Week 3 - The Walters Prize 2010

Week 3 - The Walters Prize 2010

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 will receive $50,000.

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

a) Saskia Leek - Yellow is the putty of the world. Oil on board.

Leek's palate of whitish blues and whitish yellows has evolved from paintings that respond directly to the look and the mood of the sun-faded prints and paint by numbers pastels and is treated in the exhibition yellow is the putty of the world clearly as the subject itself.

b) Fiona Connor - Something transparent. MDF, Plywood, plastic and acrylic.

Fiona's work makes the most of unsettling potential of the double take. Positioning multiple reproductions of the glass facade and public entrance tot he gallery in situ one behind the next. Fiona's main focus was all about how spaces operate within specific communities.

c) Dan Arps - Explaining things. Mixed media.

He has made careful formal guestures with materials as banal as breakfast cereal and sheets of newspaper - things a long way from the everyday of art.
d) Alex Monteith - Passing Manoeuvre with 2 motorcycles and 584 vehicles for two channel video. Dual channel video installation.

Alex's work is a 13min 38sec video using a motorbike and trying to find out what is illegal according to the NZ roadcode. Alex's uses two perspective's, one looking from behind to the front and another looking from the front to behind the driver.

3. Who are the jury members for 2010?

The Jury consists of 3 people; Jon Bywater, who was a lecturer in Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. Rhana Devenport, who is Director of the Gorett - Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth. Leonhard Emmerling, who was Director of St Paul's St at AUT University and is now Visual Arts advisor at the Goethe Institute in Mnich, Germany.

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

The Judge for 2010 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. What aspect of their work is successful in your opinion, in terms of ideas, materials and/or installation of the work?
I think I would nominate Fiona Connor for this years walter's prize as I found hers the most interesting. The strengths of her work were the ideas that she was trying to portray and how she portrayed them. I have to say that i definitely did double take on her work possibly even 2 or 3 times. I didn't even really realize that it was a work. Then i read the Statement on the wall and kind of had to laugh...."Makes the most of the unsettling potential of the double take". This is exactly what she was trying to get me and other people to do all along. She did it very well.

Week 2 - Hussein Chalayan

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?

At first i didn't quite understand 'Afterwords (2000)' but thought the skirt was pretty cool. Then realized that it actually transformed into a table.....Amazing!. This is such a great idea, but it makes it very difficult to pick a side when determining whether it is art or fashion. I guess it's borderline both? or wearable art?. As for 'Burka (1996)' i really didn't like this one for some reason. However i did find the meaning that i got out of it quite interesting. I have to say i did like how Chalayan played the meaning of the Burka against itself. Quite literally gradually stripping the burka of all it's religious meaning.

2. Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion?

Fashion is a term commonly used to describe a style of clothing worn by most of people of a country. A fashion usually remains popular for about 1-3 years and then is replaced by yet another fashion. Even though there are a lot of changes in fashion, most people do not easily except the changes.

A clothing style may be introduced as a fashion, but its use becomes a custom after being handed down from generation to generation. A fashion that comes and goes is called a Fad.

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?

'The level tunnel' is a 15m long, 5m high installation that can be experienced from the exterior or blindfolded on the inside. Chalayan has developed an experience of the senses, working with a number of different materials as well as playing with scent, touch and sound. The viewing is blindfolded and led into the installation, where they are confronted with sound created by a flute made from a vodka bottle. Further on, a breeze carries the scent of lemon and cedar as the visitors moves along the leather coated railings. a heart monitor is fitted onto the visitor and a display on the outside projects their heartbeat to external viewers.

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. Contemporarily, 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's a little sad if the artist doesn't make there pieces themselves...but i guess it doesn't really matter, obviously if famous artists don't. I think it's more about the art and what there trying to say. I don't think i've ever thought to myself..'i wonder if the artist actually made this themselves, when looking at an artwork'. i'd rather be thinking about the ideas behind the work.

Semester 2- Week One - Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'.

Semester 2- Week One

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'?

(Claymation is the generalized term for clay animation, a form of stop animation using clay. The term claymation was coined by its creator, Will Vinton, owner of an animation studio that worked with clay artists to create clay animation).

2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?

After googling 'Garden of Eden - Nathalie Djurberg' and seeing pictures of her artworks I found it quite intriguing and it made me think of alice and wonderland..or something else that is sort of 'made up'. Think it's the use of colors and the way that they are inlarge and not actualy flower size that has made me think that way. As for 'all that is natural goes awry' - I was thinking when looking at the photos of her exhibition that the lighting in the room that she used was very dark, which created her flower works to cast shadows on the floor making the room have a bit of a spooky feel to the room and because of the size of the works it could be quite scary almost. So that could be why 'all that is natural goes awry'.

3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?

There are a whole lot of emotions involved in Djurberg's work. At first you think that it is sweet and nice and then you see that Djurberg has also wanted us to see a different side to the flowers and 'sweet' videos, this side being 'terrifyingly disturbing'.

4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?

Djurberg's uses child like figures in her works which shows the idea of innocent children, innocently playing. But Djurberg also plays innocent with not so innocent which creates the complexity of emotions in her work too.

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?

I think that designers these days do not always want to create something 'pretty' and 'nice' and much a people don't admit it, we like to see things that disturb us...this is the kind of stuff which leaves the long lasting impression.

6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?

I find Djurberg's work extremely interesting. I think it was chosen for the Venice Biennale because of the way Djurberg combines two very different media's (film and clay modelling) and also plays 'sweet' on 'bad' and by doing this Djurberg creates a fascinating, terrifying, weird and beautiful jungle, which shouldn't - but does work.

references.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-claymation.htm

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/6886/nathalie-djurberg-experiment-at-venice-art-biennale-09.html

http://pudri.blogspot.com/2009/10/la-biennale-di-venezia-2009-nathalie.html

Last blog question for semester one- Banksy's work

Last blog question for semester one- Banksy's work

How can we categorize Banksy's work -graffiti or murals?

Research Banksy's work to attempt to answer this question.

What are some of the differing opinions about Banksy's work?

Not only is his work controversial because it is essentially graffiti, but because his stenciled works of "art' often fetch thousands at auction. Most critics agree that art is not simply about communication per se but about substance; about that which is being communicated and how universally it is understood. Since the rise of postmodernism this ideal has been propagated in as many stimulating ways as it has dull ones but Banksy himself can never be accused of making art for art's sake. He speaks to the public in its own voice and, whatever your opinion about the depth and grandeur of his work (or lack thereof) there's no denying that his message resonates with the general public and in so doing, places Banksy at the helm of modern art.

How does his work sit in relation to consumerism? Can his work be sold? Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti, he only sells the real life thing. Banksy’s work is sold in art auctions, also online auctions such as Ebay. Since the meteoric rise in the value of Banksy's work, it has been known for art auctioneers to sell his street graffiti on location and then leave the removal of the work in the hands of the person who purchased it.

Who is Banksy? Do we know his true identity?
Banksy is a pseudonymous British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974, but his identity is unknown. Banksy has managed to tag walls in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans and the Palestinian segregation wall in the West Bank, among others, and has remained anonymous through his "career" to avoid prosecution.

Upload 2-3 images of Banksy's work that you find interesting, and comment on the ideas behind the work.

- I like this image because to me it kind of looks like a shadow of an actually girl floating up into the sky being carried up by balloons. It’s in a public place and is something that would make you double take when walking or driving past it.

I picked this one as one that I liked because at first it just looked so real! I love how it looks like the kids had just climbed over the wall from the other side. It gives the plain grey wall some colour and makes the wall interesting.

This artwork is more comical than the others I have chosen. I found it interesting because it is ironic in the way that man is willing to hang out the window in the nude, just so he does not get found by the husband.

references

http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Is-Banksy-Any-Good-/201669

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy

http://www.contactmusic.com/info/banksy

http://www.google.co.nz/images?um=1&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en-us&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=banksy&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai

Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam' (2001)

Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam' (2001)

'Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam- 'Towards the Complex-For the Courageous, the Curious and the Cowards', (2001) is a video project by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba.

Research this project to identify the ideas behind the work. Can you connect some of the concepts and ideas from the renaissance, Enlightenment or Modernism with the work? Discuss your answer.

Discuss how do you think the title of the work reflects the artists' intentions?

In a work commissioned for the 2001 Yokohama Triennale of Contemporary Nguyen-Hatsushiba again focused on cyclo drivers in his video project, Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam: Towards the Complex-For the Courageous, the Curious and the Cowards (2001).

Filmed on location in Vietnam’s Indochina Sea, this remarkable 13-minute video depicts a number of young men struggling to propel cyclos across the rock-strewn, sandy, ocean bottom. Memorial Project Nha Trang does not employ actors, using actual fishermen instead, for the grueling task. Meant to signify the harsh, challenging conditions of everyday life for many Vietnamese people, the arduous job of dragging the cyclos through the ocean speaks to the difficult burden of the past in the face of modernization. Working in teams, they pull, push, and pedal the passenger less vehicles; and periodically they must rush up to the surface for air or risk drowning. The water grows deeper; the boulders get larger; the trip to the surface takes longer; and the task is increasingly arduous.
The film’s sense of absurdity is heightened by the fact that the physical struggles are real; from the splashing and stumbling trek from beach to sea-floor, to the maneuvering around boulders and beds of coral. Each time a man seeks traction in the sand with his toes or pushes to the surface to breathe, he does so out of the necessity to overcome the tangible barriers he faces. Finally, the drivers abandon their cyclos, and swim together toward an underwater “city” composed of tents made from white netting strung between boulders, a metaphorical memorial for the many Vietnamese boat people drowned in the aftermath of the war. The clear blue water, sunlight dappling the ocean floor, and gentle flute music composed by Quoc Bao and Nguyen-Hatsushiba, again provide stark contrast in this all-too-real metaphor for this endangered way of life.

This cheap means of transportation has provided a source of income for many of those unemployed as a result of the country’s reunification. Modernization, however, has made these vehicles, which are good for the environment, but slow moving and old-fashioned, unwelcome on Vietnamese city streets; and the government has banned further production of cyclos.

http://www.nyartbeat.com/nyablog/2008/07/for-the-courageous-the-curious-and-the-cowards/

http://listart.mit.edu/node/533

Industrialisation and Art- week 7

Industrialisation and Art- week 7

Industrialisation and Art- week 7

It started in the mid-1700s in Great Britain when machinery began to replace manual labor and fossil fuels replaced wind, water, and wood primarily for the manufacture of textiles and the development of iron making processes. The full impact of the Industrial Revolution would not begin to be realized until about 100 years later in the 1800s when the use of machines to replace human labor spread throughout Europe, North America and the rest of the world. Not only did society develop the ability to have more things quicker, it would be able to develop better things.

Industrialism can be defined as an economic system built on large industries rather than on agriculture or craftsmanship.

Claude Monet, in painting his Impression Sunrise, of 1872, had broken free in shattered the art worked of the past. Laying ground for Modernism to take over. The art world changed forever, by this ability to capture the effects of air and light on a canvas. The artist Claude Monet, created works at a great time of change in the world around him. The industrial revolution was quickly changing the face of the world around him as quickly as the paint changing on the canvases of the Impressionists from the Realists in the Rubenesque schools that preceded him. As in Monet and his work, is as important to the changes in art made by any of the masters such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh, or even Leonardo Da Vinci.For the first time, since the invention of the camera, painters were not responsible to depict only perfect realism as the subject of their work. Now with the invention of the modern paint tube and the train giving the ability to reach remote gorges, rural locations that Monet and the other masters of the time would capture in the new up and coming movement so aptly named Impressionism for its ability to create and impression.

The weather project was an installation filled the open space of the gallery's Turbine Hall. Eliasson used humidifiers to create a fine mist in the air via a mixture of sugar and water, as well as a semi-circular disc made up of hundreds of monochromatic lamps that radiated the single frequency yellow light. The ceiling of the hall was covered with a huge mirror, in which visitors could see themselves as tiny black shadows against a mass of orange light. Many visitors responded to this exhibition by lying on their backs and waving their hands and legs. The work reportedly attracted two million visitors; many of them were repeat customers.
The similarities between the two are the sun, light, ethereality, and the environment. Both Monet and Eliasson based their works on light, and the light of the sun. Also colour was another similarity. They both used that bright fiery orange colour of the sun. Both of their works also both had a heavenly, airy feel to them this was due to the use of mist in Eliasson’s work and a cloudy covering of paint in Monet’s work.

References:

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:industrialism&ei=3izeS6nMA5HUtgP1xr2oBg&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title&ved=0CAYQkAE

http://www.ecology.com/archived-links/industrial-revolution/index.html

http://www.ezmuseum.com/monet1.htm

http://artwelove.com/artist/-id/849a8532

Science and Progress-Tony Oursler- week 5

Science and Progress-Tony Oursler- week 5

New York 1996 
'Eyes' 1996

Research Tony Oursler's projection sculpture to identify some of the ideas and methods he uses in his work.

Artist Tony Oursler works in several media, but he is best known for his eccentric and groundbreaking videos of eerily painted dummies. His art deals with topics from Multiple Personality Disorder to corporate power and media brainwashing. Oursler’s works seem like animate effigies in their own psychological space, often appearing to interact directly with the viewer's sense of empathy. These installations are consistently disturbing and fascinating and lead to great popular and critical compliments.
I think that Tony Oursler’s work is trying to prove that everything in life, especially art, is a matter of perspective. I think this way because Oursler takes things that people would see hundreds of times a day and that is quite normal for e.g. People’s faces, eyes, mouth and transforms them into very abnormal and disturbing things to see by projecting the two-dimensional pictures onto three dimensional objects such as spheres. Oursler work covers a range of mediums working with video, sculpture, installation, performance and painting. Because he uses different mediums in each work it creates interest for the viewer, as each work is different from the next. This draws the viewer in and I think that’s a reason why his work is so liked by many.

How do you think the Enlightenment concepts of Science, progress, reason, individualism, empiricism, universalism, freedom and secularism can be applied to Oursler's work?

Enlightenment in Oursler's work consists on the different ideas of science, technology and individualism. Oursler is fascinated by how society immerses itself in technologies like movies, television and the Internet. Individualism can be seen in Oursler’s work as each of his artworks whether it be a video, projected image, sculpture etc and because he uses many different media each of his works are different but are based on the same topics [multiple personality disorder and media brainwashing] which I mentioned earlier. The idea of science is seen in oursler’s works through his investigations of the different part of the face e.g. eyes and mouth and experiments with them on different objects to create 3 dimensional works.