Event #1 Making Strange: Gagawaka+Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram
I went to the Fowler Museum at UCLA on a sunny Friday afternoon and visited this Making Strange eventby Indian artist Vivan Sundaram along with two other events there. Entering this event, my first impression was that there are extensive use on human organs and bodies made by fiber glass and lots of medical elements that would normally appear in a hospital.
This Making Strange event is strongly connected with our topic in week 4 which is medical technology and art, and it also connects with the week 6 topic biotech and art, so I would recommend my classmates to attend this event. Because it is shocking and provoking to see artificial human organs and body parts as a part of art exhibition and it will enhance our understanding in medical technology and biotech topics.
While walking around this exhibition, I noticed that there seems to be another theme, not all of the artwork involves body parts. After consulting the museum staff, I knew that there is another theme, which is an fictional fashion brand. Vivan Sundaram fictioned his own fashion brand and part of the exhibition is like the display area in a fashion brand boutique store. For example, there is a artificial model wearing clothes made of oxygen mask and someone wearing clothes made of something like medical antiseptic gauze.
The mannequins in the left is wearing clothes made of medical gauze.
The art work by Vivan Sundaram in this picture is showing a display of human body organ.
By placing mannequins wearing fashion brand clothes made of medical supplies and human organs and anatomy body parts, a very strong artistic contrast is made to viewers. Each viewer will have different thoughts on this contrast. I think that it artistically reminds us the vulnerability of human body and the close connection between mannequins wearing fashion clothes and human body parts, organs and anatomy.
In an artist's way, the art exhibition Making Strange created a contrast between fashion wearing mannequins and human body organs and parts, made me aware of the close relationship between them. If you stand further from the artworks, you can see artworks of the two themes at the same time.
Placed together, a strange contrast emerges between two themes Gagawaka and Postmortem, and I think that's why the whole exhibition, consisted of the two parts Gagawaka and Postmortem, is called Making Strange.
* I asked every staff in the exhibition to take a photo with me, but they said they had issues with this photo-taking before and only the staff at the reception can do that, so I took pictures of myself at different events and a photo of me and the reception staff.
Citations and References:
1 Sundaram, Vivan. MAKING STRANGE. 6 June 2015. GAGAWAKA+POSTMORTEM. Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles. All photos were taken by myself at the event
没有评论:
发表评论