COFA1002

Mia Day

[1002milledge2014]

Design, Media, Art research links here

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-XaOV1khHd2zsYxwGgyDug1gxgCn6f44Y-xDrjMLBLU/edit#gid=0

[mday-cofa1102]

GLITCH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0FsF_bRcd8&list=UUxPTr3tHDrfi0Cbs_gSFE7w

[mday-cofa1102]

ASSESSMENT 2

Concept Statement and Bibliography

Final Work

Process

Research + Brainstorms

Class Themes in My Work

[mday-cofa1102]

Influences: Class Themes

Week 1 - Practice-led Research Testing approaches to my work through experimenting with materials and methods, working out what looked good and what didn't work, developing the work through that. I had 3 different ideas for this project and chose one based on the material tests I did, which was doable and more effective, and which communicated my ideas and research on desire the best.

Week 2 - Convergent and divergent thinking I looked at many different sources to inform my project and understanding of desire, going off on a tangent really with the idea of the kiss. At the end of my research I drew it all back to relate my ideas to the question of desire, in order to communicate a clear message.

Week 3 - Affect and body politics Alot of my research on lipstick and kissing had a feminist edge, and I discovered that beyond the Western media ideology of kissing, there was alot of political and socially constructed ideas around it that were different for every culture and context. In my actual practice too, using my body as the artist's tool was an ideological and political choice, trying to evoke a personal response from the viewer but also in reaction to the research I was doing, all about the kiss as a symbol of male domination, I wanted to take that power back.

Week 4 - Alien methods After studying Felix Gonsalez-Torres and alien methods in class, I really wanted to take my practice and my work that one step further into something I'd never done before. In the practice of using my mouth to make the artwork, I felt really weird doing it but it made the work have more impact I think and was interesting to try an alien method for a radical effect.

Week 5 - Desire My research question was on desire, so my whole project relates to it. My own personal desire was to get a personal reaction from the viewer in relation to their understanding of the practice of kissing and their own desires that arise from that based on their culture and the social constructs that revolve around that.

Week 6 - Context and time I focused heavily on this in my project, researching the meaning and practice of the kiss throughout different times, contexts and societies. I explored it in my work, wanting to get that personal response because every person will have a different understanding, ideas and connotations around the practice of kissing based on their cultural context. For example, in my Western culture in 2014, practices of public affection like kissing are widely accepted. A hundred years ago when Klimt's Kiss was painted the artist was accused of flagrant eroticism and was in trouble with the law. Similarly, in present day India, public affection can be a criminal offence and kissing in public is still considered taboo.

Week 7 - Value The value in my work I think is in the time, effort and technique I put into it as the artist, and the personal mark of authenticity of my unique lip print. In materiality, it wouldn't be considered valuable I don't think, as tissue paper is very cheap and lip makeup products cheap and widely available in our society. How others would judge my work on its value I'm not sure, in cost its almost worthless, but in the artist's work and as a unique print perhaps is where the value lies.

Week 8 - Uncreativity I looked at examples of appropriation, pastiche and parody as research throughout the project, eg. the use of Klimt's Kiss in popular culture. I did use ideas from other artists like Natalie Irish for my project, but I wanted to make it my own whilst taking ideas and shortcuts I suppose so I wouldn't have to experiment with every single thing I thought of to see if it would work. We were required to have a bibliography for all our sources, but if I was doing the rebellion question I totally would've left things uncited. I had quite strong authorship in my work because its DNA really, but from looking at the work it doesn't relate to a particular author immediately, and could be considered ambiguous. My work is all about culture and context, so the idea that uncreativity is essential in art because all art is not without the artists context and we build on existing social structures I think is important.

[mday-cofa1102]

FINAL WORK - ASSESSMENT 2 Mia Day, 2014. Mouth to Mouth Lipstick and lipgloss on black tissue paper, installation. 50 cm x 264 cm

[mday-cofa1102]

Experimenting with the display of the work. Installation, wall hung, on the floor? After looking at the wall hung option I thought it was boring and didn't really let the viewer experience the work on a deeper level.

Placed on the floor in an orderly fashion was okay, the light played nicely with it and it seemed more involved to be looking down and into the work to experience it.

However my choice was to go with a rolled, messy display on the floor where the audience can be tactile with it, unroll and stretch to view every lip print in detail, and be absorbed by the work.

[mday-cofa1102]

After experimenting with several different materials for effectiveness, I decided on black tissue paper. I scrunched and flattened each sheet a few times to achieve the textured look, in order to catch different lights and add complexity to the work.

I then used three different lip glosses and a lipstick to make the lip prints (it actually really hurt my lips after a while). Each colour and texture created a different look of the prints, and gave a different effect in different lightings.

I would've done several hundred at least I think, the total area of the work was 2.6 x 2 metres and they're evenly distributed every couple of centimetres. I'm an artist not a mathematician...

There wasn't a great deal of technique or variation in this process, but that was what I was going for, a repetitive nature to the work.

[mday-cofa1102]

Concept Statement

Concept Statement

Exploring questions and ideas around desire, I created an artwork that I could explore these concepts whilst also experimenting and developing my practice. I began my research initially thinking of desire in terms of consumerism and sexual desire, and how these interplay in our culture. Focusing on the iconography of lips in popular culture, media and advertising in the last 60 years, I drew my inspiration from Pop art images and makeup shots. I was interested by the idea of lips and lipstick as a symbol of femininity and sexual desire in the media and arts, and thinking critically of how to explore this in an artwork, came to the idea of lipstick and makeup as a material and the artist’s body as the application tool, rather than a brush or drawing equipment. I then focused on how other artists and practitioners use their body and unconventional materials to create works, such as Mithu Sen, Natalie Irish and Maria Anwander, who all use their bodies and makeup materials to create works for various purposes. For example, Mithu Sen creates abstract sculptures from medical materials such as dental polymer, her own hair and blood, to explore her position as a female and a feminist in modern Indian culture. The use of the artist’s lip prints as in the case of the latter two artists mentioned interested me, it seems to draw the audience in on a personal and relational level. Expanding on my ideas of the kiss, I did some reading on the meaning of kissing in different cultures, contexts and times, and looked in detail at the reactions surrounding Gustav Klimt’s ‘Kiss’, how reactions to this work have changed over time and how this work is now widely appropriated. From this I really broadened my understanding of the cultural practice of kissing in different social contexts; the meaning and practice of kissing is linked to broader social issues of identity, issues of age and gender expectations, as well as power relations in both personal, sexual contexts and public, political contexts, and I therefore began to think outside the framework of mass media and the sex industry, and into broader social conditions. 

I therefore based my artwork around the practice of the kiss and the ideas surrounding it in cultures, personal desires, and desires conditioned by mass media and mass culture. Using lipstick and lipgloss, I made hundreds of individual lip prints on tissue paper, which were then bonded together and rolled together to form a kind of scroll or installation piece which the viewer must individually unroll to examine the contents. As quite an opaque work with a repetitive nature to it, I felt the viewer needed to interact with the artwork in order to experience its meaning, and explore what it means to them subjectively. For me, the work represents the social and cultural constructs that define our desires; in regards to the kiss, a desire for affection, love and sex, or a deeper desire for respect and essential human connection. The ideas around this are very dependent on the audience’s context; a Western audience that revolves around media and consumerism, with relative public sexual freedom, will take something different from the work than for cultures outside my own. For example, in India, public displays of affection are still largely taboo and can even warrant arrest. By making this work using my direct body interactions and a mixture of foreign materials, I aimed to evoke a feeling from the viewer. Making the prints on black tissue meant they become slightly opaque and depending on light conditions have different levels of shine, and when all prints are visible it’s quite a confusing and complex layering of prints, inviting the viewer to reflect on their own experiences and desires to create their own meaning, emphasising the complexity of our own desires and how social context and cultural expectations intrinsically link to our desires.

----------------------

BIBLIOGRAPHY Books:

Belton, Dr Robert; Belloli, Andrea; Holubizky, Ihor; Kelly, Dr Julia; Mackay, Dr James; Matar, William; Middlemost, Tom; Zaczek, Ian; O’Mahony, Dr Mike; Pickeral, Tamsin, and Kerrigan, Michael. World Art: The Essential Illustrated History. London: Flame Tree Publishing, 2006.

Journal Articles:

Richard Hawley, “‘Give me a thousand kisses’: the kiss, identity, and power in Greek and Roman antiquity”, Leeds International Classic Studies 6.5 (2007): 14.

Websites:

BBC News. “India couple’s kiss ‘not obscene’.” Last updated February 3, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7866478.stm

David Richard Gallery. “Jean Wells: Re-Pop.” Published December 14, 2010. http://www.davidrichardgallery.com/Exhibit_Detail.cfm?ShowsID=58

Lee Ann Norman. “Mithu Sen: Life as medium: Physical and conceptual notions of the body, sexuality, and identity.” Published on August 26, 2014. http://bombmagazine.org/article/1000202/mithu-sen

Le Mole. “A Tribute to Gustav Klimt: Art Inspired by the Kiss Painting.” Published on July 14, 2012. http://molempire.com/2012/07/14/a-tribute-to-gustav-klimt-art-inspired-by-the-kiss-painting/

Maria Anwander. “The Kiss.” Published 2010. http://www.maria-anwander.net/work.php?id=20

Natalie Irish. “Natalie Irish Presents… ‘The Art of Kissing’: X.” Accessed on September 5, 2014. http://www.natalieirish.com/Home_Page.php

Saylor Jones. “A multifaceted art exhibit meriting the 'visions' in its name.” Published December 9, 2011. http://crosscut.com/2011/12/09/arts/21556/A-multifaceted-art-exhibit-meriting-visions-in-nam/

Time Magazine. “Syrian Artists Pays Homage to Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss”. Published on February 6, 2013. http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/06/syrian-artist-pays-homage-to-gustav-klimts-the-kiss/

Uncultured Magazine. “Megan Cooper- Cheap.” Published February 2014. http://unculturedmag.tumblr.com/post/75489213845/megan-cooper-cheap

[mday-cofa1102]

Lesley Dill

Lesley Dill’s Poetic Visions: from Shimmer to Sister Gertrude Morgan.

"Dill’s craft is amazing. You can’t tell what things are made of, which adds to the sense that, like faith itself, we just don’t know. Her deft use of materials, such as Tyvek, metal foil, organza, glass, steel, paper, and ink, allow her great freedom."

Sister Gertrude Wedding Dress (2010, assorted fabric, 74 by 74 by 72 inches). An installation inspired by the late folk artist, preacher, and New Orleans phenomenon, Sister Gertrude Morgan, guided by the fact that Morgan believed she was God’s bride.

http://crosscut.com/2011/12/09/arts/21556/A-multifaceted-art-exhibit-meriting-visions-in-nam/

Inspiration for how an installation piece can draw the audience in and communicate a theme. Use of unusual and unidentifiable materials is also interesting and a device to provoke thought from the viewer.

[mday-cofa1102]

Final Idea

Working on ideas of love and sexual desire connected to and as a social and cultural construct, and dependent on a certain context (for me, Western media and consumer culture), I’m going for a lipstick and lipgloss oriented artwork based around the practice of ‘the kiss’. Using a black background with a light source either behind or in front of it will make the work opaque and reflect the shine and moisture of the built up lip prints, emphasising the complexity of our own desires and our social context and expectations. I’m planning to build up the prints, I wanted to do exactly one thousand and play with that idea of numerical and quantitative measure, that might detract from the message though.  Overall though I’d like to make it with an element of opacity and confusion, and make the viewer think and reflect on their own experiences and desires to create their own meaning, although the artist’s statement will influence that.

[trevcofa]

Week 7: Value Class Task

Exploring the concept of value in artworks.

What something important/valuable?

We attached a Nike logo and Apple logo to random items and the items seem more important. We also attached a price tag of $10,000 and placed the items on a plinth.

The non-valuable items were rubbish paper randomly placed on the table. As well as a wallet with no money, losing it’s purpose.

[mday-cofa1102]

Brainstorm of how I'm going to move forward with Assessment 2, I feel like I'm in a bit of a stalemate with my ideas right now. My original idea after further research feels too pedestrian, I feel like I need to make it deeper and more complicated to reflect how I feel about my research question and focus now.

[mday-cofa1102]

Cultural Context of 'The Kiss'

Notes from 'Give me a thousand kisses': the kiss, identity, and power in Greek and Roman antiquity. Richard Hawley, article in Leeds International Classic Studies, Vol. 6, No. 5, 11. 2007 The kiss has different meanings in different social contexts, and a wide range of meanings within one society.

The meaning and practice of kissing is linked to broader social issues of identity, issues of age and gender expectations, as well as power relations in both personal, sexual contexts and public, political contexts. -A kiss of greeting of farewell in a social context and within extended family groups. -it defines various identities; parent and child; class; family and stranger -kiss of self-love or desire/obsession with looks; eg. Narcissus kissing his own reflection as a young boy -kissing a statue or amulet for luck; religious piety and superstition -kiss of lust or sexual desire; in classic Roman/Greek context the man dominates the woman, marking victory or domination, “women love to be forced”, or if the female is the active kisser she was considered immoral, “Aspasia bore a prostitute’s name. It means ‘the kisser’ and was shared by other women of the profession.”

It acts as a symbol of non-sexual affection, for example within families, of sexual lust and desire, but with different emphases dependent on gender and status, and of power relations, both personal and institutional. In addition it can echo social attitudes towards race, respectability, and age.

Acts of respect or of general affection?

"male fantasy sees an active female kisser as an active erotic agent, and thus alluring and potentially open to other sexual activity." Sexuality, misogyny, stereotypes on gender.

Ovid’s elaborate description of Narcissus’ obsessive self-love reaches its peak when the young boy kisses his own reflection. Self love + obsession with looks.

From this article I broadened my understanding of the historical context outside my own cultural perspective on the practice of kissing. I was really only focusing on heterosexual notions of sexual desire, but this reminded me that even in my culture, outside media representations, kissing extends far beyond those limits, into family and friends as a sign of affection, as greeting and farewells, and of respect for elders.  However, predominantly in popular culture and media, lips and kissing are regarded and remind one of sexual desire, lipstick of femininity and sexual attraction and focus on looks.

[mday-cofa1102]

Experimenting with materials: Using lipstick and lipgloss, I tested a range of different surfaces for kissability, including al foil, paper, crepe paper, cardboard, plastic and newspaper. I also was thinking about using glass but I didn't have the funds for that. I think the prints showed up best on the black, white and crepe paper. It took about 5 prints before the lipstick would wear off, and maybe only 2 for lipgloss. The fade out effect is interesting though, and even just a very faint print is mysterious and intriguing. I'm looking forward to taking this further on a larger scale.

[mday-cofa1102]

Gustav Klimt

The Kiss (Lovers), 1908–1909 Oil and gold leaf on canvas 180 x 180 cm

"Klimt's style was a compelling blend of Art Noveau and Symbolist elements. From the former, he derived his taste for sinuous, decorative lines, while from the latter he borrowed his erotic subject matter and, in particular, his interest in the theme of the 'femme fatale'. It was this blatant eroticism which troubled the authorities, though it did not seriously damage Klimt's career." (From "World Art: The Essential Illustrated History", Flame Tree Publishing, 2006.) I love Klimt's style, his use of luxury materials like gold leaf, reminiscent of the Byzantine era, his imagery, and depiction of love and desire. Although in his time it's interesting to find that he was criticised and even in trouble with the law for 'eroticism', the legacy of the work has taken on a different angle I feel. I also like the combination of the perfect square and large scale he's got going on.

[mday-cofa1102]

Natalie Irish

Norma  Lip Print

  Influence  Lip print

The King  Ink and Thumbprint

"When I was in high school I learned about the technique of making portraits with thumbprints," says Irish on the origin of her method. "In 2001, I was putting on makeup to go out one night and see a band. I blotted my lips on a bit of tissue and got the idea of using lips in the same way as the thumbprints, in the spirit of pointillism. Marilyn Monroe was, of course, the perfect candidate."

The art of kissing... Every kiss counts.

She goes the extra mile to make sure her paintings are as personal and intimate as possible, and she does that by using her own lips. She has rapidly become one of the brightest shining stars on the scene with her Lip Art, and people are lining up to get a peek at what she does and to possibly purchase some of her intimate paintings.

By varying the pressure of her kisses on the canvas she is able to create astonishing paintings.

"I feel that it is a very feminine process. Some of my most recent subjects led very tragic lives, I hope that the intimacy of kissing someone's face speaks to that."

http://www.natalieirish.com

A very interesting artist in terms of practice. When you think about it it's pretty unhygienic, but it creates some interesting works. I think I would like to work with lipstick, not creating imagery like this though, just doing repetitive symbolic lip prints.

[mday-cofa1102]

Tammam Azazam

Tammam Azzam, a Syrian-born artist who lives and works in Dubai, digitally superimposed Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss on a photograph of a bullet-ridden wall in an unidentified part of Syria. That image, titled Freedom Graffiti, has gone viral, with over 21,000 people sharing it on Facebook since London’s Saatchi Gallery shared it on Feb. 1 (2013).

Freedom Graffiti is part of a larger body of work Azzam produced in response to his country’s struggle, titled ‘Syrian Museum’. The digital artworks play on other iconic paintings from artists such as da Vinci, Matisse and Picasso set against images of a Syria in ruins. One of the other works Azzam has manipulated is Spanish artist Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808 – a painting illustrating the execution of Spanish resistance fighters by Napoleon’s troops during the Peninsula War. Speaking with Swide Magazine, Azzam says the work is about showing that “Syria is living the Third of May every day and no one stops it.”

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/06/syrian-artist-pays-homage-to-gustav-klimts-the-kiss/

Appropriation, digital media, a powerful message to communicate to people. The use of social media in propagating art and images is interesting at the moment too. I like this artist's exploration of medium and message, and his desire to raise awareness for an ignored cause.