*
|
Education notes |
| Frameworks for
viewing and reviewing Practices and strategies The reason that this selection of artworks looks very diverse is that the various artists are applying or working in different forms of artistic practice. And within each practice artists use different strategies to explore their ideas or to achieve outcomes. Practice isn’t just defined by the preferred medium (e.g. painting, floor installations, video) but is better understood as a combination of materials, style, format, content and relationship with a viewing audience and the wider community. On this basis it is then possible to see relationships or common ground between art practice (and works in this exhibition), which at first glance look very different to each other. For example the use of ready mades or found objects so evident in the work of Christo can also be seen as an option being explored in the photographic work of Francis Alys (‘collecting’ people and animals sleeping in the streets). Using practices and strategies as a framework for viewing and reviewing consider the following selection (with supporting prompts for critical response and further research). Collaboration Collaboration refers to an arrangement which sees an artists combining/collaborating or working with others to produce the work. This is not a new idea but the belief in the individual artist as the sole author of a work has dominated art-historical narratives and obscured significant traditions of collaborative practice. Look for: Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Christo once identified himself as the artist responsible for the work. More recently his wife and projects partner Jeanne-Claude (who handles the complex negotiations associated with the projects) is acknowledged as the other half of a creative team. Once the complexity of their larger projects is understood it will be realised that these are vast collaborative undertakings involving many people with specialists skills. Gilbert-and George. Watch the video and see how these two artists work and interact as a team. Did this mean that if one couldn’t be there on the day Gilbert or George couldn’t be considered or claim to be a living sculpture? Jeff Koons. The artist conceived the work but a German woodcarver was contracted to produce White terrier 1991. Bill Viola (Six Heads 2000). The artist contracted an actor to perform a set of different human emotions. Vanessa Beecroft. Professional models were contracted to perform as if posing for studio shots. Found objects and ready mades The use of found objects or ready mades is one of the most significant traditions of twentieth century art. Artists used it originally, particularly Marcel Duchamp, to drive a wedge between modernist practice and all previous art. The introduction of everyday objects into art gallery spaces introduced the uncertainty principle. The argument has spilled further from a question like,’ Can this bicycle wheel be art?’ to wider questions including, ‘ Can words be art?’ or ‘Can a person or a performance be art?’. In late twentieth century/early twenty first century art the definition of what is a ready made or found object needs to be flexible. Look for: Robert Rauschenberg. The collection and assemblage of ‘junk’ or post industrial materials (Yellow Visor Glut 1989) and the placement of a carton box on a wall as if a painting. Christo & Jeanne-Claude. Trees, a bottle or bunch of flowers take on a new meaning when wrapped. Does this work for you? Francis Alys. People and animals found on the street and ‘collected’ by a camera. Bernd & Hilla Becher. Examples of industrial and domestic structures ‘collected’ by a camera. Thomas Struth. His cultural tourists exploring museum sited become ready-mades, boxed and ready for our analysis. Format The format of a work causes the viewer to respond in a particular way. Most of the time we don’t think about this process because the routines are the same; look at something on a wall or walk around some 3D thing on the floor. Some artists deliberately disrupt or contradict these routines by structuring and formatting so the viewer has to negotiate, sometimes physically, with the work. Look for: Bill Viola ( Memoria 2000). The viewer has to adjust a very dark space then deal with an image, which teases rather than delivers hard information. Conscious control needs to be exercised to make sense of looking at something, which almost slides into focus then dissolves into a sea of twitching pixels. Is the artist asking us to work harder in order to be rewarded in some way? Is he asking us to think about the desire within people to find closure and hard meanings? Paul Pfeiffer. (Goethe’s message to the new Negroes, #2, 2002). By formatting the viewing experience as a process of looking a two small screen projected from a wall on poles, the artist is emphasising that this way of editing (digital) is a new deal or culture. We are no longer negotiating with video culture with its screens set close or into walls. Horizontality is a favoured format for a number of artists. Placing works on the floor without a plinth sends a message that art is not separated form daily life and experience. This method strategy contradicts the convention that sculptures rise up to greet the viewer or that paintings hang vertically to face the viewer. See Carl Andre, Steel-copper plain 1969, Sol LeWitt, Incomplete open cube 5/8 1974, Richard Long, Spring showers circle 1983 Seriality and repetition Repeating the same image or form sets up a number of ideas such as the individuality (or originality) of an artwork not being important. Some kind of artwork like Donald Judd’s boxes in this exhibition can potentially be replicated endlessly. Look for: Donald Judd: Untitled 1975. In Judd’s practice it was necessary to use devices such as repeating the same unit to force the viewer to accept that maybe this is what is meant to be looked at, a box, nothing more or less. The artwork is of and about itself. Bernd and Hilla Becher. The photographs of building and mine structures look almost to be repeats of each other, suggesting the outcome of some kind of inner compulsion or imperative shared between many different people and communities. Materials and technologies Sometimes the materials and technologies preferred by artists are central to the artist’s intentions and ideas. Look for: Robert Rauschenberg and Carl Andre’s use of industrial/functional materials linked to the power of non-at materials to challenge accepted ideas. There is also the association of art making with non-art action like construction, engineering, recycling, cheapness and practical function. Found materials also carry their own stories Thomas Demand. Paper is the excusive medium. Flimsy paper is used to create full-scale illusions of spaces and environments. Look at Copyshop 1999. Does it seem odd to you that he is using paper to make a copy of paper? Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Canvas is used the wrap various objects. When canvas is used to wrap canvases (as in Wrapped paintings 1967) there is a game going on. Can you guess what it is? Performance From the Dada movement in the early twentieth century to now, performance (along with installation) as one of the primary strategies for opening up new frameworks for the visual arts. Apart from directing attention away from the idea that an artwork has to be an object made by one person(an artist) it sets up a series of permissions ( OK to do) related to collaborations, multimedia, audience and recognising time as a primary element for exploitation. As with the idea of a found object be prepared to be flexible in considering what constitutes performance as art. Look for: Gilbert and George. The two artists perform in the video an old music hall number. There is little animation. The delivery is deadpan. There is no sense of recognising and audience. Where’s is the art in all this? The video you see is an archival record of what took place on a particular day a long time ago. So, does the art still exist? Or is it just a memory? Vanessa Beecroft. The performance is very understated. The moves look to be natural within certain parameters (i.e. stay on one spot). Given the talent (professional models) and glamour that the artist had at her disposal don’t you feel that the performers should have been doing more for their money that just standing around? Bill Viola (Six heads 2000). Could there be any good reason why the artist has slowed down the transitions to the point where a casual viewer may not even pick up on the animation? Given the technology and sharpness of the image, do you consider that the artist hasn’t pushed the idea around sufficiently and perhaps thought of busy viewers who just want to see the whole thing and move on? Look also at Andreas Gursky and Thomas Demand’s photographs. Would you regard the people shown in these images as ‘frozen in time’ performers? Ugo Rondinone. The two clown figures take some of their meaning from the tradition and figure of the clown. As you walk into the area you might feel that you are stepping onto a stage and might imagine that these actors might rise and start singing or speaking lines. The artist is well aware of the traditional idea that artists can be like clowns, amusing people while holding onto sometimes terrible or sad truths. Paul Pfeiffer’s sports figures can also be regarded as performers (and not just professional athletes). The marketing of sports starts as celebrities has made sure of that. END FRAMEWORKS
|
| Additional
student research Web links Guggenheim Museum artists links Carl Andre Bernd Becher Gilbert & George Andreas Gursky Donald Judd Jeff Koons Sol LeWitt Roy Lichtenstein Richard Long Mario Merz Robert Rauschenberg Frank Stella Thomas Struth Bill Viola |
| Other sites |
| Francis Alys, Introduction to The
Thief http://www.diacenter.org/alys/intro.html The Thief Paddy Bedford Vanessa Beecroft - her webpage Thomas Demand - bio |
| (interview) http://www.carnegieinternational.org/html/forum/demandresponse.htm Studio
International ‘Sensation’ Michael Landy Allan McCollum Barry McGee Nam June Paik Paul Pfeiffer Richard Prince http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?dep=19&full=1&item=2000%2E272 Mathew Ritchie, The Hard Way Ugo Rondinone George Tjungarrayi Working with students in Art Museums |
| Artist
Bibliographies Click here to go to Journey to Now Artist Bibliographies page |