Give this blog a read everybody http://tomeslate.blogspot.com/
. I love it!

Thank You...

To Amanda Williams and the Class of 2009. Seasons Greetings....
Thank you for the memories, we made an invaluable archive, (having written to Amanda) it seems we are free to use the blog. If any one is interested in keeping in touch through the blog about exhibitions etc, that would be cool. Stay safe and happy for the interim, remembering always, it is but a dream. Here above, is a reminder of what next year may at some stage become.

Collaborative arts

sorry so late.
I went researching collaboration art and found a great website from the blog http://collabarts.org/?cat=7 From our review i was really interest in Christo and Jeanne- Claude which have been apart of the kaldor art projects. I love this pairs work as i find collaboration art really powerful, bringing together ideas from two artists to create something of significance. Collaborations are more interactive and tend to been more powerful on an audience with the combining of resources as seen by Christo and Jeanne- Claude.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Wrapped Trees, Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park,
Riehen, Switzerland 1997-98
Photo: Wolfgang Volz, ©Christo 1998

Christo and Jeanne-Claude
The Umbrellas, Japan - USA, 1984-91
Photo: Wolfgang Volz ©1991 Christo

Art and Globalism: Alfredo jaar

Alfredo's Instillation 'Geography=war 1991' Jaar projects photos taken of a small village in Nigeria. the images depict children who play with barrels of toxic waste left around their village in the waste dumps by italian tankers. in this instillation Jaar explores the affect of global waste on the environment and people. and attempts to give a face to the impersonal global forces that create these horrible conditions. 

Adrian Piper :Art and Identity

Adrian Piper is an american artist who's work comments on race related issues. particularly the distinction of race in America. Piper believes that racial distinctions are learnt and that the discrimination of race is no longer a visual distinction but a distinction made by learnt biases. in her work 'Cornered 1988' Piper Lectures her audience about the differences between black and white people, talking from the stance of her african american heritage but having the appearance of a white female. 

Art + Institutions

Primavera '09 hosts a multitude of interdisciplinary works, one of the most provocative works being that of Christopher LG Hill - Clique. The installation work features a collection of centrally facing chairs derived from the MCA storeroom, the works of other artists and various other sources. Sitting amidst the chairs are precisely ordered piles "junk". Also present within the installation is Hill's recent thesis Never work, all art is problematic.

Challenging the object value systems and consumer driven society we perpetuate, Hill also questions the level of interaction the gallery space and it's staff have upon a work (significant in this case, the work having utilized a number of the chairs). In a larger sense, Hill questions the nature and structuring of the art institution globally; to what extent is art of any use if it is not universally accepted? In which case, why make art?

Broken Homes: Andrew MacKenzie

In his article about Callum Morton's 2007 Biennale work, Valhalla, Andrew MacKenzie warns against reading the work as either a comment on contemporary war or in literal reference to the artist's biographical story. He argues that the broken home of Valhalla is "border country" , between public and private, the real and the constructed. MacKenzie notes that the scale of the work is important in allowing an audience to engage spatially, and for Morton to deal with the concepts of interiority and exteriority more directly. Mackenzie describes the work as "theme park size", a surprisingly evocative description that suggests a space which people can inhabit but are somewhat removed from reality. Mackenzie describes the effect as unsettling and alienating. Interestingly, despite writing a pointed and interesting piece, MacKenzie acknowledges that he has not actually experienced the work first hand.

Art & Politics: Raquel Ormella

I reviewed Raquel Ormella's Artspace exhibition for our assignment but thought I would talk about some of her other works currently on show at the MCA as part of Making It New: Focus on Australian Contemporary Art. I'm worried this will become a slogan comprises 9 fabric banners, each hand appliqued with text on both sides. On one side of each banner the text describes people of strong political convictions, while on the other Ormella expresses her insecurities about her own activism, wondering "Is it enough?". The stitching that shows through from the other side quite cleverly expresses the idea of a thought that plays on the back of the mind coming to the surface; something that one can't quite shake. Ormella is examining the role that political beliefs play in shaping personal identity. The hand sewn works reference protest banners, their craftmanship particularly bringing to mind the protests of the suffragette movement.

Raquel Ormella
I’m worried this will become a slogan 1999–2009
double-sided banners, sewn wool and felt
9 banners, sizes various

Art and Politics

Satire always brings out interesting caricatures!

This work has combined 'American Gothic' by Grant Wood, and caricatures of Rudd and Julia Gillard, with a kangaroo in the background so people know it's in Australia if they're not aware who our prim minister is.

The roles in 'American Gothic' are the traditional roles of men and women. The pitchfork in the mans hand representing hard labour, the floral print and flowers behind the woman's shoulder suggest fragility and domesticity.

This satire can therefor be read as Rudd and the labour party being hard on Australians, and Gillard in the role of the old made or spinster speaks for itself. The kangaroo which has replaced the flowers can be taken two ways, as a pest for farmers or the Australian national emblem representing Australia.

Art & Its Institutions: PIE

spat+loogie (Kat Barron and Lara Thoms) are a Sydney(ish)-based duo who's performance work, PIE, is showing as part of Primavera 2009 at the MCA. In the work, members of the public are invited to sit down with an artist or curator over a piece of pie and enter into a dialogue about art . A "menu" of conversation pieces is provided which topics such as the Shaun Gladwell-referencing "Is skateboarding art if you slow it down?". At the end of the conversation the participant may then share the pie with the art professional or throw it in their face.

The work examines the dynamic between those working within the art world and the public. The curators and artists are put in a position in which they must explain themselves to a wider audience or risk a humiliating pie in the face. The onus is on them to prove themselves to the audience.

A friend of mine recently participated in the work as an artist and was disappointed that the member of the public asked to participate did not engage in the work at all. She didn't want to eat the pie or throw it, was worried about missing a bus, did not want to hear about the work or discuss art in general, and in the end the artist just asked her what her star sign was. He said she was not judgmental or dismissive, just not interested.

Art & Audience

Late last year I was part of a group show at Firstdraft Gallery called Obliteration. The premise of the show was

to explore the physical and emotional continuum created through loss of self. The works exhibited are situated between self and non-self, dissolving boundaries between artist, audience and curator.

The work I showed was called Collective Heights and at the opening was simply a line drawn on the wall marking my height with my name written next to it and a sharpie hanging on a piece of string. The audience then added themselves to the chart completing the work. The intention was to explore the show's premise of obliteration of the self by creating a work in which the audience's participation completes the work as a whole, but also completely overwhelms the mark-making gesture of the artist.

Collective Heights 2008 (installation view)

Collective Heights 2008

Photographs courtesy Beatrix Curren

Art and Architecture

Selfridges is a shopping centre in Birmingham designed by Future Systems. The building as a whole looks pretty ugly, however when you're up close the aluminium discs are amazing to look at! The buildings structure has an organic flow, flaring out at the top and base of the building whilst being drawn in at the middle. The reflective capabilities of the domes gives the building a sense of life and colour.

Hey amanda,

Do we have to include photographs of the show in the review?

art & architecture...a family story

As many of you may know, my father is German, thus all of my fathers family and friends are overseas. A family friend of ours was an architect and artist, Heinz Radner. He passed away in 2004. I remember visiting him and his wife Margarite at their house in switzerland, my brother and i helped Heinz ( and their great big german shepard) build and paint a birdhouse in the garden. Their house was that of truely artistic sensability, everything was something, even the garbage bins were painted or mosaiced.
But Heinz, he was of couse an archictect by proffession, he designed and built hotels through switzerland and germany. But at heart his artistic side could not be ignored or hiden, not even in his profession, every single design that was subsequently constructed had his own signiture. A stain glass window. Each one unique in design. In fact the last stain glass window that he made is at his house with his wife, as far as i know i believe it is the french doors that lead out to the garden. I wish i had photos or something to show of his work, because this man, his work was truely amazing, and although his "real job" was that of an architect, i believe that the creativity and pull of a true artist always shines through regardless of whether one is accepted or known as a practicing artist... if i have the chance to get to germany, hopefully next year, i will be documenting Heinz's works...

Art & Globalism - Allan Sekula

Globalism and industrilisation are key factors in the society that we live in, so intertwined with the progression of society and technology, of corse many of these themes become related and lines blurred. For the artist that explore these area's, such as Allan Sekula, it seems it is a concern that never ends, as with his exhibition of the "fish story" project, he presented this work as an ongoing work in progress. The "fish story" refers to maritime industry and its causes and effects, both industraly and environmentaly. With over 100 photos and writen documentation, it seems that much as time is an issue that consumes artists, so too do the areas that relate to the world in which we live and the ever growing and changing environment that is so clearly inescapable to our sensability.


ps... very sorry but it would seem that all my technical devices are s**ting themselves thus not allowing me to post images...if i could fix it i would...honestly far too close to re-decorating with a hammer! sorry.

Self directed/Vacluse House...a tangent of epic proportions....

Art & Spirituality – Gordon Matta-Clark’s Descending Steps for Batan (1977)

The work of Gordon Matta-Clark appears perhaps more obviously suited to discussion in the context of Art & Architecture. Descending Steps for Batan is a performance/document carried out by Matta-Clark in 1977 in response to the suicide of his brother, Sebastian Matta, a painter who suffered from mental illness. For the duration of the exhibition, Matta-Clarke dug into the ground beneath the gallery floor, carving out a rudimentary flight of descending stairs. The dirt steps led downward but nowhere in particular, their final destination arbitrarily decided by the end of the exhibition period. Afterwards the hole was filled in. Descending Steps is one of my favourite of Matta-Clark’s works. Often it seems that much of what is described as spiritual in art exists on a grand, all encompassing scale. Matta-Clark’s simple work describes overwhelming loss and guilt, and I feel it is just as effective. To me, this hole in the floor speaks of transcendence.

Figure 1: Gordon Matta-Clark, Descending Steps for Batan (1977), Cibachrome 40 x 30 in.

Self Directed Work

Figure 1: Men sitting

Figure 2: Athletic Men

Figure 3: Men Walking Away

Self-directed work

Collaborative artists: Stelarc and Nina Sellars

This collaboration titled blender, was first on exhibit in 2005 at the melbourne meat market gallery. The work consists of a large 1.6 meter high blender with a dome industrial casing. 

inside the plastic dome is the conntents of both artists liposuction surgery which they both undertook specifically for the work. every few minutes blender churns the contents of the dome mizzing both artists fat blood and leftovers together. 

Self directed work

Self-Directed Work

Self Directed - Work in Progress

Self Directed work

Self-Directed Work - Recording Screen Shot

Self directed...In progress

Art and the Audience- Olafur Eliasson

I thought it appropriate to talk about Olafur Eliasson for art and the audience, seeing as his works are coming to the MCA!

I particularly love the Weather Project.
The weather project was installed at the London's Tate Modern in 2003 as part of the popular Unilever series. The installation filled the open space of the gallery's Turbine Hall.

Eliasson used humidifiers to create a fine mist in the air via a mixture of sugar and water, as well as a semi-circular disc made up of hundreds of monochromatic lamps which radiated single frequency yellow light. The ceiling of the hall was covered with a huge mirror, in which visitors could see themselves as tiny black shadows against a mass of orange light. Many visitors responded to this exhibition by lying on their backs and waving their hands and legs. The work reportedly attracted two million visitors, many of whom were repeat customers.

I suspect that seeing something like this would be life changing. Not only does Eliasson literally include the audiences image (through the mirror on the roof) but he almost makes the viewer transcend or rise above themself with this synthetic creation.
I cant wait to see his exhibition!

Self Directed Work

Bodgy pics.

Self directed project

Mitsuru Koba- Art and its Audience

I stumbled across this artist,on a Scapbooking website!! He shaped and polished river stones collected from dried beds, in apparently site specific bundles. Recently he installed driftwood dinosaur skeletons on causeways around inlets in Japan, the layers of uncovered earth provide a readymade "white cube" and he really puts a haunt into it. I identify with this collection/hording, site specificity/ love of animals.

REVIEW Due DATE

Hi All,

I am happy to extend the due date till Friday morning - I will call by the Studio class at 10am SHARP.

Alternatively - if your review is complete - tomorrow it is!

A.

Self directed work

Gregor

Self-directed, Peter Rabbit the Painter

Self Directed Project....

In what is shaping up to be an especially florid period, I am half way there in producing a fetishistic shrine or pulpit looking thing, from the slate of the SCA roof and old chair legs. Above, an image: Friday 23.10.09

unable to label old posts

Amanda,

I am unable to label two of my old posts; art and the collaborative and art and the body. I have emailed you, but I suspect the address is wrong.

I have tried many different ways for over 45 minutes to no avail.

What would you like me to do?

self directed project