I came prepared to the show ready to “take pictures of the works I liked,” as instructed. With thousands of people milling around and observing, however, this task was not as easy as I had anticipated. Waiting for the right moment to take a picture without others walking into the image became a complicated task. Several of my images from that day (though not the ones I ultimately selected for my visual archive) captured people within the frame – sometimes images of me observing them while they look at the art, sometimes capturing people dismiss the art they pass. In retrospect I wish I had saved more of these images from that day, as it seems to speak directly to the idea of one’s “image filtering” that we discussed later in class. The reasoning behind why one person gravitates towards a particular image can be completely different than that of the next person, but it is clear that the bombardment of images in our everyday lives has taught us to refine “filters” for selecting imagery with specific characteristics.
Highlights of the images that made it through my “filters”:
The third one in particular grabbed my eye because I enjoyed the humorous play it was taking on the original Degas sculpture, one which I have been familiar with since I was a child. I think I am drawn to works that have an inherent humor/irony to them, whether through their particular composition or written text in the work. (Update: This is certainly clear after reviewing my visual archive - see later post!)
What was great about this exercise was that it truly allowed me to solely focus on the works existing as images, rather than approach them as a potential collector. In other words, never once did I look at a piece of artwork, consider its price, and then decide if I liked it – every piece was presented to me as though they all began on an equal playing field. An impressive exhibition of works, even if the purpose was in reality a primarily commercial one.
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