Having been a student at NJCU for over two years, I have not once set foot in either the Visual Arts Gallery or the Lemmerman Gallery. However, for this assignment I found myself in the Visual Arts Gallery numerous times looking at the art that past alumni and other artists have worked on. There are two works of art that caught my attention and both are done by Olga Mercedes Bautista. One of her work is a sculpture hanging from the ceiling. It is entitled, “ Bonding with Plastics” and it was made in 2019. The materials that it consists of are silicone, leaves, and plastic debris. The other work of art that caught my interest are photographs entitled, “Bonding with Plastic-Series 2-3” taken by Olga Mercedes Bautista in 2019. Although both pieces are made by the same person,they make a statement in their own way. Both discuss the impact of plastics becoming part of the ecosystem in such a way that soon enough, we won’t be able to tell the difference between the plastic or the natural. Another artist that caught my interest is Sergio G.Villamizar. His work is entitled “Home Sweet Home” and it was made in 2015. It is a photo-collage of over 100 photographs photoshopped in order to make a collage. Bautista and Villamizar may have different statements about their work but I see a connection, the rapid industrialization of plastic and the use of manmade infrastructure are impacting landscape in a negative way.
The two artists are exhibited in the Visual Arts Gallery under the Neo-Latino exhibition. Olga Mercedes Bautista created both a sculpture and took two photographs with what looks like the same material in a lake scene. My interpretation of the art piece is the negative impact that the environment is being negatively impacted by humans. The use of silicone from the produce bag is in my opinion very resourceful and smart. The produce bag provides a nice touch the project because it goes to show the impact people have on the ecosystem. The sculpture was made to look like a tree log with moss stuck to the sides something that might have passed as the real thing if found outside. Hanging from the ceiling, the sculpture was without a doubt meant to be bold and out of place. The photographs, however, were made with a different intention in mind. The subject of the photographs were meant to be very inconspicuous. If you look close enough, you would see that the pieces of paper on the ground are the same pieces of paper used in her sculpture. That is one of the reasons why I chose this artist and their work because although they are linked, the way she goes about her statement are different. She could’ve chosen to take the photographs in a different way but instead she wanted her work to be a form of intervention which I believe worked. Olga Mercedes Bautista was Interviewed by TaeHo Lee, from Lower Raritan watershed Partnership (LRWP) in the fall of 2018. A section of the interview is as follows:
The two artists are exhibited in the Visual Arts Gallery under the Neo-Latino exhibition. Olga Mercedes Bautista created both a sculpture and took two photographs with what looks like the same material in a lake scene. My interpretation of the art piece is the negative impact that the environment is being negatively impacted by humans. The use of silicone from the produce bag is in my opinion very resourceful and smart. The produce bag provides a nice touch the project because it goes to show the impact people have on the ecosystem. The sculpture was made to look like a tree log with moss stuck to the sides something that might have passed as the real thing if found outside. Hanging from the ceiling, the sculpture was without a doubt meant to be bold and out of place. The photographs, however, were made with a different intention in mind. The subject of the photographs were meant to be very inconspicuous. If you look close enough, you would see that the pieces of paper on the ground are the same pieces of paper used in her sculpture. That is one of the reasons why I chose this artist and their work because although they are linked, the way she goes about her statement are different. She could’ve chosen to take the photographs in a different way but instead she wanted her work to be a form of intervention which I believe worked. Olga Mercedes Bautista was Interviewed by TaeHo Lee, from Lower Raritan watershed Partnership (LRWP) in the fall of 2018. A section of the interview is as follows:
T: What is your goal with the sculptural pieces that you are creating?
O: The goal of this piece is to portray the plasticity of the world in our impacts on the environment. I hope that the piece creates conversation between people about their plastic use and make people question their own habits and change their behavior to be more environmentally-friendly. I hope they will see the words and logos of big corporations and brands dissolved into what looks like a real tree made of plastic. Many of these companies are responsible for environmental harm. Just like this fake plastic tree, if we do not change our patterns of plastics consumption, plastic will take over everything, no? (laughter). And I want to see how people react to the piece. Let’s just see how they react.
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| Olga Mercedes Bautista Bonding with Plastic 2019 Silicone,Leaves, and Plastic debris |
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Olga Mercedes Bautista Bonding with Plastics 2-3 2019 Photograph |
The way Olga want her art to be interpreted is clear, to highlight the effect of human consumption and the irreversible effect it has on nature. She states that one of the reasons she created the Bonding with Plastics art piece is to raise awareness of consumerism. She advocates for the use of less plastic and warns people to be aware of the impact they have on the environment. After Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey in 2012, debris have been washing up on the coast and debris have fallen into the sea thus creating a bigger presence of human pollution.
The second artist that I choose is Sergio G.Villamizar and his work Home Sweet Home (2015).The art work that he created is a massive photoshop image with over 100 images used. The creator is from Bogota Colombia but later moved to North Bergen, New Jersey.The image that is displayed in the Visual Arts Gallery at NJCU is a collage of trains, minibuses, the NJ Transit bus, airplanes flying in all sorts of direction, the never ending sight of bulldozers, heavy machinery and the much too common pylon signs we see everywhere we drive to. Although his statement is about his home and everything he sees around him, it also touches upon the industrialization of humans and their constant need for creating more, even if there is no more room, they will always find a way to continue on building. His intention of the art piece is different than my interpretation and that is what art is, different interpretations though the same work.
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| Sergio G.Villamizar Home Sweet Home2015 Photo-collage |
In his art work statement found in the gallery, he states that “Today’s places also offer idealized bodies, comfort food and every imaginable product promising to make our lives better, to make us more desirable, better consumers...”(Villamizar,S 2015) Although the artist was born in Colombia he already knows that in America, consumerism is something we hold dear to our hearts because sad to say, it’s one of the reasons why America is a super power. This idea of consumerism is evident in one of the passages I read for this class. In John Berger’s Way of Seeing there is a quote that states, “The world becomes a setting for the fulfilment of publicity promise of the good life. The world smiles at us. It offers itself to us. And because everywhere is imagined as offering itself to us, everywhere is more or less the same.”(Berger’s, Way of Seeing, p.151) This quote is very similar to what Mr.Villamizar is portraying in Home Sweet Home. Both speak to the audience in terms of having something an external product to fulfill something internal in each of us. I see similarities between my interpretation of the art he created and the quote from Berger because it talks about consumerism and how the notion of buying stuff or being surrounded by stuff we want will ultimately lead us into thinking that we are enough.
Bibliography
Fenyk, H. (2019). “Bonding with Plastic” – an interview with sculpture artist Olga Mercedes Bautista | Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership. [online] Lowerraritanwatershed.org. Available at: http://lowerraritanwatershed.org/2018/12/30/bonding-with-plastic-an-interview-with-sculpture-artist-olga-bautista/ [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].
Villamizar,S.(2015) Artwork Statement. Visual Arts Gallery.New Jersey City University.
Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corp. and Penguin Books.
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