Essay #3

As humans quickly develop and technology begins tying in with daily life, self-expression becomes an ambitious task. The New Museum’s 2015 Triennial: Surround Audience presents the response of 51 different artists to this fast paced connective environment. Initially, I was disoriented by the amount of work surrounding me, it was difficult to take in one piece at a time and my emotional response was based on everything as whole. I think this reflects well with social media’s intrusion in our life and how it’s pretty much always surrounding us wherever we go. I also interpreted this layout from an artist’s point of view; they’re all eager to express themselves in a unique way. Trying to be part of the new movement before it’s even known. And that’s the beauty of it, there is no narrowed down movement. It’s uncertain and the flexibility this allows artists is fantastic in terms of self-expression. Art seems to be adventuring in uncharted areas. Anyway, I was finally able to isolate and focus on specific pieces after re-visiting the museum.

HCL H264, 2012 by Peter Wächtler was definitely one of my favorite artworks presented. It’s a black and white video of a crutch character wrapped in bandages, expressing itself as it walks infinitely towards nowhere. “I left trouble behind”, the subtitles read when I first stopped to take a look at the artwork. I watched a couple minutes of it, entertained by the humor and crudeness of this character. It talked about love, mischief, and self-absorption. It touched upon many aspects of life that are presumed to relate to many, but more importantly it reminded me of myself. The character’s exploration of it’s self-conscious was compelling and I never thought of it being done in such a way: simple in its presentation, but striking in its delivery. The piece highlights the benefits of incorporating technology in narrative, what before would take 500 pages to express would conceptually be transmitted in roughly 8m. I was delighted while reading the information on this artist, Wächtler is not only an artist of various degrees: film, sculpture, photography, drawing, but also a fiction writer. I always wondered why artists often seclude themselves into one area of artistic expression instead of touching upon them all. Why can’t you be a photographer and a painter?
 
The second piece I chose was by Firenze Lai, titled Tennis Court.  The painting is of a figure standing in a tennis court, leaning unsurely against the net. This piece caught my attention due to its similarity with the surrealism movement. I thought it presented many similar ideas, presenting the artist’s eye. However, Lai has a much more in depth analysis of her paintings. She refers to them as “adjectives in a sentence”, and closer observation does make it clear that the figures portray more of a self-aware perception. Her pieces are a portrayal of anxiety, pain, and social relations, among many other emotions – that now have become prevalent due to our focus on social interactions and urban experiences. The morphing of the feet in this particular piece reminded me of the tension you feel to perform well in sports. We don’t often think about the effects these sub-conscious emotions have on our body and it was interesting seeing Lai express these aspects of the mind having a physical effect. These emotions, both old and new, are transformative to the self and their exploration gives a deeper understanding of who we are.