Stages

I Wanted to See All of the News From Today, included in another Rhizome Exhibit, titled Stages:

Every life and the experiences that person goes through are different, but with every life lived there are common stages in the life that can be applied to others. In the most general form, people are born, go through a childhood, go through adulthood, and then get old and die. This can be further broken up to the point of saying that in one’s childhood they are born, start school, don’t like the opposite sex, do like the opposite sex, do love their parents, don’t like their parents, etc. Through the database of artworks at rhizome.org, there were many pieces that were able to highlight and display different parts of a full life. In a linear way, one would definitely start with a childhood. Definitely a characteristic of a person’s childhood is fun and games. “The Attic” by James Mercer is a very interesting game where the player chooses their own adventure. Being that the game uses very simple graphics reminds the viewer of a younger time. In between one’s childhood and coming into that age of maturing, one starts to notice the opposite sex. In today’s world, we live in a sex driven society, whether it is present ion TV and movies or a big element in advertising, sex is everywhere; especially with man’s fascination with the female breast. In “knockers, etc” by Jessica Gomula, the artist depicts this fascination that society has on breast. In the piece, the artist goes through different aspects of the breast such as health, nourishment, pleasure, politics, and form. It is an interactive piece and a very informative one also. As people get a little older, people like to know what is going on around them. One of the most creative ideas to display this thirst for knowledge is Martin John Callanan’s “I wanted to See All of the News From Today “a work in progress). In this piece that is updated constantly, newspapers from all over are posted up to see exactly what is going on that day. I think people are drawn to see what interesting things happened to other people and how events affect them. Later on in life comes to a crossing point where people look back on what they have done. This is also known as a midlife crisis. In James Ford’s “33 Things to do before your 10” the artist realizes that there are certain things that people should do as kids. So as an adult, Ford does these kid type events such as getting his face painting. This best signifies a midlife crisis because he is reliving his childhood. Then of course the close of one’s life comes in the form of death. This is where people realize their faith. Pradip Malde’s “Looking At God” is a very simple concept with a very intense message. The simplicity of the pictures makes the subjects that much intriguing. While looking back at these half faces one wonders to whether they are looking at you or through you. Definitely anyone at that point in their life would want god to look at them and not through them. Even without that element of god, just as people and the selfishness that people unknowingly have to be wanted, is present. Another element that some people experience is that of a rebirth. To explore this concept, Matthew Board made the piece “Eternal Life” and takes the concept of some videogames ability for the player to regenerate and applies it to the thought of a rebirth. After who is to say what happens. I think this piece also brings this concept of a life outline full circle because the piece uses a video game and that can take you back to one’s childhood, and start this cycle again.