Thursday, September 17, 2009
Megan Combs, Assignment #1
Sue O'Donnell's collection of pieces in her exhibit entitled "Memory Maps" forms a cohesive whole. The work is made up of several pieces of art which stem off of one another to create a lifetime of memories. These individual works are set up in an organized way that both allows the viewer to move easily through the whole exhibit and makes sense. The text in the display transitions into each "map" which then also transitions well into images and various other art media. Each work combines to create a sort of timeline, so one individual piece is definitely influenced by the previous one. Each piece is a part of a story and the whole series forms a sort of artistic biography.
My favorite piece in the exhibit was Memory Game. I chose to write about this piece of work in the exhibit for a number of reasons. The formal elements of this piece that I enjoyed were the use of black, grays and white as well as the combination of wall mountings and blocks. The two separate but consistent objects work very well together to form a whole. It is important that the pieces on the wall are square shaped, any other shape--even rectangular--would not work as well because of the addition of the sort of "memory building blocks." Another formal aspect of this piece that I found important was the use of not only textual elements but visual elements as well. I find it extremely important to utilize both since a memory truly relies on being expressed by these two things. This made me think of a scrapbook which also lends to the idea of preserving and letting go of memories.
I really enjoyed the fact that this piece was interactive. I was intrigued by this not only because of the obvious interest that a viewer would have in any interactive work but also because the hands-on side of the piece was really important to me since I felt a very strong connection with the whole collection of work. Obviously my life is nothing like that of Sue O'Donnell's but the idea of letting go of all of the memories and secrets that she sort of set free through this body of work was something that I felt I could relate to. It just seems to me that this would be such a weight lifted (to have all of these thoughts organized into one "memory map"). It was such an incredibly personal work of art, as was the entire exhibit as a whole.
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I chose to write about this piece as well. I also enjoyed the way O'Donnell set up the blocks as part of the piece that could be interactive. While my life is not like O'Donnell's either, I also felt like I could relate a little. The whole exhibit really made me think about all of my memories too, and how physically laying them out would feel.
ReplyDeleteI didn't write about this piece, but it was one of my favorites. I really liked the way Sue O'Donnell used the blocks in correlation with the pictures that were on the wall above. Also I found this piece to be the most obvious of the collection, which was kind of nice after walking around and trying to figure out some more complicated work. After I put the whole thing together visually, it kind of read like an old movie being projected onto a wall. I really liked that aspect of this piece, it just gave it a certain homey feel that made it easier to relate to.
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