Event 2: Fowler Museum

The most personal thing a man or woman can purchase is the house.  The house turns into the visual representation of how a man lives and what he believes in because the homeowner puts all his virtues and values into the square feet of land that he/she possesses.  The tile, curtains, carpet, decoration, all of it is a representation of how a person lives their life within the comfort of their ideals.  The exhibit presented in the Fowler Museum, Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments, shows this same value of personal space, but it is taken to an artistic extreme.  Jo Farb Hernández captures the art of self-taught artists in photograph and the concept of a home is changed.

The homeowners in Spain all use their own houses and yards to change their living into a continually changing art piece.  As seen in the photos, the houses are not only colored, but also decorated with religious elements that depict strong connections to the lives of those who live in the household.  The artwork correlates strongly with the lecture we had about space and art.  The idea of space as in universal and microscopic images was covered, but the use of space to create a personal connection through art is another venue with space and art.  The artists change their personal space into the ideas they have in their brain, which is the very premise of what geography is. 

The use of space and area is well done also within the self-taught artists.  In one of the artworks, the person’s house is turned into a monstrous painting.  The use of the door entrance and windows to be depicted as a mouth and the opening into the throat is a great use of space and creativity to depict what the artist wanted.  The artwork may look simple, but the premise of the art is beautiful in its nature.

Works Cited/Links

"Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments | Fowler Museum at UCLA." Fowler Museum at UCLA. Web. 1 June 2015. <http://fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/singular-spaces-eccentric-extraordinary-spanish-art-environments>.

"The Art of Geography | Bringing the Sense of Place to Life." The Art of Geography. Web. 1 June 2015. <http://www.artofgeography.com/>.

"Spaces." SPACES Blog RSS. Web. 1 June 2015. <http://www.spacesarchives.org/blog/author/jo-farb-hernandez/>.

Hernandez, Jo. "Art Environments: Curatorial Roles and Responsibilities." YouTube. YouTube, 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 1 June 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKvXyOnI6MM>.

Teeuwen, Marjan. "Abandoned Buildings Turned Into Incredible Art Installations." Inhabitat. Web. 1 June 2015. <http://inhabitat.com/abandoned-buildings-turned-into-incredible-art-installations-by-marjan-teeuwen/>.