This past weekend my mom, her friend, Anne, and myself went on a Jewish artist exhibition all throughout Los Angeles. Anne, an art collector, invited my mom and I to join her friend’s art group called Artis. Artis, according to it’s website, http://artis.art/, states, “Artis is an independent nonprofit organization that supports contemporary artists from Israel whose work addresses aesthetic, social and political questions that inspire reflection and debate.” Artis, in addition to supporting Israeli artists via artist grants, Artis also chaperones individuals interested in learning more about Jewish and Israeli art on art tours and invites them to attend exhibits, etc. On Saturday’s Artis Los Angeles tour, we attended a few different artists studios and workspaces. Two artists, in particular, resonated with me. The first artist was Barak Zemmer; Zemmer recently took part in a group show at the CEPA Gallery: Contemporary Photography and Visual Arts Center, in Buffalo, New York, a show that received an Exhibition Grant from Artis. Zemmer, a contemporary photographer, is interested in flirting with the idea that his camera forces him to look at life. Zemmer claims without his camera he is not in touch with himself, his journey of coming from Israel to Los Angeles and his surroundings. I found this especially fascinating, as so much of the time, contemporary scholars claim humans miss out on experiencing life as millennials primarily only focus on his or her screen and/or his or her image of themselves in their screens, etc. Additionally, Zemmer likes to challenge the notion of time versus space versus depth, and to do so, Zemmer photographs unusual, Americanized sculptures up against beautiful landscapes. Zemmer likes to challenge the notion that individuals live in “boxes”, so he primarily photographs aquiriums, bathtubs, airplanes, cars, etc. The second artist that resonated with me was Zemmer's wife, Roni Shneior. Shneior received a grant for her project at JOAN Gallery, located in Los Angeles, in 2017. Shneior is an artist who primarily utilizes paint and sculpture. Shneior informed her audience that the majority of her most successful artwork is produced via her unconscious thought(s). For example, Shneior was recently pregnant, and during her pregnancy she only craved cigarettes and pickles, and therefore all of the sculptures she was making would somehow involve pickles, whether or not she intended for that to be the case. During this time she described her artwork to have portrayed her subconscious feelings and cravings. Secondly, after having her baby, she went on many walks around her neighborhood with the baby and enjoyed looking at the plants surrounding her. To her, these plants represented a rebirth and a new sense of life, and so she found herself subconsciously painting a lot of trees and plants. Additionally, I thought Shneior's most important message was the notion that all of her pictures begin as one thought, but are never entirely executed as such. To specify, what ultimately came to become her self portrait began as a painting of a cave. With this message, Shneior reminds her viewers that life happens and if we try to stay within the plans, boundaries and lines of life, we will not be happy. She believes art allowed her to understand that in order to live a happy life one must accept and invite in the unconscious changes.
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Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary DesignMy older brother of eight years came to visit me in Atlanta this month, and with his arrival came about the question of where do I take him? Fortunately, my brother and I have similar interests -- we both love popular culture and visiting museums -- so, we decided to spend an afternoon at the High Museum of Art. As we got to the museum, we decided to leave their temporary exhibits till the end. The beginning of our experience at the High felt very mundane and momentary. Therefore, we expedited our regular museum going process and made our way to the museum's specialized exhibits, hoping it would be of greater interest to us. The exhibit that caught our eye the most, "Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design" was not only opening that day, but it was also the most fascinating and inspiring exhibit I have attended in a while. "Making Africa" "offers a vision of Africa in the twenty-first century as a place of unbounded optimism, rapid growth, and massive cultural transformation and presents the continent as a hub of experimentation that generates innovative design approaches and solutions with worldwide relevance." (https://www.high.org/exhibition/making-africa/) The exhibit itself houses a plethora of diverse artwork by more than 120 differing artists, ranging from "playful to provocative to political." As my brother and I took our time exploring the different African social and political videos, drawings, sculptures, paintings, fashion pieces, etc., we came across an artist that sparked both of our curiosity. This particular artist is Omar Victor Diop. His personal website is https://www.omarviktor.com/home-omarviktordiop-photograph. Unfortunately, the portraits that are portrayed in "Making Africa" which inspired us the most, is not available online, but another portrait of his, which was also shown in "Making Africa" is available online and is shown below. I feel Diop's images, especially the one presented above, is eye-catching as it is not only overwhelmingly colorful, but also, the patterns that are represented here and so contradictory, but are also so perfectly paired. Although she appears lonely her posture and the power in her eyes suggest the total opposite. Additionally, there is something very powerful about a woman being draped in such colorful garments.
After my brother and I departed from the museum we researched Diop further. We leaned Diop photographs portraits, constructs costumes for wax dolls and creates fashion, all inspired by African traditions. I believe Diop's work left such a lasting impression as his work is authentic, dramatic, purposeful and multifaceted. I believe, if the world of digital media and culture, was to view more of this style of image, and flirt with this type of artist, the media sphere would be a more pleasant realm. |
Hayley AlperinSenior at Emory University, Media Studies major, Archives |
Photo used under Creative Commons from IQRemix