Week 5 - Pluralism and the Treat of Waitangi

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2012

Week 5 - Pluralism and the Treat of Waitangi

Pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi


1. Define the term 'pluralism' using APA referencing.
      According to Caldwell (1999):
Pluralism in art refers to the nature of art forms and artist as diverse. The cultural context of art is all encompassing in its respect for the art of the worlds cultures. Inclusion of individuals of differing ethnicities, genders, ideologies, abilities, ages, religions, economic status, and educational levels is valued. Pluralism honors difference within and between equitable groups while seeing their commonalities.

2. How would you describe New Zealand's current dominant culture?
      British and European culture is hugely woven into New Zealand's dominant culture along with other culture which are largely involved in our culture such as Maori and Pacific Islands. New Zealand has been pre dominated by Maori culture for most of our history. With Maori culture being in our everyday life it is no longer noticeable that we do it. Such as our national anthem first sung in Maori, the Haka before rugby, counting and songs that we are taught in primary schools, etc.


3. Before 1840, what was New Zealand's dominant culture?
      In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, before that the dominant culture was the indigenous Maori.

4. How does the Treaty of Waitangi relate to us all as artists and designers working
in New Zealand?
      The Treaty of Waitangi is such a huge part of New Zealand culture, every year we have a day to remember it. We are educated about it through all our schooling and bought up knowing about it.   As it is such a huge part in our culture it can effect art, artists and designers. The artist and designers have to be culturally sensitive around the subject in order to not offend our culture and make are in a respectful way.

5. How can globalization be seen as having a negative effect on 'regional diversity' that leads to a 'homogenized world culture' in New Zealand in particular? (ALVC2 handbook page 52, http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/globalization)
     'Globalization is the tendency of business, technologies, or philosophies to spread throughout the world, or the process of making this happen' (ALVC2 handbook page 52, http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/globalization) For me Globalization is the communication of connecting humans to each others views, cultures, ideas, products etc.
When our culture is shared amongst the world it then is venerable to change, other cultures may adapt our culture. In class there were many examples of this such as a animated game took the Maori Moko and placed it on a male, when the Moko is only meant for females. This changed our culture and if this was ot continue it then could become 'Homogenized' and it would all become the same over time. If this were to happen, it would have a negative effect and the original culture would have been lost and the meaning which is meant for it would longer be applicable.

6. Shane Cotton's paintings are said to examine the cultural landscape. Research Cotton's work 'Welcome'(2004) and 'Three quarter view ' (2005) to analyze what he is saying about colonialization and the Treaty of Waitangi.
      Shane Cotton's work, Welcome(2004) and Three Quarter View(2005) both analyze, colonialization, cultural identity, Maori spirituality and life and death. In 'Welcome' at a glance i assume there is a comparison with the sparrow, goldfinch and the male face. The top male face, for me, is Christ-like, this could be representing colonization as Maori were not aware of Christianity before colonization. There is a strong comparison in Welcome, with Maori and European culture. In Three Quarter View once again we see the birds and a face. This time we have a close up of the face which is fully tattooed with traditional Moko. This face is a representation of a British man Barnet Burns, who was a flax trader and made the decision to live with the Maori's in the 1830's. This also a painting that is tank back to colonization. While researching Cotton's work i can across many of his works that also resembled colonization, he has become to be an artist who is known for his work on colonization.

 

'Welcome' (2004) Shane Cotton 

http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/work/52293/shane-cotton-welcome.aspx

  

'Three Quarter view'(2005) Shane Cotton

http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?IRN=149998 

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/shane-cotton-paintings-examine-cultural-landscape-126412

7. Tony Albert's installation 'Sorry' (2008) reflect the effects of colonization on the aboriginal people of Australia. Research the work and comment on what Albert is communicating through his work, and what he is referring to. Describe the materials that Albert uses on this installation and say what he hopes his work can achieve.
      'This work examines the national Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Through his installation of kitsch 'Aboriginalia', Tony Albert looks at this historic moment through Aboriginal eyes. It is a view from the perspective of those who have been adversely and severely affected by past government policy, whose every move is still tightly controlled by current policy, and those who have actively and aggressively fought against these and many other policies. In this installation, Albert has altered the original work by spelling the word backwards. This represents the ineffectiveness of the apology and is based on an unrealized proposal.' -Taken from a blog 'Ten Years of Contemporary art' This piece is very interesting to me, as the artist has taken a different approach to the work. Instead of looking at the situation from his point of view he has stepped out of his own shoes and into the Indigenous people of Australia and done this piece almost in behalf of them. This is a different way to do art as most people incorporate their own feelings but here he has made this for others. 

8. Define the term 'kitsch'.
      Kitsch, form what i understand, is an art-form which has no value, or a tasteless or worthless imitation of a piece of art which has recognizable value.

9. Explain how the work of both artists relates to pluralism.
        Both artist refer to culture as a main part of their work, they both are baed on culture of their own country. By making art from their own background it is bringing attention to their culture, almost in a way of advertising or educating the viewer about their culture. They are obviously proud of there culture and so they make beautiful artwork which symbolizes what they believe in. The love and passion they have for there culture is clear in their work. Both are amazing artists who are capable of making great art.

                                       Tony Albert | Australia b.1981 | Girramay people | Sorry 2008 |
                                               Found kitsch objects applied  to vinyl letters | 99 objects :    
                                               200 x 510 x 10cm (installed) | The James C Sourris Collection.
                                               Purchased 2008 with funds from James C Sourris through the 
                                               Queensland Art Gallery Foundation | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_New_Zealand
http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/account/3236/object/1434/Picture_Painting
http://www.library.tauranga.govt.nz/Default.aspx?TabId=1878&aid=17329&tctl=4119_ViewAnnouncement&SkinSrc=%5BG%5DSkins/Library2011/PrintTemplate&ContainerSrc=%5BG%5DContainers/Library2011/Standard&dnnprintmode=true
http://interactive.qag.qld.gov.au/sourris/mycollection.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch

WEEK FOUR: Kehinde Wiley and inter-texuality

1. Untitled (2009)

2. Untitled(2009)

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

Kehinde Wiley is a Gay American based painter born in Los Angeles, who has an international reputation. Wiley lives and practices between Beijing and Brooklyn.


This weeks ALVC class focuses on the Postmodern theme "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. 

1. Find a clear definition of Intertextuality and quote it accurately on your blog using the APA referencing system. Use your own words to explain the definition more thoroughly. 
"All literary works...are rewritten, if only unconsciously, by the societies which read them" (Eagleton 1983,12) 
"NO-one today - even for the first time- can read a famous nevel or poem, look at a famous painting, drawing or sculpture, listen to a famous piece of of music or watch a famous play or film with out being conscious of the contexts in which the text had been reproduced, drawn upon, allude to, parodied and s on." 
(Foucault 1974,23)

These two definitions i believe explain intertextuality best. My interpretation of these definitions is that everything is traceable to something else. For example the Black Eyed Peas song Pump It, this song incorporates music from Dick Dale's 1962 surf rock version of the song Misirlou, which is a folk song origin dating back to 1927. This is a perfect example of intertextuality in music, and shows how everything is able to be dated back. 


2. Research Wiley's work and write a paragraph that analyzes how we might make sense of his work. Identify intertextuality in Wiley's work.
"For most of Kehinde Wiley's very successful career, he has created large, vibrant, highly patterned paintings of young African American men wearing the latest in hip hop street fashion. The theatrical poses and objects in the portraits are based on well-known images of powerful figures drawn from seventeenth- through nineteenth-century Western art. Pictorially, Wiley gives the authority of those historical sitters to his twenty-first-century subjects."
--National Portrait Gallery 

Wiley's works to me is a reinvention of the Renaissance. In the renaissance time it was hugely common to get an artist to paint you and your family to show your wealth and status. This is a modern take on that. Wiley has taken african american men, wearing street wear and placed them among things of huge wealth, such as the lavish backdrops with rich colours and full patterns, making them look as if they are heros on horses etc. 

3. Wiley's work relates to next weeks Postmodern theme "PLURALISM" . Read page 51 and discuss how the work relates to this theme.
According to Caldwell (1999):
Pluralism i art refers to the nature of art forms and artists as diverse. The cultural context of art is all encompassing in its respect for the art of the worlds cultures. Inclusion of individuals of differing ethnicities, genders, ideologies, abilities, ages, religions, economic status and educational levels is valued. Pluralism honours differences within and between equitable groups while seeing their commonalities. 

Wiley has taken the typical art work of the Renaissance and replaced the main figure which would typically been seen as a wealthy high class white male, and in Wiley's work is a African American male in baggy street wear. Here Wiley has done a study of the social status, the ethnicity and age of the figure, this is relating his work back to pluralism. 

4. Comment on how Wiley's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview. 
Wiley has taken an upper class, well respected, wealthy, environment and replaced the figure to be an African American, street dressed in baggy trackies, some even wearing caps. This raises huge questions as it is not what we are used to seeing. People are questioning why are these African American men in these paintings, but why shouldn't they be? They are stereotyped to be aggressive, badly spoken, associating with the wrong people, druggies, etc. This all a stereotype not all truth. So from that people see these men in these artworks and don't think that they are worthy of being portrayed as wealthy honorable people but belong on the street wearing there baggy pants. The viewer automatically places them in the category of 'not good enough' or 'not worthy' so when seeing them in these surroundings it is a shock. Also we are so used to seeing higher class white men in these types of painting a change (and humans hate change) is always a shock to the system and takes a while to get used to.

5. Add some reflective comments of your own, which may add more information that
you have read during your research.
I personally enjoy these artworks, i think they are visually very interesting and show a fresh change to the renaissance period which for me can get a little boring. These add bright and bold colours and fun patterns which make the works a lot more interesting. This may just be because of my age i am more open to change and not hugely connected to the renaissance art so unable to get offended by the huge changes. 

While doing my research i came across another of his paintings, not so as hugely referencing the  renaissance, but i still enjoyed this artwork a lot. 

http://www.deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=11
http://www.lipsticktracez.com/guest/2009/06/kehinde-wiley-releases-black-l.php

WEEK THREE: Hussein Chalayan and Post-Modern Fashion

ONE: Chalayan works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) and Burka (1996), are often challenging to both the viewer and the wearer. What are you 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 ?
          According to the Oxford Dictionary online Fashion is 'a popular or the latest style of clothing, hair, decoration, or behavior.' This for me is when a new style or look becomes to enter the fashion world is takes off and you will soon see it repeating itself in many forms and styles. My personal responses to Chalayan's works is mixed. First his work, Afterwords, which is an exploration of materials and a integration between textures. In the photo of the skirt you are able to see that originally it looks similar to a table, you then are able to pull it over your shoulders and it opens out to reveal a skirt. This innovative design makes Hussein unique and has the viewer questioning, is it furniture or fashion? 
The second fashion piece, the 'Burka' is a Burka slowly shortening until everything is revealed but the face of the women. I personally interpret this as a identity piece, it challenges an item of clothing that is used to hide identity. When the Burka slowly shortens, i find the viewer becomes shocked, as the clothing item is known to cover the whole body, but to leave the eyes showing, and when the whole body is revealed is it s shock to the system and we are not used to viewing the Burka like this. i believe this is both fashion and art. T

I believe that both Afterwords and Burka are fashion and art. The difference to me between the two is art is where a difference has been made to fashion, and fashion is something wearable .

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?
People enjoy art and fell as if they are able to connect with it, it is an enjoyable ting to look at and experience. by having/using art to advertise a product you art also as an strict getting publicity, therefore Chalayans work is able to benefit hugely from doing this as his name gets known more and more and he is able to get more work out. It also gives the artist an opportunity to widen their creativity, it could be a new and different experience for the artist. I believe that it is still art, just used in a different way. Even if it used to sell a product it still at the end of the day is art, if you were to take away the commercial side of it an audience would still visualize it as art. 
Walking down queen street and seeing a New Cops Recruitment poster looking very similar to Banksy's work this was another example of art in advertising, it just helps get the message across with new media, it is fresh and recognizable to younger people as they are more familiar with Banksy's art, they then are able to stop and look at the poster as they know the artist style then hopefully they read the poster, then it become successful in advertising. 

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?
I believe this piece of art would fall into the post modern category. By using modern technology to look at the DNA in clothing to make art, looking further in identity and hybridity all comes back to post modern art. When researching about this film i came across a blog which made a relation between this film and 'Afterwords' which i found interesting. It explains, 'in the Afterwords the clothes were representing what is outside, in Absent Presence, they include what is inside, or in other words our DNA and identities. With this study, it is possible to know who we are, what we do, how we react according to clothes; and this is not a matter of designing of the clothes but because they are biologic parts of ourselves. Once again we encounter hybridity in a way presented in the post-colonial theory and the thinking of Homi Bhabha' 

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?
In my opinion i personally think that the artwork hold a lot more value when the process it goes through to be made is done with the artist. From the initial idea to the finished work. This is not to say that artists who have the initial idea but others produce the works, that their work has less value. When the artist it involved in the making i believe they are putting themselves into the work, they will express their feelings throughout the process into the work making it their own. The artist then also will have a strong connection with the work making it their own. So when is it important that the personally made the piece, when and where they are able to, if the are building a huge piece of art assistance obviously will be needed, but if they were to do a painting, but didn't paint it themselves, for me it no longer becomes a personal piece of art, therefore no pager becoming theirs. 




http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/5209/hussein-chalayan-at-the-design-museum.html
http://usedmagazine.co.uk/?p=1542
http://fashionableturkey.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/transnationalism-and-hybidity-in-art-of.html
http://oxforddictionaries.com/

WEEK TWO - POST MODERNISM - Ai Weiwei and Banksy.

ONE: Define Post-Modernism using 8-10 bullet points that include short quotes.

           -'The term Post modernism is used in a confusing variety of ways. For some it means anti-modern; for others it means revision of modernist premises'

                     (Witcombe, C (2000))

          -'Deconstructive postmodernism seeks to over come the modern world view, and the assumptions that sustain it, though what appears to be an anti world view. It "deconstructs' the ideas and values of modernism to reveal what composes them and shows that such modernist ideas such as "equality" and "liberty" are not "natural" to humankind or "true" to human nature but are ideals, intellectual constructions.' 

                     (Witcombe, C (2000))

           -'Modernist culture is Western in its orientation, capitalist in its determining economic tendency, bourgeois in its class character, white in its racial complexion, and masculine in its dominant gender'

                     (Witcombe, C (2000))
          -'Was a movement in architecture that rejected the modernist, avant garde, passion for the new.' 
                     (James Morley)         
          -'Constructive postmodernism desires a return to premodern notions of divinely wrought reality, of comic meaning, and an enchanted nature. It also wishes to include an acceptance of non sensory perception.'
                     (Witcombe, C (2000))
          -'The postmodern is deliberately elusive as a concept, avoiding as much as possible the modernist desire to classify and thereby delimit, bound and confine. Postmodernism partakes of uncertainly, insecurity, doubt, and accepts ambiguity.'
                     (Witcombe, C (2000))
          -'Modernism seeks closure in form and is concerned with conclusions, postmodernism is open unbounded and concerned with process and "becoming"'
                     (Witcombe, C (2000))
          -'Constructive postmodernism seeks to recover truths and values form various forms of premodern thought and practice'
                     (Witcombe, C (2000))


TWO: Use a quote by Witcombe (2000) to define the Postmodern artist. (page 24)
          'The post-modern artist is "reflexive" in the he/she is self-aware and consciously involved in a process of thinking about him/herself and society in a deconstructive manner, "de masking" pretensions, becoming aware of his/her cultural self in history, and accelerating the process of self-consciousness'
                     (Witcombe, C (2000))


THREE: Use the table on pages 47-48 in your ALVC handbook to summarize the list of the features of Post-Modernity. 
          Social and cultural pluralism, visual media becoming undifferentiated equivalent forms, dominance of high culture by popular culture, 


FOUR: Research Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's 'Han Dynasty urn with Coco-Cola logo (1994) in order to say what features of the work could be considered Post Modern.
          Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social political and cultural criticism. In this artwork he has used a old chinese urn, which holds great historical meaning and he has branded it using the Coca-Cola Logo. While researching the artwork i came across an interview and Ai Weiwei tells us why he chose to do this. 'If we look at history, nothing can give us more vivid a lesson that those pieces of evidence. You can talk about Greek or Roman civilization, or India or China or whatever. The image is still the most powerful. If we think about the United States, we think about Coca-Cola or McDonald's. And those things are so strong and so clear that we almost don't need another explanation. I suppose that's why art projects are needed - to reveal how history and reduced everything into such a nonsense image' There is a shock factor to this piece, the mix of the high culture and popular culture. By using an urn with so much history and respect, and placing a Coca-Cola logo which would not be as highly regarded as the urn allows this piece to be considered a postmodern artwork. 
          'It symbolizes, heritage, appropriation, globalization, the shock that the brand is more recognizable than the object and the uneasy but increasingly important collision of eastern and western traditions. Ironically the urn was an incredibly valuable artifact and yet became more valuable after it became a piece of postmodern art' -Tim Marshall

SIX: Research British Artist Banksy's street art, and analyze the following two works by the artist to discuss how each work can be defined at Post-Modern. 

           Banksy is a very well known Street artist who uses stencils to create his work. In this work "flower riot' he has used flowers, which are associated with peace, as the object to be thrown in a riot. This is ironic as a riot is usually such a violent event and the flowers contradicting that, instead of the violet act he is using the symbols of the flowers to promote peace. This piece holds huge value and is well known. This can be associated with Postmodernism as it is on a wall but still holds huge value. 

          This second image, 'Los Angeles' a picture of a caveman holding a tray of a typical fast food meal, fires, a drink, and a burger. This is similar to Ai Weiwei's work, a mixture of history and now. He has taken a caveman from history and placed him in modern age. Mixing high culture with popular culture. Like most of Banksy's work this also is very ironic and comical.  

          


http://timmarshall20.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/postmodernism-style-and-subversion-1970-1990-at-the-v-a-20th-century-toys-boys-and-girls/


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


http://www.flashartonline.com/interno.php?pagina=articolo_det&id_art=671&det=ok&title=AI-WEIWEI -interview 


http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-685801.html