Response to Francis Alys - I found Alys' video to be very interesting. I like how the discription talks about the social and political undertones in his work and how the ice is dwindling into nothing. In such a way it comments on economic hardship, I think that is very clever how he can take such a simple action and make it represent so much. I like that the video has no soundtrack but rather uses the sounds of the city and the cars passing by, the voices of people in town and small children playing. It gives the video a raw and unedited feeling to it which is very strong.
Response to Janine Antoni - This was an interesting piece. I think it is cool that she learned a skill in order to create her work. A skill like tight rope walking isn't usually thought of as art unless you are in a circus I guess, but she made it into something different. At first when I saw the rope stretched over the water I thought "Why didn't she make it touch the horizon?" but then she explained that just for a moment as she crossed the rope touched the horizon. It makes it look like she is stepping right on the surface of the water. That is very cool.
Response to William Pope L - Well, the video was boring, but I guess in this case the video itself wasn't really the art. In his interview he talks about it being a commentary on homelessness and also racial issues. I think the crawl is an interesting way of displaying his topics. I like his quote "The reason for the contradiction is that I’m suspicious of things that make sense. Maybe I’m afraid of it. False security. Whereas contradiction does make sense to me." in the Bomb Magazine article. The idea that things that make sense are a false sense of security is thought provoking.
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When I think of "Walk the Line" the only thing that really comes to minde is the Johnny Cash song. I tried for the longest time to think of something else for the assignment but came up empty handed. So I decided to just go with Johnny. To push the "line" idea I decided to do a line drawing portrait of the Man in Black. Here is what I came up with:
