Hirshhorn Museum

Ian Chengs Emissary in the Squat of Gods is characterized as a live simulation

and story. This installment features two large projections against a blank white wall.

The left projection is slightly larger than the one on the right and the videos playing in a

loop are projected from equipment along a large block bench with machinery and wires

displayed in the open. When I first entered the room this installation occupies, I was

confused and slightly disturbed. The videos being shown are of cartoon stories, playing

on a continuous loop. The quality of the cartoons is very geometric and glitchy, never

staying quite still, causing an uneasy feeling in my stomach. The characters in the

videos, although there is no dialogue, are very similar looking to one another, causing

my first thought to be that they were different perspectives of the same story. Because

of this assumption, I moved back and forth between concentrating on one projection to

the other, trying to find a correlation in the stories. In reality, this work was designed by

Cheng to display the history of cognitive evolution as he studies cognitive science at the

university of California, Berkeley. He programs the characters depicted in the stories

with basic behaviors within a virtual ecosystem, allowing them to influence each other

without control or an end. The videos depict the premise that ancient humans were not

conscious but experience right-brain vocal hallucinations in moments of stress of past

authorities. The work is composed of two contradictory dynamics, a simulation of an

ancient community facing a volcanic threat and a deterministic story of an emissarys

emerging consciousness. Through triggering animation and lack of explanation, Cheng

communicates the uneasiness of human development and allows the audience to

interpret what they see on the screens however they feel.

National Gallery

The National Gallery had a very impressive collection of impressionist paintings

by influential artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin. With such a

large collection, it is easier to catch the little innovations each artist contributed to the

impressionist movement. For example, Van Gogh displays innovation with his

individualized brushstrokes making up incredible painting. At the National Gallery there

was a Van Gogh self-portrait as well as a painting of a vase of flowers. Both of these

works feature his original brushwork and color schemes. Also featured in the gallery

were two impressionist works of the Rouen Cathedral by Monet. Although Van Gogh

and Monets works are both categorized as impressionist paintings and they occurred

within the same movement, by comparing the works you can see the original

innovations of each artist. Monet paints the Rouen Cathedral with more pointilated

brushwork, blending the colors to create misty feeling. Van Gogh on the other hand

utilizes less blended brushstrokes.

Reflection:

This assignment was right after a fieldtrip for AP art history as a follow up

reflection of the art we saw in person. I selected this artifact because for this

assignment I got the opportunity to write an analysis of art pieces that I not only chose

but also experienced in person. The strengths of these pieces are my connections

between the art I saw and what I learned about art during class. If I revised these

paragraphs, I would talk further about each individual picture that I took myself. This

reflects my development as a writer because this assignment was so open, allowing me

to freely write about my thoughts regarding art.