Barbara Kruger

Kruger is considered to be a very opinionated person. Her work is always bold and outspoken with presentations ranging from billboards, T-shirts, and posters to the signature red-bordered montages of words and images. Kruger's photographs are mainly focused around the ideas of self-identity, desire and public opinions towards ourselves, which is an on-going manipulation from the mass media.

This work Untitled (Not Perfect) is "Distinctively feminist in orientation, the work also examines how gender difference is reinforced through media presentation. Traditionally, women have been displayed in film and advertising as objects of desire for the male viewer. The exception occurs when women are targeted by the media as consumers; only then do they become subjects, but merely as patrons of desirable images of themselves." (2010 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation)

In 2008 Kruger collaborated Jenny Holzer, Cindy Sherman and Louise Lawler for West of Rome’s “Women in the City” public art exhibition.The show took place across Los Angeles, CA in February 2008, and featured works by these artists on billboards, giant projections, posters, stickers, marquees, jumbotrons, and through the mediums of video, image, and sound. The point of this exhibition was to gather up some women artists that had been through the feminist art movement of the 80's. An event or achievement of the feminist movement was the crowds of thousands of women in the western worlds invading the cities in order to claim their rights. "Women in the City" show cases the success of this, and in an empowered position.

Both works comment on the struggles that women had gone through to get their equal rights in the shadow of men. Both have very bold ideas and statements. The works are considered to be "In your face". Kruger has gone from posters to public exhibitions, works on various public signs and sites on a public street.



Considering Krugers work in 1991, where the clean, minimal and very white Mary Boone Art Gallery is intirely covered (floor, walls and cieling) with text, placed images and photomontages, i would personally find such an auction as something that was really overwhelming. Although there is a minimum of three colours, the red, black and white make a bold impression aswell as the text itself.
"The entire floor was bathed in red, making it look like blood stains with white letters shining through. And not only was the visual aspect arresting, but the tone and content of the text was even more blistering" (Peter Zimmerman)
In comparrison to seeing a poster of krugers, the difference in experience is that the poster is flat, therefore demanding attention to one area, and for a shorter period of time then an installation which involves all four corners of a room. with this Mary Boone gallery exhibition, you find yourself surrounded, giving a more memorable experience.

“All that seemed beneath you is speaking to you now,”

What really gives a strong effect in Krugers work in my opinion is mainly her use in minimal colours. Her signature white text on red with black and white photography. Also the fact that she uses real life issues captivates ones attention and really educating people.

In the past 30 years Kruger has devaloped from 2d poster work, to spacial and/or installation art. Though she keeps her signature style and ideas behind her work. Educating people about the issues in everyday society. She somewhat modernised her Bold text and colors technique but still keeping her own kwirkyness and flare.

Referencing:
http://peterandjoan.blogs.wm.edu/2009/03/11/barbara-kruger-a-room-with-a-view/
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?search=Untitled%20%28Not%20Perfect%29&page=&f=Title&object=81.2809

Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley (born in Los Angeles, California in 1977) is a New York based painter who is known for his paintings of contemporary urban African American men in poses taken from the annals of art history. His work can often be compared to portraitists such as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian and Ingres.
his paintings base around photographs taken around the streets of Harlem of young men wearing everyday clothes, he represents the portrayal of masculinity and physicality from the views of black and brown men.

Wiley uses and infuses or collaborates different styles from a range of intellectual movements and time periods. These include the Renaissance, French rococo, West African designs, Islamic architecture and urban hip-hop. With the style of a Renaissance painting, Wiley still portrays, if not discreetly, the modern Urban Hip Hop culture. Through his work we are shown "the sign and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world"( Kehinde Wiley Studios, n.d.)

According to Cadwell (1999)

Pluralism in art refers to the nature of artforms and artists 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, genders, ideologies, abilities, ages, religions, economic status and educational levels is valued. Pluralism honours differences within and between equitable groups while seeing their commonalities."

Society has their stereotypes on different people and a set heirachy. Wiley's work steps away from such things by using an old British/Renaissance style of painting as the background to a portrait of a black/brown man of the urban hip hop culture, two very different communities and time periods are collaborated. He does not absolutely ignore the differences in ethnicities and ideaologies, but uses the best of both to complete an exceptional portrait. "By applying the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, history, wealth and prestige to the subject matter drawn from the urban fabric, the subjects and stylistic references for his paintings are juxtaposed inversions of each other, forcing ambiguity and provocative perplexity to pervade his imagery." (Kehinde Wiley Studios n.d.)

Referencing:
http://worktolive.posterous.com/kehinde-wiley
http://www.kehindewiley.com/main.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kehinde_Wiley

Anish Kapoor

"My Red Homeland" 2003

Although the title of the exhibition “My Red Homeland” could refer to his Indian birthplace, (as some may have assumed) it actually refers to a much different field, namely: “my inner homeland”. As he explained on the day of opening, “I have always thought of the colour red as a colour of the centre, like a path to emotional exploration”. Red is the colour of blood, of passion and emotion; red is the colour of meat, here turned into wax and Vaseline. Wax and Vaseline in which the monochromatic effect creates a never-ending optical illusion, the application of colour indicates a constant in his works: the search for Immateriality and Spirituality.

Sky Mirror 2006

Anish Kappor's work "Sky Mirror" is a dazzling experience of light and architecture, presenting viewers with a vivid inversion of the skyline featuring the historic landmark building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The stainless steel sculpture is installed on a platform, a few feet above street level and stands at least three stories high at the Fifth Avenue entrance to the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center. The 'Sky Mirror' is open to be viewed by the public and reflects the skyscraper upside down, along with the sky surrounding it.

"Cloud Gate" Also known as "The Bean"


This work of Kapoor's was constructed around 2004-2006 and was nicknamed 'the bean' for its distinct shape and curve. Like the sky mirror it is another stainless steel sculpture which also has intriguing reflective features that is available for the public eye in Chicago.

The Farm


2. The purpose of the project was to provide a permanent horizontally supported work of art to complement an outdoor art gallery. The structural goal was to design an end-supported horizontal tension membrane structure capable of withstanding the high winds from the Tasman Sea.

3. As described by Anish Kapoor the work is a fabricated installation made to resemble a 'tensioned membrane sculpture'. 'The Farm' is situated at a private estate, outdoor art gallery in Kaipara Bay, North of Auckland, New Zealand.
The materials used for this work include; Ferrari 1302-S series PVC fabric, structural steel ellipses which support the fabric and Thirty-two longitudinal mono filament cables provide displacement and deflection resistant to wind loads while assisting with the fabric transition.

4. I consider 'The Farm' as my favorite sculpture. I acknowledge the fact that it would have been such a challenge to create something that seems so fragile yet withstand take the high pressure of wind and other aspects that are typical of New Zealand weather. Like a lot of his other public structures, it let gives you the opportunity for a different view of the scenery. The sculpture, which passes through a specifically cut hillside, provides a kaleidoscopic view of the beautiful Kaipara Harbor at the vertical ellipse and the hand contoured rolling valleys and hills from the horizontal ellipse. I think his work really makes you appreciate the beauty of the landscape.


references:
http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/newsInfo/newsID/2771/lang/1
http://www.publicartfund.org./pafweb/projects/06/kapoor//kapoor-06.html
http://www.ifaipublications.com/iaa/articles/1407.html
http://www.anishkapoor.com/works/gallery/2003myredhomeland/index.htm

Walterz Prize

1. What is the background to the Walters Prize?

This biennial award recognises an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to contemporary art in New Zealand in the two years prior. Named in honour of artist Gordon Walters, it was established by founding benefactors and principal donors Erika and Robin Congreve and Dame Jenny Gibbs to make contemporary art a more widely recognised and debated and prominent feature of New Zealand cultural life.

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

Dan Arps: (Explaining Things)
Dan Arps work at first, and sometimes completely seems like a room filled with junk. His piece consists of found objects that most would find no use in. A lot of them in fact can be categorized as very "Kitch". The display is unprofessional, tape and screws all over the walls, as though he were giving the art world the big 'middle finger'. When you first walk into the room and you see these objects that have been collected, you start to question whether or not this is art?
he expressive and the deadpan are jammed together in 'Explaining Things'. Chunks of mass materials detritus, Youtube clips, furniture, ornaments and posters are re - worked into something that would sometimes appear o be illegible personal artifacts.

Alex Monteith: Passing Manoeuvre with Two Motorcycles and 584 Vehicles for Two-Channel Video
According to (Artists with eyes on prize, 2010) she “was trying to push what could be done in the little space between two rows of motorway traffic”.
Passing Manoeuvre with Two Motorcycles and 584 Vehicles for Two-Channel Video is a short film that shows a bike weaving its way through hectic traffic,(which is illegal in New Zealand's current road laws) from both front and rear view of the bike.

Fiona Connor: Something Transparent
Fiona Conner had made an installment that explores the architecture of the space that she was given. With two doorways it gives the viewers two different perspectives to her work. Her nominated work was a gallery’s front entrance which she replicates 14 times throughout her gallery space.

Saskia Leek: Yellow is the Putty of the world
Saskia Leek’s nominated work is a collection of her 11 paintings, she explores with subjects such as buildings, a sailing ship, a cat, a bowl of fruit and autumn leaves. She states that the painting process in her work is more important than it is about her subject matters

3. Who are the jury members for 2010?

Jon Bywater - Programme Leader, Critical Studies at Elam School of Fine Art, The University of Auckland.
Rhana Devenport - Director, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
Leonhard Emmerling - Visual Arts Adviser, Goethe Institute, Munich, Germany, former Director, ST PAUL St, AUT University
Kate Montgomery - Director, Physics Room, Christchurch

4. Who is the judge for 2010 and what is his position in the art world?
Former-director of London's Tate Modern, Vicente Todoli, was appointed to judge the Walters Prize 2010 and announce the award winner on 8 October. “he has worked at New York's Whitney Museum, the IVAM in Valencia, and the Serralves Contemporary Art Museum in Oporto, as well as working alongside the ICA in Amsterdam and the Reina Sofía Museum.” (thinkSpain, 2010)

5. Who would you nominate for this years Walter's Prize, and why? Substantiate
you answer by outlining the strengths of the artists work. How does this relate
to your interests in art? What aspect of their work is successful in your opinion,
in terms of ideas, materials and/or installation of the work?
Although at first i found the fact that his work is considered art at all an arguable matter, i would personally vote for Dan Arps: 'Explaining Things'. I found myself spending the most time around his exhibition, discussing the work and finding small details. i was amused by his use of popular and kitch things of today's modern society, e.g popular posters and stickers that you would find in a teenagers room. I find that the best best quality about his work is that i was constantly questioning it, why did he put that there, why did he use this, out of all it was definitely the most interesting. His work inspired me to actually look at junk from a different perspective, how can i either make it usefull or simply turn it into my own piece of art.



http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/events/2010/july/the-walters-prize-2010

Hussein Chalayan

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?

According to Tolga Yilmaz (2009), Chalayan's Afterwords Collection was inspired by the story of refugees and the idea of having to leave home in times of trouble.
The transformation of furniture into dresses, carrying cases, and a skirt suggests the necessity of leaving one’s home in a hurry with nothing but the clothes on one’s back.
Recalling the plight of Turkish Cypriots (including his own family) who were subjected to ethnic cleansing in Cyprus following its Independence in 1960, Chalayan translated the refugee experience and the desire to hide possessions and take them on departure into dress.
When watching "Afterwords" my main reaction was a certain shock or amazement. I found that for someone to deform a piece of furniture to create a winter dress or skirt was a concept that had really amused me. I personally appeal to this collection as you see how daring Chalayan's work is, in taking architecture and household objects to create fashion.



Chalayan’s autumn/winter collection show in 2000, features models wearing dresses as well as having them nude, the Burka (1996) is based around the idea of the “traditional Islamic chador, as a comment on the treatment of women in Muslim societies.” (Regine,2005)
Seeing a fashion show where the woman are half or nearly completely nude, i am pushed to question the work, whether or not it really can be considered fashion, or is it an artistic expression of the ideas that he has focused on in this exhibition. I find that it was not the clothes that made the exhibition, but the presentation and how it really expressed the theme. you could say that fashion is not always about the clothes, but is an art form, a way of expressing a person, a theme or an issue.
Although i do feel that such a theme or idea can be seen as a bit of a risk, to portray and exploit Islamic tradition in such a form can in some ways if not most be seen as highly disrespectful. I find such work really challenges the viewer thoughts and opinions.

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?

Many artists do collaborate with businesses to promote and better a product or design. This can create more opportunities and positive outcomes for both the business and the artist. When Chalayan was asked to design and create an installation to promote and reflect the taste of Level Vodka, according to (The Level Tunnel by Hussein Chalayan, 2008), “The idea is to engage in a captivating sensual experience of scent, sound and touch. I want to match all senses – excluding vision – to emphasize the exceptional taste of Level Vodka...”. Such work can still be considered art as with this he is bringing in aspects of product design, making something that will appeal to people and really advertise the Vodka.



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 film 'Absent Presence' looks at the neurosis and paranoia around the issue of the terrorism, the consequential suspicion of foreign individuals. How after the terrorists attacks people have become more apprehensive about all people of certain cultures and religions. Focusing on the British Government new hard line policies on immigration and asylum seekers, Hussein Chalayan decided to propose a scenario depicting how they may create new measures for living in Britain.
This work shows evidence that it may have been influenced by the post-modernism's ‘pop art’ from the United States and Britain. Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art. Pop removes the material from its context and isolates the object, or combines it with other objects, for contemplation. The concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it.Early artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and a group called the "independant group" may have influenced Chalayan to explore and experiment with the different fields of art and design.

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?

The important thing is that the artist had designed the piece, artists aren't always engineers or manufacturers, so sometimes help is required.



referencing:
http://vimeo.com/4187825
http://artnews.org/search.php
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/chalayan.html
http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/videos.2000.2000_a_w_afterwords/

Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'

1. What do you understand by the word 'claymation'?

The definition of "Claymation" can be seen simply in the word itself. It is a form of stop-motion animation where clay figures are formed and put into different positions in each frame, put together to make an animated film or work.

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

The two titles best describes the dreamlike or unnatural atmosphere or feeling that Nathalie Djurberg presents through her work.

Nathalie Djurberg is a Swedish artist who had constructed towering clay flowers for the infamous Venice Biennale art show. These monstrous flowers confront viewers with the complex nature of emotions in a terrifying and artistic way.Her 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. These unreal and in some ways daunting flowers send off an Erie atmosphere that gives the viewer a more surreal point of view.



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

Djurberg is best known for producing claymation short films that are faux-naïve, but graphically violent and erotic. Their main characters, as described by The New York Times, "are girls or young women engaged in various kinds of vileness: from mild deception, friendly torture and oddly benign bestiality to murder and mayhem."
Having such a theme and storyline leaves the viewer disturbed and shocked to think about what they have just been exposed to. Her work can be grotesque and unsettling for the viewer.The short films are often no longer than five minutes but they manage however to tell stories about the human condition mixed both with black humour and seriousness. The stories deal with topics such as war, violence, sexuality, sadism and assault ­ in an investigation of the darker side of the human soul.

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

According to Ryberg, 2005, Djurberg's claymation's tend to resemble children TV. Her stories have a lot in common with traditional folktales. They involve traditional roles as the good, the bad and the kind helper. The films also have animals as characters e.g. the wolf, the bear and the tiger. As in tales strange and magical things happen in Djurberg's films; animals speak, trees walk and humans fly and talk with animals.
However this setting changes in the story into more of an x-rated fantasy with no moral.

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?

when putting two such different themes together, Djurberg's work can in some perspective be seen as "the corruption of an innocent childhood". the two combined, innocence with violence and/or sexuality, makes for an interesting combination and an all round thought provoking concept. Although such a transition can also attract negative attention from the opinions of not only other designers but the media and the public, therefore becoming something infamous.

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


The theme of this exhibition was "making worlds". Djurberg's work can relate to this theme mainly because the films have an existential feeling of suspense and uneasiness. A world is about to fall apart ­ and even though it's made of clay it strongly relates to themes of human reality (Ryberg, 2005). She also creates a "new world" or something more dreamlike with her work 'surrealistic Garden of Eden". The biblical version of the garden of Eden is said to be more of a paradise, whereas Djurberg's interpretation of the garden is daunting, the flowers are monstrous and mysterious.

7. Add some of your own personal comments on her work.

Personally i find Djurberg's work interesting and humorous, yet disturbing at the same time. Her train of thought that is sometimes evident in her work is amusing and with the subliminal messages and sexual referencing, the innocence that we see at first, i feel is completely forgotten and demolished.




References

http://www.zachfeuer.com/nathaliedjurberg.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathalie_Djurberg
http://artnews.org/artist.php?i=1211

For the Courageous the Curious and the Cowards

Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba is a part Japanese and Vietnamese artist who creates films which explore Vietnamese history and national identity, and have referenced issues such as the displacement of Vietnamese "boat people" after the Vietnam War. But Hatsushiba's principle theme revolves around Alienation.

"For the Courageous, the Curious, and the Cowards" was a 13 minute video by Hatsushiba exposing the difficulty and hard labor that the job of dragging the cyclos through the ocean floor had involved. This video acts in the same way as a documentary, it consisted of real Vietnamese fishermen, no actors were employed. The viewer is forced to acknowledge the fact that all physical struggles evident in this video are real, this also brings out the absurdity of such tangible barriers the men may face. According to Wikipedia, Cyclos are used for local transport, mostly used in the South, Southeast and East Asia, where the passengers are pulled by a person on foot. The fisherman drag the cyclos completely underwater, across the sea floor towards about thirty mosquito nets, spread across the sea bed by the artist himself. The fisherman remain calm and determined until needing to breathe, they then rush up to the surface and gasp for air.

Concepts and ideologies from the Renaissance, Modernism are evident in the video. Interest in the future (scientific or the technological) as to capture the footage underwater would require a specific video camera. By capturing the real scene and atmosphere of dragging the cyclos, the audience better absorbs the real issues. Hatsushiba also shows interest in he everyday and mundane human lifestyle of the Vietnamese. He really focuses on their hardships and struggles.

As said by Hewit, (2008), “the arduous job of dragging the cyclos through the ocean speaks to the difficult burden of the past in the face of modernization.” From Hatsushiba's work we are exposed to the lifestyle of some Vietnamese people who struggle with change, modernization an industrialization. The people who do not accept the westernized ways and methods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jun_Nguyen-Hatsushiba

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