Barbara Kruger

Barbara Krugers work during the early 1980’s had a perfected agitprop style using her large scale, cropped and black and white images which where juxtaposed with racious pithy and often ironic aphorisms. Her style was that of printed in Futura Bold, against black, white or deep red text bars. She had developed this style through her background of Graphic design and magazine work experiences. Through this she was able to find the best way to communicate her ideas through to the population.

In recent years her work had developed much in contemporary arts as she starting creating public installations of her work in galleries, museums, buildings, train stations and parks as well as buses and billboards throughout the world.

One of Krugers most recent works ‘The Globe Shrinks’ 2010 is a multiple video installation that continues with her engagement with the brutality of the everyday, the collision of declaration and doubt, the duet of pictures and words, the resonance of direct address, and the unspoken in every conversation (http://slamxhype.com/art-design/barbara-kruger-“the-globe-shrinks”-at-mary-boone-gallery/). This is a perfect example of how Kruger has developed her art works and moved on to experiment with different medias which we are more often seeing in todays contemporary art.

Kruger uses her knowledge from her graphic design and advertising background to create her new installation works. She still works with the simpleness of black and white with contrasting precise colors and simple type and framework pictures. The video installations is what is used throughout the world and the mass media of getting across messages and advertising which Kruger has taken the intuitive to take advantage of. It is in the way she uses the simplicity that i find creates a strong and bold impact to the audience.

Her works over the past 30 years has been developed through the different mediums whilst still using her style of simplicity. She has taken advantage of the different processes in how she shows her work such as enlarging the scale of her work into large billboards away from poster size. From there she has moved into more installations where her ideas have still remained the same. The use of video installations i find to be very powerful in the way she has used her knowledge of reaching audiences through her graphic design career to reach a broader audience.

Kehinde Wiley

Last weeks ALVC class focused on the Post Modern them "INTERTEXTUALITY", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 44 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley. How do we make sense of his Kehinde's work? Identify intertextuality in Kehinde's work?

Kehinde Wileys portrait paintings of the black american urban stereo type have been painted in a particular way that it is clear that intertextuality. It is clear that these specific paintings are trying to raise questions of racism and other aspects we have in society today such as how we view and look at things. He has done this in a very clever way in the way that he references his paintings in a very old traditional way where as painters in those days were payed a commission to paint those in power riding there horse etc. The way that he has played the urban black americans in these photos questions and toys with the viewer as to the way it has transformed the pictures. by having the black americans inside the paintings it questions the social power hierarchies and how we have this automatic way of stereotyping people which is embedded within our societies.

Kehinde's work relates to this weeks Post Modern theme "PLURALISM" re-read page 50 and discuss how the work relates to this theme?

The at which Wiley has placed the urban black american into these pictures is to question the ways at which we perceive things and have done in the past. In the history books and museums we have only recognition of those who were in the white male social class whereas those who may have been grouped as others have been ignored and not taken seriously throughout history. There have been artists throughout history that have been black african, women that have gone unrecognized as they were not part of the hierarchy system. His work shows this inclusion throughout changing the old paintings which normally had the white rich white male in them with the urban black american to give this idea of pluralism where as all ethnicities, genders, ideologies, ages, abilities and economic status are valued and honored with the differences.

His way of replacement as his way of analyzing things is a very affective way in order to get accross his views. The simpleness i think adds to how powerful his work is and the message it is sending.

Anish Kapoor

1.Research Kapoor's work in order to discuss the ideas behind 3 quite different works from countries outside New Zealand.

‘Cloud Gate’ It is said to be one of the most unique and interesting sculptures in decades. The enormous cloud gate stands over Chicago’s millennium park. Kapoor has created a work of art that holds something to everyone (http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Building/636/Cloud-Gate.php). It stand tall reflecting the chicago skyline along with Chicago's buildings when looking at a certain angle whilst playing tricks with the sky and light. The cloud has a massive scale and weight gives it its importance, balances elegantly on its ends without having a color of its own and it is finally interactive as the viewer is allowed to interact with it as they are able to go up close and become part of the art, stand back and the simple act of movement changing the visual presence of the sculpture (http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Building/636/Cloud-Gate.php). It is loved by the public and seen as a symbol.

‘Temenos’ situated in the United kingdom is a huge web of steel wires slung between two giant hoops at 50 meters tall and 120 meters long. It is impressive in the way that the surface area hovers over the land floating above the ground. It is made out o stainless steel mesh and gives the impression of some sort of windsock. the project costed a whooping 2.7 million pounds. The subtle twists and arcs give it the sense of it moving when actually it is no (http://www.sceneadvisor.com/style/anish-kapoors-temenos-11348.html).

‘Sky Mirror’ Is another piece made out of stainless steel but is in the form of a dish. It uses the same idea and materials of using reflections and mirrors. It is of a breathtaking 35 foot diameter concave polished stainless steel. this optical object changes throughout the day and night and is an example of what Kapoor describes as a ‘non object’, a sculpture that suggests a window or void that seems to vanish into its surroundings(http://www.publicartfund.org/pafweb/projects/06/kapoor/kapoor-06.html).

2.Discuss the large scale site specific work that has been installed on a private site in New Zealand.

‘The Farm’ whereby a wealthy man owns a private park outside of Auckland in the Kaipara Bay. The mans name is Allan Gibbs where he is an art collector. he commissioned Kapoor to design a quite amazing 84 meter long twisted red cone. it cuts through the hills ridge looking like an enormous megaphone. it is made out of fabricated wired and red cone which moves in the wind.

3. Where is the Kapoor's work in New Zealand? What are its form and materials? What are the ideas behind the work?

it is situated in the Kaipara Harbour where it is made out of the materials of wire and red fabric which is said to sway in the wind. It is a long 84 meter twisted red cone that is situated on a ridge of a hill where it almost looks like gigantic megaphone. The ideas behind the work are that exploring through space and time.

4. Comment on which work by Kapoor is your favorite, and why.

My favorite work i would have to say is the first piece i had a look at which is the cloud gate. The reasons why i favor this certain piece is just the way it purely looks like something spacey that is out of this world. the fact that it is able to interact so well within in its environment gives it an almost human and futuristic personality to it which i think is extremely hard to create.

The Walters Prize 2010

1. What is the background to the Walters Prize?

The Walters prize is a New Zealand based Art award which is awarded every two years. It is supposedly regraded as one of the best achievements In New Zealand's visual arts.

The winning prize includes an all expenses paid trip to New York City, where they exhibit the world famous Saatchi & Saatchi world headquarters and the prize money of NZ $50,000.

2. List the 4 selected artists for 2010 and briefly describe their work.

Alex Monteith (Passing Manoevre)

-Created a double view (front and backside) of a motorbike moving through traffic and spaces. yet the the whole time you were unable to see the other motorbike filming the bike.

Dan Arps (Explaining Things)

-Consisted of found objects place together. it gave the effect of challenging the barriers of what is art and what is not. The objects placed together were both from the art world and real world such as objects found in homes.

Saskia Leek (Yellow is the Putty of the World)

Worked with abstract painting which was very appealing to the eye through the use of old school pastel colors.

Fionna Connor (Something Transparent)

Her work consisted of large building frameworks which gave the effect of confusion.

3. Who are the jury members for 2010?

Rhana Devenport, Leonhard Emmerling, Jon Bywater and Kate Montgomery.

4. Who is the judge for 2010 and what is his position in the art world?

Vicente Todoli is the Judge for 2010 Walters prize award. He is the Tate Modern Director of the Serralves Museuem of Contemporary Art in Porto, Portugal( a highly regarded Museum).

he has had a career in visual arts for over 20 years in which he has had many top positions in the Visual Arts industry where he has had the chance to collaborate along with many other museums and galleries. (http://www.tate.org.uk/about/pressoffice/pressreleases/tatemoderndirector.htm)

5. Who would you nominate for this years Walter's Prize, and why? Substantiate

you answer by outlining the strengths of the artists work. How does this relate

to your interests in art? What aspect of their work is successful in your opinion,

in terms of ideas, materials and/or installation of the work?

To be honest i personally didn't really find the work produced that interesting apart from Alex Monteiths ‘Passing Manouvre’. I would nominate his work as the most successful purely through the way the that it was new, exiting and very interesting both in the way it had been constructed an the thoughts and feelings that it provoked. For me the technical difficulty of how the filmed it was interesting for me to try to think about their processes in doing so. It provoked feelings of distress as it reminded me of sitting through traffic and how annoying it can be. I have always wondered what exactly it would be like to ride a motorbike on roads an how cool it would be to just by pass traffic without having to wait a couple of hours just to get to your destination. this relates to my interest in art in how i love to find out the secret behinds artists processes and works. I feel that the installation was constructed almost forced you to side down and enjoy the ride this i think is y it was successful in my opinion.

Hussien Chaylan

1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) and Burka (1996) , are often challenging to both the viewer and the wearer. What are your personal responses to these works? Are Afterwords and Burka fashion, or are they art? What is the difference?

Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion?

At first i didn't know weather to think ‘Burka’ and ‘Afterwords’ as art or fashion. Once examining the pieces and how they are constructed i see her works more of an art form. what tended to make me lean to the side calling her works art is how she gets the viewers to think whether theses pieces art art or fashion. Art is always pushing the boundaries and there to make people question and think about issues or certain things. i believe her Chalayans work does exactly so. she leaves the viewers almost confused as to what exactly her works are. Art or Fashion?

Fashion i believe to be more conservative type of form of art were as fashion designers design clothes for looks and also function. Here Chaylayns work does have some sort of function but not the type of function we would use on a day to day basis. Who knows her work could maybe be the future in fashion and that people could in-fact be walking the streets in her radical items of art.

2. Chalayan has strong links to industry. Pieces like The Level Tunnel (2006) and Repose (2006) are made in collaboration with, and paid for by, commercial business; in these cases, a vodka company and a crystal manufacturer. How does this impact on the nature of Chalayan’s work? Does the meaning of art change when it is used to sell products? Is it still art?

I feel that Chayans work allong with collaberating with companies commercialize there products has an affect on the type of artist she is perceived by others. This will have impact in the different forms of art she may choose to go for such as working along with companies to earn her income. True art i believe is what makes the audience question ideas or current issues in todays society. With Chayan working along with vodka companies and so on this tends to move ehr toward more of a designer where her job is to make her art to meet a requirement in order to satisfy the customer. In a way it is still a form of art but seen as more of a money making produce. this therefore takes away the pureness and freedom of her work and makes her fall into the capitalism ways in which the sole purpose is to gain more wealth.

3.Chalayan’s film Absent Presence screened at the 2005 Venice Biennale. It features the process of caring for worn clothes, and retrieving and analysing the traces of the wearer, in the form of DNA. This work has been influenced by many different art movements; can you think of some, and in what ways they might have inspired Chalayan’s approach?

The Film ‘absence presence’ shows strong connections with how the evolution of science has been highly influential with art and its movements. i get the feeling that it is showing us how we as a race automatically see or perceive people and things as groups. we place things in these groups so there is an automatic prejudice towards things. i think that this automatic perception of grouping things and giving names to things has maybe been influential in how she trys to question and make us think weather her outfits are clothes or art as it is hard for us to put an exact name or group under her art works.

4.Many of Chalayan’s pieces are physically designed and constructed by someone else; for example, sculptor Lone Sigurdsson made some works from Chalayan’s Echoform (1999) and Before Minus Now (2000) fashion ranges. In fashion design this is standard practice, but in art it remains unexpected. Work by artists such as Jackson Pollock hold their value in the fact that he personally made the painting. Contrastingly, Andy Warhol’s pop art was largely produced in a New York collective called The Factory, and many of his silk-screened works were produced by assistants. Contemporarily, Damien Hirst doesn’t personally build his vitrines or preserve the sharks himself. So when and why is it important that the artist personally made the piece?

We and everything around us are all currently evolving in every aspect whether we like it or not it is a natural process in which we genitically are made to do. Art is one of the many things that are evolving and changing. boundaries are being pushed which leaves us to question what we percieve things to be. These days the barriers of rt are contantly being pushed such as getting others to make your creations. I think that this doesnt take away the fact that it is creation and a pice of art. It gets me thinking what exactly art could be in the future and whether we will be able to grasp our fingers and point out what is art or not. Art to me is basically everything and anything we do. I think that maybe in the future somthing as stupid as digging a hole to earn an income could be seen as art.

Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'

1. What do you understand by the word Claymation?

Claymation is a type of animation where the clay is molded and altered differently in each frame taken (normally using stop motion?. The frames are played quickly one after the other to allude to continuos motion.

2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?

The 'surrealistic Garden of Eden' is Nathalie Gulbergs interpretation of what she considers to be a utopia, Her view of a perfect world. Her exhibition in the Venice Bienniele comprises of her clay animation filled with beautiful flowers, which then takes a change in direction where she exposes these beautiful natural scenes into some what of an dark horror

3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?

Djurburg presents these scenes in a blunt manner. The scenes showed are going against what we would consider to be acceptable in society and almost inhumane. The mixture uptopia

of theand horror with scenes began with looking normal where everything is fine and simply quickly turn into something quite horrific. The innocence of her scenes give us a peaceful happy feeling but once you notice what is actually happening behind everything your mood instantly shifts. the innocence is what initially sucks us in and once the seedy and disturbing scenes are happening you cannot help but look with interest and disgust. You are left with emotions where you hope that this could not be true although these things i think we all have heard and joked about.

4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?

Djurberg uses these innocent ideal we have as children of these beautiful perfect world where there is only good and plays on them. The clay animation is a media that is used and seen in children's cartoons. She uses the innocence of children in her work to question us adults whether things in society are really what they portray to be. I find the Images of the popes abusing the innocence young girl play with this idea of how easy it is to be brainwashed into what we may think is right as we are not exactly aware of what is really happening. This poses questions to the society we live in today.

5. There is a current fascination by some designers with turning the innocent and sweet into something disturbing. Why do you think this has come about?

I think that this current fascination of manipulating the innocent and the sweet into something disturbing has come about as more and more people are becoming aware of how maybe the world we are living in is not as sweet and innocent as its portrayed to be. People today i believe have more courage to step outside of this circle in society where they have their own opinions. This raises questions to how we live. maybe we all are innocent children unaware of how business use images to manipulate us and that behind these images the intention is not as innocent as we think.

6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?

I think that Durbergs work was selected due to the way in which art today has this undercover license to get people to think about alternatively to the general society. This power to question

things and their morals is something that stands out in Djurbergs work and is why it is so interesting and why i think she received this award.

7. Add some of your own personal comments on her work.

As i took the time to understand and dissect Djurbergs work the more i found it interesting. It got me thinking of how naive i am and that if i took the time to dissect and look into most things that are happening around me i could find interesting things embedded under what is actually presented. i also think that because of her work having a more in-depth meaning than just the visual aesthetics of clay animation that people in general would also not look into her work and stop to examine. People in society are naive and unaware on a daily basis.