The Binh Danh exhibit was a very different experience than I thought it would be. I thought there would only be a few art pieces but instead there were about 15-20 of them lined up all around the room. I liked the way the faces were drawn on the little leaves and the big faces "photographed" on the strands of grass. I didn't expect the faces of the young soldiers to be photosynthesized onto real leaves and grass. I think the reason Binh Danh used real vegetation is because of the fact that these men died using these kinds of plants to camouflage them from the enemy.
The exhibit is very much a testimony to the disliked Vietnam War because it shows the brave young men as they were before their deaths. The artworks give people of our time the "bigger" picture of how lives can be taken away but can also be captured. The artworks show the reality of life in the past, present, and future, the Iraq War being the present. The leaves and grass, I think, represent how the landscape is scarred and imprinted with these soldiers footprints and faces. The exhibit is a memorial and a reminder of the bravery of a group of men and the seriousness of what war can take away in an instant.
Sontag writes that by taking a picture, people gain control of the image which I don't think Danh is doing. He doesn't want to control the picture, he wants to honor, not only these men, but also the thousands of comrades who were part of the dead. He is not controlling the image he is merely trying to state that the war is something that has happened and will forever happen in this way. Meaning war will always destroy lives and he's trying to do his part by putting it into a different, lighter perspective because we are all affected by it. I do agree with Sontag on the fact that ,"Photographs do more than redefine the stuff of ordinary experience but also adds vast amount of material that we never we see at all.". Like in the exhibit, some of the art pieces had the name, date of birth, and place of birth of soldiers in the actual photograph, which we wouldn't have known by just looking at their faces. It also serves as a kind of memorial for the men who died in a, in basic terms, a useless and costly war.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Sam,
I'm glad you had the time to revise your original blog entry. In the future, I think it would be better to make a new entry, that way I can compare the original and the improved, reviseed version.
Since you took some extra time, I will try to give you some feedback directly in the text. You'll see that a lot of questions I ask are "HOW" an "WHY" questions. This means your main goal for the coming writing assignments should be to focus on giving more detail, and using that as the basis for your evidence. Avoid naturalizing language and generalizations (see the handout for more info on how to eliminate this).
The Binh Danh exhibit was a very different experience than I thought it would be. I thought there would only be a few art pieces but instead there were about 15-20 of them lined up all around the room.
GOOD DETAIL, BUT WHAT ELSE? WHAT SIZE WERE THE PIECES, WHAT SHAPE? I liked the way the faces were drawn on the little leaves and the big faces "photographed" on the strands of grass. ALSO GOOD DETAIL, BUT WHAT IF I HADN'T SEEN IT? HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE IT TO A PERSON WHO WASN'T THERE SO THAT THEY COULD UNDERSTND? I didn't expect the faces of the young soldiers to be photosynthesized onto real leaves and grass. I think the reason Binh Danh used real vegetation is because of the fact that these men died using these kinds of plants to camouflage them from the enemy.
GREAT CONCLUSION, BASED ON THE EVIDENCE FROM YOUR OBSERVATIONS . WHAT OTHER EFFECT DOES THE USE OF NATURAL MATERIALS PROVIDE?
The exhibit is very much a testimony to the disliked Vietnam War because it shows the brave young men as they were before their deaths. WHY DOES THIS MEAN THAT THE WAR WAS DISLIKED? The artworks give people of our time the "bigger" picture of how lives can be taken away but can also be captured. The artworks show the reality of life in the past, present, and future, the Iraq War being the present. The leaves and grass, I think, represent how the landscape is scarred and imprinted with these soldiers footprints and faces. THIS COULD BE MOVED TO YOUR FIRST PARAGRAPH, WHERE YOU DISCUSS THE CAMOUFLAGE. The exhibit is a memorial and a reminder of the bravery of a group of men WHY? and the seriousness of what war can take away in an instant. WHAT IS IT THAT IT TAKES AWAY?
Sontag writes that by taking a picture, people gain control of the image which I don't think Danh is doing. He doesn't want to control the picture, he wants to honor, not only these men, but also the thousands of comrades who were part of the dead. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HONORING AND TAKING CONTROL? He is not controlling the image he is merely trying to state that the war is something that has happened and will forever happen in this way. HOW DOES HE DO THIS? Meaning war will always destroy lives and he's trying to do his part by putting it into a different, lighter perspective because we are all affected by it. WHY IS IT A LIGHTER PERPECTIVE? I do agree with Sontag on the fact that ,"Photographs do more than redefine the stuff of ordinary experience but also adds vast amount of material that we never we see at all.". Like in the exhibit, some of the art pieces had the name, date of birth, and place of birth of soldiers in the actual photograph, which we wouldn't have known by just looking at their faces. SPECIFIC OBSERVATION ABOUT WHAT YOU FOUND AT THE EXHIBIT - GOOD ! It also serves as a kind of memorial for the men who died in a, in basic terms, a useless and costly war. WHAT MAKES IT A MEMORIAL?
Post a Comment