FOUR Reaction

Untitled 9/21/12
Ramon Riley

 I decided to reproduce my last drawing in a new context.  The projection is exactly the same, but by changing the background that the image was projected onto, the pieces are very different.  ART.

Untitled 9/19/12
Ramon Riley

Untitled 9/21/12
Ramon Riley

FOUR - Reproduction and Visual Technologies

FOUR - Reproduction and Visual Technologies

Untitled 9/19/12
Ramon Riley

Above is an art work of Braddock, my hometown, from a combination of 3 photographs.  I used photoshop and a projector as well as collage, paint and graphite.

I chose Braddock as the subject because I was fascinated by the idea Sturken and Cartwright presented in chapter four from "Practices of Looking..." that images of the past being looked at today is out of the original context.  This relates to gentrification of urban neighborhoods.  As Braddock begins this process whether it is welcomed or inevitable, it takes THE Braddock, which once breathed life through the first steel mill and first Carnegie Library, out of context for profit.  Buy low sell high.  What once produced 80 % of the world's steel (yes the world's steel) is being dissected and redistributed.  What it is worth historically can never be measured monetarily, yet that will be its fate.   ...like seeing a mustache on the Mona Lisa.

I liked the metaphor that historically Braddock has been a place of production, and now its meaning/purpose has changed.  It's steel has built many of the worlds buildings.  This project was poetic, so I had to also include a song by my favorite poet.

"...Takes a life to make a life
Livin' in the world of crime tonightCan't find a better way to break youThis ain't livin', I gotta do what I gotta do"
...from "This Ain't Livin'" by 2Pac