Monday, October 25, 2010

Oh, The Humanities!

I know I'm behind on blogging about my Fibre class, but I promise, I will blog about the dyeing! I can't believe we have hit mid-term already!

The main difference between an art education at a college versus a university is that a college tends to be more hands on. But everyone still needs a good survey of art history and contemporary art. HUMN 110 is best described as "art and design now" and we've looked at open ended topics such as beauty and handmade in the age of mass-manufacture and will look at other things like feminism down the road. Our current topic is hybridity in art and I'm researching the work of a Canadian artist, Brian Jungen, for the next assignment. We only need to cite one source, and fortunately an article about him that I had in a magazine can be found online. Sometimes it's possible to be too eager to recycle stuff :-D

What does hybridity in art mean? Well, the easy definition is a mixture of two or more forms. It could be a tongue in cheek ad campaign (ie, Diamond Shreddies cereal...look it up, you'll smile :-)), Jeff Koons stainless steel sculpture based on a common inflatable rabbit, a work that blurs the boundary between different mediums, or a work that combines cultural traditions.

Jungen seems perfect for this assignment - if I can find an article on his whale skeleton made out of plastic chairs or a Haida mask made out of running shooes, it'll be a cinch :-)