Learning to Love You Even More

The students and faculty of the Acuff Special Topics Class at APSU (titled I Am. Amen) are putting together and exhibition of art works taken from the assignments on Harold Fletcher and Miranda July’s website “Learning to Love You More” http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/.

Anyone who would like to complete one of the projects is welcome to participate. We simply ask that you bring the work to the Downtown Artists’ Co-op on Sunday May 30th at 1:00. Works do not need to be professionally framed and in most cases you can decide the final size. The assignment guidelines are below.

Please contact Barry Jones: jonesb@apsu.edu if you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing your work.

Sincerely,

The I Am. Amen Class
Assignment #8
Curate an artist’s retrospective in a public place.

Select an an artist whose work you really like and make black & white Xerox copies of their work from books and magazines. Find a public place, a bulletin board, a fence, or a wall, and post the xerox retrospective. Write a curatorial statement describing the artist and your feelings about the work and post that with the exhibition. (Don’t make “art” from the artist’s work–no collages. Just display the images as if you were a curator at a museum.)

Assignment #11
Photograph a scar and write about it.

Photograph a scar on your body or on someone else’s body. Make it a close-up shot so that it shows just the scar. Include a story (write it on a computer as a separate file, don’t write it on the photograph) about how the scar happened. Please do not send images of wounds that are fresh and have not healed. Only images of scars will be accepted.

Send in either the actual photo or a digital (scanned or copied) version of the photograph along with the story.

Assignment #54
Draw the news.

Click on an online daily news page such as Google or The New York Times. Pick a person from todays news, for example, I chose Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who resigned on the day this assignment was written. Type the person’s name into Google Image Search. Using a colored pencil (just one color) copy several images from Google Image Search, forming a loose medley. For example, I would draw a tiny picture of Gale Norton giving a speech, and a large close-up picture of Gale Norton looking down modestly, and one of her holding a plaque with a man, and there is another picture, one that does not feature Gale, but depicts environmentalists protesting her arrival. All these pictures together form a nice portrait of Gale. Use three or more pictures and make sure they all pertain to your person, not someone with a similar name. Underneath the medley, draw a banner with your person’s name in it and the day’s date, for example, my banner would say:

Interior Secretary Gale Norton
March 10, 2006

Assignment #55
Photograph a significant outfit.

Remember exactly what you were wearing during a recent significant moment. Maybe it was the day that your boyfriend broke up with you, or the day your nephew was born, or the day you decided to become a vegetarian. It should be something that happened in the last six months. Lay out what you were wearing on the floor, as if you are dressing an invisible, flat person. Tuck the shirt in to the pants, the socks in to the shoes, etc. Don’t forget the other things that complete your outfit such as jewelry, purse, hat, etc. Do not add anything extra, like a wig or a mask – just the clothes you were wearing. Stand on a chair or table and photograph the clothes from directly above. Not from above at a slight angle, but so that the camera is pointing straight down. Send us the photo, along with the importance of the day, for example, “What I Was Wearing When I Got The Phone Call About Grandma Marris Dying.” Please try and keep your title/description as short as possible. Do not write on the actual photograph, and make sure your photo is in focus. Note: avoid moments that you knew would be significant and so dressed accordingly – such as graduation or Halloween. The outfit itself does not need to be significant, it is just what you happened to be wearing when something of emotional significance happened.

Assignment #32
Draw a scene from a movie that made you cry.

Rent a movie that made you cry. Fast forward to the exact point that really got you and pause the movie. Now draw this freeze-frame as accurately as possible. Also draw the tv and the table, or surface, that the tv is sitting on. Don’t draw any other details of the room; this picture should be floating in the middle of an otherwise blank piece of paper. Draw everything as realistically as you can; don’t be interpretive. Please do not use a computer to make your drawing.

Scan or take a picture of your drawing. Please make sure that your image is clear and in focus. Give your drawing a title, such as “When Tom Hanks sees the dolphins in “Castaway.” However, don’t write your title on the drawing. Please include it separately in an email or on another piece of paper.

Assignment #63
Make an encouraging banner.

Think of something encouraging you often tell yourself. For example: Everything will be ok. Or: Don’t listen to them. Or: It’ll blow over. Now make a banner, making sure to follow these instructions:

1. Draw each letter of the sentence on a large piece of colored construction paper or big squares of fabric. One letter per piece. Draw them blocky so you can cut them out.
2. Cut them out.
3. Glue each one onto a piece of construction paper or fabric that is a contrasting color.
4. Then glue the edges of all the pieces of paper or fabric together to make a banner.

1. Hang the banner in a place where you or someone else might need some encouragement, for example, across your bathroom. Or between two trees so that you and your neighbors can receive encouragement from it. Or in a gas station.

Take a picture of your hung banner and send it to us. After it has been up for awhile, take it down and roll it up and put it under your bed or another safe place. We might very likely contact you wanting to exhibit your banner in a show someday.

Assignment #61
Describe your ideal government.

Describe in a paragraph or two how your ideal government would function.

Assignment #4
Start a lecture series.

Come up with a topic. Something you are interested in, could be art related or pretty much anything else. For instance a lecture series on your favorite artists. Get at least three people to lectures on the topic. You could assign the people an artist to research and then talk about. The lecture series should be held in an informal place that is easy to secure. Could be your living room, a park, anywhere.

Scan your flyer and write up a description of the details of your lecture series.

Assignment #27
Take a picture of the sun.

Take a picture of the sun. Just a picture of the sun, nothing extra or fancy. Please make sure the sun is visible in the photo, we won’t accept reflections of the sun or photos where the sun is not visible. Please be careful not to look directly at the sun through your camera’s viewfinder; looking directly at the sun could damage your eyes. If you need to, just point the camera towards the sun and shoot the photo.

Assignment #25
Make a video of someone dancing.

Download .mp3 of the dance mix. (11 mb)

Make a video of someone dancing to DJ Brokenwindow’s Don’t Dream It’s Over dance mix. We asked DJ Brokenwindow to make a dance mix of “Don’t Dream It’s Over” (by Crowded House.) His source material was the first four versions of this song that were completed for Assignment #24. Play this song and dance to it, or ask a friend or relative to dance to it. Or the two of your can dance to it. Or you can throw a party and the whole room can dance to it. Video this and bring us 30 seconds of the video.

Assignment #30
Take a picture of strangers holding hands.

Ask two or more people who are strangers to you and to each other to hold hands and then take a picture of them. Take the picture when they aren’t smiling. Please make sure the picture includes the faces of the strangers.

I Am. Amen Assignments

1. take a photo of your keychain. Describe each key/card/object attached to the it and explain it’s purpose.

1. Take a photo of your computer desktop.

1. Empty the contents of your purse/backpack and sort out everything side by side. Take a picture of everything including the bag.

4. mmmm. Wonder what is under that bed, or dresser, or chair or anything you don’t usually spend much time looking under? Let’s find out. Take out your camera and capture the unexpected. Have fun!
Minimum size 4”x 4”

New York Paper

New York Trip Response Paper
John-Michael Perkins
4-12-10

My favorite part of the New York trip was being taken so far out of my comfort zone. I don’t do a lot of travelling in general and New York was actually probably the farthest away from Tennessee I’ve ever been. Unless you count Disney World, but I’m not sure if that’s farther away. If I had gone to New York on my own or with another group of people, I probably wouldn’t have done as much. I would have ended up sitting in my room, too busy being overwhelmed with all the sights, sounds, and crowds to get out and actually do something. I enjoyed having a schedule of places I “had” to be. I had a lot of very positive experiences because of this trip, and being a little more adventurous and willing to try new things and go new places is not the least of these.
Another great thing about the trip was the people we went with. It was a really great group and I consider myself lucky for having the chance to get to know most of them a little better. Most everything about the trip I’ll remember forever. I’ll remember the big group experiences we had like all the museum visits and I’ll also remember the more intimate experiences I had with smaller groups. Some of my favorite times were getting lost with people in the city and just wandering around. Most of the time I was lost, Courtney seemed to be there. I’m not pointing any fingers but I will just say that it was DEFINITELY her fault we got lost so many times. The only reason we made it to Printed Matter was because we (probably her) had the foresight to ask the doorman at the hotel. We were about to head out in the opposite direction but decided to ask him at the last minute. On that trip I heard my favorite New York quote. It was said by a passing construction worker and cannot be safely put into print, but it was very colorful needless to say, and made me feel like I was in a movie.
I did not think I would like New York at all, but I did. I don’t think I would ever want to live there but it’s a great place to visit. My least favorite thing about the trip were all the hipsters dressed up in their “individual-and-unique-yet-somehow-exactly-the-same-as-everyone-else’s-attire.” Don’t they understand that by trying SO hard to be different, they just end up exactly like everyone else? It’s saddening and it’s disheartening and I can’t wait for this stupid trend to be over with. Also they have ruined beards for all the manly men.

Finally, a New York Paper from Del (I know you waited with baited breath)

When any two students from the 2010 Austin Peay State University Acuff Chair class discuss our recent class trip to New York City, the words “Death March” inevitably surface.  This is the name that has been jokingly given to the four-hour walking tour of Chelsea galleries that took place on Tuesday, March 9.  It is true that the Chelsea experience, like much of our tour of New York, was intense.  However, it was also utterly eye-opening.  Being introduced to wide variety of art, artists, methods and ways of thinking revolutionized my thinking about the art world.   In that sense, the experience was more of a “Life March,” because it provided such opportunity for personal growth.

The many museums, exhibits and artist-visits we experienced during five days in New York affected me in several different ways.  A couple of exhibits- particularly William Kentridge at the Museum of Modern Art and the Tino Sehgal at the Guggenheim- impacted me deeply on both emotional and cognitive levels and have since led to a great deal of consideration about what art is and how it can powerfully affect an audience.  Kentridge’s Five Themes was completely changed my opinion of artist made films.  Usually, I find Fine Art film to be discordant, self-absorbed and alienatingly pretentious.  Much of seems to rely on a jarring juxtaposition of rapid images and noise that have significance mainly to the filmmaker.  However, Kentridge’s work is thoughtful and poetic and works on several levels.  Even without knowing much about the artist or the politics of his South African background, I was moved by the poignant expressions of love, loss and introspection laced through his pieces.  These themes tap directly into a viewer’s basic humanness.  From a technical standpoint, I am inspired by the artist’s use of hand drawn images, cutouts and erasure.  This seems to bridge the gap between the traditions of hands-on fine art and the very contemporary medium of digital film.  I would like to experiment with this type of bridge in my own work.

The other show that was especially impacted me was Tino Seghal’s Progress at the Guggenheim.  Performance art has always been difficult for me to appreciate.  I often debate whether it has the aesthetic quality that, to me, is a necessary component of fine art.  Also, I often feel the same sense of alienation with performance that I get from art film.  However, like Kentridge, Sehgal was able to tap into something quintessentially human with Progress.  The experience of walking up the museum spiral and connecting with four strangers was surprisingly thought provoking.  In the end, I found myself thinking deeply both about what progress means and about the individual topics discussed with each “guide”.  I am still not sure that the piece is “art”, but I’m also not sure it needs to be defined one way or the other to be meaningful.

Some of the other shows we saw were less philosophically powerful than Kentridge and Sehgal, but they were valuable in making me think about more practical things.  Both the Armory Show and the gallery walk and Chelsea were wonderful insights into the way the market driven contemporary art world operates.  I was stunned by the sheer scope and by the seemingly never-ending variety.  Interestingly, the commercial art world is rather traditional in that it largely reinforces the idea of art as the wall-hung, saleable object.  In a way, though, this is comforting.  Even within the limited niche of market-driven art, there is room for everything from traditional paintings to avant garde installations.  Perhaps, then, I too can fit contemporary art world.

Also reinforcing the idea of a more open and personally promising art world was the visit with Nina Katchadourian at the Drawing Center.  In every interaction we have had with her, Katchadourian has been down-to-earth, positive and open to sharing what she knows.  In our New York visit, I was galvanized by her practical advice on breaking into the art world and by her example of making an art career work.

One final thing I gained from the trip to New York was a real understanding of the affect of venue on both the artwork and its viewers.  The whirlwind schedule of museums and galleries on the New York trip was exhausting at times, but it did make direct comparison of the art spaces easy.  The chic exclusivity of Chelsea felt very different than coziness of Soho.   I was particularly struck by the differences in museums that essentially show the same range of art: for example, Modern and contemporary western art in MoMA, the Whitney and the Guggenheim.  The blandness of MoMA may focus attention on the artwork rather than the space, but it is also cold and lifeless.  The active architecture of the Guggenheim, in contrast, may compete with the art in certain circumstances.  However, with the right show, such as Progress, the space and the artwork greatly enhance one another.  I had not really considered this concept before our visit to New York, but it is definitely something about which I will be aware in the future.  If I ever get a chance to design my own show, I will consider the space as much as possible.

Overall, the Acuff Chair New York trip was a whirlwind.  It is easy to wish that we had more time or that we had been able to include additional or different things.  In the end, though, I consider the trip a resounding success.  I am still processing the experience, but there is no doubt that four days in New York gave me as much to think about as a full semester in Clarksville.  It was a class in and of itself.

New York

First thing I noticed on our trip to New York is I have never stayed in such a nice hotel and in such a prime location. That aside, this was not my first trip to New York. I had been four years previously with my theater group, but on that trip we did all theater things and I did not get to visit a single gallery.

I was very baffled by the Armory Show. Many of the pieces in the show were not good, more than just a taste issue they were missing fundamental elements of design. I cannot fathom what the art directors and art buyers see in the pieces.

I have for a long time wanted to visit the MoMA. My best friend went in high school and the pictures she had from the trip blew me away. I was not disappointed when I got there. I love the William Kentridge exhibit, but I found it equally exciting to see the actual pieces we talked about in class.

The most exciting visit for me was the tour of the Guggenheim. My two favorite pieces from the whole trip were in that gallery. Tino Sehgal’s piece “This Progress” was very inspiring. I have tried explaining it to other people and I sound like a simpleton, but the total cohesiveness of that piece and how it worked with the design of the Guggenheim was the perfect channel for Sehgal’s message.

I also loved the “Memory” piece by Anish Kapoor. Something about that black square resonated. It was flat, 3-D and fell away all at the same time.

The Chelsea galleries were interesting, but reenforced my growing thoughts that although I love looking at the art in New York, I am not interested in showing in New York galleries.

I actually enjoyed the Whitney Museum. It was the first museum that no piece really stuck out at my for mistakes in design, but nothing in the museum was memorable enough to be a favorite. The New Museum was memorable to me, but for a negative reason. I found my fear of wax statues pushed into a phobia with the life-like quality of the statues in conjunction with Tino Sehgal’s “This is Propaganda.”

I took advantage of the free time to explore the city and hang out with people. On Sunday night I met with a friend who was also visiting the city. On the trip, I conquered the subway system, walked through Chinatown and Little Italy, went to the Brooklyn Bridge and to the top of the Empire State Building, visited the Met and still got more sleep than I usually do at school.

I love the whole of the New York trip. Going to see great art and spending time exploring the city with my friends.

NEW YORK NEW YORK

New York, New York – what an experience

From getting off the plane to getting back on the plane; every moment was full and interesting. When on the street it felt like I was at the bottom of a canyon with an ever changing river. So many people, so much energy. There was such a vast amount of information and experiences to be had, didn’t want to miss anything.

It would be much too difficult to pick just one artwork or museum as the most interesting. They all had something, The Armory Show with its vast variety and the selling atmosphere gave it a different feel than all the rest. One piece in particular was a large painting on a board with horizontal ribbons of white,
black and red dripping vertically into each other.

Being able to go into the Guggenheim will not soon be forgotten. I have always admired Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, getting to finally see it in person was, well,
I was in awe. The featured works of  Tino Sehgal and Anish Kapoor were
interesting. The work of world renowned artists, “Paris and the Avant-Garde”
in other parts of the museum were of high interest to me. Also, I found the
installation “Contemplating the Void” to be very entertaining. 193 different ideas on how the main part of the Guggenheim could be used. From returning it to a primordial natural state to having far reaching science fiction components.

Seeing Picasso’s up close was awesome. He has always been one of my
favorite artist. One of the benefits of seeing his and others work is such a
difference than just seeing the pieces in Art History books. Viewing the
contemporary pieces close was a benefit as well.

Being exposed to current contemporary art was an experience, some impressed me, some not, and some I am ambivalent about. Sorta like anybody with any art. The day in Chelsea was good. It definitely reminds you of what you like and that artwork has about two seconds to draw your attention.

The William Kentridge exhibit at the MoMA was kinda mesmerizing. I found his erasure animation very cool. A different take on motion art. His use of
silhouettes on pages will influence some of my future work. Also found John Maeda’s “The Reactive Square” strangely magnetic.

Something at the Jewish Museum that drew my attention was not new, actually from an old copy of the Talmud. The way that phrases within a rectangular shape are positioned in different directions to be read, led me to think of
doing more than one story in a book, using the positions as different voices. There was also “A Book of Diversity”? a large art book with poems in it that
drew my attention.

Suzanne opening her home to us in SOHO was very nice. It allowed us to get a slight peak at what life is like living in New York. It was a good time and yet
another opportunity to connect with each other.

Not art related necessarily but, I thoroughly enjoyed the glass staircase at the Apple store. The engineering, design and function of it was intriguing.

There was so much to absorb, and I did try to absorb as much as possible.
Different experiences while in New York will come to my mind indefinitely. There were so many things that will influence my future work. Not just from the
artwork but from the city itself; the people, buildings, subway, traffic. The New York trip was an experience that I might otherwise never have had
and I am grateful.

Melanie Hildebrandt

new york response

In that short amount of time that we were in New York, we did a surprising amount of stuff, and learned quite a lot along the way.  Not only was it super fun and the best field trip I’ve ever been on (coming in second was a field trip to Panama City Beach in middle school), but also it was visually inspiring and educationally enriching.  If I had to give this field trip a name, it would be New York’s Next Top Curator 2010, because this whole class reminded me of what it would probably feel like to be on a reality TV show; all hyped up, lots of documentation, several trials and activities with (sort of) celebrities, etc.  But the New York trip was like the cherry on top of the sundae.

I learned quite a lot in NYC, mainly art related things.  I think I learned at least a hundred things in each museum, about artists and works and history.  In the galleries though, I got to peak into the world of gallery work, which I was really intrigued by.  I was amazed to find gallery workers had a specific behavior that was repeated from gallery to gallery.  I learned about how galleries borrow several pieces just to sell one of two really expensive works, like with the Joseph Beuys collection.  I found out a lot about Joseph Beuys and Man Ray.  One of the coolest things that I learned on the trip was from the Cooper Hewitt Museum.  I knew little about design even though I’ve always been enthralled by it.  After the trip, I started studying up more on industrial design, and now I’m totally amazed by the whole field.  I’m really thankful that we got to go to the Cooper-Hewitt because of that.  If I had the money I would go to Pratt in Brooklyn for my masters in Industrial Design.  Of course I didn’t just learn about art, I learned about New York in general too.  I always thought New York was a lot more dangerous than it really was.  I really enjoyed riding the metro even though I had been on the metro in other cities too (Stockholm & Barcelona).  It’s always super fun to ride no matter where in the world you are and it gets you places fast.

It would have been hard to make this trip more interesting than it already was, other than staying longer.  Maybe if we would have met more people.  Other than that, I can’t think of any other way that the trip could have been more fulfilling than it already was.

It’s hard to say what my favorite part of the art tour was.  There were so many things that turned me on.  The New Museum was a favorite.  The whole exhibit of Skin Fruits was a delight that kept me interested the entire time.  Each room housed several odd and wonderful pieces.  I read a review that called the exhibit “a sausage party”, and that is a very proper term for it.  There were a lot of penises and hair.

My only favorite part of the Whitney biannual was Aurel Schmidt’s Master of the Universe: Flexmaster 3000.  It was the only piece in the show that really displayed perfect craftsmanship and imagination.  But it was worth going to the biannual just to see it, as it really moved me.

The most interesting place we went to was the Armory show.  It was overwhelming how much stuff was there, and a large volume of it I wanted to look at.  The few hours we had there was hardly enough time.  Also, apparently my dad was there at the time we were, but I’m not surprised I didn’t see him.  There were masses of well-dressed young adults everywhere you stepped.  My favorite works that I saw included a stack of taxidermy animals and a painting of a lobster and a clam surfing the Internet.  I really enjoyed all the tongue in cheek (that’s a phrase I learned in New York) pieces there that made me laugh.

New York’s Next Top Curator was a fun experience that I’ll probably remember for a couple of years, then I’ll totally have a crazy experience in China or some other place that changes my life forever, and the trip will just be a vague remnant in my mind.  But until then, having this experience was a very useful lesson for me in the world of fine arts.

flex dem bones

Earth Room

http://www.diaart.org/sites/main/earthroom

James’s NYC Experience

Because I didn’t save my digital version of my NYC trip essay I will have to provide you all with an abbreviated Reader’s Digest version here.  Basically, I felt that the Acuff class trip to NYC was the most beneficial art experience I have encountered since attending college.  Visiting the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, the Jewish Museum, and the Met were some of the most life defining memories I will ever have.  It is one thing to see a Picasso, Pollock, or Warhol in an art book and quite another thing altogether to see them in person.  I can say that my mind was blown and my world view opened beyond all previous limits.  Also of exceptional value was the time I got to spend with my classmates and professors learning about them as people and artists.  Overall, the whole trip was beyond awesome.

New York Response (2?)

New York, Neue York
I would like to start this essay with a “thank you” for the awesome, inspiring,
and once-in-a-lifetime experience that this class, and our trip to New York has
afforded me. I feel that everyone involved has benefited from our journey through
this semester…even those who may not realize it, yet. I know that for myself, I was
given a fresh way to look at art as it relates not only to me as an artist, but also how
it relates to, and works within the social, political, and cultural contexts that we all
share. While I have always felt that there is power in art, and have had a tendency
toward encouraging new perspectives and thinking outside of the box, I feel that my
understanding of contemporary art as a whole, and my own work and/or
responsibility as an artist has been heightened. I believe that my experience will
serve to facilitate new and exciting work in my future.
I believe that the opportunity to view the amount of artwork we were able to
see, not to mention the Armory Show, the Whitney Biennial, and our participation in
the Tino Seghal piece, is something we should all be grateful for. Ian did a great job
of showing us as much of the Contemporary Art scene as possible during our visit. I
feel that he made very specific choices for our “tour”, not so much in that he was
attempting to show some sort of preference toward concept, medium, or context as
has been suggested by some of the students, but with the goal of giving us a good
comparison/contrast of work that delved into all of those things, and also as it
relates to the class. I feel it could even be argued that he and some of the
participating artists “went the extra mile” to afford us a well-rounded view of the
world that we are all aspiring to be a part of. Ian worked with Suzanne Bocanegra,
who invited us into her home, provided us with dinner, and even shared her family
with us…all of this with the added bonus of actually having the opportunity to meet
Hank Willis Thomas, and hear him speak about his work that was in our exhibit. He
worked with Nina Katchadourian to allow us to visit The Drawing Center on a day
that it wasn’t scheduled to be open, and she was kind enough to do so, and pay an
employee to come in and give us a tour as well. The talk with her in the Center has
the potential to be one of the most beneficial discussions of the semester, as she gave
us a direct line of vision into the “Art World”, with insight on how to become a part
of it, and what to do to keep yourself there should you be so lucky. While I
obviously didn’t think that every single piece of art I saw was awe-inspiring, or the
greatest thing I’d ever seen, I think that having the chance to compare all of the
work was beneficial to further our own understanding of why we respond differently
to different work, and how that can, or should, affect our own work.
I also feel that the juxtaposition of the different types of Museums and Galleries
during our trip was helpful in a way that we don’t have any real chance of
experiencing locally. I think that we all got a very real sense of how the gallery itself
can contribute to, or detract from, the work within it’s walls. I’m excited about the
possibilities we’ve been opened up to for our own future exhibits, and believe that it
has the potential for having an impact not only on the students in our class, but on
the department as a whole, and specifically the Trahern Gallery.
In summary, I feel that the collaborative and community-oriented nature of the
class as a whole was greatly enhanced by our trip, and not only because we were
able to view artwork that exhibited these concepts, or even work that was created
collaboratively. I believe that in some ways, our class, and especially the trip,
contributed to our own small sense of community and collaboration because we got
to know one another better, we talked about art…a LOT, and we have
collaboratively had an impact on each other, and our department and community as
well.  I kind of like to think of our trip as a little piece of process and/or
performance art, itself. The only thing that could have made it better would have
been one-way tickets to New York. 