Simryn Gil: Art & Representation

Forking tongues, 1992 - assorted cutlery with dried chillies - Queensland Art Gallery Foundation

Simryn Gill's Forking tongues consists of dried red chillies inserted between assorted silver cutlery in a spiral formation installed on the floor. These two materials, each loaded with particular histories of passage and migration, are indictive of Gill's practice. The artist's work is informed by definitions of identity amidst a personal history of relocation.

Attending boarding school in India, Gill was aware of the place of silver in her local community. Introduced to India by British colonisers, silver cutlery symbolises civilised rituals which Gill subverts by placing the cutlery on the floor - an equally natural table in Asia. Chillies, introduced to South and South-East Asia from South America, have become so deeply a part of life there it is assumed that the chilli plant is indigenous to the region. Gill often toys with the question of when something becomes throught of as 'local'.

Xu Bing: Art & Time

A book from the sky, 1987-91 - Woodblock print, wood, leather, ivory - The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collectiom of Contemporary Asian Art.

Xu Bing is a contemporary Chinese artist associated with the New Wave of Fine Arts movement. Since its inception in 1985, the movement has produced art denoucing political oppression. A book from the sky is composed of bound books covering the floor. Reams of paper are draped overhead, and recall the daily papers in China which are pasted up for all to read. These reams display thousands of characters that were carved by Xu Bing and then printed by a traditional Chinese press in Beijing. Paradoxically, all of the characters were invented by the artist.

The work infers that the aim of printing, which is to spread knowledge, has been subverted. This work critically questions the notion of power and the collapse of political dialogue through the written word - a symbol of history and culture in China. This magnificent installation symbolises aspects of the old and the emerging China. While the medium and technique are traditionally Chinese, the scale and intent of the work align it with contemporary artistic practice.

Annotated Bibliography - Rona Pondick

Monkeys, 1998 - 2001, Stainless Steel, h: 41.2 x w: 66 x d: 85.5 in / h: 104.6 x w: 167.6 x d: 217.2 cm

Mouse, 2002 - 2006, Stainless Steel, h: 6.5 x w: 9.5 x d: 17 in / h: 16.5 x w: 24.1 x d: 43.2 cm

FOX", 1998-1999, stainless steel, 37 x 9 x 14

Art & Today, Eleanor Heartney, New York, Phaidon Press, 2008

Art & Today is a useful guide to contemporary art in today's society. Detailing many different topics in art, Heartney discusses art and artists, in relation to each theme. The topic Art and Deformation focuses primarily on the abstraction of the body in contemporary art. Heartney unveils the four main terms of studying this topic - grotesque, carnivalesque, abjection and informe. In the chapter, Heartney examines the shifts in society, and the relationship thereof, from perfection to celebration the flaws of the human body. Art & Today, provides an interesting and detailed overview of the topic and great source of points to further investigate.

Rona Pondick: Orchestrated Obsissions, Janet Koplos, Art In America. New Youk: Sep 2002. Vol 90, Iss. 9

In this article, Janet Koplos describes Pondick's works of stainless steal sculptures. Koplos gives an overview of Pondick's work to date, a brief analysis and and an insight to the exhibition structure. This article was useful as it provides background information of Pondick's works and previous projects, as well as a review of the exhibition. I found it very interesting to discover her previous works and methods, and the relationship to the stainless steel sculptures, and the contrast to the previous works.

http://ezproxy .library .usyd .edu .au/login ?url=http://proquest .umi .com/pqdweb ?did=159360931 &Fmt=7 &clientId=16331 &RQT=309­&VName=PQD

Envisioning Origins, Joe Houston, Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 2009, Vol 89 Issue 1, p16-17

This article looks primarily at the themes in which Pondick's work suggests in the 21st Century context. The subject of creation, regarding genetic engineering and digital evolution, is the overall focus as Houston explores first previous iconic artists to account the development of this theme. Houston gives a brief overview of Pondick's career, a detailed exploration of the work Monkeys, and synopsis of techniques, composition and perspective. Houston's thorough examination of her work provides detailed information to the reader together with an exploration of the themes involved in Monkeys.

http://global.factiva.com.ezproxy1.library.usyd.edu.au/aa/?ref=NFRM000020090402e54100007&pp=1&fcpil=en&napc=OU&sa_from=

All of these sources we useful in acquiring information regarding the life and works of artist Rona Pondick. The stainless steel sculptures stand out to me in artistic form and the themes that is aulludes. Rona Pondick is a great artist to explore in the topic of Art and Deformation.

art and deformation of the body

1994
Top of the sculpture work from organic elements: bone pen-latex ..
Pour s'imprégner de la "logique du vivant To soak up the "logic of living

This Is probably my favourite topic in art and today because my absolutely favorite artist is all about deformation of the body through performance, painting and sculptures. .Oliver De Sagazan. his works are horrific and unsettling, his painting and sculptures show array of death and torture to the body making it become deformed from that process. as seen in images above.

in his performances he shows the transfer of ‘forms’ between the "body of the artist and the work of art"

(image above is a performance of his)

transfiguration 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ljqvg7xaxc&feature=related

a perfomance of his from 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYBXRwsDjY&playnext_from=TL&videos=2IRHuwQIAIE

art and nature and technology

Mark Dion believes that his art is to go against the norm of art in the sense that is isn't to satisfy the public and make us as the audience happy bu instead to challenge our perception. By appropriating archeological and scientific methods of collecting, ordering and exhibiting. His works question the rational and the irrational methods of science. he shows this through his style of how he works and presents in a very museum like display way. as seen in works like perfectly in (above images) where he mixing nature with man science.

"His desire to heighten our awareness is called for by the entropy of contemporary life. Presenting fragments of the local (past and present) as pointers to a whole that is absent, Dion offers the balance exemplified by natural systems as the tool with which to dig our way out of the holes in which we are entrenched." (quote from http://bombsite.com/issues/85/articles/2586)

catch up, representation

Jeff Wall deals with art and representation and also the nature of reality and illusion with art and life, fro the mundane life of suburbia to the 19th century style of historical painting. This can bee seen in his work dead troops talk (2002) where we see men from war from about the 19 century relaxing and conversing and only on closer inspection can we see that they are actually dead. His photographs are theatrical and very 'realistic' in a sense they look like they are a real war photographs but actually is just a recreated scene in a studio with actors that have all been photograph separately and then layered on the image. his style is very documentary and representational of they grizzly and grose side of the war and the violence among man and our destructiveness energy.