I watched the Art:21 Transformation video which showed three different artists who in their own creative ways made fun of something in society. Each artist had done something creative that I have never before seen in art in both good and bad ways.
The first artist was Yinka Shonibare MBE. His artwork dealt with race and class in a way I've never seen before. He incorporated historical events and his heritage into his pieces which I thought was interesting. One series he did contained sculpted headless figures that were elaborately dressed in what we think of as Victorian styled clothing. The clothing was nicely designed because there was a lot of movement and patterns draping over the figures. The clothing in itself I thought made the piece wonderful. The headless figures were of no particular race and I think he did that to show the importance of how race is insignificant. There is also no facial features which would give away any racial identities. The one piece (shown above) with the two headless women holding a gun to each other's head I thought was interesting because he is making a joke about the French Revolution and how the aristocracy got their head's guillotined. I also like his other piece (show above) with the headless figures sitting around a table with Africa printed in the middle of the table. This piece dealt with the scramble for Africa when Europeans held a meeting in Berlin and decided to cut up Africa to each country. I overall like all of his works but particularly the headless figures. I enjoyed this series because they dealt with historical events and demonstrated how ridiculous some were.
The second artist was Cindy Sherman and her art was all about society portraits. I also really liked her work because it was so theatrical. For each piece she would transform herself into a different character by using different make-up, wardrobe, and etc. She would take pictures of herself as these characters and show them in backgrounds where you would think that they were from a movie you had once saw. I thought it was funny how dramatically she could change from one character to the next. Her career seems like it would be really fun when you got to see her shopping at thrift store for ridiculous accessories that she could later use to display a certain character. He job just seems to me like an adult form of playing dress up. Each artwork you would get to take on a new role and get to live as someone else temporarily. I would love to do what she does because I love pretending to be someone I'm not. It's like Halloween everyday, dressing in things that you wouldn't normally wear!
The last artist was Paul McCarthy. I honestly did not like his work at all. It was strange and confusing to me. It was random and I didn't understand what his motives were behind his artwork. The only thing I agree with his on is his one statement, "I'm not trying to satisfy audience". He talks about how his artwork and how it is not like a movie where you make it so people enjoy but rather make it to communicate a message. I completely agree with this because art should not be made to please everyone. If everyone likes your art great, but if not then too bad.
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