Gertrude Von Gerhard Lyric Essay: An Exhaustion; THE BATHROOM…BATH/SHOWER

The bathroom has changed since its completion by use, lack of hygiene, and water vapour.

Ceramic [measuring: 4 inches X 4 Inches] tiles in a light baby blue with a high gloss glaze wrapping around the back and side walls of the bath/shower [measuring: 4 feet X 5 feet, 4 feet X 3 feet].

The bathroom is a perfect square [measuring: 7 feet X 5 feet].

White grout which has turned dark, unappealing cream.

The bathroom has changed since its completion by use, lack of hygiene, and water vapour.

Fibreglass; acrylic soaking tub [measuring: 5 feet X 3 feet] in off-white which also doubles as a standing shower.

The bathroom is a perfect square [measuring: 7 feet X 5 feet].

Stainless steel hardware and fixture suite in chrome: showerhead, shower drain, shower plate, etc…

White silicone sealant caulk haphazardly applied haphazardly where bath/shower and wall meet which has turned black.

The bathroom has changed since its completion by use, lack of hygiene, and water vapour.

Acrylic shower curtain in a very light yellow elevated by a stainless steel shower rod which has been painted white along with stainless steel curtain rings which have all turned a little bit darker and yellower.

The bathroom has changed since its completion by use, lack of hygiene, and water vapour.

Walls made out of drywall painted egg-shell-white turned darker and yellower.

The bathroom has changed since its completion by use, lack of hygiene, and water vapour.

Ceiling made out of drywall painted eggshell white turned darker and has begun to chip.

The bathroom has changed since its completion by use, lack of hygiene, and water vapour.

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Gertrude Von Gerhard Lyric Essay: An Exhaustion; THE SITTING CHAIR

The sitting chair has changed since its completion by time and the elements.

The dirty red vintage cast iron patio sitting chair was discovered alongside many other vintage and antique chairs of significantly more monetary value.

The sitting chair has changed since its completion by the needs of a new owner.

Cast iron patio chair [measuring: 2.5 feet X 1.25 feet] first powder painted a bright red turned darker and has begun to chip.

The sitting chair has changed since its completion by time and the elements.

Cast iron patio chair [measuring: 2.5 feet X 1.25 feet] first powder painted a bright red but has recently been repainted a rich high gloss black.

The sitting chair has changed since its completion by the needs of a new owner.

Cast iron patio chair weights only 10 pounds allowing it to be extremely transportable with the exception of no longer having the ability to fold as a folding chair should.

The sitting chair has changed since its completion by time and the elements.

Paper xeroxed black and white drawings have been precisely decoupage onto the seat and backrest of the patio chair.

The sitting chair has changed since its completion by the needs of a new owner.

The patio chair has been elevated above the viewer [measuring:3.5 feet x 1 inch] by two stainless steel chains [measuring: 7 feet x 1 inch].

The sitting chair’s position in space and time has changed since its completion by the needs of a new owner.

The patio chair has gone from being a forgotten and otherwise useless object in our physical world to becoming a work of art aimed at changing the ideas and thinking of people.

The sitting chair’s position in space and time has changed since its completion by the needs of a new owner.

Nicholas V. Elbakidze

“Frame: a moment in time physicalized”

Triptych inspired by Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman

Dream date: 28 June 1905

2018

Magazine clippings glued over drawing paper base with polyester sheeting held in place by staples and stainless steel binding clips.

*Viewing from left to right:

1. Time is gifted by the capture of a nightingale, like a film reel slowing down for the added anticipation of a motion picture as if breaking down the moments would change its ending. The birds fly overhead capsules of time rushing over the horizon. Seeing the future is impossible without this bird as you are always living in the future, you are currently more in the future at this point in the reading that you were when you began.
2. The young hold no desire to imprison one of these birds as they want nothing more than to have time pass by even faster. Upcoming holidays and events dance in their heads. Children often wish to have time pass them by, for a specific moment to arrive so that it can be celebrated and enjoyed sooner. What would a child want with more time? The older one gets the more alluring time becomes. Older people have all the desire to obtain a nightingale but have not energy to do so. Only once something is lost does it truly become valued.
3. Every day, humans think about the future in terms of what will or won’t or could happen next. This is a very human trait. Yes the chipmunk stores nuts for the impending winter, but does he understand that one day his clock will stop ticking? Yes, for it is the human who thinks of time before it runs out, not necessarily in terms of valuing time but understanding that tomorrows will come and go until one day, for them, they won’t.

Nicholas V. Elbakidze

What is Formal Analysis?

The overall goal and outcome of a formal analysis is to properly and thoroughly explain how and why the seen formal elements of an artwork affects the overall subject matter being expressed and represented by the artist of the work. Formal analysis, when used in an artistic setting, is a form of visual description. Breaking down an artwork into its purest form piece by piece allowing for its visual form to be analyzed. Formal Analysis types to identify very prominent elements within a work and explain how they affect each other.

1. Look for formal properties.
2. Look for the subject matter.

The Formal Elements in art:

• Light/Pattern/Colour/Texture/Tone/Form/Shape/Contrast/Composition/Context/Line/Texture/Size/Medium/Symbolism [*These are often used together to analyze an artwork.]

What is the artist asking the viewing audience?

What did the society value during the time the work was produced?

What is the illusion of space within the work?

What is it? Abstracted or Idealized?

*When society changes the art changes.

*Art is what a society values.

*The “real” within a society is always changing.

Example of A Formal Analysis:

Ai Weiwei Dropping a Han Dynasty urn (1995).

Image via The Guggenheim Museum.

• This artwork shows Ai Weiwei dropping a priceless urn from China’s Han dynasty.
• Mr. Weiwei is wearing very simple and loose fitting clothing which does not act to draw away from his actions.
• The setting of this photograph is plane; a simple brick wall with concrete flooring, most likely in an outdoor environment.
• The work is presented to the viewing audience as a  triptych.
• Mr. Weiwei made the creative decision not to use color as a way of expressing his work.

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Among Ai Weiwei’s most iconic pieces the true iconoclastic nature of Ai is revealed. A black and light gray photographic triptych manufactured into three large panels. By dividing the work up into three different panels he give the viewer a frame by frame overview of the action being performed within the triptych. Clearly depicted, he is dropping an urn from the Han dynasty and allowing it to drop and break in front of himself. He calls this his “cultural readymade”. The Han Dynasty is known as a defining time of civilization in China. Mr. Weiwei made this work as a response to the destruction of antiquities and what the people of China had been told during China’s Cultural Revolution during the late 1960s and 1970s.  They were instructed that in order to build a new society they must destroy the Four Olds: Habits, Customs, Culture, and Ideas. By dropping the valuable urn Mr. Weiwei lets go of the old China.

Nicholas V. Elbakidze, 2018; “100 Shades of Memories”. (2)-1uzsy5q

Nicholas V. Elbakidze, 2018; “100 Shades of Memories”.

I have chosen to create a physical artwork as opposed to writing a paper-style document for this memory oriented assignment. I made the decision to use the restraint of color; by limiting myself to four color tones I have restrained in the name of aesthetics. Each of the for colors red, yellow, green, and purple, are used to express a single emotion. Each category has 25 memories creating a total of 100 altogether. I found it very hard to only think of memories which I truly perceived as one of the given colors. For example a memory about “racism” would be red, however a memory about “Love” would be either pink so I had to exclude all memories which did not fit within the restraint of the given colors.  “100 Shades of Memories”. By associating memories with color the viewing audience is given a visual aid in exploring the author’s mind. In this work, I have listed 100 of my memories divided into four categories by emotion. Each emotion has its own color tone. All of the memories are compress in the form of color clips which the viewer uses as a tactile map.

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Nicholas V. Elbakidze; “If Walls Could Talk”, 2018

This installation is a physical manifestation of my personal throughs intertwined with one another. My thoughts are constantly in contrast with each other; my mind is a disorganized filing cabinet where real and fake memories get misconstrued with each other. This work is composed of 100 pieces of white copy paper with the ink of 5 black medium point permanent markers linked together by 210 stainless steel binder rings with 200 reinforcement stickers. My process for creating this work was organized and well calculated. I began with the concept of having my work serve as an installation within the interior of the classroom. I wanted to utilize the room as it was given to me by having the work take presents in the space. Shortly after hanging the wall I found that the pipe at which it was hanging from perfectly lined with the groove line of the flooring tiles, in turn, I taped the bottom papers (which were touching the ground) upon the line to better incorporate the installation in the room. I also made the creative decision to have the last row of papers of the wall turnoff of the work and flow into the negative space in the corner of the room to better fit my design concept of creating a installation which fits the existing design of the interior. The papers symbolize my memories and the rings connecting them are the way in which they are remembered and categorized in my brain. My use of minimal abstraction played nicely with my design aesthetic. I used only straight lines for my drawings as I find that my memories are complex and my drawing skills are amateur for hyper-realistic imagery. I was extremely influenced by the menswear designer Thom Browne and his fashion illustrations of minimal design. Because of the two-way-placement of the papers on the wall the viewer is forced to walk around and experience it in a 360 degree format which exceeds the normal viewpoint of the other work produced for this assignment. I very much enjoyed not only the final

product which come out of this assignment, but also the process in which I produced it.

Nicholas V. Elbakidze; “If Walls Could Talk” (10-page curation), 2018

I chose to curate my drawings in such a way that they are removed outside from their original design placement and shown in a new smaller, yet still power, format. I chose to showcase my drawings in the Universe Center because of the buildings architecture and contemporary atmosphere. My drawings are extremely minimal and abstract in nature so I wanted them to be displayed in a setting of equal design. My new formating finds new refuge within the stairwell.  Reading from left to right:

1. I connected all 10 of my drawings with one another using the steel binding clips to create a single long strap of linked paper which I decided fit quite nicely with the flow of the concrete stairs in contrast with the large windows showcased in the University Center. The brass of the handrail and the steel of the clips complemented each other very well.
2. I created a rectangle out of the connected papers which I placed on the handrail beside the stairs. I arranged these papers in a format which allows them to be viewed from both the interior and exterior of the building giving artistic design for all.
3. Exterior view of the second curation.
4. By arranging the drawings on the handrail overlooking the stairwell I created a double-sided design very similar in nature to my original Installation work.
5. Reverse view of the fourth curation as seen in the stairwell.

By curating my partner’s drawings I was given to opportunity to create a new design formation which I could not have done before with my drawings as mine had holes punched into them allowing them to be hung from a pipe on the ceiling. I found that my partners drawings looked childish in design (not application or skill) so I arranged them as if they were the remnants of a child’s drawing frenzy. By placing the drawings in a seemly random formation I created the look of randomness, just like how a child is random in his/her uneducated piling of discarded papers. I was inspired by the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres and his 1990 work “Untitled” (Death by Gun) at which he neatly placed a stack of papers in a room and allowed his audience to take a paper if they so chose for the stack. I wanted to create a kind of tension within my newly curated work, making the viewing audience want to intervene and organizing the disorganized mess of papers, like a parent of child cleaning home. I see this being created into a work of the same concept but rather of being made of fragile paper being redesigned of brass or bronze s that the tension within the work could not be edited or changed and remained still.

John Zorn’s “Khebar” really changed the way in which I view music as an art. Personally, I do not express myself through music as it always seemed as an intimidating form of expression. John Zorn utilized musical instruments in ways which I had never seen before, mainly the way he transitions between playing with a bow and using his fingers. As a person who knows little to nothing about the musical arts I find Mr. Zorn’s work to be extremely interesting as he has opened my mind the possibilities of how music can be used to express the relationship between the old and new.