slide film update and reasons why

Today in class we went over "interrogating" our word, so I decided to sit down and make notes on the whole "why am I buying all of this dang used color slide film off of Ebay".
this is what I came up with:

buying slide film of past events, family's, etc. why?

-lack of family and memories, not knowing my family (not even sure of any of the names of my cousins, aunt, grandparents on fathers side). lost memories/ memories that my mom doesn't care for- maybe I like taking these memories that no one cares for and making them tended to again?

-not close with many family members on my Mother's side, due to distance and no communication nothing bad happened or anything.

I asked my mother for old color slide film, give me some and then went digging...I found a lot more hidden in drawers that she forgot about. I found parents honeymoon slides, some of the only photos I've ever seen of them together- married for 16 years. I have never seen my parents together, lack of knowledge of any of my family. Interested in parents slides for that reason. Scanning them in I became overwhelmed with feelings that I wanted to repurpose these old memories.

This is cheesy, but I found a link to repurpose photos and thought some of them were worth keeping
http://www.brit.co/30-diy-photo-projects/

I would love to get into doing things like this with the photos!

So what are your thoughts on repurposing these photos? any thoughts on how I could make them my own while still keeping there integrity?

Wet Plate Collodion Portraits by Jacqueline Roberts

        I stumbled across Jacqueline Roberts, a Spanish-born artist, in an article in Featureshoot. Unlike modern photographers who use digital cameras or film, Roberts uses a process invented in 1851 to create these enchanting images. This process is called wet plate collodion. It is very tedious, as the photographers must expose the plate, develop, and fix it all while the plate is still wet. Despite how delicate the process is, each plate is an original and cannot be replicated the same exact way.

        The series above is called 'Nebula', meaning 'Mist' in Latin. "The title reflects on the turmoil of growing up with all its relational, psychological and emotional changes," says Roberts. She elaborates that beyond the aesthetics of the work is an importance of process and time with the work. She explains that,"In today's world we are swamped with images. If we look back, photographs used to be some of our most prized possessions, the kind of treasures that we would save from a house on fire. We are losing the emotional connection with photographs. Most of the images that we take have become meaningless and disposable. I want the image to be precious again." I definitely think that she does just that. If I were holding any type of art made of metal or glass I would handle it delicately.

On using bodily fluids in art (warning kinda gross n shit)

When I was in high school, I remember a friend of mine showing me this girl's beautiful artwork, all painted in her own diluted blood. At first I was extremely thrown off by the concept, but soon found myself enamored with the seemingly insane idea. One REALLY FUCKIN COOL artist that works exclusively in this medium is Vincent Castiglia, who creates super detailed paintings in only human blood on paper just ugh hell fuCKIN YEAH. It's crazy to me how much control he has over this kind of medium.

Another super awesome/controversial/rad artist is Millie Brown, who uses her own vomit as a medium. What she does is she drinks dyed milk or various colorful liquids or sometimes even glitter, and vomits it up onto a canvas. The finished pieces end up being crazy bright jackson pollock-y splatter pieces.

Occasionally she'll even use herself as her canvas:

The process itself becomes a performance piece of it's own, I personally find it really interesting to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dZ5BtZkIR4

 She even collabed with lady gaga, once at SXSW, and another time for a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHrsxnb_oIw

Personally, I do find it rather gross at first, but after getting past that I also really really love it - especially considering it's performative nature, and the idea it's grounded on of the body itself as a medium. I've actually considered at several occasions getting blood drawn to use for a piece, though I'm probably gonna make sure it's for a piece I'm extremely passionate about more than others, whatever it may be.

ANYWAY YEAH BLOOD/VOMIT ART IS FUCKIN RAD (at least in my opinion)

Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer is a German painter/sculptor/photographer who incorporates a lot of different elements (ash, clay, straw) to give different textures to his work.
His work often addresses past hardships, most prominently the Nazi rule just prior to his birth. He attempts to confront this dark past head on, while it is typically an unspoken topic in his native country.
I'm really drawn to how dark and gritty his work is. I've often gone to the VMFA to sit in front of his piece Landscape with Wing just to think/gather inspiration. It is a very large painting (130 x 218 in) which really adds to it's impact.

He is best known for his mixed media paintings, but started out with photography in the late 1960s. 

in 2010 there was a documentary about him working in his studio compound in France directed by Sophie Fiennes entitled Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow. The compound itself has become somewhat of an installation. Check out the trailer, and if you have a chance to watch the documentary in it's entirety I highly recommend it!

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow trailer

Wei Ligang

Wei's art is beautifully simplistic. For me, I find the minimal designs and color schemes super satisfying. They are plain pretty to look at! Reminds me of what Shane was talking about how not everything NEEDS to have deep meaning or elaborate plans, you can just make something that you just simply enjoy the looks of it. AS LONG AS YOUR MAKING. personally iv been trying to focus more on the overall design of works instead of a subject.

https://www.artsy.net/artist/wei-ligang-wei-li-gang/works

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese Photographer. His work is influenced heavily by Dadaist and Surrealism. As well as writings and works by Marcel Duchamp. He is very very technical, but also really conceptual and philosophical. His work is about themes of life and death as well as exploring photography as a method of preserving and modeling time. “Endeavors in art are..mere approximations, efforts to render visible unseen realms.” - Hiroshi Sugimoto

He uses an 8x10 large format camera, and varies the length of his exposures to achieve different tonal richness in his photographs —sometimes even up to 3 hours— (as seen with the seascapes series) 

The first ever photographic show i remember seeing was a commission by the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago) to have Sugimoto travel the world and shoot large format architectural photography. I think the show was called time exposed and it featured some of his seascapes and blurred images of famous architectural sites and buildings. and these images were enormous, I mean perhaps it was just that i was a really small child, but these things looked HUGE! i was completely engulfed in these images and i remember being dragged out of there because i would just sit there for hours staring at these giant mesmerizing things on the wall.

Side-note: He’s also a sculptor and an architect and he photographed Richard Serra’s sculptures. (http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/joe.html)

Also another notable series is his lightning fields where he took Van De Graaff 400,000 volt generator, and he applied an electrical charge directly onto film and the resulting image was that of the instantaneous electrical current being applied.

Seascapes:

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/seascape.html

Architecture:

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/architecture.html

Lightning Fields:

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/LighteningField.html

More Info:

https://www.artsy.net/artist/hiroshi-sugimoto

Ryan Trecartin

Ryan's work is nothing short of mind boggling, making him one of my favorite video artists. He is a video artist currently working in LA with a love for editing. Once you watch the video I linked you will see what I mean. Ryan's work focuses mostly on pop culture and the internet. In his videos he creates crazy worlds that feel like an acid enduced dream or a crazy stream of consciousness after 4 days without sleep. He uses his family and friends as models, which kind of makes sense considering the things he has people do in his work. I mean, if he randomly walked up to me and asked me if I would put a latex suit on and cover myself with blood while spanking my own ass in the name of art, I would probably decline. He makes videos that are up to an hour in length of things just popping up and yelling at the viewers, making people feel somewhat overwhelmed when watching. I for one love it and made it a point to watch one of his longest videos from start to finish to really immerse myself in the madness. Needless to say I had a bad migraine when it was over. But I'm still into it. 

https://vimeo.com/58144979