Midterm Response

In writing my midterm I made note of Julia Sher and her work.  To me, her work is provacative and imposing, and is very powerful conceptually.  The means in which she uses surveillance in her video installations, quite literally exposes the dominance within surveillance.  Her installations, through which visitors can view themselves, spy on, or reversly be spyed on, creates the experience of what surveillance is, and the irony of it all.  For anyone wanting to experience something similar, I suggest going to the Chuck E. Cheese in the Vancouver Plaza.  I know it sounds funny but they have a whole system of cameras and monitors, through which the children can watch live video of themselves and other people in the restaurant.  You can even control the view of a camera which is shown on a TV visible to everyone.  Overall, it makes you think about surveillance, and how you are constantly being watched everyday.

Mid-term response: Gilbert and George

For my mid-term response I decided to focus on the art couple Gilbert and George. In chapter 4 the two artists were briefly touched on and their piece Cool that was a part of their Perversive Pictures exhibition. Cool can be found on pages 194-195 in the class book. In their galleries they have many manipulated photos with hip hop culture being their main influence. Gilbert and George are known to provoke outrage and create photos that confront human issues from daily struggles. The photo I have included in this blog is called The Wall and was created in 1986.
-Laura LaVergne