Vantage point and image worlds- Technology and Vantage Point

In this essay Ron Burnett evaluates how we look at images and what influences our perceptions of them.He states that as humans we are innately visual creatures, we can't help but think, dream and day-dream in pictures. He explores how the digital age and 24 hour access to information has shaped our perception of images. We experience important national and world events through pictures presented to us on screens. We begin to think of the image as the event e.g. photos of Saddam Hussein statue being torn down by a celebratory crowd represent the invasion and overthrow of the dictators regime. These images can make us more involved in an event whilst keeping us at a distance; as involved as we may be we're not actually there.

In the section titled 'Technology and Vantage Point' Burnett looks at how we see images as the pure truth, he says that they are at "a level of truth that does not need additional explanation."
I immediately think of the old saying that a picture says a thousand words. However the 'truth' of an image is different to people in various situations. This is where the idea of vantage point becomes important. People are influenced in their thinking about images by factors such as the medium it is presented in and their own mind (memories, imagination etc).

Burnett begins to question our belief in the 'truth' of images. This point is extremely relevant today with an images 'truth' more questionable than ever before. He asks what happens to the 'truth' when images are altered? What if someone has only seen the altered image? that image, to them, is the original carrying all the authority of an original photograph. Maybe photos are just a way through which we re-imagine the past and if so how important is the original?

He singles out reinvention, visualisation, imagination and retelling as some of the important aspects when considering images. He speaks about how images and their meanings change when they are altered. In the conclusion of this section Burnett relates the ideas and questions brought up earlier to the importance of images in archives. How reliable are they? They are definitely greatly valued as historical artifact, they represent what we can't remember. Burnett finishes pointing out how important images are to Western historical archives, how reliant we are on images to record our past and remember what we can't.

Vantage Point and Image-Worlds - From Analogue to Digital Photography

Ron Burnett's' Vantage Point and Image-Worlds' is an insightful essay on Art and Space, and the very act of "seeing" images via perspective, memory, photography, etc. and how they develop conceptually and technologically over time.

The opening poem 'Burnt Norton' by T.S. Elliot is a good summary of Burnett's discussion comparing physically "seeing" with emotionally "seeing":

"... To be conscious is not to be in time

But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden ...

Be remembered; involved with past and future

Only through TIME time is conquered."

Time must be experienced in order to be remembered, and by remembering time and collecting memories that is the only way in which we prove we are conscious in time, and thus, experiencing life. And by emotionally "seeing" the image can we fully understand its impact.

However, he argues about that idea for a bit near the end:

Analogue pictures are "naturally" taken photographs - just historically accurate without photomanipulation. The historical photograph Burnett provides is one of his mother boarding a train in Austria before WWII began. He then takes this photo and compiles it with photographs of smoking stacks (taken recently-ish) to create a new concept for the images by seeing them altogether. Burnett has an emotional connection with it, personalising it and at the same time preventing the audience in providing their own emotional take on it because of the close emotional proximity Burnett has with the subject. Then he frets about the moral dilemma of cropping the photograph and whether this reduces its emotional significance. Otherwise he produces a new idea by appropriating these photos and evoking symbolic significance with the stacks which the audience would use memory to connect with destruction and despair, and the one of his mother which provokes sympathy. Sympathy because the audience would realise the subject's relationship with the artist - an artist and not the photographer, because photographers were considered unimportant in comparison to the photograph. Later he reveals that he has reversed the way in which photographs should overwhelm the audience because his work is so obviously edited, and therefore not reality. But should knowing that overrule the reality of the concept?

Vatage Points and Image Worlds DRAFT

Burnett asks the readers how images effect our perceptions of the real and authentic and how they play a vital part in both our contemporary, media obsessed society and as a reference to historical events. He allows us to become conscious of the dialogue we have with images as they "talk" to us and we "talk" back.

The sacred notions of the image are explored through Burnett's example of a mother speaking to her daughters photograph because she can not physically be with her. It is through the examination of identity in relation to the image that we see how often the image is considered as real. But we frequently fail to see that a photo is not 'Andrew' but it is 'a picture of Andrew'.

The use of images (as a transition from representation to visualization) of identity confronts our use of our own personas. We suddenly, thanks to technology, have multiple identities captured in photos and on computers or USB's

We see images everywhere as radio, television, internet, newspapers and magazines continue to bombard us with images that we must learn to "read" these images in a way that both informs our understanding and contributes to our creativity. We associate words with images and if confronted with foreign images we desperately try to find connections to comfortable images. These issues that surround the image

Another point Burnett raises is one that confronts the dichotomy present with the images as it can be perceived as close as well as extremely distant. By viewing an image we feel a connection based on our own emotions, memories etc, while simultaneously being distanced due to the image being one of the past and of another context entirely in most cases.

Burnett discusses "vantage points" which relates to the viewers perspective and attitude. Sometimes he suggests a letting the "images take over as in a dream" and at other times states that the distance between the viewer and image can prevent a vantage point entirely.

The decontextualization or reconstruction of images via digital manipulation changes our ability to see relevance and authenticity in an image. This "destruction of truth" undermines the human memory. This creates confusion in relation to our perception of time and space.

So after reading this article, we see that Burnett accepts the subjectivity of images but also explores the ways that we communicate, rationalize, remember, appropriate and use images in todays society.

Art & Architecture

Heather and Ivan Morrison created a work called 'I am so sorry. Goodbye." in 2008. This architectual structure constructed on the edge of a pond, creates a very mystical atmosphere. The dome like form is very organic and reminds me of something you might find wander through the woods in some fairytale. The rough outer surface of the building gives it that sense of just being thrown together with whatever could be found, a structure built with the soul purpose of survival.
In the Morrison's statement about the work, they explained that the title, "I am so sorry. Goodbye.", came from an experience one late night in a hotel in Alexandria's corniche. Ivan recieved a phone call in which the only words that were said, by a male foreign voice, were "I am so sorry sir... I am so sorry sir... Goodbye sir." It was something they did not fully understand, but felt the need to pass the message on. The work itself is explained to be inhabited by a gaurdian whose task it is to keep the stove lit, water boiled and visitors supplied with hibiscus tea. The old vocabulary of the gaurdian is those five words, I, am, so , sorry and goodbye.


(p.s. tried to add images but blogger wouldn't let me so you can just google it)

ART & SPIRITUALITY

I'm glad that you are our lecturer, Amanda, not Lady GaGa.

On another note, i think there is something rather spiritual and haunting about Bill Viola's work.

He explains his interest in the works of an African poet, Birago Diop, in the video below. Viola challenges our mortality which is inspired by Diop's notion that "the dead are not dead" i think Viola is ultimately discussing what becomes of us once we pass - concurrently, a significant part of many religions often concerns what happens succeeding ones death.

Art & Spirituality

Heartney, E. 2008. 'Art & Spirituality' Art & Today. London: Phaidon

The chapter covering the subject of art and spirituality in the text Art & Today provides a good base knowledge into the thematic area. It gives an indication of the emergence of spirituality in works and how that has changed and evolved throughout history up until the current day. The issue I found with this writting was the large focus on overseas artists, making it difficult to see how spirituality is influencing Australian artists and their works.

Kandinsky, W. 1912. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. George Wittenborn, Inc., New York

This essay by Wassily Kandinsky was mentioned in the chapter, Art & Spirituality in the Art & Today text, as it was considered a crucial essay written at a time when religion and art began to turn on each other. The essay disscusses the link between materialism and the decrease of faith in society, resulting in this turn against religion in the artworld, creating new scepticism and doubt.

Robertson, J & McDaniel, C. Spirituality and art. Oxford Art Online. Published: 18/1/2006. Accessed: 21/8/2010. http://www.oxfordartonline.com.ezproxy1.library.usyd.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2020414?_fmt=context&_refinePage=%2Fsearch%2Fadvanced_search.jsp&q=+spirituality&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

This subject entry found on the Oxford Art Online database provided thorough information into the history of spirituality in the artworld, right up to the contemporary context of today. The article discusses both the changing effects of spirituality in our modern society and how resulting effects it has had on artists and their works.

Nell. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery Website. Accessed 21/8/2010. http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/28/Nell/1234/

The Roslyn Oxley Gallery website is a useful sorce when selecting and researching artist as it provides an archive of past exhibitions by the artists accompainied by visual references and often the press release. As information on this particular artist, Nell, was rather difficult to come by, the Roslyn Oxley Gallery website proved to be a sufficient enough source as she is currently represented by the gallery.

Art and Spirituality

Lachlan Warner is an Australian artist who grew up as a Christian and later converted to Buddhism. He incorporates his spirituality in his art as he creates Buddhas out of Easter chocolate foil. The direct link to Buddhism throught he image of the idol and the link to Christianity through Easter foil is a way for Warner to explore spirituality without completely removing one religion. Warner says about his materials: "for me it [foil] speaks to many facets of Buddhist teachings: impermanence, change, flux, non-duality (the illusory nature of conventional opposites), self-realisation, false sanctimony, and emptiness or carelessness". His choice of materials connote to the Buddhist teachings as well as consumer culture and its impact on religion these days.

Art and Spirituality

for art and spirituality i have been looking at the work of John Feodorov. Fedorov works in multiple mediums and was brought up by fundamentalist as well as having navajo ties within his family. his works oftern include an odd mix of the two. i was interested by his work totem teddies (http://www.johnfeodorov.com/totem.htm) where Fedorov attempted to "reclaim the dignity and power of the bear. A common totem symbol for numerous indigenous peoples" by presenting the teddies as "spiritual products". This work not only comments on the loss of meaning of some spiritual symbols but also makes a comment on the consumer.

Art and Spirituality

The first artist I thought about when I saw "Art and Spirituality" was Ken Unsworth. To me his works evade and transcend particular religions and instead, through his manipulation of space and gravity, provoke a metaphysical response that allows anyone to apply their own thoughts regarding spirituality. His choice of materials and use of illusion doesn't suggest a technological interference and therefore continues to extract emotions from his audience that regard their perception of the natural world, both what they are concious of and what they are not. For me Unsworth challenges, asking for a journey of self discovery in the presence of things we don't understand and confuse us.

Art and Spirituality

Spirituality is a topic closely linked to art production. Artists impart a lot of themselves into their work, just by looking at an artwork you can see a part of the artist’s personality, and some would say ‘soul’. To many people spirituality is a part of their everyday life, it is a factor involved in everything they do, including their art.

“Spirituality for me is the sum total of all the acts of my day.” Ari Goldman

Religion has been an expression of spirituality through the ages. Art and religion have of course long been linked. Art became holy as artists brought to life scenes from religious works which had only before been imagined.

People find spirituality in many different places. Religion is less prevalent in today’s society than in times past and many contemporary artists are reflecting this change by exploring all means of spirituality.

“One cannot set out to make a work that's spiritual. What is a contemporary iconography for the spiritual? Is it some fuzzy space?” Anish Kapoor (Someone who has seen many cultures and religions and expressions of spirituality as an Indian-Jew who was educated in Britain and works internationally.)

Meditation, ritual, experimentation and exploration of culture and heritage are some of the ways in which artists are investigating spirituality and its relevance in society.

There are some more art and spirituality quotes on this site -

http://quote.robertgenn.com/getquotes.php?catid=285

art and spirituality

the artist i chose to look at was Shirin Neshat.

I picked her work turbulent to show the class, as, to me, it is one of the most spiritually relevant works of art ive ever experienced. Whilst it can be argued that this work is about gender roles, not spirituality, i argue that, it is about gender roles within Islam - The religion of Neshats homeland, Iran - and as such comments very much on spirituality. I feel Neshat is not only presenting the issue, but also herself ruminating over the implications of living as a muslim woman, and whether the lack of rights as a female is countered strong enough by the faith itself,

file:///Users/jonathandunlop/Desktop/turbulent01-4168404_0x440.jpg

Not only this, the work is also a powerful and beautiful peace of film and art - filmed very directly and confidently...

here is a link to the work...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCAssCuOGls

ART AND SPIRITUALITY

Art:21's video is an incredibly informative and detailed source of the vast ways artists approach spirituality. http://video.pbs.org/video/1237561674

I found Ann Hamilton's work especially engaging. The artist does sculpture, textile arts and installations. Hamilton believes that while the process of textile works is meditative and satisfying, the very metaphor of cloth and what it offers is beautiful; everyone wears clothes and all material is made up of tiny threads which remain clearly visible no matter what weave the piece is, and the cloth requires each single one. She finds it an exceptional social metaphor and used material in the installation 'volumen' (1995), the audience would step into an 8-foot diameter closet-like space - the walls a curtain of white cloth which would revolve. The audience would then "experience a kind of dislocation that was part of Hamilton's investigation of New England Puritanism, the Shakers' bodily expression of spiritualism, and the Spiritualists' beliefs".(http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag03/may03/hamilton/ham.shtml).

ART AND THE EXPANDED FIELD

In the reading “Sculpture in the expanded field”, Rosalind Krauss discusses the evolution of sculpture throughout Modernism (1850-1950). She methodically breaks down the term Sculpture and sub-categorizes it into various fields.

She made a diagram that encompass the new sculptures being created in the early 20th century to include the categories: site construction, axiomatic structures and marked sites.

Site construction – comprised of both landscape and architectural elements, the artwork is installed in a specific site (as opposed to a plinth) most often out in an environment. Robert Smithson often made works in this fashion i.e. Spiral Jetty

Axiomatic structures – being comprised of both architectural and non-architectural elements, the axiomatic structure alters the environment through “partial reconstructions” that compliment the existing environment. These works are often ephemeral. Axiomatic structures are often used by the likes of Christo with wrapped Reichstag and Serra with Sea Level

Marked sites – the marked site is made up of both land scape and non-landscape and is somewhat of an opposite to the Axiomatic structure in that a marked site subtracts from the site as opposed to adding new elements. Land art is regarded as marked sites and includes such practitioners as Heizer with Depressions and Oppenheim with Time lines

Krauss comments on the significance of the plinth in sculpture. She discusses its role as a “mediator” between the work and the site. This gives the sculptures the essence of monumentality thereby removing them from the notions of “homelessness” and “being devoid of integrity”

Annotated Bibliography: Art & Spirituality

Heartney, E. 2008. Art & Today.

London: Phaidon


Art & Today provides a somewhat parochial overview of notions concerning spirituality and aesthetics. The focus tends to dwell on matters of religiosity (or denial thereof) commencing with pre-modernism, wherein visual imagery was immediately quoted from organised religious material, to the pan-European secularisation of culture at the birth of modernism that propagated the denial of orthodox representations. This cultural shift emancipated the artist from having to satisfy strict ritualistic function, hence licencing oblique experimentation with formal properties. I personally wished to investigate questions of sublimity dissociated from the religious motif and mere object-observation. The text does briefly mention Olafur Eliasson, who I have chosen to exemplify features of my thesis, but refrains from a discussion on less overt aspects of sublimity such as liminality or altering states of consciousness. Art & Today delivers a fair account of art and spirituality, however is insufficient for the supplementation of my own theoretical inquiry.






Ed. by Morley, S. 2010. The Sublime.

London: Whitechapel Gallery: The MIT Press

The Sublime collects a body of writing concerned with the subject of sublimity as both philosophical/psychological inquiry and artistic pursuit. My principle focus is thematically inspired by an excerpt by George Quasha and Charles Stein (p214) which discusses liminality, or a marginal state existing centrally within a psychic transition. The peripheries of this induced transition include an original state of awareness and a binary state of heightened (disassociated) awareness. Quasha and Stein posit that liminality facilitates a critical study wherein reality can question itself; it suspends one in a timeless respite, in between psychic states wherein both are accessible for assessment. I believe this basic idea is supported by a plurality of incarnations of the binary opposition theorem, which has had religious manifestations for millennia. One concern that resurfaces on multiple occasions, throughout the volume, is the ontological significance of the calculable. It's seed is found in the pan-cultural admittance of vast technological domination. Truth, according to Quasha and Stein, is what this imperious regime threatens. Art of the threshold, or of the liminal, is offered as a cure to the modern predicament principally because it commands a state of radical enquiry. This text has been invaluable to my study of the topic area. The mobilisation of spirituality as a psychological function and a means to recalibrate notions of reality has enabled me to investigate the experience of art and avoid matters of mere objecthood, which I believe in itself lacks quality of the sublime.





"Olafur Eliasson." Artforum International 48.10 (2010): 308. Expanded Academic ASAP (online), 16th August 2011.
http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy2.library.usyd.edu.au/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=EAIM&docId=A230152288&source=gale&srcprod=EAIM&userGroupName=usyd&version=1.0

The article is written by artist, Olafur Elaisson, on the fundamental advantages of the museological context in the containment and production of reality. Eliasson functionally uses the museum interior as a vehicle for viewers to experience art; not merely as a prescriptive environment for the observation of art-object, but to amplify the experiential quality of his aesthetic experimentation. Eliasson provides examples of occasions when he has deliberately pushed the temporal boundaries of the exhibition context, including one event in Austria (Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2001) where he publicly sent notice for the opening of his exhibition preceding the actual date. The purpose of such experimentation, Eliasson purports, is to 'deconsolidate' his artwork, thereby diminishing inhibited focus on objecthood. The museum space is pivotal for Eliasson, having aided him in generating concepts of polyphonic space, elevated temporal awareness and the function of human sense-perception. I believe these ideas constitute an aspect of sublimity in Eliasson's work which react simultaneously (even symbiotically) with/against feelings of vulnerability and uncertainty rife within the social construct. The fissure between interior (museum) and exterior (installations appropriated from nature); between creating an alternate perceptive state and projecting a current one, closely follows my critical investigation of liminality, hence proving the article a valuable source.

Art and Architecture

I didn't get to spend a lot of time with the Art and Today book this week, but I did find works by Monica Bonivicini and Andrea Zittel very stimulating. Bonivicini's Don't Miss A Sec (the public toilet with the two-way mirror walls) transforms the act of voyeurism into a visceral and embarrassing act, within the confines of maintaining the participants dignity and privacy. The way she takes space and personal situations and deconstructs their associated conventions reminds me of Felix Gonzales Torres' work Portrait of Ross in LA 1991, where a pile of candy replicated the same weight of the artists late partner who died from AIDS. This pile was freely eaten by the spectators before being told as they left what it represented. In the same way as Bonivicini, Torres forces a reaction by changing how we perceive comfort and cleanliness without actually producing any danger.

I also liked Andrea Zittels Ikea-like works that compacts all of ones individual needs into a single furniture unit. It sometimes seems too furniture-mainstream but once I really give the works thought with respect to things like overpopulation/congestion of space and social, economic and even cultural implications of taking up too much space, I realise how her work promotes the need for compact, low maintenance living in today's society. Though at times it also seems as if she's mocking the use of the Ikea-style furniture that tries to make life so much easier when it sometimes acts as a hindrance by making all of life's tasks banal and almost claustrophobic.

I've never been that interested in architecture when considering ideas for my own work but I do enjoy the effect that glass and mirrors have on an architectural space. Glass allows the space to continue outward past the point of enclosure, containing space but allowing light to travel both in and out which, for me, provides a valuable connection between the architecture and environment surrounding it. And I just enjoy how mirrors give the illusion of space where there of course is none.

Art and Architecture - Deconstructivism

DECONSTRUCTIVISM developed in the late 1980s is a movement in postmodern architecture. The rhetoric of this style orginated possibly by the French theorist Jacques Derrida. According to his philosophy "architecture is nothing but one of many ways of communication". This quote revives the early method in which architectural designs applied to cathedrals were to overwhelm visitors with spiritual resonance by including symbols in its floor plan (shaped as a crucifix) and using light to amplify heaven and its holy brightness. Deconstructivism may be also inspired by the Russian art movement constructivism, designed to reject autonomous art (Stalin propaganda) in favour of a practice for social purposes. Elements of the movement were a defiance against geometrics and decoration, to forward 'awkward' structures for buildings that are curvaceous and diagonal suggesting writhing and bulging movement, the form to react to its environmental surroundings, and of course the sense of originality. Famous deconstructivist artists include Frank Gehry, Coop Himmelblau and Zaha Haddid.

art and architecture

In researching art and architecture over the course of the week, i came across a certain artist whom recently had a show at CUBE gallery in Manchester, his name is Rupert Griffiths, and his works focus upon and play with the concept of the city, and and the tensions between the 'over determined and legible places' and the 'under determined and under the radar' locations, The work draws inspiration from the more derelict elements of the cityscape, including roadsides, canals, industrial infrastructure and railway tracks and houses,

Here is a description from the gallery exhibition that describes the materials used to construct the work: "The work uses materials, processes and techniques that are typically used to re-brand failed spaces undergoing redevelopment - the architectural models, computer renderings, slick surfaces, diagrams, photographs and tidy trees that are often employed to present an image of a cleaner, brighter, and fictional future. Here though, the work makes use of visual language in order to evoke the richness of dereliction."

Griffiths used techniques including 3D laser cutting, printing and etching to make the works aswell,

ART&ARCHITECTURE: summary of the Art&Today chapter

Traditionally, architecture is a design process that ensures buildings with structural longevity, the realisation of which relies on financial capability; in this regard the original architects tended to stick with conventions.

A shift in opinion occurred and the turn of Modernity when architecture became recognised as an influential tool. Architects of this time "adhered to the idea that perfection in the built environment would lead to the perfection of its inhabitants, expressing absolute faith in the potential of architecture and design to act as agents of social transformation."

Architecture in the early 20th Century dabbled with the use of technology and mass production, propelled by the belief that this "could finally produce a rational, egalitarian and hygienic social order." Ultimately, this intention was not realised due to:

• The demise of Modernist ideology (i.e. efficiency, rationality and functionalism) and the development of corporate homogeny and suppression of the individual.
• The cataclysmic ramifications of Communist and Fascist social experimentation.

"The failure of the utopian impulse freed the architect from the role of social visionary" leaving artists and architects of today with a myriad possibilities of scale, medium, structure, longevity and form to experiment with.

Art and Architecture - Annotated Bibliography

Rachel Whiteread
Ghost, 1990
Plaster on Steel Frame
270 x 318 x 365 cm

Heartney, E. 2008. Art & Today.

London: Phaidon

The architecture section of Art & Today gives a small overview of art and architecture, briefly detailing the fundamental principles of modernist architecture. It discusses the failings of modernist architecture and how it has been drawn on by contemporary artists in this category. It gives examples of architectural artists, such as Rachel Whiteread, Gordon Matta-Clark and Philip Johnson. Art and Today describes many artists and their take on architecture, some subverting the modernist principles through casting negative spaces, some using video game technology to create virtual representations and others using modernist, industrial materials but altering them into states of decay. Art and Today was helpful in garnering a basic understand of the thematic area of architecture and providing me with an artist who I then further researched. Before reading the art and architecture section, I had a general idea about architecture and enjoyed the subject but the reading gave me a better understanding of how and why it is used by artists.

Mullins, C. 2004. Rachel Whiteread.

London: Tate Publishing

This book is a survey of Rachel Whiteread’s career by writer, editor and broadcaster Charlotte Mullins and is one of the Tate’s published works. Working with the artist, Mullins has been able to provide 100 high quality colour images with her own descriptions and analyses of the works. Within these analyses are visual descriptions and analyses, historical references if appropriate and relevant biographical events. Mullins has been writing on art and architecture among other things for specialist magazines, newspapers and exhibition catalogues since 1995 so I was able to learn about Whiteread’s work in depth from a professional in the written parts of this book. I was also able to obtain a greater understanding of Whiteread’s work from Whiteread herself as the book contains interviews between author and subject. The many images within the book also allowed me to make my own visual analyses before reading anything, and then expand upon them as I read. The extensive collection of works in this book gave me a large selection to use for the presentation while informing me on which works were perhaps the most important and well known, such as House, 1993.

Carley, R. 2008. Domestic Afterlives: Rachel Whiteread's Ghost. Architectural Design, 78: 26–29. doi: 10.1002/ad.670

This source is an article written by Rachel Carley in the Architectural Design journal and appears to be aimed at people within the field. It specifically describes and analyses Whiteread’s work Ghost, 1990 but also gives a deeper understanding into her work in general. The article was found on the Sydney University Library website when searching for peer reviewed articles and references other works such as Anthony Vidler in Rachel Whiteread’s House, published by Phaidon (London). The article required a dictionary to get through it but it was enlightening as it gave a view from an expert, aimed s at experts as opposed to Charlotte Mullins’ book which was written for a broader audience. I found that this source gave me most of the information for the presentation about the work Ghost such as how Whiteread aimed to ‘mummify the air in the room and make it solid’ as well as the significance of the title of the work.

Krauss - Sculpture in the Expanded field

Krauss begins by saying that sculpture has become increasingly diffilcult to define and categorise unless the term is "infintely maleable"
This is because new types of scultpture were being developed, which served to challenge previous definitions of what was considered scupture.
These new sculptures were made more accessible by historicising them.
Before this time, sculptures were monumental. They were made with the site in mind, reflecting some of kind of connection to the place it would stand in. The pedestal served as an important shield between the site and the work.
Krauss discusses the decline of monumental sculpture in the late 1800's. This was marked by Rodin's Balzac and Gates of Hell . These scultpures never stood in their proposed site, consequentially leading to a change in how sculpture was perceived. This was part of the begining of modernist sculpture, where the pedestal becomes part of the monument, and site is not always important
Krauss sees this period of modernist sculpture as "pure", where there is a separation of mediums.
She then proceeds to present post-modernist sculpture as not confined to a given medium. Instead subject to cultural terms for which any medium might be used.

Art and Architecture

FOLKE KOEBBERLING / MARTIN KALTWASSER

Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser are German artists who work within the field of art and architecture in America and Britain. They work with innovative and experimental practices and materials, using recycled materials, often wood, to create temporary, site-specific works.

Their 2010 artwork 'Jellyfish' was a project in which the artists and a team of volunteers built a temporary theater, 'The Jellyfish Theater', out of reclaimed and recycled materials. Materials used included wooden pallets, old kitchen units & theater sets and reclaimed wood from construction sites. It was commissioned by community theater organisation The Red Room and exhibited in the 2010 London Festival of Architecture.




In 2009 Koebberling and Kaltwasser created their work 'Blind Spot' for the Radiator Festival in Nottingham, England. The festival in 2009 was themed around the idea of how new technologies are transforming our notion of public and private spaces and the British population are said to be the most surveilled in the world so the artists created their artwork around this theme. They mapped the few small spaces in Nottingham where CCTV cameras had blind spots and built small wooden architectural spaces in which people could do whatever they wanted without being watched. The small stalls did however have no doors and were extremely small so there was little room to stand let alone commit illegal acts and the like.

The structures were made from materials found in the area where the work was exhibited and was created to protest the idea of a 'surveillance state'. It definitely brings to attention the extent to which we are being watched in public areas and by creating these tiny architectural spaces reinforces the feeling of being trapped without the freedom of not being watched. The city council of Nottingham was apparently not pleased that the artists were implying that there were parts of the city beyond their control as it didn't promote the safe and secure image they wished to portray.