I first learned of Krzysztof Wodiczko and his work when he came to speak at the MFA. A friend and I escaped the Museum School during our lunch break to hear him talk. At the time (I think it was the middle of junior year), I was having serious doubts (again) about art’s ability to make an impact on people at all and whether I would be able to do anything meaningful or relevant to society as an artist. Seeing Wodiczko’s work helped mitigate these doubts a great deal, if not put a decisive end to them.

Polish-born artist Krzysztof Wodiczko is best known for his large-scale video projections of everyday people onto monuments and other public edifices. These projections often portray these ordinary volunteers candidly telling stories of their lives and experiences, usually centered around painful ordeal or personal suffering. His work has been installed and shown in public spaces in over a dozen countries, ranging from the town squares of authoritarian governments to right here on our National Mall in D.C. Wodiczko also designs technological devices or machines worn on the body that help construct situations in which people can share their personal stories with others.

Nearly all of Wodiczko’s work follows a socio-political theme. For instance, in his monumental projections work, he chooses to film people whose lives have intersected with war, conflict, homelessness, social inequity, gang violence. In all these works, the melding of private and public spheres is immediately obvious.

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This is a belated post. Saturday afternoon (pre-mochi), we actually went to see the Shepard Fairey show at the ICA. Here are my random thoughts:

By and large, it was a very predictable show. We saw an abundance of visual tropes inspired by war propaganda depicting activist/culture-jamming themes in a super-flat, high-contrast style. We also saw a preoccupation with sumptuous Asian and Middle-Eastern decorative motifs, as well as those spirograph-like things on money. But none of this is meant in a disparaging way. There were several things that I found amazing about the show.

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Another great graphic designer talk from TED (they have oh so many). I like this one because Milton Glaser talks more about his process than about his higher overarching ideals. Also I enjoy his irreverant attitude.

Many times I’ve felt that same urge to humorously pontificate the “meaning” of this or that design, mostly to poke fun at designers’ tendency to take themselves too seriously. I would have if I thought I could get away with it. It must help to be an esteemed, established designer, which I am anything but. =)

Oh, I am way past my bedtime. Tomorrow is ruined; I’m gonna wake up at noon, sluggy and tousled. But the past 2 hours have been so great. I just spent the past 2 hours in various giggling fits, which I do believe is better exercise than having sex while jogging.

Basically, there’s this “performance art,” “improv comedy,” “urban prankster,” whatever you want to call it, group out there called Improv Everywhere, and that’s pretty much what they do: they improvise humorous situations involving mass participation everywhere (with a focus on large American cities at the present, though). They have this fantastic website, http://improveverywhere.com, which documents all of their comedic exploits, or “Missions.”

I think one of the best ones is the Human Mirror. By far my favorite aspect of all these is the wide range of people – young, old, hip, unhip, black, white, green, whatever – that can all respond in much the same way – by smiling helplessly at these happenings. It is very inspiring seeing a load of seemingly diverse people, especially in a city like NY which is often touted as having a “hardening” effect on people, just smiling away, sharing a baffled, joyful bit of experience in common, and also trying desperately to force their face muscles back into stoicism but failing utterly. It’s so great.

One of the things that inspires me so much about art like this – and yes, I do call it art, as legal as any art shown in the Whitney – is the universal humanness that they bring out in people. I aspire to make art like that one day – to get people in touch with what brings them together in common understanding. Boy, I will read this in the morning and really regret the cheesy rainbow sunshineness but you know what… it’s how I feel…. =)

I think I must have bruised my ribs laughing while watching Blues Bros. earlier and watching Improv Everywhere has only made it worse; I get these sharp pangs whenever I inhale. Oh, but it’s so worth it!