Artist Spotlight- Jean otth

-


Jean Otth was a pioneer of video art in Switzerland in the early 70′s. Influenced by the traditional aesthetics of painting and inspired by the the new found possibilities of computers as an art medium.
Otth’s work is provocative and sexual, zooming into women’s genitals, painting over and covering parts of a naked woman’s torso, studying the Cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections under a microscope to observe living organisms. Otth is aware of the provocation of his work, often naming his work after synonyms of modesty and eros. The complex combination of layers, both in the physical world and the the virtual realm of the produced image, reveals as well as disguises the true form of the artwork, all at once. Impairing, destroying as well as degrading the form of the virtual helps it truly exist, says Otth. As Otth himself says, ‘the exhibition tells of the illusions of meaning and the illusion of the senses”. This goes to show that the purpose of this work is to achieve a full, entire gaze, nothing but a gaze, a vision as such, through a medium whose potential it puts into practice.
Overall, while I was initially not fond of his work, his refreshing attitude towards the existence of the virtual realm within the physical one really got to me. And while my personal aesthetics do not match up with his, his  work speaks for itself. His plays on lights, values and images throughout his work is not only awe-inspiring, but also sensational and thoughtful.

 Watch his featured Artwork "Le portillon de Dürer"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let’s use arts to tackle racism !!!

-
Image
  “Melting woman II”, 24 x24” , Oil on Canvas, 2019 With many schools turning to the arts to tackle racism and diversify their curriculum, let’s see if it will have any impact at all. Being an immigrant from India, I have recently been at the centre of some racist comments and attacks and even lost a job because of that, but I guess “it is what it is!” But, I still have hope that art can bring us together as humans beyond our skin colour and language and many of us think like that !  I put on some Indian” warli” art and in my art class the kid jumped and said that he has seen that art in the “Indian restaurant” and that he loves the dark terracotta colour. The importance of equality, diversity and inclusion has never been more prevalent in society than now with the world becoming a global economy and the internet connecting us together. After passionate campaigning from activists around the world, active anti-racism teachings are becoming deeply embedded in our workplaces, com...
Read more

Derek Murray and Selfie consumerism in the Narcissistic Age

-
In Derek Murray’s essay on the selfie, he focuses largely on the ill effects of the selfie on young women and also looks at the affliction to take selfies in contrast to narcissism. While also being a advocate for the advancement of technology and being aware that the selfie provides and indispensable alternative to self love and self healing, Murray being a man, cannot surmise just what exactly selfie taking brings to the young adult. Derek compares the act of taking selfies with a kind of narcissistic personality forgetting the fact that most of his statistics seem to be those taken from men rather than women, and from relatively poorer countries rather than the first world country he is from. In doing so, a really important question is brought to mind; does the fact that Derek himself is neither of these things, affect his judgement? Murray’s article reminded me a lot of this post, that forced me to ask the question, why do we feel the need to classify Women’s self love as vanity? I...
Read more

Amerika (2019)

-
Image
Jorge Méndez Blake is a Mexican mixed-media conceptual artist. Trained as an architect, the artist builds walls and connects their history to literature. He lives and works in Guadalajara, Mexico. Given the political discourse surrounding walls, immigration, and border security in contemporary American culture, it’s nearly impossible for viewers not to draw parallels between Blake’s installation and Trump’s desire to build his so-called “big, beautiful wall” meant to partition the United States from Mexico. This exploration of barriers as both a cause and emblem of otherness and exclusion appears to address our aspiring autocrat’s longing to shape an American ideology predicated upon nationalism, isolationism, and xenophobia. To this extent, then, Amerika functions not only as a material barrier that blocks patrons’ view and impedes their movement, but it also acts as a metaphor for the border politics and debates that currently occupy our national and global conversati...
Read more