I am so accustomed to defining art as something a gallery would display, but this video, The Lowdown on Lowbrow , really opened my eyes to the fact that there are many different types of art which are worthy of recognition. here is this subculture of artists who are not classified as "fine artists" producing amazing works of art and not receiving the attention they deserve. We can enjoy comics and album covers and posters for upcoming shows but yet they are not art just announcements or leisure activity. However, the talent required to create these should be recognized. I think it's awesome that this society of artists has come together and opened their own galleries so that those who appreciate this genre can enjoy it. At first i just saw cartoons and rockabilly posters, but when you really take notice you can see the immense talent in every piece of art. I love the use of the Polynesian Tiki theme and the classic cars and the 50's kitch that many of these artists use as their themes. I was, and still am, a huge fan of rockabilly music... like the Stray Cats...and now I am asking myself how much would i love the music without the artwork that coincides with it, making it recognizable to everyone whether they like the music or not? Lowbrow is an important part of our society and culture and should be recognized for it's contribution to our generation.
The video about the Tate Museum of Modern Art showed a dynamic way to display art. I like the four sections-landscape, still-life, history and nude. I also liked the artists displayed with eachother in juxtaposition, Not only can one admire the artist's work but also try to make sense of why they are displayed together. I do believe that art should be categorized beyond Realism or Cubism or Expressionism. So many works correlate with eachother even though they are from very different movements. It's funny because I posted my discussion for my theme before I watched this video but that is precisely what I intend to do with my display. I figured it gives the viewer more depth to each artist if you show two vastly different but similar artists together. We shouldn't be told what we are seeing. We should use our minds and our own interpretations with a little bit of history. That is art to me.
Bones of Contention made me think alot about what is a scientists viewpoint and religious beliefs. Where do you stop? I found it apalling archaeologists have been keeping Native American bones without permission. Pretty sure they, as archaelogists, know the culture and meaning behind sacred burials. The Native Americans were here first, we took over, and didn't treat them well. I am part Cherokee and can't imagine what my ancestors went through. I am so glad there are repreation laws so the remains that are found can have the proper burial so that person can move to the next level.
I have known the name Kodak for years and also knew Eastman was part of the revolution of making cameras accessible for everyone. I think it's amazing that the 50 room house he built is now his museum. I would love to see the 5000 cameras, especially the 1905 cameras. Not only that, but the Daguerrotypes that are displayed there. And to be honest, I would just love to see the 50 room Colonial house. It is amazing that Eastman made photography available to everyone and what he did for the film industry. David Hockney even said there has always been a way to project images...only recently was there a camera to record it.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Week 12 video blogs
I first watched Power of Art: Mark Rothko. I have seen his Color Field paintings and knew there must be artwork that he painted that were different from those, and there were. Surprisingly, our book barely touched on Rothko. Basically, we learned that he started the Color Field style and that he thinned his paint to depart from the color. However, his paintings were extraordinary. The video explains his pain and angst towards the modern world with it's pettiness and desire of consumption. He believed art should show human values, express human emotions, transcend us out of this world, help us escape. He was a troubled artist who struggled financially and mentally. He was commissioned by Seagram's, the liquor company, to create paintings for it's New York headquarters, more precisely The Four Seasons restaurant in it. He almost didn't take the job because he didn't care much for American capitalism, but decided to anyway. He was to be paid $35,000 in 1958 for his work, the equivalent of 2.5 million today. He wanted to create paintings that wouldn't invoke hunger but rather doom and despair and a feeling of being trapped. He didn't want them to enjoy themselves while dining under his paintings. He created the pictures we see today, like Orange and Yellow on page 499. After dining at the Four Seasons he determined that his work would never hang in that restaurant because he didn't want those kinds of overindulgent people to see them. He wanted his paintings to relate to the viewer. He wanted them to experience the same emotion while looking at them that he had felt painting them. His work prior to the Four Seasons murals were his Subway Paintings. I really like them alot. They are full of emotion and despair. The figures almost look scared and unsure, which is how he saw the people in the world. He took his own life in 1970 but left an incredible legacy and through his art a chance for us to open our minds and transcend to a different place.
The next video I watched was Andy Warhol: Images of Images. I think everyone, whether an art-lover or not, knows Andy Warhol...partly due to his use of iconic imagery and partly due to his eccentricity. He is most famous for his portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Jackie Kennedy ,as we learned from his profile in our book. He wanted to show us how much we rely on mass-production and label recognition and did this through repetition of well-known movie stars and commercial products such as Coca-Cola and Campbell's soup. He chose to reproduce the reproduced items with the media silkscreen, which is itself a reproduction. He would allow the silkscreen process to manipulate the original image and allowed the flaws to remain, just as in mass-production. He became as famous as the people and consumerist objects he was replicating...a media sensation...just like what had happened to our society. That was brilliant. Great video and an even greater artist. Both the book and the video quoted his statement that if you wanted to know Andy Warhol just look at the surface of his work...there's nothing behind it. He created images of images of images, and according to him, nothing more.
I thought I had never heard of Isamu Noguchi until I started watching the video and saw one of his sculptures. It is the Red Cube on page 116. I really loved it's minimalist and modern style. I loved that it was outdoors among skyscrapers. I loved the color choice. It was interesting to see the many different types of sculpture he does. He said in 1933 he had a revelation that the Earth was a sculpture and started creating sculptures that recreated the landscape of Earth and using the elements of Earth as his sculptures, which he called garden sculptures. They were amazing. They were earthworks with mixed media of rocks and water and trees. Beautifully put together to honor the Japanese gardens he had visited on his travels. All of his sculptures are outside. he either carved them and placed them there or he created them from the environment. His carved sculptures are very minimalist and modern. Some he left as sculptures and some he made into fountains with designs cut into a large shaped rock right where the water would hit to create another aspect of the sculpture. I loved the simplicity, not over-dramatic, just what is needed, as in Minimalism. He, like so many of the artists in our readings, was aware of space, both the object itself and it's surroundings. He was accepted to the Guggenheim Art school in Paris but when he returned to America he was broke and creating Abstract sculptures that were ahead of their time and not selling. That is what led him to his garden sculptures and thus began his career. He was commissioned to update Bayfront Park in Miami, 26 acres, and after much fight with the council over funding even got them to tear down a perfectly good library and other buildings because they weren't aesthetic to his design! That is dedication to the arts...and especially his.
I knew of David Hockney as a painter but not as a photographer so I wanted to learn more. I have seen his California paintings and his use of bright vibrant colors. I knew of his realistic yet Pop style in his paintings that were also Expressionistic because he painted them subjectively rather than objectively. He made parts of Los Angelos that most found drab and gloomy look perfect and beautiful. I was very taken by his photograph collages. He uses many different pictures of many view points of the same object and puts them altogether in a sort of Cubism style, but without losing the original image. There is no confusion in his final work, we are just able to see the whole image taken through a camera lens, which you couldn't do by simply standing in front of the subject and taking a picture. He is very aware of space and movement and wanted to show that through still images...and how do you do that? With many different photos put together to create one. he was able to take the limited amount of space offered through a camera lens and restore it to it's whole glory. I called it Pop even though there really is no use of commercial labels or comics, but because of the bright colors and settings he used. He has overcome what many artists have tried to accomplish...to show space and perspective in the natural sense on a one-dimensional plane. What an interesting artist and a great video.
The next video I watched was Andy Warhol: Images of Images. I think everyone, whether an art-lover or not, knows Andy Warhol...partly due to his use of iconic imagery and partly due to his eccentricity. He is most famous for his portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Jackie Kennedy ,as we learned from his profile in our book. He wanted to show us how much we rely on mass-production and label recognition and did this through repetition of well-known movie stars and commercial products such as Coca-Cola and Campbell's soup. He chose to reproduce the reproduced items with the media silkscreen, which is itself a reproduction. He would allow the silkscreen process to manipulate the original image and allowed the flaws to remain, just as in mass-production. He became as famous as the people and consumerist objects he was replicating...a media sensation...just like what had happened to our society. That was brilliant. Great video and an even greater artist. Both the book and the video quoted his statement that if you wanted to know Andy Warhol just look at the surface of his work...there's nothing behind it. He created images of images of images, and according to him, nothing more.
I thought I had never heard of Isamu Noguchi until I started watching the video and saw one of his sculptures. It is the Red Cube on page 116. I really loved it's minimalist and modern style. I loved that it was outdoors among skyscrapers. I loved the color choice. It was interesting to see the many different types of sculpture he does. He said in 1933 he had a revelation that the Earth was a sculpture and started creating sculptures that recreated the landscape of Earth and using the elements of Earth as his sculptures, which he called garden sculptures. They were amazing. They were earthworks with mixed media of rocks and water and trees. Beautifully put together to honor the Japanese gardens he had visited on his travels. All of his sculptures are outside. he either carved them and placed them there or he created them from the environment. His carved sculptures are very minimalist and modern. Some he left as sculptures and some he made into fountains with designs cut into a large shaped rock right where the water would hit to create another aspect of the sculpture. I loved the simplicity, not over-dramatic, just what is needed, as in Minimalism. He, like so many of the artists in our readings, was aware of space, both the object itself and it's surroundings. He was accepted to the Guggenheim Art school in Paris but when he returned to America he was broke and creating Abstract sculptures that were ahead of their time and not selling. That is what led him to his garden sculptures and thus began his career. He was commissioned to update Bayfront Park in Miami, 26 acres, and after much fight with the council over funding even got them to tear down a perfectly good library and other buildings because they weren't aesthetic to his design! That is dedication to the arts...and especially his.
I knew of David Hockney as a painter but not as a photographer so I wanted to learn more. I have seen his California paintings and his use of bright vibrant colors. I knew of his realistic yet Pop style in his paintings that were also Expressionistic because he painted them subjectively rather than objectively. He made parts of Los Angelos that most found drab and gloomy look perfect and beautiful. I was very taken by his photograph collages. He uses many different pictures of many view points of the same object and puts them altogether in a sort of Cubism style, but without losing the original image. There is no confusion in his final work, we are just able to see the whole image taken through a camera lens, which you couldn't do by simply standing in front of the subject and taking a picture. He is very aware of space and movement and wanted to show that through still images...and how do you do that? With many different photos put together to create one. he was able to take the limited amount of space offered through a camera lens and restore it to it's whole glory. I called it Pop even though there really is no use of commercial labels or comics, but because of the bright colors and settings he used. He has overcome what many artists have tried to accomplish...to show space and perspective in the natural sense on a one-dimensional plane. What an interesting artist and a great video.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Gallery visit 2
Thursday, November 10, 2011
week 11 video blogs
I have always been very interested in Picasso and Matisse and was excited to see a video about them both. I didn't know they were such good friends. Like our book the video explains the differences and similarities between the two. I definitely understand both much more. The video describes the nature of both men, like our book, describing Matisse as organized and Picasso as "flighty" . These personalities are apparent in their works. The video further explains how the artist created his work, Matisse with a plan, an idea, and Picasso just doing whatever came to his mind, emerging himself in the piece. We learned about Cubism through our readings, the cutting up of images, introduced by Picasso. Also the calm,beautiful effects of Matisse' works. The video showed the progress of each artist side by side and the tauntings of eachother, as well as the borrowing of styles from eachother. I really enjoyed the play between the two art giants, how well they got along although they were complete opposites, how each one pushed the other with their new ideas. Both needed anguish in their lives to create their masterpieces. Matisse kept his inside and only painted beautiful things to make people happy and Picasso painted the world as he saw it, beautiful and ugly. Matisse always needed a model when painting his Odalisque series and Picasso rarely used a model, getting his image from his memory. Picasso didn't want to paint realistic things, he wanted to remove the viewer from his world and force him to enter Picasso's. Matisse was nearly a recluse and Picasso very flamboyant, in need of attention but somehow the two remained great friends until Matisse's death in 1954. I didn't realize that Matisse's later works were actually collages because he couldn't paint any longer. It is significant to me because Picasso invented the collage, they came full circle together.
Because I had learned so much about Picasso and Matisse I wanted to learn more about the next movement, Dada and Surrealism, but got more than I bargained for because this video highlighted 6 different artists. All shared the common idea that art should imitate itself, stand on it's own, not a representation of anything real. Dadaists believed in finding nonsense with everything, as we learned in our reading. The book mentioned Hannah Hoch, who was one of the featured artists in the video but I learned alot about her and her movement from the video. She was the founders girlfriend and ended up being the most influential Dadaist. She invented the photo montage and spoke volumes about her distaste of the world around her through this media. Not only are her pictures a mockery of evil persons in power they are also a history of the times she lived in. I hadnever heard of Kurt Schwitters but recognized his "house in a house", a collection of things he had acquired to be shown in his house and how he chose to display them. Both movements weren't really movements at all, as the video and book both explained, but rather a feeling. Dadaists were playful, almost absurd. Surrealists were more focused on the dreams and psychlogical interpretations of people. They would create pictures of realistic and natural objects in unnatural settings, causing the viewer to make sense of the painting. Two of the most famous Surrealist artists were Joan Miro and Salvador Dali, both learned about in our readings. Miro's paintings were colorful, playful shapes of realistic items put together in such a way they are almost indistinguishable. Dali's work is macabre, dark, eerie. He wanted to delve into the psyche of the human mind. Although his subjects are more recognizable he distorts them in such a way that the viewer is left to try to figure out why.
I remembered from our quiz that Georges Seurat created pointillism but didn't really know much else. I have seen his painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1884 a million times but never put the name with the work. I learned so much from this video. I had no idea there was so much controversy surrounding it. It's meaning or theme is constantly argued about. What do the women signify, the monkey, the fishing pole. Where these hints during the time it was painted towards the women being prostitutes, as was famous on the island at the time he painted it, or just mere ladies enjoying a leisurely Sunday. Did he intend for the "dots" to blend completely or not? Our book touched on him slightly, describing his techniques with conte-crayon to achieve texture and his use of light for dramatic effects. The video focused more on his pointillism technique and what he achieved with that, I love there is so much controversy about it. Not only is it an amazing impressionistic painting but it is also a departure from that and an invention entirely his own. Unfortunately, his career as a painter lasted only 10 years as he was struck with diptheria and died at a very young age. It would have been great to see what other inventions he may have created.
The fourth video I watched is The Mystical North. This video displayed tons of artists in our book. Goya, valesquez, Dali were all mentioned. They were the forefront of modern art. A pleasant surprise was Gaudi, the architect. I know that our culture uses the word gawdy to explain something that is too much or not right, however, we use the word and explanation incorrectly. His designs are amazing and modern before their time. I didn't know that Picasso ever painted religious paintings, but learned from this video that he designed his own museum and gave tons of his work to it. I also learned that Dali built his own crypt , in the way that he would , and is buried underneath. I would love to go see both. I was most impressed to learn about gaudi as I have already learned Miro, Picasso, Goya and Valesquez. I do believe Spanish painters don't get the recognition they deserve. They were the start of modern art. Goya with his "Black Paintings", which were called so due to the use f black paint and disturbing images, Gaudi who was commissioned to design a cathedral during a time when religion was changing, and Dali who didn't follow anyone. What an amazing group of artists.
Because I had learned so much about Picasso and Matisse I wanted to learn more about the next movement, Dada and Surrealism, but got more than I bargained for because this video highlighted 6 different artists. All shared the common idea that art should imitate itself, stand on it's own, not a representation of anything real. Dadaists believed in finding nonsense with everything, as we learned in our reading. The book mentioned Hannah Hoch, who was one of the featured artists in the video but I learned alot about her and her movement from the video. She was the founders girlfriend and ended up being the most influential Dadaist. She invented the photo montage and spoke volumes about her distaste of the world around her through this media. Not only are her pictures a mockery of evil persons in power they are also a history of the times she lived in. I hadnever heard of Kurt Schwitters but recognized his "house in a house", a collection of things he had acquired to be shown in his house and how he chose to display them. Both movements weren't really movements at all, as the video and book both explained, but rather a feeling. Dadaists were playful, almost absurd. Surrealists were more focused on the dreams and psychlogical interpretations of people. They would create pictures of realistic and natural objects in unnatural settings, causing the viewer to make sense of the painting. Two of the most famous Surrealist artists were Joan Miro and Salvador Dali, both learned about in our readings. Miro's paintings were colorful, playful shapes of realistic items put together in such a way they are almost indistinguishable. Dali's work is macabre, dark, eerie. He wanted to delve into the psyche of the human mind. Although his subjects are more recognizable he distorts them in such a way that the viewer is left to try to figure out why.
I remembered from our quiz that Georges Seurat created pointillism but didn't really know much else. I have seen his painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1884 a million times but never put the name with the work. I learned so much from this video. I had no idea there was so much controversy surrounding it. It's meaning or theme is constantly argued about. What do the women signify, the monkey, the fishing pole. Where these hints during the time it was painted towards the women being prostitutes, as was famous on the island at the time he painted it, or just mere ladies enjoying a leisurely Sunday. Did he intend for the "dots" to blend completely or not? Our book touched on him slightly, describing his techniques with conte-crayon to achieve texture and his use of light for dramatic effects. The video focused more on his pointillism technique and what he achieved with that, I love there is so much controversy about it. Not only is it an amazing impressionistic painting but it is also a departure from that and an invention entirely his own. Unfortunately, his career as a painter lasted only 10 years as he was struck with diptheria and died at a very young age. It would have been great to see what other inventions he may have created.
The fourth video I watched is The Mystical North. This video displayed tons of artists in our book. Goya, valesquez, Dali were all mentioned. They were the forefront of modern art. A pleasant surprise was Gaudi, the architect. I know that our culture uses the word gawdy to explain something that is too much or not right, however, we use the word and explanation incorrectly. His designs are amazing and modern before their time. I didn't know that Picasso ever painted religious paintings, but learned from this video that he designed his own museum and gave tons of his work to it. I also learned that Dali built his own crypt , in the way that he would , and is buried underneath. I would love to go see both. I was most impressed to learn about gaudi as I have already learned Miro, Picasso, Goya and Valesquez. I do believe Spanish painters don't get the recognition they deserve. They were the start of modern art. Goya with his "Black Paintings", which were called so due to the use f black paint and disturbing images, Gaudi who was commissioned to design a cathedral during a time when religion was changing, and Dali who didn't follow anyone. What an amazing group of artists.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Mask
Thursday, November 3, 2011
week 10 video blog
I was very interested by our readings about African art and I believe I am going to use their ancient culture for my extra credit so I chose both the videos about African art to write my blog. The first video I watched was African Art: Legacy of Oppression. I was at first amazed by the huge amount of African artifacts in the Belgium museum until I realized how they were acquired. I didn't even know the devastation incurred by the Africans at the hands of the Belgium people. Congo , in central Africa, was the biggest massacre during the holocaust...10 million people killed....and I never heard a word about it. King Leopold wanted the area for himself to make a profit from the rubber that grew wild there and used it's inhabitants as slaves to get it. He also admired their art and took it from them and brought it back to Belgium to be displayed during a fair...along with live Africans whom he displayed like oddities or animals. Our readings touched on a lot of facts I learned in the video. The Africans had many different forms of art...the museum alone houses 250,000 pieces from 250 cultures. One such form of art is called "Magical Art" and it was used to show respect towards mothers or chiefs. It was also used to show revenge or to invoke fear. The most common "Magical Art" were masks, as our book described very well. Africans would wear these to tell stories or explain maladies of the wearer, or invoke fear to those who saw them. Most of the artwork was very abstract, telling the viewer what needed to be said with very little or in an obscure manner.I was saddened by this video to learn the hardships these people endured but also learned alot about the meanings behind their artwork.
The second video I watched was African Art: It's cultural Meaning. It, like our book, described the tradions behind African art and how they were used in ceremonies or rituals or everyday life. All African art has a meaning or purpose behind it. Whether it is a sculpture or haircomb or mask it was made to represent something...either a king or ancestor or spirit. The Africans weren't just making representations of these but actually bringing the dead back amongst the living. The only art that actually resembled the subjects were those made of kings. All others were abstract and shouldn't represent an actual living thing. This is done in a conceptual way...what the artist sees rather than what is really there. This type of art influenced Western abstract artists like Picasso. I learned from the video more of the techniques required when the Africans make their artwork...traditions must be followed. It is okay to deviate or embellish the piece but the piece must be created traditionally first to keep the traditions of that culture alive. A great artist is one who can make the piece traditionally but better than other artists. Masks are worn for many reasons and are but one part of the ritual. Music, costumes and dance are also part. When a person dons a mask they are giving up thier individuality and becoming one with the spirit they are trying to get in touch with. The traditional art of Africa is still being created, however, in some areas it is being produced for the International market for profit rather than rituals but this is keeping the skills and traditions of the African past alive.
The third video I watched was Buddhism: Heaven on Earth. There was alot of information in this video that was also in our readings, such as how Buddhism was born after the prince Siddhartha Guatama saw the real world with all it's suffering and questioned 'is that all there is" and seeked to find an answer. That answer was that if we continue to desire things we will never be enlightened and awake and will continue in the cycles of life and death until we are enlightened. The video talked a bit more about this by explaining Buddha's ideals ...how he didn't want to be seen as a god but simply a messenger of his belief. He knew that "some will understand" what he was saying...and he was right. The architecture of the Buddhists tells a story and has a meaning at every level. The lotus flower is the symbol of Buddhism and is used to decorate the temples or even as the shape of the temples. The carvings around the Buddhists temples do not show Buddha but symbols of him for he is no longer here. The architecture is simple yet extravagent. The largest Buddhist temple is Borobudur in Java, Indonesia. It took over 100 years to build and was a pilgirmage of Buddhists for only 60 years before it was covered by a volcanic eruption. It has since been uncovered and restored and is still a mecca for Buddhists pilgrims. Another aspect of Buddhism I learned from the video is that Buddhism is embraced everywhere but India where it originated. And the teachings of Buddha-there should not be a personal god or rituals or prayers or questions-are all now embraced in Buddhism. However the true meaning still exists...you must find your own path to enlightenment, now Buddhists just have mentors and helpers to find it.
Because the video about Buddhism mentioned that Hinduism replaced, for the most part, Buddhism in India I wanted to learn more about it. Although quite different the two have many similarities. As mentioned in our book hindus also believe in the cycles of life. Both also believe in treating everything kindly. However Hinduism belief is that your freedom will be granted by a god only after your devotion. Hinduism has many gods for different purposes. The video explained this further by explaining the gods that are primarily worshiped. Also the place of worship is important because they represent different gods, such as the Ganges River in Varanasi, India. This river is in the oldest inhabited city in the world and is thought to be the Mother Ganges, the female part of the god Shiva. A temple in Khajuraho, India is home to a temple for Shiva, giver of life. Hindus flock there to receive the life-giving forces of the lingan, a phallic symbol representing Shiva. All the gods in Hinduism lead to one thing, Brahma, who can grant you eternal life through reincarnation. This video taught me alot about the two "religions" of India, born of the same idea but worlds apart.
The second video I watched was African Art: It's cultural Meaning. It, like our book, described the tradions behind African art and how they were used in ceremonies or rituals or everyday life. All African art has a meaning or purpose behind it. Whether it is a sculpture or haircomb or mask it was made to represent something...either a king or ancestor or spirit. The Africans weren't just making representations of these but actually bringing the dead back amongst the living. The only art that actually resembled the subjects were those made of kings. All others were abstract and shouldn't represent an actual living thing. This is done in a conceptual way...what the artist sees rather than what is really there. This type of art influenced Western abstract artists like Picasso. I learned from the video more of the techniques required when the Africans make their artwork...traditions must be followed. It is okay to deviate or embellish the piece but the piece must be created traditionally first to keep the traditions of that culture alive. A great artist is one who can make the piece traditionally but better than other artists. Masks are worn for many reasons and are but one part of the ritual. Music, costumes and dance are also part. When a person dons a mask they are giving up thier individuality and becoming one with the spirit they are trying to get in touch with. The traditional art of Africa is still being created, however, in some areas it is being produced for the International market for profit rather than rituals but this is keeping the skills and traditions of the African past alive.
The third video I watched was Buddhism: Heaven on Earth. There was alot of information in this video that was also in our readings, such as how Buddhism was born after the prince Siddhartha Guatama saw the real world with all it's suffering and questioned 'is that all there is" and seeked to find an answer. That answer was that if we continue to desire things we will never be enlightened and awake and will continue in the cycles of life and death until we are enlightened. The video talked a bit more about this by explaining Buddha's ideals ...how he didn't want to be seen as a god but simply a messenger of his belief. He knew that "some will understand" what he was saying...and he was right. The architecture of the Buddhists tells a story and has a meaning at every level. The lotus flower is the symbol of Buddhism and is used to decorate the temples or even as the shape of the temples. The carvings around the Buddhists temples do not show Buddha but symbols of him for he is no longer here. The architecture is simple yet extravagent. The largest Buddhist temple is Borobudur in Java, Indonesia. It took over 100 years to build and was a pilgirmage of Buddhists for only 60 years before it was covered by a volcanic eruption. It has since been uncovered and restored and is still a mecca for Buddhists pilgrims. Another aspect of Buddhism I learned from the video is that Buddhism is embraced everywhere but India where it originated. And the teachings of Buddha-there should not be a personal god or rituals or prayers or questions-are all now embraced in Buddhism. However the true meaning still exists...you must find your own path to enlightenment, now Buddhists just have mentors and helpers to find it.
Because the video about Buddhism mentioned that Hinduism replaced, for the most part, Buddhism in India I wanted to learn more about it. Although quite different the two have many similarities. As mentioned in our book hindus also believe in the cycles of life. Both also believe in treating everything kindly. However Hinduism belief is that your freedom will be granted by a god only after your devotion. Hinduism has many gods for different purposes. The video explained this further by explaining the gods that are primarily worshiped. Also the place of worship is important because they represent different gods, such as the Ganges River in Varanasi, India. This river is in the oldest inhabited city in the world and is thought to be the Mother Ganges, the female part of the god Shiva. A temple in Khajuraho, India is home to a temple for Shiva, giver of life. Hindus flock there to receive the life-giving forces of the lingan, a phallic symbol representing Shiva. All the gods in Hinduism lead to one thing, Brahma, who can grant you eternal life through reincarnation. This video taught me alot about the two "religions" of India, born of the same idea but worlds apart.
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