Vy+Vo

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 * Recontextualization essay: **

“View of Hoorn” by Abraham de Verwer, completed in 1650, depicts the city of Hoorn from the south. City of Hoorn was an important harbor on the Zuiderzee, north of Amsterdam. It was a trading center when located at the join of many roads and waterways in north of Amsterdam. The view in “View of Hoorn” by Verwer is very peaceful colored with the calm tone. The mass of the painting is the late afternoon sky with a bank of cloud stretches across and the dark sea. The highlights of the painting are two big trading ships on the left, two other smaller ship stay lonely on the sea, and horizontal thin line of the far away city. Zooming closer, on the large ship, we can see the sailors are sailing and barely visible buildings on the cityscape. Verwer had been meticulous in detail from the sail rope to the cloud shape.

However, there is a suspicion about this painting. Many experts have paid attention in the tiny clock tower shape, which is tall and pointed spire, in Verwer’s artwork. According to Hoorn city’s history, the clock tower was constructed in 1651, one year after the “View of Hoorn” completed and the death of the artist. The experts think that maybe Verwer’s artwork had been interfered after his death. However, it doesn’t affect De Verwer’s authorship of this work. Abraham de Verwer was born in 1585 and died in 1650. His wife had identified him as a cabinet maker when they were living in Haarlem. Verwer wasn’t known as a painter until they moved to Amsterdam. Verwer has learned the painting art with Hendrick Vroom, a famous marine painter. Actually, Verwer’s “View of Hoorn” was inspired by the “View of Hoorn” of Vroom.

“View of Hoorn” by Abraham de Verwer had followed the trend of Dutch art in 17th century. The Dutch school of painting in 17th century has been considered as a remarkable phenomenon in the visual art’s history. At that period of time, the Dutch Republic had just been established and still was affected by a long and hard war with Spain. However, instead of political and religious attitudes, Dutch artists defined their unique social and culture by the still lifes, portraits, landscape, and seascape that were lacking of information of the event of the day. Back to Verwer’s “View of Hoorn”, it falls into Dutch landscapes and seascapes category. Netherlanders had a big passion for drawings of city and countryside. They could be real or imaginary. Especially, with the development of maritime in Dutch, seascape became a fertile theme. The unique of Dutch landscapes and seascapes painting is the sky overhead dominates the view. With that aspect, Dutch landscapes have been called “sky-scapes”.



 In the recontextualized “View of Hoorn”, I want to show the change through time of Hoorn city. The color changes horizontally from old time yellow on the left to more colorful on the right. The Hoorn City in real time is added on the land ribbon on the right of the original painting. Many modern boats are also added in. That demonstrates the crowded and busy of modern time. How every, all the original boats are kept even they place in the modern side. The new vehicles also present in the old time side. By this I want to say that the past contents the future, and present also presents the past. People from the past wanted to travel to the future to satisfy their curiosity about coming time but of course they couldn’t do that. It’s presented by the balloon toward the right. In contrast, the airplane means present people want to come back to time to understand more about their original. The transition of color shows the change naturally by time while the vehicles present the intention of human.





__Krauss' article__

“Video: the Aesthetics of Narcissism” by Rosalind Krauss is difficult to read and understand. According to my understanding, Krauss argued that video art is a medium of self-obsession. Different with other types of art, the movement and collapsed time of video allow the artist express in term of psychological state rather than physical state. Moreover, the artist used themselves as a central instrument in their video. With the nature of the video, since the artist send out a message, they can receive the feedback right away and allow them to adjust. The artist is in the middle of two processes, transmission and reception. The repeating these two processes in the time line of a video allows the artist demonstrates their psychological state. The article was written in 1970s, however, it’s somehow still applicable in real time. With the development of technology and social network, people have more chance to show themselves by video in which they are the main object of the video. With moving images, sound, and words, video is an effective way to express personal ideas and show up oneself. Self-expression is somehow the nature of human and when people have tools and chances, they make it happen more frequently. However, even though the idea of using video as a medium off self-loving is still truth but the way people perform that is significantly different. In the article, Krauss used many video examples in which the artists use the context to show their ideas. However, in the modern time, people usually use verbal to show the mean. Even those video in Krauss’ article was considered as art work, but in the modern world they can be considered as “crazy”. Now a day, even the art works also need to be practical. The sent message needs to be understood by receivers. Too complicated or too abstract art work can be denial because of lacking of viewers interest. For conclusion, the narcissistic is still exist in the modern world but will be perform in different way which is more practical and easier to understand.

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__Response to Counter monument article__ Counter-monument is a contemporary monument that overcomes the traditional monuments’ disadvantages such as falling to remind, falling to attract attention, or representing outdated values. There are two approaches of counter monuments that are mentioned in the article: anti-monumental and dialogic. With anti-monumental approach, counter-monument is different with traditional monument in five respect including subject, form, site, visitor experience, and meaning. While traditional monuments are typically celebration of the glory, counter-monument reminds the viewer the dark or problematic subjects. Therefore, its forms are absence instead of present, dark instead of light, horizontal instead of vertical, fragmented instead of unified and more that truly reflects its negative subjects. To engage more with the viewers, counter monuments are placed in everyday space where they can have more chance for viewer interaction which is absent with traditional monument. Moreover, the meaning of counter monument is not obvious. The mission of meaning revealing is transferred from artistic to viewers. The viewer perceives the meaning differently depend on their own experience and knowledge. Most of time, the real meaning of the monument needs to be educated by signs and brochures. With dialogic approach, counter monument communicates with nearby pre-existing monuments or the environment around. Therefore, one counter monument will be understood differently when put in different surrounding. The counter monument can be approached in one or another way, or mixed. It’s really interesting about the new type of monument. I completely agree that monument is not necessary just celebrating the glory or the heroism. The tragic events in history should also be commemorated and social issues also need attention. However, the counter monument is also not necessary too negative. It is good to have attention to the problem of society. However, if the counter monument performs those issues too negative, maybe it will lead to the reverse effect. People tend to avoid everything cause their inconvenience and sad feeling. Therefore, if the counter monument is too negative, it can be objected from large part of society. Then, transmitted message are unwelcomed. So, when thinking about building up a counter monument, the designers need to be careful in choosing its form and its site. A message needs to be sent in the right way and put in the right place to have the best effect. Moreover, another problem with counter monument is some time too abstract. While the traditional monument is criticized that lack creativity and represent obsoleted values, but at least the viewer can completely understand what they represent. If the monument is too abstract, it leads to misunderstanding. Consequently, the initial purpose that is calling attention and generating awareness is not accomplished. Because the message they send out id fail to reach their audiences. I personally prefer dialogic approach because the communication between the monument and its surrounding reveal its meaning. My most like about counter monument is the interaction with the viewers.

__Monument project:__ I want to place my monument in the central of Tidal Basin

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