ART & The Quotidian Object

CHECK out this GREAT posting from last year addressing the work of Sarah Sze:

http://artandtoday.blogspot.com/2008/08/art-and-quotidian-object.html

(cut + paste address)

There are many artists using found materials - subverting their meaning by re-presenting them within an alternate context. Think about what you are being asked to do in your STUDIO class with Michael!!!

ART & TODAY TEXT BOOK

Hi All,

The text ART & TODAY is available at the SCA library!!!!!

As Reuben mentioned, a copy has also been placed behind the desk at the Schaeffer Fine Arts Library.

(http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/sfa/).
USE the link above to locate the library...

I hope all went well with the Performing Object Night - Sorry I couldn't be there - I look forward to hearing about it on Tuesday. If anyone took photos please post them up here!

And - finally - If you have any problems or worries please don't hesitate to contact me. Check out last years BLOG if you need direction regarding the weekly comments: http://www.artandtoday.blogspot.com/

Cheers,

Amanda.

Robert Rauschenberg- white painting

I found these works particularly interesting, espessially after todays semiotics lecture. Rauschenbergs' "white painting" were an attempt to remove all narative and context from his works... very much in the perception that it is what it is and nothing more. From his minimalist begings he moved to 3D built works that for the time were quite provocotive incorperating stuffed birds, tyres and general old junk matirials, he was considered a pioneer in american abstract and pop art.

ART & Popular Culture

For those interested in this topic area - I thought I would add the references from the discussion on ART & Popular Culture:

• Avant-Garde and Kitsch, (1939) was originally published in the Partisan Review - here Clement Greenberg argues for the need to uphold the barrier between high art and low culture... the beginning of a debate concerning the 'true' nature of art and what constitutes 'art'. If you are interested in exploring Greenberg's arguments further, see:

• Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man  (1964) by Marshall McLuhan + The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects (1967)
  

"In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology."

• The defence of the real (1999) + The art of disappearance (1994) + The illusion of the end (1994) + The gulf war did not take place (1995) by Jean Baudrillard 
  

"The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced: that is the hyperreal. . . which is entirely in simulation. Illusion is no longer possible, because the real is no longer possible."  Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e) 1983, p. 146.

Edgar Muller

 Following on with some of the other posts about graffiti art/artists I thought of Edgar Muller. I found this article while waiting at Glasgow airport and thought it was quite interesting. I had not heard of him before.

He and his team create three dimensional artwork on the footpath.

www.european-street-painting.com 

Roy Lichtenstein and Pop Culture

Drowning Girl
Oil on canvas; 1963
Museum of Modern Art, New York

One of the earliest known examples of pop art, Drowning Girl, incorporates borrowed images from magazine advertisements and newspaper comic strips, which later became the focus of lichtenstein's compositions. His works, which were regarded by many as being beyond the bounds of fine art during the 1960s, are now considered icons of the Pop Art movement and have secured the artist's place in art history.

http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/

Ben frost and popular culture.

Pop art is a movement perpetuated by mass media and pertaining to the language of the external world tangible to the artist. Pop artists drew upon the icons, events and issues current in the world-around-them, from historical moments to the banality of the ever-increasing consumerism of society.

Ben Frost’s artworks comfort all the glorifications and repercussions of mass media, however he lacks the vernacular language of a young Australian artist. Sourcing images and icons not only from an epoch prior to his generation, but also from another country’s culture – completely persuaded by the aesthetics of American popular media. In comparison to artists such Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg his coalescion of images is based purely on retinal excitement and the preconceptions of his medium with a seeming indifference to the narrative of a pop artwork.

Is this lack in cohesion of thought and visualisation an acceptable feeding ground for contemporary artists, or does this simply a case of being a little late?

Banksy

Banksy is an illusive graffiti/street artist, who's works most often appear on street corners or large public walls. His graffiti artworks reference popular culture and modern society and due to their marketable qualities often sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

Ben Frost is dead

Early last year I attended the Semi-Permanent design conference, and I was knocked out by a young, Sydney artist named Ben Frost. His artworks are the essence of popular culture, occasionally offending much like Damien Hurst. The themes in his artworks are a juxtaposition of the innocent and the sinister, with the use of seemingly innocent creatures, and exploited advertising. The graphics he uses for his artworks have a detailed, comic book quality, with the odd slashing defacement. 

FYI … yes he has had an issue with copywriting.

More on Semi-permanent: http://www.semipermanent.com
Website: http://www.benfrostisdead.com/home.htm

Observation.

Hi everyone.

I thought I'd share an image from my street, taken recently. The image above is Asbestos. It is of course very dangerous because its fibres do extensive damage internally through the lungs and even skin. What I wanted to point out in the photo was the meticulous manner with which someone had tried to illegally dispose of it. Its like they were making a collage, and, despite all their care, I can almost hear the sound of sneezes which is some concern.

Not to make too light of the subject, I've been blabbering about taking a couple of needlesticks recently, collecting 'recycled' items for Art Materials. Be aware that the curious Artist is infinitely more likely to stumble into danger, and, compounding this is their compulsion to make homely, their Artistic studio...Accidents do happen more in the home and so take care around others and even small, furry animals and things like that. Spiders and Snakes, Sharks have nasty edges, so be careful. They're all really scary and so are Monsters, Ghosts and some Ufos.