Artist Lecture #4: Amy Stein

Amy Stein's work absolutely floored me with the insane environments she produced. Though she took ordinary things, she created extraordinary images. The passion for her work shines through in the fact at how hard she worked to produce the photographs that she wanted. Her series "Domesticated" involves the combination of animals in various state of being; some are alive, some dead, and some preserved through taxonomy. She decided to incorporate these elements into this town that had to deal with wild animals on a daily basis. The clarity, lighting, and mood of her images makes her work inescapable. One glance can suck you into it entirely. She completely immersed herself in the culture of this town and their daily plight.
In another series, "Stranded," Stein drove aimlessly across endless highways to find drivers whose cars had broken down for one reason or another. She wanted to photograph the situations they were in and perhaps get a glance into their lives. She began to carry her own version of a survival pack, including food, water, gas, and a few other odds and ends. Though shy to begin with, she eventually overcame her fears and approached these random people with help in her mind. She realized that they were both gaining something out of the experience: her the picture and them help. The images evoke feelings of boredom, exhaustion, frustration, and a wide spectrum of other feelings one could imagine.

Artist Lecture #3: Paul Shambroom

Paul Shambroom is an American artist who focuses on the cultural power aspects of this country. One of his series focuses on varying nuclear sites and bombs. He has documented abandoned nuclear facilities, nuclear warheads that have been adopted as monuments, and people that work in nuclear warfare. His images are strikingly beautiful and some hilarious. He has found his own style in following something that has caused so much fear in the hearts of American citizens. The work he did with people working in the field is incredible. Though many would be frightened to be near any warhead, these people deal with them on an everyday basis. He did a great job capturing their comfort and ease with such a dangerous task. Another series he produced involved various small town council meetings. In the style of the "decisive moment," found by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Shambroom waited until the exact moment of perfect harmony between the council members. He utilized available lighting, which adds to the overall atmospherical quality. He has taken things that we might find scary or mundane and found a way to show them so that they are more accessible and even intriguing. His work definitely has a part in the cultural history of our nation.

Artist Lecture #2: Mark Dion

Mark Dion has made a career as a collection artist. He finds objects, documents them, and places them in various cases. His work is archaeological and anthropological. In 1992, he ventured to Venzuela, traveling around with native tribes. On his trip, he collected different materials and objects and sent them to the museum he was working for. He told them to place the objects on four different tables, but did not give them any instruction on how they should do it. Then, he would find different kinds of animals and insects. If he could correctly identify them, then he would send a list of the names and have his colleagues place them in empty vitrines. His work focuses on the history of natural history. On another entymological endeavor, he took leaf litter from different places and separated it into all its components. He then took a photo with a microscope and presented his images with no concern for scale. For another project, he shut down the Smart Museum in Chicago and with a team, found every living organism that should not be there. For an archaeological project in Switzerland, he took material from beneath some houses at a high elevation. The history of the objects he found was condensed because the objects could not be described in relation to each other. The most interesting project he performed was in Bankside on the coast of the river. The river bank would only show for four hours each day in which he had people either over 65 or under 17 hunt for every manmade object they could find. Over the summer, they cataloged each item, cleaned them, and prepared them to be interred into a giant wardrobe. The final display was a collection of photos of every person who had a part in the project.

Artist Lecture #1: Alix Pearlstein

Alix Pearlstein is an artist who works in sculpture, installation, and dance/choreography. She has found a way to incorporate her love of the three different mediums by combining them in short films. She focuses on dematerialization to the point of non-existence by breaking things down to their absolute core. Her influences include the history of post-modern dance and wants her work to focus on the importance of the performance. She does not necessarily center on the quality or content, but of the physical actions of the performance. One of her first projects was "Two Women," created in 2000, which included one live performer and a magazine cutout of a woman. The two images are laid over each other to interact with each other in an abstract way. There is also a voiceover that gives the two women commands and periodic moans puncture the sound byte. Another project of hers is "Episode" from 2002 which follows the narrative of a family drama. There are four characters and through slight sounds by each, the audience is given their dynamic as father, mother, and two children. She wants her locations to be an indeterminate void so that fill that blank from our own experiences. One project she created called "Forsaken" was made as a response to the Bush administration. She did it in a very pessimistic time, focusing on a person in a great place of power. The general public wonders why this one person should be in charge of everyone else. It had a feeling of the Emperor's new clothes, creating concern that the one person in control is so gullible and easily manipulated.