Giant Hands in East Village /  by Mirena Rhee

Giant Hands is a site-specific installation by Mirena Rhee consisting of Giant Hands made out of lined bond paper painted with acrylic paint. In the past year Mirena created numerous site-specific installations using Giant Hands in Manhattan and in Beacon, New York. She designs the installations to have very little turnaround time where the hands could be transported and deployed very quickly. This site specific installation consists of hands hanging from the ceiling, being attached to walls in a non-destructive manner or simply draped over objects or walls, to create what she calls gestural mounds.

These series of installations arose from Mirena’s observations of simple and mundane daily activities like holding onto the rails in the subway where the hands draw extraordinary three-dimensional shapes. As the hands move through space they create flowing, complex structures of hand trails. This body of work explores these ephemeral constructs.

Each Giant Hand starts with a small hand gesture sketch which Mirena refines into a line drawing. She then enlarges the line drawing and transfers it to paper. She paints the enlarged hands using non-toxic acrylic paint.

When hung loosely, the hands travel in a series of gestures, follow a think line and coalesce into three-dimensional structures. Mirena’s hands serve as the models and main building element of the installations because, she explains, “they are always present and available, constantly traversing and dominating her personal space.”

About Mirena Rhee

Mirena works with a mix of live arts, digital media and fine arts. She starts with a drawing or several drawings which she then uses to create installations and animations. She often uses the installations as a stage to create a performance, include found objects, and sometimes remixes the results into a new video or animation.

Mirena’s installations and performances are often created in public spaces in New York City, in which she often engages the general public to create collaborative works of art.

Mirena lives and works in New York City. Prior to moving to New York, Mirena spent ten years in the Silicon Valley as a senior and lead artist for franchises like Star Wars, Iron Man, X-Men and Shrek. This type of commercial work involved working in a three dimensional space on the computer and her work carries over that three-dimensional play. In addition Mirena draws inspiration from the City of New York, its transient spaces, the objects strewn about the sidewalks and people she encounters on a daily basis.

For more information about Mirena, visit her online at www.mirenarhee.com. You can also follow her on twitter, instagram, and facebook.

Xquisite Corpse Act One - Today /  by Mirena Rhee

Xquisite Corpse Act One - Today

As part of Xquisite Corpse Act One I wore a white canvas dress on the streets of Manhattan and asked New Yorkers from all walks of life to write me a message. From the delivery guy on East 51st street, people waiting to be seated for lunch on the Upper East side, the doormen of Radio City hall, patrons waiting for their limousines at the Art Fairs, to the amazing person who literally dragged me inside the Armory Show, to visitors of Scope - New York, to a bar on 6th ave, to the cashier at Trader Joe's on 23rd street.. In 15 languages and almost 200 messages, we wrote the poem of our collective subconscious and I called it Today. Thus, the Xquisite Corpse Poem was written and Xquisite Corpse Act One was complete. 
 

I took the term Xquisite Corpse quite literally. With Corpse meaning “body”, as in physical structure, with the root of the word going back to Latin corpus “body".
This work is about the body, the body as a landscape, and whatever surrounds the body, the reality that surrounds the body, also as a landscape. As the body swims through reality it makes wakes and it changes it in someway.

Click to see the Xquisite Corpse Statement…..

Japanese Gardens: A Journey Into Zen /  by Mirena Rhee

Third edition of my book is on Amazon, I was born halfway around The World from Japan but I have long thought of it as my second home, more of a spiritual home.

Japanese, Zen, Garden, Kyoto, Photography, Poetry, Calm.

Mysterious and enigmatic, abstract and impenetrable, the Zen gardens of Kyoto are a product of enlightened and sophisticated culture whose aim was to transcend nature by means of a man made nature.

The empty space, the surrounding landscape and the frame of mind of the viewer are all part of the design. A design that transcends representation, meaning and ideology. A powerful idea distilled to simple ingredients, the evaporation of art as we know it.

The book is a collection of photographs I took and small poems I wrote during my journey to the Zen gardens of Kyoto. I felt it is impossible to untangle their mystery with the rational instrument of reason. It is a stream of visual and versed thoughts on the joyful occasion of simply being there.

The words express my frame of mind, using the verses᠆ superior ability to express my feelings.

This book is about the frame of mind and the geometry of calm that the Zen gardens of Kyoto represent. As there are no explanations on the walls of the gardens as to the meaning of the sand patterns, so is my book void of explanations and floats on a visual lotus, like an imaginary house.

This book is a photographic essay about the Zen gardens of Kyoto, designed specifically for the Kindle and features stunning, high-resolution photographs accompanied by small poems I wrote. It is crafted to create a calm space of the mind, a vision of tranquility and peace.

The title derives its name from an ongoing photographic chronicles - for more photographs of Japan and other projects please, visit dimmerlight.com, for more on the author visit mirenarhee.com

Here is a poem I wrote on occasion of completing the book:

Tranquil world of rocks, sand, trees, shrubs and moss. Little streams water the grounds. The colors are earthy and bright, no gusty winds dishevel the patterns. The wooden floors are swept clean. The mats lie still.

Landscape with peaceful shapes. It makes nice thoughts and asks deep questions. A design with no intent or angle. Whatever you bring you can take back. We don’t know who made it that way.

You can come back many times and find it just the same. Trees bend this way or that. Twigs flow here or there. Ponds flicker. Rocks ripple the sand a little.

Working with Platonic and not so platonic solids /  by Mirena Rhee

This small drawing is about three aspects to creativity the first is the human nature the drive of a conscious brain 2 make changes in the universe the second is the platonic ideals the geometric and the harmonious that are ultimately a product of trying to conquer the elements and put order into things, and the third is nature, the random the wild and the untamed

Silicon Valley from Cities - A new course from Harvard University /  by Mirena Rhee

A new course from Harvard University -- enroll now on edX: https://www.edx.org/course/citiesx-past-present-future-urban-life-harvardx-urban101x For the first time in human history, more than fifty percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Cities allow for the exchange of ideas, and generate remarkable innovations in business, art, and ideas. Cities are also home to millions living in poverty. Urban living can provide a pathway to a better life, but that’s not always the case for many people around the world. CitiesX will give you a far-ranging look at the past, present and future of cities, with the aim of teaching you how to better understand, appreciate and improve urban areas. The course will explore key concepts of urban development by examining cities around the world, including London, Rio de Janiero, New York City, Shanghai, Mumbai, Kigali, and many more. Support for CitiesX is generously provided by Tishman Speyer.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcywB2dtNXGxWtExGIEMJkg

Brown things or the merits of brown ink, marble, iron and other pleasant colors. /  by Mirena Rhee

Found at some point in the vicinity of Vatican museums the Louvre and other odd places.

I've always been fascinated with the brown -ness of drawings I had seen in museums around the world so when I first started drawing I used black but black is just too assertive and too dark so I found the most gentle semi-transparent brown ink which is of German origin which is so delicate which serve my purpose and it's my secret


I find comfort in the old Masters the art of the Renaissance as well as art from two millennia back, it's my wall against greed, the materialistic the piles of useless garbage and all the empty words it's like a poetry wall for me against all evil

One of the best things that happened to me in the Silicon Valley was that people really never cared about my gender or my accent, and I highly encourage you if you ever want to try and work, work for somebody that you like and somebody that likes you back. Although the Silicon Valley appears on the surface to really care about middle-aged white men, under the hood what Silicon Valley really cares about is whether you produce great work, and since I was sitting in a cubicle and typing and clicking away nobody really cared if I had a vagina or whether I had come from Eastern Europe or not.

When I first moved to the Silicon Valley I was fresh off the middle of the Midwest University where I had gone to do my Masters and where I had gotten a full scholarship. It is great to have the American government pay for your education so always make sure to get good grades and be well positioned for a full ride. It is much easier than you think - just go for the place that gives you education for free and you will never regret it. Paying for education is a racket and full of regrets and financial woes long term. We moved to the Silicon Valley directly from school basically dragging a U-Haul behind us. In the valley I had no family or friends, and since I was wondering what to do - I worked. Because I had no idea what else to do other than working and I didn't know anyone, I didn't have any network, or support network, or friends or family, .. so I started paying attention to what the most talented people were doing, people whom I admired and respected for their work, and tried to do the same thing, and what the most talented people were doing is working a lot so I did too.

I was sitting around in the cubicle in front of a computer and I was having absolutely a great time, I was having a lot of fun, and I was getting paid $100,000 to do the fun. There was a company, a video game company called Activision which paid me about $120,000 - so I will get a yearly salary and then they will have these layoffs whenever a project is over, whenever a project was over they will lay off people and give severance. I would get laid off from a project and get $20,000 severance. In a month or two they will call me back and say hey please come back on board but you have to return the money. I'm like no way I'm not returning the money so I will get on board again and I will keep the $20,000. And then the project will be over again for some reason, it would be over in six months and then they will give me another $20,000 in severance. So it was really nice like that.

I would end up with these fantastic amounts of money in my bank account so what did I do with the money? I went to the Uffizi, I went to the Vatican Museums, St Peters, to the Borghese to see the best of Bernini, the churches and the ruins of Rome, the galleries in Florence, the best Gaudi palaces in Barcelona, the three great museums in Madrid where i spent literally every day soaking the greatest art the world has ever seen - Picasso, Dali, Goya, El Greco, I went to the Louvre, I went to the National Gallery in London, to the National Portrait Gallery. I went to Amsterdam and the Hague to learn of Rembrandt and Vermeer, I was frequently stoping in New York as well, I learned from the best the world has to offer first-hand. It also really helped that as an artist in the Silicon Valley I was getting really acquainted with the best processes in the world, with what the Japanese called kaizen - continuous improvement. There's one thing about being a commercial artist is that you work together with other people in a collaborative way, you work towards a certain visual goal and that visual goal has a very high standard, and that high standard has to be achieved somehow right? The best possible way is, because you can't really nail it right off the bat, the best way is to take small steps and do continuous improvement until the final product is satisfactory, ideally, as in the case with the Silicon Valley, the greatest product and the highest standard that can be reached.

When I went to study all the old Masters and I was already familiar with all the processes that the Silicon Valley used to create these marvelous projects and products, I could recognize the same drive for greatness. I could recognize that all the old Masters ( I include in this definition all the Renaissance greats as well as all the great artists from Antiquity ) were not only great artists but great technicians, great engineers as well, they were very very technical in their approach. 

Silicon Valley had this really flat management structure where you basically learned how to do things by bouncing off of other great people that were doing their thing. Steve Jobs had the famous rock tumbler metaphor where you put a bunch of rocks in a tumbler and you turn it on and the next day come back to see that all the rocks were polished into nice gems by simply rubbing off of each other for 24 hours.
Although nobody ever spoke of kaizen the spirit of kaizen permeated the Silicon Valley.

Stay away from garbage. You know it when you see it. Stay near and learn from the best. You always know when you see great work, it usually speaks for itself - the people, the products and the processes are usually something you want to repeat in the future, learn from, come back to, deeply respect, greatly admire and want to emulate.

My love for Japan never went away /  by Mirena Rhee

I miss the straight lines of the wooden floors I miss the patterns of tatami I miss the lush greens I miss the kind people I miss the crowds in Shinjuku and harajuku in Tokyo I miss the quiet power of the Zen gardens in Kyoto I miss the quirkiness of pachinko parlors I miss eating sushi with construction workers in asakusa I miss the wooded hills of arashyama.


Shinjuku - Tokyo

Tokyo Walks - the famous crosswalk in Shibuya

Memory replacement /  by Mirena Rhee

Not sure if people realize that what I do has no agenda other than engaging on a very visceral level irrelevant to social status or architecture, it is about engaging the most god-like ability of us humans and it is to create spontaneously, without any rationalization as to why and the what. Because it's not a power structure and this is very important, it's a structure of pure expression and it comes before everything else, just like the big bang.

Memory Replacement World Trade Center Wearable, mixed media on canvas, 2018
Created during a performance and installation with public participation of the same name at the World Trade Center Memorial Site in New York City.

Created during a performance and installation with public participation of the same name at the World Trade Center Memorial Site in New York City.

I am glad with this work I was able to incorporate lessons from previous performances and design the wearable to be completely self contained - including the brushes and paint, like a mini art studio. Since the location was so sensitive I wanted it to be light and feathery, like something coming from a dream rather than a simple sack from primed canvas. And lastly but not the least of all consideration, I want it to be beautiful and tasteful rather than sharp angled and garish, or provocative. I wanted the action of painting to be the only provocation. These days it has become a fashion in the arts to do just anything and call it art, the missed opportunity in that is that artists these days have no taste, they go for the lowest target of accomplishing a message. I do not want to simply construct a message, I am not a sign painter. I am a creator of beauty and meaning. Creating with taste is simply difficult, difficult to design and difficult to create. to create with taste will be my contribution to performance art. One of the lessons I learned working as an artist in the Silicon Valley is how to manage process where you take something that is ugly and unappealing and then you make it beautiful through iterations and continuous improvement. And this is the process I used to create this work.

The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch /  by Mirena Rhee

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Triptych by Hieronymus Bosch

An incredible painting which I remember just dying to see ..I saw it over Christmas sometime in a not so distant past, it was raining in Madrid. it is all now available to see online in the greatest detail, the kind of detail you won't be able to see in person. I spent hours with this painting over several days, while also seeing Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, as well as the Royal palace.

One of the things I noticed about artists is that they rarely talk about art or are rarely interested in art and I will try to start a conversation about an important artwork or just simply about art and people are just not interested you know, people like to make things. People like to make tchotchkies because tchotchkies require no thinking and no ideas of your own. To think is difficult, to think up something new is difficult.

How can you make art unless you know what is the best there is in art that has ever been created, whether in the past or in the present, the purpose of creating stuff is to measure up to the best there is. what other purpose could there be for art other than to measure up or surpass whatever has been done in the past in some manner. 

I don't want to personally be buried in historical detail I don't really care about the past but I care about what has been done which is absolutely the best there is, that is important, it is really important to know and measure up to the most significant artworks that have ever been created.

#art #artist #oldmasters #painting #prado @museoprado #madrid


this is the link to the painting online https://tuinderlusten-jheronimusbosch.ntr.nl/en#


My favorite thing to do is to daydream /  by mirena

One of the most important faculties we humans have at our disposal is our ability to generate ideas, to think and dream up things. In my work i do use my ideas and my dreams and use my knowledge of old masters and the history of art, as well as my experience in artistic process from the Silicon Valley, to give the work depth and then shape.

I think ideas and ideals are our most important asset. I personally promise to hang onto every idea and whim that crosses my mind. To indulge in frivolous speculation and to use words from different languages in one sentence. I am interested in answers not much contrived, genuine things and fools persistent in their folly.

Teachers are important and Sadhguru is one of my current teachers. I am not a buddhist of any kind, not into the guru scene or into purchasing bliss in the form of programs and seminars. But I like to keep an open mind and to look for other people's insights and judge whether they may be helpful in my life. Every person is ultimately the teacher of the their own self.. and the only agent of life that matters. I am the only person I'd trust with insights into my own life, my wellbeing and my life path. This has often created rifts and caused aggravation in my relationships with other people.

But even for the most reckless things I have done in my life I had the utmost self-belief that I was on the right path... even when i sold and gave away all my possessions, gave up my 6 figure job and beautiful apartment.. and moved to a small room in New York. The drama this created around me and within the circle of people that were closest to me.. was much bigger than all the discomfort and inconveniences I may have experienced.

At one point my feeling was that all the possessions and items in my closets were becoming a huge burden, all the fancy dresses, various items in my cupboards, all the travel... they all wanted a piece of me or my time. time that I could have used to ponder over or create things.