"Mining the MIA"

The following 5 art pieces from the MIA are taken into a new perspective by being shown in a different angle and put together when they at first had nothing in common. I forced a relationship between the 5 pieces by cropping them to show only a specific (body) part of each work to develop a theme. This instillation will be street art. I will put the images along an empty, ugly wall that no one thinks twice to look at. The images are in order of how they will be displayed (or reverse order depending on which direction you are coming from). This instillation will light up people's days and make them stop for a minute or two on their way to work/ other monotonous tasks. The way I decided to change the perspective of the pieces has a huge impact on the original intention of the artist. For example, the first image is of a very large statue of a man, and has absolutely nothing to do with his foot position, because it is such a minor detail of the rest of the statue. The second image is of another large statue. I was struck by the bold colors and playfulness of the statue, and the angle I chose reflects that, but now only the character's right eye is shown. It is really much more playful and silly now. The third image is of a horse's rear end. The whole statue is of a centaur being strangled by a man, which one would never guess from the shot I took. I completely changed what the piece was all about by only showing part of the statue. It went from a very dramatic death scene to something immature and laughable at. The fourth image did not get changed very much by how I chose to crop it, but it obviously has a very different composition, and the woman takes up the entire space of the display. Though the piece's meaning did not change much, I feel like this one really adds to the overall feeling of my instillation. It is very colorful, and contrasts nicely with the other works. Lastly, the hand I chose to zoom in on is in a very interesting position. The Asian style of this piece is very different from all of the other ones. I think it is a very fun addition to the instillation. I believe the statue is of a god, but by only showing the hand of the statue, the god's hand becomes just another body part.
These 5 sculptures and painting would originally never be together anywhere else because they vary in medium, date, place of origin, and subject. However, with the new perspective I used, they now all have something in common: an anatomical focus. This instillation is purely aesthetical and to give happiness to it's viewers rather than a deep personal conviction of the artist (or curator).

All images taken by me at the Minneapolis Institute of Art