Last week, I made a visit to the Hammer Museum and got a chance to see "This Is The End" by Ed Atkins, Loretta Fahrenholz, and Tommy Hartung. Watching the video was very confusing to me at first because I wasn't understanding the purpose of the inflatable thumb and what other purposes the thumb served in inserting the belly button, ear, and eye. After reading more information about the exhibition and re-watching the video, I see that the three artists have collaborated to create an art work addressing trauma, surrealism, melancholy, and uncanny. The part I was most interested in was understanding the purpose the thumb in Ed Atkins' illustrations. It seems that the thumb served as a way people in our society view our daily behaviors. Thumbs up present something is good and thumbs down represent something being bad. This is part of a consumer culture where we as a society are aware of these gestures because it is a socially learned behavior. I feel like the goal of this presentation was to show that people have different interpretations and make sense of daily life, objects, and people differently. In the case of the thumb, it seems that what others think do not matter and the thumb's behaviors (poking the eye, ear, belly button, etc) are not influenced by others.
Super kind staff was nice enough to take a picture with me before I left for the day.
Overall, this exhibition was a bit difficult to understand. The video itself had amazing 3D features and is very engaging. However, I would not recommend this to others just because without reading about the work before hand, it is quite confusing and the ideas in the presentation is very board and can be open for interpretation.
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