Not gonna lie, I feel quite at a loss for words this week. I really loved the work by Tannaz Farsi for a number of reasons, but the reading didn’t really connect with me. I just sort of wish that this class involved reading from more than one book. It seems to limit the discussion somewhat. It’s just frustrating to hear an argument, chapter after chapter, that pretty much just sounds the same as all the other ones. I’m a full supporter of Suzi Gablik’s point of view, but I’m also interested in hearing about other themes. Why can’t “The Artists Experience” include positive aspects of the art culture in America as well as Gablik’s view? Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is a prime example of the kinds of people that Gablik loves: smart, cultured, well-spoken, and a supporter of art outside the galleries. Not that these are bad traits, I just feel I have already exhausted these topics in previous posts.

I found Tannaz Farsi’s work to be just up my alley. Cool, abstract, and futuristic installations with a creepy, ethereal quality to them. My favorite work of hers is definitely “Self-Haunted and Synthetic”. It was the one that looked like the inside of a space station with all those clear inflated forms.

She was a very good speaker who did a great job attaching ideas to such abstract forms. Immediately when I saw this piece I thought of space. Space in every sense of the word: outer space, and the space between us. This is a complicated feeling to evoke from viewers, and as an artists who attempts to go in that direction fairly often, I think she did a great job.