once an intermediatic, always an intermediatic!
First intermedia event. Video by Ali İhsan Uğurlu.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Saturday, October 21, 2006
STOMP!
I want to announce a group of very successful intermediatics:Stomp, a unique combination of percussion, movement and visual comedy. Below is the information gathered from their web page, www.stomponline.com There are also downloadable video and audio clips. Enjoy!
What does the word STOMP make you think of?
Music, Dance, Theatre, Choreography or Performance Art? All of the above! Or is it none of the above. Well, both are sort of right...In a way. Confused? read on...
STOMP is a movement, of bodies, objects, sounds - even abstract ideas. But what makes it so appealing is that the cast uses everyday objects, but in non-traditional ways.
There's no speech, no dialogue, not even a plot.
So why go see STOMP? Well, have you ever composed a symphony using only matchbooks as instruments? Or created a dance routine based around sweeping? You may have done this a little, but get a group of rhythmically gifted, extremely coordinated bodies with definitive personalities, and you have the makings for STOMP.
STOMP started stomping on the streets of Brighton, England. Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas the creators of STOMP were a group of street performers commonly know as "buskers" trying to grab people's attention.
And attention is what they received
Busking is an old custom in the UK, dating back to booth theatres erected at village fairs in the Middle Ages. Luke and Steve updated this historical custom and created a modern symbiotic marriage between movement and music.
You're mistaken if you look for a hidden message in STOMP. There are no political connotations, no pretentious techniques, and no dialogue to misconstrue. Instead, you're bombarded by noises that you usually try to block out. STOMP takes the everyday sounds of pipes and brooms, lighters and garbage pail lids, and creates the extraordinary.
So how do you describe STOMP? If you ask one of the creators, Luke Cresswell, he would simply say, "at the end of the day, STOMP is what it is."
Class on Oct. 17: experimental works in video
Jan Svankmayer
Czechoslovak animator extraordinaire, Jan has been making intensely bizarre films since the mid-'60s. Most of his work is a mix between 3-D stop-motion animation, puppets and live-action, but it can involve any mix of the above. His stories are eerie, delightful, dreamlike and surreal. His actors include real people, machines, socks, clay figures, antique dolls, pencil sharpeners, and skeletons or stuffed corpses of animals, among other things. His sets are usually decaying Czech buildings or landscapes, decorated with waste of the industrial age: rotting furniture, rusty nails, sawdust, oily screws, and the like.
for A Jan Svankmayer filmography/videography page, please click here!
Svankmayer definetely influenced many others like Tim Burton. Brothers Quay took his ideas much further and even dedicated "The Cabinet of Jan Svankmayer" to him.
Brothers Quay
Identical twins born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Stephen and Timothy Quay studied at the Philadelphia College of Art until they transferred to London's Royal College of Art, where they started producing animated shorts in the early 70s.
The Quay's films are influenced by those of Jan Svankmajer: a harsh, grimy world where decay is the primary decor, but they add a sharp neo-gothic edge to and maintain a thoroughly personal hand-on approach to their film-making, where Svankmajer designs his films and lets others animate them. Not only their materails and political ideas are striking, but also their editing techniques: the rythym created by the movement of the camera. The Quay's puppets are also of the same ilk (creepy antiquated-looking toys, bones, meat, etc.), but have a more polished look. The Quay's plots are minimal and dark, their films surreal, stream-of-consciousness nightmares with a definite edge of humor.
Some of the Quay's actual sets and puppets are on permanent exhibition at The Museum of the Moving Image in London.
Since they don't want their images on web, we cannot include any. Yet, for the filmography you can click here.
Bill Viola
Born in January 25, 1951, he is today known for his work in video art. His exhibition profile, which includes the Guggenheim Berlin, Guggenheim New York, Getty Los Angeles, California, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York marks him as a major artist, at least by standards of public fame and repute. His work has also received extensive critical praise from both within the video art community and in the culture at large, which is unusual for an artist whose work often challenges the narrative conventions of the television screen.
His early work established his fascination with issues that continue to inform his work today. In particular, Viola's obession with capturing the essence of emotion through recording of its extreme display began at least as early as his 1976 work, "The Space Between the Teeth", a video of himself screaming, and continues to this day with such works as the 45-second "Silent Mountain" (2001), which shows two actors in states of anguish.
If Viola's depictions of emotional states with no objective correlative -- emotional states for which the viewer has no external object or event to understand them by -- are one striking feature of many of his works, another, which has come to the forefront, is his reference to medieval and classical depictions of emotion. Most immediately, his subdued "Catherine's Room" 2001, has many scene by scene parallels with Andrea di Bartolo's 1393 "St. Catherine of Siena Praying".
While many video artists have been quick to adopt new technologies to their medium, Viola relies little, if at all, on computer editing and modification of his video. Perhaps the most technically challenging part of his work -- and that which has benefitted most from the advances since his earliest pieces -- is his use of extreme slow motion. "The Quintet Series" 2000 is one such piece (actually a set of four separate videos), that shows the unfolding expressions of the five actors in such slow motion that the expressions become almost unrecognizable. The series is a challenging one for the viewer, because the concentration required to follow the facial expressions over time must last for minutes or more. In general, the distortion of time, along with the lack of sound or voice over, form the most immediately ""new"" aspects of Viola's work for the first-time viewer.
One remarkable piece by Viola is his "Observance" 2002, which may be taken partly as a response to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. "Observance" places the camera at eye level facing the head of a line of people of a wide variety of ages. As "Observance" unfolds, the line slowly advances, with each person pausing at the front of the line in a state of intense -- though quiet -- grief, before ceding their place to the next person in line.
In 2004, Viola embarked on "The Tristan Project". At the invitation of opera director Peter Sellars, he created video sequences to be shown as a backdrop to the action on stage during the performance (directed by Sellars) of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde. Using his trademark extreme slow motion, Viola's pieces used actors to portray the metaphorical story behind Wagner's story, seeing for example the first act as an extended ritual of purification in which the characters disrobe and wash themselves before finally plunging headlong into water together (in Wagner's story, the two characters maintain the facade of being indifferent to each other (necessary because Isolde is betrothed to Tristan's uncle) before, mistakenly believing they are going to die anyway, they reveal their true feelings). Viola trademarks such as fire and water are much in evidence here. The piece was first performed in Los Angeles at Disney Hall on 3 separate evenings in 2004, one act at a time, then given complete performances at the Bastille Opera in Paris in April and November 2005. The video pieces were later shown in London without Wagner's music in June to September 2006, at the Haunch of Venison Gallery and St Olave's College.
Viola's work has received many critical accolades. Marjorie Perloff, best known for her poetry criticism and her promotion of avant-garde writers and styles, singles him out for praise. Perloff, who has written at length about the necessity of poetic works responding to and taking advantage of contemporary computer technologies, has written of Viola as an example of how new technology -- in his case, the video camera -- can create entirely new aesthetic criteria and possibilities that did not exist in previous incarnations of the genre -- in this case, theater.
For Bill Viola's official web site, please click here!
for A Jan Svankmayer filmography/videography page, please click here!Svankmayer definetely influenced many others like Tim Burton. Brothers Quay took his ideas much further and even dedicated "The Cabinet of Jan Svankmayer" to him.
Brothers Quay
Identical twins born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Stephen and Timothy Quay studied at the Philadelphia College of Art until they transferred to London's Royal College of Art, where they started producing animated shorts in the early 70s.
The Quay's films are influenced by those of Jan Svankmajer: a harsh, grimy world where decay is the primary decor, but they add a sharp neo-gothic edge to and maintain a thoroughly personal hand-on approach to their film-making, where Svankmajer designs his films and lets others animate them. Not only their materails and political ideas are striking, but also their editing techniques: the rythym created by the movement of the camera. The Quay's puppets are also of the same ilk (creepy antiquated-looking toys, bones, meat, etc.), but have a more polished look. The Quay's plots are minimal and dark, their films surreal, stream-of-consciousness nightmares with a definite edge of humor.
Some of the Quay's actual sets and puppets are on permanent exhibition at The Museum of the Moving Image in London.
Since they don't want their images on web, we cannot include any. Yet, for the filmography you can click here.
Bill Viola
Born in January 25, 1951, he is today known for his work in video art. His exhibition profile, which includes the Guggenheim Berlin, Guggenheim New York, Getty Los Angeles, California, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York marks him as a major artist, at least by standards of public fame and repute. His work has also received extensive critical praise from both within the video art community and in the culture at large, which is unusual for an artist whose work often challenges the narrative conventions of the television screen.
His early work established his fascination with issues that continue to inform his work today. In particular, Viola's obession with capturing the essence of emotion through recording of its extreme display began at least as early as his 1976 work, "The Space Between the Teeth", a video of himself screaming, and continues to this day with such works as the 45-second "Silent Mountain" (2001), which shows two actors in states of anguish.
If Viola's depictions of emotional states with no objective correlative -- emotional states for which the viewer has no external object or event to understand them by -- are one striking feature of many of his works, another, which has come to the forefront, is his reference to medieval and classical depictions of emotion. Most immediately, his subdued "Catherine's Room" 2001, has many scene by scene parallels with Andrea di Bartolo's 1393 "St. Catherine of Siena Praying".
While many video artists have been quick to adopt new technologies to their medium, Viola relies little, if at all, on computer editing and modification of his video. Perhaps the most technically challenging part of his work -- and that which has benefitted most from the advances since his earliest pieces -- is his use of extreme slow motion. "The Quintet Series" 2000 is one such piece (actually a set of four separate videos), that shows the unfolding expressions of the five actors in such slow motion that the expressions become almost unrecognizable. The series is a challenging one for the viewer, because the concentration required to follow the facial expressions over time must last for minutes or more. In general, the distortion of time, along with the lack of sound or voice over, form the most immediately ""new"" aspects of Viola's work for the first-time viewer.
One remarkable piece by Viola is his "Observance" 2002, which may be taken partly as a response to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. "Observance" places the camera at eye level facing the head of a line of people of a wide variety of ages. As "Observance" unfolds, the line slowly advances, with each person pausing at the front of the line in a state of intense -- though quiet -- grief, before ceding their place to the next person in line.
In 2004, Viola embarked on "The Tristan Project". At the invitation of opera director Peter Sellars, he created video sequences to be shown as a backdrop to the action on stage during the performance (directed by Sellars) of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde. Using his trademark extreme slow motion, Viola's pieces used actors to portray the metaphorical story behind Wagner's story, seeing for example the first act as an extended ritual of purification in which the characters disrobe and wash themselves before finally plunging headlong into water together (in Wagner's story, the two characters maintain the facade of being indifferent to each other (necessary because Isolde is betrothed to Tristan's uncle) before, mistakenly believing they are going to die anyway, they reveal their true feelings). Viola trademarks such as fire and water are much in evidence here. The piece was first performed in Los Angeles at Disney Hall on 3 separate evenings in 2004, one act at a time, then given complete performances at the Bastille Opera in Paris in April and November 2005. The video pieces were later shown in London without Wagner's music in June to September 2006, at the Haunch of Venison Gallery and St Olave's College.
Viola's work has received many critical accolades. Marjorie Perloff, best known for her poetry criticism and her promotion of avant-garde writers and styles, singles him out for praise. Perloff, who has written at length about the necessity of poetic works responding to and taking advantage of contemporary computer technologies, has written of Viola as an example of how new technology -- in his case, the video camera -- can create entirely new aesthetic criteria and possibilities that did not exist in previous incarnations of the genre -- in this case, theater.
For Bill Viola's official web site, please click here!
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Conceptual Art, Marcel Duchamp and Sol Lewitt
Conceptual art, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. All of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execusion is a perfunctory affair. In some cases, Conceptual art may not entail any art object per se, but instead manifest solely as documentary evidence for an "art idea". In other, less extreme cases, Conceptual art may involve the construction of images and objects in a manner that frees the artist from their traditional role as a maker of aesthetic decisions.
Many of the works of the artist Sol Lewitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions. This method was fundamental to Lewitt's definition of Conceptual art, the first to appear in print "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art", Art Forum, 1967.
The movement began in the early 20th century, but was based on the European Dada movement, its father Marcel Duchamp, and the writings of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.
The French artist Marcel Duchamp paved the way for the conceptualists, providing them with examples of prototypically conceptual works (the readymades, for instance) that defied conventional categorisation. The most famous of Duchamp's readymades was Fountain (1917), a standard urinal basin signed by the artist with the pseudonym "R.Mutt", and submitted for inclusion in the annual, un-juried exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York--it was rejected. In traditional terms, a commonplace object such as a urinal cannot be said to be art because it is not made by an artist or with any intention of being art, it is not unique, and it possesses few of the expected visual properties of the traditional, hand-crafted art object. Duchamp's relevance and theoretical importance for future "conceptualists" was later acknowledged by US artist Joseph Kosuth in his 1969 essay, "Art after Philosophy," when he wrote: "All art (after Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art only exists conceptually."
(For more information: Making sense of Marcel Duchamp and Marcel Duchamp World Community )
Conceptual art was the forerunner for installation, digital, and performance art, more generally art that can be experienced.
Sol LeWitt (born 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut) is an artist linked to various movements including conceptual art and minimalism. His mediums are predominantly painting, drawing, and structures (a term he prefers in opposition to sculpture).
LeWitt's most characteristic sculpture works are based on connected open cubes and have titles like "Modular Wall Structure" and "Double Modular Cube." Because he works with modules and systems, and his early wall drawings are based on grids, he is sometimes described as a Minimal artist, but his work, especially his recent work, is usually colorful and often quite complex. It is also optimistic and beautiful.
In his writings "Sentences on Conceptual Art" and "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art" he puts down the characteristics of conceptual art. He distinguishes the new art form from the formal art by claiming that the former is mystical while the latter is rational. He says that irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically. For him banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution, on the contrary his understanding of the process is machine-like. Also, he makes a distinction between conceptional and perceptional art. Perceptional art is for the sensation of the eye, like optical, kinetic, light and color art.
The rules Lewitt manifested in his writings contradict with the works of Turrell and Orozco. Turrell uses light predominantly, and the way his works actually seen is important, on the other hand, his ideas behind his body of work do matter a lot as well. Should he be considered as a perceptional or conceptional artist?
Orozco, on the other hand found the art making process very important, as opposed to Lewitt.
Can we ever reach a consensus about what distinguishes conceptual art; or what is art and what is not at the first place? The fountain was a joke for Duchamp, but was taken very seriously by critics. Can we produce art by solely placing objects in the museum, by altering their message? How much does the final look of the work matter; and how about the concept of it?
What should be our criteria?
Many of the works of the artist Sol Lewitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions. This method was fundamental to Lewitt's definition of Conceptual art, the first to appear in print "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art", Art Forum, 1967.
The movement began in the early 20th century, but was based on the European Dada movement, its father Marcel Duchamp, and the writings of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.
The French artist Marcel Duchamp paved the way for the conceptualists, providing them with examples of prototypically conceptual works (the readymades, for instance) that defied conventional categorisation. The most famous of Duchamp's readymades was Fountain (1917), a standard urinal basin signed by the artist with the pseudonym "R.Mutt", and submitted for inclusion in the annual, un-juried exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York--it was rejected. In traditional terms, a commonplace object such as a urinal cannot be said to be art because it is not made by an artist or with any intention of being art, it is not unique, and it possesses few of the expected visual properties of the traditional, hand-crafted art object. Duchamp's relevance and theoretical importance for future "conceptualists" was later acknowledged by US artist Joseph Kosuth in his 1969 essay, "Art after Philosophy," when he wrote: "All art (after Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art only exists conceptually."
(For more information: Making sense of Marcel Duchamp and Marcel Duchamp World Community )
Conceptual art was the forerunner for installation, digital, and performance art, more generally art that can be experienced.
Sol LeWitt (born 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut) is an artist linked to various movements including conceptual art and minimalism. His mediums are predominantly painting, drawing, and structures (a term he prefers in opposition to sculpture).
LeWitt's most characteristic sculpture works are based on connected open cubes and have titles like "Modular Wall Structure" and "Double Modular Cube." Because he works with modules and systems, and his early wall drawings are based on grids, he is sometimes described as a Minimal artist, but his work, especially his recent work, is usually colorful and often quite complex. It is also optimistic and beautiful.
In his writings "Sentences on Conceptual Art" and "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art" he puts down the characteristics of conceptual art. He distinguishes the new art form from the formal art by claiming that the former is mystical while the latter is rational. He says that irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically. For him banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution, on the contrary his understanding of the process is machine-like. Also, he makes a distinction between conceptional and perceptional art. Perceptional art is for the sensation of the eye, like optical, kinetic, light and color art.
The rules Lewitt manifested in his writings contradict with the works of Turrell and Orozco. Turrell uses light predominantly, and the way his works actually seen is important, on the other hand, his ideas behind his body of work do matter a lot as well. Should he be considered as a perceptional or conceptional artist?
Orozco, on the other hand found the art making process very important, as opposed to Lewitt.
Can we ever reach a consensus about what distinguishes conceptual art; or what is art and what is not at the first place? The fountain was a joke for Duchamp, but was taken very seriously by critics. Can we produce art by solely placing objects in the museum, by altering their message? How much does the final look of the work matter; and how about the concept of it?
What should be our criteria?
The Class on Oct.10- screenings: James Turrell, Gabriel Orozco
James Turrell
Turrell’s work involves explorations in light and space that speak to viewers without words, impacting the eye, body, and mind with the force of a spiritual awakening. “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” says the artist, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.” Informed by his studies in perceptual psychology and optical illusions, Turrell’s work allows us to see ourselves “seeing.” In a sense his main media is the light itself and involve the active participation of the viewers.
Roden Crater, which is near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, is an extinct volcano the artist has been transforming into a celestial observatory for the past thirty years. Its curved shape provides him with the opportunity of losing the horizontal sense.
His fascination with the phenomena of light is ultimately connected to a very personal, inward search for mankind’s place in the universe.
For an interview with Turrell (made in 1996) please click here!
For more information, biography and works please click here!
Gabriel Orozco
An avid traveler, Gabriel Orozco uses the urban landscape and the everyday objects found within it to twist conventional notions of reality and engage the imagination of the viewer. He is interested in complex geometry and mapping, it is expressed in his works "Oval Billard Table".
He defines camera as a way of experience, giving way to intimate relationship with the world. He even approaches sculpture in his work "La D.S." Car sculpture, in such a way that he distorts the perspective.
Matching his passion for political engagement with the poetry of chance encounters, Orozco’s photographs, sculptures, and installations propose a distinctive model for the ways in which artists can affect the world with their work.
For more information, biography and works please click here!
Turrell’s work involves explorations in light and space that speak to viewers without words, impacting the eye, body, and mind with the force of a spiritual awakening. “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” says the artist, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.” Informed by his studies in perceptual psychology and optical illusions, Turrell’s work allows us to see ourselves “seeing.” In a sense his main media is the light itself and involve the active participation of the viewers.
Roden Crater, which is near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, is an extinct volcano the artist has been transforming into a celestial observatory for the past thirty years. Its curved shape provides him with the opportunity of losing the horizontal sense.
His fascination with the phenomena of light is ultimately connected to a very personal, inward search for mankind’s place in the universe.
For an interview with Turrell (made in 1996) please click here!
For more information, biography and works please click here!
Gabriel Orozco
An avid traveler, Gabriel Orozco uses the urban landscape and the everyday objects found within it to twist conventional notions of reality and engage the imagination of the viewer. He is interested in complex geometry and mapping, it is expressed in his works "Oval Billard Table".
He defines camera as a way of experience, giving way to intimate relationship with the world. He even approaches sculpture in his work "La D.S." Car sculpture, in such a way that he distorts the perspective.
Matching his passion for political engagement with the poetry of chance encounters, Orozco’s photographs, sculptures, and installations propose a distinctive model for the ways in which artists can affect the world with their work.
For more information, biography and works please click here!
Sunday, October 08, 2006
ART-IST EVENTS
We all laughed at Cristopher Columbus
Platfrom Garanti Contemporary Art Center
Sept.14 - Oct.21
Roderick Buchanan, Jeremiah Day, Omer Fast, Runo Lagomarsino, Deimantas Narkevicius, Amalia Pica, Florian Wüst
Much artistic and curatorial practice today aims at exploring the truthfulness of historical representation, or the problematic dialectic between collective memory and factual source. Of late, there has been a great deal of attention on artistic practices that focus on reconstructions of historical events - from reenactments to documentary videos, the aim is often to question, investigate or reconsider social attitudes of interpretation. Opposed to these tendencies the exhibition We all laughed at Christopher Columbus deals primarily with subjective, artistic interpretations of specific historical events.
http://www.platform.garanti.com.tr/plat_pop.html
Right Place, Right Time
İstanbul Modern
Sept.7 - Nov.12
Gökşin Sipahioğlu’s photograph exhibition entitled "Right Place, Right Time" opened on 7th September in İstanbul Modern. Realized with the contributions of Fortis and curated by Engin Özendes, the exhibition will host 119 photographs of Gökşin Sipahioğlu, a prominent name of Turkish and global photojournalism for more than half a century.
http://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/f_index.html
IFSAK 1st International Istanbul Biennial of Photography
Sept.15 - Oct 31
The event is aiming to highlight the value of photographic art with its approach to open up new horizons and to organize a photography feast lasting for 6 weeks for national and international visitors.
IFSAK 1st International Istanbul Biennial of Photography, will focus on the theme “City: Chaos and Charm” while including other brilliant works not so closely related with the theme.
http://www.ifsak.org/bienal/eng/index.html
Platfrom Garanti Contemporary Art Center
Sept.14 - Oct.21
Roderick Buchanan, Jeremiah Day, Omer Fast, Runo Lagomarsino, Deimantas Narkevicius, Amalia Pica, Florian Wüst
Much artistic and curatorial practice today aims at exploring the truthfulness of historical representation, or the problematic dialectic between collective memory and factual source. Of late, there has been a great deal of attention on artistic practices that focus on reconstructions of historical events - from reenactments to documentary videos, the aim is often to question, investigate or reconsider social attitudes of interpretation. Opposed to these tendencies the exhibition We all laughed at Christopher Columbus deals primarily with subjective, artistic interpretations of specific historical events.
http://www.platform.garanti.com.tr/plat_pop.html
Right Place, Right Time
İstanbul Modern
Sept.7 - Nov.12
Gökşin Sipahioğlu’s photograph exhibition entitled "Right Place, Right Time" opened on 7th September in İstanbul Modern. Realized with the contributions of Fortis and curated by Engin Özendes, the exhibition will host 119 photographs of Gökşin Sipahioğlu, a prominent name of Turkish and global photojournalism for more than half a century.
http://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/f_index.html
IFSAK 1st International Istanbul Biennial of Photography
Sept.15 - Oct 31
The event is aiming to highlight the value of photographic art with its approach to open up new horizons and to organize a photography feast lasting for 6 weeks for national and international visitors.
IFSAK 1st International Istanbul Biennial of Photography, will focus on the theme “City: Chaos and Charm” while including other brilliant works not so closely related with the theme.
http://www.ifsak.org/bienal/eng/index.html
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
The Class on Oct.3: Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy (born 1956, in Cheshire) is an English artist and photographer living in Scotland who produces site specific sculpture and land art situated in natural settings. His art involves the use of natural and found objects to create temporary sculptural pieces which both appear naturalistic and create stark contrasts with their surroundings.
His media often include twigs, thorns, stone, mud, snow, icicles, brightly coloured flowers and leaves. He often uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials, although more recent works like Moonlit Path and Chalk Stones (Petworth, West Sussex - 2002) have also used heavy machinery.
Goldsworthy is a subject of a 2001 documentary feature film Rivers and Tides directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer. (ASIN: B0002JL9N6). He received an honorary degree from the University of Bradford in 1993, and was appointed OBE in 2000. He is the son of F. Allin Goldsworthy, 1929-2001, professor of applied mathematics at the University of Leeds.
(wikipedia)
He makes transient sculptures as opposed to the permenance of more conventional art forms. "I am still with it" says he talking about one of his works, and adds "but I can't see it... It is given to the sea as a gift. Sea made more out of it." He is by no means the final authority of his work. Nature is unpredictable. The material he is given, the way his work is destroyed... all is determined by the nature itself.
Therefore, he makes use of photography to document "the essense of his work".
How should we call him: a sculptor, an environmental sculptor’ or a ‘sculptor/photographer’? He forces us to reconsider what art is primarily, and how do we (or should we at all) locate the borders between different branches of art. Lastly, as soon or later most of his (final)work disappears, does the "idea" of his work matter more than its physical identity?
for more information about Andy Goldsworthy:
Artcyclopedia, Andy Goldsworthy
What is Art? What is an Artist?
Andy Goldsworhty: Tbe Beauty of Creation
Monday, October 02, 2006
The Class on Sept. 26: Krzysztof Wodiczko, Ann Hamilton, Cai Guo-Qiang
Wodiczko is internationally renowned for his large-scale slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments. Since the late eighties, he has developed a series of nomadic instruments for both homeless and immigrant operators that function as implements for survival, communication, empowerment, and healing. He creates art by projecting images upon the monumental architecture found in large cities. The image of a homeless person materializes on a Boston war monument. The message of his medium adds to/edits that of the monument.
The artist spent half his life behind "the Iron Curtain" and the other half in Canada and the United States, so he has a well developed critique of power and it's abuses. Wodiczko's art is profoundly democratic. It forces the viewer to reexamine the function of architecture and to reconsider the political nature of the steel and concrete caverns of commerce that make up large cities.
For more information please click here!
Hamilton was born in 1956 in Lima, Ohio. She trained in textile design at the University of Kansas, and later received an MFA from Yale University. While her degree is in sculpture, textiles and fabric have continued to be an important part of her work, which includes installations, photographs, videos, performances, and objects. She also questions the space around the art piece and ends up using the whole space. She is an important name of installation art.
For more information please click here!
Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China, and lives and works in New York. He studied stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute from 1981 to 1985 and attended the Institute for Contemporary Art: The National and International Studio Program at P.S. 1, New York. His work is both scholarly and politically charged.
He combines installation and traditional forms of Chinese art. His most prominent element od his body of work is called "gun powder drawings". He draws a comparison between drawing and love making; thus puts the emphasis on performance rather than the final image.
He says: "Art is not about what it is saying."
For more information please click here!
RELATED BOOKS
-all available in the Boğaziçi Library-
Installation Art in the New Millennium - Jonathan Crary
Body Art and Performance - Linda Wintraub, et al.
L'Ombra Della Regione: Shadow of Reason - Exploring the Sipiritual in European Identity in the 20th Century - Danilo Escher
Vitamin P - Barry Schwabsky
Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949-1979 - Paul Schimmel
Assemblage, Environments & Happenings
Performance: Live Art Since 1960 - Rosalee Goldberg
Overlay: Contemporary Art and the Art of Prehistory - Lucy R. Lippard
Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion - Oliver Grau
Art in America Magazine
Installation Art in the New Millennium - Jonathan Crary
Body Art and Performance - Linda Wintraub, et al.
L'Ombra Della Regione: Shadow of Reason - Exploring the Sipiritual in European Identity in the 20th Century - Danilo Escher
Vitamin P - Barry Schwabsky
Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949-1979 - Paul Schimmel
Assemblage, Environments & Happenings
Performance: Live Art Since 1960 - Rosalee Goldberg
Overlay: Contemporary Art and the Art of Prehistory - Lucy R. Lippard
Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion - Oliver Grau
Art in America Magazine
ASSIGNMENT
The assignment consists of a paper and/or a media-based project. Projects done for this class will be determined entirely by each student, and will grow out of a process of research and exploration guided by the instructor. Because conceptual art is based on the concept that art may exist solely as an idea, this process of research and its documentation may in fact become more important than the final result of the project. By being involved all the way through this process the instructor will be able to grade the project all the way through its development.
Everyone in this class will write a paper that discusses one of the readings in relation to one or more of the artists covered in this course. Students who choose to do only the paper are required to write a minimum of eight pages that investigates the chosen topic in detail. Students who choose to create a media-based project will write a shorter version of the paper one to two pages in length.
The media-based project needs to be approved by the instructor, and should use media that the student has previous knowledge about and access to all necessary equipment.
Everyone in this class will write a paper that discusses one of the readings in relation to one or more of the artists covered in this course. Students who choose to do only the paper are required to write a minimum of eight pages that investigates the chosen topic in detail. Students who choose to create a media-based project will write a shorter version of the paper one to two pages in length.
The media-based project needs to be approved by the instructor, and should use media that the student has previous knowledge about and access to all necessary equipment.
INTRODUCTION: The Intermediatics
This community is composed of Boğaziçi University (İstanbul- Turkey) students and graduates, who have taken the Intermedia course, led by their teacher Jeffrey Baykal Rollins. He is a photographer, painter and installation artist. However, neither his work, nor his teaching mentality distinguishes betweem different disciplines of art. Since 2005 he has been giving intermedia course.
Intermedia is an interdisciplinary course which brings together students working with a variety of media in a shared conceptual framework. This theory-based course offers students the opportunity to create conceptual art projects that grow out of research in their chosen areas of interest. Furthermore, Intermedia provides an area for students to work across disciplines, whether it be a filmmaker using installation art, a poet using performance, or a physics student using video and digital media. Through lectures, screenings, guest artists, and readings, students is exposed to a wide range of working methods that will help them to bring a work of art from idea to completion.
Each term the course has a happening in the campus where the students can show their videos, perform their pieces, have their installations exhibited. In every two years we are planing to arrange an Intermedia Biennial which would expand out of our campus.
Intermedia is an interdisciplinary course which brings together students working with a variety of media in a shared conceptual framework. This theory-based course offers students the opportunity to create conceptual art projects that grow out of research in their chosen areas of interest. Furthermore, Intermedia provides an area for students to work across disciplines, whether it be a filmmaker using installation art, a poet using performance, or a physics student using video and digital media. Through lectures, screenings, guest artists, and readings, students is exposed to a wide range of working methods that will help them to bring a work of art from idea to completion.
Each term the course has a happening in the campus where the students can show their videos, perform their pieces, have their installations exhibited. In every two years we are planing to arrange an Intermedia Biennial which would expand out of our campus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)