Havana Days poster design by Keith Burnson. From envy.artistikmagazine.com.
Over at Artistik Envy, the competition between student designers at the International Academy of Art and Design is on. You can watch videos from the first “episode” by clicking on each designer’s photo.
Time suckage alert: with 10 designers at roughly 5 minutes each, I recommend securing an adult beverage along with a salty snack before you begin. Even prepared in this fashion I only made it through three contestants before I decided I would watch only the videos that went with the designs I liked.
This time around, the students attempted to “create a piece that explores Tampa’s rich Cuban history and culture,” per the competition challenge. One of my three votes (register on the Artistik Envy website to vote for who should move on to the next round) went to Keith Burnson, whose work appears above. I also voted for musician Corey Garlow and, with some reservations, Walter Hamilton.
I almost voted for animator Brian Wilson instead of Hamilton, because I thought he started from a concept with significant potential (a historic image turns out to be a painting contemplated by someone in the present day), but in the end his project didn’t go to as interesting a place as I hoped it would.
I did find myself wishing that more students had responded by proposing to create something that would live in the urban environment– like a series of billboards, a piece of stained glass, a giant public sculpture, etc.– or something interactive (Cuban culture trading cards?).
Nice showing on the part of the students– and the judges, who have the tough job of being frank but at least a bit careful of feelings. Will be tuning in again next week!
To anyone else watching along: what did you think?
2 responses so far ↓
1 P simmons // Oct 15, 2008 at 7:45 am
I wish you had voted for Brian Wilson too. His work was liking walking into Cuban History. He did a lot of research to find something that spoke it. His paiting showed he put a large amount of hours to re-create the restaurant. The smoke of Hamilton’s was good, but still it was dark in my opinion.
2 Megan Voeller // Oct 15, 2008 at 8:38 am
I agree with you - the work on the Wilson animation was mind boggling. And, by the way, I think he nailed the interior of the Columbia - I knew right away that’s what it was.
What I didn’t get from the animation was the sense of open-ended meaning that the artist said he intended - that we all look at the Columbia and see various memories because it’s a gathering place for everyone, though steeped in Cuban and Spanish culture. The presence of only the old man figure closed the meaning of the piece for me. It became just an elderly man revisiting the past - the present wasn’t there, except in the form of someone quite aged. What does that say about the current state of Tampa’s Cuban culture?
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