Event 3: This Is The End, "Even Pricks" at the Hammer Museum

The This Is The End exhibit features 3 videos created separately by 3 different international artists: Loretta Fahrenholz, Tommy Hartung and Ed Atkins. When I visited the Hammer museum, “Even Pricks” by Ed Atkins was playing. The three videos do not share the same content or even the same storyline, but they do cover a wide array of themes such as surrealism, mental health, disaster and supernatural powers.




“Even Pricks” was extremely disturbing and bizarre. The 8 minute video is said to portray depression. However, I personally did not understand or see the implementation of depression as a mental illness in the video at all. Although this may have been the intention of Atkins. He uses a plethora of sounds and images to confuse the conscious and unconscious mind. I often heard clapping, snapping, gunshots and a person yelling “fu-”. The sounds play at inconsistent times; there is no rhythm or sense to when they are played. The same goes for the images. Atkins uses computer-generated images to create a sense of pure insanity. You see frequent shots of a monkey and a thumb, which appear to act as a precursor to a new image. In one clip, it seems as though there is a movie trailer playing. Several phrases are shot across the screen but then the clip suddenly ends. All images often start and stop in a manner that frustrates the viewer.  The combination of the sounds and images lead the viewer to believe there is no significant storyline or meaning to the video.




Ed Atkins created a video that is unlike anything I have ever seen. Despite the unusual computer-generated images, I do not recommend the This Is The End exhibit. I did not come away with any type of fulfilling experience. In fact, I was distributed by the erotic insanity.

Event 2: "Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studios" at the Hammer Museum

Thomas Heatherwick’s exhibition Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studios at the Hammer Museum was incredible because the artwork was so diverse and different. The studio creates useable, everyday things such as consumer products, public and private architectural buildings and the like; but, it is their execution of their creations that set them apart. Heatherwick’s time studying at London’s Royal College of Art taught and inspired him to create pieces that are innovative and inventive. His studio is known for great diversity in their work, as far as style, materials, structure and content.





Heatherwick Studio’s architectural designs are far from ordinary. The “Learning Hub” (2011-14), on the left, features 56 rounded tutorial rooms to encourage collaborative learning at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The rounds are stacked around an open center, which is used as a place for student gatherings. Other parts of the building such gardens, terraces and rooftops are used for community activities. The “Rolling Bridge” (2002-04), on the right, screams innovative technology. This hydraulic bridge rolls up and down so that pedestrians can pass through as well as boats. The bridge is supported by an anchor, allowing the rolling motion to take place. This efficent art piece is significant because it combines British drawbridge tradition with new technology.





The Heatherwick Studio also creates unconventional pieces of furniture. “Spun” (2007-11) was created in light of Heatherwick's apprenticeship with a silversmith during college. The chair gets its circular rotation from a metal spinning technique. The exhibit included prototypes outside in the courtyard. They were made of foam, plywood, MDF, metal and plasticine. Surprisingly, there were extremely comfortable.

As an athlete, it was very cool to see a prototype of the Olympic Cauldron from the London 2012 Olympics. Heatherwick’s studio was asked to design the cauldron with a catch: each country was to be involved in the making and lighting of the cauldron to encourage collaboration and teamwork among all countries.

Because of the uniqueness of the art and the wide range of pieces, I highly recommend that other students attend this exhibit. The utilization of different materials, as well as the modern technological designs, to create this art expanded my thinking from the traditional structures and products I see day to day.

Event 1: "Making Strange" at the UCLA Fowler Museum

For the first time ever, popular multimedia artist Vivan Sundaram has his work Making Strange on display at the UCLA Fowler Museum. The exhibit is comprised of two separate projects called Gagawaka and Postmortem. Both bring about ideas of life, death, aging, body image, mental health, illness and injury by creating high-fashion pieces with materials frequently used in medicine. "Floater" (2011), seen below, is a good example of this with the inflatable plastic dress, plastic tubes, and orthopedic supports.

The unique sculptures and unusual recycled materials are intended to make a powerful statement on a variety of issues. Thus, Sundaram is considered an artist and a political activist. He is said to have found the inspiration to create such controversial pieces from his education at the Slade School of Art in London. Upon his return to India, he created an “activist-oriented art collective” that encouraged artistic freedoms; these freedoms are embodied in the Making Strange exhibit (Making Strange exhibit).

One of my favorite pieces was the “Wired Torso” (2013), seen below. It is a half-bodied mannequin hung from a wall facing downward and is created with fiberglass body organs, wires and anatomy samples. To me, the downward facing angle seemed to be representative of human pain tolerance; the angle symbolizes the unknown in science, and the material symbolizes the complexity it will take to wipe away pain altogether.



I also liked the 12 ft. paper cup sculpture called “Effigy” (2011), seen below. It was pieces like this that were fun to see because they are extremely innovative by recycling materials found in a doctor’s office to portray a deeper meaning. Sundaram’s work shows that art is not merely something that is painted or something that communicates a single message. Art is the creation of something pioneering, something without limits and something that affects our world. Making Strange gives the viewer an experience that is educational and inspirational.




I definitely recommend Making Strange to my classmates. We have the rare opportunity to see an exhibit of an artist from another continent, who speaks another language and lives in a different culture. The art acts as a medium to portray messages that span across cultures and speak powerful messages to all without words.