EXTRA CREDIT

Response to Yayoi Kusama’s “Love is Calling”

            I absolutely fell in love with this exhibit. Yayoi Kusama’s “Love is Calling” does such an amazing job at making you feel so small in a space that seems as if it goes on forever. The room could not have been bigger than an average bedroom, yet the bright colored sculptures and the infinity mirrors gave you a sense of something bigger, grandeur, and more than meets the day-to-day eye.

            Kusama explains this piece has a representation between “mortals and the unknown expanse of the universe.” The polka dots on the sculptures represent being your own one dot, your own single life in the existence of a world, an infinite world that is much bigger than any of us can imagine. She believes that infinity cannot exist without human presence. This idea was very imminent in this installation because this entire exhibit would mean nothing with human interaction walking through and between this piece.

            It honeslty makes me really think about infinity. What would an infinite world mean without us to fill it, give it meaning and truth. We are responsible for filling this entire infinite existence with as much passion, care, and love that we can and I think that is where she derives her name from. “Love is Calling,” to me, represents the need for humans to give into their love for themselves, for others, and for life in general. Understanding that we are but one piece in a never ending galaxy of beings helps us to make our own time here as significant as we can, giving love as we receive it and more. I loved this exhibit.

Response to Lorna Mills “Ways of Something”

            I have to start off by saying that “Ways of Something” is one of the most brain-picking pieces of art that I have seen in a long time. After watching the original, “Ways of Seeing,” I thought that I had a pretty great grasp on what John Berger was saying about art and the change after the internet, photographs, and mass reproductions. It wasn’t until after I watched Mills’ remake that I understood it in a different way.

            First of all, I thought that the fact that she had 30 different artists produce 1 minute clips of their understanding/deconstruction of the original was very unique. Not one artist had the same style, and even though each minute was completely different and skewed, they still collectively created a beautiful whole piece that coincided with the original. Mills’ stated in an interview that she never once acted as a director for this project. She simply let the artsits’ be free in their expression as long as they kept the closed captioning in some way. She felt that was what tied everything together.

            Art now, “after the internet,” has become such a broader, grander scheme of things than it ever once was. As Berger explained and Mill’s developed, the meaning of pieces of art differ based on where you view it, what you hear when you view it, and what is surrounding you while you view it. Meaning is completely dependent on those factors and now, because people have access to anything at the touch of a few keys, art can be more widely seen and expressed in a multitude of ways and I think that is the most beautiful thing about this compilation. Expression of meaning and feeling is completely ambiguous.