Week of April 25

Wednesday, April 27

Jill Magid is an American artist that was once involved with the Dutch Secret Service. In 2008, she created the work "I Will Burn Your Face" which was a wall mounted piece with 7mm neon transformers and wires. It was altered permanently in 2009 to reflect confiscations by the Dutch Secret Service. "To Burn a Face" is a phrase used to expose a source's identity. Jill Magid wrote down descriptions of agents she interviewed and then used these descriptions to "burn" them. The neon words are from her notebook in her handwriting.

Week of April 18

Monday, April 18




Banksy is a British street artist that juxtapositions images to create his works. The place where the image is located connects to what he is trying to say. However, a lot of his works are anarchy signs. Banksy does not like copyright laws as he does not believe that people should "own" their images. Banksy is an anonymous artist. He displays his art on public surfaces such as walls and even goes as far as building physical prop pieces. He does not sell photos of his art directly himself, however art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location. The image above is located in West Los Angeles, California.

Week of April 11

Monday, April 11

Today we watched the video "A Darwinian Theory of Beauty" by Dennis Button. In this video it is shown that beauty goes beyond the standard idea that it is in the eye of the beholder. Dennis Button believes that how we experience beauty is based upon our evolved human psychology. We adapt to beauty and use this in the creation and enjoyment of art and entertainment. Beauty travels across cultures which underlies the foundation of what every person believes is beautiful. We do agree somewhat with Dennis Button's belief as many of our instincts and feelings toward certain objects is learned. However, every person differs in what they feel is beautiful even if they follow the same cultural characteristics as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Wednesday, April 13

Jeremy Deller is best known for his "Battle of Orgreave". This piece was a reenactment of the actual Battle of Orgreave that took place in 1984 in the UK. This reenactment took place in 2001. Deller collaborated with members of historical societies and with local people from mining communities in South Yorkshire. Jeremy was drawn to reenactment because it was seen as a type of folk art. Folk art is specific to a particular culture and it is hard to describe it as a whole.