WEEK 5 Pluralism and the Treat of Waitangi

Q1. Define the term 'pluralism' using APA referencing.
A1. Pluralism is used within many different topics such as religion, culture and politically. Its involves diversity with the areas/topic stated. Pluralism is when there are smaller groups of different cultures within a larger society and each different cultural/ethic/religous group respect one another and living that way.
Cultural pluralism. (2011). Dictionary.com. Retreived from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cultural+pluralism

Q2. How would you describe New Zealand's current dominant culture?
A2. From an outside eye I think Maori culture would be the culture that dominants New Zealand. As the european New Zealanders do not really have much of a culture that is orginal to just them. Though really it would be a mixture of Maori and NZ European. "New Zealand has a very unique and dynamic culture. The culture of its indigenous Maori people affects the language, the arts, and even the accents of all New Zealanders. Their place in the South Pacific, and their love of the outdoors, sport, and the arts make New Zealanders and their culture unique in the world." This discription of New Zealand culture I found on and tourtist website.

Q3. Before 1840, what was New Zealand's dominant culture?
A3. The dominant Culture during this time would have been Maori but they would of been fighting to keep there culture the dominant one over the Europeans.

Q4. How does the Treaty of Waitangi relate to us all as artists and designers working
in New Zealand?
A4.Claiming what is ours. If your are an artist or designer you don't want some coming in and deciding to take over your work and claim it as there own this is one idea of how it could relate to the treaty of Waitangi. It also gives some people inspriration for there work depending if they are Maori or pakaha using the art to get a message across of what they believe is right regarding the Treaty.

Q5. How can globalization be seen as having a negative effect on regional diversity in New Zealand in particular?
A5.

Q6. Shane Cotton's paintings are said to examine the cultural landscape. Research Cotton's work 'Welcome'(2004) and 'Forked Tongue' (2011) to analyze what he is saying about colonialization and the Treaty of Waitangi.
A6.

'Welcome' (2004) Shane Cotton 

http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/work/52293/shane-cotton-welcome.aspx

'Forked Tongue'(2011) Shane Cotton

7. Tony Albert's installation 'Sorry' (2008) reflect the effects of colonization on the aboriginal people of Australia. Research the work and comment on what Albert is communicating through his work, and what he is referring to. Describe the materials that Albert uses on this installation and say what he hopes his work can achieve. Define the term 'kitsch'.
8. Explain how the work of both artists relates to pluralism.

WEEK 6 Anish Kapoor Sculpture

Celebrated for his gigantic, stainless steel Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park, Anish Kapoor is changing the cultural environment with his public works.

Q1.Research Kapoor's work in order to discuss whether it is conceptual art or not. Explain your answer, using a definition of conceptual art.
A1. Conceptual art is art which is created mainly determined on the ideas and concept over the aesthetic this is related to the way that Kapoor's work, he is "not trying to say something but let it occur" with some pieces and letting the veiwer create what they think the art is trying to say to them.


Q2. Research 3 quite different works by Kapoor from countries outside New Zealand to discuss the ideas behind the work. Include images of each work on your blog.
A2. "Being an artist is a discovery"

Colour- working with colour in different ways. Kapoor thinks of colour as being 'stuff' not just being surface. Colour being elusive.



Q3.Discuss the large scale 'site specific' work that has been installed on a private site in New Zealand.
A3. This piece is called 'the farm' as it is place on an 1000-arc farm in the Kaipara Harbour.Apparently it is the worlds biggest permanent outdoor installations.

Q4. Where is the Kapoor's work in New Zealand? What are its form and materials? What are the ideas behind the work?
A4. Kaipara Bay is where the work was placed. It is made from stretched fabric, a red PVC coated polyester, and steel. it is designed to be able to cope with high winds that come off the sea near by. It is said to be like a kalidoscope to veiw the Kaipara Bay's harbour at one end and the landscape of the farm were it is at the other end.


Q5. Comment on which work by Kapoor is your favourite, and explain why. Are you personally attracted more by the ideas or the aesthetics of the work?
A5. I am attracted to the work that I like the look of though I am interested by some just because of the idea behind it. The piece Svayambh, 2007 would be and of my favourites as I think that it looks amazing the material that it is made from looks quite unreal and also with the meaning about why Kapoor created it as the block of wax creates/sculps itself.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umVSGErfg8E



http://fabricarchitecturemag.com/articles/0110_sk_sculpture.html

WEEK 4 Week 4 - Kehinde Wiley and Inter-textuality

Q1. Find a clear definition of Intertextuality and quote it accurately on your blog using the APA referencing system. Use your own words to explain the definition more thoroughly. A1. "The whole network of ralations, conventions, and expectations by which the text is defined; the relationships between texts"   Intertextuality. (2011). Dictionary.com. Retrieved from  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/intertextual

Q2. Research Wiley's work and write a paragraph that analyzes how we might make sense of his work. Identify intertextuality in Wiley's work.

A2. Wileys work are paintings are of African American men who have been depicted as powerful or heroic people by the way that they are posing in the paintings. The poses are much like what would be seen in a painting from the 18th century for example a man on a horse which is a very similar pose to a painting of Napolian on his horse. The men are dressed in normal clothing like street wear and suits. There is also the textile design which is painted into the picture which are period style and rococo designs that are very colourful. The way he has taken and poses of 18th century paintings and textile designs of the period style is an example of intertextulity, by incorporating it into his own work.

 

Q3. Wiley's work relates to next weeks Postmodern theme "PLURALISM" . Read page 46 and discuss how the work relates to this theme.

A3. Wiley's art work related to pluralism in the way that it communicates a mixture of different cultures or sub cultures. The contempary Afican, African American, Afro-Brazilian men with the combination of 18 century style.

 

Q4. Comment on how Wiley's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview. 
A4.


Q5. Add some reflective comments of your own, which may add more information that
you have read during your research.
A5.

Week 3 Hussein Chalayan

Q1.Chalayan is an artist and designer, working in film, dress and installation art. Research Chalayan’s work, and then consider these questions in some thoughtful reflective writing.

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?

A1.Different people have different opinions about the burka and are usually very strong with there opinion about them. I personally do not have a problem with the burka and think that it is something that should be respected if women who are Muslim wear this garment. I think understand why people do not support the wearing of the burka as it would be a very different and difficult experience to be around and to even wear.
I find this work a little bit insensitive in the way that the women is naked wearing the burka but I understand the point that the artist is illustrating, I would say the fashion is art, it is something that is created an idea and something you can look at think about admire or dislike this is what makes something art to me. Fashion is something that you wear, fashion is a certain trend or style.

Hussein Chalayan, Burka, 1996

                                                                 Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000

Q2. 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?

 A2.I think that it just makes it commercial art, I don't think that it makes the work any less art. I would be a good way to get your work and name known fast and by many people. Although they would have to alter certain ideas to make it right for the company it would still be worth it.

Q3. 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?

Hussein Chalayan, still from Absent Presence, 2005 (motion picture)

Q4. 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. Contemporary, 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?

A4.When someone is designing something as amazing as the work of Hussein Chalayan I think that it is okay for them to get someone else to do the actual making of the work. Or even for most designers, it is not necessary for them to do all of the hands on work. I think it is a little bit different with someone like damian Hirst who would call himself an artist but doesn't actually make alot of his work, I guess if people have seen pieces of work that he has made himself that were good then it shows he is legit, and  so the thought of having a pieces of his art work that is his idea is satisfying enough for some.

http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/hc.html

WEEK 2 Post-Modernism, Ai Weiwei and Banksy

1. Define Post-Modernism using 8-10 bullet points that include short quotes.

•  One of the very basic ideas of Post-Modernism is rejection of arbitrary power structures. Different people are sensitive to different kinds of power structures - Larry Wall
•  "There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false." - Harold Pinter
•  "In our postmodern culture which is TV dominated, image sensitive, and morally vacuous, personality is everything and character is increasingly irrelevant." - David F. Wells
•  Post-modernism is modernism with the optimism taken out - Robert Hewison
• Asking you to think about the art. Whats does it make you feel or think?
• What you think the art is about
• The term postmodernism is used in a confusing variety of ways. For some it means anti–modern, while for others it means the revision of modernist premises
• The seemingly anti–modern stance involves a basic rejection of the tenets of modernism
• Postmodernism is seen as rejecting those elements that comprise the modernist worldview, including the ideas of truth, self, meaning, and purpose
• Self-conscious Intertextuality

Q2. Use a quote by Witcombe (2000) to define the Post-Modern artist.
A2."The post–modern artist is ‘reflexive’ in that he or she is self–aware and consciously involved in a process of thinking about his or her cultural self in history, in damasking his or her own pretensions, and promoting processes of self–consciousness. "

Q3. Use the grid on pages 42 and 43 to summarize the list of the features of Post-
Modernity.
A3.Post modernity is a jumble of different ideas and cultures. pluralism is present as well as using cultures and ethnics in a surface deep way, not caring about the meaning of many things. There is a mixture of different cultures which blend together to make one hybrid culture. The attitude of post modernity undermines to show dept and seriousness. Making art that is taken aspect of work from the past and mixing it with the own ideas of the artists and making art that talks to people and sends a certain message out that is interesting or challenging, asking you to think about the the art - what it makes you feel and think it is about. Challenging in general the government, culture, metaphysical and beliefs.


Q5. Research Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's 'Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola logo'(1994)
in order to say what features of the work are Post-Modern.
A5. The ancient urn which was not made by himself but found at a market, Ai Wei Wei then inscribed the Coca-Cola label onto the urn. This was to show the uncertainty of value and beauty over time which related to post-modernity in the way that Wei Wei is challenging the way we think about from the past and materialistic ideas.

Q6. Research British artist Banksy's street art, and analyze the following two works by the artist
to discuss how each work can be defined as Post-Modern.
A6. The stencil of the man throwing the flowers to me seems like the man should be throwing something like a Molotov cocktail or a brick, but has been replaced with a bunch of flowers because you can not really hurt or destroy anything with flowers and flowers are nice and are a symbol of kindness and peace in some ways. With the second stencil of the caveman with the fast food must be about some kind of controversy with fast food business like McDonald's. The work of Banksy fits into the postmodern category as it is there to show a point which is challenging the way the world/certain countries are and also the way that some of his pieces of art could depict different means to different people.





'Flower Riot', Banksy


Los Angeles (2008), Banksy

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/32223/who-is-ai-weiwei/?page=3

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/postmodernism

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/post-modernism.html

http://arthistoryresources.net/modernism/modpostmod.html

http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/hc.html

WEEK 1 Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'

Q1. What do you understand by the word 'claymation'?
A1. Claymation is a form of animation which uses clay or plasticine clay to create characters and film them using "stop-motion" photography. The word itself explains what it is clay - mation the use of clay with animation.

Q2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?

A2. The garden of Eden is a place from the bible that was meant to have been very beautiful and holy, having the word surrealistic place on front changes what the garden of Eden would be like, Surrealistic means that it would be odd and like a dream but not necessarily in a good way. In the phrase 'all that is natural goes awry' it is saying that the nature is not normal or correct that it is wrong and distorted which is true when you look that how the plants look like that Nathalie Djurberg has created are very unnatural and look like they are dead or dieing.

Q3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?
A3. That complex emotions that I have notice would be involving the relationships between the women and the women and the men. there seems to be a disturbing sexual connect with the women together but not with the women and men.   

Q4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?

A4. Innocence's is related to children and being free of evil or sin. The form of art claymation that she used is usually used for making children's movies or shows. I thought that the clip with the man and the snake was like the jungle book but a disturbing and violence.

 

Q5. 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?
A5. It is an interesting topic to play with for some, with the change from innocent to being disturbing is sometime socking the way artists/designers illustrate it which gets the viewer attention.  

Q6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?
A6.When you look at her art in real life/on YouTube as an installation the objects that she creates are quite amazing to look at having a room full of that kind of stuff that you to another place. It is also quite shocking and disturbing to watch which would bring attention to it.

http://www.bayarearadioadvertising.com/terms/

http://www.digitalrebellion.com/glossary.htm

WEEK 9 MODERNISM AND POST MODERNISM

Q1. Outline the intentions of each artist.

Chuck Close:

An American painter and photographer who succeed as a photo realist through his massive-scale portraits. Even after becoming severely paralyzed, Chuck Close still continued to make art work that was wanted by museums and collectors.

 

Claude Monet: 

Founder of French impressionist painting. His Intentions were to have an endless pond with water Lillie's without any horizons or banks. Monet was exploring different natural lights that he could capture in his paintings and the different colours that come with it.

 

Q2. Describe the techniques of each artist

Chuck Close: 

Chuck Close uses a canvas that has a grid on it done my an assistant. It is said that he uses his mouth to hold his paint brush because of being paralyzed. He used two main techniques which are 'grisaille'-using only grey tints and 'pointillism'-a white background is covered with dots of pure colour that producing a visual effect. Both of these techniques are similar to what is used by impressionist. The result is a canvas of mini paintings which when looked at from a distance is seen as a single image.

 

 

Claude Monet:

A few different techniques which Monet was the texture of his paintings was created with different brushstrokes. He used was painting on light coloured canvases he would mix his colours on the canvas and use a technique called scumble when you soften a colour by covering it with a opaque/semi opaque colour.  

 

Q3. Find 2 quotes about each artists work, and reference them correctly.

Chuck Close: 

 

"I think most paintings are a record of the decisions that the artist made. I just perhaps make them a little clearer than some people have"

 

"You know, the way art history is taught, often there's nothing that tells you why the painting is great. The description of a lousy painting and the description of a great painting will very much sound the same"

Claude Monet:

 

"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love"

 

 "No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition"

 

Q4. Note 3 similarities of the work of both artists.

Bright Colour, texture, technique.

 

Q5. What are some differences between the artist's work. (at least 3)

The style of there paintings are very different to each other in the way the Monets are quite beauitful and Chuck Close has also a more realist appourch. The focus of what they paint are different as Close paints mostly all portraits and Monet does not. One other difference would be that Close used the gridded canvas.

 

Q6. Describe your response to the work of both artists.

At first I did not like the work of Chuck Close but after researching and finding out more about him I found his work quite interesting. I have always like Claude Monets work so it was good to learn more about him.

 

referencing:

http://www.artsconnected.org/artsnetmn/identity/close.html

http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=1156

http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80220

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Lilies

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/chuck_close.html#ixzz1NqcAgIcF

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/claude_monet.html#ixzz1NqdZt3ZU