Week 1 Assignment
Discussion of at least 3 Artworks from the project references located in the course outline (250 word minimum); Discussion of Text from the project references located in the course outline (200 word minimum)
In Andreas Gursky's photographic work "99 cent", the photograph shows rows and rows of food ranging from juice bottles, cookies, and candy that are all the same price of 99 cents. As you scan your eyes from left to right from the bottom of the photograph to the top, you can see the red colored number "99" pop out in all sorts of products. Then ultimately at the top of the photograph along the walls of the store, you can see the number "99" in a much bigger size and the color blue. The point of this photo can be seen in all parts of the photograph. The artist is capturing the modern world of consumerism where people go for big quantities for cheaper prices. The bright colors all over the photo gives life to the products and the meaning of different products in a world where they are used by many people.
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/andreas-gursky-99-cent
In the artwork created by Tim Gaudreau called "Self-portrait as Revealed by Trash: 365 days of photographing everything I threw out", the artist shows in the form of photographs what he threw out. As the artist continued to document his trash each day, he realized that much of what the artist threw out was food packaging and plastic water bottles. The results from the 365 project changed the behavior of the artist in changing his habits in the amount he consumed to eventually trying to cut back everything he was using. From looking at the picture of the artist's artwork, the self-portrait was a very powerful way of seeing a number amount to how many items the artist used. The pictures of the stuff he threw away to the varieties of colors that can be seen when a person looks at the artwork puts his consumption into perspective and adds another meaning to consumption.
http://timgaudreau.com/2012/trash/trash.html
Artist and biologist Brandon Ballengée's work called the "Ghosts of the Gulf" was exhibited at the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries which conveyed some marine animals that were obtained from the Gulf by Ballengée. The marine animals that were obtained from the Gulf were made by injecting dead specimens that Ballengee found washed up on the beach with red and blue dyes. Then the fish were scanned using a high-resolution scanner to show the rich and intricate beauty of the Gulf's ecosystem. As you can see from the stingray above, the specimen is shown to be transparent to showcase the vulnerability and the fragile nature of the organisms with the threat of toxic contaminants. The clear and visible depiction of the organism's internal structure to see how the spill in the Gulf affected the creatures internally. Looking at the internal structure of the organism, a person can document how an event like the spill in the Gulf can affect the bodily organs of a creature over time.
http://www.hudsonvalleyalmanacweekly.com/2014/11/25/brandon-ballengees-ghosts-of-the-gulf-at-beacon-institute/
