Final Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1r_DB3J5dc


Final project: For my final project, I created a video of myself in 3 different locations. First was on the steps of the knowledge center, my apartment and lastly by the river. For the project I wanted to depict the feeling of someone who is about to graduate. In the video, I was smoking by the steps and by the river. And I was throwing old stuff away. This video was inspired by the movie, "Reality Bites." In the movie, they create a documentary of their life after graduation. This final project was my version except I was documenting myself a week before graduation. The meaning of the video is saying goodbye to Reno. The river was my favorite place in Reno. The steps of the school was my ode to saying goodbye to UNR. I personally like to donate old stuff, and I was depicting a real part of myself. Donating old things is one of the things I'm going to do before I move out. And smoking is the biggest part of the project because cigarettes signify my time in UNR and how it is about to end. Cigarettes was also the thing that helped me survive college in my opinion. The costume I wore was to encompass all of the messages I was trying to say.

Response to Heidegger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzRVBnPYGdo

Response to Heidegger: For this project, I wanted to response to Heidegger. He says we make the original meaning of something lose something because we compound it. He also said that we should reject technology, but accept it. And I agree with that in a sense. If you embrace technology and accept it to a fault, there can be consequences. There are also dark sides to technology and my project depicted that through the subject of human trafficking. Human trafficking is prevalent and has now found its way to social media. My projects that as my project emphasizes what exactly can happen in the Internet besides its use for communication. In the video, you will see how human trafficking expires and the overall arch of the dangers of the Internet.  

Artist Lectures and Artist Exhibitions

Luiza Benisano

ART 350s

Clint Sleeper

May 7, 2015

Artist Lecture

            For my artist lecture, I chose to go to Joel Swanson’s artist talks. Joel Swanson’s artist works played with the use of letters. I liked his play of words for his artist work because I never realized the importance of letters, how it denotes messages and how personal and impersonal it can be depending on how the sender uses it.

            On his work “Wish you were here,” he found a letter that had the title of his work on the letter that he scanned and printed on a wall vinyl. I thought it was such a great art work because, in one’s lifetime, people are going to receive letters from somebody important to them and I don’t think people really internalize the letters that were written to use to convey a message to them. And Joel Swanson does that perfectly.

            On his work “Ampersand,” he wrote full ampersands on a 13 x 13 wall. It took him days to complete it. On the top wall, he used a ladder to complete an ampersand and on the bottom wall, he had to lay down to complete the ampersand. His other work called “Homophone,” the words right, write, rite are all interweaved and so every letter are a reflection of each other.

            Overall, I really like his work. I thought it was different and eye opening. I have never paid attention to letters and he opened my eyes to that. I want to be able to be introspective of letters because it has so much meaning behind it without people even realizing it. His work is unique and a one-of-a-kind artist who explores the usage of letters.

Luiza Benisano

ART 350s

Clint Sleeper

May 7, 2015

Artist Lecture

            For my artist lecture, I chose to go to Terry Marshall’s talk. Terry Marshall said that a lot of his artwork is inspired by X-Men’s Storm. I thought his artwork was very interesting because it is dedicated to African-Americans in light of lives lost such as Trayvon Martin, etc.

            When he did his artist talk, a lot of young African-American kids had recently died in the hands of men with guns. His talk was emphasizing that all lives matter and that black lives matter. A lot of his work was dedicated to this issue. A sample of his artwork was titled “Black Body Survival Guide.” The Black Body Survival Guide is a book full of tips on how not to get killed if you are an African-American. One of the tips in the book says, “Hands up and always look happy.” This book is supposed to experiment with social justice.

            He also founded Intelligence Mischief in 1995. Their “Hack Lab” is used to engage in conversation about civic engagement. Their purpose is to help low income communities to solve social problems.

            Overall, I really appreciate Terry Marshall’s artwork. I like how he has the talent to incorporate his social work for a social cause. I also like his artwork because he incorporates the identity of African-Americans to his artwork and he reiterates and stresses the importance of their lives. The message of his artwork after all is: black lives matter.

Luiza Benisano

Art 350s

Clint Sleeper

Artist Exhibitions

            For my artist review, I chose Tehching Hsieh’s work for review. His work is titled “One Year Performance” in which he dedicates a year of his life to do enduring performances. His performances accompanied his personal statements, which are rules of what he can and cannot do within the performance taking place. His first “one year performance” was from 1978 to 1979 in which he was to be in solitary confinement in a cell-room for a year. In this performance he deprived himself from having any human interaction or technological use. Food was the only source he was allocated. His second “one year performance” was from 1980 to 1981. In this performance, he punched a time clock every hour for one year. He had to come back for every hour in the studio for an hour. The last “one year performance” he did was from 1981 to 1982. In this performance, he had to stay outdoors for a whole year. He could not go in to a building, subway, train, car, airplane, ship, cave or a tent. He only had a sleeping bag for a whole year. I think his series of one year performances were rigorous. In my opinion, doing an artist performance takes a lot of dedication to art. Teching Hsieh’s dedication to art however, is to the extremes. I do however, enjoyed his work a lot because it almost tackles the essence of time. Time is something that is so fleeting that nobody can really encapsulate what happens in one’s life in a year. He on the other hand, was able to successfully encapsulate the essence time through his series of his performances. Along with his performances, he took a picture of himself every day to be able to record the change of time. Overall, I thought his work of art was successful because I think he was able to experiment with art while incorporating his life into it. 

Luiza Benisano

Art 350s

Clint Sleeper

Artist Review

            For my artist review, I chose artist Renee Byer’s work for review. Renee Byer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning documentary photojournalist for The Sacramento Bee. Her exhibit, “Living on a Dollar a Day” depicts the struggles of people who live in extreme poverty. Renee Byer traveled to ten countries worldwide to be able to take photographs of the daily struggles of people. She traveled from Bolivia to Africa. A lot of the photographs of people she took had a background story of their struggles. One of the most poignant photographs she took was of a boy cleaning in up a dump site in India, and behind the photograph was a little girl defecating not too far away from the boy. Other photographs include of a child herding alpacas and llamas in Bolivia. Alvaro Quispe, a 9-year-old boy helps his family survive following the death of his father by herding. Another photograph titled “Working to Survive” depicts Fati, an 8-year-old searching for anything she can find in a waste dump so she can exchange in for pennies in order to survive. Another photograph in her exhibit is titled “Children Helping Children” in which a little boy named Vishal Singh, 6, cares for a baby girl while her mother is away in a slum in South Delhi, India. I think Renee Byer’s art work is inspiring because it spreads awareness of how people can live in such extreme conditions. I personally, come from a third world country myself and I think it’s admirable that she utilizes her art work through spreading awareness for a cause. I also find her art work beautiful in that she uses real subjects, subjects of children and people living in such poor conditions and fighting for survival. To be able to encapsulate real issues and to be able to tell a story using art work through photographs is great work. And a great form of art. 

           

3D Model Project

Artist statement: I referenced a house for my 3D model project. I decided to use video images of places where I used to live to symbolize that I have moved everywhere and don't necessarily have just one place that I call home. It's also a nod to my current situation because I am graduating in less than 3 weeks and Im still in the process of finding out what my new "home" will be.

3D Model Project

Chromakey exercise