Place :: Art V Theme

Just as I have done for the Art IV students, I'd like to ask a couple of questions about the theme for the Art V students. Your theme is "Place", but what the heck does that actually mean? Begin with your own definition. Start with associations.... what are the first things that you can conjure in reference to this word? Here is a list of questions that might get you started......

1. How can you make your art, using this theme, that has a deeply personal connection to your own experience? I ask this question, because art created from one's own experience is often very honest. Honesty is what you should seek in your work.

2. Can you create a work of art that isn't a literal translation of the word "Place"? Write down all of the literal translations that you can think of, and discard those ideas.

3. Do you have to make a painting, print, or drawing to make something that can be considered "Art"?

4. Name 15 places that you have visited and to which you would like to return. Maybe you will find something in that list that makes sense to your own art making.

5. What places bring you peace, anxiety, anger, joy, fear, and sadness? Emotions can be great fuel for honest art.

6. How can you make a political statement in terms of the word "Place". Make a list of ideas, and brainstorm the true possibilities of those ideas. Really develop the ideas in your visual journal until it makes perfect sense to you. Once it makes perfect sense, ask yourself ten more questions about it.

7. Can you think of a place that has iconic associations? What are those icons, and how can you utilize those in your work that makes a statement about the place from which you derived those icons.

This type of questioning will produce sophisticated ideas about your own work. Get in the habit of approaching your work in this manner and your work will improve at a rapid pace. I also suggest brainstorming beyond your own ability to fabricate the work. Though you will have to actually make four works of art by the given critique date, it's always a good idea to think even bigger than just this class. Imagine your work in the Museum of Modern Art... how would you display the work? How could you take over a large gallery space using the ideas that you conjure for the work that you are actually producing for me.

You have been assigned to study the work of Richard Serra, and Christo | Jeanne-Claude. I highly doubt that Jean-Claude and Christo think in small terms when they are conjuring their artistic projects. Try to imagine the brainstorming process by which Richard Serra achieves his final ideas about his work. These are artists who depend on "Place" for their work, but they certainly weren't limiting their ideas to the traditional idea of "art in a gallery".