We went to the Whitney Museum of American Art to see the Biennial. I was able to see a variety of different artists and see their techniques. I was really fascinated by the different techniques in all the pieces that I saw. All the artists worked with a different theme and had unique ways of portraying their work. A lot of pieces that I saw did not make use of the conventional materials. The materials used to make the art pieces ranged from paint to metal to tarp to rope. Some of the pieces were videos or installations.
All the pieces were based around the artist itself and their lives. Which I realised is also my source of inspiration. I am always able to find inspirations through something that has happened to me, something I have seen that has effected me in a negative or positive way, or something that has happened to someone that is very close to me.
Being at the Whitney, was a different experience, the atmosphere was lively yet calm, everyone was focusing on viewing the piece very carefully and focusing on the color, the scale, the materials.
I really liked how some of the artists bought out their cultural background into the pieces, or the side of nurture in the sense of where they grew up and what they considered home. One of the pieces that I really liked was by the artist Maia Ruth Lee. The piece that was in the Biennial was the piece called Bondage Baggage, I feel like I was able to relate to this piece, this is something that I have seen all my life, whenever traveling from Singapore to India, or India to Singapore or even just within India. This reminds of the bags that we pack when we travel, the bags are filled with clothes, snacks and presents for all the friends and family, and the excitement that we get by giving someone a present to see the reaction of happiness on their face is liberating.
Another artist that I really liked was Josh Kline, the work he had put up for the Biennial was panel with LED lights in the background with the images of different places with American Power and is represented between tinted glass. There is water pouring over the picture to focus on the issue of climate change in today’s world. He describes the water falling over the image as. “Washing the images away like bad dreams or traumatic memories.” He also insists that. “the future hasn’t happened yet. It can be shaped in the present.”
