Paola Antonelli Artist Lecture

Paola Antonelli is a designer that came to VCU to speak about her work that she does at the Museum of Modern Art. She graduated from the Architectural School of Milan. She focused her talk on the use of design in the present day, as well as how design is much more involved in the arts than normally perceived. She also mentioned specific ideals that were present in art, and especially design. Firstly, she talked about balancing the goal and the means, and how to use it effectively. We, as artists should not try and get all we can, but rather use what we already have in our means in the best way possible. Another part of this idea of using your resources to the fullest is displayed in her next point she discusses.
She emphasizes the benefits of what she calls “an organic path”: walking through your art that you follow, acting upon it with your means, and doing what you want and love to do, which will all lead you in the right way. She talked a lot about how we as artists and designers need to be able to stand on our own, sticking by the work we create and love, and being proud of what we do. These things will lead us to being able to make a difference. She seemed extremely focused on giving motivation, focusing on ways that we all can be happy, and not necessarily be rich in. The ways she described helped me understand that doing what I want to do, rather than doing what will make me money is what you should aim for, so that through the hard times, you will be motivated to continue, where you might be more inclined to give up what you are doing, if you do not want to do it.
Her final piece of advise was to leave some of the story unfinished in your work. People like to finish your sentences, and if you leave a little up for interpretation, then you capture the audience in a way that they had to think about the work to understand it. Her talk was very enlightening, but it focused on how artists should focus doing what they want to be happy.

Alfredo Jaar

Daniele Buetti was born in Fribourg, Switzerland in 1955, and after she finished school, she became a professor at the Kunstakedemie Munster, and lives in both Zurich and Berlin. One of her pieces caught my eye, in the use of her expression and emotion that is depicted through her work. The piece below reminds me of a piece that would represent different stages, angles, and feelings of my own personal struggles with my own identity.



In the photographs of this montage, she has people photographed with marks, and scars on their body that represent, in my own opinion, the individual issues that each of these people have that obstruct their own finding of love. The piece is called “looking for love” and the marks on each of them reflect on the fact that everyone has issues with searching for love, and the difficulties, the consequences, and the reactions of such a difficult thing to find. Personally, being that I used to identify with this subject specifically, I find a strong and powerful reaction to this work, but it can also be looked at with a slight twist. I think that the marks and burns can represent the internal self trying to break out, as if it was someone completely different, like in my case. I also feel that my subject matter reflects and responds to everyone, and that they can relate somehow to an alternative or internal struggle. This piece seems to tell that the internal struggle is love, and that it is trying to break out, to show the true person inside. We are all broken people inside, and we try to hide that, however, this piece shows that searching for love involves and is directly related to the broken person inside of yourself. That person needs to be realized as much as the exterior person. This whole idea can be directly related to my own work about identity, which is why I feel this piece is so strong and powerful.

http://www.artnet.com/artist/3284/daniele-buetti.html
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/425971213/171564/daniele-buetti-looking-for-love--good-fellows-pinwall-nr-36.html