Amy M. Youngs-K. Fjestad
I attended the Regis Center presents: Amy M. Youngs discussion, and I was amazed at how interesting her presentation ended up being. I didn't automatically connect her to the piece that was in the Sparks fesitval (where she blended together peoples' faces and made them look like insects), and I liked that she didn't put all of her emphasis on that piece. It was so refreshing to see an honest artist who didn't try to overhype the meaning behind her work or sound overly sophisticated. I also liked how honestly she answered the question in regards to P.E.T.A. calling her about cruelty towards crickets. But enough about her personality and on to her art!
It was so interesting to see her integration of techology with nature. Her crickett house was probably my favorite piece, just because it was humerous to see this little insects crawling around in such a posh house, while the person viewing the art appeared on the TV screen or talk to the cricketts on the phone. I also really liked how a lot of her art served a purpose of helping the environment. The worm table, although a little unappealing, was a brilliant idea, and really showed her full immersion into nature and technology working harmoniously.
My question about her art was how much of the meaning she gives to the audience, or in other words, to what extent does she explain her art. Her answer was that she does give a detailed description of what's going on in the art (for instance, she said there were worms in the worm box who were making all those noises), but she doesn't like to write up a huge elaboration on what people should think about the art.
In conclusion, I'm really glad that I attended this presentation. Not only did I get to see all of her great artwork, but I also got to meet the artist and find out more about her personality and where her ideas come from for her art.