journalofat-blog

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How Social, Cultural, Creative, Economic and Political relate to me as an artist

As an artist, Social, Cultural, Creative, Economic and Political related to me profoundly.  Simply to say, daily lives are significant to me. Observing details, updating new information and accepting difference, these are the basic skills help me to become an artist.  This pattern could be applied in the different situation, for example the one is a potent connection to our daily lives - society. Our society is a system enormous and complicated, therefore there are a set of problems and issues with it. Really pay attention to inside information, discover the problem and point it out, and then find the way to show it. As artists, we attend to find the question to study/discuss it, and during the process, we are clearing up the confusion, in order to find the answer. Usually we found the answer at the time we create the art. Culture is the root of knowledge, language and rule. And creation is ability of producing pieces. Reviewing what’ve I learned now, I think the concept of Conceptual Art is really matching my vision of Art. Concept, definition and explanation create a new language in social, cultural and creative ways. We find the idea in society, culture provides knowledge to build the concept, in order to create Art.

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Access Sources - More Sources

What is Fluxus? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGZ9OS1Oj14

Whos Afraid of Conceptual Art - BBC Documentary 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84K1_yptwHs

Can You Define Conceptual Art? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwHu2MMac8Q

Conceptualism VS Reality Ep.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBfYfy-jOHA

[ARTS 315] Conceptual Art: New Strategies for Meaning - Jon Anderson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSi61l7hxxQ

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Access Sources - Art Movement

Dada (Dadaism) 

Although Dada only lasted for a few years its impact was considerable. The Dadaists introduced and explored techniques and concepts that we take for granted in art today: automatism, chance, photomontage, assemblage, and the idea that an artwork could be a temporary installation. They also expanded the boundaries and context of what was considered acceptable as art, which in turn inspired future developments such as Action Painting, Pop Art, Happenings, Installations, Conceptual Art and its various post-modern splinter groups.

Dada was an extreme protest against the physical side of painting. It was a metaphysical attitude. ― Marcel Duchamp

ArtyFactory http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm

Fluxus and Zen

Zen is a Japanese Buddhist philosophy that focuses on meditation and the importance of the present moment. No single moment is to be more important than another in life. Zen had a powerful impact on John Cage who thought that art should be concerned with equivalency of values instead of elevating artistic experiences from everyday experiences - "in this way art becomes important as a means to make one aware of one's actual environment." This comes directly from Buddhist teachings on the importance of being aware of every moment and present in every moment in life.

ArtStory http://www.theartstory.org/movement-fluxus.htm

Minimalism 

Minimal Art is a school of abstract painting and sculpture where any kind of personal expression is kept to a minimum, in order to give the work a completely literal presence. The resulting work is characterized by extreme simplicity of form and a deliberate lack of expressive content. The central principle is that not the artist’s expression, but the medium and materials of the work are its reality. In other words: a work of art should not refer to anything other than itself. As minimalist painter Frank Stella once said: “What you see is what you see”.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. ― Albert Einstein

http://understandingminimalism.com/introduction-to-minimal-art/

Quotes

In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. ― Sol LeWitt

Language is the most formless means of expression. Its capacity to describe concepts without physical or visual references carries us into an advanced state of abstraction. ― Ian Wilson

Thinking fragments reality - it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces. ― Eckhart Tolle

More Sources

Tate http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/fluxus

ArtMovements http://www.artmovements.co.uk/fluxus.htm

WideWalls http://www.widewalls.ch/conceptual-art-movement-and-conceptual-art-examples/

ArtTalk http://www.arttalk.com/archives/vol-13/artv1311-2.htm

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Access Sources - Interpretation

Bag Piece 1964 by Yoko Ono

A small room with instructions painted on the wall, encouraging strangers to “touch each other,” only led to visitors looking around awkwardly and then leaving. A take on Bag Piece — a work Ono first performed in 1964 by instructing two people to get inside the bag, remove their clothes, then get dressed again before coming out of the bag — is set up in one corner of the gallery; participants are free to do what they choose within the provided bag.

Flavorwire http://flavorwire.com/519603/yoko-ono-is-for-everyone

"Untitled" (Perfect Lovers) 1991 by Félix González-Torres

Between 1987 and 1990 artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres made an edition of 3 plus 1 artist’s proof of “Untitled” (Perfect Lovers)”, which consists of a identical pair of store-bought black-rimmed clocks. The piece was dedicated to his lover Ross Laycock, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1991. In the same year Gonzalez-Torres created a white version of the work, which is owned by the MoMa, New York. The guidelines regarding how the work should be arranged and displayed are the following: “When installed, the two clocks were to touch; the clocks could be replaced with white plastic commercial clocks of similar dimensions and design; the minute and second hands were to be set in sync, with the understanding that eventually they might go out of sync during the course of the exhibition; if one of the clocks needed the batteries replaced, it was to be done, and the clocks were to be reset accordingly; the clocks were to be displayed on a wall painted light blue.”

CatchFire http://www.catch-fire.com/2011/11/felix-gonzales-torres-untitled-perfect-lovers-1987-1991/

One-Hundred-Year Calendars 2000 by On Kawara

The format of the calendar provided On Kawara with another way of representing time and recording daily life. In both One Hundred Years Calendars (1984–2012) and One Million Years (1970–98), Kawara compresses time into small grids. For One Hundred Years Calendars, the calendars are ten rows high, with each row representing a decade and columns representing the months. Black dots indicate Sundays. Every day in the artist’s life is marked over the numeral with a yellow dot. Every day a Date Painting was completed is marked with a green dot, and red dots note when more than one painting was made. The calendars teach us some things about Kawara’s life. They indicate that he was born on December 24, 1932, not January 2, 1933, as officially recorded and publicized prior to his passing. They also reveal months of high and low artistic productivity

The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation https://www.guggenheim.org/arts-curriculum/topic/calendars-one-hundred-years-and-one-million-years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrPsfXg088w

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Access Sources - Artists

Yoko Ono

According to Ono, her original intention was to harness the Buddhist mentality (Buddha, born a wealthy prince, achieved enlightenment by giving up everything and sitting under a tree for seven years), with a feminist subtext: women too often need to give up everything. This performance was a demonstration of that reality. Ono's Cut Piece was the first performance piece to address the potential for sexual violence in public spectacle. It is also among the first examples of Performance Art.

THe Art Story http://www.theartstory.org/artist-ono-yoko-artworks.htm#pnt_6

Félix González-Torres

After doing all these shows, I've become burnt out with trying to have some kind of personal presence in the work. Because I'm not my art. It's not the form and it's not the shape, not the way these things function that's being put into question. What is being put into question is me. I made "Untitled" (Placebo) because I needed to make it. There was no other consideration involved except that I wanted to make art work that could disappear, that never existed, and it was a metaphor for when Ross was dying. So it was a metaphor that I would abandon this work before this work abandoned me. I'm going to destroy it before it destroys me. That was my little amount of power when it came to this work. I didn't want it to last, because then it couldn't hurt me. From the very beginning it was not even there - I made something that doesn't exist. I control the pain. That's really what it is. That's one of the parts of this work. Of course, it has to do with all the bullshit of seduction and the art of authenticity. I know that stuff, but on the other side, it has a personal level that is very real. It's not about being a con artist. It's also about excess, about the excess of pleasure It's like a child who wants a landscape of candies. First and foremost it's about Ross. Then I wanted to please myself and then everybody.

ArtPress http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/gonzaleztorres1.pdf

On Kawara

A sampling of 39 of the “Paris-New York Drawings” add a sense of restless experimentalism to the show’s first gallery. Their motifs include delicate stripes and grids like those of the Minimalist painter Agnes Martin, yet also parody the style, as in a drawing of a pink box sprouting irregular black wires. Minimalism frazzled, after a hard day at the office. Other drawings depict installation pieces that fill rooms with networks of string. There are savvy intimations of earthworks and performances and numerous signs of Kawarian things to come: interests in language, maps, lists and numbers; an airmail envelope addressed to the artist. Especially prescient is a meticulous all-capitals Helvetica rendering of the word EGG, which echoes the earliest work here, from 1963: a drawing that simply and tantalizingly states “SOMETHING.”

The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/arts/design/the-guggenheim-shows-first-on-kawara-retrospective.html

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Conceptual Art

Cut Piece 1964 by Yoko Ono

What is it?

Ono nearly naked on the stage, and scissors and garment pieces are scattered around.

What does it mean?

An empty room with only bare walls, and the lights turn on and off in intervals of 5 seconds.

What does it matter?

Discussing the moral and ethics of human nature. Society issues about gender, equity and limitation.

Substantiation

#Performancing Art

Stage, flesh and concept are happening together.

Quotes

“We are all artists, and the world around us is art if we can just find new and different ways to view it.” 

― Yoko Ono

"Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) 1991 by Félix González-Torres

What is it?

A pile of multicolored candies stacking at the corner.

What does it mean?

The background of the artwork is about the artist’s partner, Ross Laycock, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1991. Comprising 175 pounds of candy, which corresponds to Ross’s ideal body weight. Viewers are encouraged to take a piece of candy from it, candies reducing represents Ross's weight losing and suffering from the illness.

What does it matter?

It’s all about to the affection González-Torres had to his lover. human life will end but love can stay eternally.

Substantiation

#Eyes and Spectator 

Same artwork, different angle gets different view. For the artist himself, it’s the artwork signifies the lover of him. But for the spectator, who without any background information simply to see, it’s just a pile of candy.

Quotes

“Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art. ”

― Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Today series 1966-2013 by On Kawara

What is it?

Dates, in the order. But with some different colors, size, fonts, formats and languages. Simple white lettering set on a solid background.

What does it mean?

From January 4, 1966, Kawara started this Today series, also known as Day paintings. These works document the date he was made, till 2013 over 45 years documenting. According his daily life shifting, adopting into different locations, local languages, even the major event of the day. 

What does it matter?

Each artwork repersents the day he has experienced, the meaning is over than the artwork itself.

Substantiation

#Happening

Every moment is unique, is ephemeral. Kawara used the time fully concentrated to catch/document the day passing. Focusing on the moment in happening.

Quotes

“I am still alive” ― On Kawara

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What does it mean to re-stage a Happening, revisiting an event that was meant to be very Zen and present tense?

Happening is more like an immediate moment, it's ephemeral. Once we try to restart/duplicate it, it will only be another happening. The original one is already existed forever, cannot be erased but only create more originals.

Does the artist’s original intention matter?

It does, but it's only the half part. The original intention is just like a plan, plan it and give a direction. And then step back, just see how it goes spontaneously.

And, when it comes to exhibitions, what is the best way to sustain the legacy of an artist obsessed with the everyday and ephemeral, an artist who once compared putting ‘lifelike art’ in a museum to ‘making love in a cemetery?’”

Ephemeral is the moment of eternity, and the moment comes from daily life. And the happening/process during exhibitions is the best part of sustaining the legacy.

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Make this the year YOU discover a new destination 2015 by Banksy

Read ‘Cyberrace’ by Lisa Nakamura - How are issues of commodity, ideology and fetishism connected to the concept of cyberrace in Makanura’s article?

It’s more like creating a new community, even we can call it a new society. “The ability to manipulate the look and feel of race online… encouraged and fed the desire for control over self- construction and self-representation.” In the Cyber World (internet world), people can remake or re-stage their whole identity. Through the key uploading and typing, give us a chance to create a new person to represent ourself. Could be an ideal self or different purpose for creating. For example The Sims, it’s an online simulation reality game. In the game, people will create a character to represent yourself. You will have to dress the character, feed it and make the working schedule, basically it simulates our real life. A lot of people really enjoy the game, the game provides the second choice to take control or recreate a life we are pursuing.

- What other issues does Makanura identify and explain?

Reversed the traditional way of communication face to face, now new media internet provides a whole new way of communication. In the internet world, we are all hiding be hide the screen box. We don’t really see the reality object/people, while we are communicating. In a way, it’s just getting harder to distinguish what is real and fake. Also because of that we won’t really feel flesh existing and emotion, delivering, we feel less sympathy. It sometimes gives us stronger power to judge/criticize without taking the responsibility, it’s the issue we should be aware of this new generation..

- Makanura contrasts the ability to hide user’s bodies and races online with “racialization,” making race through digital means. What is the contrast?

The question “can cyberspace change race structures our daily lives?” I think the answer is no. This problem came from our real lives originally, unless we really deal with the problem of  different races in real live. But in a way, cyberspace is the place for hiding/avoiding these issues, bodies and races. It gives a chance to portent or experience different character/identity, I wouldn’t say it’s bad.

- How does Makanura interpret “racialization” as a “performance?”

Cyberspace as a platform, allows us to express ourself. Once you understand the rule then you are be able to dominate the cyber world. When more and more people following you, you become a cyber fame. At the time, cyber world becomes your stage,   and your actions is the performance. Tila Tequila is an example, her expressions earn the fame for her, people start to pay more attention on her actions and opinions. As an asian america woman, Tila Tequila against her traditional identity after she got famous. She is trying to create another racialization for herself and her followers, using "a new identity of herself. As an performer performing the performance.

Read the introduction to Making Things Perfectly Queer, by Alexander Doty - What is the problem with reading queerness as connotation, according to Doty?

Queerness is minority culture. Connotation allows straights culture (traditional culture) to use queerness for pleasure. Connotation suggests things without saying them for certain,  It doesn’t explain the whole picture of queerness, just suggests simply.

- How does Doty say he uses the terms queer / queerness?

Queerness based on politics, style, sexual behavior, or any other quailty, can only make queerness become more open and flexible.
 The concept of “the closet”, queer/queerness doesn’t label gay, lesbian and bisexual directly. It more defines the opposite term of  traditional (straight, white, middle-class, usually male) mass culture.

- Consider Doty’s assertion that “this book was written from within this type of transitional cultural and theoretical space, as it recognizes gender and sexual ‘lines’ while suggesting ways to question our understanding of how those lines function in mass culture production and reception.” What might be the benefit of questioning our understanding of how those lines function in production and reception?

Embracing diversity, to break thorough the “traditional” system of sexuality. Understand it and merging it, represent in mass culture even to create a new balancing system.

Read the introduction to The Cultural Resistance Reader by Stephen Duncombe - According to the author, how can cultural resistance foster or frustrate political activity?

Cultural resistance provides a sort of “free space” for developing ideas and practices. Cultural resistance can also be thought as political activity, they shared symbols and meanings of discourse. The dominant system is a complete idealogical and material hegemony culture expression, eventually cultural resistance will repackaged and transformed into the system.

- How are appropriation and re-appropriation used in the examples offered by Duncombe in the effort of cultural resistance?

In1980s, gay and lesbian interoperated a disco hit “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge as an appropriation, they gave the song a new meaning to represent their ideas and voices. Even though cultural resistance eventually would be absorbed by the system, but instead of doing nothing. The community (gay and lesbian), they are gathering together creating their own culture.

- What are the implications of consuming culture and creating culture in cultural resistance?

Well, you should always get a try before give up. Cultural resistance is not an effective action to change something major (the whole culture), but people will always try. Even it’s small or short, but it provides a space/community to the small crowd group. Culture resistance create a space, ideologically space creates new languages, meanings and the vision of the future. And materially place builds community, networks and organizational models.  

Select an artwork or activity that may stand for cultural resistance and explain your interpretation of it, considering the creation of ideological free space and material free space.

(Viideo Up)

See the problems/issues and react it/say it out/interpret it, it’s the basic idea of cultural resistance. Banksy is the typical example for cultural resistance/political resistance. According the topic/issue of the event, will have different kind of actions to respond it. The majority events are about social and political issues. It’s not permanent but it’s meaningful. Ideologically: The painting is a language, the whole action has the meaning behind and also creating an ideal vision of the future. Materially: People start understanding it, supporting it and joining it, therefrom it creates a community and networks.

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My Custom Glasses 2013 by Casey Neistat

Performing Art and Performance Art do have slightly different, Performing Art is involved more body movement, the traditional classical performance. Performance Art isn’t necessary to be body moving, but the Performance has to have the clear and complete presentation. I choose this video is about a guy making videos about his daily life on YouTube. He brings his camera with him everywhere and everyday, in order to document his days. Continuing filming and posting, he has over 10 million followers are watching his video daily. I would analyze that the video is his complete performance, and he is the flesh/performer, and the 10 million followers are spectators. Using the system of YouTube, spectators can comment and like the video in order to communicate to the performer. It’s a new stylized performance, networking and globalization. Using the technology to translate the action. But in the end, it will somehow reduce the sensation and atmosphere of live reality by only experiencing the computer screen compare to the traditional Performance Art.

What issues in performance art does Andrea Pagnes outlined in her article?

Meaning gives action sense. “a performance, live or recorded, is life itself: it is primarily real” Meaning is the concept in performance, it directs the action together to complete a performance.  performer and spectator are independent on each other.In the performance, The relationship between performer and spectator with no obligations or forced intentions. While body and soul, movement and perception are evident proofs of reality, at the same time they are a laboratory of memory and representation.

How are semiotics re-thought for discussing performance art?

The Body represents the whole picture, and the meaning behind the body. Performance Art is about processes, the moment of moving and giving. The action is tool to complete the performance/art.

How is “flesh” defined according to Heinrich and according to the theorists he cites?

Two ways to explain Flesh, the Physical Body and the Artwork itself. Traditional flesh is talking about human body/flesh. Moving our own body and limbs to perform, in order to show the beauty of the human body. And the compete artwork is  another flesh, the whole artwork itself as the body, invites viewers from all angels to observe it.

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Ice Bucket Challenge 2014 Initiated by ALS Association

Nowadays, when we’re talking about art, it’s no longer just an artwork or the traditional way of art. Social movement/event also could be cataloged to Performance Art / Action Art. In 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge was like virus spreading on the internet. people accepted and nominated the challenge and making their own videos as it. Using the same concept to remake it. Meanwhile there were some against voices, also making some videos in the ironic way to this event for saying out their opinions. Said the whole event was like a game, by dumping water on the head won’t really understand/feel what is ALS. All in all, the event did really go viral. After the Ice Bucket Challenge was successful, it came out a lot of different challenges were trying to interpret the same way for advertising promotion.

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Campbell's Soup Cans 1962 by Andy Warhol

By simply saying, Aura is the value of the artwork. As we all know the rule that when a thing is rare, it becomes precious/valuable. Let's divide into two ways to talk about it. First, The original work only exists one time, every work is unique, even they look like the same. But for satisfying people's desire of owning, businessman tends to reproduce “ the original work”.  The reproduction from the third party (not artists themselves) grows the aura of the artwork. The opposite, if the original piece is mass production, then the aura will reduce down. Like Andy Warhol’s Campbell's Soup Cans series, at the first he only made 32 paintings for the exhibition. But after the exhibition, he kept developing the series and producing more and more. Even nowadays in 2016, you can still easily to find “the original work” of Campbell's Soup Cans to buy.

- Explain the process by which the wall of the gallery became an active modifier art.

If the artwork (physical size) is bigger than the white box, it couldn't be contained in anymore, then the artwork and the white box will connect together instead. The wall becomes the part of the artwork, together creating one topic/theme, enriching the full scene. It’s a new experience for experiencing artwork or art in general, including the surroundings atmosphere. Just like walking into the artwork to discover the art by ourself physically.

- How does O’Doherty differentiate between “the eye” and “the spectator?”

The eye can be trained, the spectator cannot. The eye is inside, the spectator is outside. The eye is digesting, the spectator is swallowing. The eye is beholder, the spectator is onlooker.

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NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1939 by Joseph Binder

Faith in "Grand Theory" (totalizing explanations in history, science and culture) to represent all knowledge and explain everything.

Master narrative of progress through science and technology.

Root/Depth tropes. Faith in "Depth" (meaning, value, content, the signified) over "Surface" (appearances, the superficial, the signifier).

Faith in the "real" beyond media, language, symbols, and representations; authenticity of "originals."

Knowledge mastery, attempts to embrace a totality. Quest for interdisciplinary harmony. Paradigms: The Library and The Encyclopedia.

Design and architecture of New York and Berlin.

President Elect 1961 by James Rosenquist

Social and cultural pluralism, disunity, unclear bases for social / national / ethnic unity.

Subvert order, loss of centralized control, fragmentation.

Trust and investment in micropolitics, identity politics, local politics, institutional power struggle.

Hyper-reality, image saturation, simulacra seem more powerful than the "real"; images and texts with no prior "original". "As seen on TV" and "as seen on MTV" are more powerful than unmediated experience.

Play, irony, challenge to official seriousness, subversion of earnestness.

Hypermedia as transcendence of the physical limit of print media.

Read ‘The Avant-Garde and Kitsch’ by Clement Greenberg

- What does Greenberg mean when he defines the avant-garde as “an imitation of imitating?”

Artists and Poets try to imitate God by creating, they are strongly focusing on subject matter/content and creation/uniqueness. In the other hand, the origin of creation has its own processes and disciplines, which means art and literature have already imitated the former. Concluded that It is the imitation of imitating.

- What is meant by “kitsch?”

It’s about popular/trending/over and over again/ciche/blinding/unconscious following. Meanwhile, it also could be in an ironic/parody/amusing/conscious knowing way. It applies to Art, Design and Objects.

- What values does Greenberg ascribe to avant-garde?

That its best artists are artists’ artists, its best poets are poets’ poets.

- What values does Greenberg ascribe to kitsch?

Kitsch is a product of the industrial revolution which urbanized the masses of Western Europe and America and established what is called universal literacy.

Donald Trump "NOPE" 2016 by Galaxy Tees

Donald Trump is a kitsch art alive exemplification, on the both sides of the meaning. 

From his high support rate for 2016 Presidential Election, it shows high pitch leads the fame leads following. It’s a typical trending way, duplicated not only art but even faith and thoughts. Kitsch is contagious. 

Galaxy Tee interprets Barack Obama "Hope" poster 2008 by Shepard Fairey into Donald Trump “Nope” poster. Hope and Nope are almost the opposite terms, which is highly ironic and obviously pointing kitsch out.

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What personal significance do you find in the ideas that you have recorded in your informal visual journal? What does contextual and cultural referencing in art mean? How can you use cultural and contextual referencing in your own artwork?

We say, humans have five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. I would say “thought” would be the sixth sense, and in this class we were training it frequently. When we see an image, the teacher will always ask: What do you see? and What do you think? The answer will start with: I think… and yes, that’s the key word of thought. How to define the thought of the senses? It’s not only just about thinking and describing, it also integrates the previous five senses. In short, it’s like collecting all the ideas together and using your own way to express/deliver the feeling. And it’s personal and unique, everyone is different. Well, I think contextual and cultural referencing is like a dictionary of art. It explains the background/definition and try to connect the sense it made between art and meaning. I learnt a lot of history, backgrounds and ideas of art. I also got to know a lot of artwork from different subjects in this class. It increases my vision of art to be more broad and diverse. The way I can use it for my own artwork, as I said previously, is like using a dictionary; not only can I use the knowledge to identify artwork more accurately, but I can also utilize the knowledge as a reference for my own artwork.

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La reproduction interdite/Not to be Reproduced (1937) René Magritte

"This painting was commissioned by poet and Magritte patron Edward James and is considered a portrait of James although James' face is not depicted. The work depicts a man standing in front of a mirror, but whereas the book on the mantelpiece is reflected correctly, the man can see only the back of his head." - ReneMagritte.org

Not to be Reproduced by René Magritte // “Come Together” by The Beatles

This image is from an online design website called The Beatles Art History. They pick the well-known images and find some similar meaning of the lyrics from The Beatles and arrange it in pairs. Some of them are funny, ironic and ambiguous, sometimes they even give a new meaning to the image depending on the sentences of lyrics. As for this combination, we could easily tell the sense of humor from it. http://beatlesarthistory.tumblr.com

Conducting Boijmans (2015) Sonia Herman Dolz

It is a poster of a documentary from the Netherlands. The man on the poster is Sjarel Ex, who is the director of Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam. It’s a  documentary about him and about his experiences at the art museum. Even they don’t really explain why they choose Not to be Reproduced to reproduce as the cover of the film, it may not be hard to guess because nowadays Not to be Reproduced is the most important collection of Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum.

The Double (2013) Richard Ayoade

This film is based on the novella The Double and Magritte’s Not to be Reproduced. In the movie, the protagonist and his double are like a reflection and also they are named James.

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Postmodernism

I found out that this picture explains the idea of postmodernism very well. As we knew, using a simple way to say Classical is “tradition/aesthetics”, Modern is “new/science and technology/philosophy”, then postmodern would be the combination of the two. Postmodernism is debatable/ironic/deconstructive. Let’s say a film with a reasonable plot, where the audience has been able to guess the ending (Modernism), then Postmodernism would be unimaginable that provided an unexpected outcome.

The Green House (1990) Sandy Skoglund

Following the concept of Postmodern Art, the artwork from Sandy Skoglund is presenting it very well. Juxtaposition - A room with two live models, hand-sculpted animals and artificial grass, put it all together collage it in an image. And sure, in a way we still can consider this picture with aesthetics. Recontextualization- Artificial grass responds to the tile The Green House which I found to be ironic. The definition of Greenhouse is about the natural cycle, instead here we see artificial green grass, it’s literally a green house. The gaze - I think Skoglund already explained it well enough, she said: “The animal presence to me is the link between ourselves and the natural world. You look at a dog, and the dog looks back at us. During that moment, we know that we’re not the only consciousness in the universe.”

http://www.sandyskoglund.com

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Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962) Andy Warhol

“What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca-Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.” - Andy Warhol

When we try to reference Pop Art and Consumerism, Andy Warhol may be the prefect example to mention it. When art started to become a business, Warhol was an important key. Tracing Warhol’s background, we will find some clues about it. Since Warhol named his studio “Factory”, it explains a lot about his thoughts of art. When art turns to business, artwork becomes a product. It totally changed the value of art. People were angry about it back in the time, but it was a huge revolution. For me, the ideas of Design are very similar to Pop Art, such as collage, ready- made, duplicate, etc. All of these are very important elements, and as we know design is a business these days. For this artwork I chose the statement from Andy Warhol for it shows the spirit of equality - everyone can buy it, mass production - using serigraphy to duplicate it and lastly,  popularity - everyone knows it, it’s approachable, perfectly matching Warhol’s idea of art.

[journalofat-blog]

I was so confused about the meaning of doing a Dadaist Poem. After doing some research about Dadaism, I started understanding more the purpose/meaning of it. First, Dadaism is not “a real art movement”. It was founded in an ironic way. Artists were not satisfied with the societal situation and they were against the traditional culture, especially World War I which was happening at the moment. It is more like a revolution/protest movement, even anti-art. The idea of Ready-made Art is changing the meaning. It’s not just about art, it also impacted the social status. For example, Found object and Dadaist poem, all represented the idea of Dadaism very well. So, what is Dadaism? It could be concluded in a very simple way, like Duchamp said “This is art if I say so” As for my work, I chose to follow the original instruction to make my own Dadaist Poem. This poem is in Czech, the language which I wasn’t familiar with. As a result, I can change the meaning in a more unlimited way. Because of this advantage, it allows me to return to the root of the language communication, which is a sound/tone. My Dadaist Poem is more like a song with a rhythm.