Alexandre Singh Questions/Response

There are multiple artists making work about consumerist culture. What makes your work different? Do you think you are above consuming?


What sparked your interest in mythical tales, and why are they useful in your art?

Proof of Submission to Competitions

VCU Women's Studies Show

VMFA Fellowship

Idea: Longing

Longing- A yearning desire

When I originally started exploring the idea of isolation and separation I tried to convey a positive idea. I wanted to show that being alone could be a great thing, and encourage others to spend more time with themselves. Recently I've been trying to show the other side. Being alone isn't as appealing to me now because my boyfriend recently moved eight hours away. I discovered that I need to clarify my concept of isolation by adding another word, longing, to the idea. In my work I'm trying to convey not only separation, but a longing to not be separated. To be a part of, close to, or share an experience with someone else.

Quotes:
“What is a thousand years? Time is short for one who thinks, endless for one who yearns.”

"Weeks went by, then months. I am speaking of a far-away time - a vanished happiness. It fell to me to befriend, to console with whatever words I could find, one who had been the fairy, the princess, the mysterious love-dream of our adolescence - and it fell to me because my companion had fled. Of that period ... what can I say? I've kept a single image of that time, and it is already fading: the image of a lovely face grown thin and of two eyes whose lids slowly droop as they glance at me, as if her gaze was unable to dwell on anything but an inner world. " 

Both quotes from Le Grand Meaulnes by Henri Alan-Fournier

Annotated Bib:
Le grand Meaulnes by Henri Alan-Fournier
Alan-Fournier is considered a classic French Novelist even though he only produced this one novel before being killed in War. The novel is about his longing for a lost world of delight, with the love of his life. There are many descriptions of the character's longing for his love.

Film still from production of Le Grand Meaulnes

Graduate School Applications

Pratt Institute- Brooklyn, NY

Master of Fine Art with concentration in Photography

U.S News and World Report rating of 3.7, number 15

Why I am interested in the school, and what looks unique about the program:
(From Pratt's website) "Pratt is not a school of a specific type of work. Although the students apply in an area of emphasis, the program is designed to encourage a wide variety of interdisciplinary and cross- disciplinary study. It is our goal to encourage students to develop their vision in ways they could not have anticipated before arriving at Pratt. The Faculty, all of whom are practicing artists, are incredibly generous in their interactions with students, bringing with them an interest in conceptual ideas along with a respect for the achievement of craft.

Degree requirements include nine credits in art criticism/history and six credits in the liberal arts. Twenty-seven elective credits may be used for a wide variety of interdisciplinary, studio, or technical courses in any graduate level studio class in the Institute.

All full time students pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree and are taking 12 credits are guaranteed a studio for four consecutive semesters.
Full time photography majors pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree may utilize semi-private darkrooms."

I don't want to stay specifically concentrated in photography in grad school, so the way Pratt's program is run is appealing to me. I like that they encourage learning from other disciplines, and require a good amount of elective credits.

Pratt Faculty: Mickalene Thomas

bio

Pratt Graduate: Elizabeth Stehling
bio

---

CUNY- Hunter College
Art Studio MFA

U.S. News and World Report rating of 3.6, number 21

Why I am interested in the school, and what looks unique about the program:
(From Hunter's website): "Graduateprograms are wide-ranging, affordable, acclaimed and student-centered. They combine extraordinary faculty; real-world training in the heart of Manhattan; an exceptionally diverse, stimulating student population; uncommon respect for your abilities and your time; and unparalleled support for your goals. All at an exceptional value."

I like that this school offers an art studio degree, instead of a degree concentrated in photography. This school is extremely competitive, but I like that it is prestigious because I know I will be getting a great education. I love that it is "affordable" and in New York, which I thought were mutually exclusive attributes until I did this research.

Hunter Graduate: Julia Jacquette
bio

Hunter Faculty: Paul Ramirez Jonas

bio

Zoe Beloff Questions/Response

1. Do you associate yourself with other art movements in history that explored the unconscious processes of the mind?

2. Why is film the best medium to communicate your ideas?

- - -

- What was the most interesting quote of the lecture and why?

"Albert Grass and I are one in the same."

Throughout the entire lecture I thought I was in history class! I was wondering where the art was... then at the very end I realized the entire presentation was her art, her creations. The end was definitely my favorite part of the lecture. 

- Using three words, define the core of the artist's practice and artwork.

artifice

narrative

historical

- What is the most interesting thing you learned about the artist that you did not know before?
The artist entirely fabricates the information she bases her "studies" on. The historical information is loosely based on true history, but the narratives are false.

- Do you know the answer to your two original questions? If so, what are the answers?
I don't really have an answer to the first question, although she did mention something about surrealists.

She did answer my second question which was: Why is film the best medium to communicate your ideas? She said the creates the story first, and the narrative then determines the medium. She does not choose film and then the project, it's always the other way around. Each project she described has a slightly different reason as to why it was filmed. The first project about the disturbed mental patients were based on (fabricated) series of photos and manuscripts documenting their states that she felt were just shy of sound movies.

- What image or artwork do you find the most compelling and powerful after hearing the artist describe it?
The Coney Island Dreamland and Amateur Psychoanalytical Society is the most fascinating now that I know all of it is fiction. All of the plans and comics she presented as being done by other characters in history all seemed so real, and extremely elaborate.

- Do you have any new questions in regards to the artist?

Are you truly schizophrenic, like the mental patients you've dreamed up?

Artist: Melanie Bonajo

Melanie Bonajo's photographs function almost as a catalog of things she sees in her head, or things she thinks about throughout the day. They are not serious, they are not formal, they don't stick to a particular style. In an interview she states that some she doesn't even consider photographs, in a traditional sense, because the lighting and composition don't matter. I wish I had the courage to make work like this. This is my dream. I don't like to make formal photographs, and I despise technicalities. Melanie Bonajo's work is refreshing.

bio

Quotes:

"My ideas are jingles in my head, they come to me. To be able to make a song i have to give stucture to the melodies, like i have to put the thoughts and idea's into matter to be able to impart the information and touch someone like it touched me first. My work is an irregular impulse of experiences and aesthetic enjoyments stemming from the questions I have and the things that I know. I am not interested in a particular truth or a common reality, but I do have to understand and embody my truth, which I find from looking within. Although these things might be universal, consequently, questioning myself leads to the act of questioning you. Nothing should control the spirit."

-from artist statement on fette gallery website

"I create wonder with vengeance about the true nature of things, from my point of view. This outcome – art - must hit someone with its mental and emotional power so you can feel what you see. You can not turn your head away. I believe our language has to be physical in order to touch someone. After any word or image which is a collection of many words hids energy.Holding your gaze upon my photographs is an invitation to play. Confrontation can be liberating but it can also be bizarre. Melancholy and humor are important aspects for me. It might hurt a little, too."

-from artist statement on fette gallery website

interview

gallery 1

gallery 2

artist's website

Idea: Shadows

Shadows were mentioned in my midterm critique in reference to my color filled figures. I had not thought of shadows before when looking at my work, but the comment sparked my interest and I think it's worth exploring.


shadow |ˈ sh adō|
noun
1 a dark area or shape produced by a body coming between rays of light and a surface : trees cast long shadows.
• partial or complete darkness, esp. as produced in this way : the north side of the cathedral was deep in shadow | ( shadows) a stranger slowly approached from the shadows.• the shaded part of a picture.
• a dark patch or area on a surface : there are dark shadows beneath your eyes.• a region of opacity on a radiograph : shadows on his lungs.
• short for eyeshadow .
2 figurative used in reference to proximity, ominous oppressiveness, or sadness and gloom : the shadow of war fell across Europe | only one shadow lay over Sally's life.
• used in reference to something insubstantial or fleeting : a freedom that was more shadow than substance.
• used in reference to a position of relative inferiority or obscurity : helived in the shadow of his father.
• [with negative ] the slightest trace of something : she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was lying.
• a weak or inferior remnant or version of something : this fine-looking, commanding man had become a shadow of his former self.
• an expression of perplexity or sadness : a shadow crossed Maria's face.
3 an inseparable attendant or companion : her faithful shadow, a Yorkshire terrier called Heathcliffe.
• a person secretly following and observing another.
• a person who accompanies someone in their daily activities at work in order to gain experience at or insight into a job.
• [usu. as adj. ] Brit. the opposition counterpart of a government minister: the shadow Chancellor.
• [as adj. ] unofficial or alternative : the Committee of Twenty-Five, a shadow government of unelected businessmen.


Quotes:

“To think of shadows," Victor Hugo wrote in his great novel, Les Miserables, "is a serious thing.”

- Hugo, of course, was addressing vast concepts -- justice, memory, vengeance -- both in the book and in that particular quote. 

"But the beauty of shadows is that they can be so many things: symbols, suggestions, riddles, jokes, threats. They can be anything, or they can simply be themselves -- which is a central reason why they're so cool."

- Life Magazine

"There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast." 

- Charles Dickens

Annotated Bib:

Shadows: Unlocking Their Secrets, from Plato to Our Time

This book explores every aspect of the shadow from science, to history, to metaphor. It is divided into sections: The heart of the shadow, Shadows in the sky, The century of shadows, and Shadow visions. In The heart os the shadow there are sections called Shadow of the Mind, and Shadow of a Doubt, which both sounds very interesting.

‘From Six Mile Village to Three Shadows’, by RongRong and inri

Artist: Laura Letinsky

Paul recommended I look into this artist in a meeting we had in September. When I first looked at her still life photos, I thought they were not really related to the work I'm making. After reading about them I found that her concepts are very much related to mine, but in more of an indirect way. She is commenting on people without photographing people, which is something I like to do. Here still lifes show something missing, time has passed, people have come and gone, maybe a longing for something more. These ideas relate to things I'm trying to explore. Visually her minimal style is appealing to me as well.

Bio:
Laura Letinsky is an Associate Professor in the Committee on the Visual Arts. Originally from Canada, she moved to the United States to attend the Yale University School of Art from where she recieved her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1991. She previously taught at Bennington College, The University of Houston, and the Yale Norfolk Summer Program. "Venus Inferred," a series of large color photographs of couples has been shown in solo exhibitions including: the Guy McIntyre Gallery, NY; Presentation House, Vancouver; Lawndale Arts Center, Houston, TX; pArts Gallery, Minneapolis, MN; and Optica Gallery, Montreal, QUE. A monograph of these photographs with an essay by Lauren Berlant (Professor of English, U of C) was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2000. Selected group exhibitions include: Domesticated, Worcester Art Museum. MA; Verisimilitudes and the Utility of Doubt, White Columns Gallery, New York, NY; The Body Photographic, New Orleans, LO, and; The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC. The work has been published in White Columns Gallery 1995, Mirror Paradox, and Critical Inquiry. Collections include the San Francisco MOMA, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. She has begun a new series of photographs, still-lifes that explore the formal relationships between ripeness and decay, delicacy and awkwardness, control and haphazardness, waste and plenitude, pleasure and sustenance. In winter 2002, she had a solo exhibition of "Morning and Melancholia" at Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York. (from http://cms.uchicago.edu/faculty/letinsky.html)

Quotes:

"I think I was really afraid to look at myself. I had some resistance toward autobiography--I thought if I just photographed what I knew, then nobody else would be able to identify with it. But I also felt like I needed to try to figure out what I really cared about, and I guess part of my art idea, or the way that I work, is about using that as motivation--because it's so hard to make artwork. It takes so much time, it costs so much money, and there's no guarantee that anyone's even going to like it. So you might as well do something you really care about, because I don't know what other reason there is to do it. Whenever I feel like I'm floundering, or I can't locate what I want to do, I always stop, look around, and think about what makes me feel something. For example, I collect things. I can't afford to get expensive things, but I would always go to thrift stores and buy things I thought were beautiful. I love objects, so I began to photograph that subject, and the still-life work coalesced from there."
- from interview

"One thing I've noticed throughout all of your work, beginning with Venus Inferred, is this idea of distance. I'm never in someone's space; there's always a gap between me, as viewer, and the subject. With your newer photographs, you're showing me things that have been left behind, but I can never get so close that they become disgusting, which allows me to view the work more poetically, as opposed to interpreting it in a way that brings up a discourse about the grotesque or the body. The objects are always beyond my reach; there's a chasm I cannot bridge. It seems to be about that yearning or melancholy you were talking about earlier. Not only are the objects left behind, but we've lost our connection to them. 

When I first started doing the still life work in 2001, I was thinking a lot about point of view, and shifting from that earlier stance as a third-person, objective observer watching a couple, to a kind of play that involved a first-person point of view, as if I were watching myself take the photograph. I began to imagine the viewer as being a person in those stories or in those pictures, looking at the stuff in front of them. Then, in 2002, I started thinking about being a kid, and things being just out of reach--the sweet things, the things that are desirable yet also bad for you. I wanted that push-pull: the wanting but not being able to have, the having but not being able to want. "
- from interview

gallery

interview

website

Artist: Nicholas Hughes

Recently I've been thinking a lot about borders, dividers, barriers... etc. Whenever there is isolation, one of these must be present. These things occur in many different forms. I've started to document them photographically. Nicholas Hughes does this as well. His photos are all landscapes, which are beautiful and serene. I'm going beyond landscapes, but his ideas are interesting to read about, and his images pleasing to look at. He is also interested in isolation, and the benefits it provides.

Biography:
(from his website) "Nicholas Hughes is a UK based artist who works mainly within his immediate location whether that be - central London, the British coastline, Switzerland or Germany. His work has recently been shown at ‘Landscape’, the 5th International Photo Festival in Seoul 2005, Paris Photo at the Carrousel de Louvre 2005 and at ‘Earth’ The Houston twentieth Biennial Fotofest in 2006. He has a solo show at the Photographers’ Gallery in London from September – November 2007. He has pursued a career as a photographic artist since obtaining a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in 1998 followed by a Master's Degree from the London College of printing in 2002. His work is represented by The Photographers’ Gallery in London and by Gana Art Center in Seoul and has been featured in numerous publications, including Next Level, Hotshoe International, the Photographer and the British Journal of Photography, and is held in photographic collections worldwide."

Quotes:
“Immensity is within ourselves. It is attached to a sort of expansion of being that life curbs and caution arrests, but starts again when we are alone.”
-Gaston Bachelard (The Poetics of Space). Closing of Hughes' biography on his website.

"In overcoming feelings of isolation I concurred with Alpers’ affirmation that "Artists often need to be withdrawn from the world for the purpose of attending better to it." (Modern Painters)."

-Artist statement for "Verses I"

interview

gallery 1

gallery 2

artist's website

Idea: Borders

Definition:
border |ˈbôrdər|noun
1 a line separating two political or geographical areas, esp. countries :Iraq's northern border with Turkey | [as adj. ] border patrols.
• a district near such a line : a refugee camp on the border.
2 the edge or boundary of something, or the part near it : the northern border of their distribution area | figurative the unknown regions at the borders of physics and electronics.
3 a band or strip, esp. a decorative one, around the edge of something : put a white border around the picture.• a strip of ground along the edge of a lawn or path for planting flowers or shrubs : the garden borders are planted with perennials.
verb [ trans. ]
form an edge along or beside (something) : a pool bordered by palm trees.
• (of a country or area) be adjacent to (another country or area) : regions bordering Azerbaijan | [ intrans. ] the mountains bordering on Afghanistan.
• [ intrans. ] ( border on) figurative be close to an extreme condition :Sam arrived in a state of excitement bordering on hysteria.
• (usu. be bordered with) provide (something) with a decorative edge :a curving driveway bordered with chrysanthemums.ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French bordeure; ultimately of Germanic origin and related to board .

The Treriksröset cairnlocated at the only point where Sweden, Norwayand Finland borders meet.

Astronaut photograph of the France-Italy border at night. The south-western end of the Alps Mountains separates the two countries.

Artist: Nicolai Howalt

Howalt's barren landscapes really appeal to me and my search for places to be alone. I really enjoy her series "borders" where she explores man-made borders throughout Denmark, and how she speaks of them being more mental than real. Borders would be a good thing for me to explore as well, but in a social context.

biography

Quotes:

"Looking at a map of the world with its many frontiers it is obvious that someone drew the lines. Separated the territories. Created new nations, and erased others. Borders do not create themselves. And they are rarely permanent. People talk about natural borders, but they are often equally arbitrary. Take Kongeåen – the river in Jutland that used to form the border between Denmark and Germany. It was natural, but not natural after all. The river is still there, but the border has moved. 
      The word border leaves an impression of something tangible and well defined. But reality is quite different. Standing on a border it seems more mental than real. There are no lines on the ground, and the landscape is identical for miles on either side. The water that separates countries is the same colour. The clouds the same grey."
- Gitte Broeng, from artist statement about Howalt's series "borders"

"The images represent a humanization of nature: Trees figure as human symbols in a series of ”tree portraits” together with larger panoramic landscapes in monumental formats. In this way a suspense is created between immense, impenetrable space and singular, isolated trees."

- From artist statement for "tree zone", a collaboration between Trine Søndergaard & Nicolai Howalt

interview

artist's website

Gallery 1
Gallery 2

Idea: European Union

This may seem like a stretch, but during my last two meetings with Paul the European Union has come up. Not in a political nature, but when thinking about isolation, it's important for me to think about things other than social isolation. Paul mentioned looking into the countries rejected from the EU, and study the unity between the members.

Quotes:
"If you cannot join them, beat them!"

— Danish Foreign Minster Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, in a short statement to television before the European Championship 1992 Final, won by Denmark, shortly after the Danes voted against the Maastricht Treaty

"We are a very special construction unique in the history of mankind ... Sometimes I like to compare the EU as a creation to the organisation of empire. We have the dimension of empire .. What we have is the first non-imperial empire .. We have 27 countries that fully decided to work together and to pool their sovereignty. I believe it is a great construction and we should be proud of it"

— Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, 2007

Annotated Bib:

The European Dream by Jeremy Rifkin

Rifkin claims that the American Dream is in decline, and the European way of life will be its replacement. He addresses how Americans 'live to work' and Europeans 'work to live' which makes for a healthier society. He writes about the history of Europe and America, and how Europe is slowly becoming better suited to adapt to "the challenges of the 21st-century". 

From the 1957 signing of the Treaties of Rome establishing the European Economic Community.

Julika Rudelius Lecture Questions/Response

Do you develop relationships with your subjects? Do you empathize with them, hate them, want to tell them your opinion?

Did you want to do these studies on humanity because you were not satisfied with the people around you? Did your ideas stem from anger or discomfort, fascination, or just a psychological curiosity?

Response:

The most interesting quote: "Representation of truths is non-existent"
I like when she spoke about her experience with documentaries, and how she realized that the style was overrated, and they do not succeed in relaying the truth because they are effected by the filmmaker's opinions. I had never really thought about film in this way.

Core of Rudelius' practice:
power
emotion
politics

The most interesting thing I learned about the artist I did not know before was that she completely controls and creates these filmed situations. When I first researched her work I thought she used a documentary style to relay her message, when in fact she does exactly the opposite.

I know the answer to my second question. Her earlier work came from anger and frustration. As she grew older, she mellowed out and made more complex work that wasn't so angry.

I found the Forever series most fascinating. I've always been interested in high society for similar reasons Rudelius is. I love that rich and powerful people seem to have no concern with the opinions of others concerning their behavior. I've always thought it was the key to their success.

I don't necessarily have any new questions, but I would really love to see her films in their entirety, and in the gallery setting with multiple screens. I was really disappointed she kept stopping her films during the lecture. It was our chance to see them, because they aren't online, and I felt it was wasted.

Artist: John Baldessari

Baldessari takes things out of photographs by painting over them in order to create a new narrative. After thinking about what I could take out or add to my photographs in order to further m concept of isolation, John Baldessari seemed like an obvious example. I've loved his work for years. I've never directly tried to make work similar to Baldessari's, but I'm sure he has indirectly influenced me (until now). I'm going to start experimenting with taking large sections out of my photos, but in a different way, and with different meaning. Looking at Baldessari images was a good way to start my experimentation.

Biography: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/john-baldessari/
"John Baldessari is often irritated. He works in Los Angeles because it tends to piss him off. “It’s ugly here,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s not a city – just an area with no real culture.” Add traffic congestion, noise and smog to its confusing identity and it’s easy to understand Baldessari’s angst. But being uncomfortable in life seems to make John more comfortable in his own skin. “I could never work in cities that are too beautiful. Too much beauty diffuses me. It’s when I dislike my environment so much that I go inside myself and create my best work.” 
- From Artworks article (http://artworksmagazine.com/2009/10/the-sum-of-the-parts-equals-john-baldessari/)
"...by depriving people of what they really want to see, it frees them to change their priorities about what it truly means to understand something. It’s both a trick and a valuable service that has lived on in his work. “It’s a cat and mouse game where I give them clues,” Baldessari says. “It’s like a great detective story where the writer leads you to think you’ve got it all figured out, then, ‘Ah hah! No you haven’t!’ Or kind of like when a woman enjoys being flirtatious instead of saying yes on the first date.”
- From Artworks article (http://artworksmagazine.com/2009/10/the-sum-of-the-parts-equals-john-baldessari/)

Artist's website:
http://www.baldessari.org/

Interview:
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/john-baldessari/

Gallery:
http://www.lacma.org/art/ExhibBaldessari.aspx

Idea: Contact

To research contact, I listened to a Radiolab episode of the same name Paul recommended to me. I provided a lot of different ways to think about the idea of contact, including the decline of public groups and gatherings since the late 1960s (girl scouts, picnics), the influence of television and going to work, online dating, meetup.com, crowd behavior, and even locust anti-social tendencies. They interview a Harvard scholar named Robert Putnam who wrote a controversial book called Bowling Alone.

"Your chances of dying over the next 12 months are cut in half by joining just one group. Social isolation is as big of a risk factor as smoking."
-Robert Putnam from book Bowling Alone

Television, two-career families, suburban sprawl, generational changes in values--these and other changes in American society have meant that fewer and fewer of us find that the League of Women Voters, or the United Way, or the Shriners, or the monthly bridge club, or even a Sunday picnic with friends fits the way we have come to live. Our growing social-capital deficit threatens educational performance, safe neighborhoods, equitable tax collection, democratic responsiveness, everyday honesty, and even our health and happiness.
-Robert Putam from book Bowling Alone

Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Print.

This book addresses the decline in social interactions and it's effects since the late 1960s. The titles comes from Putnam's claim that years ago thousands of people belonged to bowling leauges, but now people are more likely to bowl alone. Putnam provides data on everything from how many picnics people go on a year, decline in voter turnout, PTA meeting participation, trusting your neighbors, and church attendance.

Contact is important to my concept of isolation because it is the direct opposite of the word. By studying human interaction, I can better understand human isolation. I plan on reading Putnam's book, and further exploring the social benefits and consequences of being alone. Informed art is better art, in my opinion.

Contact makes me think about my personal interactions with other people, as opposed to my time spent alone. This picture was taken by my friend Kelley Lousier who is studying photography at Parsons in New York.

Artist: Andres Gonzalez

Visually, I am attracted to Gonzalez's minimalist, documentary style. His photos feel mysterious, yet peaceful. They give a feeling of exploring, wandering, and discovering, that ends in solitude. Hid quote about thinking of the "camera as a tool for reconciliation and problem-solving, even if it never gives a straight answer" relates closely to my process. My pictures about isolation act as personal therapy, even if they don't directly effect the situation. I also like how Gonzalez photographs a lot of mundane subject matter, but makes it interesting because of what he puts into it.


bio:
Andres Gonzalez (b. 1977, United States) is currently based in Istanbul, Turkey. He is originally from California where he pursued a degree in writing from Pomona College in Claremont, California – but after a two year stint in Namibia teaching environmental education and snapping pictures along the way, he realized that photography was a much more natural way for him to express his world view. He is the recipient of the Canon Italia Young Photographer’s Award in 2009, was a Fulbright Scholar in 2008. He was selected as one of PDN’s Emerging 30 photographers in 2006. His work has been published by W Magazine, Monocle, and Wallpaper among others.
(from Verve Photo http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/andres-gonzalez/)


Quotes:
"Over the year, I think I started using the camera to approach the way I was feeling about them, maybe as an emotional shield, maybe as a way to capture some internal conflict."
-Andres Gonzalez for Mossless Magazine (http://mosslessmagazine.com/post/963160937/andres-gonzales)

"The process suddenly felt serious in an abstract way - I had no idea what I was doing, or that I could even express myself with pictures. At that point I only knew of photojournalism, the pinnacle being National Geographic. This felt different, but I didn’t know why. So that was really the beginning, and I still try to hold onto the idea of the camera as a tool for reconciliation and problem-solving, even if it never gives a straight answer."

-Andres Gonzalez for Mossless Magazine (http://mosslessmagazine.com/post/963160937/andres-gonzales)

gallery:
http://www.tinyvices.com/gallery/131181?page=portfolios


artist website: 
http://www.andresgonzalezphoto.com/


interview:
http://mosslessmagazine.com/post/963160937/andres-gonzales

Idea: Suprematism

"Two basic types of creation can be distinguished: one, initiates but the conscious mind, serves practical life, so-called, and deals with concrete visual mind, stands apart from all 'practical utility' and treats abstrat visual phenomena. We find the concrete element in the sciences and religion - the abstract art."
-Kazimir Malevich from his book The Non-objective World, page 11.



"Our conception of reality is likewise changeable and depends upon the interplay of those elements of reality which, as they make their appearance, are subject to one kind of distortion or another in the mirror of our consciousness (our brain), since out ideas and conceptions of matter are always distorted images having not the slightest relation to reality.
Matter itself is eternal and immutable; its insensibility to life - it's lifelessness - is unshakeable. The changing element of our consciousness and feeling, in the last analysis, is illusion, which springs from the interplay of distorting reflections of variable, derivative manifestations of reality and which has nothing whatsoever to do with actual matter or even with an alteration in it."
-Kazimir Malevich form him book The Non-objective World, page 18


Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich. The Non-objective World: the Manifesto of Suprematism. Mineola, NY: Dover   Publications, 2003. Print.
This is Kazimir Malevich book on his ideas about the art movement he created. It explains that emotion is the most important factor for making Suprematist art above all other artistic considerations. 


Gray, Camilla. The Russian Experiment in Art: 1863-1922. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1962. Print.
This book covers Russian art and artists from 1863 to 1922, focusing on major movements. This would be good to read in order to understand what came before and after this movement that lead up to the formation of Suprematism and how it impacted art that came after it. 


The more research I do, the more pictures I take, and the more self analysis I do, I realize that I am very much attracted to minimal design. Being a student, it's important to not tie yourself to labels in order to maintain growth. Trying not to group myself into a particular style has caused me to overlook the fact that my work does have similarities in style throughout my production. When thinking about minimalism, Suprematism came to mind because of it's almost uber-minimal structure. I have never tried making work inside the perimeters of Suprematism, but it could be a good challenge for myself as practice. I am attracted to clean lines, organized forms, and simple but thoughtfully considered ideas. By studying Suprematism, and minimalism in general, I could better refine my practice. 

Malevich, Eight Rectangles 

Artist: Yayoi Kusama

I am mostly attracted to Yayoi Kusama because she is literally insane, and has an extremely interesting character, which is what makes her art. Her art is about herself, and what she sees. My art is about myself, and what I see. Her art is her own form of therapy, much like mine. I think the most interesting art is often not about the worlds problems, or wars, or politics, but about one person, and their one life, and their unique vision the tells a story entirely about themselves. I think this has a lot to do with the basics of communication, and how it's much easier to get through to someone by sitting them down and making your message personal, by attaching a face and narrowing a concept by putting it in a tunnel unaffected by outside opinions. But she is able to communicate because is the end her obsessions often align with others'. A lot can be learned from this hugely successful Japanese artist the voluntarily lives in a mental hospital. She said "If it was not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago."

Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama

Quotes:

(extracted from interview with index magazine)

MIDORI: What are your future plans then, generally speaking?
YAYOI: I want to live two or three hundred years to do all the things I want to do. I really need more time to think. I want to explore myself — my aesthetics, my relation to the world.

"The art that grows out of my canvases forms an environment, aspires to build a new stage on our time, involving the audience who suffer from the same obsessions as mine." (From Kusama's novel Manhattan Suicide Addict)

Interview: 

http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/yayoi_kusama.shtml

http://bombsite.com/issues/66/articles/2192

Gallery:

http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2009-04-16_yayoi-kusama/

Her website: 

http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/e/information/index.html