Marketing and Operations

Marketing and Operations



Patchwork Assignment 1: Visit to the Tate Modern Art Gallery

I was not very impressed with the Tate Modern Art Museum. From the outside, the building looks like a dreary, dull factory, which could not possibly house such works of art. All of this changes though the very moment you step through the door and are met by 'Sunflower Seeds'. The first exhibit I saw was an artwork by Ai Weiwei, which looked like an elongated room full of grey gravel. Ai Weiwei is a virtually unknown Chinese artist. Whilst it may look like a giant carpet, it is actually an enormous amount of artificial sunflower seeds, made by the artist himself. I think that this is a great way to introduce people to the gallery; it is abstract, different, and you just begin to question what was going through the artist's head when he decided to make this. His efforts have been rewarded, and rightly so.  

The next exhibit is on floor five and is titled 'States of Flux'. As soon as you enter the exhibit, you are met by the very famous piece, 'Wham!' by Roy Lichtenstein. This sets the way for the rest of the exhibit neatly, as it displays work of early twentieth-century movements Cubism (objects are broken up, analysed and re-assembled; objects are seen from different viewpoints so as to show depth; largely abstract), Futurism (admired youth, violence, industry and speed; largely abstract) and Vorticism (basically cubo-futurism; modern day life is shown through bold, harsh lines; largely abstract) (Riding, 2006). This was my favourite exhibit of the gallery by far, as the paintings were the most visually attractive due to the clear, bold, outstanding lines that are used to draw nearly every piece. Some were very cartoon like, which I admire in a painting. My favourite piece from this exhibit was Study for `Sappers at Work: A Canadian Tunnelling Company, Hill 60, St Eloi' by David Bomberg.

The last exhibit that I visited on that rainy Saturday afternoon was also on the fifth floor and was called 'Energy and Process'. The pieces in this exhibit display the artists' interest in transformation and natural forces (and in one or two pieces, industrialisation). Some structures are very abstract, such as the 'Quartered Meteor' by Lynda Benglis, which looks nothing like a quarter of a meteor, but is in fact simply a large pile of lead, which looks molten. Other sculptures are not abstract, but based on forms. For example, the 'Terracotta Circle' by Gilberto Zorio looks like a series of rocks laid out in an abstract fashion, but upon reading the description of the piece, you learn that the ring itself is at the artist's arm span and the hanging rocks at the artist's head height. I admire that abstract or not, at one point the artist would have had to put in some planning, which is not easy in the third dimension.

Patchwork Text 2: Marketing Version: Product Placement In Hollywood Movies

The James Bond ...