Project: 7 days of responding to your collected images of Visual Culture based on one of the themes discussed in class
Day1
I choose this artwork because it is related to my interest in theme identity. It drew my attention since the artist used fingerprints to build up the portrait. Fingerprints are unique for every individual and they are given by nature which intrigues me. We all have different identities in the society and the world as participants. For instance, people get different jobs and are in different class. They are artificial. However, fingerprints trace back to the origin of a person as a human being on the Earth regardless of society and environment just like DNA. No one has the power to change their features given by the nature. That makes me wonder who we are without all these labels we put on ourselves.
artwork by Saul Steinberg né
1-2iw7g6v2-21inxih3-1u4pyvu4-zkongr5-y5hldn6-1ecl9yn7-1hi7j1c
Here are some other fingerprint artwork:
Rhea Gaughan – finger print drawing of her life story. Written in the shape of her actual finger print
Alexander Calder
Day2
This collage is one of John Stezaker‘s Marriage I series. It can be related to theme identity and gender or even politic. He put one female and one male celebrities old photographs together to form one portrait with a sense of harmony. I find it interesting that the female and male parts in the whole image is 50/50. It’s like a hybrid of their identity which is totally new to the audience, and it connected two people together. It could be two opposite versions/personalities of ourselves that make us who we are.
. 
another works by Stezaker:
other portrait collages:
Weirdo (2014) from ‘Incursions’ by Matthieu Bourel
Olivier Ratsi’s Political Depictions Mix Up Past American Leaders
Day3
other examples:
Day4
I found this interesting portrait on the ground in Chelsea. It is clearly not done by famous artists, and it looks like someone drew it when they’re working since the portraits is surrounded by the black dots, which is the same material as the portrait. The man in the image wears a tie with a very vigorous facial expression, who might be an educated white collar and is definitely different from the person who drew it. From the image, we can guess that the “artist” might be a worker with low income. The image he drew sends some kind of message. It could be whom he expected himself to be or even criticism towards the system. It draws me attention that the materials and the medias that are using in artwork can give us hints about the artist’s identity.
Day 5
I took this picture when I was walking around in East Village. I notices that there are so many windows in NYC. It appears fascinating to me that through every window I can see the details in people’s apartments especially at nights. Those details are so interesting that they show the aesthetic and lifestyle of a person who lives inside the window. Windows are like frames of our display of ourselves. Metaphorically, we can choose what to be seen and what can not to the public through a window. It’s like how we hide parts of identities and present the parts that we are proud of. This reminds me of Edward Cooper’s works. Link to my research.
Nighthawks by Edward Hopper
Night Windows by Edward Hopper
New York Office by Edward Hopper
Day6
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso
I found this painting relates to gender more than identity since they are all naked women as prostitutes. I think this painting might shows the position of prostitutes or women in general at that time. The way Picasso portraits the five women could be how people think of women at the specific time period.
Research link
Day7
I found this work by Bruce Nauman very compelling since there is only words in the image, and language is the basic way of communication. It appeals to the viewers directly like a commend.Viewers are framed to only these four words. The message is powerful and clear. Viewers are force to think about themselves as the words suggests. It can be anything. The message is like an learn that calls our inner self to the physical and mental present as who we are as a person.
Make Me Think Me, Bruce Nauman
REFLECTION
The purpose of this assignment was to analyzing how visual culture works by being a part of it. We picked one artwork and analyzed it with our own individual visual perspectives. It could be text which includes font, structure like what I did and colors. After class discussion, I gained more perspectives of how I interpret visual culture. It’s important because visual culture is all around us and every object is a part of visual culture. As an individual artist, it’s a essential part of me to have my own interpretation of things and have my own personal way of seeing the world around us in a visual way. It’s definitely helpful for the project itself as well, so that we get to explore and do experiment more in the future.
