City. Photo: John Cliett. Copyright Dia Art Foundation.

Earth Room combines De Maria’s work as a minimalist, conceptualist and land artist

De Maria’s earth sculpture is especially interesting as an experience of the senses. On walking inside the apartment, the air has a different quality to it. It is humid, and the space smells reassuringly damp and earthy. The temperature of the space itself is very comfortable, regularized naturally by the soil and without the use of heaters. The earth stands in contrast to the combination of the white walls and naked lights. Only the glass stands between the artwork and the viewer and demonstrates the depth of the soil in the room.

Watered and raked once a week in order to keep it like it was during its first exhibition, the earth also has something barren about it: its richness and wetness contrast the fact that there is nothing growing out of it, no visible life.
















Robert Smithson, "Spiral Jetty," 1970

A monumental earthwork located in the Great Salt Lake in Utah. At one point it was submerged because of the rising water level in the lake. Recently, the "Spiral Jetty" has re-surfaced, but it now has a crust of salt on its surface and at the edges.

Robert Smithson, “Asphalt Rundown,” 1969

Smithson’s first “flow”, situated in an abandoned and mundane section of a gravel and dirt quarry in Rome. A large dump truck released a load of asphalt down a gutted and gullied cliff already marked by time.

Aside from Smithson’s interest in working outside of the gallery walls, he also had a strong interest in Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionist works. Jackson Pollock was known to lay his canvas on the floor, and he poured the pigment on the canvas to create many of his artworks. It has been noted by Robert Hobbs that Smithson takes the drip away from the canvas and in the outdoors he monumentalizes it in a slow ooze. There is some randomness in the process and how the finished work looks.

Leslie Shows, Display of Properties, 2009
Acrylic, paper, pins, and flags
28 x 43 ft.

Indoor sculpture in the spirit of Robert Smithson's Asphalt Rundown (1969), where asphalt was poured down a hillside from the tipped bed of a dump truck. Through the force of gravity, the asphalt's own mass determined its form based on the qualities of its sluggish materiality. Here, Leslie Shows uses paper to demonstrate the effects of gravity on the hanging strips of paper attached to the flags.






















Mary Mattingly, The New Mobility of Home, 2004

With this photograph, the future on earth is a forgone conclusion. This is one scenario of the impending apocalypse. Mattingly presents us with the "navigator" who is busy creating and utilizing adaptive technology to survive. The subject is wearing a "wearable home."

Waterpod Project, 2009

Waterpod™ is a floating, sculptural, eco-habitat designed for the rising tides. This was the brain-child of the photographer Mary Mattlingly. Another scenario of the apocalypse, is the rising sea levels due to climate change and the result of global warming. Many of the major cities of the world are located on the coast.

As a sustainable, navigable living space, the Waterpod™ showcases the critical importance of the environment and art, serving as a model for new living, do-it-yourself technologies, art, and dialogue.

The Waterpod demonstrates future pathways for nomadic, mobile shelters and water-based communities, docked and roaming. It embodies self-sufficiency and resourcefulness, learning and curiosity, human expression and creative exploration. It intends to prepare, inform, and provide an alternative to current and future living spaces.

In preparation for our coming world with an increase in population, a decrease in usable land, and a greater flux in environmental conditions, people will need to rely closely on immediate communities and look for alternative living models; the Waterpod is about cooperation, collaboration, augmentation, and metamorphosis.

Three Antennas at the Waterpod Project

The sculpture of the three antennas was first presented at the Venice Biennale. they are working antennas used to receive and transmit wireless communications, such as broadcasts, e-mails, and downloads of music and videos. The scuplture was installed on the Waterpod Project barge to be used. The Waterpod Project is a work in progress, with five artists to live on board for up to one year. They are to be self-sufficient; to be able to grow their own food, generate their own electricity, and to filter the water to make it potable.
















Photo by Jannes Linders, Aperture Gallery

This photo was from the Aperture Gallery. The exhibit was, "Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art." The Netherlands for many centuries have dealt with the rising sea levels to varying degrees. Of course, technology has brought new abilities to control flooding and has enabled the Dutch to claim land from the sea. If climate change brings about rising sea levels, then we can appropriate similar techniques to save our cities near the coast.

















Photo by Hans Aarsman, Aperture Gallery

Besides the activity on land, much of the human activity in the Netherlands take place on barges and ships.





















Steven Siegel, Scale, 2002
Photo taken March 3, 2004

The sculptor, Steven Siegel, has used many types of recycled materials for his sculptures. It is interesting to me, how Siegel used newspapers in his outdoor sculptures. The sculptures are expected to last a finite amount of time. In this case, "Scale" was to remain erect about 15 years.

















Steven Siegel, Scale, 2002
Photo taken October 2006

Here, only four years since "Scale" was erected, it started to collapse.
















Steven Siegel, Scale, 2002
Photo taken April 9, 2009

Finally, it has collapsed seven years after the scuplture was erected. The early demise of the sculptue was partially due to design and partially due to severe weather conditions.










Steven Siegel, New Geology #2, 1990

Although this newspaper structure was erected years earlier, it is still standing. According to Steven Siegel, if you look carefully at the newspaper, the newsprint is still readable. The slower decay of the sculpture is primarily due to the overgrowth of the structure by vegetation.

Arshile Gorky, One Year the Milkweed, 1944

Arshile Gorky lead a tragic but artistic life. Arshile Gorky, A Retrospective, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art made that very point. He came to the United States to escape the genocide of Armenians, only to lose his mother in the process due to starvation. His artistic skills were sharpened by studying the masterpieces of Cezanne, Picasso, Miro, and Roberto Matta. It was only thru Gorky’s reconnection with nature (his studio in rural Connecticut and Crooked Run Farm in Virginia) did he re-live and paint with emotion what he remembered of his youth on the farm in Armenia.

Annotated Bibliography for BFA Thesis Proposal

Jaime K. An-Wong

Annotated Bibliography for BFA Thesis Proposal

Bolender, Karin, “Into the Holocene: The Art of Steven Siegel”, Dutchess Magazine,

February 2000

-Steven Siegel is interested in the concept of “deep time.” It is a length of time so long that we

can not grasp or truly understand the events over that interval of time when we are standing in

front of its final representation at the present time.

-This concept began a career long artistic interrogation of the essential cycles of deposit and decay that underlie the making of the land.

Knight, Richard and Riedel, Suzanne, “Aldo Leopold and the Ecological Conscience,” (Oxford

University Press, New York, 2002) ISBN 0-19-514943-2

-We are citizens of the biotic community.

-“Those who embrace the land ethic have the satisfaction of being in the vanguard of social

evolution, partaking in a uniquely human capacity. Leopold described the capacity of one

species to care about the fate of another as ‘a new thing under the sun.’”

Lehan, Joanna, “Ecotopia: The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video,” (International Center of

Photography, New York, 2006) ISBN 3-86521-310-3

-Environmental impact is on the minds of most thoughtful people of our generation. The

book showcases the work of artists who are examining in a broad sense the environment and

humankind’s relationship to it.

-Nature is a source of a great deal of cultural anxiety. Nature has been ascribed with positive and

even spiritual values but the a paradox is presented since our present culture, dominated by a

notion of progress, is intent on the relentless destruction of nature. In 100 years, nature has shifted from something awesome and dangerous, which we need to be protected from, to something fragile, which we need to protect.

Leopold, Aldo, “A Sand County Almanac,” (Oxford University Press, New York, 1949)

ISBN 0-19-505305-2

About progress and modernization:

-We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.

-May be ‘climate change’ is nature’s way of taking back what we have abused, the land with its

rising sea levels.

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McPhee, John, “Basin and Range” (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, 1980)

ISBN 0-374-10914-1

-Artists capture and distill countless aspects of our lives.

-After reading this book, Steven Siegel fully engaged the idea of “deep time.” The term relates to

geology, James Hutton first observed, then realized that the earth’s processes of erosive breakdown and uprising renewal had been going on, a never imagined time longer than previously suspected.

Norton, Bryan, “Searching for Sustainablility,” (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2003)

ISBN 0-521-80990-8

Sustainable living:

-In terms of geologic processes and of life on earth, Bryan Norton narrates the story of the cranes migrating to the marshes of Wisconsin, as described by Aldo Leopold. The history of migrating cranes dates back to the time of glaciers, describing the formation of the pond and surrounding marshes, the ecological conditions that allowed the cranes to find a niche in Wisconsin. He recognizes that they have survived many earlier, gradual transformations of their habitat, and then laments how, in so many marshes, they had succumbed to human alteration of their habitat in just a few generations.

-Leopold’s aesthetic explanation: “Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with

the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by

language. The quality of cranes lies, I think, as yet beyond the reach of words.”

-The espoused philosophy, is that nature does not make mistakes. In order for us to understand

we must take the time to observe nature and listen to what it has to say. We must live with nature

(in the wild) and to experience it. We will then be able to live in harmony with the environment

around us, in a sustainable way.

Phillips, Patricia C., “Wandering Through Time: The Sculpture of Steven Siegel”, Sculpture,

October 2003

-Steven Siegel makes great accumulations from small elements of a single material elaborately

layered and stacked into monolithic forms that often look like boulders or vessels, geological

formations or immense artifacts.

-Siegel uses recycled materials, the overwhelming evidence of voracious cycles of production and

consumption. A painstaking process of fabrication requires the artist and other willing

participants to engage in long periods of repetitive, yet thoughtful activity.

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Jaime K. An-Wong

Siegel, Steven. 2003. http://stevensiegel.net

Studio Project: Wonderful Life (mixed media)

-The title is shared with the 1989 publication of the same title by Stephen Jay Gould. Evolutionary biology has rich parallels to the creative process and the development of craft. By letting simple materials follow their own obvious means of organization what exactly would evolve?

-This was Siegel’s attempt to bring the spirit of Land Art indoors.

Smithson, Robert, “Cultural Confinement,” in Art in Theory, 1900 -2000, ed. Harrison, Charles and Wood, Paul, (Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts, 1992) ISBN 978-0-631-22707-6

-One of the principal strategies of Land Art was to move the work out of the confines of the

gallery towards a more directly critical relation to the modern world.

-“I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to

day apart from representation. The parks that surround some museums isolate art into objects

of formal delectation.”

-My hope is to bring some of this vitality indoors.

Smithson, Robert, “A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects,” in Art in Theory, 1900 -2000),

Ed. Harrison, Charles and Wood, Paul, (Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts, 1992)

ISBN 978-0-631-22707-6

About geologic and natural processes:

-The strata of the Earth are a jumbled museum. The sediments contain the remnants of history

over an interval of time, which are layered consecutively one on top of another.

-“In order to read the rocks we must become conscious of geologic time, and of the layers

of prehistoric material that is entombed in the Earth’s crust.”

-Oxidation, hydration, reduction, and dissolution are the major processes of rock and mineral

disintegration, “that could be turned toward the making of art”.

Wilson, Edward, “ Consilience: The Unity Of Knowledge,” (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1998)

ISBN 0-679-45077-7

-The legacy of the Enlightenment is the belief that entirely on our own we can know, and in knowing, understand, and in understanding, choose wisely.

-At the core of consilience is the principles discovered in one discipline, such as in science, will also be true in other disciplines, such psychology or the visual art. Take for example, the physics of colored light (with different wavelengths) will apply in the visualization of color by the eye and interpreted inthe brain. The separation of colors by wavelengths holds true in seeing different colors in the eye. The perception of colors and the associated emotions generated are also consistent in physiologic psychology terms. And, for the artist the color in pigments are differentiated by the same characteristic wavelengths reflected off the canvas. The emotional attachments follow it an orderly and structured way as processed in the mind.

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Jaime K. An-Wong