anthonystudio3a

[anthonystudio3a]

Formative assessment

 Week 7 group show 

As far as my own work went, I was happy with the responses I got. Overall, the work was well shot, edited, and installed. There were a few problems with install that could have been better executed in the future, but they didn’t take away too much from the work. 

This 2-channel video work depicted my mother on one wall, projected at 1:1 scale, practicing 2 methods of Zhineng Qigong, and on the other, myself and my friend Chris intermittently performing magic tricks. I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going when I began this work, but I knew I wanted to explore the ways in which we perceive ‘paranormal abilities. The juxtaposition of these 2 very different approaches worked well in inviting the viewer to consider their own relationship to these ideas. 

Some feedback I got was that it made some people aware of their own cynicism and privileging of ‘rational’ thought. Simon said that it encouraged him to consider where we choose to allow ourselves to ‘believe’, and where we suspend out true beliefs so as to get caught up in a story, such as in a magic show. This created an interesting dynamic with the Zhineng Qigong. Most people said that they were drawn to my mother. They felt the projection of her was a place of wonder, safety and warmth. This is interesting, as I hadn’t necessarily intended this, but it is showing of my relationship with her, regardless of its many complications. I approached collaborating with her in a way that had both of our best interests at heart, and hoped to also make this kind of level footing a touchstone for reworking our relationship with each other as adults. 

On installation techniques: 

The footage of my mother practicing ZQ were 2 long shots: 10 and 20 minutes each, whereas the magic lasted only a few seconds. This was somewhat intentional, as I wanted to depict ZQ’s philosophy of a holistic, long-winded approach to health / being in the world, and on the other hand show the fleeting / frivolous / novel nature of some Western practices. Regarding ZQ, growing up, I had trouble describing the way I was taught to see world to other people. Nowadays, I’m unsure to what extent I believe ZQ theory, but that’s unimportant to me in this work. What’s important is trying to explore the dynamic between different peoples’ various understandings of a thing. This work was a first attempt at exploring these dialectics. 

As far as editing goes, I had planned to have the channel of my mother as basically constant, and of the magicians as popping up here and there, fleeting. I did this but I didn’t do the best job of capturing these tricks, as I was unsure of the final outcome and was pressed for time. Some of the clips were so short that they were very easy to miss, even just a couple of seconds long. I think they would have been a little more effective if they were slightly longer, and were better edited. 

The colours were relatively well pulled off but could have been even better. It’s hard to do multiple shoots over multiple days and have everything looking like it exists in the same world, especially when you are working across various formats and with various outfits etc. 

What’s next? 

I want to continue to mine these memories of growing up with ZQ for more material, and make works in response to them using various media. I also want to continue to learn more about the theory and practice of Zhineng Qigong, and respond to some of these more philosophical and scientific elements. I intend to focus my research on artists who have made work about similar subjects, so as to locate myself in a history of art making. Perhaps I can resend to some New Zealand artists or events, be they past or contemporary, to add something new to the conversation. This may be difficult, as ZQ exists in New Zealand very recently. There are aspects of Asia-Pacific migration and its various cultural histories to be explored, as well as Pākehā responses to paranormal & spiritual, such as the Tohunga Supression Act, and perhaps also histories of ‘magic’ back in other (pre-colonisation) Continental locations. All of these things feed into the place of Zhineng Qigong in New Zealand today, and I will need to tread lightly so as to pay respect to all of these intersecting subjects and the people who are connected to them. 

Formative Assessment - Lecturer comment: 

This is a really great analysis of your current work, where it’s come from and where it’s heading. We’ve had several conversations about your work and it’s very satisfying to see your understanding of how the social, political and personal can intersect in art – art that is a personal journey that can talk to universal concerns. 

From your workbook, you seem to be drawn to artworks that have an alive-ness to them – either performative or interventions in the gallery space, or works that require the viewer to actively rather than passively engage. Your video works might be a stepping stone to this type of art practice. The videos are a safe viewing mechanism for the viewer, quite different from a live interaction. The ‘actors’ in the work are performing to camera, to a perceived, future audience beyond the camera – the ‘magicians’ more than your mother. The magicians give the work more tension. 

The group exhibition was also successful – there was enough space to allow people to be ambitious, and it allowed the two components of your work to be seen individually as well as a whole. 

You’re doing really well – it’s great to see you engaged and ambitious about developing your art practice. 

Jenny 

[anthonystudio3a]

Eavesdropping curators tour

Below are notes from the Eavesdropping curators tour I attended:

EAVESDROPPING curators tour

Sound: “unruly” quality

Sound fills a space, you cannot look away.

“Listening back”

Listening to “produce & construct truth”

“Involved in the production of truth”

Audio ontology

“Why audio analytics?”

1977 big ear listening station

Carl Sagan and daughter Sasha

“Me at the zoo” first YouTube video

IDEA FOR WORK: translate dr. Pang’s videos in “plain English” with no use of Chinese terms. Also add different backing music? Like hunk about what that music is in chinese

Culture & imagine what a European equivalent might be

(Re the google home etc speakers:

If you can’t make it, get something that can)... readymade

Durational endurance performance piece between self & google speaker

Unsound Poland 

WORK IDEA: subtle interventions involving sound. Similar to changing shade/tone of floor colour. Think: DOC’s use of pink noise. “Ambience” of a space. “Vibe”. How to make these interventions subtle but playful 

“Sound leads elsewhere”

Think about media as signifiers...

[anthonystudio3a]

Lectures

I’ve been jotting down physical notes from the lectures or on my phone, and have lost the physical workbook, but here are the notes from my phone:

LECTURE WEEK 1 

Tuesday 16 July - Heather Galbraith on Eva Rothschild

Born & raised in Dublin but studied in Belfast - dangerous for her. In Belfast colour was used to demarcate religious practices of those living on the street - colour used as a signifier.

Photographer: Benjamin McMahon

Sculptor: Phyllida Barlow

“Concept and pragmatism”

Sculptures formally referencing other, everyday, utilitarian forms.

“Urban temporary architecture”

“Demarcation of space (Ireland)”

City Gallery Website - Eva Rosthchild talks to Robert Leonard

omg they look like polystyrene but they r casts

Boys and Sculpture - Relationality

Mikala Dwyer

Hany Armanious

Erica Van Zon

Dan Arps

PRACTICE FORUM WEEK 3

Raul - Video

Norman Maclaren - Sound/animation. Kind of boring but the process is somewhat interesting in context of the time it was made and as the founding of animation techniques. Also interesting if considering the projected film and accompanying soundtrack in response to modernist painting & multidisciplinary practice.

Tacita Dean - Film vs. digital. Atmospheres created by the medium. Economy of means. Tate modern turbine hall: Film. Portrait form, illusion. Used old cinematic techniques. “Mt. Analogue”? Scale of the work - interacts w/subjects. Very physical. Children play. The light falls on to the body & draws you into it. Monumentous scale. Illusion through scale & subject matter. The work is very much abut the medium of film itself.

LECTURE WEEK 3

Anne Noble

Illusion! Also cultures of display. How is Antarctica imagined & represented & then reimagined?

Process guides the work. Research/inquisitiveness/step-by-step experimentation.

All these bees: Photography - relationship between time, space & medium (Shutter speed vs speed of flapping bees wings). Exploration of various photo media. Abstraction processes come from media. Photographic object containing bee colony. “Living” photograph. Changes/develops over process of the show. “Activates” the gallery space. Response to museum modes of display.

How to challenge idea of photography as being rooted in the past? When many of these issues are constantly being played out indefinitely as cultural practices/sociological events?

LECTURE WEEK 5

Simon Morris

Trip to Japan - exhibition

American minimalism, Residency at Headlands Centre for Arts, San Francisco

Interesting dialectic between these North American artists who ere interested in “Japanese Philosophies” & the perceived “threat of Japan” in the Pacific during WWII

Japan = monocultural. Impact on culture of “closed borders” for 100s of years??

Intense af space - half under/above ground level. Only shows reductive abstraction. Steel walls w/a concrete footing

GEOMETRY - quadrants & gravity, light reflecting differently off each surface

Opening was intense? Weird. Lost in translation. Wasn’t there for his own opening! But nice dinner & sake to top it off.

“Real ripper” - on Wolfgang Liab’s marble & milk work

Travelling artist - going on pilgrimages

Zen temple - Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto - Zen garden - 15 rocks. You can only ever see 14 rocks. 

John Cage ANAGAMA KILN!!! 100 hours firing.

BOOK: The art of the encounter

“I said you should be paying me to record my heartbeat”

ARI - Five Walls, Melbourné

“Deconstructing the nature of the painted object”

LECTURE WEEK 7

Julieanna Preston

theHAproject

Performance escapes representation

In a performance a script acts as a provocation

Matiu Somes Island - response to wires of the fence.

RPM hum

Motors - liveness in materials. AC units in Te Papa carpark. 

Creative practice is engaged inquiry, even while you’re in it.

“There is a knowing that comes out of something that is not text-based”

Translation of a written text (semiotic) to a heard/spoken/felt thing.

—————————————————————————————————————

WEEK 9

—————————————————————————————————————

Lecture - Jenny Gillam

Beaut Bay of Islands <3

Stick insects

Dead Kiwi

Skinning the kiwis!

Treated it more as a documentary photography process - for Raewyn more than for Jenny

Whatipu cave dances

[anthonystudio3a]

My final submission for studio this semester. Although this has been cooking for a while, the more time I have spent with this work the more I’ve realised it’s at the very beginning of being a work in progress. I presented a paper work, which was printed on rice paper sourced from the same shop where my mum buys her Chinese herbs. The text itself is a redacted poem, made from the introduction to the book The Methods of Zhineng Qigong, written by the founder of ZQ Dr Pang Ming, and translated by my mother and Wei Qi Feng, a fellow practitioner who lives in China. The introduction itself was written collaboratively by my mother and Wei Qi Feng. The audio component is a 2 channel stereo work consisting of the audio from myself performing 100 wall squats, which I’ve written about earlier in this blog. 

The installation itself was somewhat janky, I thought. The delicate nature of the paper and its presentation clashed with the technology. The light was fluorescent, too. I’d originally imagined the work being in an open space with natural light, to give it breathing room, temperamental and delicate. The audio component ended up being different to my vision as well, as my audio recording and engineering efforts were the attempts of a true amateur, and I made some vital mistakes. This led to the audio feeling quite treated, which was not my intention. I had planned to play with scale, by playing a whispering through multiple speakers in the space, accompanied by another channel of the room noise, ruffling clothes, etc. However, when it came time to install, I decided that this wasn’t going to be achieved, so I chose something more stripped back. Although it meant that the 2 channels of audio weren’t working in the way that I had intended (equally, so the speakers & the body of the viewer act like a triangle, and highly relational as the experience would change as the viewer moved through the space). I chose to place the paper work under the light, so as to amplify it. It looked good there, with the light cascading down over it. 

I can imagine this work coming along quite a way, and presenting more channels of higher-quality audio on a space, along with the redacted poem in different format, perhaps over many pieces of paper, each containing less writing, and adding up to the whole. This help to fill the space, and create endless different experiences for the viewer, relative to their position in the space. In conjunction with natural light, this would create an experience more suited to the tone of the work.

[anthonystudio3a]

Still from the second shoot I did from this project. This time I used a shotgun mic and a lapel mic to try and capture different elements of the sound - the shotgun mic was to capture general clothes & room noise, and the lapel mic to capture breathing. I’m still not competent with this technology, or audio recording & engineering in general, so I made some mistakes here. Firstly, the gain was too high on the shotgun mic, picking up too much of the air conditioning & other noise in the building. Second, the lapel mic also picked up the clicking of my knees in a very unnerving way. I wanted to test what the recording would sound like if I actually recorded the action of doing 100 wall squats, as opposed to faking it through foley. This led to problems with the recording, however, and in the future I’ll use the recording studio. My plan was to create a stereo sound installation experience, on one side the clothes/room noise, and on the other the breathing.

[anthonystudio3a]

The flag I had printed, which I haven’t ended up showing this semester, as I haven’t yet found a place for it in my installs.

[anthonystudio3a]

More interior pages from Zhineng Qigong Ke Xue.

[anthonystudio3a]

Front and back covers of Zhineng Qigong Ke Xue. If I create any sort of publication for this body of work, IU plan to use elements of this distinctive graphic design as visual references.

[anthonystudio3a]

These are photos of various editions of the publication Zhineng Qigong Ke Xue, which was released by Hua Xia ZQ Center. The red banner with white/yellow/gold text comes up a lot, as it does in other areas of Chinese culture, not just ZQ. I had considered making banners using this motif, but decided against it, at least for now, due to its political connotations related to  communism and the PRC in general. 

[anthonystudio3a]

Paul Pfeiffer, The Saints (2007).

(Copied from my IPO:)

Investigating British cultural identity through the emotionally charged arena of the football field, Pfeiffer manipulates scale in a highly effective manner. Playing recordings from the 2007 opening of Wembley Stadium of the crowd chanting various anthems throughout a largely empty gallery space, the viewer is immersed in the audio aspect of the work. There are some visual components, videos of football fans and matches from around the world, which add new layers of context. Pfeiffer’s careful process of selection will inform how I engage with the spaces I’m using, and which elements of works to include or edit out of installations. 

[anthonystudio3a]

Still from a test video work I’ve been working on - called 100 Squats. I’m unsure where this will go, but as it is now I perform 100 wall squats, facing away from the camera, and that’s it. When I was a child, my mum used to bribe my brother and I into practicing Zhineng Qigong, which is an approach that comes with its own problems and complications. I would do up to 350 wall squats a day for a few dollars, maybe. I didn’t feel very zen about it at the time, anyway. It’s been a while since I practiced wall squats, and although I can still do them, it’s a hard task. When looking over this test work, Simon and I decided it might work quite nicely to focus on the sound element, and present just that for now, alongside the paper work I presented for the week 10 critique.

[anthonystudio3a]

Joanna Margaret Paul’s work was highly influenced by her day-to-day experiences. Amongst other things, domestic space, being a mother. Her work focused on small details, under appreciated, everyday subjects. Art New Zealand wrote about her:

“Understatement was her natural milieu. Counting against her, too, was a perceived dilution of her focus in the myriad arenas of her activity: painting and drawing, photography, film-making, poetry, publishing, architectural history and critical writing, as well as related commitment to the women's movement, human rights, building preservation, environmental protection and a fierce opposition to laissez-faire genetic engineering.”

And:

“For instance, in a period of growing professionalism in the arts, she insisted, typically perversely, on the older meaning of the term 'amateur', the classicist in her refusing to detach from it an essential association with love.”

Light on Things, curated by Paul’s son Pascal in 2016, was a very special exhibition. There’s vulnerability and power in sharing personal aspects of your life, especially when there is grief involved. Though this also seems like it could have been a cathartic exercise.

Figuring out how to bring aspects of my personal life into my work - what to leave in, what to edit out, and why (or not) it’s worth sharing, is an ongoing process I’m dealing with as I continue to develop this body of work, and formulate a ‘practice’.

[anthonystudio3a]

Ross Liew’s ‘Good Morning’ at R&S Satay Noodle House as part of the AAAH last night. This was a part of a series of displays in storefronts around the city. I think the co-opting by artists of modes of displays such as billboards and flags is interesting, as they have have been lifted from the realm of commercialisation into a more reflective and critical space. The flag, especially, holds extra meaning - that of nationalism and diplomatic power as well as that of commercial power. When using a flag in my own work, I hope these readings come across, whilst not being too overt, as that’s not entirely the point of using it. 

[anthonystudio3a]

IPO - Now

Here’s the latest revision of my IPO for the second half of semester 2…

WHITI O REHUA - SCHOOL OF ART Independent Project Outline 213.341 Art Studio Research IPO template: Student Name: Anthony Fraser Student ID: 15221100 Amendment #: 3 Amendment date: 2/10/19 Rōpū Lecturers: Simon Morris & Jenny Gillham

Intent: (50-100 words):

To conduct an auto-ethnographic research-based inquiry into my own family situation, formulating responses that use whatever media seems appropriate. So far this has been photographic, but could use a variety of media. Some media that interest me and seem like they might be fitting of my purposes are print, sound and video. I feel that there is a natural progression from photography to these media, and I imagine that there could be a balance formed between archival material and work that I produce myself.

Background: (200-300 words):

Briefly describe what you did last semester, what you intend to develop from this work, and what (if anything) you are not going to continue to work with.

This past semester I’ve made photographic works that document and respond to aspects of my life that I consider to be quintessential parts of living in New Zealand. This work aimed to investigate aspects of New Zealand mainstream Pākehā culture, and to offer some kind of critique. I’m not sure entirely how successful this was, but as I learned more and developed more work, I became less interested in producing work that claimed any kind of finality in its assumptions, and less overtly critical. My more recent work was responding to everyday views from and within my domestic environment, and I’ve learned that questioning these more personal experiences seems more fulfilling, furtive and genuine than trying to critique larger cultural themes. My plan for the coming semester is to engage with matters that have personal emotional significance for me, and see what happens when I question them openly in a fine art context.

Method and resources: (100-200 words):

What do you intend to make (i.e., painting, sculpture, video, etc., etc.), and how (materials and processes). Do you need an individual studio space or can you use the shared space? What knowledge and skills do you need to gain, and what investigations do you plan to undertake?

I hope to produce photography, print media, and perhaps video and sound works to respond to lines of inquiry. I plan to investigate my own family history, recent and through further generations past, using the family archive and other archives if possible. Works responding to this research will hopefully come together in through an installation-based approach. There are still various avenues I intended to research that I haven’t yet had time for, such as a specific project researching my great-great grandfather’s job as a clown on National Radio. I’ll continue to use facilities all around CoCA, including the photography department, fine arts block, Te Ara Hihiko and perhaps more. I would like to develop my practice to being more installation-based and multi-media if I can find a way of combining these various media effectively. I need to continue my research into theories surrounding documentary, and other disciplines of art-making.

References:

Begin a list of a minimum of 6 references, four of which must be artists or artworks whose work is inspirational and whom you intend to continue to use to develop your own work, and two other references (text, music, film, other writing, etc.) Briefly describe how each reference is relevant to your own intended research.

Reference both texts and artwork images properly: you should use the system recommended for visual material on OWLL, which includes the artist’s name, the date of the artwork and a URL, book or exhibition note.

Edith Amituanai: #keeponkimiora

This book is very powerful. It is a documentary photographer getting to the heart of the politics of representation and taking an ethical approach to their field. Documentary photography has shady roots in New Zealand, and Amituanai is well aware of this. Furthermore, mainstream media organisations wield power when using various forms of representations (editorial, photographic, video), often to great harm. Amituanai is a voice singing another tune to the oft-negative representations of members of her community and communities like hers (non-Pākehā, low socio-economic, etc.). She provides positive images of people, often young people, in her community, gaining their trust, their consent, working with them to produce images they consider to be appropriate, together. She is an actively contributing to the decolonisation of New Zealand fine art spaces, and although this is not hat I intend my work to be about per se, role models like this are always in  my mind whilst I’m making work. I wonder what Sontag or for that matter Spivak would have to say about her work.

Phillip Andrew Lewis: SYNONYM

This body of work responds to Andrew Lewis’ time in a drug rehabilitation centre where in his teens he was forcibly held against his will for 2 years. The organisation that held him is no longer in operation in the USA, but Andrew Lewis returned to multiple sites it used to run rehabilitation centres. Combining found objects, photography, graphic elements and performance-based works based on personal experience, Andrew Lewis has formed a large body of work in response to this.

Andrew Lewis employs a diverse range of media in his practice, which is surrounded by so many contexts. He investigates these physical, social,  political contexts through various ways of making and curating. I plan to use a diverse range of media in my own work also.

Paul Pfeiffer: The Saints

Investigating British cultural identity through the emotionally charged arena of the football field, Pfeiffer manipulates scale in a highly effective manner. Playing recordings from the 2007 opening of Wembley Stadium of the crowd chanting various anthems throughout a largely empty gallery space, the viewer is immersed in the audio aspect of the work. There are some visual components, videos of football fans and matches from around the world, which add new layers of context. Pfeiffer’s careful process of selection will inform how I engage with the spaces I’m using, and which elements of works to include or edit out of installations. 

Joanna Margaret Paul & Pascal Harris: Light on Things 

This was an exhibition (and publication) of Joanna Margaret Paul’s work curated by her youngest son, Pascal Harris. It celebrates her work and life, yet is simultaneously drenched in the grief of a son for his mother. The exploration of these personal relationships though exhibition and printed matter has helped guide me through my own exploration of these matters in my work this semester.

Rachael Rakena: One man is an island

This and other works of Rachael Rakena have influenced what I’m making. The way she strips back the world that her subjects perform in, adding usually only one contextual element, gives her work a captivating presence. Keeping the strength of these aesthetics in mind, along with the personal nature of the content, will help to show me some direction when making work this semester. One can use personal stories to share ideas on larger narratives.

Amituanai, E. #keeponkimiora. Hastings: Hastings Art Gallery, 2018.

Andrew Lewis, Phillip. SYNONYM. Headlands Center For The Arts, San Francisco, 2017.

Harris, Pascal. Light On Things. Brett Mcdowell Gallery, 2016.

Pfeiffer, Paul. The Saints. The Junction, Engineers Way, Wembley, London, 2007.

Rakena, Rachael. One man is an island. Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, 2009.

In consultation with your lecturer, complete your IPO as following the template above.

Be mindful of the learning objectives for this course:

Students who successfully complete this paper should be able to:

• Outline, develop and undertake an independent project.

• Thoroughly investigate relationships between concepts, media and processes.

• Extend competence in self-directed inquiry and its application to the development of studio projects.

• Present their work for assessment in a considered and appropriate manner and contribute to critical discussion in relation to their own work and that of their peers.

Adhere to the recommended word lengths: your complete IPO should not exceed 500 words, plus references.

This is a document you will be asked to revisit, progress and develop numerous times this year, so always include your amendment iteration and date in the boxes above so you know which version it is.

[anthonystudio3a]

[anthonystudio3a]

Some works by M.C. Richards. I’ve never engaged with ceramics, but have always been interested. Perhaps in the future my practice will find some scope for it. She lived in intentional communities, and was a strong believer in bringing art into everyday life, and vice-versa. I’m interested to see what happens as I engage this ideology into aspects of my life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akh6enU6Gds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ZEygS079o

[anthonystudio3a]

Robyn Maree Pickens writes about:

Louise Menzies: In an orange my mother was eating 16 February – 30 March, 2019

“Menzies’ exhibition makes me think about many issues, but mainly about relationships, and especially the politics of relationships. We are always in relation to others. We live our lives as assemblages of assemblages, to paraphrase writer, artist and philosopher Manuel DeLanda.[6] But do we acknowledge our assembled nature? And if we do, who do we choose to acknowledge? For every canonical reference, another artist or writer is quietly diminished and slowly erased. Donna Haraway summarises the essentially political act involved in going beyond the canon with her well-known dictum: it matters who we think with, and which stories we choose to tell.[7] In this exhibition, and in previous bodies of work, Menzies makes productive allegiances with the less-loved, under-appreciated, and overlooked moments in artist’s lives in an effort to help us think about what it means to make art, who gets to decide it is art, and how we can make the process more equitable....

“Menzies chooses to concentrate precisely on the interweaving of familial and artistic lives”

This exhibition’s focus on relationships offers some insight and comfort for me about making work based around my relationship with my mother, her practice, and it’s effect on me. It feels fitting to draw on these experiences and the nature of the relationships themselves into my work. I also appreciate her use of handmade paper. I’d like to embrace these more craft associated practices into my making processes where applicable.