Care Packages

Architecture and Music Tour

Image credits: Athos Bulcão. Painel de azulejos, Instituto Rio Branco, 1998. Photo taken by Edgar César Filho. 

Today’s care package takes you around the world to take in some sights and sounds from India, Azerbaijan, and Brazil. Sit back, listen to some good music, and visit some architectural spots from the comfort of your home. 

India 

Take a ride to check out some stops along the Indian railways and while you do, listen to some music inspired by a visit to an iconic Indian architecture sitethe Taj Mahal.

Azerbaijan 

Visit the 15th century Palace of the Shirvanshahs! As you explore the architectural details and grounds, listen to the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra perform the music of Azerbaijani and Iranian composers.

Brazil 

Check out multiple examples of Athos Bulcão’s tile art around Brazil’s capital city Brasília as you listen to the psychedelic stylings of contemporary Brazilian band Boogarins.

Internet Art

Although we have seen an influx of online exhibitions as physical art spaces have shuttered during quarantine, one art form has always been accessible via the world wide web: internet art. Internet art encompasses multiple mediums and is often forged by and for the online experience. This includes images, music, videos, video games, and even whole websites, rendering the online world a tool, an exhibition space, and a canvas for all sorts of art to coexist. Here are a few areas of the net that host these virtual artistic spaces: 

the wrong biennale 

This site hosts multiple links to internet art and resources. Explore around and stumble upon some thought-provoking, mesmerizing, and just plain weird artistic corners of the internet. The Vector Festival is especially cool to check out; it has videos, exhibitions, and even video games!

it’s doing it 

On this website, nine artists created artworks that were programmed or manipulated in some way by a previous code or set of instructions to continually update and change during the run of the show. Although the show is not updating in real time anymore, you can track the changes by clicking on the archived dates of the exhibition and see how the whimsical instructions affected each work. 

Now that you’ve seen some examples, check out these resources for making your own online art online! 

Random Art Generator-pick a word, any word, and see what appears!

Bomomo-pick a unique shape pattern and click around to create surprising abstract paintings! 

Playing with Art

Today’s care package is all about play and fun, with a little learning along the way! 

First, we start with Eleanor Macnair, who recreated existing art out of PlayDoh! Working in unconventional mediums can often spark new ideas for other types of art, so if you have clay or Play-Doh around, this might be a fun exercise to try! 

Ever wanted to try your hand at origami? Check out Origami Club to find a treasure trove of folding tutorials. Print out patterns, famous artwork, or art you have made to use for your own personalized origami papers!

Looking for something artistic and chill to do but don’t have a printer or art supplies? Check out this online coloring book! You can color in various artworks and either stick to the original color palette or choose your own colors to make your own version.

If you’re looking to test your art history knowledge in a fun way, check out these visual crosswords. The puzzles get more complicated as you go, and you might find some new favorite artworks along the way! 

We hope you enjoy playing and creating with art! See you next week! 

 

Book Art

Artist books often complicate the notion of what a book is or could be. These books can resemble a traditional book but they can also be sculptural, asymmetric, or even include no pages at all.  With all the different ways to interpret the idea of a book, the sky is the limit with book art. 

The care package this week offers up some inspiration with various examples of book art. After browsing these online collections, go ahead and make your own book art at the Studio Arts and Crafts Centre’s book making workshop, tonight at 5pm on Instagram Live! Make sure to head to their page on Instagram @sacc_uwm and RSVP before 5!

First up is a collection close to home-the Special Collections at UWM Libraries! You can search through their book art collection or you can check out the themed online exhibits. We really like this interactive exhibit, Another Place, which allows you to look at book art from around the world! 

Next is this database of artists’ books, which you can browse by title, artist, publication date, or collection. You can read these books by navigating to their image tabs and clicking through!  

Interested in diving deeper into the world of book art? Thinking about making your own or supporting artists working in book art? Check out Printed Matter, Inc.! They have resources and information for artists and enthusiasts alike, plus plenty of art for sale, including some free digital downloads. They also have other printed materials and items, showcasing the variety of printed art that is being utilized in our contemporary time.

We hope you enjoy these various resources on book art! Head over to @sacc_uwm and sign up for the workshop at 5pm tonight on Instagram Live to try your hand at creating your own book! 

Protest Art

Protest art encompasses various acts, creations, and lenses that seek justice through creative means. It also transcends styles, techniques, and media, allowing anyone to partake in artistic protest with any materials available to them. A protest sign, a mural, a painting, graffiti, sculptural works, photographs, public works, etc.—they all fit under the protest art umbrella and create room for all kinds of artists to make their voices heard. 

For today’s care package, we bring you a variety of art exhibitions (both near and far) revolving around protest art in its many forms: 

The Whitney Museum’s An Incomplete History of Protest –Variety of Media 

You can view many of the artworks that were on display from a variety of topics by clicking on the Artworks tab. We also recommend checking out the Audio Guides tab for the exhibition, where some of the artists in the show discussed their work in the context of protest art.

Compound Gallery’s The Art of Protest –Photography (some images are graphic/depict violence) 

From the landing page “The Art of Protest features the works of Black and Latino photographers captured at Black Lives Matter protests across America in May and June 2020.” 

You can visit the gallery virtually, but please note it will not work on mobile.

Portrait Society Gallery’s Art + Protest –Variety of Media (including protest signs from protests in Milwaukee) 

This exhibition will be open to view in person until September 7th. See some of the work @portraitsocietygallery and sign up for their newsletter for the on-line exhibition component to come straight to you!

Interested in making your own protest art? As mentioned above, anyone can make protest art with whatever they like to use, but you can also check out the CREATE heading from Student Involvement’s #blacklivesmatter resource page for some additional guidance.