WEEK SIX - BARBARA KRUGER

American conceptual/pop artist Barbara Kruger is internationally renowned for her signature black, white and red poster-style works of art that convey in-your-face messages on women's rights and issues of power. Coming out of the magazine publishing industry, Kruger knows precisely how to capture the viewer's attention with her bold and witty photomurals displayed on billboards, bus stops and public transportation as well as in major museums and galleries wordwide. She has edited books on cultural theory, including Remaking History for the Dia Foundation, and has published articles in the New York Times, Artforum, and other periodicals. Monographs on her work include Love for Sale, We Won't Play Nature to Your Culture and others. She is represented in New York by Mary Boone Gallery. A major exhibition of her work will be presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in fall 1999, and at the Whitney Museum in New York in 2000.

Research Kruger's work to find an example from the 1970s or 1980s to compare with a more recent work. How has Kruger's work changed with the developments in contemporary visual arts? Describe a recent work that moves away from the 'poster' type work of her early career.

Find 2-3 works by Kruger to add to your blog.

How does the audience experience a more spatial, installation art work compared with a poster?

What elements does Kruger use in her work to create a strong impact?

Comment on the development of her work over the last 30 years.

Comment on the examples that you find on other students blogs.

WEEK FIVE - Kehinde Wiley

Kahinde Wiley is a Gay American based painter born in Los Angeles, who has an international reputation living between Pe King and Brooklyn.


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 , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview.

Information on specific paintings was difficult to obtain however Matt has the info for the last 2 paintings.

3. Kehinde Wiley Count Potocki, 2008 oil on canvas, 274.3 x 274.3cm

4. Kehinde Wiley Support Army and Look after People, 2007 oil on canvas, 258.4 x 227.3cm

WEEK FOUR - Arnish Kapoor

Celebrated for his gigantic, stainless steel 'Cloud Gate' sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park, Anish Kapoor is changing the cultural environment with his public works.

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

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

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

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

Youtube has some excellent footage on Kapoor-take a look at Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy!!

WEEK THREE - THE WALTERS PRIZE 2010

a) Saskia Leek
b) Fiona Connor
c) Dan Arps
d) Alex Monteith





This week we will be visiting the Auckland Art Gallery to view, research and write about the artists selected for the Walters Prize 2010. Discuss the work in the gallery with your tutors and other students and answer the following questions.

1. What is the background to the Walters Prize?
2. List the 4 selected artists for 2010 and briefly describe their work.
3. Who are the jury members for 2010?
4. Who is the judge for 2010 and what is his position in the art world?
5. Who would you nominate for this years Walter's Prize, and why? Substantiate
you answer by outlining the strengths of the artists work. How does this relate
to your interests in art? What aspect of their work is successful in your opinion,
in terms of ideas, materials and/or installation of the work?
6. Comment on other blogs from your ALVC group to agree or disagree with other people,always backing up your answer with clearly stated reasons.

SASKIA LEEK

WEEK TWO - Hussein Chalayan

Hussein Chalayan is an artist and designer, working in film, dress and installation art. Research Chalayan’s work, and then consider these questions in some thoughtful reflective writing.

1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) andBurka (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?

Hussein Chalayan, Burka, 1996

Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000

2. Chalayan has strong links to industry. Pieces like TheLevel 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?

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?

Hussein Chalayan, still from Absent Presence, 2005 (motion picture)

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?

WEEK ONE - Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'.

Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg's intricately constructed claymation films are both terrifyingly
disturbing and artlessly sweet.

The new works created for the Venice Biennale explore a surrealistic Garden of Eden in which all that is natural goes awry.

She exposes the innate fear of what is not understood and confronts viewers with the complexity of emotions.

Nathalie Djurberg was awarded the silver lion for a promising young artist at the Venice
Art Biennale 09.

(http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/6886/nathalie-djurberg)

Research Djurberg's work in order to answer the following questions;

1. What do you understand by the word 'claymation'?

2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?

3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?

4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?

5. There is a current fascination by some designers with turning the innocent and sweet into something disturbing. Why do you think this has come about?

6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?

7. Add some of your own personal comments on her work.

Week 9 - Bunksy

How can we categorize Banksy's work -graffiti or murals?

Research Banksy's work to attempt to answer this question.
What are some of the differing opinions about Banksy's work?
How does his work sit in relation to consumerism? Can his work be sold?
What are some of his attitudes to the sale of Art?
Who is Banksy? Do we know his true identity?
Upload 2-3 images of Banksy's work that you find interesting, and comment
on the ideas behind the

work.

Week 8 - 'Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam' (2001)

'Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam- 'Towards the Complex-For the Courageous, the Curious and the Cowards', (2001) is a video project by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba.

Research this project to identify the ideas behind the work. Can you connect some of the concepts and ideas from the renaissance, Enlightenment or Modernism with the work. Discuss your answer.

Discuss how do you think the title of the work reflects

the artists' intentions?

Week 7 - Industrialisation and Art

1.Define the Industrial Revolution and Industrialism.

2.Research Monet's painting 'Impression Sunrise'(1873) to analyze the work in relation to Industrialisation.

'Impression Sunrise' (1873)

3.Olafur Eliasson's 'Weather Project'(2006) is a contemporary work that relates to Monet's

famous landscape.

Research the project to identitify the artist's intentions, as well as the site (space or venue) chosen for the project, to provide depth for your answer.

'Weather Project' (2006)

Olafur Eliasson

Week 6 - Landscape and the Sublime

"Untitled" Richard Misrach 2002

Richard Misrach's photography reflects the concept of the Sublime, from the Enlightenment.

Research Misrach's work by reading about his intentions, and also by looking at the work. Then answer the following questions;

1. What and when was the Enlightenment?

2. Define the concept of the Sublime.

3. How did the concept of the Sublime come out of the Enlightenment thought?

4. Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic (look) of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work. Add some more images.

5. Identify some other artists or designers that work with ideas around the Sublime, from the Enlightenment era as well as contemporary artists.

6. How does Misrach's photography make you feel? Does it appeal to your imagination?

7. Add a Sublime image of your choice to your blog, which can be Art or just a Sublime photograph.

Monolake 2, California (1999) Richard Misrach

Week 5 - Science and Progress, Tony Oursler

"New York 1996"

"Eyes 1996"

Research Tony Oursler's projection sculpture to identify some of the ideas and methods he uses in his work.

How do you think the Enlightenment concepts of Science, progress, reason, individualism, empiricism, universalism, freedom and secularism can be applied to Oursler's work?

Refer to pages 96 and 97 in the ALVC handbook for the full list of key ideas of the Enlightenment. Also use Youtube, the internet and the library to research Oursler's work.

Week 4 - Damien Hirst and the Diamond Skull

research the art work of Damien Hirst, in particular his work 'For the love of God'(2008), a diamond encrusted skull.

Discuss how Hirst's persona and work relate to the Renaissance concepts of Mercantillism and the (increased) status of the artist.

Week 3 - Fiona Hall's Work and Mercantilism

Leaf Litter (1999-2003)

Tender (2003-2005)

Fiona Hall's contemporary work relates to the Renaissance concept of Mercantilism.

Research the two examples; 'Tender'(2003-05) and 'Leaf Litter'(1999-2003) to explain how they relate to this concept. First define mercantilism and explain how it has developed since the Renaissance. For each work you will need to describe the shape, form and materials of the work, and explain the ideas behind each example.

These works were part of an art show titled 'Force Field' which can be viewed in one of the exhibition spaces on YouTube - Part Three: Fiona Hall: Force Field.

Week 1 - Auckland Triennial 2010

Mahmoud Bakhshi, Tulips Rise from the Blood of the Nation's Youth, 2008,
neon, tin, wood, plastic, electric engines, courtesy of the artist and
Khastoo Gallery, Los Angeles

'Last Ride in a Hot Air Balloon' is the title for the 2010 4th Auckland triennial
which is on show from 12 March - 20 June. Watch the video of the curator,
Natasha Conland discussing the art show.
Youtube conland348. MP4
Use the information from the video and
on the Triennial website to answer the following questions;

1.What are the themes behind the title "Last ride...' for the Auckland triennial?
2. What does a curator of an exhibition do?
3. Which countries are represented in this year's triennial?
4. Is Auckland the only country to have a triennial? Are there other similar art shows?
5. Name 4 artists who will be showing work in the show.
6. Select an artist's work from the website, copy the work to your blog and write a short
comment on what the work is, and what it represents.(Reference your sources)
7. Comment on why you find this work interesting, how does it relate to your own interests?