Art & Politics - Voina

Voina is a Russian performance group who are known for their political and provocatively charged works. Their most recent stunt titled "Palace Revolution" involved a cordinated over turning of Moscow police cars in protest against the Ministry of Home Affairs. Due to this stunt two of the groups members, Oleg Vorotnikov & Leonid Nikolayev were taken without warrant an imprisioned to await trial. The members were bailed thanks to fund raising from fellow street artist Banksy, who donated $147 000 to the group.
Some of the groups other pranks have included; a public orgy at the State Biological Museum infront of a banner ridiculing Medvedev; live cats being thrown at McDonald's staff during International Worker's Day; and a huge skull and crossbones projected onto Russian Parliament

This video (which didnt have a share option for blogger so ill just post the link) features some of the groups stunts and an interview with the group's coordinator
http://vimeo.com/10365363

Body Reading Summary

The reading discussed the notion of conceptual art attempting to remove the elitist connotations attached to the art world at the time. What I found interesting was its complete failure to do so. Conceptual art is very concerned with the exploration of language as the underlying condition of aesthetic experience and this exploration led to the formation of a conceptual art language, effectively making the art form more elitists as you must have an understanding of this lanuage to understand the art. This focus on the raw idea of art in an obsessional and rationalistic way again forced audiences against the work as the aesthetics they were used to were stripped away, replaced with language and documentation of process which needed to be decifered

Art & Archive

In my research on art and politics I found this website for a magazine called Guernica and found a link to this work by Legacy Russell in October 2011 in Manhattan. The work features minature shrines all with tags describing people who had lived and died there. Over the period of the instillation members of the community laid flowers by the shrines.
http://www.guernicamag.com/art/3122/russell_art_10_1_11/

Space: Vantage Point and Image-Worlds

A point that really grabbed my attention in the reading was Ron Burnett's discussion of photography and vantage point. The photo in which he is referring to is 'smokestack against the nights sky'. He talks about this need we have to read images, to create images, which has shifted photography away from being seen as simply records of the world, to forms of art. We as viewers and even creators of images find a need to read an image like a text, find meaning in it, establish relationships with historical events an personal experiences to reach an interpretation of it. it is in this discussion that he questions whether vantage point is a direct and inherent thing or whether it has to be created by the viewer. With th photo he is referencing, he talks of how it is representational of all he feels about his research into the Holocaust, even though independantly the photo has nothing to do with this even, not even the time period.

Art & Globalism

In 1995, Fiona Hall showed an exhibition at Roslyn Oxley Gallery titled, 'The Price Is Right'. Along with many sculptures created from everyday objects such as tupperware, soap and mirrors, Hall created minatures of everyday objects and icons cut out of coke cans.

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

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 & Participation

Happenings were very big in the 50s and 60s, particularly in New York, and were primarily arranged by Allan Kaprow, who was reffered to as 'The Happenings man'. The idea of the happenings was to break down that fourth wall between performer and spectator, introducing the element of participation into art.
One of th emore modern contributions to this idea of the happening are groups called Flash mobs. These groups of people arrage themselves suddenly in a public place and perform a brief, completely random and seemingly pointless act and disperse as if nothign happened. The groups organise themselves and gain participation through social networking sites, viral emails and telepone communication.


This is a work performed in Grand Central Station where participants froze in place for 5 minutes

Art & Narrative

When I was first researching about art and narrative I found that it was a lot harder to understand than I originally thought, particularly the text by Rosland Barthes, 'Death of the Author'. The more I researched the topic however, the more I came to understand it and I became particularly interested in how contemporary artists today are engaging with it in terms of the everyday.
The works of Kutlug Ataman I found particularly interesting as he focuses completely on speech, highlighting personal subjective experiences. He likes to present the action of speech in a performative aspect, rather than a means of communication, as his subjects disscuss the're everyday narratives with a sense of self-revelation. His documentary works, as they were, seem to have a performative edge as his subjects get so enthusiastic discussing the're everyday personal passions.
I also like how the area of art and narrative can been seen far more subtly in works, such as Bill Henson's. His photographic portraits work so well in suggesting a narrative through simple everyday compositions. These works he says he asks his models to just be, no acting, and yet very minuet instructions are given to achieve this look of being caught off guard or as though they are being spied apon. His dark contrasting images of wispy youths subtly suggest stories of love, lust, anxiety, desparation and lonelness. They often give the audience a sense of unease as though they are spying on these intimate moments, which are in fact fictional.

Art & Identity

Patricia Paticcinini uses digital technology and sculptural methods to explore the themes of science and its interaction and interference with nature. She is highly interested in the fast paced momentum of science, particularly in the area of biochemistry.

Paticcinini's creation of weird, almost half human looking creatures makes us feel uneasy, confronted and confused and leaves us wondering of the scientic possiblity of such unusual, hybrid looking creatures, and it also causes the audience to feel a kind of sympathy for these resulting creatures of biochemical experiments

Her work the Siren Mole explores the possibilities of biocemical science and our concerns of the consequences
This is a link to her website describing the project:
Siren Mole

Art & The Environment

Michel de Broin refers to himself as a trans-disciplinary artist, adopting a both a critical and playful attitude towards everyday objects. He works within a variety of different mediums, but has a main focus on intsilation/site specific works as well as videos.

Broin created a series of works involving street signs and bike paths which i found rather interesting and humorous as they aim to undermine the practicality of urban planning

First Image: 'Encircling' (2006) shown at the Scape Biennale in Christchurch, New Zealand
Second Image: 'Entrelacement' (2001) a permanent instillation at Lachine canal, Montreal

Who Does She Think She Is?

This is the trailer for the movie I was talking about in class the other day. I think it brings up some interesting points related to art and it's institutions, particularly relating to the work of the Guerrilla Girls

Who Does She Think She Is?

Abstraction

Art and abstraction seems to very heavily involve the exploration of colour, line, texture and shape, not concerning ones self with creating an object that actually is something. It's all about an objects materiality and what an audience might bring to the object or the exhibition, what they turn the object into, what they think it resembles and how it makes them feel.

Abstract artists such as Donald Judd, i personally find particularly hard to engage with as his works are very geometric and are based purely on colour, shape and the material itself.

His series of untiled works such as:

Untitled (1965)

cause the audience to refer to ordinary, everyday objects in which they can relate to. In this work for instance my first personal response was to relate the work to a series of shelving or even a cd rack.

Other abstract artists, such as Charles Ray, who work in a more organic field of abstraction, resonates better with me personally. Ray is known for playing with the audiences perceptions in a very nerdy, playful way. He works a lot in illusion and creating an atmosphere in the gallery space, particularly in his series of ink works.

Art & its Institutions - Bibliography

'Zero and Not' (1986)

Joseph Kosuth

Leo Castelli Gallery

Heartney, Eleanor. Art & Today. London: Phaidon, 2008.

Art & Today provided a thorough analysis of art and its institutions and the artists who shaped the shift in artistic thinking. The text was very timeline based, looking at how the institutional systems, and the way artists reacted to them, changed over the centuries, namely the 20th. The way in which artists satirised and resisted the traditions and implications of the institutional aspect of the art world was a large focus, namely the way in which art is being seen as a comodity for social leverage

Liukkonen, Petri. Leon Battista Alberti (1401-1472). 2008. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/alberti.htm (accessed April 18, 2011).

This website, kirjasto, provided an in depth look at who Leon Battista Alberti was and what he accomplished in the art world. This allowed me to expand further on the information briefly mentioned in the reading regarding his notion of art and one-point perspective.

Sean Kelly Gallery. Joseph Kosuth. http://www.skny.com/artists/joseph-kosuth/bio/ (accessed April 18, 2011).

The sean Kelly Gallery website provided me with a brief biography of Joseph Kosuth, which informed me of his basic artistic practice. The biography also included an informative list of some of his most significant exhibitins, which was a good laaunching pad into further research. although the website did include a few selected works, it really was not sufficient int hat aspect of my research.

Guggenheim. Collection Online. 2011. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/bio/?artist_name=Joseph%20Kosuth (accessed April 18, 2011)

The Guggenheim websitw again provided a detailed biography of Joseph Kosuth, yet unlike the Sean Kelly website, provided much more detail on his successful works and artistic achievements, rather than focusing on his life experiences. This provided me with a much better research basis into his artworks and conceptual practices.

Dillon, Brian. Fort / Da. 19 October 2010. http://fort-da.tumblr.com/post/1352644615/brian-dillon-on-erasure (accessed April 18, 2011).

This online essay on erasure, although only including a small section on Joseph Kosuth's piece 'Zero and Not', proves to be a very insightful analysis of his work. Looking deeply into Kosuth's selection of Freudian text and the powerful authority naturally attached to those words.

Don't call pop culture art - it's rubbish

This is an article I found from the Sydney Morning Herald website questioning the validity of popular culture being transferred over to the art world

Don't call pop culture art - it's rubbish

UNMONUMENTAL: summary Maddi

UNMONUMENTAL: summary PDF