Art and Politics

Thomas Hirschhorns work is usually laced with political statements and signs. He applies a makeshift aesthetic using very basic techniques and materials such as; box tape, cardboard, and aluminum foil. He was part of a group of graphic designers called Grapus which was a political design firm running throughout the 70s to the 90s.

His installations for me have a protest feel to them, he makes use of newspaper imagery and clippings from popular culture magazines.

Heres some of his work:

http://www.gladstonegallery.com/hirschhorn.asp?id=1405

Art an spirituality Paul Laffoley

This guy is intense, he paints these huge detailed architectural esoteric diagrams

"his work is usually classified as visionary art or outsider art combine words and imagery to depict a spiritual architecture of explanation, tackling concepts like dimensionality, time travel through hacking relativity, connecting conceptual threads shared by philosophers through the millennia, and theories about the cosmic origins of mankind"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Laffoley

I suppose his work is considered outsider because it is!? I guess for me this is true outsider art... art that exists outside the art world. It speaks for itself really, hes kind of like a mad scientist coming up with all these crazy theories and linking them up with budhist mantras. when you look at them you can almost hear him rambling this stuff!

Marina Abramovic

I remember someone did a talk on Marina Abramovic last semester, they showed a work where the artist sat down in front of a member from the audience and stared into her eyes. when I saw this I was like WTF? people line up for that?

I stumbled on this blog.. its photos of people she made cry... while staring into their soul. tones of people crying! Makes me think she was saying mean things to them quietly.

anyway I think this adds a whole other element to this particular performance.

You can thank the internet for this... Globalisation in its purest form!

http://marinaabramovicmademecry.tumblr.com/

Art and Architecture Callum Morton

Callum Morton was born in Canada and moved to australia and spent the rest of his life at university. he is a bit of a hero when it comes to qualifications. He has studied architecture, painting, sculpture to name a few but more importantly his work is great! I can't explain why this is architecture apart from it just is. Maybe he is incorporating living spaces with art and he is working with the urban environment. I am very unfamiliar with architectural movements, I would be interested to know if he was associated with a particular style.

There is actually a wealth of architectural type artists at the moment it seems. Artists that use the walls and structures themselves.

http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/27/Callum_Morton/profile/

CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL IN ART BY WASSILY KANDINSKY

To understand this text to its full potential, it was important to contextualise it; as it was stated in the beginning of the essay “Every work of art is a child of its age”. This was published at the cusp of modernism and when Wassily Kandinsky's first abstract painting was made. The ideals of this text stemmed from romanticism which was against the scientific explanation of the universe and what was clear to the naked eye did not necessarily summarise or represent a feeling or emotion.

Kandinsky goes on to say that artwork that is an attempt to emulate ideas “achieve only a similarity of form and remain soulless for all time” referencing the 'soul' of an art work. This entire introduction is based around the idea of a spiritual experience in relation to art steering away from the traditional anglo conceptions of a soul. Perhaps it may be more likened to the funky meaning of soul where something has a natural aura or attraction to it. Kandinsky on abstract art has similarities with ancient Chinese art critic Xie He, where the first of six guidelines for rating a painting is 'Spirit Resonance' which is the energy of the painting. This seems to be a less esoteric definition of the spirituality of art and is summarised as an overall energy of an artwork. This is an energy that is visible but not seen or described. Futurism and Romanticism and abstraction have many similarities and also quite contrasting. Kandinskys definition of abstraction speaks strongly about the future and progression and with clear aesthetic similarities depicting speed and movement.

It is hard to grasp the full impact of this text today because imagining contemporary art without abstraction seems to be impossible for me as I am simply 'a child of my age'. Kandinsky speaks abstraction as being a radical point of view where in current times it is hard to imagine contemporary art without abstraction.

The comparisons between contemporary abstraction and the modernists abstraction are still apparent but may not be making the same romantic statements. Although you can't completely detach spirituality from abstraction, today it sees like it is a language similar to the instrumental of a song where emotion can be induced without the use of words.

Art & Spirituality - Sterling Ruby

One of the important aspects of spirituality in contemporary art is the birth of abstraction- an attempt to visualise what is not seen by the naked eye.

Apparently Sterling Ruby is 'IT' at the moment. I don't know why he is 'it' but he used to be an art slave for Paul McCarthy. I like the combination of luxury/ghetto in his work.. dont you think?

Art & Identity- Cai Guo-Qiang

ART & Identity- Cai Guo-Qaing

Research Summary
Benjamin McCready

Cai Guo-Qaing raises interesting ideas when in relation to the theme of Art & Identity. His work primarily draws inspiration from ancient Chinese decorative art and ink paintings, Chinese tradition, Feng Shui, Chinese medicines and remedies, and Chinese wildlife. Through Cai Guo-Qaings work you can easily see Chinese culture embedded into his work. Cai Guo-Qaing spent the first 29 years of his life in China, of which at the time was enduring political unrest. His work 'Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard' is a direct appropriation of a 1965 anonymous propagandistic work called Rent Collection Courtyard from the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution which depicted the exploitation of feudalism and was meant to contrast with the benefits of life under Mao Zedong. The remaking of this iconic sculpture initiated an intense debate. Cai Guo-Qaing explains

“... the tragedy of time, of people, of artists who were once full of passion and conviction in their beliefs. Reflecting upon the artist's work in particular, we see the discrepancy between ideology and reality, the tragedy of it all.”

Rent Collection Courtyard, 1965

Anonymous

http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/bevans/Art101/Art101B-10-China/WebPage-Full.00079.html

(accessed 9th August 2010)

Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard

1999

Cai Guo-Qiang

http://www.caiguoqiang.com/imgs/imgs_project/1999_venice%20rent_01.jpg

(accessed 9th August 2010)

If you look closely Cia Guo-Quiang's replica you will find it is sculpted in a crude fashion which would not suit the purpose it once had.

Although this particular work won the Leone d'Oro award at the 48th Venice Biennale, He may be more well known for his work with explosions. His explorations with explosions are broad, varying from performance, painting, action sculpture, photography, to video. The main ingredient is gunpowder which is a chemical deeply seeded in ancient Chinese culture. The paintings also resemble Chinese and Japanese ink paintings from early Imperial China with similar colour and tone, subject matter, scale and ratio.

Luoshenfu by Gu Kaizhi (344-406 AD)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Luoshenfu_Gu_Kai_Zhi.jpg

(accessed 9th August 2010)

Fetus Movement II: Project Extraterrestrials No. 9 by Cai Guo-Qiang

1992

http://www.asiaartcenter.org/e_index.php?page=exhib&exhibno=56

(accessed 10th August 2010)

Another work that references Cai Guo-Qiang's identity is Head On which is 99 life sized replicas of wolves and a glass wall in which the wolves leap in an epic arch but colliding with the glass wall in a pile. 'This represents humans mindlessly following a collective ideology. Aesthetically this particular installation is harder to trace to traditional Chinese art, but is still a very direct comment on political China.

Head On by Cai Guo-Qiang

2006

http://teachartwiki.wikispaces.com/Head+On+--+Cai+Guoqiang

(accessed 9th August 2010)

Zaya, Octavio. "Interview" in Cia Guo-Qiang ed. Dana Friis-Hansen, Octavio Zaya and Serizawa Takeshi 8-35 (London: Phiadon Press 2002)

Krens, Munroe ed. Cia Guo-Qiang I Want To Believe (New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications 2008)

http://www.caiguoqiang.com/

(accessed 7th August 2010)

Heartley, Eleanor, Art and Today; Art and the Identity, (New York, Phaidon Press, 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrTrKJQnwJs

(accessed 7th August 2010)

Art & the BODY

Hey,

Heres an artist that I like who uses the body. Olaf Breuning is different from other artists we spoke about today for me. In almost all of his works the body or bodies are the main focus but they all have a similar nonsense that makes it seem like he is more interested in humans habits themselves... I dont know, what do you reckon?

(I published the eastern islands image because this is probably his most famous and if you want to look him up Phiadon has a monograph on him.)

he also has pretty much all of his work online

http://web.mac.com/olafbreuning/works/works.html