Art and politics

Tribute in light, 2001 by Julian Laverdiere and Paul Myoda

Digital concept rendering

Tribute in light was a public memorial shown for thirty-two days in memory of 9/11. The temporary installation was showed at the original site of the world trade centres that captured the sorrow an yearning of the new yorkers after the attack. The shafts of light were ctreated by eighty eight searchlights that rose in the night sky, ghost like figures of the towers. The work is beautiful and sad but also a symbol of hope.

Art and institutions

Your supermarket, 2002 by Guillaume Bijl (couldnt find a good image)

guillaume bijl has basically utilised this space to make a common supermarket, there is no real difference between the one you would go to buy your groceries from and this artwork. He uses real food, drinks and houshold products; the only difference between this work and an actual supermarket is here you cant buy anything. i guess this artwork relates to both institutions and globalisation because of our constant exposure to advertisment and our addiction to consumerism whilst also creating this twisted shopping environment where your not allowed to purchase anything. in terms of art and its institutions, to me this is a powerful work commenting on how commercial these institutions or galleries may have become- like a shopping centre where your going to buy your household basics.

Art and globalisation

Who am we?, 2000 by DO-HO SUH

Four-colour offset print on paper, each sheet 24x36 inches

Consist of thousands of tiny faces from the artists high school year book, in rows on large sheets of wallpaper. When the work is viewed from a distance the tiny faces because a blurred mass suggesting the disappearance of the indivdual into a large mass. Many of his works involve this idea of 'masses of people' which strongly relate to this idea of globalisation and becoming so strongly innterconnected that this loss in individuality and perhaps 'voice' may occur.

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 Spirituality

Do Ho Suh

Someone Venice Beinnale 2001 Karma 2003

Was born in Seoul Korea 1962. Best known for his intricate sculptures that defy conventional notions of scale and site-specificity, Suh’s work draws attention to the ways viewers occupy and inhabit public space. In several of the artist’s floor sculptures, viewers are encouraged to walk on surfaces composed of thousands of miniature human figures.

Covered by stainless steel metal dog tags Suh has created a sculpture in a human figure. Once looking upon this image the dog tags form together creating a hollow image dress. The back of the sculpture depicts a human figure wearing the dress with no head only yet to realize there is no appearance of a human once approaching the sculpture from the front view. Once approaching the space the spectator has a welcoming essence due to the opening and the scale of the dress.
Exhibited in the centre of the room of the gallery Suh has allowed the viewer to participate within the work and has given the opportunity to approach the work in many directions.

http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/dohosuh.html

Art and Architecture

Michael Lin

A Modest Veil

Was born in Tokyo and based in Taipei. His installation work A Modest Veil transforms the architecture of the Vancouver art gallery portraying a new image to the public. Due to the vibrant colours he has displayed it has become a new site of engaement. It was exhibited for gathering protest closure of Canada's parliament.

Most of his works are from traditional Tawainese material which he enlarges and displays on architectural sites, building, the exterior and the interior. Michael Lin applies art to various architecture and in doing soon he exhibits his work publicly. His installations works are usually noticable to the public due to the colourful material and patterns being applied and displayed.

His relationship with his works are often personal and uses materials which are traditional representing various cultures. I quite like the concept of Micheal displaying his installation artworks on architectural sites. It allows the public, viewer whoever it may be to observe and examine his art practice. Often we look at various architectural space as just a building, when coming across an installation work as shown above it gradually grabs the attention of the viewer automatically. Michael Lin has given a new appearance and representation to the gallery by simply exhibiting his installation work on the architecture. The public has a distinctive approach to the gallery as one walks by. Lin has not covered the entire front building of the gallery just various parts which the view has not dramatically changed. Yet the installation has changed the appearance of the gallery slighlty.

‘I often spent time in the countryside with my grandfather when I was young. I still remember such textiles being used for bedding as women’s dowry; to me they also mark an age when Taiwan was transferring from handcrafted modes of production to industrial production, from rural to urban.’ (1) The quote explains the significance of the material textile he often portrays in his art practice and how it orginated within his installation works.

www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/theexhibition/exhibitmichaellin.html

http://www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/apt2002_standard.asp?name=APT_Artists_Michael_Ming_Hong_Lin

http://mayfairhotelsandresorts.com/details/398-michael-lin-a-modest-veil.html\

Art and Politics - Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer (born March 8, 1945, Donaueschingen) is a German painter and sculptor. After attending numerous universities which included studying under Joseph Beuys, Kiefer initiated his career with images of himself in the Hitler salute and became astutely political in art. He has involved himself with German history and the horror of the Holocaust and other devastations that have brought him to question the role of art and the artist in the long, ongoing process of reconstruction.

This assessment of the role has led him to create a collective memory and reinvention of a national identity and to reinstate a people into a regenerative process that was guided by a cosmological vision. Kiefer’s work covers a broad range of ideas and looks into mythology, religion, the Kabbalah, literature of great poets and philosophers.

REMINDER

We are meeting at the MCA tomorrow for our Studio Theory Class @ 2pm SHARP.

Wolfgang Laib: Returning to What Is, review

Darren James Jorgenson interview with Wolfgang Laib gives us an insight into the world of the artist and his practice and how his life and past experiences and how they influence him in his work. It also brings to light even though his works have on first appearance a very nature based look tot hem he explains to us the real and true meaning behind his choices of mediums and why he is not as the critics say "nature artist".

Wolfgang Laib is very informant in his answers when talking about his process in his work where we are learn the reasons behind the artist choice material he uses like pollen, milk and beeswax is because to him and pointed out by Jorgernsen that material is already made and been thought this amazing process to get there and then to be used in his works. But instead of placing them in the natural environment Wolfgang takes them out it and and uses it purely for the material its self and placing it in the gallery space turns it into an abstract idea. he tkaes hte nautre out of the material and by doung this removes the "nature artist" from his work. We see through teh interview Liab's commitment to process through the passion in his answers and the way he tlaks of his works and the meaning and influences behind.

From this interview it can be said that Wolfgang's art is his life and that he is a very processed based artist in the way he collects the pollen before he starts the work, they way the milk has to be changed everyday in his works. its all a very slow and time consuming process but which is vital to his works as this interview is to understanding his works and showing the true meaning behind them.
Jorgenson allows Laib to give us this overview and insight into his work and also addresses the topic's that we wouldn't and just a viewer in the gallery wouldn't know.

art and institutions

Pawel Althamer is a sculpture, performance and action artist. he is highly involved with installtion and sculptures. but i won't to focus on one of his early works surrounding people on space.

Althamer has challenged the stereotypical notions of places and and space where he has totally redesigned the gallery space or manipulating the viewers perceptions on it, which was seen in his first solo exhibition call the exhibition where he totally removed and cleaned the place, washed the floors, scraped all the old paint off the walls and placed in the bare minimum but necessary furniture into to building as to refer to the building original 'purpose' which was an apartment which shows the institution as art and how it transform over the years to accommodate to the need of the people who inhabit the area.

in the work below again he change to gallery space into the surrounding you would find in a different type of building. where he transformed the main gallery area in the a waiting room. and cutting a hole in the wall to lead you outside into the gallery garden changes the original use of the place as it would of been used before. and taking away from the idea of the gallery. but more of a waiting room and the exit.


http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_althamer_pawel#brodno

Art and globalization

Asian field

Anthony Gormely for the past few years ghas been working on projects in different countries that so the idea of globalisation, such as his field projects. the ones seen above are in Asia. and what he does is he collects the clay form local areas. In the process of making this work there were 500 people who volunteered

"My reply is that it's not one artist's work; it's everybody's that made it. The numbers - 180,000 little figures, 25 tonnes of clay, 3500 boxes - all those statistics are justified if you realise it's tackling big issues."

this work adresses a world issue... the growing population as the unborn, our future who will be the possible inheritors of the earth.

the work is meant to close in on the viewer and infect the space around them with all these tiny human like figure with out mouths and only staring eyes

art and spirituality

Ana Mendieta works embody several themes and ideas with in spirituality which tie to pre Columbia/ afro-cuban beliefs and also the body, mainly hers with in space and pushing the boundaries between matter and spirit. This connection with spirit was bought about by her speration from her parents when she was 13 by the American catholic chruch. this then influenced her greatly in her art practice.

Even though her works were shocking to the audience like in her work where she presses different parts of her body on a sheet of glass to distort it in front of an audience to question societies idea of a good figure of a women!

her development of her works were greatly influenced by the exile as well as the intercetion of the Caribbean/ north American cultures later in her last years.





Ana Mendieta's Burial Pyramid- an amazing performance work
http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/193

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 Spirituality - Dorothy Napangardi and painting “The Dreaming”

Born in the early 1950’s, “land artist” Dorothy, grew up 400 kms out of Alice Springs with her extended family who nomadically lived around the Mina Mina area, living traditionally off the land having a complete diet of bush tucker. Dorothy paints a major religious belief called the “Jukurrpa’ (“Digging stick – possessing – Dreaming” also called Karnta-Kulangu Jukurrpa “Women belonging dreaming”), which is a code that sets rules for living, morals and interacting with the natural environment, thereby providing an integrated life with man and nature.

In order for the Dreaming to exist, it must be perpetuated to be regenerated. So not only is Dorothy illustrating their identities and spiritual connectedness to the country, but also passes on valuable cultural information for future generations and ensuring that the Dreaming mythology is kept alive.

Dorothy is creating visual spiritual illustrations through her work.

Napangardi, Dorothy. Dancing up country : the art of Dorothy Napangardi. Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2002.

Art and its Institutions - BABABA INTERNATIONAL

(above) Soap City, 2010

This Sydney-based art collective have made use of the gallery space throughout various projects by turning it into a workshop, a kitchen, and even a nail parlor. They recently held an 'exhibition' at First Draft called Soap City, where they used the space as a work shop in which to produce soap for the public. On each bar of soap was a map directing its beholder to a make shift roof top shower somewhere nearby, taking the viewer outside of the institution and to a secret place in which to cleanse themselves.

These guys seem to be interested in using the city's surrounding resources, and are totally breaking down barriers between art and life. Through their DIY mentality, Bababa bring the art making process into the gallery, and diminish the exclusive image that art galleries commonly possess. Instead of witnessing a finished product, the viewer is a part of the process and is encouraged to take part. Their practice is fun, lighthearted, communal and rough around the edges- challenging conventional perceptions surrounding art and its institutional factor.

Check out their website for more information and past projects:

http://www.bababainternational.com/

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

Arrt and gobilisation

I found out about Juile Watai aka Ai Amano aka Alice 100% moe (?) aka SAMURAI GIRL by looking for some reference material and found her Lolita (somewhat polite anime porn) style of photography pretty leet. In her early publication of 'Samurai Girl- spirituality and technology for the mor consciousness, Watai explores pop culture, which is largely influenced by the rising of otaku culture. Otaku, おたく, translates to someone elces house and has Been used in a negative context, referring to an obsessive compulsion (anime otaku = anime mania). However the Japanese gen y, whom have been hugely influenced by the west, have embraced this compulsion and have started a second pop revolution through the first globalization era.
After the war I believe Japans defeat took away whatever identity japan had, as though japan had lost an arm. It was only though this embrace of otaku culture japan's arm was patch worked together from pokemon blue and red cartridges, professional cosplay outfits, hardcore octopus hentai mangas, all of which influenced jap pop. Watai captures the contemporary aesthetic of the imaginary and virtual space through her portraits and performances. Through globalization the west has taken away Japanese innocence, inserted their own culture, only for it to be mutated into this contemporary introverted fluro kinky kawaii thing, that the west have embraced.

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 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

art and institutions -blogging style

From a social sciences site i get this:
Commonly, experts officially recognize five major social institutions that have been evident in some way in every civilization in history:

• government
• religion
  
• education
  
• economics
• family

i note that art is not part of this list, nor is language. common experts eh!
what i've noticed so far and this is no disrespect to anybody in particular is that blogging seems to be a one way discourse with pictures. This concerns me because i feel like i'm writting to a vacuum that represents the latest global communication tool.
Are we scared to comment or does it just take to much time?
might a comment offend or is a comment just a comment?
Is language inherently dangerous in the wrong hands.
Who decides and who owns these words ? me or you or the corporation that is google.
oh did i mention the seductive black background that has been thoughtfully provided to make the images and text look more interesting.

Art & its Institutions: Blu

If, within this train of thought, we are critiquing the gallery/museum as the space for art then why not look at artists who bypass it all together? Although Heartney doesn't mention it in her chapter, i thought it would be cool to raise the subject of graph culture as a direct subversion of art and its institutions.

Blu is an italian mural artist who I am particularly interested in for his mural scale stop-animation works. I think these works, although not so much sculptural, have cross-overs with performanative and installation practices in terms of their engagement with and response to space.

Heres some images, but for the full effect, deffinitely check out youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uad17d5hR5s