Toni Dove

Toni Dove is best known for her electronic media, interactive movies, and installations. In her work she likes to provide multiple point of view that bring importance to evey character. After watching a couple of her pieces it is easy to see how much effort she puts in the films and the sound tracks. In particular I like this video because of the bubble and the softness you imagine. I also like the tiny bits of humor in it.

"To make the cimamatic experience something that we can improvise. So the idea is to create a dense multiy layered almost sculptural form of cimema that you can navigate and shuttle through in real time."

Mariko Mori

Mariko Mori was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1967. Mori is known for her cyberfeminism and futuristic installations. She initially studied fashion and later became a model in Japan. Feeling confined by Japan's culture of conformity she moved to London where she began to study art. Mori was always looking for ways to express her individualism and give power to women. She believes that womens' own resignation has a big role in the position that they play in Japan's culture. Mori also urged women to take the roles that men gave them and turn it to something that represented them or helped them. In other words "own it". 

Most of Mariko Mori's work is a fine mixture of real life and fantasy it is so intertwined that if you separate the two I don't believe there would be any art.



Here she dresses as a "mermaid" at a local artificial beach in Tokyo. So she is at a fake beach pretending to a mermaid and no one even pays any attention. She actually uses images of herself in most of her work which she says goes back to her work as a model and even to her childhood when her father would take countless pictures of her. She likes and has become accustom to the spot light.



Her later work was about enlightenment and meditation. She embraced technology with open arms and wanted to go as far with it as she could without losing core tradition. So on the surface most of her work seems very futuristic and technologically advanced but once you go a little deeper you see traditional issues or topics.

One traditional value that came up often in her work was Buddhist values. The concept of oneness and the world existing as one interconnected organism. Models for overcoming national and cultural borders.

"The 21st century is rapidly approaching; it promises a new era when a city in space may well become a reality. In the future, we can transcend our national borders to share one consciousness as interconnected life forms and truly global being. It is my hope that Beginning of the End will serve as a symbol of the eternal harmony of the human spirit" - Mariko Mori

This is one of her latest pieces were she erected a pole on a rock and several feet away she set a capsule that illuminates in different color s depending on the flow of the current.

LACMA

   This museum is HUGE I spent most of my thursday afternoon here and I still wasn't able to see it all!! I got there around 3 and stayed till about 7:30 unfortunately I didn't make it to buildings 1, 2 and parts of 3. However I enjoyed the diversity I saw in buildings 4,5,7 and 8.

This peice was so simple, bright. and fun. It reminded me so much of my younger days I used to be addicted to nintendo!! In the super mario game there was a part where mario had to move along fences with monsters on them sort of like this!



Although I'm not extremely religious I still found this to be one important painting for me. It ties to my culture and my families faith in her.





Playing pool is not something I'm really good at but I love to play. Also the fact that some friends and family members have pool tables make the game more memorable and fun.

 





This for me resembled how chaotic life can be at times. There are always so many things to do and all kind of deadlines to meet. It also has a sense of  violence that our world is filled with.

Because Life is All about Color!!

Guillermo Gomez-Pena

    

   Guillermo was born in 1955 and raised in Mexico City. He went to the National Autonomous University of Mexico where he studied linguistics and literature. In 1978 he moved to California and studied post-studio art at the California Institute of Art. He has received several recognitions including the 1989 New york Bessie award, the1991 MacArthur Fellowship and the Prix de la Parole at the 1989 International Theatre of the Americas. He likes to produce pieces that engage the brain as well as the heart. In his early work he gives a glimpse into the U.S. and Mexican relations, racial issues, and post-colonial issues. Then he began to look at borders all around the world. He uses lots of mediums to express his art he is know for using the Internet, radio, performance art, and literature among other things. He is very interactive and like to get in your face and most of his work is out there!

                One well know performance piece was 1992's Two undiscovered Amerindians Visit. It was a cage where he and Coco Fusco lived in for three day. They did stereotypical things and allowed people to interact with them. It was their idea to let the audience's fantasies be portrayed. 

                                     

         

Another famous piece was1986's End of The Line where a table was placed on the Tijuana-San Diego beach and dinner was set for both Americans and Mexicans together. During the dinner the participants traded places and were in the other national territory! He did this to stress the flexibility of human contact and disturb cultural borders.

"A peace maker in the world's culture clash"

Norton Simon Museum

I finally made it to the museum!!! It was overall a beautiful place, here are some of my favorite pieces..



This looked so real, it gave me a feeling of being infront of an actual dancer! The material used for clothes brought it to another level for me..





The interesting part of this was that it was a mixtue of a painting and architecture..



This piece was so simple and fun..



Beautiful..





The effect of the girl actually looking at herself in the mirror is nice!



The colors in this painting are playful and bright in comparison to the others







Realistic and fun!