This week, the class travelled to the Walker and Bell museums. At the Walker, I stumbled upon a piece of art that caught my attention. The work was done by artist Ann Hamilton and although it is untitled, the work is commonly known as "mouth stones." This peice is a video that is roughly 30 minutes long and is a black and white female mouth that is ever changing by small stones or mables. What really catches my eye about this work it the fact at how intrigued I was with the coordination of the model. Her mouth was packed full of marbles that she couldn't close her mouth, swallow properly, let alone breathe with ease. Despite all that, she managed to continually rotate and move multiple marbles without one of them falling out of her mouth.
I felt that I could relate to this peice not because I have the dexterity necessary to do the task, but the intrigue to play with solid object in my mouth. When ever I suck on hard candy, I always find myself twirling it, and moving it all over my mouth. The other subject that I found interesting or thought-provoking is how this peice really enhances the human senses. One of the first ways infants learn to identify objects is by sticking things in their mouths tasting and touching new forms. This video takes taste and touch and adds sight to that list and creates a much more wholistic sense of the human senses.
