Jim Graham

Empty Islands (Detail)

Details:

Empty Islands

dimensions- 78×95″

medium- oil on canvas

2011

Statement:
The visual components for this painting derive from two separate events. The first event includes a gathering of former classmates and one individual who half-heartedly attempts to burn down an island. The second event would follow a similar gathering, only this time taking place between a different group of individuals that I would meet for the first time years after hearing their story second hand. In a show about knowing, it makes sense to discuss our inability to share in another’s experience, without making that experience part of one we all ready know.

www.jimgrahamart.com

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Peer Reviews

1
The work seems to approach the intersection of worlds that take place in the collective experience when communicating and sharing information. The worlds tend to melt together and cannot remain distinct from one another. Communication of knowledge seems to be presented – in a way – as an action of burning down and melding individual islands of being enough to where what one knows is apart of everything else. This piece gives the observer a visual question. What remains of the original island?

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2
The depiction of “Empty Islands” is visually striking and speaks through dimensions and color. The work clearly illuminates the description given and engages the viewer to look deep into the visually vocal aspects of the work.

Ben Grosser

PROJECT URL: http://bengrosser.com/projects/personal-depersonalization-system/

(above link has embedded video demonstration of the work)

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Personal Depersonalization System

Benjamin Grosser
2011
computer, display, and custom software

Every phrase you search, every link you click, and every path you
follow is databased, profiled, and indexed so that Google and other
data tracking companies can develop a refined portrait of who they
think you are—or more importantly, what they think you’ll buy. As a
result, there is no longer a standard Google; the Google you see is
personalized just for you and is different from the one anyone else
sees. My reaction to this is an automated query machine that
depersonalizes my own profile by hiding my real interests and
inclinations within a sea of random noise.

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Peer Reviews

1
The artist tries running away from Google, the most powerful information collector. He might be one of the pioneers who believes that hiding information has a potential power in the contemporary world which believes that ‘information is valuable.’ He is not even only hiding himself. By creating a lot of noisy information, he fights back against google. I believe he needs super hero costume, or Albert Camus’s long coat, because there is beauty in his work in the irrationality of his behavior. By creating more information about him, the artist believes that he has sort of power to exercise control toward the world. Sad and beautiful project.

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2
This piece certainly addresses the veracity of information as well as the process by which we receive it. It seems to suggest that knowledge is being mediated by technology in such a way that makes each individual’s experience unique and separate from the larger realm of collected knowledge. For me, this raises questions such as “what does it mean for technology to assemble an identity for an individual?” and “how does this constructed identity affect a person’s experience of the presented information?”

Yun Jeong Hong

Entry 1 :Guppy Breeding: Being Orchid (2007)

Drawing installation Computer tablet drawing, digital print, Diverse dimension (detail images follow)

Additional information and images

http://www.yunjeonghong.com/guppy-breading.php

Through ‘Guppy Breeding: Being Orchid’, fish becomes plant. By orchid shapes result from a breeder’s fantasy, the evolution of guppy’s bearing resemblance to orchids presents a new perspective on perception. This project is a document of this passionate, enthusiastic and desirable-fake-Guppy breeding.

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Peer Reviews

1
Guppy Breeding: Being Orchid’s works do an interesting job of cataloging biological diversity in a way that feels like a field report. We know these things to be false, but the taxonomy and documentation submerses us in a study where these creatures exist. One part field journal, one part schematic, the work fits the theme of the show by cataloging what we think we expect and, leaving us pleasantly surprised with its care of documentation of morphology.

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2
Making drawings of objects or animals in order to attempt to have a better understanding is an old method of learning what it is that we know. There is a high amount of skill required for such scientific illustration to stand up to the standards of its field. When these illustrations are used in a textbook, they become the first introduction to that subject for many people, so the accuracy is important. These drawings move from a traditional study of fish and flowers into a make believe hybrid of the two, using the familiar scientific jargon and imagery of observation.

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Entry 2 :Episteme (2009)

Wood, glue, nail gun, book, found objects 78x38x67 inch

Additional information and images

http://www.yunjeonghong.com/episteme.php

To narrow gap between reality and fiction through object, staircase was an interesting architectural object. It is located in-between object and space, not likely wall, which is invisible screen functions to create space, and extending time and body movement.

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Peer Review

Taking from Foucalt’s idea that opposing theories can co exist, Episteme takes our preconceptions of direction and structures, and visually plays with them. An organic stairwell creeping and growing, and precariously supported by itself, creating something that is both alive and moving in an independent space, making us question our ideas about space and moving in it. I think it successfully addresses the themes of preconceptions and expectations. The technical execution and craft, as well as idea for placement also visually reinforce the ideas of not just a stairwell, but creeping and growing structure, and also origin and destination, as well as mechanical/architectural structure and organic growing thing.

Micah Jefferson

“Knowledge: A Timeline of Truth” is a collection of poetic reflections over the past year of how I express my perception of reality. I end with a quote from Huey P. Newton – “All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience” – because it seems to be the same conclusion I’ve come to myself in my 26 years of existence, so far. We always have the ability to gain more understanding of our existence here no matter how old we are. Knowledge and wisdom constantly develops over time, through the choices we make and the circumstances of life we struggle through.

Knowledge: A Timeline of Truth (PDF)

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Peer Reviews

1
The work “Knowledge Timeline” is an attempt to decipher the ideas of wisdom and knowledge while it is juxtaposed through the sphere of time and the possibility of growth. The poetic prose of the piece allows the reader to experience these concepts under a wave of doubt which creates a non-linear experience. Time itself is an ebb and flow of relativity, and in this piece so is the concept of knowledge. This is solidified with the ending transcription of Newton’s relating wisdom and how it is perceived through personal experiences.

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2
The originality of the poem by Micah Jefferson lies in the composition and arrangement of work rather than in it’s concepts. The logic used are retellings of philosophical theorists such as Levenas and Huley Newton, but handled in a light, introductory manner that could be appropriate for visitors to a gallery.

Jacob Juhl

Title: Scientists Say that We are all Scientists: A Slightly Ironic Introduction to Lay-epistemology for the Lay Person
Essay
2011

Statement: A learned perspective on epistemology notes that the world is complex and can never be completely understood. Nevertheless, it is evolutionarily adaptive for the human mind to try and attain a functional understanding of the world that they must navigate. Psychology, a scientific discipline devoted to the study of the mind, has illuminated how humans attain this understanding. In what follows, I (a student of social psychology) present a preeminent psychological theory which succinctly outlines a prevalent method that the human mind utilizes to make sense of the world.

Excerpt:

Scientists Say that We are all Scientists

What’s in the center?

Imagine that you are a pre-renaissance scientist. As a scientist you come to know reality with careful observation and rational thought. Like other scientists of your day, you have observed that the sun, stars, moon, and planets move around the Earth once every day. You also…

See Full text (PDF) to read further.

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Peer Reviews

1
Juhl presents a short readable paper on the layperson’s use of the scientific method to develop and redevelop theories of knowledge. Content-wise, the work is on topic with the exhibition in that it describes and theorizes how individuals come to create their own knowledge of the world. The work also indirectly engages with the idea of peer review in that it presents itself as a paper that references papers in peer-reviewed journals.

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2
The title of this piece should be: “virtuous people and texts.” This is also a good sentence: “Paradoxically, it is a science that produces the knowledge that people attain knowledge through the scientific method. ” I am into this piece, I am not sure that I agree with the logic but the author is clear and concise, the author defends his position and provides references. I think it is important to have an essay like this in a show with a strong visual bent. This piece has a sense of humor.

Pancho Panoptes

Title: “Hi there, my name is Pancho?”

Medium: video

additional information about the artist: panchopanoptes.weebly.com

One always–always–sits with yesterday in mind. If by mind we are implying memory, and memory implying thought, and thought implying knowledge: it all condenses into the known, which is always in the past; always the yesterday. Knowledge is the past: So how could one attempt to face the now–the ever changing truth–through knowledge? How does one attempt to understand the unknown with the tools of the known? The end of knowledge is the awakening of intelligence; the awakening of creativity: Of being able to experience the here and now—the present– from moment to moment without betraying it with the known–the past.

“Hi there, my name is Pancho?” seeks to explore the parameters of being. The implications behind an individual wearing a mask and calling himself Pancho vs. a number of others wearing the same mask and calling themselves Pancho. At what point does Pancho cease to be something tangible? At what point does it become an idea? Was it always an idea, one that is acted out?—How much of ourselves are ideas? Are we ideas of ourselves acted out? Is this idea of ourselves our very own? Or is someone else enforcing us to anthropomorphize their idea?

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Peer Reviews

1
The premise for Pancho Panoptes’ video “Hi there, my name is Pancho?” is simple–a masked man speaks to the camera, and can’t be heard–yet asks complex questions. A question mark in the title is perhaps the first indication that this is a piece about uncertainty. We meet our protagonist without any sort of setup or context, and by the end of the video remain uncertain not only of his identity but of his origins, his relationship to us, and his agenda. I find Panoptes’ use of constructed “barriers” (masks, costumes, music, doorways) especially interesting. Although the man becomes increasingly urgent and animated in his address, access to any real knowledge of him is frustrated by these many walls. Somehow in this all the impossibility of language and human exchange is successfully communicated. A piece that leaves us guessing, and does so with humor and tenderness, is a welcome addition to the show.

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2
By examining the idea of preconceptions through appearances, and perceptions through body-language, Panoptes questions not only what we see, but what we believe we are seeing and of course what we believe because of what we perceive. Through the act of removing sound, the viewer is forced to make “blind” assumptions through the known information that is given by Panoptes clothing and body-language. This leaves one to ask, is this how we are forced to judge people on a regular basis, going off of what we see therefore equaling what we “know” about a person?

Jason Patterson

George Holiday Video March 3, 1991, 2011
Chalk pastel on raw canvas, under clear acrylic with black oil
Large canvas 48x27in
small canvases 8x5in

This work is a reproduction of George Holliday’s home video of the LAPD beating of Rodney King. Compositionally, it emulates the layout of YouTube, showing the 1991 event in a contemporary format, 20 years after it was seen repeatedly on television. The pervasiveness of this footage, in its time, foreshadowed the Information Age. It was seen by the public with a level of accessibility that can be compared to significant national and world events today. Imagine the revolutions and conflicts in Egypt and Libya without mobile devices and digital media. By presenting this historical event in a YouTube format, this work comments on our faith in, and dependency on, instant knowledge.

Through the public eye, this video was seen as a smoking gun. The officers in this video, however, were acquitted in The California State Court, leading to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Common sayings like “The camera never lies” and “Seeing is believing” allude to our perception of video and our reliance on its ability to tell the truth. Video, like any form of documentation is a part of history. “All of history is an archaeological attempt to construct coherent, finite stories from artifacts, yet artifacts (including pictures) are not simply facts.”¹ This is the dilemma, we give visual information more weight than it deserves. Seeing is equated directly to knowing.

In my work, treating the image as an object is very important. These 9 images are drawings, rendered in chalk pastel. This is an unnecessary, arcane and arbitrary way to make an image. The idea is to bring new relevance to the re-creation of images. The source image is not simply a reference, but wholly the work’s model. This work is not solely about the beating of Rodney King nor is it a vehicle to subjectively show the event. It is about how and why those images of the beating were created, and their historical and cultural importance. I am trying to find new ways to recreate images, but still craft these works with traditional materials. I hope to highlight the gravity of these images and, in some cases, their banality.

Note
1. “The Heritage VI, 1996,” in Luc Tuymans, essay by Joshua Shirkey, p.138 (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/ Wexner Center for the Arts/D.A.P.; First Edition, October 31, 2009)

More information about artist: jasonpattersonart.com

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Peer Reviews

1
Jason Patterson’s piece about the Rodney King beating video engages with the matters of concern in this exhibition on multiple levels. First, it challenges our conception of photography and video as representational of reality by reminding the viewer of the discrepancy between the visual nature of the acts caught on video and the conflicting results at trial. But perhaps more importantly, it engages directly with the problems posed by mediation. The original video mediated the actual events, but this work mediates a mediation of that mediation, thereby challenging our conception of what we can know by looking at it. I’d like to see Patterson take this final step of mediation further by painting YouTube comments, ads, and other related interface elements.

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2
Jason’s work poses an interesting question in a society in which instant replay dominates many professional sports and surveillance cameras are posted in nearly every store. This has to mean that we no longer trust each others knowledge. But, as Jason suggests, what happens when we do not trust what we see played back to us on the screen either?