This week we learned about crafts and other methods of production in art.  The guest speaker, Professor Anya Kivarkis gave a unique presentation in comparison to others we’ve had in the past.  One thing I learned from her presentation was that this type of art could either be an original or be a reproduction of the original.  I found this interesting because it reminded me of a reading I did for ARTD 251, Time Based Digital Art.  The reading was about copyright and how it's a problematic issue in the world of art.  The questions asked in the reading were, how much is copyright enforced in art, and how do we determine if an art piece is original or not.  The example used, was Duchamp’s installation of the urinal.  Is it art, or is it a copyright issue?  In my opinion there shouldn’t be boundaries to what artists can use to express themselves.  It’s more about the thought and creativity behind the piece rather than the physical appearance.  Duchamp deserves all the credit because he was the one that thought of displaying a urinal as an art piece.  For him to make that connection and think about something no one else would imagine is really commendable.  This relates to Robert Gober who did the sink installation we saw in the professor’s slideshow.  Another artist I found interesting in the slideshow was Gijs Bakker art entitled “Real Series.”  This collection was interesting because she used cheap flashy costume jewelry and attached a smaller reproduction of the jewelry piece but used real gemstones.  I found this really creative and cool because she turned the cheap costume jewelry into an elegant expensive piece just by attaching a smaller duplicate.  The last artist I found very intriguing was Allen McCollum, who did installations by re-producing an object over 1,000 times.  I just felt that the work and dedication to make the same object more than 1,000 times is amazing and crazy.  But, the results are worth it because it created this mind-blowing visual that is one of a kind.

            The second artist we studied this week was John Feodorv who is also a production artist as well as a painter/drawer.  While viewing his work I felt his work was really unique and really knows how to reproduction in his art.  One installation I found interesting was “Ambiguity,” because it gave off this playful yet creepy feel the more you looked at it.  The installation contained unstuffed toy animals lying on the ground with a large teddy bear made out of only cotton filling floating over the toys.  At first I thought, how cute it's a big bear, but then I realized that the stuffing came from the animals lying on the floor.  This relates to the presentation because he is using a common object such as a stuff animal and constructing them in a way that is visually intriguing.  Another was where he used the doctor board game to make an art piece.  It’s intriguing because there is connection between it being a fun game as well as becoming a real life surgery situation.

            After this week’s lesson one thing that came to mind was the bat installation at the Seattle Mariner’s baseball park, Safeco Field.  The piece is entitled “The Tempest,” where the artists, Linda Beaumont, Stuart Keeler and Michael Machnic used 1,000 baseball bats they reproduced to create this beautiful piece.  The piece is placed on the ceiling in the main entrance of the stadium.  Not only is it beautiful to look at, it also lights up at night illuminating through the translucent bats.  This relates to this week because they reproduced the baseball bat in order to create the art piece.