M.SCOTT Art 410

Connie Samaras’ statement entering her exhibition explains her intentions to correlate images of urbanization and construction of foreign cities with the American dream. As well as make comment on the psychological connection with these surreal environments. I did not read her statement till after viewing her images. I found her concept intriguing however it did not transfer over into her images without reading the statement. Her photographs were large color prints of industrial buildings and elements focusing the process of urbanization.

There were two images of 9/11 ground-zero in her display. I personally do not think they worked well in her series because of the emotional and historical background of the photo. Even though the content is urban and visually flows with the rest of series; emotionally it has too much recognition and impact. Unless she was experimenting with American culture and commenting on American perseverance.  

She also displayed a twenty-minute video of the expansion and growth of a foreign city. When I first saw the video I watched 30 seconds and left from boredom. However, after reading her statement the video gained more conceptual interest even though aesthetically I was not attracted to it. I returned to the video and watched it and thought about her intention to parallel the American dream with other foreign growing city. Has the ‘American Dream’ become an international dream? With mass media and new technologies messages of culture become better dispersed and create new interest and ideals among cultures. People are now trading and sharing cultural beliefs and traditions making it harder and harder to distinct draw the line between cultures.