Graphic Art | Undergraduate | Vilnius

The concept of destruction and transformation

Mikell Niemann for students:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
 Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

Introduction

The act of destruction and transformation are currently and continuously happening in endless ways and situations in everyday life. Destruction and transformation are phenomenons which happens on many different levels and in many different situations. To look at it as a phenomenon we have to be open to the destruction and transformation situations and perceive it as such.
In our homes, we battle invisible bacteria using chemical liquids; in the streets we meet the potential destruction through the traffic of moving machines and it force us to a certain manner; radical ideologies has as a strategy to clear away unwanted structures in order to reduce and simplify living conditions in accordance with its own truth.
As artists we deconstruct and transform sameness in order to create new notions, ideas, or to pinpoint discourses. Depending on our artistic strategy, we do it either by changing or by conscious choice.
As an example, Yoko Ono asks her viewers to imagine to dropping an Yves Klein painting from a flying kite; the band Einstürzende Neubauten create music by destructing building materials. What is common for these artistic strategies is the reusing of constituents in a new configuration by destructing and transforming the existing concepts of meaning into new ones.

Workshop

In this workshop, each student, through performance and movement, explore her own personal relationship to the concept of destruction and transformation. Performing through everyday movements of walking and running or sport or, dance movements, texts or anything or other media as or props that may be necessary to express the theme.
In performance the action is the material as well as the props. Courage and risk are two very important elements to incorporate into your project, therefore in order to minimize the risk of shortfall carefully elaborate on the process of the performance before you begin.
On Wednesday afternoon we will gathering together in the studio to share the processes of all the students.
And on the forthcoming Friday we will together present the results of the week. You will therefore need to clarify how your work best can be represented in an presentation at the gallery 5 Malūnai at the academy.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday there will individuel tutorial.

Some links to my projects:

 Deterioration | Digging a Hole