GOCA Assignment

As usual, today I woke up late, was stuck in traffic due to construction, and, surprisingly, was early to class.  Wandering around the gallery, few images really captured my attention. Once we've discussed the artists narrations, we are all given the task to do the same. How am I even going to start? 

On my way back to my car, about to go into the garage, I spot this little guy! What are you doing up there little friend? Mr. Dumpty you are absolutely correct, I should come back tonight and look at other pieces of art.  Downtown and everything in it, takes on a different appearance at night; instead of taking and afternoon walk, I'll do it at night and see what else might catch my attention. 

Under the cover of darkness, multiple sculptures light up the sidwalks, my personal favorite is this completely random light bulb. I saw it on the way to class, and had only hoped that it actually lit up. Guess what? IT TOTALLY DOES!

When I walked behind this sculpture and found this, all I could think of was the movie Back to the Future and a flux capacitor.  Ridiculous, I know. I love how something so unnecessary, yet shown on purpose, is given lights.  The inside wiring of a flower sculpture becomes just as visually stimulating as the main focal point.

(even though its two, it's really supposed to be one, I couldn't get the whole piece in one shot)

After staring at a fake flux capacitor for a few moments, I go around a corner of the building, and BAM, this gem. If I hadn't been by myself, I would have followed the instructions for stranger reduction.  I'm fairly certain the lightbulb is no longer my favorite, this is brilliant. I'm more than happy I went traipsing around, a scavenger hunt downtown is exactly what I needed today. 

Part 2

Berger made a broad argument that "an image can outlast what it represented.  An image became a record of how X saw Y. No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such a direct testimony about the world which surrounded people at other times. The more imaginitive the work, the more profoundly it allows us to share the authors experience of the visible."

I feel that Matt Chmielarczyk demonstrated this argument beautifully.  An entire room documenting the journey he and his daughter had traveled due to a significant illness. While initially the pictures may have been meant to represent that one moment in time, when all images were compiled into one giant display, they immediately began to repesent something much more powerful.  A single picture, can only show one second in time, this display shows months.  Months complete with different places, clothes, people, meanings, and most importantly progress. 

It shows the intimate bond between a father and his daughter, his way of being able to relate to her pain and progress. How he saw her in each image, varied only slightly if at all. I think that each picture shows how much he loves and was there for his daughter every single chance he got.  He sees her smiling, he sees her crying, he sees her determination to succeed. 

Although his pictures had already been shared through social media, most likely with some sort of caption, the images as one complete thought shows just how impacting this situation was on him.  His daughter is very obviously his entire world, and you can feel how much of his life was nothing but her. No one caption can even begin to describe the emotions that can clearly be felt and seen in each photograph. 

The idea of ordering hundreds of single images into one giant complete thought, enables us to visualize more than just one given moment. The artist literally walks each spectator through the same experience he shared with his daughter.  We can see the good days and the bad.  We can see the pain.  We can see, from start to finish, exactly what Matt saw.  

John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London: Penguin Books, 1972), 10