Semester 2 - Week 6 - last blog Barbara Kruger

American conceptual/pop artist Barbara Kruger is internationally renowned for her signature black, white and red poster-style works of art that convey in-your-face messages on women's rights and issues of power. Coming out of the magazine publishing industry, Kruger knows precisely how to capture the viewer's attention with her bold and witty photomurals displayed on billboards, bus stops and public transportation as well as in major museums and galleries word wide. She has edited books on cultural theory, including Remaking History for the Dia Foundation, and has published articles in the New York Times, Artforum, and other periodicals. Monographs on her work include Love for Sale, We Won't Play Nature to Your Culture and others. She is represented in New York by Mary Boone Gallery. A major exhibition of her work will be presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in fall 1999, and at the Whitney Museum in New York in 2000.

Research Kruger's work to find an example from the 1970s or 1980s to compare with a more recent work. How has Kruger's work changed with the developments in contemporary visual arts? Describe a recent work that moves away from the 'poster' type work of her early career.
Find 2-3 works by Kruger to add to your blog.

 

How does the audience experience a more spatial, installation art work compared with a poster?
When the audience is viewing a spatial or installation work, they a placed in a position where they can possibly interact with the work giving them a chance to be in the art work, leaving them with a memory of the art work, creating a lasting impression in there minds. This is more effective than a poster because, rather than a design on a poster, although posters can have an impact on the public, it depends on the place it is displayed, for instance, an installation work can be placed almost anywhere in the world, where as a poster must be placed onto something, like a billboard, street wall, bus stop etc. The installation works have the upper hand when it comes to choosing the location, which in turn allows them to create something near the public.


What elements does Kruger use in her work to create a strong impact?
The elements that Kruger uses are bold lettering the consistency of black and white imagery throughout her years of work as an artist, she also incorporates red into allot of her works; “a characteristic sign, and one which has not changed substantially over the last twenty years”. The use of red lettering in only some instances is very eye grabbing, it grabs our attention as the only colour on the work, and a very vibrant one at that, the use of a single colour in a black and white image brings our attention to the reason why that one colour has been used over all others.



Comment on the development of her work over the last 30 years.

Barbara Kruger was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1945 and left there in 1964 to attend Syracuse University. Early on she developed an interest in graphic design, poetry, writing and attended poetry readings, her earliest works are dated to 1969 these were large works of yarn, beads, sequins, feathers and ribbons. In the fall of 1976, Kruger had abandoned her art making and moved to Berkeley, California, where she taught at the University of California for four years and steeped herself in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes.



In 1977 she began producing a series of black-and-white details of architectural exteriors paired with her own textual ruminations on the lives of the people living inside. Published as an artist’s book, Picture/Readings (1979) foreshadows the aesthetic vocabulary Kruger developed in her mature work.

By 1979 Barbara Kruger had stopped taking photographs and she began to incorporate already existing images in her art, mostly from mid-century American print-media sources, she then coll aged words directly over them.

During the early 1980s Barbara Kruger perfected a signature agitprop style, using cropped, large-scale, black-and-white photographic images juxtaposed with raucous, pithy, and often ironic aphorisms, printed in Futura Bold typeface against black, white, or deep red text bars. The inclusion of personal pronouns in works like Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face) (1981) and Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am) (1987) implicates viewers by confounding any clear notion of who is speaking.

Most recently Barbara Kruger has extended her aesthetic project, creating public installations of her work in galleries, museums, municipal buildings, train stations, and parks, as well as on buses and billboards around the world. Walls, floors, and ceilings are covered with images and texts, which have the viewer right up with the works, she covers the entire gallery in her designs. Giving the viewer no choice but to look at her work. (very sneaky =P)

I think her works have changed allot through the years, they have gone from being self taken photographs with lettering placed onto them, to recreated images with more meaning than the original images. She helps the viewer understand more about the world and its issues. Her works are very persuasive.

(http://www.artmarketmonitor.com/2010/08/29/a-short-history-of-barbara-kruger/)
(http://swindlemagazine.com/issueicons/barbara-kruger/)

Semester 2 - Week 5 - Kehinde Wiley

Last weeks ALVC class focused on the Post Modern them "INTERTEXTUALITY", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 44 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley. How do we make sense of his Kehinde's work? Identify intertextuality in Kehinde's work?
Kehinde's work relates to this weeks Post Modern theme "PLURALISM" re-read page 50 and discuss how the work relates to this theme?
Kehinde's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview.
Information on specific paintings was difficult to obtain however Matt has the info for the last 2 paintings.

3. Kehinde Wiley Count Potocki, 2008 oil on canvas, 274.3 x 274.3cm

4. Kehinde Wiley Support Army and Look after People, 2007 oil on canvas, 258.4 x 227.3cm

I think Kehinde's works are almost a clash between medieval and the modern day iconic hip hop look, also i think his works are very busy, almost cluttered, this is because of the background and the figures becoming one image, making it difficult to look at for long periods.Kehinde's works relate are shown with Pluralism as his works incorporates the diversity of ethnicity's, economic status, religions and ideologies, the work takes a 'what if' role as Black men are portrayed as an renaissance upper class men, which was not the type of thing you would see back then.

Kehinde Wiley was born in Los Angeles, California in 1977, he is a New York based painter who is known for his paintings of contemporary urban African American men in poses taken from the various parts of art history, so its almost as if he is bringing back the past so it is not lost or forgotten by the world, His painting style has been compared to that of such traditional portraitists as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian and Ingres.
Kehinde's works are based on photographs of young men. Most of these paintings are of men that Wiley has met himself out on the streets, this all began last year with men being mostly from Harlem’s 125th Street, one of Americas many well known neighbourhoods for its crime and its current economic status, the series now includes models from the South Central the neighborhood where he was born. These Paintings are of men dressed in street clothes similar to what you would see in a rap video, the men are asked to pose from the paintings of the Renaissance masters, such as Titian and Tiepolo. he also brings in a feminine style to his paintings by adding the floral Victorian designs in the background, this and the vibrant colours bring the image to life.

Semester 2 - Week 4 - Anish Kapoor

Celebrated for his gigantic, stainless steel 'Cloud Gate' sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park, Anish Kapoor is changing the cultural environment with his public works.




1.Research Kapoor's work in order to discuss the ideas behind 3 quite different works from countries outside New Zealand.

svayambh

‘Svayambh’ is a Sanskrit word, meaning something that is “created out of itself”. Anish Kapoor got together with Aerotrope as consulting engineers in creating this amazing piece of work ‘Svayambh’, this piece is only one of his series of artworks using wax, some get more complex than this one. Anish Kapoor’s vision for the project was to create an installation where the final form and texture of the wax would be shaped by the motion of a mechanically driven object. It was decided that this movement was required to be barely visible both visually and audibly, whilst both sculpting and moving the large mass of wax through the gallery space

Drip (2008)

Part of Mr. Kapoor's passion for red, the most passionate of colors, is certainly evident in Boston, but it dominates his show at the Gladstone Gallery’s flagship space on West 24th Streetinstalation is the work 'Drip' Kapoor's works focus around the metallic red interiors and exteriors. This large tear-shaped wall piece titled 'Drip' in metallic red, implies both blood and another abstract pregnancy.

'Cloud Gate' (2004)

Mr. Kapoor has managed to surpass many of his ancestors in the widely growing popularity of his art and the ways its confusing yet elegant puzzled sculptures, open up the subtly to deeper forms of thought. Kapoor’s wildly popular 'Cloud Gate' an enormous, shiny, ok so too me this looks alot like a giant bean mysteriously balancing on both ends, not a 'cloud gate' as it is titled, Kapoor's design for this piece was inspired by liquid mercury and the sculpture's surface reflects and distorts the city's skyline at Millennium Park in Chicago.

2.Discuss the large scale site specific work that has been installed on a private site in New Zealand.

Anish Kapoor 'The Farm'

(2003-2008)

This is Anish Kapoor's amazing, 84m-long, twisted red cone. It cuts through a ridge like some celestial megaphone but being made of red polyester fabric and steel it holds no other similarity/likeness of materials to one. This piece is is located here in New Zealand in the Kaipara Bay just north of Auckland, It is designed to reflect and twist the images of the surrounding landscape and to withstand the high winds that blow in from the Tasman Sea. It is made of red polyester fabric and steel.



3. Where is the Kapoor's work in New Zealand? What are its form and materials? What are the ideas behind the work?

As previously stated, the work is located in New Zealand in the Kaipara Bay just north of Auckland, this work was designed to cause the viewer to question certain factors of what they already know, the viewers perception of space, time and reality.



4. Comment on which work by Kapoor is your favourite, and why.
My favourite of his works is 'The Sea mirror' essentially because of the idea that something could be two different things at one instance, he has done something similar, if you are staring out into the ocean and then you turn around seeing the same image but the wave is towering over you, this would be quite a shock if you did not know of the effect before hand. The wave is taking two different forms but the truth is they are still one image.

Sea Mirror 2005

Youtube has some excellent footage on Kapoor-take a look at Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy!!

Semester 2 - Week 3 - The Walters Prize 2010

This week we will be visiting the Auckland Art Gallery to view, research and write about the artists selected for the Walters Prize 2010. Discuss the work in the gallery with your tutors and other students and answer the following questions.







1. What is the background to the Walters Prize?

The Walter's Prize was named in honor to the later New Zealand artist Gordon Walter's. The prize itself was established in 2002, by founding benefactors and principal donors Erika and Robin Congreve and Darne Jenny Gibbs, working together with the Auckland Art Gallery. Gallery Patron Dayle Mace provides additional support to the artists for their participation in the Walter's Prize Exhibition. The Walter's prize winner is to receive $50,000.





2. List the 4 selected artists for 2010 and briefly describe their work.


a)
Alex Monteith
New Zealand, United Kingdom, born 1977
Passing Manoeuvre with 2 motorcycles and 584 vehicles for two channel video. Dual channel video installation.


 b)
Saskia Leek
New Zealand, born 22 Oct 1970
Yellow is the putty of the world. Oil on board.

 c)
Dan Arps
New Zealand, born 1976
Explaining Things 2008 mixed media


d)
Fiona Connor
New Zealand, born 1981
Something Transparent


3. Who are the jury members for 2010?

Jon Bywater - Programme Leader, Critical Studies at Elam School of Fine Art, The University of Auckland.
Rhana Devenport - Director, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
Leonhard Emmerling - Visual Arts Adviser, Goethe Institute, Munich, Germany, former Director, ST PAUL St, AUT University
Kate Montgomery - Director, Physics Room, Christchurch
 

4. Who is the judge for 2010 and what is his position in the art world?

 The Judge for 2010 Walters award is a man called Vincente Todoli's. Vincente has had a career in visual arts for 20years now. He was director, Tate Modern from 2002-2010, Chief Curator 1986-88 and then Arte Moderno 1988-96 and founding director of Museu Serralves, Porto, Potrgual from 1996


5. Who would you nominate for this years Walter's Prize, and why? Substantiate
you answer by outlining the strengths of the artists work. How does this relate
to your interests in art? What aspect of their work is successful in your opinion,
in terms of ideas, materials and/or installation of the work?

Personally i would nominate Alex monteith's 'Passing Manoeuvre with 2 motorcycles and 584 vehicles for two channel video. Dual channel video installation.' because i believe it to be the most realistic of all the works, i find the 2 unmarked motorbikes weaving in and out of congested traffic to be very interesting and also appealing to see how easily a motorbike rider can elude traffic just by slipping down the middle of the road. I think that showing both view points is very successfully in creating the illusion that you are on the motorbike weaving through the traffic, also at first i did not realise there were two motorbikes (this was before i read the description of the piece) I wanted to see if i could guess what it was about.


6. Comment on other blogs from your ALVC group to agree or disagree with other people,always backing up your answer with clearly stated reasons.

Semester 2 - Week 2 - Hussein Chalayan

Hussein Chalayan is an artist and designer, working in film, dress and installation art. Research Chalayan’s work, and then consider these questions in some thoughtful reflective writing.

1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) and Burka (1996) , are often challenging to both the viewer and the wearer. What are your personal responses to these works? Are Afterwords and Burka fashion, or are they art? What is the difference?
Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion?

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I don't see anything challenging about the work 'afterwords' all i can see is a fashion piece that you would usually see on a catwalk or runway, perhaps the challenge is actually what is in the background than what we see at first in the foreground but then why would the front most figure be so dominant and stand out over the rest of the image.

'Burka' shows us the contrast and progression of fashion throughout the years, or the differences of western civilisation and eastern civilisation. It is very contrasting going from the fully gowned female to the completely nude female. It is contemporary art in its own little way bringing more of an arty sense to the fashion world seeing as the line between fashion and art is so very subtle.


2. Chalayan has strong links to industry. Pieces like The Level Tunnel (2006) and Repose (2006) are made in collaboration with, and paid for by, commercial business; in these cases, a vodka company and a crystal manufacturer. How does this impact on the nature of Chalayan’s work? Does the meaning of art change when it is used to sell products? Is it still art?

Art is art no matter how it is used, if someone has created a piece of art to sell a product it is still art because that art could then inspire others to create work. Everything in the world is created for a reason and purpose. That being said all art is created from a something be it paint, digital art, spray paint, pencil, clothing, it is all art. If an art piece is created and put in a gallery then sold to a person from the public that is the same as creating art for a product. Its still the same concept of someone gaining profit from there art.


3. Chalayan’s film Absent Presence screened at the 2005 Venice Biennale. It features the process of caring for worn clothes, and retrieving and analysing the traces of the wearer, in the form of DNA. This work has been influenced by many different art movements; can you think of some, and in what ways they might have inspired Chalayan’s approach?

Modern art may have inspired this work considering today's technological advances and how fast it is progressing, this way of creating the work and tracing the original wearers DNA is almost futuristic, this could have inspired Chalayans work.


4. Many of Chalayan’s pieces are physically designed and constructed by someone else; for example, sculptor Lone Sigurdsson made some works from Chalayan’s Echoform (1999) and Before Minus Now (2000) fashion ranges. In fashion design this is standard practice, but in art it remains unexpected. Work by artists such as Jackson Pollock hold their value in the fact that he personally made the painting. Contrastingly, Andy Warhol’s pop art was largely produced in a New York collective called The Factory, and many of his silk-screened works were produced by assistants. Con temporarily, Damien Hirst doesn’t personally build his vitrines or preserve the sharks himself. So when and why is it important that the artist personally made the piece?

I think it is rather ridiculous that an artist can call him self the artist when they have not even created the works them selves, if the artist has given some form of help to the creation other than thinking up the idea then no i don't think is as important for the artist to create all of it themselves, but when they do create the work by them selves it gives us the thought that they have put their sweat and bone into the works adding the sentimental value to the pieces.

Semester 2 - Week 1 - Nathalie Djurberg's

Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'.

Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg's intricately constructed claymation films are both terrifyingly
disturbing and artlessly sweet.


The new works created for the Venice Biennale explore a surrealistic Garden of Eden in which all that is natural goes awry.


She exposes the innate fear of what is not understood and confronts viewers with the complexity of emotions.

Nathalie Djurberg was awarded the silver lion for a promising young artist at the Venice
Art Biennale 09.
(http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/6886/nathalie-djurberg)


Research Djurberg's work in order to answer the following questions;

1. What do you understand by the word 'claymation'?
It is a form of animation that works with clay figures that are moved the slightest bit and then captured by stop-motion photography to produce a short film and a realistic look. Clay animation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable" made of a malleable substance, usually Plasticine clay

2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?
Surrealistic Garden of Eden sugests that the land is a paradise/haven, as in the bible the garden of eden was seen as a perfect utopia like world, however the garden in Djuerbergs work isnot so and is more of dream like, almost like something you'd see in a Lewis Caroll novel. 'All that is natural goes awry' refers to the oddities in her claymations, the strange disturbing distortions that carry on in her films.


3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?
These are the feelings that are caused because of the materials used and the actions that the characters perform. So this causes us to see claymation refered to as a childrens demographic and we can easily see children viewing these animations. Sometimes when we see something we're unsure about we dont know what to think of it, so we automaticaly subconciously place it into a group in our brain

4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?
Because Djuberg uses the sexuality element to the children's stories it takes the sweetness right out of the works. Children's are view as happy, cheerfull fairy tales, perfect stories with happy endings , whereas is a child was to view Djurberg's work they would most likely be emotional traumatised.


5. There is a current fascination by some designers with turning the innocent and sweet into something disturbing. Why do you think this has come about?
Designers today are not always looking for the sweet and innocent designs, most of us know that the designs and decisions that are the most horrifying/disturbing are the ones we remember the most, i think this came about because designers are always looking for new designs to shock the world.

6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?
I think that Djurberg's work is so interesting and was chosen for the Venice Biennale because of how Djurbergs work is really disturbing, her work makes you feel squeamish and uneasy whilst watching it. It makes you feel slightly freaked out at the plants and sculptures in her display, then watching the disturbing video works doubles the the total uneasy feeling of it all.

7. Add some of your own personal comments on her work.

I think Djurbergs work is amazing how it causes you to feel so disturbed and uneasy, her work can put you in the stories.