Week 6- Anish Kapoor Sculpture

 Anish Kapoor

Cloud Gate (2004), Millennium Park, Chicago

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 whether it is conceptual art or not. Explain your answer, using a definition of conceptual art.

I think kapoor’s work is conceptual art in the sense that his art is full of ideas and also confusing, confusing because the materials, the colours, and the shapes used in his work don’t go in the same ways than the landscape or the surround. “Conceptual Art is a contemporary form of artistic representation, in which a specific concept or idea, often personal, complex and inclusive, takes shape in an abstract, nonconforming manner, based upon a negation of aesthetic principles.It is different from "Concept" as the content of art, but can be considered an abstract form of the idea and perception of the artwork originating in the artist's mind, which is later displayed in a proposed structure, and a variety of forms.”

2. Research 3 quite different works by Kapoor from countries outside New Zealand to discuss the ideas behind the work. Include images of each work on your blog.

 

His work “sky mirrors” is really disturbing, I first thought it was a photoshoped picture because it’s so unthinkable, “what the sky is doing on the grass?”. In my opinion Anish Kapoor might wanted to show people how the time is going, the sky was the only guide for us to have the notion of the time, even to give directions (Polynesians used to navigate through stars).

 

“Yellow” is a kind of illusion, you may have said “what a great painting, he succeed to make us feel the deepness” it’s actually difficult to think of a non-flat wall through the picture, but this work actually isn’t flat it has a deepness. Anish kapoor really like playing with strong and bright colours, the yellow used fascinate me, and the deepness give a gradient to the yellow that make me feel attracted by it, like something breaking conventions we used to know.

 his work “svayambh” is a giant piece of red wax moving slowly through rails, the wax can’t fit to the doors, so it depose wax on the door and get the shape of it. The first thing I thought when I saw this work was my childhood, playing with clay, a piece of clay pushed into objects to get the shapes of it. The colours involved in this work actually attract much more the viewers.

3.Discuss the large scale 'site specific' work that has been installed on a private site in New Zealand.
4. Where is the Kapoor's work in New Zealand? What are its form and materials? What are the ideas behind the work?

Kapoor’s work in New Zealand is situated in Kaipara Bay in the north of Auckland, “it is designed to withstand the high winds that blow inland from the Tasman Sea off the northwest coast of New Zealand’s North Island.”  this work is made of deep red PVC, it weight 42,750kg and it resists to the wind loads. This work looks like a twisted tube in which both extremity form an ellipse one horizontal (hills side) and the other vertical (Kaipara harbour side). This sculpture is on a hill split in two.

 “I am interested in sculpture that manipulates the viewer into a specific relationship with both space and time.” –Anish Kapoor, Tate Magazine, July 2007

5. Comment on which work by Kapoor is your favourite, and explain why. Are you personally attracted more by the ideas or the aesthetics of the work?

I do really like his work "yellow", I can see his interests in it, I found out that most of his works looks like "Dark holes",They have always fascinated me because it's the only place where time, light, sound, physical condition had completely changed the rules. Some scientific came out with the idea that "Dark holes" is a portal to another space-time and the drawing they've made looks like "the farm" or "yellow", Anish Kapoor made really interesting work, it challenge the viewer to think differently rather than following the rules the human came out with.




http://www.whattoseeinparis.com/anish-kapoor-paris/
http://unitb-responsivearchitecture.blogspot.com/2009/11/anish-kapoor.html
http://www.caroun.com/art/conceptualart/conceptualart.html



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

www.royalacademy.org.uk › 
http://www.robgarrettcfa.com/thefarm.htm
http://www.billslater.com/cloudgate/

Dismemberment of Jeanne d’Arc- 

Old Municipal Market Building Brighton

Week 5 - Pluralism and the Treat of Waitangi

Pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi

In teaching week 5 you will discuss pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi in your tutorials.
Use this discussion, the notes in your ALVC book and the internet to respond to the following
questions;

1. Define the term 'pluralism' using APA referencing.

“Pluralism in art refers to the nature of artforms and artist as diverse. The cultural context of art is all encompassing in its respect for the art of the world’s cultures. Inclusion of individuals of differing ethnicities, gender, ideologies, abilities, ages, religions, economic status and educational level is valued. Pluralism honours differences within and between equitable groups while seeing commonalities.” Caldwell (1990), ALVC2 ressouce book (july 2011)  

2. How would you describe New Zealand's current dominant culture?

I think New Zealand has the largest variety of culture in the world. Because it’s a growing up country, many businesses, immigrants come to New Zealand and then share their culture. The easiest way to see how multi-cultural is a country is to have a look at the food they serve and New Zealand is one of the biggest multi-culture I know, all kind of food can be found (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, French, Brazilian, and lots more....).

New Zealand’s current dominant culture is, in my opinion, European’s one because of their majority but the Maoris’ one still a really expressed culture, in fact   all advertisement we can see at the airport are promoting Maoris’ culture (visiting marae, old maoris’ village...), the tattoo still an interesting part in New Zealand (even if the meanings of wearing a tattoo isn’t cared anymore),and  New Zealand’s rugby team is also composed of Maoris.

3. Before 1840, what was New Zealand's dominant culture?

I’m sure that before 1840, Maoris’ culture was the dominant one. The first contact the Maoris had with Europeans was in 1642 and they were just visiting and trading, they started living and building in 1800, then churches, but the influence of European’s culture wasn’t spread, in fact Europeans were situated at the north of New Zealand and approximately 2,000 were permanent at this time.

4. How does the Treaty of Waitangi relate to us all as artists and designers working
in New Zealand?

The Treaty of Waitangi have gave us the opportunity to remind and keep Maoris’ culture ( in some other colonised countries, the local culture start being forgotten  such as Tahiti), we are now able to develop, tell, imagine these traditions.

5. How can globalization be seen as having a negative effect on regional diversity in New Zealand in particular?

Globalisation had a really bad effect on regional diversity; in fact globalisation gold is to spread throughout the world any kind of “successful” business, technology or philosophy. Traditions, activities, the traditional hangi, cultures became less interesting, some have sold goods to international business as attractions instead of being eradicated, according to opponents of globalisation it give to wealthier nations the advantage of the poorer ones.

6. Shane Cotton's paintings are said to examine the cultural landscape. Research Cotton's work 'Welcome'(2004) and 'Forked Tongue' (2011) to analyze what he is saying about colonialization and the Treaty of Waitangi. 

 

'Welcome' (2004) Shane Cotton 

http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/work/52293/shane-cotton-welcome.aspx

 

  

        

 

'Forked Tongue'(2011) Shane Cotton

  

        

Understand Shane Cotton’s works might be difficult if we don’t know his story. He is a descendant of a Maori and a pakeha ancestors, he grew up with two different cultures and his work explore those two cultures.

 His work ‘welcome’ (2004) is a painting involving two birds on sides, a man who looks like Jesus at the top and a black man at the bottom. This work makes me feel of a conflict, something not balanced, in fact the two birds looks like they are fighting because they are facing each other with drawn feathers. The way that the two people have been set put out the idea of a British dominance. He tell stories and give his own opinion in this work, I think, through this work, Shane cotton felt an “exploitation” on Maoris.

7. Tony Albert's installation 'Sorry' (2008) reflects the effects of colonization on the aboriginal people of Australia. Research the work and comment on what Albert is communicating through his work, and what he is referring to. Describe the materials that Albert uses on this installation and say what he hopes his work can achieve. Define the term 'kitsch'.

                                       Tony Albert | Australia b.1981 | Girramay people | Sorry 2008 |
                                               Found kitsch objects applied  to vinyl letters | 99 objects :   
                                               200 x 510 x 10cm (installed) | The James C Sourris Collection.
                                               Purchased 2008 with funds from James C Sourris through the 
                                               Queensland Art Gallery Foundation | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
                             

 Tony Albert’s installation ‘sorry’ (2008) is referring to a date, the 13^th of February 2008, when the Prime Minister (Kevin Rudd) gave a formal apology to Indigenous Australian. What happened in Australia since 1788 was the opposite of what happened in New Zealand. In fact European settler had no agreement between white and Aborigines, white civilisation has imposed themselves as “greater natural abilities and higher standard civilisation”.   

His work is composed of many Aborigines faces that had an importance in the history. Those faces are places in the way to create a “sorry”, a simple word that means a lot for Aborigies.

8. Explain how the work of both artists relates to pluralism.

http://www.realartroadshow.co.nz/essays/Cotton%20Shane_Kenesis-Kotahi%20Ki%20Kotahi.pdf

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/shane-cotton-paintings-examine-cultural-landscape-126412

Week 4 - Kehinde Wiley and inter-textuality

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

Kahinde Wiley is a Gay American based painter born in Los Angeles, who has an international reputation. Wiley lives and practices between Beijing and Brooklyn.


This week ALVC class focuses on the Postmodern theme "INTERTEXTUALITY", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 39 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley. 

1. Find a clear definition of Intertextuality and quote it accurately on your blog using the APA referencing system. Use your own words to explain the definition more thoroughly.

Intertexuality refers to the way that any one text (written or visual) is influenced, or made up of a variety of other earlier texts. ALVC2 ressource book (july 2011) p 36

This concept means that every texts is referring back to earlier texts. we all have to start from texts, work, thought to be able to develop and create something.     

2. Research Wiley's work and write a paragraph that analyzes how we might make sense of his work. Identify intertextuality in Wiley's work.

Kehinde Wiley (born in 1977) an American artist has imposed himself into the art history’s portrait painting tradition. His work is based on painting black people in a contemporary style, the way he’s painted don’t put black people as normal but as superior , reusing famous renaissance painting, the posture of a king, the elegance of Venus, or a soldier of a cavalries.

His work reflect intertextuality process, in fact most of his work is a “copy” of famous renaissance painting, it "quote historical sources and position young black men within that field of power.”  

3. Wiley's work relates to next weeks Postmodern theme "PLURALISM" . Read page 46 and discuss how the work relates to this theme.

4. Comment on how Wiley's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview. 

5. Add some reflective comments of your own, which may add more information that
you have read during your research.

http://www.cretique.com/archives/4012
http://www.deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=11

Week 3- Hussein Chalayan

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?

I found the work ‘burka’(1996) very interesting because of the original meaning of it, the burka was at first supposed to be wearied by the prophet’s wifes, the texts has been changed 20 years ago and the burka’s been applied to every wife.  in my opinion, the Muslim have set the sexuality as a taboo but they seem more attracted by it than any other religions, for example the burka is suppose to hide the beauty of the women and save their dignity when she is outside, but it has transform the women as an object just against man jealousy. I think that’s what Chalayan wanted to show, a kind of perversion of the idea of the burka.
 Her second work ‘afterwords’(2000) could be more considered as a fashion work, it seem like she has tried to experiment another kind of fashion by playing with architectural materials and new technology such as metal cylinder, plastic bubbles, and lights.     

Hussein Chalayan, Burka, 1996

                          Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000

Hus

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?

I think an artwork still an art even if it’s for selling products, some advertisement on TV are actually very concerned in art. In some way commercial business may have influenced her and his work that he couldn’t entirely express himself, advertisement have only one gold, convince the audience of a good product.

His work ‘The Level Tunnel’ is 15m long and 5m high and it’s made of different materials. This work can be experimented from the exterior or blindfolders  inside, the viewer from the inside follow a path that have different levels like “a cut through landscapes”, he’ll have some sound of a flute made with a bottle of vodka activated by a sponsored floor.  He succeed to create at first an artwork instead of a selling product installation because if we don’t know that the sounds made are from a “vodka flute” or that the inspired landscape is used to purify the water used in the vodka, this piece of art could be in a museum.

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?

Hussein Chalayan, still from Absent Presence, 2005 (motion picture)

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?

Post-Modernism, Ai Weiwei and Banksy

 Post-Modernism

This week's ALVC tutorial covers Post-Modernism. Use the ALVC texts and definitions from the internet to define the term and answer the following questions;

1. Define Post-Modernism using 8-10 bullet points that include short quotes.

      . Postmodernism is "post" because it is denies the existence of any ultimate principles

      .Postmodernism relies on concrete experience over abstract principles, knowing always that the outcome of one's own experience will necessarily be fallible and relative, rather than certain and universal.

       .The term postmodernism is used in a confusing variety of ways. For some it means anti-modern; for others it means the revision of modernist premises.

      .Postmodernism is not easy to define [...] different postmodern thincker may have different opinion, and different fields may have somewhat different definition of postmodernism.

       .there are both pros and cons when it comes to postmodernism

       . it can be described as a set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, the simulacrum, and hyperreality to destabilize other concepts such as presence, identity, historical progress, epistemic certainty, and the univocity of meaning.

           . Postmodern Elegy makes liberal reference to cubism, surrealism, and expressionism without adhering to the stylistic purity of modernism or striving to advance any singular ideology.

2. Use a quote by Witcombe (2000) to define the Post-Modern artist.

“the post-modern artist is ‘reflective ‘ in that he/she is self-aware and consciously involved in a process of thinking about him/herself and society in a deconstructive manner, ‘damasking’ pretensions, becoming aware of his/her cultural self in history, and accelerating the process of self-consciousness.”

3. Use the grid on pages 42 and 43 to summarize the list of the features of Post-

Modernity.

Postmodernism and modernism are really opposed, as seen from the grid I can say that postmodernism is limitless. Limitless in the way that the new technology allows us to play with new media and involve the audience to the work, the emotions that can be expressed (such as irony or seriousness). There are no longer high and popular culture but an “hybrid” cultural form. Postmodernism also play with surfaces and images and don’t pays attention to the “Depth”. The ideas of this movement sticks around social, cultural pluralism and disunity whereas modernism which was focused on unity.

4. Use this summary to answer the next two questions.

5. Research Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's 'Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola logo'(1994)

in order to say what features of the work are Post-Modern.

'Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola logo'(1994), Ai Weiwei

 

Ai Weiwei dropping a Han Dynast Urn.

Ai Weiwei is “the Chinese conceptual artist, architect, photographer, and curator - loathed and loved for his human rights activism - is the courageous voice needed in today's repressive China” (Lucy Birmingham 2009). Indeed Ai still have problems with Chinese authorities, as seen in most of his work present activism, this is “To protect the right of expression is the central part of an artist's activity. ... In China many essential rights are lacking, and I wanted to remind people of this.”(Ai Weiwei) and that’s what we can see in the two work presented, 'Han Dynasty Urn’ and ‘Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola logo'(1994).both work were made to mock at the authority, ‘Han Dynasty Urn’ is a composition of three frames in which we can see the artist breaking an 2000 year-old vase, a cultural importance. The work ‘Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-cola logo’ represent an old vase on which there is a Coca-cola logo, this is ironic and challenging, ironic in the way that China used to be communist and Coca-cola is an American logo and challenging because of the authority, I think what happened with his parents declared all this activism.    

6. Research British artist Banksy's street art, and analyze the following two works by the artist

to discuss how each work can be defined at Post-Modern.(Use your 
 list from point 6.)

'Flower Riot', Banksy

Los Angeles (2008), Banksy

Banksy is an English graffiti artist, his work is mostly a mocking view of modern life.  His two work presented ‘Flower Riot’ and ‘Los Angeles’ are both postmodernism, ‘Flower Riot’ involved a hooligan (painted in black) throwing flowers (coloured), it’s a kind of irony, the action of the hooligan is very strong but by adding the flowers it’s turned the idea into an opposite way of violence.

The work ‘Los Angeles’ is also ironic, it give the idea of American consumption, involving a Cro-Magnon man holding a fast food tray.      

    

http://science.jrank.org/pages/10807/Postmodernism-Postmodernism-in-Literature-Art.html

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Postmodernism.htm

http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Postmodernism%20and%20Its%20Critics

http://www.michaelnewberry.com/av/post/post.html

http://artzinechina.com/display.php?a=180

http://mrod.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/ai-weiwei-dropping-a-han-dynasty-urn/

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/32223/who-is-ai-weiwei/

http://www.798district.com/798/en/artists/a/aiweiwei/01_bioexh/