Week Six: Video Review

1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Through the Eyes of a Sculptor

-Emmanuel Fillion, a French sculptor, started stone carvings when he was 15.

-His first restoration works were on monuments and buildings, namely the Notre Dame Cathedral.

- During restoration works, the carver uses geometric shapes and works from a plan. They breathe new life into new sculptures.

-Fillion, who is now a master sculptor living in California, traces the development of a life-sized sculpture of two horses and a man from its original sculpting in Italy, to the final installation on the private estate for which it was commissioned.

-When starting a new sculpture, Fillion first sketches the piece and then models it in clay. He then makes a silicon mold to plaster cast the sculpture.

-Fillion searches for the perfect marble block. He travels to Carrara, Italy where over 1 million tons of marble is removed from the mountains each year and artists have been getting their marble for over 2,000 years.

- The video shows the process of Fillion’s conception into actualization. He uses special artisans to help him with the modeling process, molding process, and carving process.

Glass and Ceramics

-In glassmaking, fluxes such as potash or limestone are added to a silica mixture that is heated until it turns into a liquid. Then the glassblower uses a process to create glass shapes.

-Glassmakers modulate light by using different glass colors and textures. To make leaded glass, the glazier makes a small-scale model of the project first. The final, cut glass pieces are then fastened together with channeled lead strips.

-The crystalline restructuring of clay molecules during cooling is what gives ceramics their hardness and resistance. Multiple items such as dinner plates are dry pressed by pistons that exert even pressure to prevent distortion.

-Ceramic materials can be stronger than steel and are capable of withstanding extremely high temperatures.

-Ceramic prostheses are stable and well tolerated in the body. In the future, ceramic vehicle engines will be lighter and efficient.

-Glass can be used in architecture, where it fulfills many technical functions such as heat reflection and retention. Double paned glass windows absorb sound vibrations and provide thermal insulation.

-Laminated glass is an effective solution to glass that can shatter and cause injuries. Thick, laminated glass is commonly used in schools and sports facilities.

-Glass is slowly taking the place of stone as a building material.

Installation Art

-Installation art is a fashionable and controversial trend that manipulates space and perception and forces the viewer to look at 3D spaces in new ways.

-Richard Wilson’s art depicts the playfulness between the work and its surroundings. He creates site-specific art.

-Computer-generated music emanating through the Millennium Dome near London represents the true essence of sound over 1000 years and forces the listener to interact with it.

-From pop art springs performance and conceptual art, from Marcel Duchamp using ordinary objects to the Merzbau Reconstruction using “found objects” to Yayoi Kusama’s “The Driving Image.”

-Video imagery dominates art today. Susan Hiller has been using multimedia since the early ‘70s as seen in “An Entertainment,” a gigantic theater that reduces the audience in relation to the art.

-Installing difficult art items creates a new industry. It takes Mike Nelson a month to install “Coral Reef” after taking months to collect the items for it. With all the dismantling, galleries choose art carefully.

-As art of the moment, installation art is applied to a wide range of work from community art projects to world famous projects like Hirst’s “Mother and Child Divided” and Tracey Emin’s work.

2. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

The videos relate to the readings in the text, because they show the involved process and discipline that each art form requires. Each art form requires its own methods, set of materials and tools for creating. It also shows the variation of material use within a defined art sect. Sculpture encompasses carving, glass blowing, and installation art.

3. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the topics: Sculpture, Installation, and Craft?

 I thought the films were very informative and interesting. I especially liked ‘Through the Eyes of the Sculptor.’ It’s so remarkable to me to see contemporary artists traveling and working through the footsteps of their predecessors and even working on the same projects in the same fashions. I also really appreciated when he went to the marble quarry and was so selective about his material. I truly believe that the maker bonds with his/her material that is used for creation and forms a special relationship and understanding with it.