Blog assginment # 5: Boat Ride

Sehoon Cheon

Reflection about the Boat Ride

The Chicago architecture boat tour along Michigan Lake and the Chicago River with cool wind on sunny day was refreshing me because I have recently been bored and tired of my Chicago routine life. Actually, I have been interested in the photography and skyline of the skyscrapers in the big city. I cannot forget the moment when I visited in Chicago for the first time in 2006. At that time, I remember the splendid Sears Towerand magnificent John Hancock building as the most famous building in the northern downtown of Chicago. Now in 2012, 6 yearshave been passed there is some changes of the skyline in Chicago.

First, the Sears Tower has changed the name to “Willis Tower” from 2009 and second, new skyscraper Trump tower has been built up in the middle of Chicago.

From this boat tour, I have learned the history of Chicago significant buildings that have very important meaning on architecture history.As the tour guide explained, every single building has its own unique appearance and all different purpose of the construction related to the historical background. Therefore, regardless of the height of the building, all the buildings have important meanings in Chicago as a architecture.

         While the guide was giving us the information about history of the architecture, one book has been come up with in my mind. That is the book called “ The devil in the white city”. I was recommended to read this book in the last summer semester in ESL 100 class. This book is about how Chicago planned to build up all the new constructions through the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. If you have chance to read this book, I am pretty sure that you will be able to be interested in Chicago architectures because we are living in the middle of Chicago buildings everyday, feeling the history of Chicago together.

The Devil in The White City

Reflection of MCA visit

My first impression about MCA was freshness and simplicity itself. It was located in the center of the city, Chicago and it refreshed me enough. Also, I thought the simple organization of the artworks displayed in the museum was great and it seemed well fitted to the main theme "architecture".

I could understand from the structural meaning of the architectures and to the symbolic meaning of the architecture such as the "911" artwork. By showing many different newspapers how 911 was reported from other different countries in their own languages, I can see the powerful meaning of the building architecture. Overall, the architecture, in the point of view as an art, may be the most enormous and essential expression in human life. In other words, people tend to come true their imagination or dream through architecture.

 

Skyline (Kader Attia,2007)

The "Skyline" was made by recycled refrigerators. I felt the coldness and desolation in which Cities usually show from this work.

Installation (Jan Tichy,2007)  

The "Installation"showed the base structure of the building. The most impressive part from this work was the reflection of the building in the back by the laser beam.

Night (Michael Wolf,1954)

The "Night" showed an aspect of our lives. It reminded me of life in Korea because most of Korean live in high apartments because of over population. So, it is always crowded with people anywhere but a lot of lights make a great view at night.

Blog assginment # 4 : Themes of art

The Cultural Landscape Artwork - Gisaeng

There are numerous occupations all over the world but there is a special job called "gisaeng" in Korea. Historically, we called woman "gisaeng" who are specially trained in music, dancing, and the art of conversation to entertain men . It was a little different from the modern concept of prostitute. They were treated as a lower level but officially admitted in the society at that time.

The Joseon Dynasty era(1392-1910) was one of ancient Korean historical countries. It is recorded the gisaeng has existed since this period. Although there are a lot of records at that time, the artworks by YoonBok Shin the most well-described about them.

Dano(19th century)

This is the most famous artwork of his. Also, this picture was designated as the 135th national treasure in Korea. It describes a holiday "Dano"(5th of May). People wash their body, prepare for upcoming summer, and wish for good harvest. As shown the picture above, gisaengs are washing their hair and riding a swing as a traditional custom. 

Blog Assignment #3

The Skyscraper

 

 Whenever I walk around the HWC, I could see a new skyscraper in Chicago. The new skyscraper is Trump Tower. The building was built with a new trend of architecture. As you see in this picture, the exterior of this building is all surrounded by mirror glasses and everybody think it is gorgeous and terrific.

 

Although I agree that it looks good, on the other hand, I have ever imagined what would happen if a great fires would break out in this building. 

 

When I was young, I watched one of movies related to this situation. The title of movie was "the Towering Inferno". It described that the disaster was deprived from humans' arrogance and greed. Besides, it showed us all level of society people showing all different reactions against the accident like selfishness, sacrifice, and love between families.

 

I think the skyscrapers seems to be one of the symbols of wealth. So, height, width, and splendor of the building really matters. Everyday new skyscrapers are building up high and high competitively. However, if it is built only for individual satisfaction without consideration of public security it might cause unexpected disaster someday like "the tower of Babel"

My Favoirte Artist (Louise Bourgeois)

I’d like to introduce Louise Bourgeois today.

This artist is a representative abstract expressionist sculptor in the U.S. but she was born in France.She has received a worldwide reputation after she was 70 years old and she became one of the most remarkable sculptors in the 20^th century.

She usually expressed feminism in her works and it seemed to be related to her poor childhood and unhappy family history. Her father was patriarchal and unfaithful. Also, her mother was very listless and depressed. Her brothers led loose and dissolute life. All these memories from her family left her an unforgettable trauma for her entire life and affected to her works significantly.

Most of her works reflects her memory of deprived childhood. Unlike other female artists, many of her works are usually expressed in a dark, dreary, gloomy, and scary mood.

As her major works, there are “Destruction of the father’ and ‘Maman’. Especially, the Maman is very famous and well-known because it shows maternal affection through a gigantic and fierce spider which is protecting its eggs.

She had received all sorts of worldwide awards and also exhibited her works in many other countries.

She passed away at her age of 100 in 2010 but she is still being respected and hold in high esteem worldwide until now.

 

Thank you -Sehoon Cheon

Blog Assignment #2

The Grand Central Station in New York

I visited this architecture where is located in New York last winter. The first impression was it is old and classical outside and not colorful.

  Inside of the Grand Central Station

 When I entered in the building, I was surprised because there were huge scale of interiors and many crowd people. Above all, I loved the gracefully high ceiling. I came to understand why people like big size houses and broad space. It seems that the spatial sensibility of architectures would give people a calm and a feeling of relief. 

   Inside of the Grand Central Station

 Whenever I visit the stations, I used to have strange feeling because there are a lot of meetings and separations. Many people would be able to feel excitement, pleasure and sadness from the places.

I was trembled to be there because it has numerous memories of many people from the past, present and even to the future, regardless of time. This place must has been the same place where people in the past used to meet and apart like the present. It seemed to me a kind time-traveling.

Where: Grand Central Station, 87 E 42nd St, NYC.

Blog assignment#1

 
Q. Post the picture of an artwork you like. Tell who the artist is, title of the work and why you chose the work. What about it do you like? 

A.The artist of this artwork is Young Sook Baek(1956) from Korea and this picture is one of the series named "Spirit of CoGuRyeo". The CoGuRyeo is one name of the Korean ancient countries. Historically, in the era of CoGuRyeo, this Kingdom was the most powerful and prosperous. The country lasted for around 700 years and influenced on the history of Asia significantly afterwards. Therefore, until now, it is mentioned the most and it is remembered by people the most. This artist has tried to express the tough masculinity and the beauty of women at that time through her artworks. Especially, she introduced the beauty of a representative woman of CoGuRyeo through this work. As a matter of fact, it is an artwork that reenacts an actual mural painting of a beautiful woman in the era of CoGuRyeo. When you take a close look at this painting, you can find a photograph of a modern female. According to the painter, she intended to bridge the beauty of the past and the present from this picture.
 The reason I like this artwork is that it is not common to see such a painting showing the past and present at the same time in a drawing. The artist's intention which makes viewers compare the beauty between the past and present was very impressive to me.