28/12/2017 - Video Lecture 4 - VL4 - Archive to Interview - notes and response

Looking at contemporary artists and the commentary that is made on or about their work. Looking at online resources and issues to consider, review some formal sites for future research.Thomas Schutte Thomas Schutte (b. 1954) - Gerhard Richter was tutor and due to Richters accomplishments in paint, Schutte opted for sculpture as he couldn't say any more (compete?). manipulates scale and materials - googling images means that sometimes names, materials, context, scale etc are lost. search engines will also find 'related' images, people that are influenced by, shown in similar places etc.Thomas Schutte Big Buildings, Models and Views. Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany, 23 July 2010 - Private view with Adrian Searle, art critic for the Guardian, recording of his visit to the exhibition.

Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn http://www.kah-bonn.de/index_e.htm

Model for a hotel - http://www.thomas-schuette.de/ajax.php#/4.04.22.002

huge white room with high ceiling - Model for Hotel - 4th plinth, more successful in gallery rather than on the plinth. modernistic rather than modernist - Ferienhaus fur Terroristen 2007 - chipboard and scrim - colours, you can dimly perceive the outside space, window without being windows. Searle sounds creepy at this point, uncomfortable. The identification of race is unnecessary, the 'angels' that dangle from the ceiling, birds, etc - adds a lot of personal interpretation - 'stupid heads' - judgmental - 'priests in prada' social commentary on work that sways your interpretation of the work, dependant on how you perceives Searles opinions. uses deprecative language, silly, stupid, strange' etc. comparing the works to mundane imagery that could be seen as derogatory. Big Buildings 1989 -

Big Buildings, 1989 - http://www.thomas-schuette.de/ajax.php#/2.01.09.004

buildings whose purpose you'll never understand - is that the point or Searles opinion? feeling like storage - questions on architecture, massively bias commentary. He talks about the space being magnificent, but not the works....philosophising questions - whats real? the claims Schutte is free, and free to do what he likes, but with sadness and joyousness and finally says its magnificent.Angela's encounter with Schuttes website and the watercolours he produces.

Thomas Schutte website http://www.thomas-schuette.de/website_content.php

Model for a Hotel, 4th Plinth, Trafalgar Square - nov 2007 - may 2009Ossian Ward - time out - the sculpture failed to surprise - looks no better than the proposal model that had been shown beforehand. all art is a form of proposition, a proposal of a proposal. Mocks monumentally

Ossian Ward, Time Out, 14 November 2007 http://www.timeout.com/london/art/features/3834/Trafalgar_Square-s_fourth_plinth.html

Richard Dormant - telegraph - Model for hotel, an abstract assemblage of acrylic and galls that looks like it will blow away in a breeze but weighs 4 tons. favours monumentally - light changes the visual experience of the work, each view is complete but also not satisfactory, each is different. its complicated, not possible to adequately describe such a purely visual experience. an invitation, a proposition, to view and create an individual experience - how my work at Mind the gap was, dependant on lighting the viewer would get a different experience. 

Richard Dorment, Telegraph, 7 November 2007 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3669081/Trafalgar-Square-plinth-beauty-weighs-four-tonnes.html

Kiki SmithKiki Smith (b. 1954) - A curator, a gallery and an art journalFather was sculpture - Tony SmithDifferent perspective so on work.Elizabeth brown, writing as a curator in 1994 - one of the most influential artists of her generation, makes sculpture of and about the body in materials as diverse as bronze, paper and wax.....  overly descriptive, positive spin. doesn't offer meaning, or too much context. From a promotions point of view, she wants an audience for the artist in the museums so will write a wide and overseeing type of text with mass appeal rather than being specific and possibly closing audiences out.

Singer (detail), 2008, cast aluminium, 65 x 27 x 24 in. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/kiki_smith/

Brown, E. (1995) Kiki Smith: sojourn in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara. University Art Museum, University of California.

Mary Ryan gallery website, biography - post - 2001,: classifying Smith as a feminist artist. work is imbued with political significance and undermines traditional erotic representation of women artists by males, and uses metaphor for hidden social issues. Descriptive of the visual aspects of the work, but then goes on to list issues that she has actively debated such as race, gender, aids and domestic violence. Is this evolution of the artist or simply a different type of writing? Being for a gallery website it is for a specific audience, also possibly a commercial audience, investors and collectors if the work is for sale or to generate interest in future works for sale. Collectors tend to have style and subject matter that they support and will be specific in their ideals of artists and contexts of work which allows galleries to be very explicit in the details of artists they represent.

Mary Ryan Gallery, New York,  info at http://www.artinfo.com/galleryguide 

Christine Kuan - interview with artist. Reference library, post 2008. collaboration, and public art. paper as material, paper as sculpture, craft, women artist, the body, influence of asian artist etc. Guided by questions from interviewer but gives more balanced view of the artists work.

Christine Kuan interview in Oxford Art online. http://www.oxfordartonline.com/public/page/smith

Is it possible to get a fixed picture in artists work? The aspects of bio coming in for inform an artists work. 

Biography as Art PracticeLouise BourgeoisBiography is her work -Maman, installed outside Tate in 2007room installations - intense and threatening atmosphere, related to her experience of childhood and family histories. drawings are retrospective journal of life as woman and mother.unattributed obituary - nice in tone, biographic - discusses her career, path to 'success' as an artist

Obituary in the Telegraph, 1 June 2010 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/art-obituaries/7794878/Louise-Bourgeois.html

Richard Dorment - equipped with intimate knowledge of her life story - the symbolism is easy to understand and is indexible. Academic like to utilise her work for interpretations, becoming a celebrity for what she said about her work than any aesthetic quality of emotional truth it had. Will it last once she is no longer around to discuss it? - suggests she invented 'confessional' art, and that it means little without her personal history to explain it. She has controlled this

Richard Dorment, Telegraph, 1 June 2010 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/7794168/Louise-Bourgeois-invented-confessional-art.html

Siri Hustvedt (earlier piece) - her story is so embedded in the work that it 'seduces' critics into biographical or psychoanalytical readings - its happened naturally. The object and the narrative are inseparable, and that the issue, its purely biographical and doesn't make statements to wider more relatable contexts.

Siri Hustvedt, Guardian, 6 October 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/oct/06/art

Contrasting example of autobiographical work outside the gallery:Bobby BakerPerformance artist Bobby Baker (b.1953) - domestic life, cooking, motherhood and the conflict of work, and work as an artist. Comedic, uses food in her performances, uniform for performance, utensils as props. Works in public, with public - John Lewis and Battersea dogs home.1993 - Kitchen show, - routine tasks of kitchen work. contemplation of tasks on a small scale provokes questions both personal and political - she believes domestic relationships influence world affairs - how we treat each other are symbolic of international relations etc. Mental illness led to time away from performance and she documented the diary in drawings - viewable on the Wellcome Trust website.

Animation on Bobby Baker‘s website http://houseworkhouse.bobbybakersdailylife.com/

Arnold, K. Wellcome Trust 26.2.2009 http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2009/WTX053511.htm

Elaine Aston transforming Women's’ Lives: Bobby Baker’s Performances of ‘Daily Life’. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/24354/1/download1.pdf

Queen Mary, University of London http://www.drama.qmul.ac.uk/staff/bakerb.htm

Turner Prize2010 - Susan Philips - Lowlands - sound piece. Is the Turner prize still cutting edge? Dorment is dismissive - and quite rude!

Richard Dorment 4.10.2010 Turner Prize shortlist http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/turner-prize/8042138/Turner-Prize-shortlist-2010-Tate-Britain-review.html

Richard Dorment  7.12.2010 Turner Prize winner http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/turner-prize/8186053/Turner-Prize-I-loathe-the-kind-of-think-me-sensitive-tuneless-stuff-Ms-Philipsz-sings.html

Jones and Searle are complimentary - link between the political orientations of the broad sheets and the responses of the art critics.

Jonathan Jones 4.5.2010 Turner Prize shortlist http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2010/may/04/turner-prize-shortlist-2010

Adrian Searle http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2010/oct/07/turner-prize-2010-adrian-searle-video

2006 - Tomma Abts - Turner prize - Stuckists protest -

Tomma Abts, Ebe 2005, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 cm x 38 cm - http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-2006/turner-prize-2006-artists-tomma-abts

Interview of artist - no research, starts with nothing, just paint on canvas - form in mind and builds layers, image and object, illusion and being a real thing - an installation of paintings. Paradox, open but finished. Shows a state of mind.Stuckists - 'Tomma Abts paints silly little diagrams that make 1950's wallpaper look profound in comparison' - Ouch! There are thousands of artist that have something relevant to say. They also revealed conflict of interest at Tate.They are painters - believe it should be figurative, artists that don't paint are not artists and art that has to be in a gallery is not art. Success is to get out of bed and paint.Andrew Marr on the Stuckists - agrees with some points of the Stuckist manifesto - funding and support from 'big money' etc, and the access to education in the arts.

Andrew Marr,BBC Radio 4 Start the Week 31.1.11 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y288b

Resourceslist of resources:Online resources - UCA online library - gives access to other online library and catalogues for other libraries and museums.Also look at local universities libraries- American university of Sharjah, American University of Dubai, NYUAD - Tashkeel's small library, Barjeel/Maraya centre library, ad Dubai public libraries - project space Art Jamel - Art Dubai etc. enquire about accessOnline Archives: Art Journals online:Academic Journals:JiscmailOnline Seminars and talks:Conferences - arts focus

Something to think about...

In what way do artists' biographies inform or detract from the viewers experience of the work?

What are the implications Ward's assertion that, 'That all art is a form of proposition and anything's possible.'?

If you could only read or hear one view on an exhibition would you chose to hear the artist's view or that of a critic or reviewer and why?

REMEMBER TO READ WIDELY AND MAINTAIN A HEALTHY SCEPTICISM.

Links to the recent reading group tasks on biographic lead art and the death of the author by Barthes, that the work will exisit regardless of the creator, the work creater the author not the other way rounf, they auther does not exisit if the work does not exist, the work birth the auther.http://maraya.ae/index.php?r=exhibitions/view&id=65http://maraya.ae/index.php?r=site/page&id=10 

09/12/2017 - Video Lecture 3 - VL3 - The Neo-Avant-Garde – Response

Graham Witman's notes - grey - accessed and added after viewing and own notes made.

Personal notes in pink made while viewing and as discussionThe Neo-Avant-Garde

What is the avant-garde?

o   1825 socialist Henri de Saint-Simon Literary, Philosophical and Industrial Opinions

“We, the artists, will serve as the avant-garde: for amongst all the arms at our disposal, the power of the Arts is the swiftest and most expeditious. When we wish to spread new ideas amongst men …we inscribe those ideas on marble or canvas…We aim for the heart and imagination, and hence our effect is the most vivid and the most decisive.”

Avant-Garde - 1825 - Socialist writer Henri De Saint-Simon (?) - initially military term - new ideas - use art as political was of communicating

Gustave Courbet The Stonebreakers 1849

o   end 19th century, understanding ‘avant-garde’ as critique of controlling socio-political system had given way to focus on aesthetic innovation e.g. Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, et. al.

Gustave Courbet - Stonebreakers - 1849 -  in terms of avant-garde - unrepresented subject - making a statement to the /opposing conventions of the time - socialist message of painting the underclass, the lack of direction/future/depression and discrepancy between classes.

Paul Cézanne Grounds of the Château Noir 1900-04

•  avant-garde synonymous with modern (unconventional, new, innovative)

Cezanne painting 1900-04- avant-garde used as modern - not subject matter challenging but technique 'radical' technique - challenging conventions - against the grain -

o   in charged political climate after WWI, socio-politically critical avant-garde re-emerged

•  overtly political

George Grosz Fat Cats 1920 (ink)

•  challenging conventional artistic practices meant challenging socio-economic-political system that upheld them (bourgeois capitalism)

Hugo Ball at the Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich 1916 (reading/performance)

Sophie Tauber Arp Dada Head.1920 (painted wood, glass beads on wire)

Meret Oppenheim Object (Fur Breakfast) 1936 (fur covered cup, saucer and spoon)

Salvador Dali Rainy Taxi 1938 (car, mannequins, lettuce, chicory, snails, water, shark skull, etc.)

between the wars - political avant-garde resurfaces - anti capitalism, left wing commentary. Both the technical radicalism  and the radicalism of subject matter meld together. particularly in Dada - (ref, Vic reeves documentary on Dadaism on BBC )- stretching the boundaries of what is accepted as art. Surrealism - avant-garde, challenge of conventional art, practice and then also challenging the controlling systems that support and perpetuate the forms -

o   on other hand, there was modern art (also given appellation avant-garde) apparently preoccupied with form and autonomous from concerns of social life

contemporary art now- installation etc is the 'norm' - no longer avant-garde, but derived from it.

Henri Matisse Harmony in Red 1908

o   Matisse 1908 “A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety … What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity, of serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject-matter, a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.”

a painting about painting - composition, line, texture, colour etc - subject not that important to Matisse. a work of are must be harmonious, soothing, comforting, providing relaxation from fatigue, not using harsh or troubling imagery, art to escape life. Having an aesthetic response that you cannot get from life.I haven't looked at matisse like that. My art education has been biographical regarding art and artists. I feel like so much meaning is lost in arts education before Undergraduate and postgraduate reading. Have I done my past students a dis service in not educating them about the meaning o art but rather the history of the artist lives, is it really that relevant. Does it matter how the artist lived, or were they lived or their parents occupation? Does that translate in to the work visibly or is it put there after?

Modernism and the neo-avant-garde

o   after WWII, certain works/artists promoted and subsequently elevated to canonical status

Questioning whether the form of art is more important than the subject. Rodger Fry and Clive bell - critics, 'significant form' - Clement Greenberg - art for art's sake.

Jackson Pollock Lavender Mist 1950

o   influence of Greenberg’s ideas

•  value/meaning of art inherent within formal characteristics distinctive of the medium –painting, two-dimensional surface, shape, colour –undisguised use of materials

•  good art operates exclusively within unique characteristics of its medium

Mark Rothko Black and Maroon 1958

•  good art values form over content – aesthetic effect over social meaning, political message (“subject-matter or content becomes something to be avoided like the plague”)

•  art should produced rarefied experience, different from experiences of everyday life and concerns of society

post-war - Pollock - painting about painting. the formal elements, Rothko as well, interpretation calls for discussion about colour shape etc in abstraction.

Robert Rauschenberg Erased de Kooning Drawing 1953 (ink and crayon)

o   given the above, how do you view Rauschenberg’s work?

Robert Rauschenberg Canyon 1959 (oil, paper, card, metal, stuffed eagle, string, pillow, etc.)

o   neo-Dada

simultaneously - Rauschenberg - 'dadaist' stand point - radical in comment, radical in its discomfort, challenging the art of the moment (abstract expressionists) "Neo-Dada'Neo-Avant garde - applied later on retrospective.

o   Greenberg: art for art’s sake, art concerned with aesthetic expression

Anthony Caro Early One Morning 1962 (painted steel and aluminium)

•  as opposed to

Ed Kienholz State Hospital 1966 (bed, fibreglass, goldfish bowls, bed pan, electric light, etc.)

Anthony Caro - sculpture about sculpture - Edward kienholz - subject matter - considered neo-avant-garde, critical, causes discomfort, challenging the viewer. social and political.

o   art should be autonomous and medium specific

Kenneth Noland Changement de transmission (Trans Shift) 1964 (acrylic)

•  as opposed to

Daniel Spoerri Kishka’s Breakfast No.1 1960 (chair, wooden board, coffee pot, china, glass, egg cups, cigarette butts, cans, etc.)

Kenneth Noland - painting and exploiting the medium, pushing it but not changing it ie: - watering down the medium-sculptural paintings, big no-no to Greenberg

o   art should be protected from mass culture (kitsch)

Morris Louis Alpha Epsilon 1960

•  as opposed to

Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup Cans 1962

Greenberg argues that art should be gallery based - high art - should be in a special place. Detached from everyday life, or 'Kitsch', commercialism, mass-communication - keeping art 'High' - Andy Warhol - Nemesis- using Kitsch and Mass media, not quite neo-avant-garde but thinks in a similar way.

Neo-avant-garde practice

o   ideas of Greenberg and followers at odds with many pre-war artists

Claes Oldenburg The Store 1961 (paint, plaster, cardboard, muslin, display stands, other materials)

o   1961 Claes Oldenburg rented shop East Second Street, Manhattan, amongst others selling cheap and second-hand items

•  crudely modelled/painted cardboard, plaster and plaster-soaked muslin replicas of clothes, food, small objects from, displayed and sold

•      not gallery specific, disputes skill, not aesthetic, transient – like happenings

Claes Oldenburg and Patty Muschinski Snapshots of the City 1960 (performance)

•  no script, narrative, characterization; performed in non-theatrical settings to small audience

Oldenburg 1962:  “Theatre is the most powerful art form there is because it is the most involving…I no longer see the distinction between theatre and visual arts very clearly”

Robert Whitman American Moon 1960 (performance)

o   New York happenings influenced George Maciunas, who conceived Fluxus in early 1960s (organized concerts, Fluxfests internationally)

Neo-avant-garde practice - Claes Oldenburg - art leaves the gallery - challenging the ideas of what art 'should be', taking it out of gallery, making it accessible to wider audience, and challenges the technical skill of classical artists. Happenings - now known as performance pieces - non-scripted, activities/actions - no characterisation etc. bringing theatre and visual art together.

Nam June Paik Zen for Head 1962 (performance)

Shigeko Kubota Vagina Painting 1965 (performance)

Fluxus - activities, music, concerts etc: Nam June Paik, performing a painting - music provided from another artist, so creation of art becomes the work... both the action and the product is art: are they the same piece or different pieces? Shigeko Kubota - vagina painting - underclothes?

o   central to Neo-avant-garde practice – idea of art as what the artist does

•  pastiche of  conventional art (by association, of supportive socio-political structures)

Vito Acconci Trademarks 1970 (performance)

Bruce McLean Pose for Plinths 3 1971 (photograph)

Bruce Nauman Self Portrait as a Fountain 1966-67 (photograph)

•  by 1970s this strategy used by artists responding to gender politics

parody of art - Bruce McLean - comedy of art, mocking the art world, Bruce Nauman - fountain - ref to Duchamp fountain - photograph - what is it achieving? the artist is the work of art.

Ana Mendieta Untitled (Rape Scene) 1973 (photograph, originally a performance)

Carolee Schneemann Interior Scroll 1975 (performance)

Martha Rosler Semiotics of the Kitchen 1976 (video performance)

Feminist art works, Ana Mendieta - performance of rape scene - photograph, 1973 - Carolee Schneemann - interior scroll - radical because of spectacle, what is the message? body as object, statement of women in art, perpetuating the form of women in art, nudes. Use of films, performance, domestication, aggression, stereotypes of women's place, parody of expectations - expectations of art, do we now expect art to make a statements, to shock us - The Shock of the New - book

o   destruction as creative process

Saburo Murakami Passing Through 1956 (performance)

•  Gutai (concrete) group – ‘beauty’ of destruction

Gustav Metzger Demonstration of Auto-destructive Art London 1961 (fabric, metal frame, acid)

o   “Auto-destructive art is an attack on capitalist values and the drive to nuclear annihilation” (Metzger Auto-Destructive Manifesto 1960)

Hermann Nitsch 4. Aktion 1963 (performance)

•  Viennese actionists took part in 1966 Destruction in Art Symposium (DIAS), London organized by Metzger

Destruction as technique/work  - creativity in destruction. Vienna Activists - is it politically or socially critical? shock and awe, provocative, but not necessarily linked to a direct challenge to control or politics. Is non-conformist to expectations of art world, and the systems that support the art world, sponsors, gallery's, state supporters etc.

Yoko Ono Cut Piece first performed 1964, repeated at DIAS 1966 (performance)

John Latham Skoob Tower ceremony: National Encyclopaedias 1966 (performance/action)

o   National Encyclopaedias, Laws of England, etc. burnt outside Law Courts, British Museum, University of London Senate House.

Problem with Neo-avant-garde, means that once its been done it become accepted - more contentious, more shocking etc- forever pushing the boundaries, where does it stop - artist that cut himself and bled down the catwalk - Yoko Ono having clothing cut off - Marina Abramovic (?), John Latham Skoob Tower ceremony, symbolistic burning of law books etc, what is acceptable by art world and general public.

Contexts of the neo-avant-garde

George Maciunas Fluxus Manifesto 1963 (collage of photostat text and hand-written text)

o   associating old and new cultural modes with the political

o   burgeoning discontent (with establishment control) reached head 1968

•  manifest in hostility to USA

Grosvenor Square protest, London, 17 March 1968 (photograph)

Social and political contexts - Fluxus Manifesto - George Maciunas - his understanding of fluxus - purge bourgeoisie sickness, political language, left wing, marxist, communist manifesto - although directly related to art - using art as political 'propaganda' (?) or statement/support for views - a way of releasing views and ways of thinking.1968 - assignation of Martin Luther King, anti american protests, - 60yrs ago

o   escalation of Vietnam War and growing opposition to it

Martha Rosler Balloons from the series Bringing the War Back Home 1969–72 (collage)

•  anti-Americanism

Cildo Meireles Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca Cola Project 1970 (bottles)

Paris riots, May 1968 (photograph)

o   Alain Jouffroy What’s To Be Done About Art? (1968)

“It is essential that the minority advocate the necessity of going on an ‘active art strike’ using the machines of the culture industry to set it in total contradiction to itself. The intention is not to end the rule of production, but to change the most adventurous part of ‘artistic’ production into the production of revolutionary ideas, forms and techniques.”

o   counter-culture – youth, leftist politics, anti-capitalism, nuclear disarmament movements, equality movements: women’s movement, civil rights

Martha Rosler - photomontage/collage - middle class bourgeois and Vietnam atrocities -paris 'unrest' revolution- V for vendetta film, just watched this weekend - seems significant - timeline is current for film. Neo-avant-garde were the forerunners of these interactions.

Joseph Beuys The Revolution is Us 1972 (screen print)

Can anyone be an artist? - Joseph Beuys -

Neo-avant-garde interpretations and meaning

o   1974 Peter Bürger Theory of the Avant-Garde considered ‘neo-avant-garde’ ineffectual as means of critical opposition to the controlling political and cultural élite because it repeated failed strategies used by interwar avant-garde (e.g. Dada/Surrealism)

Yves Klein Untitled Anthropometry (ANT, 123) 1961

•  moreover, some ‘neo-avant-garde’ work purchased by museums/collectors, so it was institutionalized by the élite with which it sought to take issue

Yves Klein Anthropometries of the Blue Epoch 1960 (performance)

Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint-Phalle, unidentified man Shooting 1961(action, using firearms, pigment in sacks, plaster, assemblage of objects on board)

Niki Saint-Phalle Shooting 1961 (plaster, objects, paint)

Piero Manzoni Artist’s Shit 1961 (tin can, label, excrement)

John Latham Still and Chew 1966-69 (leather case, book, letters, photostats, labelled vials filled with powders and liquids)

o   therefore, do you think neo-avant-garde most effective using strategies that cannot be easily assimilated into mainstream?

interesting to discuss whether it was 'successful' or 'failed' as it is thought. We can only reflect as we are looking back and did not experience it of the moment. The aspect of the neo-avant-garde being embedded in the cultural/social commentary they are attempting to challenge and become part of the establishment. It is the reflection that gives value and weight to the work, the writing and commentary, the attention it garners that makes the work important and gives it statement value. so can any work of art now actually be critical as it is embedded in the establishment. Even street artist now are commercial and create murals for commissions - is Banksy one of the few that do it for the political voice - do we know that for sure as the path to the works is secretive. 

Hans Haacke MoMA Poll 1970 (participatory installation)

o   New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, member of MoMA trustees, planning to run for President

•  Question: Would the fact that Governor Rockefeller has not denounced President Nixon’s Indochina policy be a reason for you not to vote for him in November?

Answer: If ‘yes’ please cast your ballot into the left box; if ‘no’ into the right box

Stuart Brisley You Know it Makes Sense 1972 (performance)

o   1972 PM Heath, claimed to have banned notorious torture methods

•  performance over several days, with no re-enactment of alleged torture techniques

•      performance created atmosphere suggesting use of violent torture

Chris Burden Trans-fixed 1974 (performance)

o   nails hammered into hands; car pushed out of garage; engine revved for 2 minutes; pushed into garage

There are artists that are genuine - Hans Haacke - MoMA poll 1970 at museum of modern art - makes a statement to the board of trustees that Rockefeller was on and the bombing a supporting nixon - trustee - so risky and attacking the establishment that its in. Stuart Brisley - performance of 1972 - suggestion of torture - indirect - looks like a Bacon painting.

Hannah Wilke Through the Large Glass 1976 (performance)

o   Brooklyn Museum caption

“Dressed in a fedora and a man’s white satin suit, she strikes a series of poses evoking the style of 1970s fashion photography and then strips, cleverly suggesting bride and bachelor simultaneously. In her self-conscious affectation of a fashion model, Wilke wilfully uses her own image and her sexuality to confront the erotic representation of women in art history and popular culture”

o   if neo-avant-garde is a ‘true’ avant-garde, how far do such works contest ruling socio-economic-political system that upholds and perpetuates conventional art?

•  Bürger believed neo-avant-garde was ineffectual as a critical opposition because it merely replicated failed strategies of Dada and Surrealism

•      what if new strategies are adopted?

Margaret Harrison, Kay Hunt, Mary Kelly Women and Work: A Document on the Division of Labour in Industry 1973-75 1973-75 (photographs, charts, tables, photocopied documents, film loops, audiotapes)

o   sociological study of women’s work in Bermondsey metal box factory

•  photographs, typewritten texts, photocopied punch cards, pay rates accounting for 150 women in relation to recently passed Equal Pay Act

Margaret Harrison, Kay Hunt, Mary Kelly Women and Work: A Document on the Division of Labour in Industry 1973-75 1973-75 (photographs, charts, tables, photocopied documents, film loops, audiotapes)

o   recorded gap in wages between men and women

•  raised issue of domestic labour, as many women worked when they got home

o   presented as documentary/sociological research

•  no obvious aesthetic intention

Victor Burgin Possession 1976 (poster)

•  posters on streets of Newcastle using advertising to critique system it endorses

Jo Spence Hackney Flashers 1978 (photographs and text)

o   “to document women in Hackney, at work inside and outside the home, with the intention of making visible the invisible, thereby validating women’s experience and demonstrating women’s unrecognised contribution to the economy”

Hannah Wilke - Graham 'whitman - is dismissive of feminist art work? - preferring sociological study style - rather than 'obvious' depictions of women - but in feminist artwork is could be argued that a lot of it is obvious - depicting domesticity etc - is that because women are less accepted in the art world (or were) and there fore have a harder time being taken seriously as meaningful artists so work has to be contrite and blatant to be seen in institutions. Large majority of artists in this lecture are male - because of dominance or because of exclusion form the art world.

is this the future?

o   Artist Placement Group (APG) founded by Barbara Steveni and Latham 1966 (also 1966 similar US manifestations: Experiments in Art and Technology, NY; Art & Technology Program, LA)APG in Germany 1970 at left: John Latham, Ian Breakwell; centre: Barbara Steveni

•  art in social context

•      artists placed in companies/organization (first 1969)

•      paid as worker, but retained artistic autonomy

Stuart Brisley Hille Piece 1970 (chairs)

o   various artists produced films, photographs, texts, installations

•  criticism of APG supporting private enterprise

•  after Arts Council withdrew funding 1972 (because “the APG is more concerned with Social Engineering than with pure art”) placements in public sector

Stills from Ian Breakwell The Institution 1978 (film)

o   Department of Health and Social Security placement at Broadmoor and Rampton hospitals

•  resulted in film and report, co-written with architects, recommending significant changes at Rampton

o   neo-avant-garde proposed that art has radical effect outside itself

•  i.e. that it can impact on and influence social, political, economic life but how far might this be true?

Artist placement group- using artists to give a different view point - the power of a creative mind, the act of creative seeing things from a different point of view and having different solutions to problems that may or may not have been identified. become more embedded and they inform accepted ways of working now. Its no longer spectacle or surprising - is it harder to make a statement now? is it expected to make a statement now? is work valued different with relevance to whether it is is making a statement about art or a political sociological statement? Are there trends regarding the statements people want to read ie: middle eastern art and refugees crisis, or african commentary on slavery and colonialism? North atlantic commentary of climate change? South american commentary on border controls ?  

21/09/2017 - Video Lecture 1 - Reflexive Practitioner

Video Lecture 1 - ARVL1 – Reflexive Practitioner (Viewed on 20/09/2017)

Part 1- Looking at artists reflecting on work

Part 2 – Strategies of developing a reflexive practice

• Personal notes

• Research notes

Part 1- Looking at artists reflecting on work

Graham Sullivan – many facets of Contemporary art, in many environments.‘Art Practice has long been a critical and creative means of inquiry that encourages new ways to think about what it is to be human within the uncertain world in which we live.’ (Sullivan, 2010)

David Buckland – Cape Farewell project – artic. – climate change - using art to draw focus

Reflexivity = reflection. Thinking, pondering, meditating, reviewing.

Turning back to oneself – looking at own thinking – stepping back, taking stock, distance. Reflection can be too self-indulgent.

‘Donald Schon’ – learning @work,

Michael Eraut – professionals on job, most learning happens informally during normal working practices, i.e. conversation, problem solving, etc.

• Reflexive – thinking about your thinking

A reflexive practitioner – a learning practitioner.

It’s all Research – being reflective is doing research on your own way of working, investigating & gathering data/observation etc

As a fine artist you need to be reflecting on:

The way you make work,

What influences you, - important for me

Knowing where to position your work in relation to other artists, - important for me

Being conscious of yourself in the wider context, - need to be more aware, who are my contemporaries?

Research – techniques, materials, influences. The research is intrinsic if you see it that way, as Sullivan says:

‘Reflexive practice is a kind of research activity that uses different methods to work against existing theories and practices and offers the possibility of seeing things from new perspectives.’ (Sullivan, 2010)

Pompidou center – 1970’s Rodgers etc, designing services outside creating an open/flexible interior – new way of looking at something.

Pompidou Centre, photo credit: INSADCO Photography / Alamy, https://www.cntraveler.com/activities/paris/centre-pompidou

James Aldridge – Cold Mouth Prayer – Tate 2007

James Aldridge, Cold Mouth Prayer, 2007, http://faariscar.blogspot.ae/2011/02/art-knowledge-news-keeping-you-in-touch_09.html

Royal college then scholarship – Rome.

Mundane and cliché work – painting of trees - as a child would draw trees with dad, copy birds from text books – inherited dads love of natural history.

Interests creep in from outside of art. – have I gone too far from this, one extreme to the other?

Personal experiences of art – ‘bringing these in was like allowing a part of myself in to the work. It was challenging to let them in, as they didn’t feel worthy of being included. Once they were allowed in, and then it allowed doors to be opened.’

‘His work came alive’ – THIS IS WHAT I NEED – Am I willing to find balance between personal motifs and research? – links to my work around routine and my struggle with the concept.

Research is past, things he already knew, became relevant. Don’t stop research or lose research as it may be come important, don’t dismiss past interests

Tracey Emin – confessional work, but does have distance? – is she too far involved?- living the drama of her story, biopic. Life as research

Tracey Emin, But I Never Stopped Loving You, 2002, http://www.traceyeminstudio.com/artworks/2002/01/but-i-never-stopped-loving-you/

Shaun McNiff – arts therapist/artist

How to handle tension between personal experience and making of art. Emphasize – art comes from within me, I nevertheless attempt to study the subject with as much objectivity as possible. I am intimately connected to my work but the work is still separate. – thinking of my personal schedule compared to the people I research. – starts within becomes objective – links to work on Professional Practice Programme at Tashkeel last year.

AR – Artwork has to come from somewhere subjective but to be able to make a valued judgement about work you need critical distance and objectivity.

Langlands and Bell – want things we do to be well done. – their work is opposite of Emin.

Highly research driven practice

The meanings of art – arise in the makings of it – not that everything is free to us as artists but that we do feel free to explore if appropriate.

House of Bin Ladin – 2003 - Post 2002 visit, Politically sensitive - is art anti establishment? Many think we have no place to work with the establishment.- they work with people - intervening in peoples lives, not participants - subjects.

The experience changed them, life was hard for people in Afghanistan. – question to myself - should the creation of your work change you?

Use the opportunities to go/do something you haven’t, create something original, meaningful.- Research - things they are interested in - follow curiosity, this takes them to peoples lives in extreme circumstances.

Is there a moral or ethical dimension that they are not talking about? – this is what could make it personal, they leave opinion out, its data collection and presentation.

Do they have to much distance from their research? Does it make their artwork available to the viewer? Do they do to much research? Is that possible?

Baumgartner - Handmade prints/woodcuts, video source - Contemporary look but recognisably handmade. Speed, looking out of window, blur, view colour as horizontal lines, speed and standstill, together as a way of viewing our current condition, the faster we move the less we see.

Christiane Baumgartner, Allee II, 2008, Woodcut Diptych on Kozo, (right panel), http://www.christiane-baumgartner.com/allee2.html

Rose Wylie, Belgium painting: Cloven shoes. Diptych (slide, not shown here)

Rose Wylie in her studio, http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/cornelia-parker-why-rose-wylie-true-original

How do we prevent ourselves from becoming slick?

How do we stop ourselves from just going through the motions?

When are we just recycling our visual language because it has become our style?

What have we learnt?

Emily Ball - drawing and painting people - Looking at other peoples work is a good way to reflect on your own. – Do I have this book? Yes, read it again!

When EB saw RW’s Cloven Shoes, made her question own playfulness, ‘how much was she trying to rely on attractive gestured marks and colour to cover up the lack of a real connection to subject? If these were taken away, there wouldn’t be enough to make a striking memorable image. Was there any poetry or humour? Uncomfortable, because I felt exposed by recognizing something in her painting that was missing in my own.’

Frustration, difficulty - important, motivating - lead to letting go and make fresh connections with the work.

Helpful to recognize patterns and how habitually respond to them.

A research journal can help identify these unconstructive habits or dead end processes.

During MA - reflect on development of practice and theory that informs it.

Keep research journal

Support examination, scrutinize it and make changes. To take it in the direction you want, this takes time, attention and application. Using others work to informTranscriptions - copies, likenesses.

John Skinner – Scorn - Paulo Veronese– Moma podcast – Cezanne & Pissaro

Decided to paint it but too big to handle, chose a part to do - liked placement of heads, eroticism. Became ‘Two Scornful Women Watching As Their Lover Is Being Beaten To Death By Lust.’

And then ‘Vanitas: a homage to Helen Chadwick with nine roughly painted penises and two vaginas on strings.’

Considered Helen Chadwick a contemporary and envied her work

• envy is important as it shows you what you want to be –

Transcription of one of her works – ‘Vanitas 1986’ - still life - Netherlands in 17th-century. Vanity of earthly life to repent, consider mortality

Skinner positioning himself in relation to art around him – this story makes me think of Turrell and Balka, can I create a small embroidered piece that is as engulfing as these large pieces – to feel safe, but isolated?

His research directly informed his work – it became work. It also comments on existing work – obviously he ‘owned’ it.Part 2 – Strategies of developing a reflexive practice

Studio –what is your studio or workplace for? – home office, Tashkeel, Surf House, hotels, coffee shops

All places of research whether theory or observation

Rachel Whiteread - Drawing studio in Berlin first-time important thinking place

Virginia Woolf - a room of one’s own. A place to be with oneself away from the rest of your life.

Or does your studio give you an identity as an artist? – Tashkeel gave me confidence, community gave me validation

Would you still be an artist without a studio? – motivation, inspiration & a voice.

Does it make you a member of a community? - yesDoes it put you in a social contact with other artists? - yes

Is it where you create stories that feed your work? – like this ideaIs it where you store tools, materials or finished work? - yes

Look at what you do in studio.- home office – budget for house, applications, writing, dictation, planning. Tashkeel – painting, printing, embroidery, DIALOGUE.

An audit!

What do you do in your studio?

Write down everything you do in your studio or the place where you usually work. Include drinking cups of tea (yes so much), dreaming, reading the paper (yes, mags at home), phoning friends etc. Be honest

Which of these things do you want to be doing and which do you not? – I’m okay with doing it all except distracting talk, discussion is welcome, but need more boundaries.

What else do you want to do that you don’t? And why aren’t you doing these things? – DRAWING – lack of confidence, time management

Is your studio set up for you to do the things you want to do? – reasonably. Do you have a comfortable chair to sit in to contemplate work? Is the light adequate? Are there enough in electrical sockets? Is there a good enough Internet connection? – yes

Where else do you make work, or think about work, or carry out research? – surf house, coffee shops – in the car – podcasts, to do lists, thoughts. What else do you do in these places? – socialize, quiet time, eat, commute

Are those serving and supporting or holding you back? Make some changes, - if needed.

In the studio - going round in circlesFine - okay and important, often a constructive way to work. Think about it in cycles of activity.

Similar to Kolbs learning cycle, familiar to research, learning and studio practice.

VL1 Activity cycle

- Thoughts – separate – go through body of existing work, use apartment in Nov when moving? Or possibly LB’s spare room or space @ Tashkeel? Is that possible? Lounge? Evaluate own work in existence – feeling stuck.

Cycles - reflection, new cycle, repetition = iterations

Reflection allows to review process, perhaps moving into practice too quickly, perhaps more drawing – review current process using this cycle.

- This section should be printed out and placed in view of studio space.

Observe and reflect –Contemplate from different perspectives, sit with it. Draw from observation, draw a schematic diagram. Photograph, video, print and photocopy, draw on photocopies. Use different media to explore.

– go back to statement, take it apart, how has it evolved? What is important now? How does it effect you?

Write about what you see, touch, feel, smell etc. Describe using metaphor i.e. if it was a holiday or something. Record your description. Emotional response – important as influences created this.

Ask questions as if you know nothing about what it is or how it was made.

Put in a different environment, take it outside, place it next to other work. Give it a persona and interview it - Sean McNiff - Imaginary dialogue. Invite comment from a colleague. – Tashkeel is uninvited, ha! But I love it!

Evaluate –
How do you know when it is finished?

How do you know if it works?

What would be different if it didn’t work?

Intuition? Sense of rightness?

Intentionally executed? – run out of time? Deadline? Fulfils criteria?

Reflective outside the studio –

Understand the field you are working in - Fine art? Modern/western concept - only recently has fine arts taken an interest in non-western cultures and not defining it as exotic. – Moma Podcast – Global/World Art symposia 2009 (?) Defining fine art becomes difficult as artist appropriate methods and practices from other areas and disciplines. The purpose of art could be to critique, communicate, explore, evoke emotions, reveal.

Cultural, social, political, educational, philosophical.

James Elkin - value judgements rather than a definitive definition.

Theodor Adorno - Aesthetic Theory 1970 – “It’s taken for granted that nothing which, concerns art is taken for granted” – read this book, its on your desk

Who does it? What are its products? Where and when are they experienced or consumed?

- Artists, Assistants, experts, technical experts, participants, educators and collaborators.

- Experiences, events, object

- Physical or virtual manifestations, Commentary on art too.

- Galleries, cinemas, public spaces, TV, web, books, films, tea towels etc ‘merchandise’

How is it evaluated?

By art world commentary, critics and reviews, specialist magazines and journals, general publications, media commentary, auctions, celebrity endorsement, gallery sales, adverts, education. – what is relevant here in Gulf? Closed dialogue, lack of critique due to censorship and cultural values

How is fine art different from other fields such as craft, art history, arts theory, design, medicine, anthropology?

Craft - lines are blurring, markets and audience different.

Historically art has been about making now about history and theory.

Design - doesn’t solve real-world problem, is not for distribution or retail.

Medicine - Similar concerns - intention to do good. Aspect of artistry to medicine. Fields are different.

Anthropology - similar concerns regarding artefacts and the roles of individuals making cultural meaning in societies.

Sullivan: Be open to new and multiple interpretations of artworks – allow others to offer what they see and that you may see something different.

Debate and discuss processes and meanings that come out of these interpretations

• Find a group to engage with, critical friends, reading group, studio group for reviews of work, uni where you can look at talks by artists, theorists, art historians, opportunities online. – Critical Dialogues @Tashkeel starts Wed 27th Sep w/Kevin Jones, Art Talks 101 @Alserkal, Global Art Forum @ Art Dubai, Sharjah Art Foundation talks & events, NYUAD talks & events

Question the contexts in which art is made

• Impact etc – langlands & Bell. What statement is made? Who does it affect? Is it relevant?

Be aware of the potential artistic, social, political, educational or cultural impacts.(Sullivan, 2010)

Appropriation of other artists work - Gilllian Weiss, advert

Richard Serra – The Terminal - 1977. - Implicit and clear, art awkward and overpowering, resistance of community, 1930s repression, political alibi etc. Sculpture scapegoat.

Cape farewell project-explore on website. 

To Reiterate:

Recognise and acknowledge whose work you are building on – have clear influences – nothing is original & that is okay as long as you’re honest.

Being transparent in your methods and open about your methodology – its okay to get help etc.

Be rigorous in your recording – note everything and transcribe to journal

Be prepared to justify your methods – know what you are doing and why

Don’t confuse effort and quantity with quality – valid

Be careful of using theory to justify artwork – valid, slipped in to this and away from personal, need to find balance.

Being modest in your claims – clarify

Be honest with yourself – yes!

Most importantly, don’t lose curiosity or your courage.

• After listening/watching the lecture, I went back through my notes with the pink pen and annotated my own thoughts. Something I wish I had done on previous courses, perhaps this is where learning fails/hinders some students, present them with 30mins after a lecture to annotate, later on encourage them to discuss their notes with a classmate, allow them to absorb and digest the information instead of telling them it in a short time, closing books and moving on.

Still to Do:

Revisit questionnaire
Type notes on to blog - done 23/09
Add images if relevant - done 23/09
Consider revisiting sketchbooks this week or going through body of existing work.

Other themes:

Participant Involvement
Research
Art & other disciplines
Artists & issues
Life/art integration
The studio 

References:

Cape Farewell Project: www.capefarewell.com

Christiane Baumgartner video: www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/32/771

Emily Ball on Rose Wylie: Ball, E. (2009) Drawing and Painting People. Marlborough, Crowood Press.

James Aldridge, Christiane Baumgartner, and Langlands and Bell interviews: James, N. (2010) Interviews – Artists Volume 2: Recordings 2010. London, CV.John Skinner on Paulo Veronese and Helen Chadwick: Ball, E. as above.

Langlands and Bell video: www.langlandsandbell.com/new/the-house-og-osama-bin-laden-video.html

Richard Serra: Stiles, K. and Selz, P. (1996, republished April 2011) Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists Writings. London, University of California Press.

Shaun McNiff: McNiff, S. (2008) Art-based Research in Knowles and Cole (2008) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research, SAGE.

Sullivan, G. (2010) Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts. London and Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE.

Schon, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York, Basic Books.

Eraut, M. (2004) Informal Learning in the Workplace.

Image source links:

Pompidou Centre, photo credit: INSADCO Photography / Alamy, https://www.cntraveler.com/activities/paris/centre-pompidou

James Aldridge, Cold Mouth Prayer, 2007, http://faariscar.blogspot.ae/2011/02/art-knowledge-news-keeping-you-in-touch_09.html

Tracey Emin, But I Never Stopped Loving You, 2002, http://www.traceyeminstudio.com/artworks/2002/01/but-i-never-stopped-loving-you/

Christiane Baumgartner, Allee II, 2008, Woodcut Diptych on Kozo, (right panel), http://www.christiane-baumgartner.com/allee2.html

Rose Wylie in her studio, http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/cornelia-parker-why-rose-wylie-true-originalWord count: 2714

not for citation or circulation