Event #3

          For my third event, I decided to attend Jeanine Oleson’s art exhibition called Conduct Matters at the Hammer Museum.  I found that this exhibit was a premier example of the usage of contemporary art inspiration with the field of science.  From my perspective, it seemed that the inspiration for this piece was in the production and economic aspects of the formation of copper, as well as how these processes affect people as consumers in our society.  I feel that she was juxtaposing our need for commodities such as copper with our extreme lack of knowledge regarding where these commodities come from and the effort and resources it takes to produce them.  This parallels with the lack of connection that we, as a society, feel with our bodies and with art in general.  All of these factors created an extraordinarily unique art exhibition, that left me partially confused and mostly intrigued on how Oleson came up with such a complex and far reaching idea.

            This exhibition included a short film that was projected on three different screens on the wall. There was a quilted blanket in the center of the room as the focal point. Finally, there was a screen on the wall that was melded with glass to a copper wire that ran through the wall and was connected to a bell shaped, clay configuration.  The screen was playing a video that showed the production of copper, and some other programming scenes that I was not sure what it was.  The actors in this video were the same actors in the film playing on the walls.  I feel the smaller screen was supposed to convey what physical labor is needed to create copper wires, while the larger screen was a more satirical performance of the melding of song, dance, and acting with the use of this copper wire.  Towards the end of the film, there was a part where one of the characters was looking through a glass, similar to the one covering the screen in the room, and she claimed that she was “searching for the art within her own body.”  The other three actors, I assume, represented the art she was searching for, and the irony was that they were right in front of her and she still couldn’t see them. 

I think this is the part of the exhibit that struck me the most, because it relates to the idea that we are so focused on the literal, and scientific sense of things in our culture, that we miss the beauty of art that sometimes is right in front of us.  We are numb to the beautiful things that surround us every day because we cannot see past the things we are convinced that we need (aka the copper wire).  I may be completely off topic, but that is what I gathered from this exhibit, and I found that it was very relatable to the topics we have covered throughout this course.  I also feel that other students who may have attended this event could have had an entirely different experience, and I think this is part of what is so wonderful about art.  There is no right or wrong answer, and the ability to interpret it in your own specific way is one of the most important things I think I have learned throughout this class.  I definitely recommend paying a visit Jeanine Oleson’s exhibit before it closes, because it really encompasses the topics we learned about in this class.