Whitney Museum 2004 Biennial Exhibition
This is my first time visiting the Whitney Museum. Before I actually visited the museum exhibit, I went to its web site first. I was amazed by Whitney Museum’s web site--flashing animations, amazing organization and elegant presentation. On the web site, their art pieces are organized separately in visual map and textual map categories. The themes and mediums are listed in alphabetical order. Compared to other interactive websites I have seen, this web site is one of most interactive website with e-commerce. Unlike the web component, the Museum Exhibition was like a maze to me. There are many varieties of arts including multimedia, paintings, photography, modeling, and more.
Through out the whole exhibition, the one and most amazing theme to me was Dave Muller’s “That Hollywood Adage: Be Nice to People on the Way Up, Because They’re the Same People on the Way Down.” This painting was done by synthetic polymer on wall with mixed-media drawings. This painting was shown with a time line below a mountain shape. There were names of music, and music makers that share a pattern, a context, and a history. The subjects were music and music makers. When I was looking at the painting I saw lots of movement, melody, and variations simply base on its color, stroke and shape. After seeing that painting, I asked myself a question: how can I demonstrate music besides showing a portrait of a singer and his songs?
Out of the array of multimedia in the museum, Andrea Zittel’s “Sufficient Self” was one of the great successes. The story was communicated by showing types and different still images. Most people think still images are strong, individual, and remarkable for the audience; I think that’s why the artist chose still photosgraphs. I’ve done some still image stories before; it’s not easy to use just enough words along with one image to tell a scene. The words have to be meaningful and the image has to be catchy. It is challenging but in a way it is very interesting.
Moreover, Jim Hodges’ “Untitled (it’s already happened)” attracted me the most. It was all trees with native color on the print. I assume the photo was taken in the forest during spring time. It was a chromomeric color print. It was big. The print was a very simple and like any other regular print, however, what Hodges did was cut leaves shape from the surface of print and folded them, which gave this print a special and beautiful three-dimensional view. From a distance, I saw the leaves falling from the tops of the trees, through the air, then onto the ground. It was very attractive and wild. It looked like it’s communicating with me, it’s showing its personality, and giving me an emotional effect. It stirred my imaginations. It inspires me to do something that combines both hand-made and digital art.