Art and Yesterday's news

This one from Mullochs recent Auction of Hitler's Watercolours, and the devil is in the detail. Personally that red river is something quite ponderous and I keep wanting to tell the guy on the bridge to jump. There are words and the beginnings of some symbolic crap flying about behind his head, the sky and brickwork is over-painted, possibly giving some reason as to Hitler's wanton destruction of it (... such a try- hard).

I know this is NOT a sculpture (as in 1000 Paper Cranes just may be).... but, I am just not a fan of his later work. The writings of Spike Milligan will prove poignant justification of the research into such other exploits, if still interested however.

What is also disturbing is the collection selling so well at Auction (21 Watercolours fetching $120000), and having someone, being moderately satisfied with the results, somewhere.... Warnie's baggy green (also shown, also for sale at Mullochs auction- and looking quite sculptural) may not have been so impressed!

My former Landlord actually owns a painting by Mussolini's Brother of Sophia Loren, so I'm used to feeling like a bit of a dawn raid, well below the horizon, 1000 lbs at my disposal.

Field trip…maybe

How about we all get on a plane to NY and go to MoMA to visit:

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/316

Klara Liden "Creates architectural interventions and installations by cannibalizing existing structures and materials, such as cardboard, corrugated metal, drywall, wood, and carpet remnants."

For anyone who is in my drawing class on Mondays, PLEASE READ!

I just spoke to Barbara. We will be in Computer Drawing, down in the dungeons from 4-6pm. Verena was 100% correct. 

Tuesday 28 April

Hi everyone,

Our class next week IS in the library. 

Lets meet there at 2pm... in the computer room at the back - on the ground floor.

This means ART & NARRATIVE (and each consecutive class) will shuffle along to the next week. In the meantime this week - lets look at some current exhibitions online... and post what we find!

Check out this blog for inspiration:

http://artpatrol.blogspot.com/

AND trawl the links I have posted to the left!!!

ENJOY.

A.

* Remember to focus on Sculpture + Performance + Installation artists.

Jamie Boyd exhibition

For those of you who were interested in coming to the Jamie Boyd exhibition tonight the details are as follows;

Christopher Day Gallery

Cnr Windsor & Elizabeth St 

Paddington

6pm

Thomas Demand and Representation

Originally trained as a sculptor Thomas Demand's artworks are the photographed representation of old archive images. He recreates anodyne looking interiors out of cardboard and paper, down to their finest detail. The works are then photographed and the physical copy of the archive is disposed of - leaving only the chromogenic print for the audience to grapple with.

The original photographs he choose to recreate often have an immense emotional or historical presence, such as Room 1994 - Hitlers bunker were the last failed attemped was made on his life, Corridor 1996 - The hallway leading to the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmers apartment, Office 1996 - The east Berlin headquarters of Stasi secret police, Kitchen 2003 -The hideaway were Sadam Hussein was found.

                                  

Kitchen (2004) by Thomas Demand. C-print/Diasec @Thomas Demand: Courtesy Museum of Modern Art

Yet the ultimate significance is placed on the final reproduction - the photograph, and not on the physical presence of the interior or his cardboard fabrication.

The seemless refinement and detail of the photographed interiors give the impression of eerie banality - an antithetical conclusion to the reason behind the original scenes being captured. The lack of description in the title also adds to this bewilderment of significance, bringing into question our perception of their importance.

They merely offer us a window into the traces of a world we have never really seen or experienced. The audience is simultaneously connected to and disconnected from the world he depicts - leaving the viewer with false sense of reality.

The work that i find most beautiful is Clearing 2003, the way he recreates the impression of light filtering through the apparently organic and delicate leaves is amazing. This work is an exception to the scenes he usually depicts!

   Clearing (2003) by Thomas Demand, C-print/Diasec. @ Thomas Demand: Courtesy Museum of Modern Art

Art and Representation Jake and Dinos Chapman

CFC76311561 and Chapman Family Collection (2002) Painted wood and mixed material, Tate London reproduced from http://www.tate.org Accessed 01.04.09.

YBArtists, Jake and Dinos Chapman, serve constantly to arouse fear and abhorrence. Depicted amoral juxtapositions, in this case, through xenophobia and ignorance, are constructed using the most honoured techniques and detail.

With the Mc Donalds paraphenalia resplendent seemingly among the most primal spiritual gestures, the specimens illustrated, refer obviously, to colonization and ethical issues of globalization.

The artists are often berated for a humour,seen as an insult to the intelligences of their audiences* and draw criticism from Goya zealots, having 'improved' upon The Master's images, at stages in their career.

The link is to the Chapman's video of the installation HELL2, a reconstruction of an epic work lost, to a now famous inferno.

http://www.jakeanddinoschapman.com

* ibid.

Art and Representation - Fiona Hall

Australian artist Fiona Hall is renowned for transforming ordinary objects and materials into complex and allusive works that are witty, humorous, ironic and fiercely critical.

Hall's "Understory" (1999-2004) employs glass beads (the currency of colonisation) threaded onto wire to create three-dimensional objects depicting elements of plant and human material. The use of camouflage patterning aptly depicts the juxtaposition of nature and the conflicts over territory threatening it. The works are realistic in shape of natural objects, however, are only representation of their texture and from. With Hall's use of materials, the works resemble less of a "real" object, and become a representation. A recurring motif is the use of camouflage patterning – a symbol of our time that transforms the patterns of nature into the fabric of conflict and hostility. "Understorey" brings together fragments of a beautiful, fragile, transient realm, and in the way of science, traps them in the filing system of the museum display cabinet.

Fiona Hall
"Understorey"
1999-2004.
Glass beads, silver wire, rubber, boar’s teeth.
Private collection, Sydney.

Art & Representation - Hiroshi Sugimoto

Sugimoto immediately sprang to mind when I was reading the text, specifically the discussion regarding the paradox inherent in representation which can be viewed simultaneously as an attempt at truthfulness or a fundamental falsehood.

Sugimoto's photographic series Dioramas and Wax Museums was started in the 70s, and ellucidates this paradox rather well I think. He made this statement about the diorama series:

Upon first arriving in New York in 1974, I did the tourist thing. Eventually I visited theNatural History Museum, where I made a curious discovery: the stuffed animals positioned before painted backdrops looked utterly fake, yet by taking a quick peek withone eye closed, all perspective vanished, and suddenly they looked very real. I'd found a way to see the world as a camera does. However fake the subject, once photographed, it's as good as real.

He uses simple lighting methods and a large format camera. Essentially, he photographs a "fake" scene, thereby making it "real", or as he states, "as good as real", maybe even better. But it was already in a sense real (you can't photograph what was never there). It is a real diorama, of which the purpose to represent ,in as life-like a manner as possible, a real scene. He takes this real fake thing and makes it into a fake real thing.

So he produces a photograph (a mimesis) of a mimetic object, and in doing so makes the subject of the photograph appear no longer mimetic.


Sugimoto's work is technically in the medium of photography, but I think the strong conceptual element overrides this to a point where it can still be included in this blog. It's all post-medium nowadays anyway i guess.

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/

Sorry no pictures, the library computer won't let me upload and I have not the internet at home...

Simon Yates (Art & representation)

I thought I'd make use of my trip back to Melbourne by visiting a few galleries. I went to "New 09" at ACCA and one work which I thought fitted neatly into the category of "Art and Representation" and appealed to me was the animated robotic sculptures by Simon Yates. 

As you walk into the exhibition 2 life-size figures stand in the foyer. They are made a range of mediums including fishing rods, balsa wood and thin paper. They hold a couple of helium balloons each which hold them upright as well as causing them to have a slight rocking motion which gives them the human quality of not being completely still. This was very effective but what was even more amazing was that when you stood near each one for a while it would start walking around the foyer of the gallery. Each figure held water-divining sticks which could have been a comment on global warming/water consumption.

Apparently on the opening night of the show Simon Yates and his partner were dressed identically to the robots which was amusing and confusing for everyone there

watch

ARTREVIEW magazine

Check out ARTREVIEW Magazine - it is free online.

The APRIL issue features Cindy Sherman's latest work: A take on the botoxed obsessed - 50 something woman.

THEN:

Jumping from one link to another... check out new work on the streets of New York and LA at this visual / exhibition journal -  ART BLOG

AND last but not least: this website is like a visual map for piecing together 6 artistic mediums - making connections and creating thematic / aesthetic groupings ...

http://www.artandculture.com/

Art and Representation

Upside down Mushroom Room, 2000

polystrol,polyester,wood,metal,electric motors,plasterboard,neon light,glass,acrylic paint,iron 

(4.5 x6x 12.5m)

installed at Fondazione Prada, Milan, November 2000-january 2001

I found Carsten Holler's work in another part of Art and today but thought that it was still applicable to this weeks topic. This piece in particular is representational of  a realism and anti-realism which i found compelling to view. The sense of anti-gravity and size compromise the realism of the giant mushrooms. however the detail used in creating them is such that they have to be big to appreciate the detail. 

Art & Representation, Abstraction, Aura/Quotidian

Art & Representation

When I was looking through pictures of artist’s works from Venice Biennales I came across Sam Taylor-Wood's work (in the 47^th Biennale). Her photographs are arresting in the way the figure and reflection of light draws you in. The piece ‘Self Portrait Suspended 1’is part of a series that looks at testing physical restrictions of existence in an endeavor to attain ‘absolute release and freedom’. A reflection of the boundaries of society and the limitations it enforces.

 www.harlanerskine.com/ blog/2007_07_01_archive...

Art & Abstraction

Phillip Wolfhagen is a landscape painter whose contemporary practice in horizon lines and presentation makes his vocation truly unique.  The use of uneven horizon lines, combined with the split panels, gives Wolfhagen’s work an abstract quality. Taking the subject matter of man dominating nature and giving it a unique spin, he stretches the image of humanity till it’s nothing but a thin vertical line separating the enigma of nature.

www.dominikmerschgallery.com/ Artist.aspx?id=42

Art & Aura/ Quotidian 

A few years ago I studied Thomas Ruff who’s an amazing innovative photographer. Producing barren and impartial images of everyday objects such as people, architecture and the sky, his defined pictures encompass a wild and eerie aura.

www.orbit.zkm.de/ ?q=node/164 

Art & Representation

I found Heartney's reference to Pliny's story interesting with the idea of realism and imitation to be seen as both an effort to be truthful to the appearance of an object and also be seen as false and as visual trickery. Over Easter i saw an exhibition at The National Gallery of Victoria which was similar to Artexpress featuring high school student's final artworks. I noticed that most of the students employed a very realistic interpretation of the subjects they presented,and by watching the audience i found the most photorealistic works attracted the most attention. One series in particular by Rania Tabet depicts everyday objects in these almost flawless paintings. I found it interesting that audiences are still drawn so strongly to realism.

http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/toparts/vce2008/student_EXHI008620.html

Eleanor Heartney, Art and Today. (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2008).

Art& Representation- Vik Muniz

Art & Representation – Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz, born 1961 in Brazil, now residing and working in New York, originally trained as a sculptor, Muniz uses unconventional materials such as chocolate syrup, thread, peanut butter etc to create representational works such as portraits and recreations of other artists works. Vik Muniz’ works seem to be a juxtaposition in the realm of representation, as Eleanor Heartly (Art& today) discusses “the fiction of realism”, representational art has steered from being a mimicry of the visual world into what would rather be described as artists representing what ‘reality’ really is.
Muniz’ work has often been described as visual trickery, and some of his earlier works such as “Double Mona Lisa, After Warhol (peanut butter & jelly)” 1999, seem to be clever at first but the meaning is easily distinguishable and they leave room for no deeper exploration.

“Shovel” (sossego, copper mine 2006) seems to show a more developed sense of representation that goes beyond the tricks and mimicry of Muniz’ earlier works, as too do his latest works, a series called “Verso” in which Muniz and a team of artists, carpenters and forges recreated the backs of classic masterpieces such as Grant Wood’s American Gothic, and Matisse’ Red Studio right down to the smallest faded pencil mark. This exhibition of works takes a different spin on representation as all we see is a series of the backs of canvases, when on closer inspection we see the marks that show these to be works of master artists. They are of cause all fakes, but they impress on our minds the idea of ‘what if?’ what is the reality? If what we see is a true representation of the backs of these masterpieces can we be sure that they are the masterpieces themselves? And equally how can we know they are not? I believe this idea is summed up by Eleanor Heartly’s (Art & Today) reference to ‘science and technology continue.. [ly] to operate on the assumption that there is a reality out there that exists independently of human subjectivity, art increasingly takes issue with that idea. In the postmodern era, “reality” has become as mutable as our minds.’

Images (from top to bottom)

Verso (American gothic) 2008

Verso (The moment of impact) 2008

Verso (Starry night) 2008

Shovel (sossego, copper mine) 2006

Double Mona Lisa after Warhol (peanut butter and jelly) 1999

www.vikmuniz.net/

www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/muniz_vik.php

www.renabranstengallery.com/muniz.html

Everything we see is simply an imitation of an imitation.[1]

Everything we see is simply an imitation of an imitation.[1]

During the Easter holidays I went and saw the film Mary and Max. The director, Adam Eliot has chosen to represent many real life issues (which we all recognize and can relate to) through clay animation. This film offers a commentary on real actions, morals and beliefs in a positive, humorous way. It provides a reflection of the world and how most of us feel, have felt or will feel, for instance- lonely and depressed. The wonderful thing Eliot has done is to give the audience hope by giving Mary and Max not happiness but strength through their friendship. This representation on social issues is a nice way of being honest without being painfully realistic.

[1] Eleanor Heartney, Art and Today. (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2008).

---

Art + Representation - Hermann Nitsch

(Image derived from google image search; http://slought.org/img/archive1/1264+press1.jpg)


I found Nitsch in a different chapter of Art and Today (see pg. 219), and felt his performance works fell into the "Art and Representation" category.

Nitsch is known primarily for his candid and gory depictions of cult-ish sacrifices and his subversive re-enactments of Christian and pagan rituals (including staged human crucifixions). While such works may seem purely created to shock on face value, Herman's works are part of a larger idea he first executed in the late 1950's*; to create and perform a Dionysian celebration of life integrating the body, spirit and the mind; not unlike a more tangible version of theatre. These large-scale works were part of what Hermann called the Orgien Mysterien Theater (Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries). The image above, however, (derived from the work 6 Tage Spiel - Das Orgien Mysterien Theater. Day 3: Day of Dionysus ), does not depict the less gory elements captured during the rest of the day's filming; grapes and tomatoes trampled in staged village wide celebrations; the above image instead suggesting life is definitively finite; his constant depictions of death have a distinct existentialist feel to them.

Working mimetically , Hermann's re-enactment of key historical events (the crucifixion, the Festival of Dionysus) is, in a performative overall sense; an accurate representation; capturing the almost ecstatic crowd sentimentality. However, the still and focalised documentation of Hermann's work as a copy becomes clear via small details; the modern glasses worn by the man on the right of the image above; the runners on the woman to the left, the crisp artificial white of their androgynous "costumes"...

While I can appreciate the concepts fuelling his works, personally, Hermann's works made me feel kind of nauseous.

*Hermann is still exhibiting today, thus, I would consider his work (despite having been produced prior to 1980) contemporary.

Review: Ricky Swallow - Art & Representation

Ricky Swallow is a contemporary Australian sculptor whose most recent work has been said to honor the realism of Baroque sculpture. Born in 1974 in San Remo, Victoria, his experiences growing up as the son of a fisherman have influenced his work and practice.

Swallow’s earlier works were created through methods of casting and injection molding, using resins to create exact copies objects. However his later work moves away from these new technologies and methods, returning to more traditional methods of woodcarving to create his realistic and representational sculptures. Swallow has said “carving it is learning it, casting it is just having it there again.” (Paton 2004)This statement provides some insight into the reasoning for this shift. Carving is a way for Swallow to connect with and learn the object he is creating, developing a dialogue with the sculpture and hence a language. This is also one of the reasons he began carving skulls, because everyone has one and yet we aren’t familiar with it as an object. His clever use of the skull can be seen in the work Come Together.

Many of his works consist of a variety of carved objects that hold some personal significance or memory. For example in his artwork Killing Time all of the objects have some significance, the creatures are all representations of the fish that as a child Swallow had caught.

The realism that is evident in his work plays a vital role in captivating his audience.  Eleanor Heartney poses the question “ Is mimesis really all about fostering visual trickery?” (Heartney 2008) in the case of Swallows work creating something realistic for the sole purpose of tricking the viewer is not his intention. Trickery however, has a role to play and is part of the initial attraction to Swallow’s work. For example his artwork Sleeping Range a part of the installation Tomorrow in Common was carved from laminated wood with impeccable detail. By combining this with the lighting in the space it gives the surface of the wood the luster of fabric, creating the illusion of a real sleeping bag even though it is clearly fashioned out of wood.  It is only after this initial trickery subsides that it becomes evident there are underlying themes of time, memory and loss being alluded to through this work.

Ricky Swallow has been successful in using representation to attract and connect with his audience.

Book References:

• Heartney, Eleanor. Art & Today. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2008.
• Parton, Justin. Ricky Swallow  Field Recordings. Victoria: Craftsman House, 2004.

Web References:

• www.rickyswallow.com

Images:

• Image 1: Come Together, 2002, laminated jelutong, 66 x 63.5 x 81 cm.
• Image 2: Killing Time, 2003-04, laminated jelutong, maple, 108 x 184 x 118 cm.
• Image 3: Sleeping Range, 2002, laminated jelutong, 198 x 71 x 20 cm.

( all images from www.rickyswallow.com/collections/view/sculpture )

 

 

Art & Representation

Interrogation Room (2008)

When researching “Art and Representation” I found that representation describes the signs that stand in for and take the place of something and this is why I chose the artist James Casebere. He constructs architectural settings or interiors (models) and photographs them. The subject of his artworks range from suburban interiors to institutional structures. These scenes are finely constructed to deceive the viewer into thinking that the image is real but he then places some unlikely elements to his works. Things such as the lighting or filling his scenes with water inevitably communicate to the viewer that the reality is improbable. I find it humorous how the simple addition of an unlikely element changes how the image is viewed and thus the representation has changed from something that is real to something fake.

Image taken from http://jamescasebere.com/group5.html

*non sequitur- NED KAHN*

Absolutely bursting with, rough inspiration from a jaunted holiday in Tasmania I had to share a surprise of honourary Tasmanian, Ned Kahn's work at my Brother in Laws office at the Dept of Meteorology which they are in a privileged position to own, even grander to have met the young artist.

The Tornado Machine is a platform housing a fog generator, there are four poles each containing fans that feed into, but counter rotate from, a large ceiling fan. The effect produces a vortex of simulated atmospheric conditions, thereby creating a tornado, indicated by the operation of the fog machine. Larger versions may operate without use of the fog machine, due to larger manipulated areas of complex pressures.

A spectacular artist, whose work, (even out of Blogger context) needs to be seen (being considered a genius and all, and as in Gaudi), the humble meanings and appreciation of his works, in fields and virtues of ecology and the environment, chaos theory and of course, specific meteorology, can be greatly extrapolated upon following the website link contained.

Non Sequitur- there was a distinct irony on the day of my particular visit having 174kph recorded winds, locally, in the storm that swept through on Tuesday Morning, Launceston is on the threshold of the roaring Forties in patterns eminating from a long empty ocean ring around that part of the globe and the wind it maintains.

http://www.nedkahn.com

TEXT BOOK ARTRAGE!!! Art and Today available in Hobart for $120!!!!!

Art and Representation- Hanne Darboven

Kulturgeschichte (cultural history) 1880-1983, 1980-83

After reading the art and today book i found the installation "kulturgeschichte" by Hanne Darboven really interesting. This artists use of materials and distinct sectioning used to create relationships seen in culture caught my attention. This work comments on reality and culture - reality through representation. An essay by lynne Cooke referred to the work as "Weaving together cultural, social, and historical references with autobiographical documents, it synthesizes the private with the social, and personal history with collective memory."
The detail and size of this work is fascinating, take a look at this link if you want to see more images also the essay i referred to is on the same website.

http://www.diaart.org/exhibs/darboven/kulturgeschichte.html