Art21 Assignment – Reilly Babcock

I watched five interviews of five different contemporary artists: Ai WeiWei in “Change” (17 minutes), Ursula von Rydingsvard in “Ecology” (13 minutes), Mark Dion in “Ecology” (14 minutes), Pepon Osorio in “Place” (12 minutes), and Marela Zacarías’s Great Expectations (7 minutes). Each artist offered different perspectives and processes in creating art. While there can be some overlap in terms of emotional conviction through pieces, each of the artists were unique in their approach to art and their experiences. During Ai WeiWei’s imprisonment, his assistants were interviewed. They spoke of how he works in tandem with everyone on his team. They said his offers them creative freedom and makes a point to work directly with those who work for him. He also allows different types of people from different backgrounds to be involved in his process of creation. Ai WeiWei believes that art is for everyone, and he definitely conveys this in his process. It is also important to note that he conveys political activism through his art because he does not believe in staying quiet. Ursula von Rydingsvard had a very unique approach to her work. She does not believe in prep work when creating her pieces. She does not make realized sketches or models; she jumps right into her vision. Her work is very labor intensive and repetitive. This is very different than how I have been taught to create art my whole life. I felt a connection to Mark Dion because of his love for stuff and things. He often fins his inspiration for a concept through found objects or anything he has bought from a flea market. He incorporates so much history through his pieces. His work reminded me of our mold making project where we found an object and created a story or message through it. The most interesting part from Pepon Osorio’s interview was his idea of visiting artwork. In his work, he often draws form his experiences through life, especially growing up. He remembers when a religious artifact came to his town to visit, which is a common thing for religious relics to visit different places so different people can experience it. He put this concept into his pieces. He would take his piece from one house to another for it to stay with different people. Lastly, Marela Zacarías put a lot of research and prep work behind her pieces. It was a major part of the creation of her artwork. This reminded me of the processes we do in class to create concepts for our work and guide or creation process.