Art & Audience: rAndom International and Chris O'Shea

The installation is a collaboration work of rAndom International and Chris O'Shea. The concept, design and hardware are by rAndom International, and the software, which was developed in C++ using openFrameworks and OpenCV is by Chris O'Shea.

"When members of the audience occupy the space, the mirrors inquisitively follow someone that they find interesting. Having chosen their subject, they all synchronise and turn their heads towards them. Suddenly that person can see their reflection in all of the mirrors. They will watch this person until they become disinterested, then either seek out another subject or return to their private chatter. The collective behaviour of the objects is beyond the control of the viewer, as it is left entirely to their discretion to let go of their subject.

The installation aims to reverse the roles of the viewer and the viewed during this in-voluntary interaction. It seeks to establish a different kind of relationship between viewer and technology. Will other members of the audience experience the sensation of being ignored or excluded when they are not the centre of attention? Will the installation create a feeling of un-ease and unsettlement? The work investigates if machines can evoke diverse emotional reactions with the simplest of means."

Audience, Random International, 2008

It is like a painting or sculpture automatically flipping and turning its back on me, just because it doesn't like me, or I am not interesting enough as an audience. That's what this installation is doing or inteded to do - choosing its audience, rather than audience having the liberty to engage with the artwork of their choice. It has a modern appeal, both in terms of visual aesthetic and properties. Apart from being interactive and engaging for both adults and children, it traces me back to my experiences with technology. It is about losing control and power over your own creation that you once naively thought would move in your rhythm. It makes me think of having to wait for a page to upload, and losing my patience if it takes more than few seconds, and losing a document that is yet to be saved. It doesn't understand our emotions, yet we have succumbed to it; we adjust ourselves to the way system functions, the system that was once created by one of us.

Bibliography:

http://www.chrisoshea.org/audience

Art & Politics: Jota Castro

Jota Castro is a Peruvian artist, who lives in Brussels, Belgium, and he has also been a curator. He used to be a diplomat at the United Nations and European Union, and left the career behind in the late 90s to devote in the field of art. His works propagate political activism, and his practice includes photography, sculpture, video and installations.

BBB, Oil Shame (2004).

Mortgage, Dollar Bills, Rope (2009).

I find his works raw, in the sense that it is direct to the point with no articulation or pretention. It must have taken a lot of guts, or he must have been a really frustrated diplomat to change the career altogether, and produce artworks which are politically incorrect. I think art gave him a platform and freedom to voice his opinions, and at the same time make people aware or remind of the politics around the world.

Bibliography:

http://www.jotacastro.eu/

http://dawire.com/2010/04/09/jota-castro/

http://new-art.blogspot.com/2005/05/of-politics-and-art.html

Youtube links: School and Creativity

The following links were forwarded to me a while ago, so just wanted to share regarding school/Uni and creativity. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0pwe4vaQo&feature=channel

Art & its Institution: Sarah Oppenheimer

Sarah Oppenheimer is an American artist, who was born in 1972. She graduated with a BA in Semiotics from Brown University in 1995, and an MFA from Yale University in 1999.

"I felt at the time and still feelt hat the gallery is one essential context for the cultural reception of my work. What came under scrutiny in the Claire Compley work was the question of whether a work of art whose discourse disclosed the system of economic reproduction could possibly, at the same time, engender that economic reproduction for itself. Just as the work served as a model of how the gallery operated, it also served as a model for its own economic reproduction." - Michael Asher

I find the idea behind the works of Sarah Oppenheimer are almost an extension of Michael Asher.

610-3356, 2008.

MF-142, 2010.

D-17, 2010.

OE-15, 2010.

The title of the works in letters and numericals are "derived by reference to a typology or classification system created by the artist that describes, in graphic form, how the hole is perceptually perceived and the materials used to create it." Sarah Oppenheimer's artworks change the viewer's perception on art and experience of space. She uses the space in a non-traditional fashion where her artwork doesn't gaze the visitor as a painting or sculpture would, but it instead directs your gaze at different spaces. It changes the way we look at art and what we think of it.

Bibliography:

Heartney, Eleanor. Art & today. Newyork: Phaidon, 2008.

"Sarah Oppenheimer: Projects". http://www.sarahoppenheimer.com/index.html?id=2 (Accessed September 21, 2010).

"Rice Gallery: Sarah Oppenheimer D-17". http://www.ricegallery.org/new/exhibition/oppenheimer.html (Accessed September 21, 2010).

"Artinfo: Tyler Green Modern Art Notes". http://blogs.artinfo.com/modernartnotes/category/uncategorized/page/90/ (Accessed September 21, 2010).

"P.P.O.W: Sarah Oppenheimer". http://www.ppowgallery.com/press_reviews.php?artist=21 (Accessed September 21, 2010).

Art & Architecture: Graham Hudson

"Is it Art or an Environmental Statement? That’s what this Treehugger asked the artist, Graham Hudson, who has built a studio and out-buildings in the courtyard of the Chelsea College of Art and Design. Supported by a Foundation grant, the artist has spent the last 6 months constructing his ramshackle home, living there throughout the whole process and holding arty events on the site. The central building, his studio-residence, is a construction of timber off-cuts, discarded window frames, cardboard, carpet, and old furniture. His materials come from the streets, skips, toy-shops, e-bay, and donations. A junkyard, cordoned off in the interests of Health and Safety, is Hudson's own store-- housing umbrellas, wood, plastics, and discarded children's toys. This is recycling in its simplest form: using refuse to build something new."

Material Resource Library, 2006.

His work roots back to the concept behind Duchamp's works, readymades. It makes us aware of mass production, consumeration and use of materials in our everyday lives. I feel that one of the highlights of 21st century, which would go down to history for the next generation art students, would have to be about people becoming aware of environment and recycling, and the global emphasis on them, not only in the field of art but everywhere around, at least in the western countries, where poverty isn't a major issue. But the highlight so far has only been done in the use of our everyday materials, that are in direct contact with us. His work suddenly triggers me about the use of materials in construction, the erection of new buildings, demolish of houses, spaces occupied with new buildings, congested spaces, etc.

Bibliography:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/09/is_it_art_or_an.php (Accessed Sep 14, 2010).

Art & Globalisation: Renate Schweizer

"The german artist Renate Schweizer (R e s h) is asking artists and other citizens all over the world to connect threads of collected used teabags from aII continents. This art-work becomes a master-piece of contemporary art in the 21 th century, where serious artists worldwide show responsibility & care for the human, political and ecological problems in our global world."

fig. 1
fig. 2 "Started in July 2007 the art-work in process will probably end in 2022"

Her works, especially the fig. 2, brings together global audience, which reminds me that it could be under the topic art and audience as well. The work is interactive and participatory, which engages gallery visitors in the making of the artwork. It is interesting to see how the smallest and the least notable things that we use and discard in our everyday lives, could be used as our creative materials, or attributes to give meaning or character to our artwork.

Bibliography:
http://german-contemporary-art.eu/
http://joannebkaarpaperboats.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=DE&hl=de&v=UTQ6MxzN3qU

Art and Spirituality: Bill Viola

Bill Viola is a contemporary video artist, who was born in 25th of Jan1951, age 59 in New York. His works reflect Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism and Christian Mysticism. When he received U.S. Friendship Commission Fellowship to live in Japan, he wanted to study "Zen Art," traditional ink painting, but a Japanese friend suggested him to go to a temple and study Zen so that everything he did will be Zen art.


Silent Mountain, 2001

"Silent Mountain is part of a series of works called The Passions made following Viola’s participation in the 1997-1998 Getty Research Institute Scholar Year. The series explores the power and range of human emotions. A feature of the portraits and tableaux of The Passions is the removal of sound and the incorporation of time, which relocates the subjects to a place and dimension outside our own. The resulting extended silence, reminiscent of devotional paintings, goes against the tempo of mainstream film yet remains capable of expressing wonder, misery, ecstasy and rage. In Silent Mountain two panels show a man and a woman. The scenes were shot separately, each in 45 second takes stretched into 8 mins 18 secs. The figures express intensifying signs of emotional stress. She contorts, hugging herself twisting and crouching, he holds his head in agony, with gestures that at times emulate classical poses. They stand in parallel isolation, unaware of their companionship. Each in a private emotional trajectory bound by profound grief or remorse. Their agony ends in a scream, in a sudden explosion that is both an expression of their pain and a release from it. Viola has said that Silent Mountain is "probably the loudest scream I’ve recorded"."

http://www.tba21.org/program/exhibitions/9/artwork/399?category=archive (accessed 29 Aug 2010)

"Here I was thinking about passions, being drawn to the fire of extreme emotions-intensity being something that had interested me for much of my artistic life-and yet knowing that one of the fundamental definitions of enlightenment concerns extinguishing the flames. Kazuaki Tanashashi tells us that "nirvana" is from a Sanskrit word that means "putting out the fire," pointing to a state of freedom from burning desire or anxiety, from the enslavement of passion I discovered that in the passions there was also this other, less dramatic side of the emotional energies; this is where the real heart source of this work lies."

Baas, J. and Jacob, M.J. "Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art". University of California Press: Berkeley. 2004.

My analysis is based on the contents that I read, and the short clips from youtube. I felt that the video was capture of coming in terms with disappointment, anger, frustration, etc, and what goes on within the human system in extremely emotional state. It was like a cleansing process of mind, and the state before we understand what it means to see grey area (or black and white), and then coming to the state of nothingness.

References:
http://www.billviola.com/biograph.htm
http://www.tba21.org/program/exhibitions/9/artwork/399?category=archive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEVZ1gN4fB8&feature=related

Art and Identity: Candice Breitz

Candice Breitz was born in Johannesburg, 1972, and she is a professor of Fine Art at the Braunschweig University of Art since 2007. She is best known for her video works and installations. She has done couple of works revovling around identity, and how it's perceived in general, and by the people with different identities. I have chosen to share her video series titled "Factum", 2009. Since I haven't watched the video, I have copy pasted the paragraphs from the link, http://artobserved.com/2010/03/go-see-london-candice-breitz-factum-at-white-cube-hoxton-square-through-march-20-2010/ . Please bear in mind that it is the author of the respective article's perspective and interpretation.

"The exhibition, entitled “Factum” after Robert Rauschenberg’s almost identical canvases, Factum I and II, is an investigation into four twins and one triplet. Breitz has created beautifully intimate video portraits of each twin, which when coupled together in a kind of diptych, reveal the subtleties and nuances that make one individual. It is an extension of her perpetual fascination with repetition, identity and portraiture. By examining a phenomenon we wrongly presume as naturally and biologically identical we are encouraged to accept how very different twins really are...

...Throughout the series Breitz draws attention to the complex and intertwined nature of their relationships by allowing each to speak as an individual, uninhibited by the presence of their siblings, only to pair them up again as she wishes. The process evokes the reality of people’s lives especially for twins – as one is constantly negotiating various relationships, situations and impulses."


Factum Kang


Factum Tremblay


Factum McNamara


Factum Misericordia


Factum Tang

It was an interesting way to highlight the differences between people, by bringing together the people that appear and are assumed to be similar. There may be advantages of being twins, but it could also be frustrating where being different and individualism are emphasised as a way to flourish your life and career. As for the artist, being a professor may have led her to foster her fascination with people's identity.

Reference:

http://artobserved.com/2010/03/go-see-london-candice-breitz-factum-at-white-cube-hoxton-square-through-march-20-2010/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candice_Breitz

Below are some links featuring her other works:
http://qag.qld.gov.au/collection/contemporary_international_art/candice_breitz
http://www.andrewgrahamdixon.com/archive/readArticle/426
http://www.candicebreitz.net/

Art and The Body: Nandipha Mntambo

Artist Introduction:

Nandipha Mntambo was born in Swaziland (landlocked country in Southern Africa) in 1982. She graduated with a Masters degree in Fine Art with distinction from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in 2007. Her first solo exhibition, Ingabisa, took place at Michael Stevenson in 2007. She recently showcased her work at MCA for Sydney Biennale, 2010.

Work:

She mostly uses cowhides in her sculptures and installations, which she moulds around her body, and she even moulded around her mother's body. Her work is known to be about feminity, gender roles and poetics of the body. The work shown below, fig.1 titled Iqaba Lami, makes reference to the 19th-century dress incorporating the Victorian bustle adopted by the Herero women of Namibia.


fig.1 Iqaba Lami fig.2 Indlovukati

View:

Even though the work is done around human bodies, and talks about beauty and feminity, it reminded me more about social and political changes that took place in Africa, which reminds me that it could have been under Arts and The Politics as well. It is mainly due to the mention of Victorian bustle and Herero women of Namibia. I had previously done a little research on Himba tribe of Namibia, and I saw a strong resemblance to Herero women. Their garments are made up of cowhides, and how Herero women's silhouette transformed into that of Victorian women. Garments represented a certain era and how it was influenced by the ruler and people of that era. This reminded me of colonisation of Africa. Her works to me represented an amalgamation of Herero tribe and Victorian era's silhouette, which alone shows the adaptation of western civilisation, a diminish of tribes in Africa.

Reference:

http://www.michaelstevenson.com/contemporary/exhibitions/mntambo/index2007.htm
http://www.michaelstevenson.com/contemporary/exhibitions/mntambo/index2009.htm