Event 3 Blog: Even Pricks by Ed Atkins

         For my third event, I viewed Ed Atkins' Even Pricks as part of the This is the End Exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Westwood. This exhibition runs through June 7 and actually featured three different films over its entire run at the Hammer. Atkins' contribution to the exhibition was interesting as it took seemingly random clips created by the artist and also pulled from pop culture to get his vision across. The meaning I took away from the piece was one of shattered romantic relationships and the sadness that comes along with them. The official Hammer Museum information on Even Pricks states that: "Atkins’s Even Pricks (2013) comprises a series of hyperpolished digitally rendered vignettes that relate the idea of depression—both physical and psychological—to the immaterial surfaces of images." (Hammer Museum, 2015)
         Even Pricks does take some thought in order to analyze as there is no clear storyline and random clips are pieced together. But by following what recurs, an idea of the meaning of the piece can be found. multiple times throughout the film, a bed is pictured for a few seconds before a hole full of flame appears in the middle of it. There is also repeated image of a thumb rotating between being up and down, but usually settling in the down position, giving off the idea that things are not right and someone is unhappy. I'm sure I could have watched Even Pricks all day and had a different interpretation of what was happening with every viewing.

Figure 1: The recurring thumb presented in the fixed down position

Figure 2: The thumb in the up position but rotating

Figure 3: The thumb in the down position but rotating

Figure 4: The recurring bed with a hole in the middle of it

Figure 5: A hole much like the one that appears in the bed

            I enjoyed the artist's use of pop culture throughout the film that tied the piece to the real world instead of being completely surreal. At several points, the artist inserted classic pieces of music including "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits at one point. One of the clips used was even from "Man of Steel," a Superman movie released in 2013.

Figure 6: Screenshot of "Man of Steel" clip

            I think Even Pricks ties into this class's course material mainly through its use of modern video editing and animation technology to create surreal images that cannot be acted out in the real world. No one would have been able to showcase their ideas in the way Atkins' film did without modern computing power and animation capabilities.

Figure 7: Proof of my attendance at the event

Works Cited

Atkins, Ed. "Even Pricks as part of This is the End" Exhibition. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. 6 June 2015. Exhibition.

"Hammer Projects: This Is the End." The Hammer Museum. Web. 6 June 2015.

Event 2 Blog: Making Strange by Vivan Sundaram

            For my second event I went to the Making Strange Exhibition by Vivan Sundaram shown at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. This exhibition was actually a combination of two shows, Gagawaka and Postmortem. Gagawaka displayed garments produced by Sundaram made out of recycled trash. More applicable to the subject material of this class was Postmortem, which showcased old medical teaching supplies manipulated and sometimes combined with mannequins to showcase the artist's vision.

            Gagawaka takes on the human form and juxtaposes it against trash, what many people think of as dead and the opposite of the life represented by humans. Several examples from the exhibition follow:

Figure 1: Shoeskin Hoop, a dress made completely out of discarded shoetops

Figure 2: Dervish, an outfit made of men's silk ties

Figure 3: J S Lingerie, made out of jock straps

            Postmortem is almost the exact opposite of Gagawaka as it goes to the inside of mannequins, normally an empty space but filled with medical teaching tools by Sundaram. Postmortem is the opposite of Gagwaka in terms of aesthetic beauty as it gets down to the literal bare bones of the human body and then contorts them in disturbing ways.

Figure 4: Coffin, mannequins in a glass coffin. Notice the arm attached to the pelvic region

Figure 5: Various instructional medical models structurally rearranged

Figure 6: Spine, 2. A piece showing a fiberglass mannequin split open to show the spine within

            The combination of these two shows in one exhibition is what made it particularly interesting. The fact that the ideas behind them both were so opposite made them sharing the same space intriguing. Yet the art and science implications behind the exhibition apply primarily to Postmortem. Postmortem reverts back to the basics of medicine, even giving an idea of what artistic representations of the human body may have looked like before extensive knowledge of it was known. Simple medical models being distorted into alternative forms shows a level of experimentation not typically shown in the field of medicine anymore.

Proof that I attended the exhibition

Works Cited

Sundaram, Vivan. "Making Strange." Exhibition. Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles. 5 June 2015. Exhibition.