I've never been a great fan of digital art, as my attention spam is ususally too short to sit through video installations. When at museums, I tend to take a peek at those darkened rooms, wait a few seconds and walk out. It seldom grabs me to the fullest. There are a few exceptions here and there, but to me they are usually too hermetic and boring. You know, that kind of art that you're suppose to say it's brilliant but deep inside you think "WTF?!" I don't pretend to be a highbrow art critic, who can wax-poetic about "the complexities of human existence", or stuff like that. I just tend to glance quickly at "TV monitor art" and keep going.
But there's something about Julian Opie's work that seized me at first glance.
The first time I really paid attention to the British artist's work was at the ICA, in Boston, earlier this year. The piece was one of his "walking supermodels", as I call them, and it's part of the museum's permanent collection. It shows a black & white video of a female cartoon-doll, side view, with a hypnotizing hip swagger. I couldn't get enough of that!
In his work, photographs and short films, are computer-altered to highly stylized, minimal figurative reproductions. In my simple words, I would say a "paint-by-numbers" quality, with thick black outlines and flat colors. You see idyllic landscapes where water subtly ripples. Face-on portraits, staring at you with little beady eyes, then a sudden blink. Spellbinding!
I selected a few of my favorite pieces to share on the blog. To see more of his fascinating work click here for his personal site.
1 comment:
Love the new look of the blog, especially the sheep pic!
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