Chicago Video Review

Nick Cave makes unique sculptures. He forms costumes out of abstract objects to convey ideas about society. Some of those including racial injustice, police brutality and poverty. These costumes have are created to have forms that do not resemble things we see in our everyday lives. These costumes make noise and are made with a very wide variety of materials. Chris Ware was a cartoonist. He created comic strips for books and pamphlets. He was very interested in capturing people’s struggles and emotions with very few words.  Barbara Kasten uses plexiglass and transparent plastic sheets with different lighting arrangements to create pictures that distort reality so it’s difficult to tell what is real and what is a reflection. She then expanded her work into dances with moving parts and props. She designs the costumes, creates moving backdrops with colorful lighting and builds the props. Theaster Gates was originally a potter but became an artist of many materials. He creates objects and murals made of everyday materials we often see as worthless, such as tar, that represent how Theaster thinks the world can be. He uses sounds, especially the gospel choir, to guide his work.  I find Theaster’s work challenging to me because for me it is very challenging to represent a sound with a physical. He then started using his abilities to restore buildings for housing and other purposes. I think it is very cool how each artist created very different works of art to but they all conveyed what they value in their heart.