Convergent Histories (Art Since 1950)

= Convergent Histories (Art Since 1950) =

Course Description
This course is a survey of contemporary art that examines the dissolution of high art (dominated by painting and sculpture) as a concept, and how media, from ceramics and textiles to photography and video, have come to contest that notion even as they aspire to it. In the process of this investigation, you will discover what makes art relevant to you? whether you plan to historicize art, create it, or make culture in another way?and to the wider world. You will be introduced to the global contemporary art world and begin to explore how art operates aesthetically, politically, emotionally, and intellectually. Through the work of selected artists, critics, historians and theorists, you will investigate a range of processes, concepts and issues that are important in world art today.

Blog &amp; Image Bank

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BOB ROSS VIDEO:



-Sylvia Srp07 20:06, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Brooklyn Museum:

I recently went to the Brooklyn Museum and I found this instillation to be very interesting. They had a lot of feminist art, but i found this one to be particularly amazing.

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/

It's called The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago and each place setting is meant to celebrate an important woman from history. I recommend you do the virtual tour if you are interested. You can see the place settings up close.

-Molly

SAND ART ANIMATION:

- I just thought this was really interesting and wanted to share. Kseniya Simonova, a Ukrainian woman, uses a light box and projector to transform her sand drawings into live animation. She draws to music and in front of audiences, turning each artistic stroke into part of her preformance. This video (linked below) illustrates the effects of the German invaison during World War II on civilians. Very moving! (I got my information from Telegraph.co.uk)

Video

- Ava

The New Vision of Photography In the 1920s and ‘30s photography was a primary vehicle of modern consciousness and a way to mirror the face of the world. However, unconventional forms and techniques developed, perhaps as a way to try and discover something of the soul of contemporary society. László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) described the abstract photograms, photomontages of fragmented images, and combination of photographs with modern typography and graphic design that flourished as a “new vision” for photography that was rooted in the technological culture of 20th century. (Abstracted from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nvis/hd_nvis.htm) László Moholy-Nagy, Photogram http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/11/euwco/ho_1987.1100.158.htm

Aleksandr Rodchenko In Russia during this “new vision of photography”, Aleksandr Rodchenko (1891-1956) used defamiliarizing devices, such as extreme up and down angles, tilted horizons, and fragmentary close-ups as part of an attempt to break old habits of perception and visual representation and to express the dynamic reshaping of Russia. (Abstracted from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nvis/hd_nvis.htm) Aleksandr Rodchenko, Pine Trees in Pushkin Park http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nvis/ho_1987.1100.5.htm

Automatism Automatism is a term appropriated by the Surrealists from physiology and psychiatry that was applied to techniques of spontaneous writing, drawing, and painting. For the Surrealists, automatism could express the creative force of what they believed was the unconscious in art. André Brenton defined Surrealism as ‘psychic automatism in its pure state.’ This automatism was ‘dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.’ The American Abstract Expressionists of the 1940s, influenced by Surrealism, introduced the appearance of automatism in their works by action painting. These artists included Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning. Action painting is used to describe styles marked by impulsive brushwork, visible pentiments, and unstable or energetic composition, which seemed to express the state of consciousness held by the artist in the heat of creation. Action painting thereby shared the spontaneity of automatism. (Abstracted from http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10947 and http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10088) Arshile Gorky, The Plough and the Song http://s3.artknowledgenews.com/files/ArshileGorkyThePloughAndThe.jpg

Franz Kline, Untitled http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Franz-Kline/Untitled-1957-Print-C10114294.jpeg

Willem de Kooning, Pink Angels http://multiuniversus.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/20dekooning20pink20angels-1945.jpg

Iconography, Iconology and Phenomenology Iconography: symbolic representation, esp. the conventional meanings attached to an image or images. Iconology: the historical analysis and interpretive study of symbols or images and their contextual significance Phenomenology: a philosophy or method of inquiry based on the premise that reality consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness. Definitions obtained from http://dictionary.reference.com/ Art historians today accept the term iconography as referring to the description and classification of images. Due to the influence of Erwin Panofsky, there is often a distinction made between iconography and iconology, with iconology referring specifically to the interpretation of images. (Abstracted from http://w3.gril.univ-tlse2.fr/Proimago/LogiCoursimage/panofsky.htm)

Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object. (Abstracted from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/) - Katy

Sol LeWitt and Conceptualism

I tried to find a good definition of Conceptual Art, which seems to be somewhat hard to define because it is not necessarily restricted to a medium, time period, or style, but is a very abstract, intellectual way of thinking about art and its purpose. Here's a paragraph from Grove Art Online that attempts to explain it:

Those who partake in this undercurrent believe that artists should examine all preconceived notions and presuppositions and attempt to expand the range of artistic activities. Consequently, their art does not always fit neatly within the existing categories of painting and sculpture. On a more abstract level, conceptual artists share an opposition to the “formalist” outlook on art, and they emphasize the continuity between their artistic activities and various philosophical, political, and sociological activities.

I think Sol LeWitt fits very well into this paradigm. Kimmelman did a good job of explaining LeWitt's desire to take art in a new direction by moving backwards, and he explains how LeWitt's art transcended the impermanence of objects by instead offering ideas and plans to be carried out at any point in time.

MASS MoCA in North Adams has a really excellent Sol LeWitt retrospective that went up in 2008 after his death and will be on view until 2033. This website, http://www.massmoca.org/lewitt/, has information about the exhibition and pictures of lots of the wall drawings that are on view. I thought it might be helpful to see how the plans can be interpreted to produce works of art.

Also: Jonathan Meese One of my favorite artists, who came to Amherst last winter and did a performance. This website, http://www.cfa-berlin.com/artists/jonathan_meese/videos/, has some videos of his work in performance, although he also works in many 2-d and 3-d media. It's hard to explain the philosophy behind his art, but he's definitely interested in the "life-like art" that Allan Kaprow describes, in that Jonathan wants to spread the dictatorship of art to the world and move toward a time when people will live their lives as art and through art, such that intermediaries like money will no longer be necessary. More on this later, but for now, enjoy watching and looking!

-Kate AUTOMATISM &amp; ZEN

In response to Katy's post of Automatism, and with relevance to Kimmenlman's chapter, "The Art of Making Art Without Lifting a Finger," I thought it would be interesting to post a definition of the Zen Buddhist tradition of meditation where, "...the Zen practitioner can celebrate, with a stillness of mind, a life of tending toward the concrete thing-events of everyday life and nature. For this reason, the Zen practitioner is required to embody freedom expressive of the original human nature. Generally speaking, Zen cherishes simplicity and straightforwardness in grasping reality and acting on it “here and now,” for it believes that a thing-event that is immediately presencing before one's eyes or under one's foot is no other than an expression of suchness..." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

In keeping with Dick Higgin's definition Fluxus as "concert's of everyday living," and Kaprow's description of the weaving of wholeness between lifelike art and 'real' life, I found a blogpost from a computer programmer who has made art that makes itself, "Without Lifting a Finger."

He describes his project: "With a simple bit of programming (I did it in Flash ActionScript) you give all the cells a shared behaviour, and then set them off on a synchronised update cycle. The final stage is observation – using our uniquely human skill of pattern recognition to look for “life like” behaviour emerging."

You can veiw the project here:

http://zenbullets.com/blog/?p=72

-Julia

ARTIST SPENCER FINCH

Relevlant to the relationship between art and the everyday, I remembered an exhibition at MASS MoCA by the artist Spencer Finch entitled "WHAT TIME IS IT ON THE SUN?" His works investigated the limits of the representation of real life experiences and events. There was a room lined with different shades of a circle of pink that he called, "Trying to Remember the Color of Jackie Kennedy's Pillbox Hat." Another, "Two Hours, Two Minutes, Two Seconds (Wind at Walden Pond, March 12, 2007)" was a semicircle of stacked fans that recreated the exact breeze in direction, duration, and intensity over the given period of time.

His website:

www.spencerfinch.com

-Julia

FLUXUS ARTIST: YOKO ONO

Perhaps, these days, more widely know as the ex-wife of John Lennon, Yoko Ono pre-Beatles was (and always has) been an avant-garde artist. She has had friendships and working relationships with many well known artists from a variety of different mediums. Her list of friends includes, but is not limited to, La Monte Young, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Ornette Coleman. Furthermore, as an activist she has come to know such people as Bobby Seale and Angela Davis.

Here is a fascinating interview of Yoko Ono by Hans Ulrich Obrist discussing art and music including her art and her music as well as her relationship with John Cage.

Also, here is a link to some of her instructional pieces.

--Taylor

ADBUSTERS MAGAZINE ON CONTEMPORARY ART

What is the New Aesthetic? and An Aesthetic Crisis articles from Adbusters.org. I suggest reading the comments people leave discussing the articles; although some comments are simply offensive, there is an interesting conversation happening between the people on the discussion board as they work with the ageless question "what is art?".

And for your viewing pleasure: Damien Hirst's work that is discussed in the adbusters article.

--Taylor

Praxis Praxis is the name of the art and performance collaboration between Delia Bajo and Brainard Carey. The two are best known for their handwritten, handmade illustrated Book of Job. They've showcased their works at PS1/MoMa and the Whitney Biennial. I came across their work because they interviewed one of the two artist's I featured in my midterm for The Brooklyn Rail. Check it out!

http://www.twobodies.com/

-Ashley O'Brien

It's All About Process

Much of the fluxus art we have been studying (such as Yoko Ono's Smoke Painting), along with the in class demonstrations (making salad, rubbing lotion on hands)have an emphasis on process rather than product. Revealing process can create meaning while revealing the artist intentions, or it can be the function of the entire work. The pictures of Andy Goldsworthy "nature work" may be intriguing, but watching his process truely is astonishing. Hopefully this will open up a new door in the brain!

-Kaitlin

Gutai group – “Pioneer of Performance Art”

The Gutai group was formed in 1954 in Osaka, Japan and created a series of works that anticipated later Happenings, Performance art, and Conceptual art. I found it very interesting that a similar development of art was happening in Japan as well as in the United States. The Guati group’s public exhibitions began almost five years before Allan Kaprow’s first Happening. Their works influenced many Fluxus artists.

Holes, 1954

Laceration of Paper, 1955

53rd International Art Exhibition “Making Worlds” – Many Photos of Gutai Pieces

- Katy

ONE IN 8 MILLION

this is an interesting presentation of different people's lives/personalities etc, its an interesting creation and a piece of art, i think. LINK: here - lucas

In Bb 2.0

I stumbled across this piece of contemporary, multi-media, interactive art by Darren Solomon that I've really enjoyed playing with. I hope you enjoy playing around with the music and videos as well! He explains his project here.

- Taylor "ARTPRIZE" EVENT IN GRAND RAPIDS

some interesting pictures of multimedia art here - lucas

Matthias Grunewald's Isenheim Altarpiece This website has the highest-resolution images of the altarpiece I could find and good details from it, as well as some commentary and history. I know I'm shortcutting the pilgrimage but I think the images are helpful. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/grunewal/2isenhei/index.html

Michael Heizer's City 38°01'48.00" N, 115°26'10.00" W If you plug these coordinates into googlemaps (make sure you're in satellite mode, not map or terrain) you can get an aerial view of City, which is still not open to the public but apparently will be finished pretty soon, rather than bulldozed, which was a danger: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/02/heizer-yucca.html

And some more pictures of it: http://webecoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/17-giant-desert-earth-mound-city.jpg

-Nate

The Group of Seven

Both Joseph Weinstein and George Swinton were influenced by Arthur Lismer, a member of the Group of Seven, so here's some more information about the Group of Seven:

The Group was formed in the early 1910s when like-minded artists in Toronto, some of whom would become future members, were working as commercial artists for the company Grip Limited. They were frustrated with the conservative and limited trajectory of art in Canada and wanted to "give expression to a national and independent artistic image through the painting of the northern Canadian landscape." They drew on aspects of late 19th century European art like post-impressionism and symbolism to create a style of simplified forms and bold colors, which countered traditional methods of landscape painting. They were not immediately well-received but achieved a preeminent place in Canadian art by the late 1920s. They were based out of Ontario, which fostered some resentment among artists working in other parts of the country, and continued to influence, perhaps oppressively, new generations of painters in Ontario. (paraphrased from Grove Art Online).

-Kate

Russian Avant-Garde Constructivism

I've been doing research on Naum Gabo and Russian Constructivism so I was excited that Rosalind Krauss highlighted the somewhat false connection between constructivism and postmodernism in her article "Sculpture in the Expanded Field." She aptly points out that although Gabo and others had used similarly geometric and industrial materials in their work, the underlying contexts and intents are completely different. Gabo sought to produce a new kind of art accessible to the public that was grounded in aesthetics and mathematics rather than politics, a direct reaction to the tumultuous political climate of Russia in the 1910s. To get a better sense of Gabo's work check out this article from the Tate that addresses Gabo's relationship to the concept of making copies, replicas, and versions of existing works: http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/07autumn/lodder.htm

Also, the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College has a really cool Gabo sculpture, and the museum is open until midnight most weeknights (except it's closed all day on Mondays). Definitely worth checking out, as is a special installation of works by Italian painter/printmaker Lino Manocci, who will be giving a free short presentation about his work this Thursday at 4:30 pm. Sorry to promote the museum so heavily, but it's a pretty cool opportunity to interact with a contemporary artist.

Here are some examples of works by the Group of Seven: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/canadian/The-Group-of-Seven.html -Kate

West 8

West 8 is a design group based in the Nethrands, and also running a firm in New York. They are an international firm, with architects, artists, engineers designers from many countries working together. They do designs and installations on many scales, but especially large scale, even city-wide, site-specific installations. Their work also includes park designs, landscaping and urban planning, always with an emphasis on site and art of place. Some really cool projects include large geometric truss-like bridges spanning remote rivers in serene settings, and a series of gigantic inflatable cows in a town in the Netherlands known for its dairy farms.



Www.west8.nl

Dan Battat

ARTIST'S WHO OCCUPY VERY VERY LARGE SPACES

"with size you get space and atmosphere: atmosphere becomes volume"- Michael Heizer

Michael Heizer's website- http://doublenegative.tarasen.net/index.html

Robert Smithson's website- http://www.robertsmithson.com/

Donald Judd's website page about the his town-size installation in Marfa, TX- http://www.juddfoundation.org/marfa.htm -Julia I found this interview with Robert Morris incredibly interesting. Not only does it focus on his individual style, but it delves into the reasoning behind his creations, and the involvement of memory in the process. I found it refreshing to hear that he doesn't imagine a certain mindset for his viewers to have while experiencing his art, and that he doesn't expect theirs to mirror his own. It was strange reading that after focusing so heavily on the original environment and placing of art throughout these last readings, yet, it was also refreshing to know some artists create solely for the experience of the viewer, in a sense anyway.

http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mitchell/Golden_Memories.pdf

Enjoy!

-Brittni Hayes

GHOSTPATROL

Ghostpatrol, a self-taught artist, works in a variety of mediums ranging from fine ink drawings to street art; however, what caught my eye was the drawings done on colored pencils that have been carved at to create a flat, circular canvas. It's difficult to explain, very creative, and definitely worth a look. This is a piece entitled "tartan overture" http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3163/2549723298_01a81fae01.jpg. To see more of his pencil artworks, look at his gallery here: http://ghostpatrol.net/galleries/artworks

--Mara Falstein

Brief Interview with Charles Simonds

"He literally immersed himself in the subject, burying himself in a pool of wet clay to get a feel for the material... A historical interview originally recorded in 1979 and re-edited in 2005."

Listen to the thought process behind this action! I wish there were more information.

[Http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$tapedetail?CHARLESSIM http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$tapedetail?CHARLESSIM]

--Callan

Nazca Lines These designs are very similar to the earth art pieces of Robert Smithson, James Turrell, Nancy Holt, Walter de Maria. The Nazca Lines are giant sketches drawn in the desert of western Peru called the Pampa Colorada. These drawings have been carved into the stone and have lasted since the Nazca Indians lived there from 200 BCE to about 600 CE. Many of the Lines include straight lines and geometric shapes that form animals, humans, and plants. The drawings are so large that they can only be seen in their entirety from the air. It is amazing that these drawings were constructed with such precision and clarity and have lasted for such a length of time. Photos of Nazca Lines

- Katy

Jacques Lacan and Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors

Kobena Mercer talks about Lacan's theory of the gaze and a little bit about the mirror stage too, this is a good website for an into to Lacan and psychoanalysis in general that has been helpful for me: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/psychoanalysis/lacangaze.html Only tangentially related, but if you're interested it's a good place to start.

That page also has an example of a painting by Hans Holbein called The Ambassadors that Lacan uses to show how the gaze works, you can see it in greater detail here: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/holbein/ambassadors.jpg.html I had no idea people were doing things like this as early as 1533. -Nate

&lt;br&gt;

Tracey Emin:

She is considered the leader of the Young British Artists, a conceptual group that roe in the 90s. The group "relies heavily on the art object for impact", using primarily found objects for their installations. Emin's provacative style breaks down gender barriers in the same manner Adrian Piper addressed race. This is seen through her piece, "My Bed", which challenges the idea of female sexuality in the art world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Bed

-Brittni Hayes &lt;br&gt;

Avant-garde Film

This is a great website with all kinds of film related articles as well as a huge collection of actual films. www.ubu.com/

-Daniel Peck &lt;br&gt;

Cindy Sherman Works

Here is one of the fantastic sources I used for my presentation on Cindy Sherman. #90 - #137 are part of the Centerfolds series, in case that is what you are looking for.

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/photography/Cindy-Sherman.html

Teching Hsieh

I first found out about Teching Hsieh through my Brooklyn-based eccentric aunt. She bought her loft from this man, who just this year exhibited his Cage Piece at PS 1 MoMa. This made me think of our class because his work directly questions the barriers placed between art &amp; life. This link is to a recent New York Times article summarizing his artistic career thus far. Check it out! He's a very existential individual...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/arts/design/01sont.html

-Ashley O'Brien

Graffiti Wall

I mentioned this in class, but I figured I'd post it here as a reminder. You should all drop by the graffiti wall next to the arts barn. It's getting torn down and reinstalled somewhere else in the near future, and someone has begun peeling the layers of paint off the wall. It looks very cool as a piece and it's also very interesting to go up close and see how thick the layers of paint are. I don't know how long it'll be up, so go soon!

Mara &lt;br&gt;

CULTURAL STUDIES aka THEORY SOUP A further comment on the formation of "cultural studies."

"The range of uses and meanings associated with the term 'cultural studies' is now so large that venturing any definition is risky. Nonetheless, I shall offer one. If we wish to find, or to produce, some common ground between the different national and theoretical schools of cultural studies that are now available, we shall best do so if we say, simply, that cultural studies is concerned with the analysis of cultural forms and activities in the context of the relations of power which condition their production, circulation, deployment and, of course, effects."

Tony Bennett, Culture: A Reformer's Science

-Sylvia

www.pipilottirist.net

Last year I went to MoMA and saw an exhibit by this artist. It was this huge room and on the walls there was this awesome video being projected. It had close-ups of this girl eating an apple, close-ups of a pig eating an apple, and then there were shots of the ground and the grass as if you were only as tall as the blades of grass. I'm trying to find the actual piece or clips or stills from it, but I cant just yet... anyway, there's the website, all the other works are pretty interesting

Brea

Canadian Photographer Jeff Wall

This is another New York Times article featuring one of my favorite photographers, Jeff Wall. I thought it pertinent to share this link because Wall states in this article that he is influenced by artists such as Carl Andre and Jackson Pollock. He is specifically affected by the size of their works and the feeling and all encompassing emotion is it supposed to evoke. He prints his work to a grand scale as well, noting that the standard 8x10 is "too shrunken".

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/magazine/25Wall.t.html

-Ashley O'Brien

Inflatable Bag Street Art

The title might sound strange, but the work is very interesting. It's by a street artist named Joshua Allen Harris who creates monsters out of plastic bags, then attaches them to subway vents in the streets of New York City where at first they look like trash, but then they become animated as subway cars speed by underneath. It's difficult to describe, but you should check out this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xCT2aTSo

Mara

Sherrie Levine Sherrie Levine is know for her image appropriation. Her best know work is from the 1980 “After Walker Evans” exhibition in which she has rephotographed famous Walker Evans photographs. She photographed the images out of an Evans exhibition catalog and then, without changing the images at all, presented them as her work. Levine said that by appropriating the images she is raising questions about class, identity, and political uses of imagery, the nature of creativity, and the ways in which context affects the viewing of photographs. Walker Evans Walker Evans was an American photographer who is best known for his work that documents the Great Depression. In photos for the Farm Securities Administration, he shows the plight of the American public during the depression as well as the landscapes and architecture around him. His photos are in black and white and are full of social commentary.

I found the idea behind Sherrie Levine's work very interesting, and here are two very interesting web sites that compare the work of Walker Evans and of Sherrie Levine. http://www.aftersherrielevine.com/index.html http://www.AfterWalkerEvans.com/index.html

- Katy

Group Material  Group Material is an art collaborative that treats the installation of art for viewing as an artistic medium. Their exhibitions brought together so-called fine art with products from supermarkets, mass-cultural artifacts with historical objects, factual documentation with homemade projects. “We are not interested in making definitive evaluations or declarative statements, but in creating situations that offer our chosen subject as a complex and open-ended issue. We encourage greater audience participation through interpretation.” Group Material’s exhibitions were intended to be forums in which multiple pointes of view were represented in a variety of styles and methods. I found a very interesting interview with Group Material.

- Katy

LYGIA CLARK

"I think my walking is wonderful, since at this moment I even don't know what comes first, if it is the art in the way of propositions, or if it is the life that, suddenly, tumbles down inside me by bringing this state of over sensibility!” Lygia Clark, January 22, 1970

I was really interested in investigating more of her work after reading Stephen Horne's piece. This website: http://www.lygiaclark.org.br/ingles3.htm# has a lot more information about her. Here, http://www.tate.org.uk/images/cms/13325w_vincent_katz_13.jpg, there is one image of her work, which I found as part of this longer article (http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue10/helio_livingcolour.htm) on Hélio Oiticica who worked in an earlier period than Clark but seems to be interesting and relevant nevertheless.

And, this is Rob Barnard's website, an artist who comes up in Lorne's article "Restless Legacies." http://www.rob-barnard.com/ Check out some great images of his work and articles of his take on the art vs. craft debate. One of the website pages says:

"There is a perception in the modern craft world that anyone interested in useful craft is some sort of neo-conservative romantic who wishes culture would revert to a pre-industrial lifestyle. He or she is considered to be out of touch with modern sensibilities and thought to be either unable or unwilling to address contemporary concerns. Critics of useful craft, however, have never really articulated what these concerns are, but instead have adopted a formula that says if an object is useful it belongs to the past and is therefore unsuitable to convey modern feelings. "

I'm interested to discuss what people think of this notion in class tomorrow.

-Kate

Life on the Global Assembly Line Ingrid Bachmann describes the deplorable conditions of textile worker in the mechanized textile mills during the Industrial Revolution. She also compares the appalling work conditions of the twentieth-century multi-national electronic industry in developing countries with the deplorable conditions of the nineteenth-century textile mills. The article Bachmann mentions is written by Barbara Ehrenreich and Annette Fuentes and is about the new industrial proletariat; young, female, and Third World. This work force is essentially the same one that powered the textile industry of the Industrial Revolution. I found the conditions described in on the Global Assembly Line’ very disturbing, but also interesting to compare to the conditions that nineteenth-century textile workers experienced.

- Katy

This site has some of Louise Bourgeois' other work, including Femme/Maison. I found looking through the "quotes" section of her link really interesting. I like the idea that she saw her mother as a 'fixer' of things and considers herself a 'destroyer' basically. I can't help but wonder if she didn't harbor some resentment toward her mother for taking on the traditional female role of 'fixer', and if seeing her mother as that had influence on her works. http://www.fantasyarts.net/bourfemme.html

-Brittni Hayes

Arborite Housedress in action!

www.fingerinthedyke.ca/arborite_housedress_mov.html

Here's an excerpt of a performance with the Arborite Housedress. If you click on "Return to Performance" underneath the video and then scroll down, you can read a little more about the performance and the artists. Actually, there are a lot of video clips of Dempsey and Millan here. Enjoy!

http://www.thataintart.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&amp;Itemid=27

Also, here is another website that you might enjoy. It's a collective of sorts of contemporary "glass artists". Most of the artists on the site either got their start in glass by, or continue to make a living by making pipes, and so this is a rather controversial bunch of artists Some of the work on the site is just paraphenalia, while some of it is more art-like or sculptural, and some of it combines the two. Some work is meant to function as parapharanelia, while some of it has no function at all. It fluctuates between functional objects, non-functional sculpture (traditional sculpture), and some artworks that are art-like because of their functionality (maybe an alternative use of function? to question function). The best work in my opinion shows hostility towards both the pipe and art worlds, and attacks social, cultural and artistic boundaries and conventions. My favorite artists are Chris McElroy, Pakoh (especially the piece "Ceci n'est pas une pipe") and Nate Purcell (goblets..oooooh, ahhhhhhh).

http://www.thataintart.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&amp;Itemid=27&amp;g2_itemId=1127

-Dan Battat

Fashion vs. Function: Avant-Gardism in Haute Couture!

http://www.ashleydlloyd.com/headdresses/personal/

This is the website of Brooklyn-based avant garde milliner Ashley Lloyd. Her hats and headresses explore the boundaries between fashion and art. When I looked closer, the reminded me of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings in the subject matter - flowers, skulls, dead plants. And she's only 22!

-Ashley O'Brien

CONTEMPORARY TEXTILES who are using the history of the medium to approach issues of gender, identity and sexuality today:

Megan Ileana: http://meaganileana.blogspot.com/

Ghada Amer: http://www.artnet.com/artist/1455/ghada-amer.html

Tracey Emin: http://www.tracey-emin.co.uk/

Lacey Jane Roberts: http://laceyjaneroberts.com/studio.html

Ali Naschke-Messing: http://www.alinaschkemessing.com/

Ari Tabei: http://www.airgallery.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.artists&amp;artistid=897

enjoy!

-Julia

'Young Archer'

- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/arts/design/06archer.html

I came upon this article in Friday's NYT, it talks about a sculpture that may or may not be a Michelangelo and the implications of authorship on 'genius' or meaning. It struck me as similar to the discussion we always seem to end up having about art-ness and the value of an art object. It mentions Walter Benjamin and his idea of the aura, which he talks about in a 1935 essay called "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," which I read in another class and which is very good. Here's the full text if you're interested: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Nate

Douglas Crimp ( things I pulled out from the reading)

Here are just a few things and people that I was unfamiliar with so I have some websites if anyone else is interested.

• Seventies Performance Art- http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/performance.htm  • http://www.walkerart.org/archive/D/A67381A4CA6C0F6D616E.htm   • http://www.jstor.org/pss/778437 - Seventies art in America • Jack Goldstein- The Official Website for the Estate of Jack Goldstein (biography page) http://www.jackgoldstein-artist.com/bio.htm

• Rotoscopy- technique of – wikipedia page… not always so reliable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping • Cindy Sherman- http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml- page from her website biography

enjoy :-)

- Emma

The Pictures Generation

I was looking around online for more information about the Pictures Generation and I came across this cool audio-visual slideshow on newyorker.com that was created last May to complement Peter Schjeldahl's review of the exhibition at the Met, “The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984.” The website is: http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/2009/05/04/090504_audioslideshow_picturesgeneration and it's definitely worth checking out.

One of the most memorable things he says in the slideshow is that the movement was the result of a generation overdramatizing their presence on the world stage, but that the artists arrived in New York in the 70s from different geographical locations and backgrounds. Therefore, although they formed a somewhat cohesive group/movement, their art did not originate from this collaboration necessarily, but rather came from their similar but distinct experiences. I think this is an important point to keep in mind as we try to make sense of the Pictures Generation artists both as a group and individually in class tomorrow.

--Kate

Hannah Wilke

Here is a site full of work by Hannah Wilke, an artist mentioned in the "Notes on Photography and Accident" reading by Moyra Davey.

Davey describes Wilke's photographic series "Intra Venus" as strong and powerful works using large scale to make a statement.

http://www.hannahwilke.com/id5.html

 

Karl Dauthendey 

This is a digital reproduction of a photograph also mentioned in the article by Moyra Davey.

Davey is intrigued by Walter Benjamin's description of the photograph and his choice to embellish upon the biographical aspect of the picture. The woman in the photograph was murdered in her home years later.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2034/2245523527_cf07f913db_o.jpg

David Octavius

"New Haven Fishwives" by David Octavius, a photograph also mentioned in the reading.

http://www.bapla.org.uk/resource/image_1244116053_fullsize.jpg

Moyra Davey

Here is a link to some of Moyra's own work. The first photograph with the refridgerator looks exactly like my fridge at home, off-white color, handle, and all.

http://theexposureproject.blogspot.com/2008/03/moyra-davey-at-fogg.html

Jack Goldstein 

A youtube video of Jack Goldstein's animation, "The Jump." (mentioned in the article "The Jump: Appropriation and its Discontents."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqwIXyqwZZg

- Ava

The MET just had an exhibit on the "Picture Generation" that ended in August. This website covers the exhibit and offers some of the images that were shown. I found it exciting to see that Barbara Kruger was featured! http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId=%7B2051df8b-82aa-4aa7-85bc-22f72de7f10e%7D -Brittni Hayes

I just stumbled upon photos of Pipilotti Rist’s work and think they are very interesting. She mostly creates installation pieces that involve photographs, audio, and video in some combination. Her work seems to connect to the readings about short films and photographs that are altered as well as the installation pieces that involve photos. I think her visuals are very creative and unlike many I have seen before. I also am very intrigued by her pieces that are best viewed lying down. The New York Times covered some of her works here. Her personal website also has some really great photos of her pieces.

- Katy

So I just came upon this article in the New York Times today, How to Conserve Art That Lives in a Lake? and thought everyone would enjoy a new view of "Spiral Jetty."

- Katy

smarthistory.org

A friend of mine shared this neat website with me that includes short videos about different periods in art history. It might be a bit too much of an attempt to understand large periods of time as cohesive units, but the parts I've looked at have done a fairly decent job at providing an overview of a certain period or topic. There are also videos where the curators discuss individual artists/works, so it could be a good source of background information in that respect as well.

Also, I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston today and was really excited to see that they have Candice Breitz's "Queen" installed as part of an exhibition called Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs. The museum does not provide a lot of information on their website about the exhibition, but here's a very brief overview: mfa.org/songs, and I think this youtube video is worth checking out as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQb4kT5Xtmc. It's a video of a public outdoor karoke party that the museum held to celebrate the opening of the installation when they projected Breitz's video onto the side of the building and then held a karoke sing-a-long to popular songs. I think it was an interesting way of taking the work outside of the museum and making it more accessible in a way, but also encouraging a video art-type reaction to the work.

-Kate

Grahame Weinbren

This is the filmmaker i mentioned in class that stores all of his work in binary. Because of this his work looks better than HD, which although being currently slated as the best video image quality availbale still is slightly compressed. Weinbren's "Limo HD" has no file compression and is honestly the crispest image i have ever seen on a screen. His website is pretty sparse but here is the link.

www.grahameweinbren.net/

-Dan Peck

Paper Tiger Television

Paper Tiger Television (PTTV) is a really awesome open, non-profit, volunteer video collective. PTTV works to challenge and expose the corporate control of mainstream media through the production and distribution of their public access series, media literacy/video production workshops, community screenings and grassroots advocacy. PTTV believes that increasing public awareness of the negative influence of mass media and involving people in the process of making media is mandatory for their long-term goal of information equity. I found their site really interesting and thought that anyone who is interested in mass media might enjoy as well!

- Katy

Art Meets Computers Meets Robots http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/golan_levin_ted2009.html

This is a neat talk by a guy from Carnegie Mellon who works in digital media to make some pretty awesome interactive pieces. He ties right into our readings on new media as a contemporary pushing the limits of art and technology. It's definitely cool to see some of the things that computer technology makes possibile for the artist. Also, when you watch the talk, watch out for a section about the "Er Sonata," a 30 minute poem written in absolute and utter nonsense. One of the pieces involves a computer generated live stream of subtitles accompanying a master reciter of the sonata (hilarious!).

Dan

Dan Sandin

I was really interested in Dan Sandin's work on the Image Processor machine, and I found out that not only did he publish the instructions to his design (which could be completed using commonly available electrical parts) but he and his staff also hosted these "fix-it parties" when they would help other artists fix their broken modules. I think these events reflect Sandin's total dedication to making the medium accessible to everyone, which I find admirable in the context of Youngblood's discussion of the possibility of a revolution spurred by universal access to these technologies.

This is a cool site with lots of information and a cool video that shows Dan Sandin demonstrating the potential of his machine, both in black and white and in color. Check it out: http://www.evl.uic.edu/core.php?mod=8&amp;type=1&amp;indi=7

Kate

Toni Dove: Here is media artist Toni Dove's website. I'm doing my artist presentation on her tomorrow, and though I initially didn't find her work that intriguing, after browsing through her site I found myself immersed. She is an amazing representation of the kind of interactive art mentioned in the readings, and a great example of how media has the ability to transcend the traditional confines of 'art.' I would recommend looking at the longer clips of "Spectropia," keep in mind, however, the video will not give the full effect of seeing it performed live, because any manipulation to the characters, environment, etc. was prerecorded. http://www.tonidove.com/sp1.html

Brittni Hayes

Liu Bolinthe

This guy is amazing; he's called "The Invisible Man" and paints himself so that he blends into his surroundings. You've got to see this:

http://v1kram.posterous.com/liu-bolinthe-invisible-man

-Mara Falstein

The Spiral Jetty And Conservation Efforts

Everyone remembers the readings about the earthworks, I'm sure. We often talked about Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty." Recently, the New York Times had a piece about how to conserve the jetty. The author of the article suggests that Smithson would have been happy to see the natural changes that have occurred in the piece over time. Nonetheless, the article also points out that, "it is less clear what he would have thought about changes wrought by visitors to the remote site, who have, at times, carried off some of the rocks as art souvenirs. Or moved them to construct their own tiny spiral jetties nearby. Or, in one case, used them to spell out what they were undoubtedly drinking at the time — “BEER” — in the pink-hued sand next to the earthwork."

[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/arts/design/18spiral.html?ref=design Read the article "How to Conserve Art That Lives in a Lake?" by Randy Kennedy!]

-Taylor

Between the Folds

I was listening to NPR and heard a bit about a new documentary called Between the Folds that is about origami. There is a short clip of the film at the NPR website, along with some amazing photos of origami works. Watching a square of paper be folded into such amazingly intricate pieces is crazy. These pieces combine math and science, and although they do not incorporate new computer technology, use some of the same ideas that were brought up in the digital media and computer visualization readings and work to push at the physical limits of paper. You should really check this out!!

- Katy

Subway Installation- Masstransiscope

Created by one of Hampshire's own professors Bill Brand.

Interview and demo.

kidontology.com/2009/07/02/masstransiscope/

Bill's website.

www.bboptics.com/masstransiscope.html

--Dan Peck

More information about Michael Heizer

I also found some more information on a Land Artist that Kimmelman wrote extensively about it "The Art of The Pilgrimage." This website, http://doublenegative.tarasen.net/index.html was not written by Michael Heizer himself (he's the artist constructing "City" in super rural Nevada), but the author seems quite competent and cites all of his sources. One of the interesting quotations I found on the site was a statement by Heizer in reference to "City:"

"I'm building this work for later. I'm interested in making a work of art that will represent all the civilization to this point."

I think this is an interesting goal to keep in mind as we discuss convergent histories today and how to encompass perhaps "all the civilization."

Additionally, this is the Black Audio Film Collective's website: http://www.blackaudiofilmcollective.com/ which includes a "filmography" section with information about each of the films, for anyone who's interested in learning more.

The Exploratorium's "Tactile Dome"

In San Francisco, there's a museum called the Exploratorium, described as a museum of "science, art, and human perception." I went on field trips there when I was younger, and some of the interactive video installations during presentations today reminded me of exhibits that I'd seen there. Many of their exhibits join together art and science in a really interesting way. One of my favorite parts is the tactile dome, a chamber full of pitch black crawl spaces filled with lots of different materialls created with the purpose of artificially heightening your sense of touch in order to perceive the world around you. It's wild; click here to take a look: http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/tactile_dome/press_release.html

Also, just click on the upper left corner to head back to the Exploratorium homepage to learn more about the museum in general. I'd highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in San Francisco!

--Mara Falstein