Friday, December 21, 2012

Birds of Destruction: Humans Interpretation of God’s Creation, Aircrafts!

 Since planes are meant to be outside and not inside, I would insert the work at the outside entrance of the E building. This is the perfect place because everyone coming in and passing by could see it. Hanging the focal point of my show in the middle would give the school a more interesting and attractive look.

I have always wanted to become a pilot since I was a teenager. I went to Aviation High School a few blocks away from LAGCC. My reason for going to the school was with the idea that they has some type of flight program, but came to find out it was only focused on aircraft mechanics.  As soon as I found out the assignment the one thing that came to my mind is my attraction for Airplanes and was hoping there were specific art paintings of planes or sculptures and not just Google pictures with no artist. I am still perusing my dream of becoming a pilot which is why planes and this show would be so significant to me. Finding 5 pieces of aviation art wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. As the curator I would have one of pieces, the sculptor, handing vertically downwards, right in the center of the entrance. As people pass by it and look at it they could either start from the bottom to top or top to bottom (Preferably bottom to top). Either way it would not make a difference because once they would look upward, they would see the paintings that I chose with the sculpture, placed around the tail of the plane. Although LAGCC has no aviation related course, they do contain a Mechanical Engineering program. This can influence these engineers to take their talents to an aviation-like field and make better planes, engines, and etc.
The first piece I chose is also considered my main piece. As the curator I wanted my show to have a focal point as well as paintings have. But since we have more than one piece here, I wanted all these pieces to be attracted by just one. Here we have a sculptor plane made by Fiona Banner. This place is currently placed in the Britain Tate Modern Art Museum as well with another sculptor of hers, which will not be in this show. I picked this because as soon as I saw it, everything became as bright and clear as of how I wanted the show to look. The title of these sculptors is “Harrier and Jaguar” without the Jaguar. This piece consist of many lines, leaning more to the implied side because they are made up of dividers of wings and the same of the wings as well as the shape of the plane. This is a 3D sculptor which consists of depth, height, and width. The dimensions given are varied; none were pretty accurate or relevantly close. With this piece there is actual texture. So being able to touch it you could determine whether the artist sanded down the paint in order for its texture to be smooth or possibly not. This plane brings unity to the paintings around the area of its tail because they are all similar fight aircrafts painted to the best of the artists’ ability. Having this Harrier hanging should emphasize the fierceness of these aircrafts and how powerful they are, other than just having paintings on a while which might not give you the same feeling.


The second piece I chose is a painting done by Philip E West titled “From Dawn to Dusk” This shows the much older fighting aircrafts by the title you get the feeling that there were some type of guardians for the town. This is a 2D painting with implied 3D figures which are the planes, tower, and houses. The lighting on this picture is implied by the sun set. It shows the its going to be night very soon which is another clue take from the title. The colors used here are very complimentary. There are different shades of yellow due to the regular sky as well as the color of the clouds mixed in with the sun light. All this gives it a warm feeling, but the skinny looking trees make it seem as if it is winter. The planes flying by together give this painting unity. He uses the rule of odds in this painting with the amount of planes there are. I believe the focal point is the sun combined with the airplanes in a way because that says everything about the painting you actually need. The composition of this painting was very well thought out and it came out beautifully, bringing jealousy to me wanting to be one of the pilots flying one of the planes.

This right here is a painting done by John Shaw titled “We Were a Band of Brothers”. The first thing you get off this painting is the sense of unity that these pilots have with each other, a “brotherhood.” The light implied in this painting comes from the brightness of the clouds. The colors are very dim in a way but still clear enough to see the detail. The balance of the painting in my interpretation evens out with all the brothers and the one huge aircraft right behind them. They themselves are the focal point of this piece. I believe taking the content into consideration that they are about to go out into battle. They are sharing a piece of mind, happy and joyful though, encouraging each other to make it back so they can come back and celebrate. Showing no sense of weakness but strength which is why they chose to go along this road together.

This painting here is done by Lou Drendel which has not title but only have this brief statement “The 481st Tactical Fighter Squadron flew 3,600 combat missions during 1965 in South Vietnam. Though heavily used (and showing the wear), the F-100s of the squadron achieved a remarkable 98% mission-ready status during this period”. This is another 2D painting. I would consider the negative space to be everything behind the fighter jet. I would also consider this to be implied depth. I think the smoke is very enforced here, so in some way having Chiaroscuro,  because smoke is really never that dark but he is trying to modeling the engine start up. Right here I see unity, because as I admire this painting I replace myself with the guy walking towards the plane and feel as if we are one in all once we take off. This is more of a calm picture, there is no sense of attack, war, insecurity given, more of a friendly day to take out a plane and flying it since your have the privilege to do so. I get that from the composition of the piece, which is structured in a great way.

My last chosen are piece sin also done by Lou Drendal which does not have a title either. I chose this one because it felt like a continuation from the previous painting. This painting feels like a close up from a movie and you can just hear the plane as it flies away from the camera.This painting has many lines, some vertical like the white ones left behind the wings which imply speed. There is implied depth in this pictured from the distance between the ship and the plane. The colors are complementary, a combination of the blue sea color and the metallic grey have always been my favorite combinations. Light implication is less at the right bottom side the painting which is completely dark. The proportion scale of the planes on the ship compared to the one up close are different due to the distance between them. This just shows how much bigger the ship carrying them is compared to the planes. Even though the scale is different they are very representational. The content tells me that the it is just a regular day, just training flight conditions, no real danger provoking the flying of the planes.


All these panting’s have unity with each other. That is why I chose to put the in this certain order. My main points are seen. Different aircrafts, what engineering progresses too from previous times to present and even more so to future, and most importantly brings shows that planes are not only used to get from point A to point B.


1 comment:

  1. Bryant! Terrific work, I would totally come and see this show! you picked a strong visual theme, one that is personally important to you but also many in the general public. It would be so GREAT to see that Fiona Banner work in the E building!! Great work here, have a nice holiday break.

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