Once (2006)

“Once” is a great film that I recommend to all the music lovers. The journey of “Guy” and “Girl” takes the viewers’ feelings up and down. It is a sad movie in which the two main characters are so right for one another, but other circumstances don’t allow them to be together. But that is the reality of life. The beautiful soundtrack “Falling Slowly” is what makes this film so great. When composing a meaningful song with a meaningful message, you can hear the performers have a stronger connection with the song, and therefore with their audience. What I have noticed about the films that I’ve watched for this course is that the artists seek for connections with others through their art. In this case, the Guy (guitar player) and the Girl (piano player) unify their talents to make a song (Falling Slowly) much better than if they had attempted to perform it by themselves. It connected with the audience.

Rize (2005)

Rize is a very interesting film about African-American roots of krumping. Krumping is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “A positive outlet for anger, a way of spiritual dancing and praise, a popular and fast growing style of hip-hop dance.” It originated in the African-American community of South Central Los Angeles, California. It is free, expressive, and highly energetic. Krumping is also known as “Clown dance” or “clowning” because the dance’s roots were originated by Thomas Johnson aka Tommy the Clown. The dance involves elaborate face painting and freestyle dance moves usually performed in competition with other crews.

 The social content of this film is very powerful. I am not African-American and I have never lived in a place like So Central Los Angeles. It is difficult for me to relate and understand the kind of struggles that the people like the ones in this film go trough. All I can do is try to understand and imagine the anger and frustration that society, poverty, drugs, gangs, injustice, brings to them. People like “Dragon”, Miss Prissy, Tommy, and Larry are just a few examples of people in a community that fight against the “norms” to be better and to better their communities.

One of the scenes that stroked me the most was the one where a large group of African-American people (kids, young, and adults) was dancing on the street next to a fence. I could see how liberating the dancing was to them. Some ended with tears in their eyes, as a sign of liberation. Great stories. Unknown heroes.

MOPA exhibition- Art Event #3

Visiting MOPA, the Museum of Photographic Arts, on October 19^th was a great experience. I’ve never been to a photograph museum before. I was privileged to listen to one of the artist of the “Staking Claim: A California Invitational” exhibition. Christina Seely talked about her photographs in the exhibition, the process of taking them, the techniques that she used, and personal short stories “behind the scenes”. The structure of her pieces was in relation to time, relation to photography and climate change. Then she talked about some structural terms and her connections to nature before, during and after the photographs were taken. 

Sixteen artists, residents of California, showcased their fabulous work. Some of my favorite photographs were taken by Doug Rickard. He is a clever man who made art out of the Google Maps street views. It’s incredible how an internet tool, such as Google Maps, with the purpose of having a street view of almost any place in the map, was taken to a whole new level and was expressed as art. Some images were very powerful; those photographs have a story of the people, place and time.

Who:  Matthew Brandt, Susan Burnstine, Eric William Carroll, John Chiara, Chris Engman, Robbert Flick, Todd Hido, Siri Kaur, Mona Kuhn, Matt Lipps, David Maisel, Klea McKenna, Doug Rickard, Mark Ruwedel, Paul Schiek, Christina Seely.

Where: MOPA is located in beautiful Balboa Park in the Casa de Balboa building, along with the Model Railroad Museum and the San Diego History Center. Casa de Balboa is the building next to the Prado Restaurant. 1649 El Prado San Diego, CA 92101

When: Oct. 8, 2013 – Jan 26, 2014. I attended the event on October 19^th.

Visit: www.mopa.org 

Art Event #2: Queen Califia's Magical Circle

Queen Califia’s Magical Circle

Queen Califia's Magical Circle is a public sculpture installation located in Kid Carson Park in Escondido, California. The French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle used a variety of rocks, color pebbles, glass, mirror, stones, ceramic, and other materials to create brilliant, unique mosaic ornamentation on all of her sculptures. “Queen Califia's Magical Circle is one of the most important site-specific art projects realized anywhere in the United States in recent years,” according to the Queen Califia’s Magical Circle website.

One of my favorite pieces is the sculpture of Queen Califia standing on the five-legged eagle. I walked under the eagle and it’s very impressive how the deep color blue naturally shines creating the effects of the clear night sky and the shinning starts. I really enjoyed that part- just contemplating at the shimmery blue night sky and the small details in the mosaic. 

Niki had traveled the world and knew many different people and places; she brought all different kinds of materials like stones and glasses to bring her ideas to life. I also learned that some ceramic in her art was printed to give the allusion of a specific material. I think that for Niki it was very important to get the right colors and textures that she wanted so that they could bring meaning to her sculpture.

Niki designed the Queen Califia’s Magical Circle with the help of technological tools and computer programs. After Niki’s death on 2002, friends and trained people that worked with her in previous art projects, finished the unfinished QCMC project and opened to the public on 2003.

I visited the place on Thursday, October 10. The garden is now closed for reconstruction of damaged materials. The gates were opened under special request of an art professor in CSUSM for students to visit the place. It is hoped that the garden could be open by January 2014.

I did not know about this place but I think that it is truly magical; I just couldn’t stop taking pictures and be amazed by the quality of detail in each sculpture, the walls, and the floor. I recommend that you visit in the future.

Visit: http://www.queencalifia.org/index.html

Read about the Queen Califia story that inspired Niki's art: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/latinam/calafia/history.html

Chasing Ice (2012)

Chasing Ice is an incredible documentary that follows the project of National Geographic photographer James Balog. His goal is to capture changing glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and Montana. He sets designed cameras to capture the change in these glaciers in a long period of time. Balog believes that there is an existing interaction between humans and nature that is endangering the wiled life. As humans we are contributing to a drastic change in our environment and pushing it to move outside of its normal behavior.

What impacted me the most were the statements that Balog made about the physical change that is already existent and scientifically proven- our air is changing, our agriculture is changing, the biology of plans and animals are changing and we are very ignorant and/or indifferent about the subject. Balog is only one of the many messengers out there in the world who are fighting for an improvement and racing awareness about our environmental problems. 

Balog uses videos and beautiful pictures of nature to show how humans are affecting the natural behavior of our environment and I think that is a very powerful message.

Liquid Sky (1982)

I was very intrigued to watch Liquid Sky, my professor mentioned that it was a very graphic film and gave us permission to not watch it all if we felt uncomfortable watching it. That same day, I went home and watched the whole film. There were some points in the film in which it was uncomfortable to watch, but I just wanted to know how it was going to end. A combination of drugs, sex, and aliens is what makes this film very unique and unusual. The visuals are very colorful; the wardrobe, hair and makeup are very particular as well.

It’s a little difficult for me to take this film and connect it to “arts and world culture”; but I do appreciate the exposure to these types of films and artist like the director and writer of this film to try and see what it is in other people’s brain and how they express it.

Artist Research

 Matt Lipps

Matt Lipps is a Californian artist that has a very particular way to portray his art. His colorful photographs of cutout images bring a different appreciation of photographic art. Matt Lipps was born in northern California in 1975. He received his B.F.A. from California State University, Long Beach and his M.F.A.  in studio art from the University of California, Irvine, in 2004. The Horizon/s series is one of my favorite compilations of Lipps’ art.

For HORIZON/S, Lipps pulled from the first 10 years of Horizon Magazine, a bi-monthly hardback arts journal first published in September 1958. The magazine’s inaugural issue sets up a general invitation to the American people to join the editors of the magazine on a voyage towards an imagined “horizon” of high art and culture – examining artifacts, architecture, theater & film actors, and serving up what would be fine “taste” for those who weren’t in the know – a relatively antiquated way of thinking about art objects.

Lipps used Horizon magazine image cutouts; he arranged the images flat to the camera and photographed them. His work is ultimately exhibited as photography but the process is rich in various artistic aspects. 

The majority of Lipps’ work involves sculpture, collage, and theater staging on a small scale with a cast of paper dolls that he cuts out and props up with supports so that they may stand on their own.

The process starts with choosing the images, then it moves to sculpture because the 2D cutout become somewhat 3D because he makes them stand in a “set”, then Lipps uses shadows, lighting, colors, shapes and space to bring his work alive, and finally he uses theater tools to finalize his scenes.

I like how Lipps is able to bring 2D images into our space, they become vivid and they tell a story. His work brings an optical allusion and re-portraits objects, animals and people.

I’m excited to visit the MOPA this Saturday to see the Staking Claims exhibition and see some of Matt Lipps’ contributions to the exhibit.

Waste Land (2010)

 

Waste Land is an incredible documentary that follows Vik Muniz, an artist, to the wasteland in Brazil. Vik Muniz was able to work with adults and a couple of young people, their life after intervention were never the same. I really love the fact that this artist was very connected to, not only with the sociopolitical situation in the area and his art, but also to the people.

Vik was able to make a social change in a rather ignored community. I think that what brought success to Vik’s projects was the optimism and hope. I began to see and understand the difference in art and types of artists. Some artist, such as Frida Kahlo, did art to connect to herself; it was very personal. Other artists choose to just contemplate and record the aesthetics of the world, like Edward Burtynsky. Vik, on the other hand, is an artist that tried to connect to other people; and you can see that on his art.

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

This film is incredibly intense. It is the story of three little girls that live with an identity dilemma; they are half-caste aboriginal girls that are captured by Mr. Neville, “chief protector” of the aborigine in the State of Western Australia, to be culturalized. 

What I think spoke to me the most about this historical event, is the fact that the White settlers truly believed that they where doing good for those “half-cast” children; that it was a good thing to get rid of that half-cast “new race”. They would do this by culturalizing half-cast children and incorporate them into the White culture and eventually by the fourth generation, their heritage would be “White” and they would become a “clean” race. The film shows the struggle that they go through to go back home. The invasion of the aboriginal lands by White settlers was a very traumatic experience for the natives.

Art Event #1: More than a Fence…

"More Than a Fence: (de) Constructing Mexico-U.S. Borders", is a multimedia installation of photography, sculpture, and texts in the Kellogg library at CSUSM. This installation displays various pictures of the border, sculptures, and objects that made the place interactive to the viewer. It encourages the audience to think about the Mexico-U.S. border and to reflect on it’s purpose.

My favorite(s) art piece was the compilation of the “Loteria”. La loteria is a Mexican game of chance similar to Bingo. In a traditional loteria there are four rows of four images with a name and a number assigned to it. The names are called from the deck with images and who ever fills the board first shouts “Loteria!” I think that it is very interesting the concept of having different images from the border to be represented in a game of chance. The way they named the pictures is very similar to the original loteria like “el soldado” (the soldier), “la botella” (the bottle), “el abrazo” (the hug), but the images are so powerful that it is kind of upsetting. I cannot begin to imagine the kind of experiences that the contributors of the exhibit had and the kind of impact their work is having on their viewers.

I believe that it is important that art shows like this one are shown more frequently, specially in

public places like a school library because brings awareness of the problems on the border to other people that don’t have a clue about it. This art event makes the topic matter.

Who: 

Kendra Dyanne Rivera, Photography

CJ Rivera, Photography

Kristin Moss, Co-Curator

Melanie Chu, Co-Curator

David Avalos, Student and guest coordinator

Pam Calore, Guest artist

Maria Teresa, Guest artist

…and more

Where: CSUSM Kellogg Library, Third Floor.

When:  The exhibit is on display from September 18 to December 18. I attended the event on September 19.

Visit: http://www.csusm.edu/news/topstories/articles/2013/09/Fence.html

The Visitor (2007)

Last week I watched “The Visitor.” This is a film that involves music with connections to people. The djembe or African drum was the instrument that allowed Walter (the main character of the film) to overcome internal issues, but also allowed to have a connection to different people. Walter’s friendship with Syrian “illegal” immigrant Tarek taught him lessons about life. 

One scene that I liked was when Tarek takes Walter to the park, where a large group of people performs. In this scene I could sense that there is freedom and joy on their faces, on their movements. For a moment they are transported to another environment… but when everything’s over, they have to go back to real life and their problems. This film has a sad ending but very realistic to everyday events.

News from Baja California: A Resurgence of Traditional Arts -Mike Wilken

“For thousands of years before their lands were divided by two imperial powers, Native people moved freely throughout this area, linked by cultural, social, and economic ties.”

Wilken’s article about native Californians is very interesting and informative. I find fascinating the fact that the natives of the area are still producing beautiful art objects; objects that they use in their everyday life. These artisans are doing something very important in their tribes and communities. They are passing on their knowledge to a new generation.

In today’s society there are so many things that change every day and things evolve. People seem to change as time goes and certain practices in culture get lost. Wilken talks about how elder members of the tribes take their time and are patient to teach younger individuals about cooking, healing, language, music, dance, and gaming. Taking the time and effort to teach others is not easy nowadays and it is very admirable what these people are doing.

"My Family" (1995)

“My Family” is a film that shares one of the many similar stories that immigrant families live when searching for the “American dream” in the United States. When Jose and Maria begin their family they go through many hardships, including the deportation of pregnant Maria, who was a mother of two children already and a U.S. citizen. Two years after she finds her way back home with Chucho, her two-year-old son. Chucho is a very important character in the story of this family. Chucho grows up to be a pachuco or a zoot-suit who gets in trouble and his decisions and outcomes affect the lives of everyone in his family. 

The story in this movie is not so different from real life situations in the United States with the Mexican-American population. “MY Family” it’s a clear representation of many Mexican-American families; this film shows their culture, religion, food, music, socioeconomic status and the love for each other despite the hardships. Love for their family is what kept them going. 

Even thought this film is not base on a real story, it is based on real events. When California was once part of Mexico, many Mexican families lived peacefully in their humble houses and worked on their land. When the territory became U.S. grounds, then these families lost sense of belonging. In moments like those, it's when family and love bring hope and contentment.

"Frida" (2002)

After watching “Frida” for the third time, I want to say that this film never stops amusing me. There are different aspects about Frida’s life that makes her biography worth of a movie. Her story is so inspiring and admirable. She was not only an incredible artist, but also a strong woman who was able to fight and overcome hard situations in life. 

What I really like about this film was the way the director portrayed Frida’s and Diego’s love for each other. Often times, the biographies of artists stray as a plain 2D story with a list of events, achievements and fails. This film went deeper and made me think about not only the art of both artist, but the love they had for each other and how this affected their art, lives and decisions.

I would recommend this film to anyone; specially the ones who believe are having a hard time with life.