Event 4 (Extra Credit): Senses of Time: Video and Film Based Works of Africa at the LACMA

For this event, I attended the 'Senses of Time: Video and Film Based Works of Africa' exhibit at the LACMA museum. I have never really seen video/film utilized as an art form in a museum exhibit before, so it was really interesting to see how artwork translates to the viewer in this medium. Though I saw works that were really breathtaking, my favorite and by far the one that related most to this course was the work titled "Brave New World II" by the artist Theo Eshetu.

Me taking  a picture of myself looking into Eshetu's piece

Eshetu's Piece

The piece, named after Aldous Huxley's novel, is in Eshetu's own words "a film-based work that questions relationships between ritual and technological time through a compelling kaleidoscopic illusion, which blurs past, present, and future." Eshetu built the piece by surrounding a television with a pyramid of mirrors, their reflections creating a perfect globe.

Eshetu's piece is very closely related to our lecture on Mathematics and Art. In order to create his piece, which successfully creates an infinite like illusion, Eshetu had to know how to purposefully situate his 4 mirrors to create the illusion of a perfect globe. Specifically, his piece utilizes the mathematical concepts of fractals (defined as a curve or geometric figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole), whose presence is explained by the Golden Ratio (Fibonacci sequence) we learned about early on in the quarter.

Fractals in nature, like the one Eshetu created
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 Eshetu's piece was one that expertly linked the fields of mathematics, physics, optics, and art. By embracing the Golden Ratio, he has created a man-made fractalized piece that draws the viewer in (mathematics) while simultaneously blurring the distinction between past, present, and future (physics).                                                  

Me with my ticket at the LACMA

The following is a link to the exhibit: http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/senses-time-video-and-film-based-works-africa

References:

 

McNally, Jess. "Earth’s Most Stunning Natural Fractal Patterns." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital. Web. 02 June 2016. 

 "Theo Eshetu." Dutch Art Institute. Web. 02 June 2016.

"Theo Eshetu | The Mirror Ball Constellation No.3 (2013-2015) | Available for Sale | Artsy." Theo Eshetu | The Mirror Ball Constellation No.3 (2013-2015) | Available for Sale | Artsy. Web. 02 June 2016.

"SEATTLE FRACTALS DIGITAL ART." What Are Fractals? Web. 02 June 2016. <http://fractalarts.com/SFDA/whatarefractals.html>.

"Fractals | World of Mathematics." World of Mathematics. Web. 03 June 2016.