Improbable monument

Introduction:

            When a community endures a disaster, confusion and fear ripples continuously through their future generations as memories are past through existence of the community. The people of that community might become numb to that disaster overtime but it still lingers inside and one must overcome internal fears/ pain to re-gain their flow. Creation of Memorial Monument for Japan’s natural disaster claiming 26,000 lives on March 11^th due to earthquake and tsunami will be that memory of respect, and ability for the community to conquer the past fears of loss.

Background:

            Development of this monument for a nation still under current distress from this disaster is from a want to help for hope. Meaning not just donations will help Japan reverb from this disaster, but stabilizing the emotional/spiritual states of the people to help the nation become again a landmark of advancement on Earth for other nations to inspire towards.

            Japan leads the world in solar power technology, electric vehicle production, purifying water systems, and robotics. These are very modern applications but Japan also still very true to past Taoist/Buddhist belief systems, and this memorial monument will be commemorating those ideals through the structures form/understanding.

            Description of disaster; on March 11^th a nine point magnitude earthquake trembled the near the northeast ocean coast of Kesennuma. This earthquake sent a 30-foot tall wall of water towards that fishing community and began destruction. The quake rippled throughout the entire nation causing two nuclear plant meltdowns followed with several large aftershock earthquakes. From this 26,000 lives were lost and of those 14,500 still have not been found.

Project Description:

            This monument is soapstone structure that will resemble Japanese symbols reflecting belief systems. A 30-foot tall one-foot square size will reside on nine-layered circle step system (30 feet in diameter with each step with 4 feet less in diameter (except steps 6, 7, 8 and 9= 2 feet less), each step is a foot high). The top layer will resemble the ancient coin of Taoist belief “Self, Knows, Only, Contentment” when looking down upon (Calligraphy writing of meaning found on this top laer). The 30-foot column will be made out of 26,000 circles consistent with the enso circle. And finally facing towards the rising sun will be the Pictophonetic Calligraphy writing of protector deity Benzaiten.

            Meanings:

-Column height to represent the size of the initial first wave of the 30-foot high tsunami

                        -Nine layer step platform meant to represent the 9 point magnitude earthquake and

                        The Japanese culture belief behind the number nine representing suffering/un-lucky.

                        This is known as Yid’oni.

                        -26,000 Enso circles to represent Zen; absolute, enlightenment, strength, elegance, the                                                 universe, and the void. And to represent the all the lives lost inside this tragedy.

                        -Benzaiten is one of the seven gods of good fortune representing the Sutra of Golden                                     Light, Protector-Deity, and goddess of everything that flows (water, words, speech,                                     eloquence, music, extension of knowledge)

-The coin shape is to create a larger then life ideal that “Self Knows, Only, Contentment” Audience develops their own understanding of this ancient belief.

           

            Creating meaning through controversy of the nine, as being a problem of serious misfortune for the community but one must conquer those steps of symbols of fear to give their love to those lost. Benzaiten will help those overcome that pain with her guidance of being the rising sun for those soles.

            This monument will be located on the coast side of Kensennuma to stand strong against the power of the ocean/nature and allow easy access to all for needed respect of the lost.

            It will be constructed of stone to combat the elements of time but eventually will be overthrown as a symbol of re-creation of the tragedy. The Calligraphy writing of Benzaiten will be a steel cast that will be un-treated to represent the power of nature through a developed transition into a rusted green aesthetic look.

            This monument is improbable because the idea is developed from a White American undergrad that has never been to Japan and Kesennuma is so devastated from this disaster that the town will be re-built decades from needed emotional support that monument gives.

Benefits:

            The public gains conquering those fears of loss to give respect and flow with life in a positive manner. Helping Japan follow their roots as before in the disaster in WW2 where the community developed the art style of Butoh. This brought the nation to face their fears through visual performance art of this tragedy of war. The audience meant for this work to be Japanese universal from derivatives of the past with a modernist shape and appeal. The only problem would one must devote to conquering those pains of the past to give one’s self-freedom.

Estimated cost:

             26,000 3” by 3” by 1” Enso circles (2lbs of soapstone each)

                        One dollar per pound= roughly $52,000 (weighs about 104,000 lbs)

            9-tier platform in diameter cost of each step (one dollar per pound)

                        1. 707 cubic ft.= 106,500 lbs/dollars

                        2. 531 cubic ft.= 79,650 lbs/dollars

                        3. 380 cubic ft.= 56,000 lbs/dollars

                        4.  255 cubic ft.= 38,250 lbs/dollars

                        5. 154 cubic ft.= 23,100 lbs/dollars

                        6. 113 cubic ft.= 16,950 lbs/dollars

                        7. 50 cubic ft.= 7,500 lbs/dollars

                        8. 28 cubic ft.= 4,200 lbs/dollars

                        9. 13 cubic ft.= 1,950 lbs/dollars

                                    Total cost= $333,650

                                                www.blackpearlsoapstone.com

            Carbon Steel Plate (Benzaiten Writing)

                        1 foot wide by 9 feet tall by 2 inches thick= roughly $850

                                    www.yuanhang-steel.com

            Cost to ship 438,450 pounds from San Francisco to Japan

                        $122,766

                                    www.shipnex.com

Cost to Create:

            10 employees for 6 months being paid at fifteen dollars an hour working 20 hours a week.

                        $78,000 (self developed price)

Total Cost of Monument: $920,916

Photoshop Mashin...

1, photoshop Mashup, 30" by 30"

2, Photoshop Mashup, 30" by 30"

3, Photoshop Mashup, 30" by 42"

4, Photoshop Mashup, 30" by 42"

5, Photoshop Mashup, 30" by 42"

6, Photoshop Mashup, 30" by 42"

7, Photoshop Mashup, 30" by 42"

8, Photoshop Mashup, 30" by 42"

DNA Lounge

DNA Lounge

375 Eleventh St.

San Francisco, CA 94103

(415) 626-1409

www.dnalounge.com/

April, 15^th/16^th

Featuring DJ performance by Bachelors of Science

LIVE performance by CHASE and STATUS

            Walking through the streets of grim taking in some three-dimensional inspiration for two-dimensional re-creation. Making it to DNA lounge with a very in-expensive twenty five dollar show for an avant guard style of music called drum n’ bass. I classify this music as avant guard because of its outcast nature of sound for younger generations. Generally found for the mainly hardcore from deriving from an almost Punk sounding style. Still Generally known as underground and if aged heard the sounds that drum n’ bass creates. Avant Guard, any type of “Art” that is pushed aside because it is ahead of their time, ideas of convergence plays a key in this style. People might associate music of this nature as being drug filled but honestly from personal experiences of every show attended just a few drinks and a good mind set for freedom one will enjoy the night.

           

Drum and bass (also written as "drum 'n' bass" and commonly abbreviated to D&B or DnB) is a type of electronic dance music which emerged in the mid 1990s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats (typically between 160–190 bpm, occasional variation is noted in older compositions), with heavy bass and sub-bass lines. Drum and bass began as an offshoot of the United Kingdom rave scene of the very early 1990s. Over the first decade of its existence, the incorporation of elements from various musical genres led to many permutations in its overall style.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_and_bass

Lovin' it (Quick photoshop mashup)

DNA Lights (Quick photoshop mashup)

Awesomely Creepy (Photo/slight edit)

            The show at DNA Lounge was massive for the small crowd. Especially for the live set by electronic production duo from London, CHASE and STATUS, playing most of their classic widely known songs to grab the audience with some new tracks with heavier more dubbed out breakdowns. These artist’s being able to make their sound live is something to see and be inspired by but don’t get to caught up in standing and gazing into the show or one might be found in the mosh pit. The DNA lounge was small but enjoyable with layout for an un-crowded dance for one that is feeling the needs to dance but one will not find the embarrassed feeling to just let go. But there was some there where they had a lil’ too much with the sound but hey it’s their life so dig their freedom. The man to women ratio was about 30% to 70% but the ladies were definite cuties and free to dance the night away with you. 

Video: Best song of the night for the audience re-action for CHASE and STATUS

Thought I'd contradict that last video hahaha enjoy

Inspirations from 49 Gary walk through

Thirsty Thursday at 49 Geary Street

            “Good Afternoon Sir, Would you like a drink? Enjoy your time exhibiting the gallery spaces.” The elevator doors close, tilting my head towards the sky letting the liquid ascend my rational thought. Working from the fifth floor and going down I experienced a drunken social group meeting of admires, collectors, those forced to be there, lovers, haters, wannabes, the envious, and those there for the free booze. I will be explaining my experience working down the levels and the works/galleries that gave myself interest/inspiration at the location of 49 Geary in downtown San Francisco.

            Pieces of the art that interact the audience solely stand out because generally they have a larger size and the audience literally has to avoid running into it on thirsty Thursdays. Linda Flemming currently has an instillation/sculpture piece of Storm Powder Coated Steel (Dimensions about 8 ft. by 8 ft.) at the Brian Gross Fine Art Gallery. This gallery generally has large-scale abstract work involving the brush/tool to apply paint or material to do the work for creation of image. This instillation work by Linda Flemming causes the audience to walk through the center of the piece as play structure. As I sipped on my glass of wine, I was brought back to the time of my memories of play structures in elementary school; sense the material of Flemming’s piece was the same as those structures of my past. The bright yellow is also a symbolic color for a warning or playing, but please play safe. In my opinion this work needed better lighting and a title other then untitled to give added affect/explanation for the audience. The Form was dynamic and fluid resembling the lines of the sculpture. I wonder if this work would have been more audience interactive on the more happening 4^th and 3^rd floors. “Time for another drink sir.”

            Getting distracted loosing my group beginning to wonder if they came to experience the “Art” or something less academic. Finishing off the Fifth Floor experiencing a few more inspiring landscape studies at Ellins Ellis and Smith Gallery. I enjoyed how Tom Monaghan and Frances McCormack showed their studies for the development of their larger paintings.

“Wow these steps had to spiral and be steep, better not spill the party foul or I’ll look like some amateur wannabe.” The 4^th floor smelt like cheap wine, bad breath, smug attitudes, and body heat. Winding my way around looking for something that has that look that I feel like and involves a radical depiction of the human figure. “The hallways are so crammed, I need somewhere to think.”

Toomey Tarrell Fine Art Gallery is large and had their lighting set right for the current loose mood of the public. Ursula O’ Farrell’s show “Beneath the Surface” which involves large-scale oil paintings of the figures in either of present everyday life or an out the ordinary setting. “Present Everyday life” to me is generally middle class average ness, from the scenery and none glamorous appeals of cheap motels. O’ Farrell’s techniques of creating these works showed the expressionism of the known style coming from the ideals behind Bay Area Figurative Painting developed from 1950s abstract expressionism. This movement involves depiction of the figure but allowing the brush to control the look and feel of the painting with more vivid hue incorporation to the works (not matching the hue of the paint but the saturation) showing the movement the artist uses to create a controlled but “loose” mark. These works are generally larger then life depictions to allow the abstract expression of the painterly brushstrokes come forth in the piece. The actual movement of the painter creates the stroke for that moment in time. A work that stood different to O’Farrell’s other pieces at this showing was her  “Homage to Nathan” (painting above) is 72” by 54” aesthetically stood out to me from the content of Female figure gleamed up for the night but a posture of frustration. This work gives myself a relation for ideas of “cool” and my personal past lovers/difficulties of frustrations in city nightlife. The form of the figure is close to the iconic shape of a triangle, which gives subliminal power for the sub-conscious of the audience. The style of the more “painterly” from the brushstroke, which is inspiring to myself as a painter that is currently depicting the figure in more “realistic” values. O’Farrell looks as if she was having fun with the actual act of painting. I noticed that these works were most viewed by public out of all the pieces/galleries inside the building, because of quietness of the onlookers along with the great flow of movement around the gallery. Maybe it was the alcohol and the hues of paint that created a large audience, but these works re-ignited/inspired to follow a current study of depicting the figure in an abstract expressionist manner for myself.

Beginning to sway with the crowd as I become distracted from taking in the works of art in an inspiring manner. I develop a feeling of being another lost sole in the art world with only hopes that some fish will take a bit of my bate. Coasting through the last levels and galleries, I finish my descent of 49 Geary as I take that last gulp. Crossing the street to admire more “art” I find myself in a bending of time from the works of Joan Brown at the Paula Anglim Galley. Brown’s works on display were of her depictions of going about the Abstract Expressionist figure paintings of 1950s to 1970s. For myself coming from O’Farrell’s present day re-ignition of this past movement was a great understanding of how techniques have been modified over the last 60 years. Brown’s work is of very large in scale ranging around 10’ by 10’ and of “all over” painted style. Her works were intriguing but not of my liking. Depicting the figure in an over general manner along with the oversized shapes of color. I am intrigued by depth (not flatness feel) and strong understandings of painting. Brown new how to move paint in her pieces but were of nothing special to my aesthetic liking. The thing I enjoyed most about her showing of paintings is how two works residing next to each other that are fourteen years of difference in age. “Gypsy Nativity” (below left) from the year 1960 is consistent of her other large bodied abstract expressionist figurative work found inside the Anglim Gallery. These works were consistent of a continuous simple depiction of the human figure in close to life size proportion in a flat atmospheric scenery. Fourteen years later Brown created a work called “Woman in a sharp Light (1974)” (below right) which is not consistent with the other bodies of work from how the paint is not “loose” and the scenery is easily able to depict. The painting does have the same flatness as the others because of unchanging saturation in pigments to create a sense of realistic depth. These works put together makes myself believe that this artist was inspired by the practices of French artist Matisse from her use of color and flatness feeling of the over all painting.

 

“Wow this booze is really hitting me, I can’t even take strong notes anymore. Better get out of hear before I embarrass myself. Am I the youngest person in here? Why am I the only one here looking at the art? At least these stairs aren’t that steep. I lost my group again.”

Seeing in the Past in Present Tense

Reading the article title I was almost reluctant to read it because of my recent fail in trying to depict monuments in a painting developed from the understanding that it is human nature for history to repeat itself. Too much emotional pain from being a constant state of simulacrum cancelled the project.

            Levine’s article was informative especially the German Holocaust Monument in Harburg. The idea of trying to create a monument to uplift the country about a horrible point in their past but to not bring shame to their selves. What an incredible challenge for an Artist!

            How monuments can just be a thing of memory was also interesting. One can engage or dismiss in the everyday life but it is still there waiting for an audience.

            To build a monument for a historic place in time can be difficult and frustrating to please such a large audience. The monument has to be universal related for the public.

Culture Jam

Well I Cheated. I never Publicly did these

My idea is based on pasting a print of my hope lotto symbol in areas of that the general population is not given the same opportunity of the more fortunate.

I Changed it to an idea of creating fake graffiti that can be blasted virally and myths/legends can be formed from nothing.

I would change the logo more often if i executed this culture jam.

I should have made small stickers to post at least. very inspired by classmates work.

re-edit through illustrator as well