Olivia Kong

z5160651

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MY ‘NOWS’ lololol

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Experimentation - recording the moment when the word ‘now’ was spoken

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now experiment

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Artist Statement

What comes round

Olivia Kong z5160651

My artwork is a response to Gordon Hall’s essay Objects Lessons and to the ‘glitter problem’ in representing the gender fluidity of individuals through art without the use of classic imagery of associated with gender and queer artworks, thus interrogating the structuralist way we view minimalist and political art.

My work consists of a video projection on small sculptures. The video projection has two phases; the first of which is devoid of traditional queer imagery conveying the fluidity of binaries of straight and curvy, square and circles, life and death and how these meaning are made from human understandings. The second phase deals with the classic imagery of gender which morph in and out of stereotypes, the evolution of individuals and the gender symbol and the morphing of the vagina to the penis. The iconic symbols of queer art that Hall mentioned, are recognisable symbols to the art and general community and thus they can categorise immediately within feminist/queer art. This categorisation simultaneously adds and removes meaning and impact from the artwork, as the queer representation and brand only fits within these iconic symbols and colours. But as Hall explores and begs the question – is it possible to have non-representation artworks within the queer space?

The first part of the video addresses that question: a non-representation and the introduction of the fluid and cyclic nature of the real world. However, this connection to the queer community is only made by the sculptural elements and second part of the video.

The sculpture is a homage to the classic Greek ideals of beauty and art – in particular Aristotle’s school of thought and its role of art as a representation of idyllic figures and true beauty. However, both figures have their heads removed and can be used as vases instead. This is significant for the male figure – which is filled and surrounded by flowers – symbolic of life and ephemeral nature of it. The juxtaposition creates another binary with the feminine symbol of flowers, temporal and fragile against the masculine sculpture, muscular and permanent. On the other hand, the female bust has small army men surrounding her – almost as if they were guarding her or as if mobbing her (who really know) but this forms another layer of binaries between the two sculptural pieces as well as a reference to Barbara Kruger’s “Your body is a battleground”. The disparity between the natural flowers and the plastic army men figures shows two extremities in concept and materiality. Conceptually, the army men are representative of war and death, all in the murky green contrast against the colourful flowers of life and births. Using stereotypical tropes of feminine and masculine imagery, my artwork delves into the meanings of male and female and what it means to be either one.

As a whole installation, my artwork explores one more binary – the act of binaries (structuralism) in the static, historically influence sculptures against the fluid contemporary animations. This final layer examines how certain mediums can be seen as opposites and yet still complement each other to become a single piece of artwork. It infers the movement of art representation is less about the binaries and definite definitions but a conceptual world that we as artists have influence over the meaning and path that art takes in our world. While it explores the concept of nonbinaries and the rejection of binary gender definitions, it uses this dichotomy to communicate the alternate ways of approaching binaries and genders, through literal representation and minimalist non-representation. Binaries are inevitable to exist in our structuralist world as the extremities of any spectrum, but it is the recognisation that sometimes a line doesn’t exist between them.

Bibliography

Hall G, ‘Gordon Hall,’ viewed 19 September 2017.  http://gordonhall.net/files/Object_Lessons_Gordon_Hall.pdf

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Final work video work - to be projected on to sculptures (though they are tiny lol)

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Assessment 2 : Experiment 3

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Research

Object Lessons: Thinking Gender Variance through Minimalist Sculpture essay by Gordan Hall

http://gordonhall.net/files/Object_Lessons_Gordon_Hall.pdf

“Often, artwork is described as queer when it depicts LGBT subjects or figures,is produced by a self-identified LGBT person, or reference gay culture through recognisable motifs, reference, or aesthetics. I call this the glitter problem. Or the leather problem. Or the pink-yarn, 1970s-crafts, iconic-diva, glory-hole, pre-AIDS-sexuality, post-AIDS-sexuality, bodies and body parts, blood-and-bodily fluids problem.”

One of the problems that I’m facing with my work on binaries and how I’m tackling binaries is that I’m still thinking within those structuralist ideals of categorisation - even with the morphing transformative nature of animation - my two extremities are still being represented in the artwork. Like the animation/sculpture extremity which was where I had taken my work before.

The second issues is still the focus of the literal representation of gender a rather “shove down your throat” kind of message with obvious stereotypical binaries. As Gordon Hall questions;

“Can we make a space for political interpretation of non-representation ... without dicks, vaginas, menstrual blood, references to Jean Genet, cum, anus, bondage, surgery scars, reclaimed pronouns, reclamation of male/female ga(y)ze, sidelong glances..etc etc”

I’m still unsure where to take this approach of non-representation, but while binaries are fluid, changing and ever-evolving, I think the contrast and distinction is something to embrace - as a form of art that even the uneducated art communities can understand.

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Assessment 2 : Experiment 2

Animations can be seen as a binary to sculpture - both dynamic and experientially different. Potentially bringing them together more. Looking at projections on sculpture - it’s interesting to see how the projection changes how we react to the sculpture - it adds another element to it

Volumetricks, Projections on Sculpture n.d.

I had previously in high school done something very similar about shadow works - however I don’t think my sculptures are suited towards it. Here is the link to the documentation of it. I want to experiment new things and not to fall back onto what I have done previously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhm57Tn_GGk

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Assessment 1 Final Work : The Line

Both as a 2D and 3D poster

Artist Statement

The idea behind binaries is that there is a distinct line between these opposites, be it man or woman, soft or hard, straight or gay, dirty or clean, public or private, and the list goes on. However, my poster or my work questions where that line exists.

Placed within a circular format – you have the two opposite sides creating the immediate contrast, the obvious visual or conceptual binary. However, as you walk around the poster – the binaries don’t exist on their own, but as the extremities of a spectrum. Be in about gender or about colour, opacity or transparency – the line is questioned and ambiguity arises.

The circular nature of the poster is a response to the title The Line as purposefully circular to make it hard to draw the line between the binaries. The work explores the unspoken grey area between the two extremities due to our mind and language limitations. The squares represent the in-betweens that could exist in animation but not in poster – merging the extremities between the two mediums.

Reflection:

Unfortunately the reds on the print didn’t turn out as well as I hope they would and neither did the poster sit that well in a circular fashion. It was also a shame of giving up many key frames in some of the animations that I made because i didn’t want my tiles to be any smaller. 

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Final Poster Progress shots

I had to compromise how many frames i wanted unfortunately :/

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Research : The medium of a poster vs animation in the context of binaries

The poster began as one of the earliest forms of advertisement, paving the ways for visual communication in the early 19th C and soon became a staple for graphic design. Throughout history they had a vital role, particularly with political parties, propaganda, the rise of capitalism and consumerism. They usually both visually stimulating but vitally they’re used to communicate information in a convincing way. They lack contextual binaries as effective posters sell a clear distinctive message – but in their composition they have the balance between text and images and even the blurring between the two.

Contemporary artists however constantly push the boundaries of the poster – in particular DePaul and his ‘Another side’ series of posters about homelessness. The use of the corner – beyond the corner has inspired me to think about how to push the boundaries of the poster to depict the both the existence of binaries but the lack of division.

Animation – a practice that I personally am very interested in, is the binary of the poster within the advertisement industry. Rather than an individual static image – the animation can communicate a lot more with sound and time – but not necessarily better. But animation is used in all kinds of media – not only advertisement. The movie/narrative can reveal a lot more binaries – especially the blurring between two binaries.

An animator that pushes the concepts of binaries is the late Satoshi Kon’s and his fabulous works. These works explore how modern people deal with multiple lives; private/public, offscreen/onscreen, waking/dreaming, rich/poor – a blurring between reality and fantasy through his editing and matching scene transitions and how matching images would be how Kon linked between the two worlds. I hope to work between both mediums – showing the tweened frames of animation on a poster to give this blurring effect between binaries.

References:

http://www.designishistory.com/1850/posters/ - Poster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz49vQwSoTE - Satoshi Kon

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Assessment 1 - Experiment 3

“Oceans existed before they were named.

Why must your gender be any different?

Be as free as the breeze, and as relentless as the sea.

Labels come later, if you wish it.” - proudnb (Found on Tumblr) ->  https://proudnb.tumblr.com/

Aim: To animate the spectrum in between genders

Method:

Twas not easy nor did I get all the genders (SORRY FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO FIT THEM ALL BUT THERE WERE TOO MANY) as you can see below 

I first started with animating the symbols and how it would change from male to female and everything in between but obviously fitting everything in between proved to be impossible. So instead I had a little fun, with the symbol playfully evolving from one sign to another.

Then I realised - the gender symbols are just symbols - it’s easy enough to just say they exist but I thought it would be cool to put in images as the background - emphasising on the fact that all of us a humans - and the idea of gender label should only be determined by you if you want a label. 

So I got images of beautiful people online - both because they were transgender or because they had kickass hair or had fashion that I particularly enjoyed - being sure to end on the stereotypical ends of a “male” and a “female” at either end of the “spectrum”.

I DID NOT TAKE THE PHOTOS HERE ARE THE LINKS TO ALL OF THEM ARE DOWN BELOW

One particularly notable place where I found non-binary photography was Laurence Philomene’s curatorial project of a Non-Binary Photo Series.

And as a final thing i decided to overlay the animation on top - not as intention to match people to a gender label but to show how a spectrum (not necessarily linear) of humans exist.

Conclusion:

I’m really pleased with the final result and sincerely hope I didn’t insult anyone. It wasn’t my intention - but my idea is to show how binaries exist in all facets of life and we shouldn’t just see it as divisions but rather as permutations within everyone’s complex identities but fundamentally we’re all humans. 

http://www.teenvogue.com/gallery/how-non-binary-people-want-to-be-seen

https://typeset-beta.imgix.net/rehost%2F2016%2F9%2F13%2F37308b3d-3c3f-4fce-89bf-79ea4bbc3a03.jpg

http://scottchoucino.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/worker-portrait-1.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/a6/96/3e/a6963e5372f7737279bf1e4a5d803e18.jpg

https://format-com-cld-res.cloudinary.com/image/private/s--Wf1DvtT1--/c_limit,g_center,h_1200,w_65535/a_auto,fl_keep_iptc.progressive,q_95/v1/ad8f1b784a4e1507701f4b906642112e/1.jpg

http://www.thephoblographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Bruno-Massao-Street-Photography-15-of-27ISO-2501-500-sec.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7184/26995052362_6266772bf1_b.jpg

https://format-com-cld-res.cloudinary.com/image/private/s--Wf1DvtT1--/c_limit,g_center,h_1200,w_65535/a_auto,fl_keep_iptc.progressive,q_95/v1/ad8f1b784a4e1507701f4b906642112e/1.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a7/72/bd/a772bd23b212fca2a95c6700e1e47c53.jpg

http://iconolo.gy/sites/default/files/Andro33288.jpg

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/640x360/p04mysdj.jpg

http://assets.teenvogue.com/photos/59305f3e1ebfdf25984d25fe/master/w_1400,h_1000,c_limit/shahir1.jpg

http://assets.teenvogue.com/photos/59305f3ec68bb76a81eeb105/master/w_800,h_1100,c_limit/rufina4.jpg

http://assets.teenvogue.com/photos/59305f3e3d65086e960c5b6f/master/w_800,h_1100,c_limit/lux2.jpg

http://assets.teenvogue.com/photos/59305f3dc68bb76a81eeb103/master/w_1400,h_1000,c_limit/rochelle7.jpg

http://assets.teenvogue.com/photos/59305f3c3d65086e960c5b6d/master/w_1400,h_1000,c_limit/flora5.jpg

http://assets.teenvogue.com/photos/59305f3cc1c4c512bcbf0b45/master/pass/34.jpg

https://format-com-cld-res.cloudinary.com/image/private/s--Ovw1UJnr--/c_limit,g_center,h_1200,w_65535/a_auto,fl_keep_iptc.progressive,q_95/v1/bd90d6092a0409715a13caa462d85fb7/20170518-vn-UVGNC-jt-359.jpg

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*zECb-4K-bEiUZkMr.

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/06/17/jamie-shupe-2-_wide-b4c68e49e736f47d61d8fc7b7d4e93d8b7f81abc.jpg?s=1400

http://proud2bme.org/sites/default/files/rsz_sam_pic.jpghttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/30/1d/8d/301d8d98e37dd6fc447ba59ebad74c47.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/27/c0/fb/27c0fbce476c0778bba777664bc6647b--fishnet-fashion-beauty.jpg

https://broadly-images.vice.com/images/2016/11/16/the-photographer-representing-her-non-binary-friends-as-theyd-like-to-be-seen-body-image-1479304531.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/99/65/a6/9965a66a2a597fdc0adeccd92f181916.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/45/99/81/4599818ea7b5aca4ac90e6ab7754fb07.jpg

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Research - Binaries and their necessities

From the foreword of Beyond Binaries in Educational Research:

There are multiple ways of conceptualising binaries …: bifurcation, dichotomy, dualism, opposition, polarisation, and schism. This terminological complexity points to the challenges of providing a widely acceptable, unambiguous, or canonical definition…

Structuralism, often cited as founded by French structural anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, proposes how in mythical narratives, a pair of antagonist exists as a core element, and by extension how narratives reflect the way our mind think.

Narratives and stories are how we ultimately learn about the world and form the basis to our understanding of surrounding – whether these narratives are fictional, from memories (both from others and personal) or from factual recordings. And hence, with the narrative steeped in binaries then guides the human behaviour unconsciously to a gravitation towards organising concepts into binary opposites.

It is also a psychological tendency to be drawn within binaries in composition – especially when it has balance and direction. Not only does this come from the geometric projection in the human body – paired arms, eyes and legs – but how our visual art reflects the perfection of binaries.

The Creation of Adam - Michelangelo (1508-12)

The Creation of Adam is a classic example of the binary - not only visual in composition but in it’s narrative that it tells - the power difference between man and mortal and the fine but distinct line between them. 

Art has evolved from the high renaissance, and their teachings - the binaries in narratives and categorisation often examined and criticised within art, socially and politically. It has pushed moulded that binary into a spectrum, or created new extremes of their own - like the distinction between what is and is not art.

The idea of the binary is not to reject it completely - but rather observe it as a method of how our structuralism affects the way we see the world and ourselves - and rather than forcing things to enter categories, realise that there will be no one perfect way to label all systems.

The images above this post were aesthetic images I thought exploited the binary to create an interesting poster like image for further inspirations for my animations.

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Week 3 Activity

Olivia and I explored the symbiotic relationship between technology and humanity. Humans are increasing rely on technology for all forms of life and our online selves are more attached and active than our physical body. Communication in the physical is compromised when the digital becomes the first call of communication.

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Binaries around Paddington - Assessment 1 Experiment 2

Binaries exist all around us - while they can be informative – they could also be limiting in the same sense.

Aim: To create a journey of opposites.

Method: Walking around Paddington, my original goal was to take a photo, then take a photo of the closest opposite of what I could see and continue from the previous one, but that proved hard than initially thought. Certain binaries were obvious like sky/ground, urban/nature, geometric/curly, don’t walk/walk, empty/full, old/new to just name a few but I realised that for something to be the opposite of another – there must be a common category that they belonged – otherwise the binary didn’t exist.

The relationship of a binary is one that has something in common – for example colour and THEN to find opposites within that category. I thought this was an interesting observation and in my hunt for more visual binaries I decided to categorise and label my research.

Conclusion:

Binaries exist because categories exist, and hence a spectrum within that category causes the binary to form. When examining the idea of a binary – one must identify an element that is both common and opposing in order to be one.

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Experiment/Research

BINARIES :  Assessment 1 Experiment 1

The research topic that I’ve picked is topic 5:

Contemporary art and design often looks at the idea of constructed binaries, such as man/woman, soft/hard, straight/gay, dirty/clean, organic/synthetic. Considering the history of these pairs, how can art and design interrogate these binaries and offer new insights?

Practice led research:

Experimenting with symbols on what it means to be opposites/binaries - and how binaries don’t necessarily mean opposites.

What are different types of binaries in the world and how do they come across?

-          Visual binaries

o   Empty/Full

o   Horizontal/Vertical

o   Square/ Circle

o   Big/ Small

o   Dots/ lines

o   Straight lines/ scribbled lines

o   Circles/ Triangles

o   Few/ Many

o   Straight/ Wavy

o   Gradient/ Binary

o   Opaque/Transparent

o   Checker/swirl

-          These binaries were explored through my tests as seen above. I thought it would be interesting to animate them out and hence did some tests – with the black to white and how I could explore other binaries such as life/death.

-          When brought up animation to my tutor Bianca, she was unsure if it was allowed in the guidelines of the assessment to project my animation on an A2 sheet of paper and hence directed me towards working within the limitations of a having a physical poster – but bending the rules in other ways.

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Posts from here on are for ADAD1002 (and the previous one before this post lol)