Excursion to 19th Street

As my first documented excursion into the city I took a trip to Ritten House Square. I've never taken public transportation there so I had to ask directions and so. Turns out when you get to City Hall you follow the green steps to where you can wait for a trolly. The first stop on any trolly heading west is 19th Street. Get of there and follow the signs to Ritten House Square. I explored a little on my way to Ritten House and came across a cool building and an old theatre. As well as a dollar store packed full of all sorts of stuff. When I go to Ritten house I found some interesting graffiti on as well as some adorable squirrels and birds. I took pictures of some of the fountain statues and so on. It was a great trip and an even better start to my morning. As long as I can stay on top of my work load I think I will really start looking forward to these trips. Til next time. To see my excursion

Ted TV assignment: Ravin Agrawal: 10 Young Indian Artists to Watch

This was a really cool video about contemporary Indian artists. The video gave a brief description of each artists work and what it was about. All of them had something to do with their own culture and many used materials and gathered information from the more impoverished areas regions of India. For example one artist weaved scrap metal she salvaged from junks yards to create organic basket like objects/shapes. It was interesting to see how some of the themes which the artists focused/incorporated in their work were very similar to themes I've seen in art all over the world. For example the environment and the reinterpretation of traditional objects and images. Bharit Kher took the dots women put on their foreheads they're called Bindi, and used them to create images and even covered sculptures of animals commonly associated with India with Bindi (for example the Elephant). The art was very compelling I really recommend watching the video.

The artists in the video were

1. Bharti Kher (second image)
2. A. Balasubramaniam
3. Chitra Ganesh
4. Jitish Kallat
5. N.S. Harasha
6. Dhruvi Acharya
7. Raqib Shaw
8. Raqs Media Collective
9. Subodh Gupta
10. Ranjani Shettar (first image)

If you're interested in watching the video here's the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/ravin_agrawal_10_young_indian_artists_to_watch.html