Artist Lecture 11/12: Shimon Attie

Shimon Attie is an artist that creates large scale video and photo installations all over the world. I was a little late and missed his background, but I was there for the better part of the lecture on his current work. While his work was definitely interesting, I have to say that I was turned off by the nature of his lecture and the way that he spoke of himself. I generally try to give each artist the initial benefit of the doubt at first and give the lecture some time before I make my opinion about the artist. But shortly after I sat down I received a different type of vibe from this artist.

While I was not that impressed with the underwater project, I started to enjoy the work with laser writing on the buildings. The idea to use lasers was original and the process was quite interesting to me. I always enjoy and appreciate work that explores the best and most difficult to use technology. I did feel like he played up the fact that a documentary was made about his work, instead of just showing the piece. The stills of the piece I felt were effective enough, and showing a decent amount of the documentary along with the way he described the film seemed like he was trying to hard to show of himself then the work.

The next piece that he showed with the rotating subjects was definitely visually interesting. Again, it was one of those "I would never have thought of that" moment. The means that he took to express the final project were unlike anything I have ever really seen before. But after he would not stop talking about the low resolution of the projector and the inadequacies of the sound system, I just felt turned off. We all know that with any video installation art it is never going to be as affective or powerful as it would be in person with the original set up. I also understand an artist giving a small disclaimer, because obviously its not how they want it to be seen. But when you give a lecture to students and say that you cant even look at the screen, and that the sound system is unbearable its just crossing the line.

I guess when it comes down to it the main quality that I look for in people is humility, and Shimon Attie exhibited a very small amount of it. It seemed like he was more caught up in the celebrity of being an artist, then the actual art itself. The art taken by itself was solid, but it was a case of the artist ruining the pieces by showing his large ego. And there were only 15 minutes allowed for questions because "It's off to the airport after this because I'm going back to New York City."