Art21 ProjectChris Burlin

An-My Le: “Protest” 2007

An-My Le has photographed Military (and military reenactment), Many Vietnamese, and intentionally modified landscapes. These combinations of images stir up ideas of battlefields where the earth has been permanently changed through human action. Although she intentionally photographs nature scenes to appear to have been destroyed, she often looks for flora within the setting to give a sense of life and hope. It is hardly questionable that this fascination derives from her experience and perspective of the Vietnam War when she was a child.

Firing RangeI took this photograph in early November at Fort Indian Town Gap, Pennsylvania on a drill weekend with my National Guard Company as a response to An-My Le. I think it encapsulates the feelings she tries to convey through the body of her work through the presence of military equipment, and a working soldier on a radio but with a natural backdrop of rolling hills. I feel that, like Le’s photographs, it depicts the potential for destruction as it is a shooting range (the white shooting bunkers can be seen near the trucks), but injects emotion by showing a person and not having it just appear to be mindless machines bringing ruin. The natural element, the trees, grass and forested hills provide a sense of life, and regrowth as An-My Le attempts to portray in many of her “desolate” landscape images.

Judy Pfaff: “Romance” 2007Judy Pfaff has an almost chaotic approach to art. She starts with a design then tends to have minimal planning, allowing herself to get swept up in her focus and see where it takes her. She works on feel and emotion, as she has an idea of what her work should feel like and allows this intuition to guide her into the final, collage-like final product.

My ResponseThis photo is of reeds in a swampy drainage basin on Howard Community College and I feel it embodies the work of Judy Pfaff. There is not much order in which plants grow; the reeds seem to be of sporadic growth pattern. I feel this connects with the way Pfaff constructs her works and the trestle-like crisscrossing of reeds and reed leaves is harkens back to “Romance” image. I also enjoy the contrast where this is organic material and Judy Pfaff constructed the piece in “Romance” with inorganic material.

William Kentridge: “Felix in Exile” 1994.William Kentridge used charcoal drawings for many of his videos and images. For videos, he would use one image and make minor changes for each shot eventually turning it into an animation. Kentridge portrays the world as he sees it and experiences it and as a result make’s highly abstract images and films. He has stated that its his job to make art not sense, and his art supports this with his whimsical approach.

WorldviewI drew this image in response to William Kentridge as I also attempted to depict some of my worldview and experiences through abstract means. I chose to just use black/white/grayscale as it would reflect Kentridge’s intentional use of charcoal.