Event 3 Blog Assignment | Broad MFA Exhibit
For my most recent artistic venture, I had the pleasure and perplexion of visiting the MFA Exhibit hosted by UCLA's very own graduating masters seniors in Broad Hall back in late-April.
To say the least, the exhibit was quite minimalist. Nonetheless I tried my best to interpret the concepts at-hand and create meaning for myself out of the very abstract pieces of art.
During my visit to the gallery I decided to focus on a single room dedicated mostly to art pieces by the student/artist Catherine Ahearn. Her pieces, "Eating and Shitting" as well as "Untitled", were very simple on the surface, and I attempted to gather what they meant beyond the unassuming first glance.
Peep the exhibit below:
During my visit to the gallery I decided to focus on a single room dedicated mostly to art pieces by the student/artist Catherine Ahearn. Her pieces, "Eating and Shitting" as well as "Untitled", were very simple on the surface, and I attempted to gather what they meant beyond the unassuming first glance.
Peep the exhibit below:
I interpreted the displays of wood in the first four snapshots of the exhibit to represent the ambiguity between consumption and expulsion. In her pieces, Ahearn showcases fixtures that look like they can be assembled into both an outhouse or used as cutting boards in the kitchen. In this way, the pieces represent potential for utilization as tools for "eating" or "shitting" as the title suggests. I take this to see how Ahearn blurs the lines between ingestion and digestion - both being a part of the same process and the meeting place is visualized through the blend of materials that exemplify both the place of consumption (the kitchen) as well as the place of expulsion (the restroom).
One of the smaller facets of the installation included a grey mold that resembled both a conglomerate of cups as well as a urinal. To me. In the same vein as the wood pieces in the piece, I found this grey mold to strike me as a middle ground representation of both ingestion (of liquids) as well as a release (of those same liquids).
I believe Ahearn to have tackled the idea of a meeting ground between the ideas of consumption and expulsion coming from the mutual focal point of deconstruction. Just as food is decomposed during the process of eating and remains decomposed until it's expulsion, so too does Ahearn deconstruct the physical manifestations of human consumption (the kitchen) and expulsion (the restroom) by bringing them down to their common ground: places made of wood and plastic.
In essence, the places in which we as humans choose to consume or expel are made of the same materials though they are experienced for two different purposes, which is interesting because it says to me that the way we experience a space is clearly not defined by the materials with which it was made, but by our preconceived notions and expectations of the space to start with.
Overall, however, I wouldn't recommend this exhibit to those not fond of hyper-modern art. You won't find any background to what you see or much history here. But if you enjoy straining your mind and a good challenge to apply meaning to things, then you will at least find some very pleasant exhibits to eye while you interpret them on your own.
Because this was not an employee-manned event (since it is put on by the students), I've documented my visit to the gallery with two adequate selfies below: one with a peer and one with the schedule of MFA exhibits from this quarter.
One of the smaller facets of the installation included a grey mold that resembled both a conglomerate of cups as well as a urinal. To me. In the same vein as the wood pieces in the piece, I found this grey mold to strike me as a middle ground representation of both ingestion (of liquids) as well as a release (of those same liquids).
I believe Ahearn to have tackled the idea of a meeting ground between the ideas of consumption and expulsion coming from the mutual focal point of deconstruction. Just as food is decomposed during the process of eating and remains decomposed until it's expulsion, so too does Ahearn deconstruct the physical manifestations of human consumption (the kitchen) and expulsion (the restroom) by bringing them down to their common ground: places made of wood and plastic.
In essence, the places in which we as humans choose to consume or expel are made of the same materials though they are experienced for two different purposes, which is interesting because it says to me that the way we experience a space is clearly not defined by the materials with which it was made, but by our preconceived notions and expectations of the space to start with.
Overall, however, I wouldn't recommend this exhibit to those not fond of hyper-modern art. You won't find any background to what you see or much history here. But if you enjoy straining your mind and a good challenge to apply meaning to things, then you will at least find some very pleasant exhibits to eye while you interpret them on your own.
Because this was not an employee-manned event (since it is put on by the students), I've documented my visit to the gallery with two adequate selfies below: one with a peer and one with the schedule of MFA exhibits from this quarter.
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