Art reflection

On Saturday, April, 12 i went to the crane building to check out some art as well as see the actual space that I've heard so much about. First I went to the Ice Box space where I saw
The Soft Epic or: Savages of the Pacific West by Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib. I had seen their work before at Vox Populi, but this encounter was completely different. As soon as i entered I felt like i was in the presence of some kind of post-apocalyptic port-hole. I was totally stunned before I even noticed the 5 projectors. The room was huge and dark and made me forget instantly about the mid-day sunny weather that i had just come from. The art had a presence, to say the least. It took me a minute or two to actually get back down to earth because of how blown away i was by this colossal collage of moving images. When I actually began to examine all the parts that made up the video i was a little bit disappointed only because the loop was so short. Everything i saw- the fires, the deteriorating buildings, the debris, the animal headed cop, the horny tiger- all awesome until i began to notice the pattern. That really took away the buzz of amazement I had because it reminded me instantly of the mechanics. I feel like any kind of special effects are totally ruined the minute you realize how they are executed on top of the fact that it reminds you that you are definitely looking at something that is fabricated. Its that feeling of awe and wonderment- if only for a moment, when you question what you know because you simply cant believe your eyes. Maybe if i never worked with moving images myself it would have been different. But overall, i think it was pretty great. My favorite part was the sound- really awesome mixture of actual instruments, ambiance, and noise. The sound was perfect, it caught me for a lot longer than the visuals.
Next i went to the Nexus gallery and saw two photographic works- Susan Abrams "From Stillness" and Tasha Doremus's " New Work". Susan Abrams's work was interesting but didn't really stand out to me. It was the average innitial reaction of "Oh, thats cool." I did really like Tasha Doremus's work. I thought it was really beautiful the way the handmade paper gave a totally new dimension and meaning to the image of the photograph. I especially like the ones where you had to really look for the image and try to separate it from the paper with your eyes. They were really nice to just look at and enjoy. I thought it was also really cool that the artist made her cards on that same paper that the art was made out of. I really appreciate the work because I often feel like it has become so easy to make a good-looking photograph thanks especially to digital technology. Click.Load.Print.Done. Its not even about how much time it takes but its more about the fact that the process is so widely known and understood that theres no mystery left at all. I liked Tasha Doremus's photos because it was evident that there was a process and there was mystery- these are the things that are important to me when i look at art.