In elementary school, my class would take field trips each year to the multiple museums in North Carolina and it was always my favorite part of the year. Therefore, going to the Ackland Art Museum was such an enjoyable experience. The first piece of art my group observed and my favorite from the trip was, “River Landscape with Fishermen.” At first glance, I was amazed by the detail of this piece. The water was peaceful enough it reflected the trees in the background, and the people in the sailboat had no look of fear. It took a minute for me to notice the grey clouds in the sky that could be leading to a storm or some other danger. I saw this piece as the “calm before the storm,” but it was interesting to hear my classmate’s ideas about this painting as well. Viewing art with other people is a thought-provoking experience as you get to see and hear how someone else sees the same piece of art.
When we had finished looking at that piece of art, we moved on to a piece called, “The Batture Ritual.” I had personally never seen a piece of video art before, so this was intriguing to me. As we watched the video, I realized that I was not as fond of this type of art. I think that although the idea behind the video was interesting, I did not enjoy watching it. Different from the first piece of art I observed, this one was almost eerie. I felt as though I was on the edge of my seat while watching the clip because it seemed as if someone was going to jump in front of the screen. This piece was definitely more modern than the other considering it was made in 2017, and the first piece I saw was made in 1812. I think that the look of the first piece makes me believe more thought and detail was put into it, although I know the video took a great amount of time also. Making sure the angle, the background, and much more are perfect before recording would be a tedious process. I think that in the future I will watch different video art, and see how my opinion differs when the video is more appealing to me.
After seeing these two pieces, I was also able to observe a few more. Personally, “River Landscape with Fishermen” was my favorite, and “The Batture Ritual” was my least favorite. Going to the museum and being able to analyze the stories and details of each piece was an awesome experience that even brought back old memories!