Week 5 - Kehinde Wiley

Last weeks ALVC class focused on the Post Modern them "Intertextuality", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 44 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley. How do we make sense of his Kehinde's work? Identify intertextuality in Kehinde's work?


Kehinde's work relates to this weeks Post Modern theme "Pluralism" re-read page 50 and discuss how the work relates to this theme?


Kehinde's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies, colonization, globalization, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview.



1 Intertextuality is, thus, a way of accounting for the role of literary and extra-literary materials without recourse to traditional notions of authorship. It subverts the concept of the text as self-sufficient, hermetic totality, foregrounding, in its stead, the fact that all literary production takes place in the presence of other texts; they are, in effect, palimpsests. For Roland Barthes, who proclaimed the death of the author, it is the fact of intertexuality that allows the text to come into being: Any text is a new tissue of past citations. Bits of code, formulae, rhythmic models, fragments of social languages, etc., pass into the text and are redistributed within it, for there is always language before and around the text. Intertextuality, the condition of any text whatsoever, cannot, of course, be reduced to a problem of sources or influences; the intertext is a general field of anonymous formulae whose origin can scarcely ever be located; of unconscious or automatic quotations, given without quotation marks. ("Theory of the Text" 39).
Intertextuality refers to the way that any one text is influenced, or made up of a variety of other earlier texts. As a result, the notion of intertextuality suggests that whenever we try to make sense of a text we are constantly referring back to our understanding of its influences to help us understand it.The work relates to intertextuality in the way it is a representation of an earlier style of painting, thought the subject matter has changed over time, the some aspects still stay the same.

Kehinde Wiley’s works reference specific paintings by Titian and Tiepolo, but he incorporates a range of art historical and vernacular styles in his paintings, from the French Rococo to the contemporary urban street. Wiley collapses history and style into a uniquely contemporary vision. He describes his approach as “interrogating the notion of the master painter, at once critical and complicit.” He makes figurative paintings that “quote historical sources and position young black men within that field of ‘power.’” His “slightly heroic” figures, slightly larger than life size, are depicted in poses of power and spiritual awakening. He deliberately mixes images of power and spirituality, using them as a filter in the portrayal of masculinity. Kehinde Wiley’s exhibition Infinite Mobility recently appeared at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

Kehinde's work relates with the theme 'pluralism'. The meaning of Pluralism is that refers to a single social and cultural group and thus opened the doors to a greater representation of contemporary visual culture from other cultural and social groups. In Kehinde's work there are different cultures . For example, he add African style pattern in his work. That's why I think Kehind's work relates to the 'PLURALISM'.

2 The paintings baldly appropriate portraiture from the past, and juxtapose this appropriation with embodiments of an American culture that is usually represented by images that inspire fear, danger, and anger. The portraits are political, but contain humor and empathy at the same time. Wiley appropriates images from old world Western realism, and recently from political posters, and juxtaposes them with ornamentation, pattern, and hip hop fashion, a process DJ Spooky describes as “Sample: Cut, Paste, Repeat.”


Wiley’s initial artistic project was simple, and elegantly defiant. He asked young African American males to model for him in his studio. He then had them look through art history books and assume poses from historical portraiture. He would then photograph them and paint their portraits as those icons of art history. Black American youth replaced European princes and kings, and African Americans became retroactive subjects for iconic historical paintings.

Reference:

http://anthemmagazine.com/story/Q-A-with-Kehinde-Wiley

http://www.deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=11

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~desing/ART/NAB/PluArt.html

Week 4- Anish Kapoor

1.Research Kapoor's work in order to discuss the ideas behind 3 quite different works from countries outside New Zealand.


Cloud Gate is first public outdoor work installed in the United States. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives. Kapoor's work is frequently simple, curved form, monochromatic and brightly colored. The intention is to engage the viewer, evoking mystery through the work is dark cavity, awe through its size and simple beauty.
Anish Kapoor has won a commission to design a 115m high public artwork at Olympic Park in London, to be built as part of London’s Olympic Games in 2012. The sculpture, called ArcelorMittal Orbit, has been designed in collaboration with structural engineer Cecil Balmond of Arup. The structure seems to be a mix of a roller coaster and the Eiffel Tower coming to life. The mind-blowing sculpture will stand 377 feet (115 meters) tall and will be made of a spiraling lattice of tubular steel. It will stand taller than the Statue of Liberty and slightly shorter than the Eiffel Tower.

Shooting into the Corner" consists of a cannon developed by Kapoor together with a team of engineers. A pneumatic compressor shoots 11-kilogram balls of wax into the corner across the room; all in all, 20 tons of wax will be "fired away" throughout the exhibition run. Loud aggression on the one hand and silent growth on the other give the piece tension, sensuality, and compelling power.


2.Discuss the large scale site specific work that has been installed on a private site in New Zealand.


The sculpture was fabricated in Ferrari 1302-S series PVC fabric in a deep red custom color. Two identical structural steel ellipses support the fabric span of 280′ with a self-weight of 16,000 pounds. The major axis of the ellipse is 80′ and minor axis 40′, with each ellipse weighing 95,000 pounds. The ellipses are orientated one horizontal and the other vertical. Thirty-two longitudinal mono filament cables provide displacement and deflection resistant to wind loads while assisting with the fabric transition—from horizontal ellipse, to a perfect circle at midspan, through to the vertical ellipse at the other end. The sculpture, which passes through a specifically cut hillside, provides a kaleidoscopic view of the beautiful Kaipara Harbor at the vertical ellipse and the hand contoured rolling valleys and hills from the horizontal ellipse.
The structural goal was to design an end-supported horizontal tension membrane structure capable of withstanding the high topographical terrain exposure coefficients integrated by wind from the Tasman Sea. A significant design consideration was to ensure stability of the fabric structure under all load conditions and material creep over time, to prevent fatigue failure of the fabric and cable connection to the ellipse and to the foundation.
(http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/kapoor/default.htm)

3. Where is the Kapoor's work in New Zealand? What are its form and materials? What are the ideas behind the work?


Installed in New Zealand on the private art park known as "The Farm" and owned by New Zealand businessman and art patron Alan Gibbs.


4. Comment on which work by Kapoor is your favorite, and why.


Anish Kapoor has received a commission to construct The ArcelorMittal Orbit in London’s Olympic Park, continuing his successes in London following a 2003 Unilever installation in the Tate Modern and a 2009 show at the Royal Academy.
The sculpture will be made of tubular steel and will be the tallest in the UK, rising to a height of 115 m- 22m taller than New York’s Statue of Liberty. There will be a special viewing platform near the top, allowing tourists to see spectacular views of all of London. It is already being considered the monument of the Games for the East End.
This is my favorite sculpture from Anish Kapoor may be because of her interesting shape. It looks like something unreal which came up from a dream.

Week 2 - Hussein Chalayan

1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) and Burka (1996) , are often challenging to both the viewer and the wearer. What are your personal responses to these works? Are Afterwords and Burka fashion, or are they art? What is the difference?
Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion?

- Twice awarded Designer of the Year, UK native Hussein-Chalayan doesn’t have the typical background you’d come to expect of a fashion designer. In fact, he’s a tech geek who’s translated his knowledge into fashion and that certainly comes across in his unique designs.
It’s probably pretty clear that the innovative designers unique fashion items span both worlds; not only are they fashion, they are furniture too! The idea of Chalayan’s “Afterwords” exhibit which features the wearable, portable architecture, is that fashion-forward designs can be found anywhere at anytime. Take the chair covers that are transformed into modern dresses, or the cutting-edge table that also doubles as a skirt.
In Burka he shows a social conscience absent elsewhere in the fashion industry: Naked models wearing dresses based on the traditional Islamic chador, as a comment on the treatment of women in Muslim societies.

2. Chalayan has strong links to industry. Pieces like The Level Tunnel (2006) and Repose (2006) are made in collaboration with, and paid for by, commercial business; in these cases, a vodka company and a crystal manufacturer. How does this impact on the nature of Chalayan’s work? Does the meaning of art change when it is used to sell products? Is it still art?

- Hussein Chalayan has teamed up with level vodka to produce in his installation. 'The level tunnel' is a 15m long, 5m high installation that can be experienced from the exterior or blindfolded on the inside. Chalayan has developed an experience of the senses, working with a number of different materials as well as playing with scent, touch and sound. The viewing is blindfolded and led into the installation, where they are confronted with sound created by a flute made from a vodka bottle. Further on, a breeze carries the scent of lemon and cedar as the visitors moves along the leather coated railings. a heart monitor is fitted onto the visitor and a display on the outside projects their heartbeat to external viewers. Repose is art installation comprised of two elements that communicate with each other. An airplane wing is suspended from a wall, its large wing flap moving slowly up and down to reveal a long strip of Swarovski crystals, illuminated from behind by LEDs. This graceful movement is linked to the other moving part of the installation - a digital clock made of precision cut bespoke Swarovski crystal is set on a timed loop indicating speed with the movement of the wing flap. The installation simultaneously encompasses the feelings of movement, stillness and the disembodied experience of flight. Hussein Chalayan is an internationally-regarded fashion designer renowned for his innovative use of materials, meticulous pattern cutting and progressive attitude to new technology.
(http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/page/202/)
(http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/36556)

3. Chalayan’s film Absent Presence screened at the 2005 Venice Biennale. It features the process of caring for worn clothes, and retrieving and analysing the traces of the wearer, in the form of DNA. This work has been influenced by many different art movements; can you think of some, and in what ways they might have inspired Chalayan’s approach?

- The Absent Presence, is an enigmatic story based on identity, geography, genetics, biology and anthropology. Chalayan opens the argument on how certain identities can or cannot adapt to new environments and generates a research based narration for his cross-disciplined installation with filmic images and sculptures. There is a serious research behind the end product displaying the interplay of the real and the imagined with a series of collected clothes and deformed crystallized garments. A DNA extraction process from the clothes collected from unknown people, an anthropological evaluation, and a 3 D manipulation all treated through the London sound-scape as the environment reveals the approach of Chalayan to the dilemma of identity.
(http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/2032)

4. Many of Chalayan’s pieces are physically designed and constructed by someone else; for example, sculptor Lone Sigurdsson made some works from Chalayan’s Echoform (1999) and Before Minus Now (2000) fashion ranges. In fashion design this is standard practice, but in art it remains unexpected. Work by artists such as Jackson Pollock hold their value in the fact that he personally made the painting. Contrastingly, Andy Warhol’s pop art was largely produced in a New York collective called The Factory, and many of his silk-screened works were produced by assistants. Contemporarily, Damien Hirst doesn’t personally build his vitrines or preserve the sharks himself. So when and why is it important that the artist personally made the piece?

- Very important is the Artist personally made his pieces, because hi gives part of himself.