Biomedical Library Event Blog

For my last event I decided to travel to the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, located on the UCLA campus. I have been to this building many times before, however I have never been here through the lens of this class, with the artsci thinking cap on. As you first walk into the library there is a very beautiful shrubbery arrangement on your left (as depicted below).

Figure 1: The Entrance to the biomedical library

This right away set the tone of the library to be that of a welcoming one. The term library is often associated with works of philosophy, poetry or literature, however this specific library holds much information on the biomedical field. In this vail of shrubbery there lies a statue.

Figure 2: Model with a truss by Harold Pastorius

This sculpture provides an interesting perspective, but it is fitting for the biomedical library, as it provides a combination of something engineering related (a truss) with the artistic expression that is often found in most sculptures. This sculpture provides a very interesting gateway into the library portion of the building. Unfortunately with finals seasons upon us, I was unable to take any pictures inside of the bio-medical library. In a brief description of it however, I noticed many interesting aspects of its interior. For one, despite the outside’s appearance, the inside was very modern, with slim curvy features and bright colors. Additionally, the stacks were not the defining feature of this library, as is often found in other libraries on campus. But rather the space was mostly allocated to student study areas. My overall impression of the library was that it provided a good conduit for a blend of arts found in the library with bio-medical science.

Figure 3: A selfie of me in front of the biomedical library entrance

Event Blog: Singular Spaces

The absurdity of the Making Strange is juxtaposed in the same museum with Singular Spaces. This although was just a collection of pictures on several walls, they portrayed a very interesting message. There were four different homes where the owners put theses amazing works of art on their property (and in some cases not their own property)

Figure 1: Myself and the Singular Spaces description.

Figure 2: Julio Basanta Lopez, Demons above entrance

Julio Basanta Lopez’s pieces he put different pieces of art surrounding his house. A lot of demons mostly, which makes sense as he is from South America and the catholic church takes a prominent role in the culture down there. In the above work he placed several demons above his front door, I would assume to scare off all unwanted bad spirits into his home. It is interesting to me that he would spend the money on building these huge demons in the font of his house.

Figure 3: Julio Basanta Lopez, Western Entrance

On his western entrance Julio Basanta Lopez went much more intense than what was on the other entrance of his house. Further intensifying the demons placed around his house. This display is contrasted by these displays by Peter Buch and Francisco feel Rio Cuenca.

Figure 4: Head with a dream by Peter Buch

Peter Buch was known for all the human shaped buildings around his property, like the one depicted above. The mouth of the face was depicted as the door, which provides a very interesting concept of the human head representing a home.

Figure 5: Francisco Feel Rio Cuenca, north wall of third patio

Francisco’s art compilation uses the shells of a sea snails to decorate his whole house.  This is interesting thing to see dead organisms being repurposed for art. In conclusion, the singular spaces exhibit provided a very interesting juxtaposition to the Making Strange exhibit.

Event Blog: Making Strange

This week I decided to take a trip to the Making Strange Exhibit at the Fowler Museum exhibit on campus. The name making strange, I felt didn’t really do the exhibit justice. I found most of the works of art to very disturbing and extremely strange.

Figure 1: Selfie of myself and the piece entitled Spine

In the first piece I saw, and took a selfie with, (shown above) was an interesting one entitled Spine. It had a body split in half and a spine placed where you would expect it to be. From an artistic standpoint it provided a perspective not normally provided, and from a scientific standpoint, it provided a well defined image of a human spine. It wouldn’t be completely out of the question for med students to come to the exhibit to study this spine.

Figure 2: Boat

In the piece depicted above a woman is in the boat above a man. While this may have some deeper meaning to it, I feel like since it is a female artist she is attempting to demonstrate how females stay alert while men take the easy road and get to sleep.

Figure 3: Sleeper

In the piece Sleeper, I feel like it her critique on the new desk job work environment that most people take in present times. Where essentially with their restless feet people’s brains also go to sleep.

Figure 4: Stretcher

In the last piece that I looked at was entitled stretcher. Which I feel like has a pretty obvious message, of the burden that babies put on their mothers. As you can see the woman is on a stretcher, and there is no other people to help her up on stretcher, which again symbolizes the woman’s struggle with childbirth and often alone. In conclusion, this exhibit was very strange, however I felt it provided me a view point and artistic experience I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.