Perspectives, perceptions and paintings.

[emmykit]

Irony

And yes I get the irony of the last post being about access to media and it being a blog... 

[emmykit]

Is Social Media as Accessible as We Might Think?

Today our lives are over run with different types of social media and as it becomes more acceptable to use it for reasons such as keeping up to date with friends, promoting ideas or looking for romance I ask the question is it really that accessible?

Many of us have smart phone, laptop and other decides in which we can access social media but not all. Whilst some cultures move forward with the technology others are still left behind. We think we have become more social overtime now that we can keep in contact with people we haven't seen in ages yet we don't think of the barriers. Languages can often be a barrier along with access to technology but also age and education can hinder some people. As we move forward into an age where information is more easily available to us I also think we must try and move forward as a whole. 

[emmykit]

Sonia Delaunay - prismes électriques.

This Artist is one of my favourites as I love the vibrance of the images she creates. Being the wife of another artist (Robert Delaunay) she would often live in his shadow by being referred to as ‘the wife of Robert Delaunay’ rather than having her own artist merits taken into account. I find her work and her contributions to the art world inspiring and i also believe she is the perfect example of someone not credited properly in history. 

[emmykit]

Where are all the Female Artists?

Recording history is a part of everyones lives, especially now with the inventions of social media and blogging. We can each tell the stories of our day to day lives for all the world to see, but the most important part of this is we can tell the world exactly what we want them to know. By leaving out details we are shaping the course of how past events will be retold and what will be classed as ‘truths’. Like in all past events that have ever been retold this is what has happened throughout history. Many details often get left out to make the main point or person the central point, for example battles are often recounted to favour the victor. 

This is where I come onto my point about female artist. Today we are spoiled with the amount of female artist we can go and see in gallery spaces or women that make it on the news for their art but this was not always the case. Many woman throughout history practiced art but they are very rarely mention when compared to their male counterparts. 

[emmykit]

L’oréal advertising campaign to make woman feel under appreciated or not worthy if they don't have L’oréal products. By using pronouns like ‘you’re’ it address the viewer directly to make them believe that L’oréal see them as an individual and that they are as good as (but I would argue from this statement that they are not seen as better) the hierarchy, such as famous or wealthy people. this is propaganda as it is changing our minds to agree with the creator of this advert so we by into what they want. 

[emmykit]

Adverts vs Propaganda. Is There Really Much Difference?

In a world where advertising dominates, is there really much difference between advertising and propaganda? Two men who looked into this around the time of the Second World War, their names were Horkheimer and Adorno. They had emigrated to America from Germany before the start of WW2 to escape Hitler’s and the Nazi party’s persecution of the Jewish people. One of Hitler’s main tools against the Jewish people was propaganda, which he spread through plays, art, music, films, books, radio and press such as newspapers. When Horkheimer and Adorno arrived in the USA they found that the culture and lifestyle was still full of propaganda but being used in a different way. They said that the ‘Culture Industry’ was unchanging and obvious and as in place t keep ‘the masses’ from rising up and revolting about low wages, poor living conditions etc. 

I happen to agree with their statements on this. I believe that as we slip into an age where consumerism is almost devouring our free thought and ‘trends’ are taking over peoples personal opinions of what they like and what they don’t, we are starting to be unable to make decisions for ourselves. Constant bombardment from adverts telling us what we need in our life and what we should look and act like is brainwashing the nation. Artists like Kruger have got us to question our role in consmerism (like for example the image that i will be studying in my critical analysis - see below) but I feel that her critisms hold little weight once she sold on her artwork to help boost sales for a large company.

[emmykit]

[emmykit]

Barbara Kruger – Untitled (I shop therefore I am)

Key words:

·      Sexism

·      Feminism

·      1960-80

·      Male Gaze

·      Advertising

I found Kruger’s work very interesting because when she produced this piece, the feminist art movement was at the end of its peak. Though there had been attempts at later revivals, the main era for feminist art was between the 1960’s- to the end of the 1980’s. A lot of feminist artist at this time looked at how the female artist was repressed, for example Guerrilla Girls who set up a campaign to make people more aware of the fact that there were minimal art works by female artists on display in some of the major art galleries and exhibitions. This piece above however seems to take a stab at the male hierarchy in all situations as it attacks the number of men in advertising and the fact they are also telling woman of the time how to think. Another thing I also think very interesting about this piece is how this concept doesn’t relate to the people in the UK today, which the artist may find a triumph or very disheartening indeed.

 Laura Maulvy wrote about ‘the male gaze’ in 1975 which talks about how the director of film will set up the shot from a heterosexual male’s point of view, thus we are seeing the world through their eyes. I have decided to look at her theories in relation to Barbara Kruger’s piece of work as I believe that this is the point she is trying to make about adverts in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Adverts of this time were mainly produced by men putting out their opinions of what women wanted, thus seeing the world through their gaze again. I’m going to use Maulvy’s theory to show that her ideas are not just about film but also relate to advertising and the inspiration behind Kruger’s piece above.  

[emmykit]

A Brief Summary

Evans and Gamman(1995), 'Woman as Objects - Feminist Critique' extract from A Queer Romance, Eds: Burston et al, Routledge London pp 17 - 20 

Keywords:

Power

Spectator

Objectification

Oppression

Representation

 This reading looks into the objectification of woman and the power roles between the surveyor and the person being surveyed. It studies the theories of feminist writers such and John Berger, Laura Maulvey, Michel Foucault and Edward Said. It talks about the relationships that the surveyor has over what it is objectifying, for example when Said’s talks about how the West view the Orient and represents it from the perspective of an outsider.  This piece starts off by looking at the objectification of woman but it then branches out to look at oppressions on different parts of society. Michel Foucault goes onto talk about how we self-survey so we are keeping in check so to conform to the masses.  

[emmykit]

What is culture?

Culture is a collection of intellectual achievements which are shared amongst a group/ community. 

[emmykit]

Marcus Harvey - Portrait of Myra Hindley. 

Background info: Myra Hindley was an infamous child serial killer and sex offender with her partner Ian Brady in the mid 1960s. She was portrayed in the media as not even being a woman as the consensus was what woman could do this to a child, it seemed unbelievable that she was lacking maternal instincts. 

Another topic that Stallabrass goes discussed in his previous mentioned text is taboos in art.  Artist are continually breaking taboos and slowly having to get more 'shocking' because the public are being more diluted to these ideas, thus the ability to shock is becoming harder and therefore artist must break new boundaries for some pieces to still be considered art. 

One of the images we looked at in our reading groups was the one above by Marcus Harvey. We questioned whether this and other art on a similar parallel should really be shown (or even created for that matter) to the public. This piece shows a woman painted with tiny child hand prints, who looks quite void of emotion and almost masculine. It was the photograph of Hindley that the papers were using at the time. Whilst I believe that art should provoke thought and make you question things I don't think pieces should be created just to be controversial. By creating this piece they have helped to make immortalise Hindley which I am sure she is someone many wish to forget. By using the child handprints to create the image of her face, it is just to provoke upset and hatred. For the members of  the families who lost their children to this woman, to see her as a work of art would be distressing and insulting. On the other hand when we think of more recent controversial pieces of art and the devastating effects it can have, like 'Je suis Charlie' everyone should be right to a freedom of speech. You should be safe in the knowledge that you should come to no physical harm from your art. Yet from Harvey's point of view I feel that if you create pieces such as this then you shouldn't be too surprised if people physically attack your work, which there have been attempts. 

[emmykit]

Marina Abramović - Rhythm 0

This is one of the most well known pieces of art that required social interaction still to this day. Abramović's social experiment looked at how people would interact with someone when they were told they could do anything to someone with the certain objects the she had supplied. 

Depending on the objects she hand put out were to either there to induce pain or pleasure- for example the honey and feather were going to create a pleasurable effect, yet the blades, guns and bullets could have potentially have been fatal if the audience had wished it so. 

The main thing I found fascinating about this piece is how the audience reacted in a strange and cruel manor towards the end of the piece, with one even placing the loaded gun in her hand. When it came to the point of accountability as Abramović's got up and ended to proformance, the people who had cause physical harm left immediately. I believe that part of them didn't seem Abramović as a person until she got up and almost became human again and that is when the realisation for these people sunk in. 

[emmykit]

Relational Aesthetics

Julian Stallabrass (2006), 'Chapter 6: Contradictions' in Contemporary Art: a very short induction (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 

'Rational aesthetics' or "socially interactive art' as it is more commonly referred to is art that requires the audiences participation for the work to be able to function. This means that is it not about the objects within the art but more about how the audience reacts to the piece itself. 

Stallabrass's extract which is mentioned above goes on to talk about this and how social interactive art can have a very different outcome to those piece that only require the audiences gaze. By making the art more intractable it can bring a sociable element to it as the audience must engage with the piece or other people around them. In an age where keeping hold of old acquaintances is easier than ever, actually socialising with the people around you is becoming more difficult. 

in this piece of text Stallabrass talks about Bourriaud, a curator of the art space Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and what art means to him. He says

'For Bourriaud, art encourages social interaction among its viewers reacts directly against a general trend to increasing social fragmentation, from ever greater specialisation at work to the tendency for people to lock themselves away in their homes in the company of media rather than other people.' 

Socially interactive art is very interesting as it can make a piece 'more organic', according to Stallabrass, with the audience almost taking on the role of the artist by ways of creating different outcomes to make the piece work. The main role of an artist within this is to provide a platform for the audience to engage with the work and break the social boundaries. 

[emmykit]

Top Image: The Tate Modern, London

Bottom Image: The White Cube, London 

I chose these two images to represent my point of how some modern museum can seem clinical and can disrupt opinions and ways of thinking. Though these images are slightly biased in aiding my opinion as one has people and the other doesn't, the white clinical walls and artificial lightings of the latter image i find very hostile and don't promote much free thinking. The Tate Modern on the other hand feels like a much more inviting environment.

[emmykit]

The Louvre, Paris.

A classic setting of how art was displayed in the 19th century, and in many museums is still displayed today.

[emmykit]

The Gallery Space

O'Doherty, Brian (1999), Notes on the Gallery Space. In: Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. London: University of California Press, pp. 13-34.

The space in which your work is displayed is very fundamental to how the work is received, but is honestly not something I have always given much thought to. After reading O'Doherty's above mentioned text really hit home how important this matter is. 

When we think of galleries today you think of open white spaces with very few items within them except the art itself. This is meant to draw your entire focus to the art work and remove as many distractions as possible. I believe this has merit, compared to ark work displayed in museums, as you are able to get up close and personal with the art work and really submerge yourself within the context and emotions within the piece. As museums still tend to have a lot of the work roped off, you feel detached from the art you are viewing which can change your opinions of the piece entirely. 

The downside I find to some galleries is they can be overly white and have such little in them they almost feel clinical. O'Doherty says:

'Some of the sanctity of the church, the formality of the courtroom, the mystique of the experimental laboratory joins with chic design to produce a unique camber of aesthetics.' 

in this statement i believe that O'Doherty is saying that these work well to create a space where art can be viewed, I agree with this but I also find that these spaces can be overwhelming. It can feel as though talking about the art in front of you would be as much of a taboo as talking loudly in a library. For art to really be appreciated I feel there needs to be open discussion about the piece you are viewing as it can open you up into new ways of seeing it. Some galleries do welcome this, where as some can leave you feeling unwelcome and inferior to the works that you are viewing and I feel as though that can spoil a piece of art. 

Displaying art has made a complete u-turn from the 19th century. An image that accompanies this text (Samuel F.B Morse, Exhibition Gallery at the Louvre 1832-33) shows how over crowded the displays were with piece on top and below them. O'Doherty suggest that art was more 'wallpaper' than individual items to look at. These busy, overwhelming exhibitions must have meant you over look a lot of the pieces. The writer mentions 'Near the floor, pictures were at least accessible ' which shows the problems that you would face with the work high up above you. Its seems now almost inconceivable that art would be displayed in this manor. 

Another thing I have never really thought in any great depth about is how a frame can completely change a painting. I know the look of the frame must compliment a painting but have never thought about how the frame can close and contain an image or the lack of frame can then transform the room into the frame of the art work. 

These are definitely things that I will take into consideration with my future pieces of work to make sure I get the most out of the space around me. 

[emmykit]

Some images taken from David Baileys 'Stardust' exhibition. I chose these because I feel that you can see that there is a love and admiration of the subject from the photographer. As a member of the audience you see how Bailey sees the subject and you almost have the same feelings toward them.