Santiago Calatrava was born on July 28, 1951 in a town near Valencia, Spain. As a youth, Santiago attended the Arts and Crafts School. He then pursued his undergraduate studies at Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura (The Architecture School). Afterwards, he continued onto graduate studies at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland for civil engineering where he received a Ph.D in 1975. During this time, Santiago met and married his wife, who had been a law student in Zurich.

After Santiago’s studies, he began completing engineering commissions in developing various structures such as Stadelholfen Railway Station in Zurich. His legacy of bridge designs began when he designed and built the Bach de Roda Bridge in Barcelona, Spain. He operated firms in Zurich, Barcelona, and Valencia. Thus far, many of his works have been featured in Spain, Italy, Swedan, England, Germany, New York City, and Chicago.

Santiago’s work has been noted to be the union of structural engineering, architecture, and art. Most of his works portray constant motion and even incorporate the human body movement. Santiago’s Turning Torso is inspired from the way a human’s torso would twist; this is a very natural movement (nature), yet used in a very non-natural manner (building). Also, sphere forms are evident in his designs, as well as overlapping layers- most obvious in roof structure (I see it as a hovering/bending-over effect). Glass and windowing are also used to create transparent “space”, which almost creates the illusion of a cut-out.

In my opinion, the works of Santiago Calatrava are very unique and one of a kind, as he combines realistic qualities (mathematical exactness/geometry) with a dreamer-like aspect (the constant movement/flight/rise). The natural world and its repetitive forms are evident through his works.

Turning Torso in Swedan:

      →     

The Tenerife Opera House in Spain:

    

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (the City of Arts and Sciences) in Spain:

 

Lyon Airport in France:

 

P.S. I ♥ 3D!!!!

Norman Foster was born in Stockport, England in 1935. He has been known to have been inspired by the works of  Frank Loyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. In 1967 Wendy Cheeseman and Norman Foster founded Foster and Partners. The company currently works with engineering firms to perfect the most simple laws of physics. They integrate the laws such as convection, into the archetural designs.His designs have been seen all across the world projecting visual images that reflect his intellectual and modern style. His early works were focused on a very high tech vision but have since evolved into a more subtle and whimsical modernity. Foster tries to incorrporate a sense of air or floating-like quality in a number of his works. The buildings in which he has designed have a very prominant sense of roundness and depth. In someof his works the buildings apear to have been blown up with air or deflated. As seen in the images below.

At the age of 8 Santiago Calatrava was interested in art an architecture.  His parents took advantage of the opportunity to send him to boarding school in France when he was 13.  Calatrava intended on attending the Escuela Tenica Superior des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but plans fell through and he returned to Valencia and enrolled in the Escuela Tenica Superior de Arquitectura. He received a degree in Architecture and engrossed himself in many independent projects. With a clearly mathematical mind, Calatrava decided to attend post-graduate studies and earn a degree in civil engineering. 

 

Soon Calatrava began completing small projects and entering competitions. This lead him to establish his first office in Zurich to carryout one of his projects. However, it was the building of the Bach de Roda bridge in Barcelona, Spain that made Calatrava’s success known worldwide.   He opened his second office in Paris, and the third in Valencia.  Calatrava’s work began to spread throughout the world as he immersed himself into project after project from Zurich to the U.S.  Calatrava’s first building in the U.S. was the expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2001, and then the Sundial Bridge in Turtle Bay, California in 2004.   

 

Calatrava has received much praise for his astonishing work.  This includes the Gold Medal of the Institute of Structural Engineers, London, England, as well as countless other medals and recognitions from across the globe.  Inspiration for my Inflatables project came from Calatrava’s design below.  

 

For centuries art and spirituality have been intertwined throughout history. Through art people have been able to provide a visual outlook on the abstract theories of the afterlife, death, the nature of the universe, and moral law. Different Religions have provided an array of diversity within art. For instence some religions portray beliefs directly like through images from the Bible, others on the other hand have very mystic and whimsical approaches. In more recent time spirituality has taken a path towrd more nonconventional ideas some that would be marked as offensive. It has taken “art about spiritual beliefs to be hip and avant-gard”. There are a few Startagies that that visual artists take when dealing with specific themes. These help mold the minds of the viewers. The manipulation of forms, material, and process play a very large role in completeing the peice. For example ancient practices of iconic art involve a spiritual renewal and sacrafice. Materials can range from everything to prcious jewels to dung. Each material symbolizes something different to each culture. Artists also have taken means into minipulating meanings and the mind. Each peice of art is trying to find  link between the spirtual world and the natural world. There have been a wide range of ways to address death, doom, and destruction. Art has been prevelant in expressing the dark side of sin and death. In contemporay art there has been alot of works relating to nuclear warfare, AIDS epidemic, terrorism, wars, and ecological issues. Fro instense paintings called Atmosphere, American Rosss Bleckner reflects death through skeletons, candleabras, and urns full of flowers. Contemporary art has also become more attuned to mixing the sacred and the secular. At time the art can be shown as a way to point out the flaws of a specific practice by representing it through pop art such as Elayne Goodman’s work Altar of Elvis. 

IDENTITY. Every artist strives to find their own unique identity and convey it in their artwork. Aspects that form each person’s identity include gender, race, ethnicity, and class. These are aspects that affect everyday life for most individuals, and they therefore reveal themselves in artwork.  Robertson states that “a deep, implicit connection between art and human identity has existed through art history. There are different forms of identity, including communal identity and relational identity. Identity can include individual identity, social identity, and cultural identity. According to Robertson, identity asks not only the question “Who am I as an individual?” but also “Who are we as members of groups?” These questions are answered based on characteristics that differ from one group of people to the next. Identities are created by differences between individuals and between groups, and is therefore relational. Throughout the history of art, group identities of artist have been formed based on many traits, including gender, race, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. Identity based groups include women artists, Native American artists, and black artists. While the individuals who fall under these categories may have very different individual identities, the common sharing of a certain trait allows individuals to be grouped together and share the label of a specific identity group.                                                         Self Portrait with Monkey, Frida Kahlo 1938  (Frida Kahlo put great emphasis into creating likenesses that captured her identity)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Identity is not something people are born with. Identity is formed and shaped by experiences, social class, religion. Identity is molded as we mature and experience life. Identity is also not constant. No one suddenly “gets an identity,” rather, one’s identity is constantly being re-formed, shifted, and updated as an individual comes in contact with everyday life, especially other people, ideas, images, and other artwork.                                     Catherine Opie “Chicken” 1991                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ”Memoirs of Hadrian #26″ Lyle Ashton Harris 2003                                                                                                                                                                                                    Untitled, from “Kitchen Table Series” Carrie Mae Weems 1990                                                                                                              Detail from “La Bicicleta” Pepòn Osorio 1985

Greetings fellow 3D pupils! Welcome to my sweet blog upload about none other than Chapter Three of the thrilling read, “Themes of Contemporary Art.” You may have noticed I’m well over a week behind in uploading this, thanks to a combination of horrible procrastination, slight computer/blog illiteracy, and crappy wireless. But! Nonetheless, my edition has finally arrived! My chapter is all about PLACE, so let’s start at the beginning!

The article opens with a rather poignant statement about place - “Where you hail from and where you now reside are two of the most significant facts about anyone” (Robertson/McDaniel). I find this to be especially true for us deep art kids - we need lots of references for creativity and ideas! When looking at art history, this fact is prominent when studying various culture’s art pieces. Africa wouldn’t have the Fresco paintings found in Europe, Native Americans wouldn’t have Japan’s prints, and Russia’s architecture wouldn’t resemble any of the buildings in today’s New York City. Place alters people, and people alter place. The journey between A and B gives the same affect - what influences you at the start, during the journey, and at the final destination?

Another compelling aspect addressed is the idea of maps. A world map we see today is completely different to the way the world used to look millions of years ago (yay Pangaea!) Thanks to internet/cyberspace connections, once distant places are now only a click away.

The book defines place as “…a location. A place can be as large as Africa or small as a closet. A place can be real or imagined . A place is a site of possibility, hypothesis, and fantasy - a somewhere where something might occur. Today, a place can even be a nonplace, perhaps in cypberspace. People interpret places just as they interpret other cultural images, objects, or texts. Place is a function of both perception and cognition” (R/M). Well damn! I think that says it nicely.

Two more interesting concepts were found throughout the first few pages -

One –> “It is common, for instance, to observe that an event “took place.” Saying this, we lay bare a bedrock assumption: something doesn’t happen unless it happens somewhere” (R/M).

Two –> “…suppose a women’s college became coeducational. The buildings and campus grounds would basically remain the same, but a new psychic space for the voices and viewpoints of male students would open up” (R/M) - think about it Saint Mary’s!!!!!

Before divulging further into interesting concepts/ideas, let’s look at some of the artwork by the artists mentioned in this chapter…

Anselm Kiefer

Ed and Nancy Kienholz

“Art about artificial places may examine the artificiality of real places that exist (or could exist) in the world.”

David Hockney

“Places exist out there, external and independent of our thinking about them, but the concepts we use to organize and interpret places are inventions and interventions of human thought.”

Kerry James Marshall

Mona Hatoum

Kathy Prendergast

“Art about artificial places may examine the artificiality of real places that exist (or could exist) in the real world.”

Richard Serra

Tadashi Kawamata (we should try this with all those craptastic old chairs in the sculpture studio!!!!!:D)
Roxy Paine

(<– SOOO pretty!!!! I’m trying this next autumn!) Andy Goldsworthy
Something else I found quite fascinating is that by the 1980s, every kind of artist agreed that no work is seen, understood, or analyzed “independently of its exhibition context, nor is it entirely free of the cultural connotations of the place in which the originated.” In other words a steel cube piece sitting in the middle of an empty gallery created by an Asian person is observed/interpreted/analyzed differently by someone hailing from Africa, America, the Middle East, etc.

Now, I’m sure by now at least some of you know how much I DESPISE winter. After all, I never wear pants…maybe I’ll bust out some sweats every now and then. I can NOT wait to get the hell outta here (though I do love St. Mary’s, don’t worry:)) and move my ass down South fast! Florida is my number one pick, so the next piece I found to be extremely AWESOME. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are categorized as land artists, and with this following piece, I have to agree!

“Surrounded Islands”

Basically, these guys…

used pink woven polypropylene fabric to wrap six and a half million square feet of a series of islands in Biscayne Bay, Florida. I’m also quite a fan of their piece “the Gates…”

(my favorite color is orange!!!:))

Of course, some environmentalists were pretty pissed at all the ecosystems their Island piece janked up, but I’m sure they’ll grow back…

Another artist’s approach that I found to be quite interesting came from Diana Thater, who used various architectural structures to display her large-scale video pieces. Windows, walls, floors, columns, and ceilings were used for projection viewing, rather than a screen, television, etc.

Looking back on artist Tadashi Kawamanta, one of his pieces was almost like a two-for-one special. In 1988, a piece titled “Favela in Battery Park City: Inside/Outside” was installed in New York City. In fact, it was attached to the World Trade Centers. His piece was a reflection on the contrast of urban poverty versus corporate wealth. Though it was no longer installed on September 11th, 2001, the idea speaks volumes since the idea of the World Trade Centers has been forever changed.

Another treat of photos of work? I think so!!!

Hiroshi Sugimoto

“We are touched by the fact that life, even fictional life, can take place in such narrow confines.”

(same)

Piero Gilardi

Richard Misrach

“What does it say about us that make-believe space can seem more real to us, because we know it in more intimate detail, than our neighbor’s house, a place we may have never been invited to?”

“Just as the zone between the real and the artificial is eroding, the borders between public and private have blurred.”

“A home can provide security and safety, but it can also be a place of confinement, of being bounded by rules and shut off from opportunities and possibilities outside.”
To summarize what was provided in the chapter, the following aspects of “place” were defined and discussed: meanings, value, history’s influence, imaginary, existing in the place, looking/viewing, construction/deconstruction, placeless spaces, public vs. private, and the in-betweens. As the world continues to evolve in areas of technology, architecture, mapping/exploring, anthropology, medicine, law, and of course, art, the definition of place will continue to alter. It is my opinion that technology has, and is, playing the biggest part in this change. With the constant “now, now, now” attitude of cell phone texting, Facebook status/Flickr, iPods, etc. the entire attitude of the coming generations may bare little to no resemblance to our parents parents. A rather stark and unsettling thought, but one that gives a great amount of inspiration to us art kids. : )

Till next time my fellow pupils, keep it funky, keep it fresh, keep on keepin’ on.

Yours Funky,
Katie Fisher

-Vernon Fisher was born in Texas in 1943. He combines mixed media of installations, written texts, photography and found objects. He also uses visual narratives using slang and colloquial language “that explore the nature of story telling”. the texts help exemplify underlying political and economical implications. His stories are ambiguous in meaning. He also draws his sunjects from everyday observations and childhood experiences.

Check it out:  http://art.newcity.com/2009/01/19/eye-exam-cracking-the-type-cast/ 

Gary Panter was born in Oklahoma and is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician and head set designer for the Pee Wee’s Playhouse!  (where he recieved three Emmy Awards).  He was one of the most influential graphic artist of his generation.  He recieved the Chrysler Design award in 2000.  He has also an underground cartoonist, interior designer, internet animator. He created Jimbo,” a post-nuclear punk-rock cartoon character whose adventures were first chronicled as a comic strip in the ’70s LA hardcore-punk paper Slash and later in RAW magazine.” Panter’s work is said to break the barrier that separates “trash” from “art.” His “ground-breaking were” comics were Dal Tokyo and Cola Madnes.  Panter did not worry about graphice perfection.  He also did commercial art for magazines such as Time, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and The New Yorker.  He was commissioned by Warner Brothers to produce a set of album sleeves for Frank Zappa. He also did covers for Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites  and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. He is known as the “King Of Punk Art.”

Hey 3D Designers! Your 8″ diameter blobule is due at the beginning of Thursday’s class…some students were unclear about this….happy crochet-ing!