This is one of her incredible pieces! She has this way of making a graphic imprint of a building plan, and they layering on top with organic marks that look familiar but not quite! In her lecture she talked about how she loves that grey area between what something is, and what something can be. So many of her pieces are politically based on events such as Sept 11, where we will never be able to wrap our heads around what happened, we think we can for a minute but then a shift happens and we start to realize how much more we have to grasp. Her point with her work is creating pieces that do just that, where you have to look at the piece and try to grasp what she is portraying and as soon as you do, there is a shift that causes you to see it again in a whole new way. She wanted people to actually spend time looking at the work, deciphering it bringing to their knowledge what forms seem familiar, and looking again at what isn't. I think her work is absolutely brilliant, and I am still trying to grasp all of the concepts she discussed at her lecture. The second piece of work I included is called Empirical Construction, Istanbul. With this piece she was trying to showcase the layers and richness of the culture of this incredible city.
So definitively check out Julie Mehretu!! In waiting for the lecture I was able to view a couple of exhibits at the UMFA including there full time historical collection, and a student Exhibition about Sustainable Design, which is right up my alley as an Interior Design Major. The full time collection showed how art and culture has changed over time in different parts of the world. It was so fascinating to me how much detail people were able to accomplish with their hands. I particularly loved the European history section which showed portraits painted in such detail they looked real! as though you could walk through them, and the 1700- 1800 furniture they had hand carved out of gorgeous walnut, and mahogany was so perfect. I'm a sucker for gorgeous wood work. There was also a fantastic Sustainable Design Exhibit which featured furniture made of recycled materials including pillow cases, coffee tables and rugs! The piece that had the biggest effect on me was called Make Your Mark, and it was an interactive chalkboard piece that encourage everyone to write/draw what they personally are going to do to help make the Earth greener and to sustain our resources my mark was WALK What's yours?
Let's make this earth a greener place yeah? I'd love to hear your sustainability ideas :D
With love, BEKAH
(UMFA selfie :)
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