For the Courageous the Curious and the Cowards

Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba is a part Japanese and Vietnamese artist who creates films which explore Vietnamese history and national identity, and have referenced issues such as the displacement of Vietnamese "boat people" after the Vietnam War. But Hatsushiba's principle theme revolves around Alienation.

"For the Courageous, the Curious, and the Cowards" was a 13 minute video by Hatsushiba exposing the difficulty and hard labor that the job of dragging the cyclos through the ocean floor had involved. This video acts in the same way as a documentary, it consisted of real Vietnamese fishermen, no actors were employed. The viewer is forced to acknowledge the fact that all physical struggles evident in this video are real, this also brings out the absurdity of such tangible barriers the men may face. According to Wikipedia, Cyclos are used for local transport, mostly used in the South, Southeast and East Asia, where the passengers are pulled by a person on foot. The fisherman drag the cyclos completely underwater, across the sea floor towards about thirty mosquito nets, spread across the sea bed by the artist himself. The fisherman remain calm and determined until needing to breathe, they then rush up to the surface and gasp for air.

Concepts and ideologies from the Renaissance, Modernism are evident in the video. Interest in the future (scientific or the technological) as to capture the footage underwater would require a specific video camera. By capturing the real scene and atmosphere of dragging the cyclos, the audience better absorbs the real issues. Hatsushiba also shows interest in he everyday and mundane human lifestyle of the Vietnamese. He really focuses on their hardships and struggles.

As said by Hewit, (2008), “the arduous job of dragging the cyclos through the ocean speaks to the difficult burden of the past in the face of modernization.” From Hatsushiba's work we are exposed to the lifestyle of some Vietnamese people who struggle with change, modernization an industrialization. The people who do not accept the westernized ways and methods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jun_Nguyen-Hatsushiba

http://www.nyartbeat.com/nyablog/2008/07/for-the-courageous-the-curious-and-the-cowards/

Landscape and the Sublime

1. What and when was the Enlightenment.
According to 'www.philosopher.org' the core period of Enlightenment was the second half of the eighteenth century. The characteristics of Enlightenment involve skepticism towards the beliefs and doctrines that the church had enforced on society. It involved the importance of individualism, science and experimenting, the use of reason and that education can drive for social change and the demand for political representation.
It was an intellectual movement that brought on the ideology of humanism, people being able to think for themselves and gain their own opinions through their own experiences or experiments. To observe human life and the universe rather than settling for what the church has enforced.

2. Define the concept of the Sublime.
- "Aesthetic category associated with ideas of awe, intensity ruggedness, terror, and vastness emphasizing Man's relative insignificance in the face of Nature, arousing emotions, and stimulating the imagination."
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O1-Sublime.html

- "The sublime is a form of expression in literature in which the author refers to things in nature or art that affect the mind with a sense of overwhelming grandeur or irresistible power. It is calculated to inspire awe, deep reverence, or lofty emotion, by reason of its beauty, vastness, or grandeur"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_%28literary%29

3. How did the concept of the Sublime come out of the Enlightenment thought?
With exploring human life and the universe being a factor of the Enlightenment, it included the beauty of nature in which we are surrounded. This meant that the majestic landscapes and other wonders of our natural environment had become more recognized by artists of the Enlightenment era.

4. Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work.
Richard Misrach is an American photographer who was born in 1949, Los Angeles. In the 1970’s, he helped pioneer the renaissance of color photography and large-scale presentation that are widespread practice today.
Misrach is well known for his work, photographing the deserts of America for more then 20 years. He has a passion for capturing every Sublime glance of the worlds natural creations, and through the beauty of God's creation, we, as an audience of his work, find the beauty in his photography. He focuses on revealing the different features of nature, landscapes as well as seascapes. To show the wonders of nature and how it deserves to be appreciated.



5. Identify some other artists or designers that work with ideas around the Sublime, from the Enlightenment era as well as contemporary artists.

Caspar David Friedrich
A 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter



6. How does Misrach's photography make you feel? Does it appeal to your imagination?
Misrach's art shows landscape and nature, making me, as a viewer feel inadequate in comparison to the vast wonders of the worlds natural creation. My attention is drawn not only to the sublime landscape but to how the image gives off a sense of surrealism, how for some reason the contents of the image seem non-existent. And not only is it beautiful and aesthetically attractive, but it gives off an eerie atmosphere, an amazing yet somewhat abandoned piece of land, so it may seem. With this reaction, i can either find myself at peace with the image, or slightly uneasy with curiosity.

7. Add a Sublime image of your choice to your blog, which can be Art or just a Sublime photograph.


References:
http://www.philosopher.org.uk/enl.htm
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O1-Sublime.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_%28literary%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Misrach