Art 21 Reflection Three

Imagine skating on that.  Really cool, right?

This time, I will write about Maya Lin and Tim Hawkinson.  Ms. Lin is an artist who clearly uses a lot of architecture in her work, as she designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  She is shown making an "ecliptic ice rink," that has lights underneath it so it looks like the night sky.  She says her work "deals with naturally occurring phenomena" and is "closely aligned with geology and landscape."  Based on what I have watched and read so far (memorial and ice rink), Ms. Lin's work is about transforming the atmosphere around the art, or creating a "mood."  I think that the mood the rink creates is really peaceful, and creates a calm atmosphere for the people of the city.  I think it is great for Ms. Lin that she did a favor to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Her work is one of my favorites so far, and I even liked it as much as the gunpowder drawings.  Sometimes, it is hard for me to explain why I like or dislike something, but I just do.  I just like the idea that the piece of art will become a part of the community, like the library or the corner store is a part of a town.  These installations help the community be unique, and this one even includes a restroom!  I can not relate to making a giant ice rink project that took years, but I can't help but wonder how she came up with the idea.  It's like John and Joe's idea for the mural:  I still don't know where that came from (maybe they just wanted to throw something).  After I saw how Ms. Lin had multiple diagrams, those atlases, and all of those people working on it, I can appreciate how much work it took to complete this.

This is the "Emoter," a clever combination
 of "emotion" and "motor."  It moves, too!

Tim Hawkinson is an artist who seems to generally make giant installations of kinetic sculptures.  The moving sculpture featured in the episode is called the "Emoter."  From what I can tell, this is a picture of Mr. Hawkinson's face, with movable features that move automatically depending on what's on TV.  He says that he often starts with his own image, but by the time he is done with it, he doesn't identify with it anymore.  His art is about the human body and how it experiences the world around it.  I don't think art has to have deep meaning to it, so when I look at the Emoter, I see a complex machine that the artist probably explored for a long time.  I don't know how Mr. Hawkinson did it, but he clearly sees things differently than the rest of us.  I like his work because it is different from what many of us consider art.  You might say, "You didn't like Mr. Baldessari's work.  How is this any different?" but I really don't know the answer to that, so please don't.  I just think that the Emoter (and the "Drop" machine too) are interesting and innovative designs, and I don't see a moving face machine every day.  The best way I can think to relate to this is those "Rube Goldberg" machines (I really like those things).  I did a group project of that in seventh grade, and enjoyed them a lot.  They required us to be creative to find out how to make something work, and I bet Mr. Hawkinson's experience was similarish, but way more in depth.

Here is a video of one of those Rube Goldberg machines, in a Honda Commercial:  This one's really cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_qUjrMtMec