Art and Politics

New York Post "Special edition"

September 2009

This is a fake issue of the paper that was released by the collective 'Yes Men' and 2000 volunteers at the same time that Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was attempting the convince world leaders to reduce carbon emissions in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December 2009.

The artists that interfere with politics through their art are interfering with the government status quo and most powerful organizations. Yes Men are a kind of an activist group that do this by creating websites, posing as representatives of corporate entities giving interviews and leaking false information, humiliating these corporations for their wrong doings. They are meticulous in the details and produce accurate facts that make their fake statements seem legitimate, this stirs up controversy and confusion which causes the people being attacked address the issues they are being held accountable for. It's great to see these people not only question political issues but also infiltrate and get involved with the media.

http://theyesmen.org/

Art and its institutions

Erwin Wurm

One minute sculpture
1997

Erwin Wurm is a hilarious artist who apparently had people send him a print of his work with a fee of 100 euro so he would sign it and send it back to them so they could call their print an original. This seems to question other ways art can be sold and what constitutes an original work of art outside the set standards of galleries.

This is an interview of him working and talking in his studio definitely worth watching http://prettycoolpeopleinterviews.submarinechannel.nl/erwin-wurm

Art and Globalisation.

www. 2000
Laser etched optical glass
100 x 100 x 100mm

www. caught my eye as a great expression of the ease of travel (through physical travelling and by the internet) that we have which has led to globalisation. Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell are artist work together mainly creating works that are architectural sculptures that are sometimes functional like 'Paddington basin bridge' in London and other times just conceptual without a function. When displayed this is a sphere suspended inside a block of optical crystal glass that shows the globe by the airplane routes available. The globe is such a fixed image so representing it in this way is thought prevoking.

http://www.langlandsandbell.com/index.html

Wolfgang Laib: returning to what is.

During the course of the interview with Darren James Jorgensen, Laib describes the unique way he views art and life.

The word naive is mentioned a number of times; how he believes people might view his work and how he was when he began his career in art. Phrases he uses such as " my life is my work, I have nothing else" seem so simple and yet insightful. This simplicity as well as notions that art "could change the world" are why Laib thinks his practice could be seen as naive. His casual conversational tone throughout the interview gives the reader a sense of his humble attitude.

Jorgensen questions the assumptions made regarding Laibs use of natural materials such as the idea that what he is engaging in by creating work out of natural materials such as beeswax and milk is environmental. Laib explains that above all his motive is to display the material as it is without the distractions of the environment which the materials normally exist in, which may alter the impression of the material. The questions addressing the preconceived notions of his work, its relation to spirituality, and his background help get to the core of what his art is about conceptually, aswell as giving insight to what Laib is like as a person.

Jorgensen asks Laib questions like what he thinks of the word artist, adopting Laibs inquisitive attitude toward art. Laib questions the contemporary art world, liking some of the work being produced to a 'fashion show' in that the pace of new types of art are changing rapidly in response to popular culture. During the interview he questions the art world so thoroughly it is as if he has no involvement in it, he wonders about the commercial feel aboriginal paintings take on when mass produced with acrylic paint. Jorgensen wraps all this up with his Perth exhibition that was taking place. Overall Jorgensen’s interview is informative and gives a strong sense of what it is Laib wants the viewer to see in his work.

Art and Sprituality- Fabrizio Corneli.

DAS NOCHMAL 2007

Fabrizio Corneli.

permanent installation, alluminio, sunlight, lamp

To do with spirituality in art I feel that light is an important element as in James Turrells Crater. It's amazing that just a few simple shapes of metal attached to a wall can create such an elaborate picture.

Turrells Crater relates to Stonehenge but I realised it really reminds me of this passage tomb in Ireland called Newgrange. It was built so at the entrance theres a 'roofbox' where on the winter solstice every year at sunrise the light travels through the passage and hits the wall at the back of the tomb. It boggles me how they figured out how to make that work (5000 years ago) and that it still works! but it shows that light has always been used to represent spirituality.

http://www.newgrange.com/

Art and Identity - Anne and Patrick Poirier

Il sangue della memoria

1999

On extreme fragility

2004

Anne and Patrick Poirier are a french couple who base their work on an interest in mythology, architecture and archaeology. They take inspiration from the ruins of Rome saying they are interested in the 'gaze' that has been preserved in the stony eyes of roman statues for over two thousand years. Their installations and sculptures connect the past and present, creating a dialog between the two and show a collective identity of Italian culture and of other cultures. 'La morte di ephialtes' is dedicated to the victims of the genocide in Cambodia, another example of this feeling of a collective identity. 'On extreme fragility' is a homage to Blaschka, a master glass blower charged by a 19th century botanist to reproduce, in the form of glass models, the entire flora of North America which took his entire life to complete and was continued by his son when he died. Similarly to the first work 'One extreme fragility' gives a greater voice to someones experience. What interested the Poiriers was the fragility of the glass flowers which they reproduced. As they put it: "At any given moment, in any given life, all can be jostled, shattered, made to disappear. History, as well as our personal histories, cruelly evidence. How explore, how represent such fragility?"

Art and the body- John Coplans

John Coplans

Body Parts

2003

John Coplans is an English artist living in the US who has at various stages of his career has been a painter, magazine editor, museum director and most recently a photographer. In his pictures his body is divided into sections which appear against a white background, usually with two of these images juxtaposed against each other. The arrangement of limbs in unusual positions causes the viewer to have to readjust their perspective on the body shown. Usually when the full figures shown it isn't necessary to look closely because your minds assumptions can fill in missing details, here the fragmented body parts look like unusual objects with different tones, textures, crevices and details so it's possible to view these body parts with a new perspective and see aspects of then that may have been overlooked otherwise. Coplans work is described as 'grotesque' which is true however the photographs don't have the confrontational and aggressive element featured in most of contemporary art regarding the body. His work has a gentle quality because of the black and white colour, relaxed poses and though flawed in many ways his skin seems beautiful in the way an elephants skin is, wrinkely but lived in.

This 'Body Parts' series was a reaction to the disaster of the World Traid Centre Towers. He lived in New york at the time and amid all the chaos this is what emerged from his photography. He says:" without consciously connecting the disaster to what I was photographing, I had started making images of my arms and legs and then collaging a pair of them together to make one image. After I had made four such images, I realised the connection when it was announced in the news that workmen were digging up debris andconstantly finding human body parts." This reminds me of what Michael said about the 'Raw and Cooked' project where your ideas come from somewhere even if you can't recognise where that is straight away.