http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/visual-art Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Tue, 02 Jun 2026 23:08:25 -0400 Tue, 02 Jun 2026 23:08:25 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1838/felix-gonzalez-torress-portrait-of-ross-beyond-form-and-content By Julianne Miao - Félix González-Torres’s Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) [1991] uses its unconventional medium and presentation to reveal holes in the limited language of the traditional art historical narrative. Composed of a pile of metallic-wrapped candy, the work of art ideally weighs 175 pounds, but its mass depletes as visitors are invited to take pieces from the pile. Exhibitors of the candy pile replenish the candies when deemed necessary. The artwork serves as a portrait of the artist’s passed lover, Ross Laycock, who died from AIDS-related complications. The installation... Tue, 17 Nov 2020 08:49 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1838/felix-gonzalez-torress-portrait-of-ross-beyond-form-and-content http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1518/communicating-meaning-in-bioart-the-temporal-strength-of-living-media-and-the-impact-of-longevity By Alex J. Maben - BioArt is a modern art-form born from the marriage of biotechnology and human inspiration. I argue that the longevity of the art pieces, referred to as BioArtworks, plays an essential role in communicating meaning. As living, breathing creatures, humans are designed to best interpret messages that develop in real-time. BioArt is uniquely optimized for this fluid process. I discuss the temporal strength of living media by examining BioArt construction, maintenance, termination, and reincarnation, while also incorporating audience-level impacts throughout. In doing so, I interweave themes and techniques... Sun, 08 Jan 2017 10:51 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1518/communicating-meaning-in-bioart-the-temporal-strength-of-living-media-and-the-impact-of-longevity http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1379/the-loneliness-of-digital-devices-examining-removed-photo-series-by-eric-pickersgill By Nicole Litvan - Through her observations, Turkle found that “we [people] defend connectivity as a way to be close, even as we effectively hide from each other” (Turkle, 251). She shows that the growing reliance on technology, which aims to connect and bond individuals around the world, instead creates moments of disjunction and being “alone together” in social settings. In these cases, people are physically together in a home, restaurant, or building, but avoid intimate conversation and interaction because they are mentally in different electronic worlds, thousands of pixels away from... Fri, 18 Mar 2016 12:36 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1379/the-loneliness-of-digital-devices-examining-removed-photo-series-by-eric-pickersgill http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1025/the-medicalization-of-blackness-rashid-johnson-and-the-diseased-connotations-of-race By Danielle Wu - "Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks" was a solo exhibition on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum from September 20, 2013 to January 6, 2014. The gestural painting Antibiotic (pictured below) differed from neighboring works because of its massive size, minimalist approach, and seemingly arbitrary title. This case study on Johnson's use of medium and semiotics reveals how the artist explores the parallels between germaphobia and xenophobia. Although he is often identified as "post-black" artist, Johnson refuses to allow the contemporary era pass as “post-racial,” emphasizing... Fri, 10 Apr 2015 08:30 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1025/the-medicalization-of-blackness-rashid-johnson-and-the-diseased-connotations-of-race http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/934/on-understanding-abstract-portraits-applying-cognitive-semiotics-and-psychophysiological-symbolism By William E. Wenger - Expression through artwork, representation, and interpretation are significant aspects of our human experience and key elements of the discipline of Aesthetics. Rarely do these concepts integrate a social science perspective into their approach. This is the goal of the present thesis: through discussion and literature review it aims to produce integrative theory that explores the social reality of artworks. Its parameters are set at the bounds of abstract expressionism with a focus on abstract portraits. This research reviews a wide variety of academic sources – including Social Constructivism... Sat, 01 Nov 2014 04:11 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/934/on-understanding-abstract-portraits-applying-cognitive-semiotics-and-psychophysiological-symbolism http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1699/a-beautiful-mess-the-evolution-of-political-graffiti-in-the-contemporary-city By Madeleynn Green - In 2003, Banksy was at the center of global attention when he painted an image on the West Bank wall in Gaza Strip that ingeniously criticized Israel's policies towards Palestine. Banksy often culture jams by subverting advertisements, material goods or even currency to proliferate his political views. In 2004 he managed to hang a doctored Mona Lisa that depicted her with a smiley face in the Louvre. In the same year he replaced 500 Paris Hilton CDs with altered versions that read "Every CD you buy puts me even further out of your league" and printed his own satirical money with the image of Princess... Sat, 01 Nov 2014 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1699/a-beautiful-mess-the-evolution-of-political-graffiti-in-the-contemporary-city http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/768/the-visual-vocabulary-of-chitra-ganesh-femininity-sexuality-and-abjection-in-ganeshs-visual-art By Tausif Noor - Whence does the definitive understanding of the human body as a site of power, pleasure, and horror come? Is there at all a definitive notion of the extent of the body’s capabilities in the first place? The body, long established as an inspirational source for higher form and interpretation throughout the canon of art history, has become a source of contention within the realm of contemporary art. Though the body was previously the most immediate foundation for figurative art, it became more of a tool for manipulation and experimentation beginning with twentieth century modernism and this... Sat, 05 Oct 2013 09:12 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/768/the-visual-vocabulary-of-chitra-ganesh-femininity-sexuality-and-abjection-in-ganeshs-visual-art http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/57/making-contact-the-photographers-interface-with-the-world By Kia M. Carbone - Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), a key twentieth-century cultural theorist, has been influential in various fields, including art and literary criticism. He wrote “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in 1935 to examine revolutionary changes in the arts due to monumental advances in technology associated with modernity. He argues that in the age of mechanical reproduction, art becomes reproducible and thereby gradually loses its traditional and ritualistic value, causing it to lose “aura” and “authenticity.”[1] About a century earlier, Karl Marx... Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:24 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/57/making-contact-the-photographers-interface-with-the-world