SAD Response
Strolling through the Weisman Art Museum for the first time, I was intrigued by the exhibit that was on display. I could really get a feel for the emotions expressed within each piece of artwork. After spending some time with each piece, I focused my attention on just one work of art.
It is called Endless Day by Jan Estep. It is a time-lapse digital video of the sun “rising� and “setting�. This work of art was created sometime in the year 2006, probably during one of the solstices. My initial reason for choosing this work was the fact that the work of art itself was constantly changing. To me, this seemed like a fresh idea in the world of art. When I think of art museums, I tend to have the stereotypical mindset that all the artwork is a still painting or a motionless sculpture. As I continued to experience the artwork, I found myself more and more engaged in it. I made sure I did not look away from the video so I could fully take in what was going on. I noticed a few aspects of the video that seemed to coordinate with the theme of the exhibit. The sun gliding across the horizon gave me an appreciation for the light and dark we experience everyday. However, some could see this video in a different perspective and think this endless sun is inspiring and stimulating because of the twenty-four hours of light. I look at this art with the perspective of the emotion felt throughout the SAD exhibit. We go through our lives assuming the sun will rise and set everyday and when this pattern is broken, we might get agitated or even a bit disturbed. Looking back on my experience of this artwork, one might have a stronger appreciation for the cycle of day and night. Daylight and sun tend to have cheerful connotations tied to them, however, Endless Day contrasts that belief by presenting the qualities of light and atmosphere with a time-lapse effect. While writing this, I have thought of two common sayings that have reminding me of this: Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, and You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. In the first saying, I feel like the sun could be the good thing, but if you have the sun for many hours at a time, that connection between physical and psychic space becomes more apparent and you will soon get tired of the sun and it will turn into a bad thing. The second saying could be how you’re so used to the cycle of day and night that you don’t realize how nice it is until the sun is shining for that entire cycle. The way I interpreted Endless Day tells me that a similar work of art, called Endless Night, could have similar messages within it, however, it might be hard to film a time-lapsed arctic night and have it be interesting at the same time. After experiencing Jan Estep’s artwork, I feel like I have a better understanding as to how artists express their ideas through various forms of art.