Thursday, May 15, 2008

The End Has No End

Although initially frustrated with the balloon's refusal to burst and its continual deflation, I now feel the artists' decision to do so works better with the concept of "The End Has No End," the video piece which showed various people repeatedly crawling both forwards and backwards. Each definitely touches on the idea of monotony and the endless "synchronicity which dictates ourlives." However, only after reading the show's pamphlet did I realize that the tower of LCD monitors was built in the shape of an eight or infinity symbol. Maybe I overlooked reading into the configuration as a whole due to my interest in each screen individually; I hope I am in the minority since the overall form is definitely important to the piece's concept. I hate when I miss large, initial concepts and have to read the artist's statement before understanding the piece further. At the same time though, I don't think artwork a whole necessarily must be understood by outside viewers -especially upon first glance.

I, too, enjoyed the video pieces. This is probably due to the satisfying nature of the balloons' bursts. Unlike the gallery's installation where the ball kept deflating, each red balloon popped. Comparing the two pieces now, however, I am confused why the artists decided to let the red ones break. The two works seem to be in opposition.

---pictures to come!!!

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