Video Review

The first video I chose was on “African Art”. Based on the video, African art is based on the tradition of the culture and is found throughout everything, from clothing, to clay pots, sculptures and other everyday objects. African art, much like most cultures is based on ritual and created for ceremonies. The idea behind most African thought is that all figures and animals have a spirit is held within them. They used art to exemplify their imagery of what they think these spirits look like, using such as rock art and carvings of animals and humans. The readings talk about rock art just a little bit, but both the text and the video go into explaining the early carvings of humans and animals, and how they were stylized, but recognizable. They may have just been carving symbols with no real meaning because it is unknown whether or not they had meaning.

The next video I chose was “The Great Wave – Japanese Artwork”. I was very interested in Japanese art, and the “The Great Wave” was a major art piece in their culture. The woodblock print was used to create a series of images that was over lapped in several different colors. The vibrant lines give the giant wave detail and depict and source of chaos that are about to in gulf the Japanese citizens on the boat. It almost looks as if the wave is an army that is about to attack the people because the ends of the wave look like hands or claws. The video and the text both get into this style of Japanese art, like that was done by Kano Eitoku during the Momoyama period even though “The Great Wave” definitely in more detail than most works.

I also chose the “Buddhism” video. From my concept of the religion, it is based on the idea that time is important, and all beings are condemned to suffer an endless hell like events, endless they can gain release. Followers must then shy away from any sort of desire that may cause this fait by cultivating nonattachment and follow a moral and ethical path. The term from the video, “tanha”, is the action that Buddhist follower’s perform in order to extinguish the immoral desires. What I learned from the videos is the Buddhist religion is made up of two groups, the Hinayana and the Mahanyaha. The Hinayana were Monks who wanted to take a boat to cross over into nirvana and the Mahanyaha decided to seek companions and wait for a boat to come. It was very interesting it get more background on the religion because it has a lot of history, but I didn’t know very much about it. With this video and the text, it was good to find out more about it. The formal background I read in the text about the main idea of “breaking the cycle” was explained more with the video. To have followers that are willing to give up elements of life in order to pass into the next realm, it takes a great commitment.

Lastly I chose the “The Islamic art” video. It discusses the key idea of Islamic art based on the fact that images of humans and animals were forbidden to be portrayed. This was because the Islamic followers believed that worshipping idols is not allowed according to the Qur’an. Instead, images of plants, flowers, and patterns were primarily used in Islamic art. This relates to the readings in that the readings emphasize the use of geometric patterns and script in Islamic art that made it very beautiful. Architecture in Mosques and places of worship were also emphasized in both the readings and video. It makes me think just how different every culture to each other, like where idols and gods are loved in Greek culture, in Islam they aren’t in art.

I like how these films gave me a better understanding of each one of these art styles. I’m not going to act like I have learned a lot of background on these styles before I took this course, but along with the videos and the text I now know why these cultures exemplify the images they do, and why they are so famous. I think these videos helped me out a great deal in my understanding.