Sunday, September 13, 2009

Residual Reality Art Show/Roundtable Discussion

The whole experience of attending an art show, let alone taking an art class is a whole new ball game for me. Plus it doesn't really help that I am a Public History major and the bulk of information that I learn about is all factual information. The Residual Reality Art Show/Roundtable Discussion was a new experience that opened up my view of art and what it may mean to each artist. We learned in class that the term Residual Reality was coined by the late Robert Heinecken and was quoted to have said, "Some of my enthusiasm for the (found) photograph was based on the fact that there was some residual illusion of reality in it always, no matter what I did to it." I still fully don't understand the full meaning of this statement, but I don't know that the meaning is supposed to be an obvious thing. What I have learned so far, from the show and discussion is that art, what it means, and the artist's influences are different for everyone.
It was interesting to learn that the Residual Reality Show was about a lineage of artists and their influences during the roundtable discussion. It was one thing to view the art and see and talk to the artists, but to hear who their mentors were and their influences was a whole new thing entirely to understand. For example, Patrick Nagatani's discussion about his mentors and influences really hit home for me. It was incredibly interesting to hear that just from having a lot of stories and influences can create such amazing and unique art. His views that art is all about interpersonal relationships was a new perspective that was new to hear. Until I heard him speak about his perspective I had never really thought about art in that type of emotional and personal sense before. It really made me realize that art isn't just something to look at or try to understand. From a history major perspective, I have now learned that the artist's work is are not documents of the world as most think of photography.

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