Installation Art - Essence and Existence

Zurbrugg, Nicholas. “Installation Art – Essence and Existence”. In What is Installation Art? An Anthology of writings on Australian Installation art, edited by Adam Geczy and Benjamin Genocchio, 25-31.

During this chapter Nicholas Zurbrugg draws upon traditional and contemporary theories of installation art. He allows the reader to understand and consider the aim of a successful installation and how it differs from other media, with reference to the origins and recent development of installation art.

Zurbrugg begins with a description of what he considers to constitute as installation art. “Artists install, inside, outside or around exhibition space” with use of three dimensions. In this way, Zurbrugg argues that installation art asserts a more “complex spatial impact” than other art forms. Zurbrugg then goes on to discuss the relative connection between the installation and the artist. He mentions that artists are usually attempting to redefine an exhibition space and therefore the “artist is their own curator” which touches on the basis for the intrigue (I believe) in installation art.

Zurbrugg then goes onto discuss the origins of installation explaining that it derives out of “futurism, Bauhaus, dada, surrealism and constructivism” also stating that “modernistic experimentation” defined the evolution and making of installation. He references several theoretical opinions, exhibitions and texts, and compares prominent avant-guard and contemporary artists such as John Cage to Duchamp which indicates the development and progression of installation since the 19th century.

Zurbrugg continues to elaborate on the interactive relationship between the viewer and the artists work. He finishes with mentioning that movement is possibly the “most rewarding type of installation” and as so the viewer mentally and physically becomes involved within the installation.

The chapter, Installation Art - Essence and Existence Zurbrugg successfully comprises a thorough explanation and investigation into the origins and theories of installation art. I found he argues many important elements in installation such as the connection between the artist and the space in which installation is constructed, as well as the connection between the audience and the installation through movement. Overall I found it a very interesting and direct review.

Critical Literature Review: Installation Art

Nicholas Zurbrugg begins the chapter Installation Art – Essence and Existence by tackling the difficult concept of installation art. He gives a very broad, loose definition of what classifies certain art as installation art. Installation art, by Zurbrugg’s definition tends to “extend beyond the picture frame” therefore “asserting a more complex spatial impact”. Thus installation works are redefined if not formed within the “institutional, commercial, domestic or public.. exhibition space” and the space becomes part of the work’s existence and essence, whereas forms of conventional art may be seen to proceed the exhibition space. Zurbrugg states that the “installation artist is their own curator” as they take control or yield to the exhibition area as they redefine the space.

Zurbrugg resists the common tendency to discuss the origins of installation art by redefining ancient art as examples of “primitive installations”. Instead he takes a refreshingly different view discussing installation art’s origin in terms of contemporary work’s reference to early twentieth- century avant-garde movements. Zurbrugg embarks on detailed comparisons of avant-garde movements and their prominent theorists and artists and the impact these movements had and still have on the development and conceptualisation of contemporary installation works. Interesting points are raised regarding certain art styles and their function. For example John Cage’s installations and performances function, in Zurbrugg’s opinion to widen critical concepts, by incorporating a large selection of sources and materials in specifically, his sound performances. His works are unpredictable and give a “sense of indeterminacy and unrepeatability”. This results in infinite interpretations as audience witness unique performances. Cage employs for example, the dadaist passion for “chance compositions” and the futurist’s “enthusiasm for technological creativity”.

Zurbrugg includes a range of theoretical opinions including artist Kurt Schwitters’s opinions on artistic value and Joseph Beuys ideas relating to “Duchamp’s indifference to aesthetic values”. Zurbrugg comes to the conclusion that a valid form of installation or installation-action relates to it’s relationship with the viewer. He suggests the most rewarding and successful installations “enact some sort of movement” from the viewer, whether it be physically walking around the work or a more “mental exertion”.

Zurbrugg takes a long winding journey through the twentieth century into the present. Not only does his investigation explore what characterises art as installation art in order to define the term, but also what makes an installation successful and engaging to an audience.

Zurbrugg, Nicholas. “Installation Art – Essence and Existence.” In What is Installation Art? An Anthology of writings on Australian Installation art, edited by Adam Geczy and Benjamin Genocchio, 25-31. Sydney: Power Publications, 2001.

Installation Art- Essence and Existence

The Nicholas Zurbrugg chapter: Installation art- Essence and Existence aims to highlight how installation art has changed and developed over time. Nicholas Zubrugg presents almost a paradoxical look at contemporary and traditional installation . He allows the reader to question what is their perspective of a valid installation and makes suggestions in regards to this. Zubrugg makes it clear though that installations inaugurate an interactive relationship between the viewer and the artists work.

The chapter begins with a focus on installation space and how it is used. I noted there was then a sudden shift in the writers perception of the space dictating art. I found this jump too sudden and became quite confused. It is then closely followed by a letter to Nancy Underhill stating that “If one chose to open the door, the illusion collapsed suddenly into a world of objects”- p 24
I was intrigued by this quote as it brought up a key component in installation, being that the audience has the choice to accept the illusion or to potentially destroy it.

In the chapter, Zubrugg holds a great focus on the space an installation is held. This is made quite clear when he states: “Its existence as an installation responding to a particular spatial or environmental context determines its specific aesthetic essence as installation art. p 26

Zubrugg considers the origins of different kinds of contemporary installation art and shows the evolution of installation. He makes relevant links between avant-guarde and contemporary artists showing the growth of installation and what it has developed into. Prominent artists from both periods are mentioned. The contemporary artist John Cage stands out as Zubrugg uses him to put forward the idea of contemporary installation involving more kinetic movement. This literal action involves the audience not only physically but mentally. This idea is contrasted to traditional artists such as Duchamp, who he rightly names second hand artists, who use the essential incarnation as installation. He makes the point that these installations evoke actions in figurative circumstances.
He also notes that there is something “unsatisfactory about installations which simply exploit a kind of second-hand Duchampian shock value”.- p 30 This quote emphasises the growth of installation since the 19th century.

The chapter, Installation Art- Essence and Existence highlights the importance of not only the installation space but the importance of the viewer. The whole chapter works together well in the respect of contrasting the difference of contemporary installation and traditional. Although the beginning of the article seems to be disjointed, it inevitably enhanced my understanding of the development of installation.

Reference: Zurbrugg, Nicholas, Installation Art- essence and existence, What is insallation? An anthology of writings on Australian installation art/ ed by Adam Geczy and Benjamin Genocchio. Sydney: Power publications, 2001 p 25-31

Installation Art - Nicholas Zurbrugg

Zurbrugg, Nicholas. “Installation Art – Essence and Existence”. In What is Installation Art? An Anthology of writings on Australian Installation art, edited by Adam Geczy and Benjamin Genocchio, 25-31. Sydney: Power Publications, 2001.

In this chapter Zurbrugg discusses the origins and developments of what we now know to be Installation art. It is through this discourse that he attempts to not only define installation art but also discover what constitutes a successful and interesting installation.

Zurbrugg begins by suggesting that Postmodern Installation art is possibly the most interesting form of innovative art, in the sense that not only does it ‘widen the language of creativity’ but also pushes and challenges the preconceptions about art. I feel through his exploration of early installation art and the connections made to the avant-garde movements of futurism, dada, and surrealism that the artists involved in these movements did exactly that. Zurbrugg includes many references to past exhibitions that have made an impact by challenging ones notions of what art is as well as important literature throughout the chapter, enhancing and making his argument more credible.

Zurbrugg references more contemporary artists’ work to highlight the connection with the avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century. One example of how he has done this successfully is in his discussion of the work of John Cage. Zurbrugg not only convinces you that Cage’s work does what he suggests installation art should, ‘widen critical concepts’, but he also concludes that Cage’s performance installations ‘synthesise both the futurist artists’ and Bauhaus artists’ enthusiasm for technological creativity, and the Dadaist artists’ enthusiasm for chance compositions employing any and every kind of material available to the artist.’

One of the most interesting points made by Zurbrugg in this chapter is his suggestion that when considering installation art ‘existence determines essence’. He states ‘ Its existence as an installation responding to a particular spatial or environmental context determines its specific aesthetic essence as Installation Art.’ I feel there is a connection made with this idea when he suggests further on in the chapter that the artist of an installation work is not only an artist, but also a curator. I think it is through this idea that he has addressed one of the most prominent features of Installation Art, and in doing so has begun to develop an outline of what is considered to be Installation Art.

Zurbrugg concludes that the most interesting and successful Installation Art always, in his opinion, involve movement of some sort whether it be physical or across ‘material or metaphysical space’. I think that this is true of any successful piece of art. I feel that through this chapter Zurbrugg has presented his opinions and ideas about Installation art and its origins in a scholarly manner, backing up all of his arguments with references to many important texts, exhibitions and artists to successfully clarify his point of view. I found the article very interesting and it provided me with more of an insight into the origins of Installation Art. I did feel however, that even though he provided some differing opinions in his argument, there could have been more of a discussion of such views.

Zurbrugg and Installation

Zurbrugg begins by explaining what Installation Art is. He says "the most common feature is the use of three-dimensional space”p25. “Its characteristics being to install, outside or around the exhibition space”p25. “ Installation Art materials range from static, dynamic and interactive combinations of organic, graphic, typographic, plastic, sonic, kinetic, photographic, filmic, videomatic, telematic, cybernetic and virtual representation of everything from material, physical, environmental and mechanical realities, to evocation of conceptual, theoretical, spiritual and metaphysical experience” p25. Finishing his introduction with his title’s meaning. “That its physical existence as an Installation responding to a particular spatial or environmental context determines it specific aesthetic essence as Installation Art” p26.
Zurbrugg now suggests where Installation Art derived from and its future movement from there. “ Installation Art in terms of the early twentieth-century avant-garde movement, such as futurism, the Bauhaus experiments, dada, surrealism and constructivism” p26. And Installation Arts development from modernism to postmodernism. Giving evidence of this with example Artists that work with this medium. Zurbrugg finishes with explaining why society enjoys Installation Art and why it is different from the rest. “Postmodernism Installation challenges and extends our preconceptions regarding arts material, conceptual, institutional and authorial parameters” p25. And quotes French Surrealist Poet Arragon, “ The most positive forms of postmodern art realise and revolutionise what the most positive modernists ‘dreamed’ that art might become, ‘after us, beyond us” p26. In his conclusion Zurbrugg says, “The most rewarding installations are perhaps those which imply or enact some sort of movement”p31.
I think Zurbrugg explains clearly what Installation Art is. He goes into great detail of what it entails and how to accomplish it. He includes the basics like materials, characteristics, examples, movements and history of Installation Art. And concludes with the reason why we find it so intriguing. I agree with everything Zurbrugg says, although I thought he could have said more about why Installation art is different from other practices.

Source: Zurbrugg, Nicholas, Installation Art- essence and existence, What is insallation? An anthology of writings on Australian installation art/ ed by Adam Geczy and Benjamin Genocchio. Sydney: Power Publications, 2001. pp. 25-31.

hi amanda,

i was away when we received the article we have to review, so would it be possible for you to post it on the blog for me?

thanks

Writing Guidlines: Crtitcal Review for TUE 11th AUG

It is understandably rather daunting, arriving at university and being expected to 'know' the formats/requirements etc. for academic styles of writing. At tertiary level it is expected that students spend a certain amount of time, outside of class, learning such skills - unless you are enrolled in a writing related course of study essay and these skills fall within the course structure.

It is therefore up to the student to explore and seek out the most appropriate options available for assistance in this area. As I mentioned in our first class back - there are a number of websites to assist with Academic Styles of Writing and Learning - in addition I provided a link to the USYD writing site in your SEM1 & SEM2 course outline.

Here are the links again:

http://writesite.elearn.usyd.edu.au/

http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/arthistory/essay_guide.shtml


>>> The site below includes a helpful section on 'What makes a good review' (it should be noted however this article uses APA system referencing not Chicago - within the Faculty of Visual Arts at USYD you are asked to use Chicago - follow this PDF: http://library.curtin.edu.au/research_and_information_skills/referencing/chicago.pdf )

http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/index.xml


To reiterate - your task for the coming week is:

• Write a critical review of the Nicholas Zurbrugg chapter: Installation art – essence and existence from What is installation? An anthology of writings on Australian installation art /edited by Adam Geczy and Benjamin Genocchio. Sydney : Power Publications, 2001. pp. 25—31
• In your review you should summarise the chapter then evaluate it.
• Approx 500 words
• Post by TUE 11th AUG

I look forward to reading your posts and discussing them in the following class.

PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO ASK ME FURTHER QUESTIONS - I am more than happy to help!

Cheers, A.

Art and the Body- Norman Lindsay

I know Norman Lindsay is by no means a contemporary artist but i could not resist blogging about him, seeing as i live and work so close to his magnificent residence!
Lindsay was originally born in 1879 and died in 1969. He is widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest artists, producing a vast body of work in different media, including pen drawing, etching, watercolour, oil and sculptures in concrete and bronze.

A large amount of his work is housed in his former home at Faulconbridge, NSW, (right down the road from where i work), and is now known as the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum. Many works reside in private and corporate collections. His art continues to climb in value today. In 2002, a record price was attained by his oil painting, Spring's Innocence, which sold to the National Gallery of Victoria for $AU333,900.

Lindsay was intrigued with the human body, especially the womans physique. Many of his sculptures and paintings were simply of naked women sprawled out in lush, green gardens, inevitably depicting his male fantasies. Heartney quotes in Art and Today the writings of John Berger "Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at." Further down in the article it is noted that the subject of traditional paintings of the female nude, tend to be arranged in poses that accentuate their accessibility to the unseen and presumably the male viewer. By extension then, the female nude has become one of western art's most popular subjects because it flatters men by reinforcing their dominance while relegating women to the rule of fantasy objects. This perception is made highly evident through Lindsay's art.

In 1902 he met Rose Soady and she would become his second wife, his most recognizable model, his business manager, and the printer for most of his etchings.

His frank and sumptuous nudes were highly controversial for the times. In 1940, Rose took 16 crates of paintings, drawings and etchings to the U.S. to protect them from the nascent war. Unfortunately they were discovered when the train they tra men by reinforcing tvelled in caught fire, they were then impounded and burned as pornography by American officials.

Though his works can be seen as sexist, he still managed to produce beautiful sculptures, paintings and etchings that not only show insight into the male perspective but depict the human body in all its glory! I highly suggest that when you visit the mountains, you take the time to go to the gallery. Its truly beautiful art and the grounds on which it resides are astounding.

Australian Film, TV and Radio School, presents Friday on My Mind

FRIDAY ON MY MIND
Friday 31 July
5pm (free- no booking required)
Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park (Next to Hoyts)

This Friday, MCA Director, Liz Ann Macgregor conducts a talk on contemporary installation practice and how art can be integrated into the "urban experience".

This could be very insightful.

WE ARE BACK IN ACTION

Louisa Bufardeci

Coming soon to the MCA is a fascinating artist, Louisa Bufardeci. Her works have previously involved the supplanting of statistical information, in place of geographical measurement, what the map of the earth would look like if GDP ruled the world. Oscillations are often a theme and her work features alot of tapestry.

From http://www.Louisa Bufardeci.net -Regarding the MCA piece, pictured, Team Joy (2004):

"In the piece, almost two hundred sticks appear to support two walls that may either be falling down or in the process of construction. Each stick represents an international organisation with its length determined by the number of that organisation's member countries. Every country has a unique colour which is illustrated in the key painted on the walls."

This was a collaborated work with the supporting efforts of, "other artists included: Ingrid Book and Carina Hedn, Christian Capurro, Emily Floyd, Alban Hajdinaj, Nora Martirosyan, Chad McCail, Martin McInerney, Callum Morton, Raquel Ormella, Pia Rnicke, Katya Sander, Tony Schwensen, Dmitry Vilensky, Danielle van Vree, Guan Wei, Kan Xuan and Carey Young"

Exhibition also featuring similarly embroidered, political and also statistical works from Zon Ito, is opening on 28 July 2009.

Euromaxx

Euromaxx

TVS- Channel 31 at 6 pm presents daily, a show from Germany (in English) called Euromaxx, a great show focused heavily on Art. It features Artist interviews, recognized tours of museums and other relevant and surprisingly with a modern context to the stuff. I have stayed up to date with the Biennale, and learned about few more Artists with an international, and seemingly academic perspective. It's not focused on German affairs per say, but is a slickly designed public broadcast service seemingly distributed everywhere, below is the web address where you'll be tempted with free podcasts.

Euromaxx 6pm daily Channel TVS- 31

http://www.dw-world.de

Also, thru my internet provider I have also been offered a link to Stanford University text bank- where for a small fee you can download profound journal texts, documents or entire books in PDF format.

http://highwire.stanford.edu

film:Séraphine

Séraphine is the story of Séraphine Louis aka Séraphine de Senlis (Yolande Moreau), a simple and profoundly devout housekeeper who in 1905 at age 41, self-taught and with the instigation of her guardian angel began painting brilliantly colorful canvases. In 1912 Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), a German art critic and collector - he was one of the first collectors of Picasso and champion of naïve primitive painter Le Douanier Rousseau - discovered her paintings while she worked for him as a maid in his house in Senlis outside Paris. A moving and unexpected relationship develops between the avant-garde art dealer and the visionary cleaning lady leading to Séraphine’s work being grouped with other naïve painters – the so-called “Sacred Heart Painters” - with acclaimed shows in France, elsewhere in Europe and eventually at New York’s MOMA . Martin Provost’s poignant portrait of this now largely forgotten painter is a testament to the mysteries of creativity and the resilience of one woman’s spirit.

Film: Herb and Dorothy

HERB & DOROTHY tells the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, Herb and Dorothy Vogel quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb’s salary to purchase art they liked, and living on Dorothy’s paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists including Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner. After thirty years of meticulous collecting and buying, the Vogels managed to accumulate over 2,000 pieces, filling every corner of their tiny one bedroom apartment. “Not even a toothpick could be squeezed into the apartment,” recalls Dorothy. In 1992, the Vogels decided to move their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The vast majority of their collection was given as a gift to the institution. Many of the works they acquired appreciated so significantly over the years that their collection today is worth millions of dollars. Still, the Vogels never sold a single piece. Today Herb and Dorothy still live in the same apartment in New York with 19 turtles, lots of fish, and one cat. They’ve refilled it with piles of new art they’ve acquired.

Chicago Referencing Website

Hey guys, this website is excellent backup for more complicated references; referncing forewords, reprints, translations etc etc:


http://myrin.ursinus.edu/help/resrch_guides/cit_style_chicago.htm

Art and deformation- Annette Messager

Annette MESSAGER
2004
Articulés - Desarticulé

Annette MESSAGER
1993-94
sewn and stuffed fabric elements, angora wool, eight lights

After looking through the artists discussed in art and today i found the work of Annette Messager really interesting mainly due to the variety of media she employs. As seen through the image below the way she presents her works in the gallery space is amazing. She relates to many of the ideas discussed by Eleanor Heartney in relation to art and deformation.

Marc Quinn. Deformity

YBA, Marc Quinn dissolves the bodies logic in work that examines the nature as stranger- than- fiction, and distortions of the artists self, of underexamined disability and provocativeness among members of celebrity. The long time rampant, Kate Moss, has proved subject in multiplicity . "There is fear and fascination, the body (of the ego) and the (sexual) object are completely absorbed in it1."

Drawing from the mythological, the works present the uncanny, the borderline, "passable in both directions by pleasure and pain2".

Marc Quinn is notorious for a bust constructed from his own frozen blood.

1. Julia Kristeva, "Something to be Scared Of", in Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection(New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), 45
2. Julia Kristeva, "From Filth to Defilement" in Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection(New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), 61

WIN $10,000

For those of you who have made work for the recent assessment that falls into the competition criteria - LISTEN UP:

Call for entries: 1 May - 14 August 2009  Woollahra Small Sculpture  2009 Prize

http://sculptureprize.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/home

AMAZING! Miniature sculptures.

Willard Wigan

Willard Wigan is my new hero! I was at the pub last night and one of my (boring science) friends told me about this artist who makes TRUELY small sculpture. Wigam makes artworks that sell for six figures a pop and most of it has to be viewed through a microscope. Not only does he sculpt from grains of sand but he also paints them with the hairs from flies!

Please look at the footage. You won't believe your eyes.

LOOK AT THIS FIRST!!!!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYOfoqWUZUw

http://www.willard-wigan.com/

Art & Deformation

Kiki Smith

KiKi Smith is an American artist from New York who began sculpting in the late 1970s. Her art focuses on the body yet permeates political significance, for although associated with feminism she is also known to accentuate issues such as aids, race and violence within her work.
Exposing the inner biological system as a depiction of concealed social issues, Smith’s earlier works explored the body's forms and functions whilst focusing on concepts such as birth, regeneration, and sustenance that are reoccurring motifs in her art.

"Born"2002

Kiki's bronze sculpture "Born" moves beyond the body to address the issue of man versus nature and the conjecture of regeneration. As the dear traditionally represents renewal and rebirth in some European cultures, contemporary society find the work confronting and unnatural. The classical material of bronze juxtaposed with the subject, a representation of a small deer giving birth to a life size women generates and exacerbates expectations.

“Getting the bird out” is another bronze sculpture that generated from a dream Kiki had about mouth emissions. The severed head is a replica of the artists that has been diminished two sizes smaller. A rope is attached from a bronze bird corpse to the mouth of the head. The concept behind the work is that of restoration of the soul and spirits inhabiting the body.

Untitled 1988 is a photograph taken by Smith before she broke into sculpture. The image of a woman biting her arm in an attempt of self mutilation is equally compelling as it is shocking. The use of lighting within the piece contrasts the subject as the soft blues and deep shadows give an ethereal feel, adding to the dual aspects of vulnerability and strength.

The deformation of the body is both compelling and confronting, when Kiki was asked why she based her art on the human body she replied
“I chose it as a subject because it’s the one thing we all share.”

Art & Deformation - Eva Hesse

Eva Hesse, Several (1965)

Papier-maché, acrylic, over rubber hose, 7' long

Having read the chapter on art and deformation, it seemed that much of the work discussed dealt with the abject. Several is a work by Eva Hesse (OH&S poster child), who is one of my favourite minimalist sculptors. Several, which is made of papier-mache and acrylic paint layered over rubber hose, touches on the themes of deformation and the abject, with a simplicity and subtlety that is perhaps more effective than some more "outspoken" works. Hesse had a knack for for infusing minimalism with a human element that was never sentimental or mawkish. It's humorous but it's not trivial. It's simple but not simplistic. I think the title is quite perfect.

Art and Deformation: Magdalena Abakanowicz

2002

1990

I found the work of Magdalena Abakanowicz who is included in the chapter in art and today fascinating, especially how over the years her figures have evolved to become more human like and familiar. Heartney says "their apparent inhumanity has become leavened with a sense of vulnerablility". I just thought it was interesting how as the figures have gradually become more human-like the audience has begun to feel sorry for them and recognise vulnerablitlty instead of dislike and fear. i guess its the old "fear of the unknown".

http://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/

Art & Deformation. Stelarc

Im not sure if any of you saw stelarc on the news a few weeks back but he was something of a mad scientist, talking about his third ear which he has had surgically grafted onto his arm. Which he confirmed with a cackling laugh and frizzy (i've just be zapped by electricity) hair. A great character and one of my favorite artists. nether the less. His Third Ear i thought was a perfect example of Defomation of the human body. espeshally because he is trying to get it to become a working extremity(mad i told you). no matter which way you look at it i think its marvellous and fits right into this topic. the implant he had made is disolvable and gets slowly replaced by skin as the body breaks it down around the shape of the implant. pretty mad stuff.

Art, nature, technology and one thousand trees

Eleanor Heartney, in Art, Nature and Technology - Art and Today, refers to the artist Natalie Jeremijenko and the ways in which she utilizes her knowledge of science to create aesthetically pleasing yet puzzling works of art.  Jeremijenko's works are the coalescene of art and ecology, her artistic practice is based around the notion of "creating interfaces that draw people into the environment and get them to reimagine collective action."[1] 

French Phenomenological Philosoper Maurice Merleau-ponty writes that "the relationship between things or between the aspects of things [are] being always mediated by our bodies, the whole of nature is the mise en scéne (production) of our own life.."[2]. Much like Heidegger he discusses ideas that the body - the being, is constantly interconnected with the external world and that our perception plays an important role in our understanding and engagment with the world. 

Like nature and life, art is the manifestation of grand organization of processes and transformations in time. Technology and science has come exhaustingly far in the past 20 years, and with it our understanding of nature and the world of which we inhabit. Jeremijenko's works play heavily on our perception of science, nature and technology and relationship they have with each other and us - as bodies, people, society.

Natalie Jeremijenko, One Trees, 2000

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/one-trees/images/3/

Her work One Trees (2000) involves the cloning and distribution of 1000 trees throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, the work is set to exemplify what we do - or don't know, about genetic engeneering. The work is a public project and Jeremijenko actively encourages people to participate in the documentation of the natural differences that occur in the 'identical' trees as they grow. 

Natalie Jeremijenko, One Trees, 2000
Location Castro Valley, San Francisco 

In this work she delineates the complexities of genetics' and their interaction with environmental influences, presenting the experiment and results as a public work and survey for debate regarding these current issues.

Sorry the images are poor - troubles, troubles and the internet that evades me. 

Also this is a link to her X Clinic - The Environmental health Clinic and Lab. 

http://www.environmentalhealthclinic.net 

[1] Berger, Kevin."The artist as mad scientist"( 2006) http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2006/06/22/natalie/

[2] Benthal, Jonathan. Science and Technology in Art Today: Art and Ecology. Norwich: Thames and Hudson, 1972. - secondary reference.

Art and Deformation – Jake and Dinos Chapman

Jake and Dinos Chapman, are brothers who’ve worked together since they graduated, using deformation to explore issues of contemporary politics, religion and morality. The Chapman brothers have often used plastic models or fibreglass mannequins of people. They are draftsman, engravers, model-makers and wood carvers. They carry out an ‘anatomical and pornographic grotesque’ theme, using black humour. Hell (1999-2000) is an enormous photo in the shape of a swastika with over five thousand miniature Nazi figures acting the roles of victims and executioners in a scene of death and destruction.

A performance by Germaine Greer

I remember reading a chapter from The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer about a performance she did symbolising feminist perspective. The Female Eunuch argues that women do not realise how much men hate them, and how much they are taught to hate themselves. Greer is a famous Australian feminist and an academic who placed her vagina on display for anyone to come and observe. She did this (in very basic terms) to make a point that a vagina isn’t a mysterious, sexy, playboy toy for men to use but an ordinary body part like any other. Greer has made her vagina a strangely distorted figural sculpture. This doesn’t make men horny, for them this performance was grotesque, carnivalesque, a site of abjection and informe. Greer said, "Women have somehow been separated from their libido, from their faculty of desire, from their sexuality. They've become suspicious about it. Like beasts, for example, who are castrated in farming in order to serve their master's ulterior motives — to be fattened or made docile — women have been cut off from their capacity for action. It's a process that sacrifices vigour for delicacy and succulence, and one that's got to be changed."

Art & Deformation - Hans Bellmer

Hans Bellmer, was a German born French surrealist. He made hundreds of photographed dolls made in the early 1930's as part of a protest against Germany's Nazi regime, and in part out of an expression of erotic feelings. Eleanor Hearney says Bellmer "Manipulated life-sized pubescent dolls... disremembered, fragmented and sexualised images of the females body". Represented by mutated forms and unconventional poses, his dolls were directed specifically at the cult of the perfect body then prominent in Germany, as seen in the images below. I consider “La Poupee” (Doll) extremely relevant when discussing deformation as it has an impressive aesthetic lineage and contains a perverse nature.

Hans Bellmer,

La Poupee (Doll),

1935; Paris

Art & Deformation: MARINA ABRAMOVIC

 

Abramovic, Marina. Rythm 10(1973). Performance 1 hour. Performed at the Edinburgh Festival. Image reproduced from blog, http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/assets/img/data/69/bild.jpg (accessed May 25, 2009).

 

 

Abramovic, Marina. Rhythm 0, 1974. Performance/mixed media, various dimensions. Performed 

at Studio Morra, Naples. Reproduced from Art Art Art Gallery, 

http://www.artartartgallery.com/newsitefive/files/u1/LIVE%20ART%20IMAGES/Women%20in%20Performance%20image%201%20Rythmn%200.jpg

(accessed May 19, 2009).

 

Abramovic, Marina. Thomas lips, 1975. Performance/mixed media, various dimensions.

Performed at Krinzinger Gallery 1975 and again at the Guggenheim (New York) in 2005. 

Reproduced from Seven Easy Pieces, http://www.seveneasypieces.com/images/545_MA-

Thomas_Lips.jpg (Accessed May 19, 2009).

 

There are many artworks and artists that could come under the topic “Art and Deformation”. Deformation could refer to deformation of culture, of the physical environment, of the body, of an artwork, deformation of an object and many more things.

 I have chosen to focus on the artist Marina Abramovic for this topic. I immediately thought of her after I’d chosen the topic although I didn’t know much about her. It has been interesting reading about her.

Marina Abramovic is a performance artist. Her work is often very confronting and involves using her body as an art form.  She attempts to unite the spirit with the body, testing herself mentally and physically. She often puts herself through immense pain in order to do this. Which is in a sense deformation of the body as well as of cultural and social norms.

Abramovic was born into the generation of artists which felt, after world war two, that art needed to be moved closer to life. After the immense struggle people had gone through it seemed wrong to flounder around with representation and simulation and artists wanted to put themselves on the line instead. This generation thought that somehow absorbing life into art, or merging the two, might "restore the sanity that modernism was seen a having lost"*. 

Abramovic uses her own physical pain in her work as a metaphor for pain (emotional and physical) in society & the world. When viewing her work the audience is confronted by suffering which, if looked at in a broader sense, is similar to suffering which occurs in the world we live in on a daily basis. We are forced to question our core values and beliefs as well as issues such as politics, sexism, culture, religion, war and violence.

*Thomas McEvilley. The Triumph of Anti-Art: Conceptual and Performance Art in the Formation of Post Modernism. (New York: McPherson & Company Publishers), 313.

(Sorry about the text I couldn't get rid of the underlining etc it is very annoying!)

Art & Deformation - Magdalena Abakanowicz

Agora, 2005-2006

Osiol

Magdalena Abakanowicz uses deformation in her sculptural works to convey feelings of alienation that she experienced as a child. She creates figures from materials such as bronze, burlap and more recently iron, fragmented and distorted they almost look like mummified bodies. Some are headless or missing limbs , even merged with animals, for example her work 'Osiol' merges a human figure with a distorted, featureless donkey head. It is clear then that her work involves and focuses on the deformation of the human body.

images from: http://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/

Art & Deformation – Paul McCarthy

Cakebox (detail, from Caribbean Pirates), 2001—2005

In collaboration with Damon McCarthy

Installation view, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2005

 

Jack, 2002

Silicone (Dildo), wood and steel 

This prankster artist, makes art that is confronting and sometimes uncomfortable to view. His artworks bulldoze the senses (and the stomach), and take the form of mostly sculpture and video.  He explores the human body and its limitations with a crude corruption and deformation. Some of his artworks are the visual equivalent of a bloodied bullet wound. Even though I find some of his artworks make me feel rather queasy, this queasiness has a powerful effect that forces you to remember the artwork; and remember that we are so fragile.