Wednesday 11 August 2010

Project 5 Art as a commodity

Project 5 Art as a commodity

 Art as a commodity (to be traded – it is sometimes the only way capitalism can own art. Some argue that this is the only way to belittle art by owning it as an investment rather than the joy of looking and enjoying the art.)

Fetishism of Commodities
I think I understand the first principal in the first paragraph i.e.the mention of wood being a commodity that can be used to make another object for use and or pleasure (sometimes equally as beautiful as the structure of the wood itself) but it is still wood whatever it is made into. And that an object or painting cannot produce itself  into something else without the interference of man who then produces something special from the first
object of equal beauty.

At this time I cannot quite get to grips with the connection between the article and work by artists such as Jeff Koons and other artists

Examples of Jeff Koons work--- Rabbit – Naples Italy 2003
Ballon Flower - Polsdamer Platz – Berlin Michael Jackson and Bubbles – Astrup Fearnley Museum of Art Modern.



 Cracked Egg – (blue egg) it is interesting that you can see the reflection of the egg on the egg itself which is high polished (a new birth perhaps)

One of my favourites is called Kiepenkeri 1987 made in stainless steel it is displayed in the Hirshhorn Museum’s sculpture garden in the National Mall Washington DC



Koons work often displays layers of clear deliberate Symbolism as in the pristine vacuum cleaners placed in an airtight museum case (more likely to be used for precious objects) 


i.e. Cleaner= phallic (male) + sucking (female) + cleaning (purity or goodness)


Jeff Koons born 21-01-1955 American  Known for his large reproductions of banal (common place)
objects such as balloon animals made of stainless steel with a mirror finish and brightly coloured.

He studied at the School of Art Institute of Chicago and Maryland Collage of Art. He revered Dali and briefly worked as a commodities broker while gaining recognition as an artist which he gained in 1980, and set up a studio in a Soho loft on the corner of Houston and Broadway. Had at least 30 assistance each assigned to a different aspect of producing his work  (similar to Andy Warhol factory). Notable by being produced by a method called Art Fabrication (when artists enlist the help of a Art Fabrication studio which has access to specialised machinery and labour necessary to make a complex project i.e. employing labour to make the project, but claiming the acclaim for the work??

In 1991 Koons married the Italian soft porn movie actress Iiona Staller known as `Cicciolina` and embarked on a series of work that concentrated on recording their ecstatic love-making (why) with no holds barred of these he claimed a religious significance which made them more outrageous to the general public.

Jeff has stated that there is no hidden meaning in his work!!



Similar artists to Jeff Koons are Tracy Emin, Damien Hirst and possibly Duane Hanson.


Note:
Since progressing further in to this course I have been able to understand more on this subject and  looking at objects in different  ways, and appreciating some of what the artists are portraying.

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Project 4 Ideology and interpellation

Project 4 Ideaology and interpellation


IDEOLOGY .... set of ideas that discusses the goals, expectations and actions

INTERPELLATION.... act of interruption

Or Marxism understands ideology as a creation or class and the subjects position in relation to capital and production process

Project 4

Althusser explains structuralism in two ways :-

1   Ideology that which you imagine does not necessary correspond to what is real i.e. an illusion – different   people have their own take on the subject matter.

2   Individuals are based as subjects of ideology i.e. Celebrity’s, powerful business people, those in authority.

3 I think Althusser’s interpretation to ideology is drawn from Freud and Lacan’s concepts of the conscious and the mirror phase respectively these according to Althusser are both agents of repression and inevitable (it is impossible to escape ideology to not be subjected to it).

Athusser denied being a structuralist and called Structuralism “ structuralist ideology” he showed his basic
assumption that experience consciousness and subjectivity are themselves of an imaginary relationship between an individual and his or her real conditions of existence.

Marxist art history attempted to show how art was tried up to specific classes, how images contained information about the economy and how images make the `status quo’ seem natural .

Courbets – Burial at Ornans is an expression of the painters egalitarianism (upholding the principle of equal rights for all) - this caused an uproar when exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1850 on the grounds that it idealised the peasants it portrayed, while subjecting the clergy to savage criticism.  



Definition visual – what we see – the physical aspects of the world around us everyday

Definition culture - includes language, ideas, customs, tools, works of art rituals and ceremonies etc.

e.g. The staircase from La Sagrade Familia in Barcelona Spain,an example of modern architect Gaudis obsession with nature as well as the use of the circular may say that the staircase was constructed to
represent a snail or a circular form found in nature.














Fenichel chapter

Project 2 Fenichel chapter

Distinction between looking and seeing: Looking using ones eyes
Seeing: combination of that act, and the action taken on the information gain though the eyes
i.e. you see an accident and the information gained from that informs your mind to want to help in someway. Or a new born baby brings emotion of joy, tears, wonderment etc.

The act of looking could be seen as being virtually identical or substitute for some activity i.e. watching or participating could be classed as a form of fetishism by fixing an irresistible gaze on someone or some object the eye or the glance becomes a sadistic weapon.

The eye plays two parts: -
1. The person gazing holds the stare of the victim or object in his power.

2. The person who looks is fascinated by what they see.

The looking glass is a form of magic – it confronts the person with what they look like rather that what they think they look like in your minds eye. In your minds eye you devour the devour the object or person you are looking at to be forced to imitate or grows like it.

When you think of something you imagine what it looks, feels (tastes maybe) like when you see the said item it turns out to be something different.

One looks at an object or person to share in its experience or has an impulse to injure or destroy the object seen?

Thoughts

Can a painting hypnotise you though your eyes that you look further with your minds eye to see more?
Could the eye be the messenger from the brain i.e. what the eye sees’ the brain computers and learns from it?

Project 1: Modernist Art: The Critic Speaks

What is Greenberg talking about in general---?


His essay shows his observation of technical changes in art itself and the way it is perceived i.e. Greenberg was friends with the painters Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland whose abstract paintings he (Greenberg) labelled “Post painterly abstraction”
Morris Louis Bernstein b. 28th November 1912, d. aged 49 7th September 1962 (Amercian abstract expressionist painter)….. In 1950 he became the earliest exponent of Colour Field Painting (primarily by large file of flat solid colour spread across or stained on to the canvas creating areas on unbroken surfaces and a flat picture plane - moment less on gesture brushstroke action in flavour of an overall consistency of form and process).

(Wikipedia – Morris Louis Bernstein – Colour Field)

Kenneth Noland – b 10th April 1924 d. 5th January 2010 American abstract painter also known for Colour Field Painting Met Norris Louis in early 1950 (in early 1960’s thought of as a minimalist painter).

Gustav Klimt is in Greenberg’s eyes the first real modernist Philosopher (he was the first to criticise the means itself of criticism) – modernism used art to call attention to art – Old masters used flat surfaces to tell a story thus it was a negative factor.

Artists mentioned by Greenberg as Monet, David, Manet, Cezanne, Fragonard, Ingres, Cubist Giotto Cimabue, and Mondrian Kantian

(British Journal of Aesthetics Greenberg, Kant and the problem of Modernist painting by Paul Crowther – Barbara Reise – challenged as did T J Clarke, Greenberg b. 16th January 1909 d. 7th May 1994

Art critic's exerted extraordinary influence as a champion of Abstract Art.

Note to myself – not sure I understand all of his theory’s so has given me a lot to think about and must come back to add more as his idea’s are completely new to me - STUDY MORE

Quote LOOKING IS CONCEIVED AS A MEANS OF IDENTIFICATION MODERNISM IS MORE THAN JUST ART AND LITERATURE IT INCLUDES ALMOST ALL THAT IS ALIVE IN OUR CULTURE WITHOUT THE ART OF THE PAST ART SUCH AS MODERNIST ART WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE

Greenberg’s essay on Modernist painting is built on his earlier thoughts of avant-garde art and culture
He also believed that Kant was the first real modernist.

project 2 Fetishising the object of your eye

Scopophila derives from Freud's 'sopicdrive'  the infants drive to pleasurable viewer.  This concept is further expanded by Freud's  'primal scene'( i.e. male child unseen by parents watching them copulating, also Lucan's  'mirror stage' (when the boy child realises he is different to his mother).

Voyeurism - meaning viewing the activities of other (unknown to them) and fetishism (in film, the over- investment of other parts of the body) usually through another's eyes.are two strategies adopted by males to counteract the fear of sexual difference, both of which have illicit connotations.

Question 1

The importance of looking and seeing has significance not only in the present day culture but also through history evident in i.e. gorgon: Oedipus - blinded as a punishment.  The project has helped in my way looking in a ritualistic way.  Such as went we visit an art gallery we look for recognition and substitution of what is missing in the exhibits.  Looking also signifies identification and we try to identify with the exhibits in the gallery.  I wonder if the environment of the art gallery allows us a safe place to do this? 

The articles do suggest that staring at someone is a best bad manners and even worst threatening in some ways to look is to show power.

Freud suggests that desire is crucial to looking ( i am not sure I agree with this).the scopophilic instinct is a sexual one.  Pleasure is looking as an object be it painting, china, buildings etc. to try and share its experience.

Some people feel the need to watch television to search for what is missing in their lives and also for identification (ocular interjection) due to the mirror and self image. I think we watch television because we learn from documentaries, etc and find pleasure in others i.e. comedy etc.

I do not think everyone has visual fetishes in relation to sexual gratification in way view (the way I was bought up those avenues were not entertained.  If we were to use a simplified and de-sexual view of fetish, "to replace something with something else" then I would agree that a city dweller could possibly substitute an image of countryside over living in the city.

I think that in general most people would keep images of family wedding etc in the form of either photos and videos as they bring back happy memories and as a memento of happy times.  The importance here is the mirror and self image which could play a greater role in keeping such images.