Sunday, May 9, 2010

Art & The Quotidian Object

5 Questions

1. Can a viewer look past the object and see the art of it?
2. Can a readymade artwork trigger cultural metaphors and personal associations and different reactions to a wide range of viewers?
3. Does a readymade add or gain value when more than one is used?
4. Does the readymade reflect more of our consumer culture than the artistic process?
5. What does the junk aesthetic say about the large amount of waste our culture produces?

Art & Spirituality Discussion Facilitator Synopsis

Art & Spirituality Discussion Facilitator Synopsis

During the presentation on May 3rd, Gina and I presented the Art & Spirituality chapter. We discussed the Art & Today chapter as well as outside artists that concern this same theme. The presentation reflected the chapter’s information concerning artist’s that reflect these characteristics. Specifically we focused on artists with religious affiliations, as well as ‘faith’ based art and contemporary artworks that have developed controversy within the last 15 years.

I believe that Gina and I presented in information well and developed discussion that was beneficial to the classes understanding of the subject matter. The questions and responses we developed were very direct. I believe it followed the guidelines however coming from a process rather than product background, I believe our first presentation, Art & Representation was much more productive because the interaction with the materials helped guide the theme. This presentation was much more lecture based and discussion based. I do believe that we included too many slides and artists and if I did it again I would remove a number of artists and focus more on a fewer but specific artists and information, rather than an overall.

I enjoyed this chapter more than the others because of my passion for spirituality and personal faith. This is a great chapter to discuss because every person has a personal belief and it is their right to voice it or not.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Art & Globalization

5 Questions
1. Is it still relevant to know the geographical background of an artist in our contemporary globalized culture?
2. What foreshadowing of artists from China and India play into the global art market?
3. Is the art world to big and diverse for its own good?
4. Can the artist become outsourced like in many other fields? How?
5. Is the new hybrid of art and culture a benefit or a distraction from making art? Do we have access to much information?


Huang Yong Ping, buddha's hands, 2006

Huang Yong Ping - french artist of chinese origin is exhibiting as part of arsenale at

Venice Art Biennale 09. ping's work has its roots in confrontation, contrast, exchange,

and the coexistence of different cultural and spiritual worlds. his oversize recreations

of the hand of buddha is made from a type of cedar tree traditionally used in chinese

medicine, that dwell in the ambiguity of references to both spiritual and earthly realms.

Phillips de Pury & Co.

Mixed media on paper on Aludibond on wood
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles


Franz Ackermann’s work explores issues of travel and tourism, contrasting subjective experience with broader issues of globalization, mobility, and commerce. He travels to select locations to render time and geographic space in wall-scale paintings and mixed-media constructions. African Diamond, like many of his works, eradicates the formal boundaries between sculpture, painting, and advertising by translating each medium’s visual vocabulary into his own distinct patois.


Michal Rovner, Chinese Calculator, 2004 
Steel vitrine with glass, stone and DVD video projection 


Installed near the entrance of the Biennale, Israeli born, New York-based artist Michal Rovner presents Chinese Calculator (2004)four stone tablets that celebrate faux archaeological findings by establishing a fictitious history. Each rough stone slab is touched with light from tiny projectors. Small patches of light noticeably waver on their hard surfaces, refusing permanence and legibility. The projections resemble ancient script, but they are actually human figures, alive and active.

Yinka Shonibare, The Swing (reproduction of Fragonard's 'the swing'), 2001

Yinka Shonibare is someone born in England but born to Nigerian parents. Eventually moves back to Nigeria, but was also educated in England; so is truly bi-cultural, and uses this experience to confront what it's like to grow up in with Nigerian traditions but to be educated in Western culture.


Sunday, April 25, 2010

Art & Identity

5 Questions

1. How does personal identity effect how we make art? Is it a direct correlation to how we want to be viewed by society?

2. Is the identity of an artist changing due to globalization and multiculturalism? Do this reflect Bourriaud's Altermodern theory?

3. Can an artist successfully represent an identity from another culture?

4. What are the characteristics of "essentialists" and "deconstructionists"?

5. Are stereotypes and self awareness apart of how identity shapes artists and the viewer?

Louise Bourgeois

Seven in Bed, 2001 Fabric, stainless steel, glass and wood.

Courtesy Cheim and Read, Galerie Karsten Greve and Galerie Hauser & Wirth

Cindy Sherman

Cinderella, Untitled #276, 1995

Matt Held

Facebook Portraits-Shawn Zeiger, 2008

Kerry James Marshall

Untitled, 2009, acrylic on pvc

JR and Marco- http://face2faceproject.com/

Art & The Body

5 Questions

1. Throughout the history of art, the body has taken on various roles reflecting the signifiance of that time period. What does contemporary art and the body reflect about our time?

2. Does the perception of deformation to the figure add to the how the viewer sees an artwork?

3. When the body is placed in a specific setting the context of that artwork changes. Does this benefit the artwork?

4. When creating artwork with more than one figure, the relationship of the artwork and the viewer can bring up feelings from our subconscious. Isn't that the main goal of an artwork, to create an emotional reaction to the viewer?

5. Is contemporary art a key tool to breaking down taboos of our society?

Ron Mueck

Ron Mueck (Australian, b. 1958). Two Women, 2005. Mixed media, 33 1/2 x 18 7/8 x 15 in. (85.1 x 47.9 x 38.1 cm). Glenn Fuhrman Collection, New York

Ron Mueck (Australian, b. 1958). In Bed, 2005. Mixed media, 63 3/4 x 255 7/8 x 155 1/2 in. (161.9 x 649.9 x 395 cm). Private Collection

Jorge Rodriguez Gerada

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada started making urban art more than 15 years ago in New York City. A founder of the artistic direction known as 'culture jamming,' he is a Cuban-born artist based in New York and Barcelona. Rodriguez-Gerada creates portraits in charcoal of people-until now anonymous-which scale the walls of buildings in our cities in a format that we can begin to describe as gigantic.

Bert Simons

3 dimensional pseudo realistic paper portraits and sculptures. These are papercraft sculptures made in the same way as the familiar papercraft houses and animals

Janine Antoni

Lick And Lather, 1993

Jenny Saville

Rosetta 2, 2005-2006, Oil on watercolor paper, mounted on board


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Criteria for Writing a Successful Exhibition Revie

Criteria for Writing a Successful Exhibition Review

Extensive knowledge of studio practice and the subject matters that the artist(s) is focused on

Background information about the artist(s) which includes:

Education

Influences

Cultural background

Medium they work(ed) in

Signifance in the art world

Format

Introduction

Summary

Issues involving the Art world and the exhibition’s connection to it

Critique

Personal Opinion of the Artwork and Atmosphere

Conclusion

References

The review must be of an exhibition that focuses on or includes a substantial amount of art that makes connections to the shows theme. Reviews should be reasonably courteous or respectful unless there is a good reason to challenge the premise of an exhibition.

5 Questions from Multiple readings

Art & Deformation
1. How do we define beauty and its roles in contemporary art and is this view benefical to society and art?
2. Why does human imperfection become valued as the antifigure?


Art & Nature and Technology
1. Does the social importance of eco art add or remove the value to it?
2. What was Eduardo Kac's inspiration to start creating Bio Art? Where do you draw the line when creating art that touches on a subject matter such as genetic modification?

3. Is art made from recycled materiasl a fade ora significant representation of art in contemporary issues?