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John Cage

4’33’’ is a compositing by John Cage. In this performance, the pianist sits at the piano for 4 minutes and 33 seconds without playing any music. The purpose of this piece is for the audience to listen to the background noise in the room, and this becomes the composition. This performance has been recreated many times, and although the performer does the same thing each time, the composition is always different because of the unique sounds of each audience. John Cages aim with 4’33’’ was to reframe attention. He takes the focus and puts it on nothing.

For my work inspired by John Cage, I framed a mirror. I took Cages idea of reframing the audience’s attention and turning it on themselves. In frame where and artwork would typically be, I put a mirror so that the artwork becomes the audiences reaction, much like Cages 4’33’’.

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David Hockney

In class, we looked at the works of David Hockney, particuarly his iPad paintings. He is a very accomplished artist and keeping up with todays technology he started using ipads to paint landscapes. In class, we took photographs of each other and painted portraits sing an app on ipads. This was challenging because it is something I had never done before and it took some time getting used to how the app worked. As a class, we also took photos of objects together Each person took a photo of a different section of an object – like a tree or a painting, making sure the edge joined up We then went back and use the ipad to paint our section in our own personal style then came together and made a complete picture from may ipads.

At home, I downloaded the brushes app that we used in class and did my own ipad artwork. I picked a photo of 2 urinals because it was something different to the portraits we did in class. I painted over one urinal and parts of the floor and left some parts of the photo untouched. I thought this added an interesting element to the artwork

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Thomas Bradley

In class, we did an activity based on the work of Thomas Bradley. We each received an apple and took bites out of it and then pieced the apple back together using toothpicks. The act of taking an apple apart for the soul purpose of putting it back together again seemed pointless to me. But I found that the puzzle like aspect of the activity was oddly satisfying when fitting the pieces back together. While questioning how this apple activity was art, I thought of Allan Kaprow and how his artworks are often social exercises, where a group of people are instructed to do something.The social aspect of this activity was interesting to witness and was as much part of the artwork as the actual deconstruction and reconstruction of the apple. Each person had their own way of doing it. Some people took strategies and laid out the pieces in a specific order. Others took random bites and tried to randomly fit he pieces back together. Each person produced unique apple even though everyone started with apples that were almost identical. At home, I took the Thomas Bradley exercise and put a spin on it. I picked a rose and removed all of its petals. I laid them out in a spiral in the order I plucked them. I then attempted to glue the petals back on to the stem to resemble how the rose looked previously. In some ways this was easier than the apple. The petals did not have to be put back exactly where they came from for the finished product to make sense. But in other ways it was harder, gluing the petals was tedious as they didn’t always stick.

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References

Barker, C, 2012, ‘Issues of subjectivity and identity’, in Cultural studies: theory and practice, 4th ed, Sage, London, p(219-251)

Howes, D, 2005, 'Skinscapes: embodiment, culture, and environment’, in Classen, Constance, The book of touch, Berg, Oxford, pp. 27-39 

Mansfield, N, 2000, ‘Subjectivity: theories of the self from Freud to Haraway’, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, N.S.W.

McLeod, S. "Social Identity Theory | Simply Psychology". Simplypsychology.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.

Varga, Somogy, and Charles Guignon. "Authenticity". Plato.stanford.edu. N.p., 2014. Web. 23

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Image References

"Aboriginal Dot Paintings". Kate Owen Gallery. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

"Die Geburt Der Venus". allposters.de. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

"Dream Caused By The Flight Of A Bee Around A Pomegranate A Second Before Awakening By Salvador Dali". Dalipaintings.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

Eby, Douglas. "Lady Gaga: Honor Your Unique Identity | Talentdevelop". TalentDevelop. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

"Joe Average « Royal Canadian Academy Of Arts". Rca-arc.ca. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

"Man Ray". WideWalls. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

"Portable Body - Knowledge.". Reglesdelart.blogspot.com.au. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

"Symbolism Movement, Artists And Major Works". The Art Story. N.p., 2017. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.

"The Walled Off Hotel". Banksy.co.uk. N.p., 2017. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.

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SOCIAL IDENTITY

Social identity is how we fit into society and how society sees us. Tajfel (1979) suggests that being part of a group improves our sense of worth and self-esteem. Being part of a group gives us a place in society and it is how we are defined by society. Tajfel and Turner (1979) believe that there are three stages involved in defining out social identity. The first is categorization, where we put people in categories that are easy for us to understand. Second is social identification where our actions line up with the category we have put ourselves in. Third is social comparison, where we compare our group with other groups, this can lead to prejudice and discrimination.

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FRACTURED IDENTITY

Fractured identity is the idea that each person does not have not one unchanging personality, rather a person is ever changing and may not be the same person, hold the same views and beliefs that they previously did. At any one time, one person may contain different, sometimes conflicting identities. (Hall, 1996) These photos are of an artwork I did where I photographed different people and cut and pasted parts of these photographs together to make a single face, exploring the idea of identity, showing that a person may have many identities.

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CREATIVE IDENTITY

Creative identity is the way you express yourself as an artist. It is unique to each artist and is expressed through their work, through medium and through what they are trying to get across with their art. Lady Gaga is a good example of an artist with a clear and strong creative identity. She expresses identity through her music, film clips and style. “Through honoring your identity and really fighting for who you are every single day of your life, down to your core, you can have more faith and more hope in life and in the future.”

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CREATIVE INFLUENCE

All creative practitioners are inspired by the world around them as well as other artists. Joe Average is a painter, photographer and printmaker from Vancouver, Canada who famously creates vibrant, graphic images. His work is clearly influenced and inspired by the pop art movement and the prominent artists of this movement. When talking about his artwork, he says, “I then discovered the Pop Art of Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Peter Max. I was inspired that these fun and colourful images could be presented seriously on canvas.”

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AUTHENTICITY

Authenticity is commonly understood as the action of being true to yourself. Rousseau states that authenticity is being true to oneself in an essentialist view. Being who you are as you were born and not being influenced by external factors. (Varga, 2014) Photographer, Man Ray is famous for his originality and authenticity, he says “An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.”

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SENSORY KNOWLEDGE

Sensory knowledge, also known as skin knowledge is the information we receive through our skin, without using the brain. Through experiencing nature, one can gain knowledge through touch. A Peruvian tribe called Cashinuhua, believes that this skin knowledge enables them to know their way throughout the jungle and easily hunt animals for food. This theory is backed up by Henry David Thoreau, who could find his way home in complete darkness. (Howe, 2005) Portable Body – Knowledge, an exhibition by Sergio Velenzuela Valdes depicts sensory knowledge. The information printed on the skin makes the audience think about skin knowledge.

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OVERDETERMINATION

Freud states that all psychological and cultural material is overdetermined. This means that reactions and actions, no matter how insignificant are driven by a deeper unconscious feeling or urge.  For example, a seemingly unimportant aspect in a dream is often coming from a deep part of the unconscious – a thought or a repressed memory. (Mansfield, 2000) James Esnor’s Death and the Masks is a good example of overdetermination. Many aspects of the painting, such as the skull and the masks are symbols for deeper things and are therefore overdetermined.

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UNCONSCIOUS

The unconscious is a part of the mind which we are often unaware of. This part of the brain contains thoughts, memories, impulses and emotions that we do not control with our conscious mind. These unconscious thoughts often emerge in involuntary ways, such as dreams, jokes and Freudian slips. (Mansfield, 2000) Salvador Dali was a surrealist painter and his paintings were extremely dream like. This painting is called Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before awakening. Dali explores the unconscious in his paintings by painting scenes that are a warped reality and would not be experienced in the conscious mind.

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ESSENTIALISM

Essentialism is the belief that a person has an essential core that exists in them from birth until death, for example masculine/feminine. Their beliefs, traits, characteristics and personality all come from this core and do not change depending on the external factors in their lives. “We might say that persons have an ‘essence’ of the self that we call identity. By this token there would be a fixed essence of femininity, masculinity, Asians, teenagers, and all other social categories.” (Barker 2012) Venus de milo, painted by Boticelli represents femininity. Venus is depicted as beautiful, graceful and delicate – all traditionally ‘feminine’ traits.

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SUBJECTIVITY

Subjectivity is what it means to be a person. The experience of being a person and how the social and cultural environments affect and shape us.  As humans, we are ever changing and this change is due to external factors that we are subject to. (Barker, 2012) George Ward Tjungarrayi is an aboriginal artist who was a founding member of the Papunya art movement. He does traditional dot paintings and is obviously heavily influenced by his culture, which he has been subject to.