Jack Pierson

Jack Pierson's Self-Portrait #3 and Self-Portrait #28 were displayed in the National Portrait Gallery's Hide and Seek exhibit. Jack Pierson is a photographer and artist. He studied at Massachusetts college of art and has been successful ever since. His works include photos along with collages, word sculptures, installations, drawings, word art and artists books. His works are in many major museums world wide and he has had many solo exhibitions world wide since 1990 such as Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Dublin and London.

His work is an exploration of the emotions of everyday life and his collages create abstract shapes and create a narrative meaning. His series include the "Self Portrait series along with a show called "The Name of This Show is Not :Gay Art Now". He has also photographed many famous celebrities including Brad Pitt.

The photos I specifically saw and chose were Self- Portrait #3 and Self Portrait #28. They both are portraits of young males half naked. Although named Self-Portrait none of the portraits are of himself. I believe the portraits are named self-portraits because with every portrait he is revealing a different side of himself. Or maybe not of himself but rather of what he wishes to be. Maybe he wishes to be that stereotypical jock, famous, handsome male and the other half may be the shy, secluded and vulnerable young male. Each photo in this series shows a young male with an expression and the body language showing vulnerability yet confidence. Although the subjects are half naked, and are of an age that this state makes them look vulnerable and timid. Yet other portraits show that these males are comfortable in their skin or atleast they want to seem that way. They have a sexual confidence about them and this is shown in todays contemporary youth.

Specifically, #3 is a portrait of a typical television male, handsome, masculine and confident. With this series the statement of how sexuality is in everyday life. How the media perceives people as being the perfect people. They only show the most handsome and best. Within every photo Pierson takes there is an invisible person, himself. The photographer himself is within every photo.

These photos are very well taken and composed. There was great though that went into these from the placement of the subjects, to the background that conveys additional meaning. Also, the clothes and facial expressions and the lighting add to the story being conveyed by these portraits.

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The Virtual Public Art Project is a whole new kind of art. One where all the art is virtual in a 2 D perspective, yet presented in a 3D reality. This project spans over five continents with twenty eight locations in places like Philadelphia, Tokyo, Beijing and London. VPAP leads the public to a location such as an open field and even a city scape and with the use of smart phone technology presents a virtual sculpture on the landscape which the viewer can span practically 360*. Anyone with an iPhone 3GS or Andriod can download the app: Layer, and start the Augmented Reality art process needed to experience VPAP.

After the Layar app is installed on your phone you can search for sites and then once you are close to a VPAP site you can switch to Map view. This will direct you to the specific location of the virtual sculpture. Then you have to switch to reality view and the virtual sculpture will pop up on your phones screen and you can walk around the area and see it from multiple views. So in the end you are seeing the natural landscape along with the virtual sculpture. It is a huge contrast and a new art revolution. Many if not all of these virtual sculptures are never actually constructed into 3D models. This art style reminds me a lot of the hologram figures seen in movies such as Star wars. Where the actors would appear 3D, and walk around and gesture while talking yet you could still see through them and see the landscape of the room around them.

Three of the artists mentioned on rhizome that have created sculptures for VPAP are Alvaro Barata, Christian Meinhardt, and Christopher Manzione. Barata creates drawings use a technique called anamorphosis. This is when the drawing viewed from a different perspective reveals a different image creating a 3D effect. Meinhardt created the Mirrored City in France. This was ten blocked sections of Laval simplified to the core elements of the city, hovering over the real city. Manzione also has work in the U.S. called Symmetry and Growth.

This is more than just art, VPAP is an art revolution. It is transforming the world of sculpture as we know it. A Sculpture no longer solely describes a 3D crafted, touchable, piece of work but it now can describe something in 2D viewed on a screen in a virtual plane. Also, since the artists have chosen to place their virtual masterpieces in places you must visit to see it gives it more of a realistic aspect. You can’t just watch a video online to see around the sculpture. You must physically go to the location and walk around in a circle to view the whole sculpture. It is fascinating just to think what might come next.

Our world is beginning to revolve completely around technology. Everything we touch and do has had some computer and technological effect on it. Art used to be only what you could touch and see not it is also what can be viewed on a computer screen and phone. I think the only was the artists around the world could improve this concept is to expand. Expand, expand expand. Publicize it more, put the idea out more so the general public will know about this whole art revolution also. I had never even heard about it until this research. But now through learning about it I want to go to one of the sites and look at the sculptures.

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