Learning from the others

This week in our lecture, not only were we able to present our own finding about an artist we are interested in, we also got a chance to listen to other's presentation and broaden our horizon of understanding different arts all around the world. There are two examples of work that impressed me the most as they both leave an impact on the society in different degrees.


The first one is a Hong Kong calligraphy/graffiti artist who is well-known as the king of Kowloon. His work are just Chinese words written in a box-shape like characters telling his own story like where he lives and how he is the king of Kowloon. I am impressed by this art as it tells the history of a person living in Hong Kong over a period. It is unlike any sculpture we found in the museum that only tells a particular time's history but his work also told his family and ascendants' history and most important of all, it is deeply rooted in Hong Kong daily live and is close to Hong Kong citizens that they can reminisce their days in the past as well by just looking at his work.


Another work I liked is the mirror installation in Chicago. it is said that the mirror installation features people in Chicago smiling at each other in the park as fountains and it changes over time to feature more and more people. Apart from that, children and their families can also play in the pool inside the art installation. I think this type of installation is able to engage with the public and I think this is what makes the art successful in that it can provide people a chance to take part in the art as well as having a fun time with art.


All in all, I think what makes an art so good is not only just about its aesthetic value, but how well it is to connect with the general public, engage public's participation and as an entertainment for people to relax in their leisure time.

Performance art = crazy?

 In this week's lecture, we were taught the concept of performance art. Beforehand, I thought performing art is equal to dancing and drama etc. However, through the lecture, I was able to distinguish the difference between performing art and performance. Performance is different than performing art in that it is not dance, drama or music and it doesn't have a clear storyline like performing art does. Performance is an art type that acts as a criticism to visual art and as a protest against high art and go back to daily life.


  From all the examples shown in the lecture, most of the performance art to me was quite extreme and doesn't really have a "beauty" to them unlike paintings genre such as the surrealist or conceptual art. One of the examples left me questioning is about a guy decided to live in a closed environment like a jail for a year and had to capture his every hour's movement. Although it is understood that he wants to convey the message about "back to basic in the daily life", I think he can just propose the idea and write down all the details or just draw the pictures instead of putting himself into experiencing, or simply showing the performance in a day or two. It seems kind of crazy to me cause he is sacrificing his time and it is not a short period of time at all. As such, I think instead of committing to the whole period of time, I think he should live his life and not waste his time so he can create more art pieces as in the end, I think most people only care about the message the art brings but not the whole process.

In short, in my opinion, I think although performance art has its own value, yet, I think artists may just propose their idea and try them out as a demonstration but not committing the whole life or 16 hours sitting there without doing anything.

can the theme be conveyed?

A luxury we cannot afford, a contemporary art exhibition in Quarray Bay is said to present the different luxury Singaporean in different time period such as the 1950s and 60s the o 2000s desires. The curator first introduced to us the exhibition can be viewed in 4 main categories which are, public housing, censorship, the relationship between Hong Kong and Singapore and speculative future.  Yet, while the artwork is very informative and artistic in a contemporary sense, I find the artwork speaks more of the Singaporean life than the luxury they are aiming for in different time period and does not really echo with all the 4 categories.


  While some of the artwork really caught my eye and can convey some of the theme of the exhibition, like The Epic Poem of Malaya Project by Ho Tzu Nyen, puzzles of the pictures are distributed to the visitors and asked them to come back to complete the work showing a group of students listening to the man stating his design of a new state and decolonized Malaysia. I find this work not only can invites public participation, it also works well with the theme of the luxury of Singaporean in the early period and is about their speculative future. Or the artwork called After the Fire and Void Deck,showcases the public housing condition of Singapore and Deleted scene echoes with the theme of censorship,  yet, other artworks in the exhibition doesn't really go with the same themes and the four categories to me.


    Other artwork I find them not really relating to the topic or category of the exhibition, I find them can be viewed more as "the Singaporean life". For example, the carpets placed in front of the entrances conveys more idea about the Singaporean life than "the luxury they are looking for" or any aspect of the four categories mention. Other than that, the promotion video encouraging people to migrate to Singapore also doesn't seem to match with the theme and any part of the four categories but simply about the life of Singaporean.


  As such, although each artwork encompasses so much information about Singapore, I find the topic or title can be changed as not all of the artwork can quite echo with the topic as discussed.

Art and its space

 Unlike any types of art mentioned earlier in this blog, installation art focuses on and makes use of the space around the artwork and that is what make them so different and may bring a whole new experience which cannot be brought by typical artworks to the audience.


 Since installations is a 3-d art and not constrained to be finished by paints or brushes, one can always see some examples of installations that can escape the constraint of galleries and often they are able to use inter-media to complete the artwork.

  One of the prime example I remember from class is the pink neon light. As simple as a light, which space and where exactly it is placed can help the installation reach a whole new level. The artist would use the space closely with the installation to either convey a distinctive message brought by the relation between the work and the space or to boost the work. As in this case, when the pink neon light is placed in the corner of a blank white wall, the work is boosted as the pink light emerged from the light is more focused, visible and brighter than it is when it's hanged openly up in the ceiling. Thus, the relation between art and space is tied closely in this type of artwork and we can see how art is nondetachable from everyday life.


   Apart from using the space to help creating the art, another point I have learned about installation art is that how it can interact with the space. One of the examples is land art. Artists would choose a particular space for the installation. If the placed is changed, the meaning would also be changed and may not convey the artist's initial intention. Let's looks at the example below to discuss the point.

This picture shows an installation made by the artist Martin Hill.  A semi circular sculpture is placed in the middle of a lake and the sun causes reflection on the silver semi circular sculpture, causing it forms a colorful reflection on the sculpture and in the water making it looks like a complete circle. This artwork wants to bring out the message of the beauty of nature as well as the relationship between human and natural systems that how they can help to improve it through the way they live their lives. If the artwork is not interacting with this particular space - a lake with sun shining on top, then the other half semi-circle reflection may not appear and the whole meaning and message of the artwork will disappear.

 From using the space to help to boost the artwork to interacting with the space to convey the message of the installation, installation art is all about the space and it reminds us again of how art and life is truly inseparable.

Objects and Happenings

 In our everyday life, if someone is asked what contemporary art is, generally, they would think of some art installations, or some physical artwork. However, there's more to just physical arts and it's not just about the artists themselves. Sometimes, audience, ourselves play a big role in order for the contemporary art to be completed and what I am referring is the fluxus movement - the happenings.


   As simple as it sounds, happenings is something that happens, in the real time. It can be happened for a long period of time and artists usually use minimal events with maximum implications. The events/ happenings maybe some simple and short events. What I particularly like about this type of art movement is that it involves lots of direct audience participation. One example I found online from the website called the art story  is the artwork called Make a Salad (1962) by Alison Knowles. Just like the title, it involves audience members to make a salad by following the instructions by the artist, this is categorized as a happening but not just a follow-the-recipe-and-cook as it focuses more on the random sound created by the audience and also how certain sound is pre-scripted by the artists. It focuses on auditory component. I find this art so fascinating as it turns something that we usually do or see in everyday life to a whole new level into something more and lets us listen to something that we normally would not pay attention to. It also shows us how such small event can make us think more as an audience and this is what I believe would make happening successful.


   Another point I learned from class is "objects". Objects although seems so different from happenings for its tangible, yet, there are similarities between these two art movements. The main similarity is that both of them both provoke thoughts that is more than what you see or here. For example, for objects art, artists usually would change the function of objects, in order words, they would de-contextualize the objects such as a lobster on a phone. Things that doesn't seem to go together may create some symbol and it is for the audience's interpretation to understand what the artists are trying to say. I think this type of art is less interesting than the happenings as it involves less audience participation and sometimes it's hard to find out they symbolism behind the objects, yet, this type of art is also interesting for me as they also use the ordinary to create the extraordinary and I believe that is the essence of art.



 

Dadaism and Experimental actions

Most art we see are often pleasing to the eye in a sense that it is either colorful or beautiful and is not just something we see in random. Yet, the art movement of Dadaism, also known as Dada in short, just proposes the opposite.


   According to Marcel Duchamp, the pioneer of Dada said that he was interested in ideas, not merely in visual products. As such, Dada often is associated with the use of all material and believe all material, e.g. rubbish has its own artistic value.


   Although I don't really find the work of Dada appealed to me, I still appreciate that they use random material to create an art piece in order to convey the artists' idea. In that case, I think it is smart of the artists that they can transform ordinary objects into something more


For example,
 this is an artwork by Duchamp called in advance of a broken arm


I personally do not think this art is appealing as it is just an ordinary shove. Yet, I still appreciate the motive of the artists as we can see from the title, it means more than an ordinary shove. This lets us to take time to think what the motive the artist is and think if would it relate to us as well.




Another point I've learned in lecture is the experimental action - open work. It consists of both the composer and the performer. What I like about open work is that it is opened to "public" and it dose not have a foresee outcome as different performer can have different interpretation. Thus, this type of art can get closer to the audience as they may also become a part of the art work and can shape the artwork.


  All in all, both Dadaism and open work take artwork out from the ordinary and it serves as a reminder that art should not be bounded and anything and anyone can make an impact on art and take it to a whole new level.

Surrealism and conceptual art

 Having understood more about the concept of surrealism, not only have I learned more about this type of art, it also made me realize how surrealists have inspired different type of art as well.

  Surrealism is known as the absence of control of thought by morale or common sense or is to the true functioning of thought. To explain it simply, the art is surreal and does not occur in real life.  They can play with scale or to transform object to create imaginary reality. Like a big banana that occupy the whole room or a flying spoon. I found this art type is the most creative of all the art type as artists can really imagine the impossible and to present them in their work and sometimes such imagination may mean something and may lead us to understand the artists' true self. One of the fascinating things I found about surrealism after learning it in lesson is that, I find it has inspired many stories,films or cartoons. The element of putting the impossible into possible just works like fantasy text and arts. For example, the surrealism artwork I found online below are of the similar concepts of some fantasy films

 (surrealism)

 The exaggeration of the scale of the teapot and they are like trees are similar to the concept of the scene from the movie Dorothy of Oz which they use candy canes to build as trees

 (Dorothy of oz )

or in the story of  Dr.Seuss where the trufflar trees are all built by imagination : (Dr.Seuss)

Also , like the surrealist work below, a castle is hold by a hand in the sky, I find it similar to the concept of a Japanese carton Howl's moving castle

(Surealism)        V.S  (Howl's moving castle)

Apart from surrealism, I also learned some ideas about conceptual art. It emphasizes the intention of the artists. What surprised me about this type of artwork is that it doesn't have to have a medium, sometimes the "artwork" created in your mind can also be an conceptual art or even as shown in class the video of burning the artwork, the whole process is categorized as conceptual art because it is the intention that matters but not the final product.