Video Review

Why I Chose these Videos

The four videos I chose were "Islamic Art: India and the Middle East", "African Art: Legacy of Opression", "Chinese Art: Treasures of the National Palace Museum", and "The Great Wave (Japanese Art)". I chose each of these because they were all about a different culture of art.

Islamic Art: India and the Middle East

I find the Islamic culture to be quite fascinating, which is what made this video a top pick for me. The readings we did this week taught me things about the story of Islam that I did not know before, and sparked my interest in their art. Both the text and the video mention the Taj Mahal, which is one place I have always wanted to visit since the first time I saw it in a photo back in middle school. They way that they use geometric shapes and create such beautiful structures with perfect symmetyries amaze me. The narrator speaks of the "desire for paradise" of the islamic people, which I also found interesting. This paradise is evident in the beauty of the palaces and mosaics.
       Another thing metioned in the readings and the video is the importance of the courtyard area. They use it to prepare food, to pray and other things. It creates a sense of community. I never know that they face a specific wall that shows the direction to mecca until now. I like the information that the video gave about Damascus. The entire city is facing an "electronic mecca", which is a satelltie dish that broadcasts their prayer throughout the day. He also explores the question of how one would know where mecca was. He showed the idfferent instruments of their science they would use to determine where mecca was.
     One key fact that he did mention was that nowhere in the Koran does it say that an artist cannot create images of people, but rather that it was frowned upon to show idols in a religious context; which is similar to what the text says. He went into depth to explain how it was Judaism that created this commandment.

African Art: Legacy of Opression
In the beginning of this film they mentioned that in the congo region, there were more than 230 different cultures. This alone was an astonishing fact. It was interesting to hear about how their pieces were consider to be somewhat magical and that many of the peices they created even had openings to hold containers or magical potions to make them more potent. Also, they used masks to scare people so that they would treat the handicap nicely or for young men to respect their elders. I did not know that it was their encounters with the weaponry of the westerners that caused them to stop making masks to intimidate their enemies because they realized the magic did not work.

Chinese Art: Treasures of the National Palace Museum
In Chinese art, there were many artistically made everyday objects such as the tea cup jar vessel and chicken bowl. They use a lot of dragon motifs in their worl which is a significant part of their culture. This video imparticular focused more on specific works and the dynasties they originated from. The vessel for warming wine seemed to hold great importance in this culture. An interesting fact was how the glaze blue used on porcelain became poplular in the Ming dynasty. Spots of dark blue and black are a distinct characteristic of their pottery which was aonther feature I was not aware of.

The Great Wave (Japanese Art)
I had no idea that a wave was the best known image in Japanese art, and would not have ever understood why before viewing this video. It was its representation of the natural world that intrigued people. It was kind of crazy to see how much influence this single image had. It was used in a designer's line in 2003 and others have tatooed it onto their bodies!


Overall, the first two video had the most relation to the text and were a great suppliment to what we read about in the text. That does not mean that I did not still learn great things from the others. I am a visual person, so it was nice to have a visual image to go along with everything the narrators were discussing. But, the text does also offer great photographs too.