Erwin Redl Paper

Gina Herrera

Digital Imaging

Professor Spradlin

Erwin Redl

Erwin Redl was born in 1963 in Gfohl, Lower Austria, although he currently works in New York since the year 1993. He received a diploma in electronic music in Vienna at the Music Academy, as well as a BA in Composition. He has received mny awards in the CD-rom categories, as well as architecture / environmental studies. Redl als holds residencies in various places, including Texas, the PS1 studio in Queens, NY, and others in the Czech Republic. He has had about 20 solo shows total in various states and countries, as well as many group shows. As of 2006 he has shown even more works than usual per year. The Museum of the Lower State of Austria and the Whitney feature him in their permanent college, plus many lesser well-known places.

Redl is best known for his creations involving huge scaled curtains of LED lights. He creates virtual realities that take the viewer on an experience that makes them think outside the box. He changes one’s perception on the “out of body experience completely. Redl focuses on forcing the viewer to occupy certain spaces within his objects, and the amount of time, work and effort that goes into just one piece is phenomenal. Redl is also fairly well known for computer design.

One of his more interesting computer-based interactions is called “truth is a moving target”. You can find it here -- http://www.paramedia.net/projects/truth/truth.html. Basically the viewer clicks on the screen, which is gray and black striped in the background, while the center box is dark and light red striped. When the viewer clicks, words pop up all over the screen in the places you click. Some phrases include “modernism was about death itself” and all types of other abstract sentences that can be construed in many different ways. Also, if you click in the same spot again, the words will disappear, and if you click yet again, different words and phrases pop up. All in all it’s very interesting, I had a lot of fun playing with it, to be honest, because the phrases he uses really caught my eye and I spent a pretty long while trying to rearrange the words and pull up different sentences.

Another piece by Redl that is well worth mentioning is his work “Matrix” series I and II. These two pieces are very interesting – green LED’s [light-emitting diodes] are strung up around the room in different patterns of gridwork and curtain-esque shapes that surround the viewers. This virtual reality is intended to invoke feelings of the bending of time and space. He wanted viewers to focus on the abstraction of it all, and even went so far as to esplain to a reporter that these two pieces made him question the meaning of life itself. The main focus is the inhabitation of space, where the viewer can stand in the center and wonder about their own point of existence. This type of piece is known as “reverse engineering”.

In conclusion, Redl has clearly pioneered many areas and aspects of the term virtual reality. His pieces make the viewer think about time and space, something that is often ignored in life. Every piece of his invokes deep and profound ideas, and he continues to do so even now while he lives and works in the United States.

Final Artist Book

Artist Comparison

Cindy Sherman/Frida Kahlo


Although they used different mediums in their work, Frieda Kahlo and Cindy Sherman are both extremely profound figures in the history of self-portraiture in very different ways.

Firstly, Frieda Kaho’s pieces are more oriented on pain and suffering – her work is clearly extremely personal, between her train accident, her miscarriages, her failed marriage, and many surgeries. Her work conveys her life’s most influencing times on a deeply personal level, especially since it was one of the few activities she could do after her accident for the next three months. Over a third of her total paintings are self-portraits, which shows how greatly these events affected her life.

Kahlo also incorporated many aspects of her Mexican culture into her self-portraits, indicating that she was proud of her heritage and didn’t want to lose her roots. Also incorporated are ideas and values held by Christians and Jews, so religion clearly was another influence in her life as well. Kahlo’s surrealist approach on real events in her life was revolutionary, and she appears to have interpreted many of these significant events through usage of symbolism and representation in her works as well.

Cindy Sherman, on the other hand, although also doing numerous self-portraits, did not always intend for herself to be the subject. It appears that she wanted to draw more attention to world issues – such as racism, feminism, etc. Much of her work was created to sort of mock the policies of American advertising and cinema. Despite the fact that they were self-portraits physically, in theory she never intended to be “Cindy Sherman” in the piece in theory. The point was that it could have been anyone in the pictures, and demonstrated the usage of sex appeal in many of them as well.

Dia Beacon Reaction

Spider -- Louise Bourgeois

s

The work I chose from the Dia Beacon museum is called Spider, and was completed in the year 1997 by Louise Bourgeois. Quite obviously the artist was French [born in Paris in 1911], and emigrated to New York at the age of 27, but did not become widely known or successful until the early 70’s. Bourgeois is acknowledged for her frequent use of many different mediums, including rubber, wood, stone, metal, fabrics, etc. Bourgeois chose to exhibit her works at the Dia Beacon museum in the “attic” – the unfinished, dark creepy rooms upstairs. The entire structure of the spider is made of metal, and the shape is modeled around that of a large cage-like object. Basically is just a very menacing and large figure that appears to hover over the viewer. I mainly picked this work because it scared the hell out of me when I walked into the room. The monster spider symbolizes a protective mother, as well as a vicious, terrifying predator. For some reason I tend to love this type of work, because even though it frightened me, there is quite a deep meaning behind it. I love the weird and scary angles of the giant legs, and the fact that it is much taller than the average human is also interesting because it makes it that much more intimidating. All in all it turned out to be one of my favorite pieces in the whole museum.

Final Project

Your lipstick, his collar, don't bother angel
I know exactly what goes on

When everything you'll get is
Everything that you've wanted --
Well, which would you prefer:
My finger on the trigger, or
(me face down, down across your floor)
Me face down, down across your floor
(me face down, down across your floor)
Well just so long as this thing's loaded

And will you tell all your friends
You've got your gun to my head
This all was only wishful thinking,
This all was only wishful thinking
And will you tell all your friends
You've got your gun to my head
This all was only wishful thinking,
This all was only wishful thinking
Let's go...

Don't bother trying to explain angel
I know exactly what goes on when you're on
Wait... How about I'm outside of your window
(how about I'm outside of your window)
Watching him keep the details covered
You're such a sucker
For a sweet talker, yeah

And will you tell all your friends
You've got your gun to my head
This all was only wishful thinking,
This all was only wishful thinking
The only thing that I regret is that I,
I never let you hold me back

Hoping for the best just hoping nothing happens
A thousand clever lines unread on clever napkins
I will never ask if you don't ever tell me
I know you well enough to know you never loved me
(Why can't I feel anything From anyone other than you?)
Hoping for the best just hoping nothing happens
A thousand clever lines unread on clever napkins
I will never ask if you don't ever tell me
I know you well enough to know you never loved me
(Why can't I feel anything From anyone other than you?)
Hoping for the best just hoping nothing happens
A thousand clever lines unread on clever napkins
I will never ask if you don't ever tell me
I know you well enough to know...

And all of this was all your fault
And all of this

(I stay jealous)
I stay wrecked and jealous for this,
For this simple reason
I just need to keep you in mind
As something larger than life
(she'll destroy us all before she's through
And find a way to blame somebody else)

I stay wrecked and jealous for this,
For this simple reason
I just need to keep you in mind
As something larger than life.

Cute Without the E: Cut From the Team -- Taking Back Sunday

Illustrator bird :]

a snowy owl i made in illustrator.

Project 2

Warning Label

As you can see I don't like stupid people :( And of course I know too many of them.

Pictogram Illustrator

If you can't tell what this is my feelings might be hurt.

Project 1 -- Part 1

February 19th, 2008

Ten layers. Adjusted levels to make darker, embossed ribbons, 73% opacity for the moon scene in background.

Project 1 -- Part 2

Thirteen different layers -- Used same photo of train station as in above post... Effects = drop shadow, inner/outer glow, and bevel/emboss. Part 2 of 2.

Intro to Photoshop Project

January 29th, 2008

Four layers. Desaturated and tinted girl in window with hint of blue, added an outer glow effect. Bevelled and embossed rose and frame. Added some color in girl's hair and eyes afterwards.

Other Influences

Other favorite people of mine have little or nothing to do with the "fine arts" category, such as painting or drawing, but still inspire me in other areas. I love fashion, jewelry, movies, music, and all other branches of artistic talents that people may have, and because of this, I have many fashion designers, actors, and musicians as well that also heavily influence my work, whether I am drawn to objects they created, their strong personality, or their sound. Many of these people are women, mainly because I have a great admiration for those of the female sex who have changed history or contributed a great amount to society throughout their careers.

Audrey Hepburn was an incredible actor with poise, and a great outlook on life who made history in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's, as well as a fashion icon for every girl in America to look up to. She always encouraged everyone to be their own person, and her advice was to love who you are at all times without being someone you're not.

Coco Chanel was one of the 100 most inspirational people of the 20th century, according to Time magazine. She lived in an orphanage for seven years of her life, later becoming a seamstress. I admire the way she started out as a poor girl with nothing and built up her life until she could make a name for herself, later becoming incredibly famous, all on her own with little help from others. Her clothing and jewelry designs were always simple, yet chic and classy at the same time, and the Chanel empire has become a huge legacy since her death that will continue to inspire designers around the world for many years to come.




Victoria Beckham, another great influence on me, is extremely fashionable, and she always looks amazing in everything she wears. I never put much stock in her background as a "spice girl", but after she retired from singing, she became much more well-known for her great taste in clothes, makeup and especially her signature haircut. Her confidence and maturity is inspiring to me, as well as her personal style in all aspects of her appearance.




I think Betsey Johnson is such an amazing designer and an incredible personality in the world of fashion. When you first see her with her crazy makeup and strange hairdos, she's just so out there that you immediately think of her as weird. But the truth is that in her line of work, Betsey Johnson does what every other person around her should: she bases her designs and lifestyle on what she herself likes, rather than conforming to societal standards, whether it's her clothes, her hair, or her lingerie line.



My artwork is also influenced by different types of music as well. I listen to many genres, and I have a wide variety of favorites. To name a few, usually when I'm working on a project I will listen to Taking Back Sunday, The Honorary Title, and AFI, as well as tons of other bands.

Influences

My influences are pulled from many different forms of art, from the colorful paint splatters of Jackson Pollock to the abstract surrealism of Salvadore Dali. I love looking at any types of art and trying to find meaning in them, even if there isnt supposed to be any. One of my favorite forms of art is the plain black and white photograph, because if a photo is truly a good piece of work, there is so much of the subject that can be left open to interpretation, especially if it lacks colors. Chuck Close is also a huge role model and inspiration to me because of the fact that even in the face of a disability, he still is one of the greatest modern artists of all time after all that he has been through. i hope to one day set my own personal style that reflects some of my influences, and someday i want to inspire others the way these artists did for me. :)

MC Escher
(Wentelteefjes! <3)

Jackson Pollock

Salvador Dali

Chuck Close