The two artists whose work struck me most in Tuesday's class were Jana
Sterbak and Valerie Blass. It was only after further investigation
that I realized how similar their work actually
is--obviously the two artists are quite different, but their art
seems to me to be doing some of the same things. What I believe
struck me most initially with both of these artists was how jarring
and strange the content of their work was (something I often find
appealing), and the palpable physical presence of their work.
Instillation art automatically has more of a literally physical
presence in general, but I feel when I look at the work of both
Sterbak and Blass that to be walking through a gallery by yourself
and to come upon a piece of work by either of them would
be similar in a lot of ways to walking through a gallery
alone and suddenly coming upon another person. The most obvious
way in which this effect is accomplished is that both Blass and
Sterbak's work frequently takes the form life sized figures or
bodies, but it seems like there would also be a life-like quality to
them that may bot be present in all life-sized figures. Similarely,
both Blass and Sterbak seem to be working with aspects of embodiment,
especially with Sterbak and frequently with Blass these seem to be
themes of female embodiment and femininity.
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