This is Art Major Essay
...ng to show us their pain from a recent death or break-up. All art tries to give us a message it is just up to us to find it. Conveying a meaning ties in with making the audience think. Artwork should make the viewer ask themselves, “why would the artist create this? or how did the artist create this?, what did he use to create it?” These are all questions that make the viewer want to sit down and look at the painting to find the essence of what the artist was trying to say with the creation of their art. Finally in order for something to qualify as art it must be created by something other than your hands. The artist has an array of instruments and tools to use from paint and watercolors to a camera and a flag. Take for example Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Roberto Sifuentes’ Temple of Confessions. They are performance artists who for this performance sat in plexi-glass boxes for hours waiting on the fears and desires of his viewers to get them to confess. Their process includes rehearsing and preparing their skits. Careful preparation and detail goes into each of their new performances. The meaning behind their performance art is the struggle in the relations between the United States and Mexico. Their performances definitely make the audience think because that is their intent; to evoke a response from their audience. Gomez-Pena and Sifuentes also use many different tools in their artwork ranging from a U.S. bandana to their elaborate apparel of gold souvenirs. So, does this qualify as art? Yes, its just not in its conventional form. Eddie Adams photograph of “Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executing a suspected leader of a Vietcong commando unit, Saigon, South Vietnam, February 1, 1968 shows just that one moment right before someone is shot and killed. The process involved here is a bit more spontaneous. The artist was at the right place at the right time. The artist shows us the meaning of truth. Cold and heartless truth but truth nonetheless. Yet the Vietnam War wasn’t anything warm or loving so Adams is also showing us the coldness of the war as well. Does this make the audience think? Well I definitely think so. It makes the audience wonder what was going through both of those men’s heads at the time? Who was more scared the victim or the shooter? Was he really a Vietcong leader? This certainly evokes many questions for the viewer to think about and ask. Eddie used not only his hands but a camera and of course his two subjects. This is definitely art in a truthful, plain-as-day way. Krzystof Wodiczko’s “Homeless Vehicle.” 1988 is a vehicle created for the homeless people of New York City as to provide safety and comfort to them while struggling on the streets. Wodicz...