Art undefined

2011-12-14

touquetouque:

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Standards and Double Standards, Subsculpture 3, 2004
Standards and Double Standards is an interactive installation that consists of 10 to 100 fastened belts that are suspended at waist height from stepper motors on the ceiling of the exhibition room. Controlled by a computerized tracking system, the belts rotate automatically to follow the public, turning their buckles slowly to face passers-by. When several people are in the room their presence affects the entire group of belts, creating chaotic patterns of interference. (video of the installation)
Artist of the day: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Standards and Double Standards, Subsculpture 3, 2004

Standards and Double Standards is an interactive installation that consists of 10 to 100 fastened belts that are suspended at waist height from stepper motors on the ceiling of the exhibition room. Controlled by a computerized tracking system, the belts rotate automatically to follow the public, turning their buckles slowly to face passers-by. When several people are in the room their presence affects the entire group of belts, creating chaotic patterns of interference. (video of the installation)

Artist of the day: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

(via meinwelt)

Source: lozano-hemmer.com

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andrewsawyer:

Contact Lens by Haruka Kojin

the MOT museum of contemporary art tokyo is having an exhibition entitled ‘architectural environments for tomorrow

- new spatial practices in architecture and art’. the show, a collaboration between yuko hasegawa,
the MOT tokyo chief director, and SANAA architects (kazuyo sejima and ryue nishizawa), looks at the modern
interconnectivity between technology, urbanism and the way designers respond and influence our changing global culture.

kojin explores the distortion of reality through her newest piece, ‘contact lens’.
two types of lenses are used, one completely flat and clear and the other with a warped surface to create
interconnected circles of varying sizes. as the light travels through the acrylic, the images on the other side
are flipped and contorted, changing the experience of the space. since the elements are clear with no frames
or distinct features of its own, the physical material merges into the environment, only visible
through the transformation it causes.

(via meinwelt)

Source: designboom.com

When a painting is a single color, viewers are left to wonder if it was intentional or if the artist maybe added a little to much of that shade and, well, just made do with what s/he had. Monochromatic paintings are very popular in contemporary art, but most people don’t see what is so great about slathering a single color onto a canvas, or how that painting ended up in a museum rather than the dumpster.

Barnett Newman’s abstract expressionism, for example, does not impress some people. His bold use of color is lost on some who think that anyone could do what he did, like spreading strawberry jam on a slice of bread. Vibrant color, a minimalist style and regular use of ‘zips’, the line used to separate his paintings, define the major characteristics of Newman’s work. Some of his work is related to life experiences or religion as can be inferred from titles, but most is primarily viewed as pure abstraction. I think it would be hard to deny his skill, however. After all, could you keep a perfectly straight thin line of white amongst a sea of red?

Barnett Newman, Be I (Second Version), 1970, the Detroit Institute of Arts

Bosco Sodi’s work is an exception to the distaste of monochromatic contemporary art. The scale of his work alone makes it impressive to gallery and museum visitors. Plus, his ‘paintings’ are 3 dimensional rather than flat paint on canvas. He uses only natural pigments along with organic materials such as sawdust and wood pulp to create a topographical story which takes days to complete. Once work has begun, Sodi refrains from breaks of any sort focusing directly on slatering materials on in thick layers to make an intricate surface of rich colors and textures. When complete, the painting cracks like dry earth, showing its organic properties.

Bosco Sodi, Making of Organic Blue, www.boscosodi.com

Bosco Sodi, Installation View at the Bronx Museum

I suppose contemporary art appreciation has not evolved at such a pace that artists can expect instant accolades for minimalist work. Greater acceptance is offered to those which can reach an audience on a multi-sensory level. That’s not to say that viewers will not learn to appreciate the skill and difficulty that goes into creating any piece of art, even those that seem so simple that it may have happened on accident.

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Land Art

Art is not confined to being indoors, paint on a canvas, or commercial. Some of the most beautiful works of art take place naturally in nature, like snowflakes or reflections off of a shimmering lake at sunset. It should be no surprise, then, that land art is a popular expression of the rejection of commercial art and its methods. Land artists are typically focused on environmental and sustainability issues as well as accessibility of art to everyone.

Maya Lin (the designer of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC, USA) created a piece on the University of Michigan campus which combines elements of earth and water, nature and art. The grass covered waves that she created crest at 5 and 6 feet high. It is located in a popular part of camus and was designed to complement the building next to which it sits. It is not hidden away from patrons and was designed to be appreciated from the ground, rather than an aerial view, and welcomes visitors to meander through over the undulating earth.

Maya Lin, Wave Field, 1996, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Part of the nature of land art is its transience: land cannot be permanently manipulated without much maintenance. Water tables, vegetation, and weather all want to pound the land back into its natural form, which is why making it accesible to human interaction can be so important. If the art will only hold its design for so long, then people only have a finite amount of time to enjoy and experience the piece. Some land art is best experienced from an aerial view, which limits the exposure of the art to those who can afford to charter a ride in a plane.

Jarosław Koziara, Land Art IV, Eastern Europe, http://koziara.art.pl/

Some artists prefer to create their art in secluded areas, compounding the relationship of the art to its natural surroundings. Robert Smithson created his Spiral Jetty in a remote area of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It is difficult to access and there is nothing else around to draw tourists, besides a harsh landscape and a private view of the lake. The piece is made that much more meaningful by its solitude, however. The jetty can be experienced from the ground and, being made from rocks, has held up to the weather and the water well. It is said, however, to look better in photos than it does in person. It was actually submerged underwater for quite some time, but when the water level went down again in 1999, it was unmistakeable the the sculpture had weathered the storm well. The primary difference between how it looks now and how Smithson created it is the color of the rocks. Smithson started with black rocks, but when the water receded it became clear that nature preferred the rocks to be white.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, the Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA, http://www.diaart.org/sites/page/59/1380

Land art not only allows for a physical interaction with art, but also to experience a natural reaction. The materials and features of the art change with time, reinforcing the theme of the power of nature. It makes the viewer appreciate natural materials in their outdoor element and reminds us that sustainability and environmental protection are crucial to art and life alike.

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Dumb art?

Can art be dumb? Is it really ever dumb to express yourself in the way that comes naturally to you? Well many people seem to think so: they think contemporary art is dumb. They look at a Mark Rothko painting and wonder why the heck anyone thinks this art is important for any reason? Why the heck is this artist a representative of an entire artistic movement? People want to see a Monet or a Rembrandt; art in which they can see immediate beauty, and don’t have to think too much about to understand.

What they don’t immediately see is the relevance that contemporary art has in our daily lives. They don’t see that the choices Rothko made were directly related to the Great Depression and the aftermath of the time, and that they are still relevant today. What they don’t know is that Rothko’s work it purposefully subject-less. Late in his career he began to refuse to explain his artwork, stating that, “silence is so accurate.” He began painting in the abstract during the Great Depression when he found that forms were not realizing the feelings that he needed to portray about the situation in the US, the nation that he emigrated to from Russia as a boy. It was then that he began expressing himself in the abstract, with colors and shapes to convey a meaning. As time passed, the figure-less shapes he previously used faded and only color remained. This was, as he asserted, letting the simple explain the complex and the wordless express his thoughts.

Mark Rothko, No. 2, 1951

What Rothko did was create a form of expression that could be interpreted by anyone for any reason. His work is not limited to being relevant in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, or 60s. His art, while silent, is not void of meaning, and can invoke the emotion of any time, of any situation. While his works seem simple, with few colors and arrangements, the balance, composition, depth, shape, and scale are all deliberately considered, which is why they do not seem haphazard, bit rather calming and definitive. Rothko is hailed as a brilliant artist for a reason, and it is not hard to see why.

If we don’t inform people about why symbolic art is relevant we run the risk of letting large numbers in the population believe that much of contemporary art is dumb. The problem is finding the best way to reach all of those people and give them an informal art lesson.

Source: nga.gov

2011-12-11

Unfamiliar Materials

Contemporary artists are known for stepping outside of the box when it comes to art creation. Many artists work with materials that seem strange and unrelated to art. The use of nontraditional materials to create art can, however, increase the sentiment of a piece. In Vietnam, artist Nguyen Phuong Linh experimented with using Vietnamese sea salt as a material from which to create sculptures and other installation pieces.

Nguyen Phuong Linh, Melting, 2009 (Mountains, 2009, in the background)

In her use of salt, Linh reflects upon the life of the salt harvesters, the cruelty of nature in the salt harvesting process, and the use of Vietnamese salt in the nation’s society and economy. Each piece speaks to much more than the forms that they are molded into.

Canadian artist, Steven Spazuk, too, is creating art with unconventional materials. He is using soot to complete in his paintings. While charcoal has been used as a drawing tool for ages, Spazuk is using the actual flame of a candle or a torch to create soot directly on the surface of his paintings.

Steven Spazuk, Orange Face, 2007, oil and soot on gesso board, http://www.spazuk.net

Using new materials to express themselves is popular among contemporary artists. Visiting a contemporary exhibition and realizing that a work of art is more than what it seems is invigorating and one of the exciting features of the art of our time.

Source: plinh.com

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Movies are not video art, and vice versa

Video art is an audio video production genre all its own. Artistic movies are not video art. Experimental movies are not video art. Music videos are not video art. They are each their own genre, too, and should not be confused with video art. Hopefully, this vital fact will now help you to understand that video art should be interpreted differently from all of these other genres of audio video production. Video art can be confusing, difficult to follow, and downright strange at times. Just like a picture, however, it can say a thousand words without saying a thing. While some video art has dialog, much of it simply consists of a series of clips of sounds and images compiled to convey what the artist is trying to say.

Nam June Paik, still from Global Groove, 1973

Video art became popular in the late 1960s and early 70s because it was much easier to edit video than film, and artists found it much more satisfying to work with than cinematic productions. With the increased ease of creating video in digital formats, it has developed a few distinct forms of presentation, single channel on which the image appears on a single screen - like TV, and multi-channel on which many screens are used and often the viewer is incorporated into the art via a live feed on one of the channels. Video art is not just presented in small form, as a single piece of art. It is often presented in an installation format, incorporating viewers into a full sensory experience in which projections, multiple screens, and even performance art are used at the same time in a space.

Renee Butler, Photograph of installation and performance art, 1990, http://www.reneebutlerartist.com

Artists practicing video art often try to blur the line between the art and the viewer, forcing them to either be a participant or be so close to being one that they can imagine that they are one. By watching a situation unfold, or determining how to piece a sequence of clips together, the viewer is challenged to address the social, political, or environmental issues the artist is trying to share.

In Global Groove, 1973, Nam June Paik addresses the increasing number of options on the television and how television was becoming globalized at the time, looking forward to the day when the TV Guide would be as large as the phone book. Renee Butler focuses on sound, visual, spacial, and temporal ideas. These, concerns of globalization and issues of time and space, are both themes represented in other genres of art regularly. Their presentation in a long video without a direct plot or active dialog can make them a bit more challenging for viewers to understand. Next time you visit a gallery of museum with a video art installation, take the time to view and consider the piece thoroughly before walking away. You will likely find yourself pleased to have understood and accepted another form of contemporary art.

Source: Wikipedia

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Painting life through photography

While painting did not die on the advent of photography, as was feared by some, photography did create a niche for itself in portraying modern life as its oil and canvas predecessor did before it. Story telling through artistically staged photographs has been popular since day one. Edward S. Curtis did it with the Native American’s and it’s still being done today, although now it’s not considered to be a documentation of reality, but rather a commentary on it. Artists like Jeff Wall and Julie Blackmon have used photography to reflect what is happening culturally in society and in our daily lives. They use an interesting combination of fiction and non-fiction to create poignant scenes that draw the viewer in to experience the reconstruction of an event in a mystified way, if you will.

Julie Blackmon, Domestic Vacations, Time Out, julieblackmon.com

Blackmon creates real life scenes of family life based on the childhood and motherhood experiences of she and her sisters. Her ability to capture many facets of in a single image attests to the personal connection she has with the subject matter making each image more enjoyable and meaningful than if it were an action shot, or caught at the time that it was really happening rather than staged as a representation of events.

Julie Blackmon, Domestic Vacations, Family Portrait, julieblackmon.com

Jeff Wall, on the other hand, has indicated that he reconstructs images that he has seen at an earlier time. He takes few liberties with the images, creating them true to how he experienced them in real time, but better. Both his and Blackmon’s styles offer a smooth idea of some sort of perfection in the image, even though their subjects are less than perfect. The lighting, colors, and movements invoke a natural beauty that is difficult to capture in an image of an event as it is happening.

Jeff Wall, The Destroyed Room, 1978

While photography did not kill painting, contemporary artists have certainly accepted it as a form of painting. Staging an area requires artistic vision similar to that of a painter. Creating the lighting and development style as much skill as managing a brush and paint.

Jeff Wall, Boxing, 2011, artdaily.org

Source: julieblackmon.com

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Street art isn’t (just) vandalism

The defacement of public property is common; it can be seen on the sides of buildings, or on any surface really, in urban environments across the globe. Although seen as vandalism, street art is considered to be a respected form of artistic expression and some of the artists have become very well known, travelling outside of their local areas to leave their mark on cities all over the world. Their art is increasingly recognized by artist and is influencing advertising, printmaking, and graphic art in the mainstream. Shepard Fairey, for example, is known for his Giant Obey campaign from which the OBEY clothing line was inspired, as well as creating the popular Obama Hope poster during the 2008 US presidential campaign.

Shepard Fairey, Hope, 2008

Shepard Fairey, street art on Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 2010

When we talk about street art, we’re not talking about standard low quality tagging or gang propaganda. Street art address issues of politics, war, the environment, and offers a new type of social commentary accessible to everyone that passes through the neighborhood where it is placed. Street art is not confined to museums or galleries, but is out in the community with the community. In a way, it’s similar to ancient mosaics used to tell a story and beautify blank space. While Fairy frequently uses poster paste ups, other artists often use stencils in order to complete their work quickly and avoid trouble with property owners or the authorities.

Miss Tic, Ready To Wear, Paris, France, Flickr

Their use of stencils, posters, and stickers makes from their home studio ensures that their work conveys the meaning that they intend with little room for error. It also allows for seamless consistency, allowing each artist to create a well known artistic persona as they become more prolific. More typical graffiti, too, is still a popular form of street art.

MP5 and TO/LET, Erfurt, Germany, http://www.photographyrea.com/category/graffiti/graffiti-street-art/page/5/

Street art is fascinating because of both the speed at which it is created and the fact that it’s rarely permanent. Street artists see blank walls as blank canvases and they adorn them with their talent. However, clean up crews are close behind to remove all evidence of the work. I wonder if it is partly meaningful because of its transience, or if one day it will be recognized for what it is.

2011-12-07

I like Art made out of Garbage ~Buck 65

The cool thing about contemporary art is that there are no limits. Anything can be considered art as long as it is well thought out and there is a path from the idea, to the creation, to the interpretation. That is not to say that great artwork cannot be unintentional, it is just very rare that an artist, any artist not just contemporary artists, will say, “Oh, I was just messing around and ended up with this. Isn’t it fabulous?” Making art out of found objects is a particularly interesting trend. Artists go out looking for ‘junk’ that will inspire them to create something that doesn’t yet exist in their infinite imaginations. And the great thing about artists is that they have the ability to make the art they envision into a reality, unlike some of the rest of us (me, especially!). Found art is not a new concept, Marcel Duchamp started the trend about 100 years ago, but as the genre matures peoples ideas as to how to use found objects to create art continue to fascinate audiences.

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_%28Duchamp%29

Jean Shin is an artist who, unlike some, creates all of her work from found objects. Some of my favorites by her are 20/20, 2003, Chemical Balance, 2005-9, and the charming Lost and Found (Single Socks), 2000. But really, I love pretty much everything that she’s done.

Jean Shin, 20/20, 2003

Her use of simple ‘garbage’ to create complex and visually stunning works of art never fails to amaze me. While some uses of found objects are more subtle, Shin amasses large collections of the same object and uses them to make a pointed statement about a certain aspect of society both with the art and the title of each piece.

Jean Shin, Chemical Balance, 2005-9

Shin proves that one man’s trash can truly be another man’s treasure. For her these treasures allow her to represent the item’s former owner’s as well as comment on the excess in modern society. Creating large objects and installations allows her reference “shared experiences” between not only community members, but viewers as well. When used in the way that Shin presents them, these items take on a role other than what they were intended for which makes for fantastic realizations of the potential hidden in all of the things around us.

Jean Shin, Lost and Found (Single Socks), 2000

Hey, are you going to throw that out?

Source: jeanshin.com