Amanda Johanson

Cultural event 3

Concepts

 

Propaganda

 

My concepts class and a couple other students held an art show in the Driscol gallery on November 5th.  The theme of the show was propaganda.  Propaganda can be defined as information that is spread and shared that is supposed to promote a cause.  Propaganda influences people everyday.

The gallery was held in a relatively small room.  The lighting came out much better than what I expected, and each of the participating students did an incredible job especially due to the time constraints and space provided.  The first thing that people would have seen was a line of bright orange street cones on the outside of the gallery.  I believe that this was a very important factor for the gallery as a whole because it seemed to “invite the viewer in”.  Once people had walked through the doors of the gallery the next thing they would have noticed was a large white fence built with snowboards.  This was on of my favorite pieces of the gallery.  This piece was exceptionally captivating because of its placement and bright white color.  The artist statement was not attached and the viewer was forced to come up with conclusions on their own based on what they saw.  The title of the piece was “fun?”.  I knew the artist, however I did not know what the piece was supposed to encompass.  To me it seemed as though it was trying to portray that although snowboarding is meant to be a “fun” activity, that people get more caught up in what snowboards they are using, the gear they use and what colors they are wearing rather than the activity itself.  The blank white color of the snowboards suggests that it doesn’t really matter what brand it is, they are all still used for the same purpose.  The craftpersonship on the piece was done very well, and looked as though it took quite a lot of time.  Since I was apart of the show I realized we only had about a week to complete our pieces and it made the snowboard fence even more impressive to me.

Another piece that was very interesting was the piece about money.  A student had placed multiple stacks of money in different parts of the room.  The viewers were allowed to take the money.  It was so interesting to see that all of the money really did get taken.  It was also interesting to see/hear what people said about it.  I must admit that I definitely thought about taking some of the money, but I second guessed myself and left it.  I felt guilty for taking something I knew was meant to be art.  (Especially because I knew who the artist was).  This piece showed the greed and temptation that people feel almost everyday.  The piece definitely got its point across and I enjoyed watching people react to it.

I enjoyed the gallery and I enjoyed being apart of it.  It was very fun to be the producer instead of a viewer.  I liked seeing people’s reactions to pieces and being able to see people examining my own work.

Advertisement