In the Interview Magazine article I enjoyed reading the conversation Ligon had with Moran. It was two artists talking about art, even though they were two different types of artists, one a text painter and the other a musician. It was funny to read how both of them knew what the other was feeling while creating their art pieces. For example, one of the funniest quotes I read was, "When you make a work and you put it out, and then people eat that up and they digest it a certain way, you have no idea what their bowel movement’s gonna be" said by Moran, which Ligon agreed with. With this he meant that everyone is going to interpret the work of art differently from the person next to them. But Ligon says that you have to learn to read his art, just like everyone has to learn to read classic artists' work, like de Kooning (an example that Ligon gives). In response to Ligon, Moran said: "You have to sit for hours just listening to people play, and then try to repeat what they were playing so you can build up your own language." Ligon's work arouses quite controversial or even mysterious questions according to the New York Times with text like "I was somebody"; "I am somebody"; "I lost my voice"; "I found my voice", etc. so that the viewer is forced to look for the answer that Ligon is trying to send out. In the end, that's what conceptual art is, right?The image I chose is one of Ligon's art pieces. I chose it because I wanted to see what he meant about using stencils to give the quotations he's using in his art a little more distance, so that it's not "his", as he says in the New York Times. I also chose this image because he likes using dream interpretations from dream pamphlets as his quotes so he can merge abstract and language (http://whitney.org/WatchAndListen/AudioGuides?play_id=372). He was also interested in the "lucky" numbers that were given with the dream interpretations because his father used to work at a numbers parlor, therefore he adds his own history into his paintings.
I think your post is very insightful. I agree with your analysis about everyone interpreting someone's art in a different way. The comparison with bowel movements is hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciate that you went deeper into the background of the picture and found out information about why a certain text is there. It's interesting that he would use dream analyses as his text, and in this example, using the word 'language' is even more meaningful to the kind of art he creates.
I also liked the collaboration between Ligon and Moran. They both create art, but in different forms and it is cool how they worked together. I like how the image you chose taught me something new about Lignon that I didn't get from the articles so much since I was focused more on his neon signs.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you went and found out what the numbers mean. It is interesting to see how my views change of a piece of art after I know about the artist. It changes more when you decipher each part of the artwork also. I think it is easier to relate to the picture if I know about the artist and what they were trying to do.
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