A talk with the twelve

       The theme of my art exhibit is the Greek Gods.  I called my exhibit "a talk with the twelve".  I have always been a fan of the ancient greek and roman cultures, and I'm a big fan of the sculptures they created.  I think this work took an enourmous amount of skill and find it just a fun topic.  I called my exhibit a talk with the twelve because there are twelve major greek gods.  I would put some conversation in the pamphlets for the exhibit, and reference some of the detail about each specific God.  Since the Greeks often went to temples with sculpts of the Gods I think it would be a cool way to kind of take a trip into their shoes.  The sclupts were massive and designed to be more than human.  THis is referenced in one of our weekly videos 'more human than human", and really being able to look into a sculpted face of a God could almost alow you to picture them in an earthly and very comprehendable way as opposed to just the theory.  Finally, I included some much more modern versions of the greek sculpts.  Typically, when we think of sculpts of the Gods we think of old chizzled marble.  When you toss in some totally contemporary and abstract versions I think it creates a very unique juxtoposition that I thought was an original idea so I ran with it.  I can understand it may not 'mesh' the exhibit as well as some might be, but that was sort of the point.

From my discussion post^
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I was really trying to take something that was old and stale and maybe add a little spice in the middle to make it relevant again.  I'm not much a fan of modern, contemporary art but when I see something like the original contemporary art that I found while searching through for this project I really could relate.  Many times I see a random set of splotches on paper and really just cant pull anything from it.  the sculpt Demeter I selected for example...just wow.  After reading about the god and seeing some ancient sculpts about her, I took a look at the organic take by Jean Arp and I could really 'feel' it.  Really cool feeling.

       As far as coloring, I imitated what I would use at the exhibit through my text in the slides.  I would try and remain very neutral for my backgrounds, pedestals, and mountings that were classic, and really try and add something for the ones that are contemporary.  Some color, colored lights, maybe a little sound for the newew pieces.  The older pieces I think I would set in a very classic look, maybe some plants and marbled floors or small fountains with running water.  After some thought, I would try and switch out maybe every piece or two contemp, classic classic, contemp, in a way to create some juxtaposition and allow the viewer to really see the same thing from different angles.....very different angles.   Not really ever mixing the two types, but instead placing them side by side for comparison.  I really tried to explain an aspect or two using specific terms from our videos and assignments, but I sort of found it to be kind of redundant as most of the pieces were sculpts.  I enjoyed this project a lot as I had the freed to more or less plow along as I felt on a topic of my choosing.  While its easier initially to have a set goal and perameters, being able to chose ones own topic and explore it as they like it more rewarding in the end.  This project was, as other have been, a realm of which I have no experience in.  It's extremely refreshing that we're able in the class to be able to vary so much on the subject of art the assignments are not simply the same grind every week!