Art & Audience: Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono, "telephone piece", 2008. Sydney Biennale.

This work consisted only of a telephone which at any point during the exhibition Ono may call from an undisclosed location and an audience member will answer the phone, or not and in that case it just keep ringing. As one would expect.

So, you could argue that the pinicle point in the work it the performative action of the phone being dialled, it ringing and then being answered by a stranger at the other end. The work is the performance, the answerer supposedly enters into this unknowingly that they are actually becoming art at the time of the conversation.

They have the opportunity to speak to the artist from within the gallery and say whatever they want. I think this idea is awesome. And really quite weird.

Art & Politics: Ron English

Ron English, "Abraham Obama", paste-up. 2008.

This is one of my favourite Ron English works. It was created during the 2008 US election. English has combined the faces of Abraham Lincoln and Barrack Obama to form a super democrat. The face of the president who will change "The free world" for the better. And then there's also the Warholic reference, which of course means that English is selling the 'super presidents' as a commodity, advertising, mass producing. Emphasising the the fame and celebrity which American presidents seem to acquire without fail.

Art & architecture: Frank Gehry

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Designed by Frank Gehry. 1993.

I really like the idea of an art museum being a work of art in it's own right and I really think that this particular building successfully accomplishes this. The abstraction of the design and the reflective surface of the outer material creates an appealing structure in an urban environment. It's unusual and it's intriguing. Makes you wanna look at art...

Art & Globalisation: Yoko Inoue

Untitled, 2006. Yoko Inoue. Dimensions vary. Ceramic.

I see this work as a corruption of buddhist ideals. Although these shapes are pleasant enough, they are unmistakably casts of plastic drink bottles. The coin slots reference the keeping and storing of money, want, desire, attachment as well as pollution ( the pollution of the mind, unclarification.). These are the things which keep one from enlightenment. I feel that Inoue is making a comment on the western ideals of mass production and consumerism and how these things effect eastern spirituality. Money spent on water which comes free from a body of H2O.

Art & It's Institutions: Lawrence Weiner bibliography

Lawrence Weiner. "Placed upon the horizon (casting shadows)" 1990, Vancouver art gallery.

Lawrence Weiner, "Many colored objects side by side to form a row of many colored objects" 1979. Enamel on Brick.

Lawrence Weiner, "One quart exterior green industrial enamel thrown on a brick wall", 1969. Enamel on gallery wall.

Bibliography:

-Heartney, Eleanor. Art & Today. New York: Phaidon Press Ltd. 2008. Chapt. Art and It's Institutions.

-Möntmann, Nina. Art and it's institutions: Current conflict, critique and collaborations. London: Black Dog Publishing. 2006.

-Albero, Alexander; Zimmerman, Alice; Buchloh, Benjamin H.D.; Batchelor, David. Lawrence Weiner. London: Phaidon Publishing. 1998.

Art & It's Institutions

I shall be presenting Lawrence Weiner, if only he would stand still on that pedestal... :)

Art & Spirituality: Rodney Glick

Everyone No. 53, Rodney Glick. Wood. 2009.

This work is a reinterpretation of traditional Hindu idols. This particular figure is a modern version of the god Brahma, the creator of the universe. Brahma is usually seen with four heads, but No. 53 has one removed. He holds his head in one hand, a book in the other "the league of gods", and prays with the remaining hands. The use of modern (80's) clothing shows relevence of the figures symbolism in contemporary society. It is a confronting work. It makes the viewer wonder "who would pray to this leather-clad god?"

Art & Identity: Jamie Salmon

Jamie Salmon, Fragment #3
60cm x 25cm x 80cm
Silicone, pigment, fiberglass, acyrlic and hair
2008.

This work by Jamie Salmon employs hyperrealistic qualities to express both the nature of identity and reality and how both interplay.

The partial form of the sculpture represents the forming, deforming or decomposition of an identity, a literal tearing away of the flesh to see what is underneath. In this case it is fibre-glass fibres that are seen, instead of the expected capillaries and muscles. Although the humanlike parts of the sculpture are so believable, this figure has never had an identity. She is the creation of the artist and yet the melancholy look in her eye is still able to connect with the viewer.

This work portrays a physical fragility, as well as an emotional one. The viewer can believes that this figure has a story, a past, a life and also that her story, her past and her life have been reduced down to what she is before us: Only part person, only part personality, only part of an identity.

Art & The Body: Hananuma Masakichi

'Sculpture of self '(left), Hananuma Masakichi(right),

wood, hair, teeth, fingernails, toenails. 1885.

Masakichi discovered he was dying of tuberculosis and wanted to leave something behind for his wife. His last effort as a sculptor was to make a completely life like representation of himself out of wood. Each piece was caved separately and then joined together. Masakichi pulled out every single hair on his body to use on the sculpture. Each hair was placed into a tiny bored hole on the sculpture, corresponding to the exact place on his body. He did the same with his teeth, fingernails and toenails. He made the eyes of glass, they are completely anatomically correct. It was ten years before he actually died, so...maybe he should have waited a little longer to pull out his teeth.

Although this was completed 125 years ago, I feel that it has similarities with some contemporary practises. There is a definite element of the abject in this work, the use of actual bodily effects for one. The realism I want to relate to the work of Ron Mueck, Evan Penny, Jamie Salmon, Duane Hanson, Sam Jinks, as well as a work called 'Summit' 2010 by Shen Shoamin (political corpses in glass cases, which was on Cockatoo Island.)

Art & The Body: Ah Xian

China China Series
1997-1999
Porcelain body-cast, with hand painted

underglaze and overglaze decoration.

Head 1 (from 'China. China' series) 1997
Porcelain body-cast, with hand painted underglaze blue

and overglaze decoration in yellow, orange and green.

Ah Xian is an Australia based artist who immigrated from China in the 90's. His work mainly consists of porcelain busts which have been live-casted (the subject of the cast is living.) The style, design and quality of the porcelain is traditional to the Ming Dynasty and is still being produced today by skilled artisans. With help from some of these artisans, located in the region of Jingdezhen in China, Ah Xian was able to create these busts and many more like them.

All of the detail is hand painted in traditional styles, by the artist.

The process used picks up on the very fine details of the face and shows the beauty and delicacy of human features and the outside decoration accentuates that beauty. There is a feeling of serenity and calmness in this work, along with an almost morbid feeling. Regardless of how appealing these busts are there is still allusion to death masks and perhaps ancestor worship, as well. It is really difficult to believe that the subject inside was living at the time of the cast. While imagining the process, I can't help but to feel empathetically claustrophobic and on the verge of asphyxiation, albeit only a mild response.