ANNA TAKAHASHI

  • ILLUSTRATIONS
  • SELECTED WORK
  • TEXTILES
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • ILLUSTRATIONS
  • SELECTED WORK
  • TEXTILES
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT

Who Made it?

7/19/2012

4 Comments

 
Picture
Robert Longo, Men in the Cities (1979), Metro Pictures Gallery, New York NY {http://robertlongo.com/work/view/1118/5565}
When I watched The Holiday for the first time, I recognized an artwork that hangs above the staircase that Amanda (Cameron Diaz) storms down while fuming at her boyfriend whom she suspects of cheating.  This artwork is a piece from Robert Longo's "Men in the Cities" done in charcoal, graphite and ink.  You can also catch many more from the series in American Psycho, another favorite film of mine. As an art director and graphic designer, I keep coming back to Longo's "Men in the Cities" solo exhibit at Metro Pictures Gallery in 1981 when I think about authorship. In his solo show, Longo stenciled on the wall, credits for the models and fabricators whom contributed to the creation of these immaculately produced drawings.

Let me say one thing before I go on. 

To be completely honest, I've never studied art officially until I started my masters at Art Center in 2009. Of course, anyone avid can study anything on ones own and totally kick ass at their expertise, but there is a thing to be said about attending school. More than anything, speaking from my own experience, the most priceless aspect of entering a school is the people you meet and what they teach you. For the people I met, the lasting friendships I've found, what I learned from their wisdom and how they shaped my world is something I'm indebted to for the rest of my life. And going to "art school", something I even avoided for being afraid it would shape my way of thought too much, is one thing that absolutely rocked my world. And I'm grateful for my experience.
      I'm not ashamed to say that before I went to school, I had no fucking clue of what so-called "fine art" was. Painfully, this fact immediately came to light when I started presenting my work in one of my first classes. Not only was I ignorant of the history and major names and works of art, I didn't even know the language to comprehend and talk about art. So it come as no surprise that I couldn't understand the significance (or insignificance) of a piece of, say, a bike wheel atop a stool. Yes, Marcel Duchamp is a perfect example (http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=81631). Cutting to the chase, I'd say art school for me was a language school to perceive not only art, but the world through a completely different semiotic structure. This, I will write about in another post.

Now back to Robert Longo and films. I juxtapose these two to think about production and authorship: who made the work? It's something I often think about when I work for clients, work on film productions and think about work I released under my name. There's no wonder why end credits of films are so long if you think of how every micro component of a film is created. But the truth is, there are much more people out there that deserve credit for their contributions. I think about this when I think about how my work was made possible. For example, like Benny the Hippie Bus. Although that piece of work is by Anna Takahashi, it is BY OTHERS as well and couldn't have manifisted itself without them.

More writing about my work, work of others and art to come. 
For now--authorship--something to think about.
4 Comments
Jeffrey Miller link
7/18/2012 05:49:53 pm

Now that's what I am talking about, Anna. Well said, my friend. The journey we take through life is made up of all the little discoveries along the way that one day define who we are.

Reply
Anna
7/18/2012 06:37:00 pm

Yes, just like how you and I met through some wonderful contingency! The relationships we form with others--I agree--are truly essential in defining oneself. Blessed to have such amazing people around. That includes you!

Reply
Terry
7/19/2012 03:38:25 am

Anna great writing.

I admire you as an artist and also for who u are.

Reply
Anna
7/19/2012 01:56:40 pm

Thanks for your brief and thoughtful words Terry. People like you keep me going ;-)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Benny The Bus
    Books
    Eating
    Fashion
    Film
    Fonts
    Fun Stuff
    Home
    Illustration
    Inventions
    Jarinko
    Language
    Life
    Lost In A Sense
    Music
    My Honey Bee
    Set Design

2 0 2 0 © A N N A T A K A H A S H I
Photo used under Creative Commons from Keng Susumpow