Monday Artist as Media Manipulator Discovered the terms ‘low Art’ and ‘high art’. ‘Low art’ can be defined as more accessible, more understandable. Whereas ‘high art’ in contrast would be the exact opposite. This made me think back to the conceptual art lecture and the differing opinions there. We were shown a video of a hoax interview, devised by ‘The Yes Men’. The clip was from 2004 on BBC World News, where they had portrayed themselves as representatives of DOW, accepting full responsibility for the BHOPAL DISASTER. There’s an obvious crossover between art and activism, especially with The Yes Men. After the lecture, I went to count the boarding passes to see if any had been taken. There were now 40 passes. Tuesday *I spent the evening watching The Yes Men Fix the World: 1000-1100: Seminar – Art as Media Manipulator
We were presented with a discussion sheet for this seminar, which typically, was the least talkative and responsive group of all. Below, I have included some of the questions, along with my personal opinion/response: Q. As an artist, is it possible to have a broad based appeal to the general public and appeal to a more knowledgeable ‘insider’ audience at the same time? A. For me, no. Anything widely popular in the world today is tarnished with the same brush, that it is manufactured and ‘dumbed-down’. There always has and always will be a divide between ‘high art’ and ‘low art’. Q. Imagine that interest in your work spirals out of control. Are there limits to the kind of people you would sell it to? A. I find it hard to imagine a situation where I would refuse to sell my artwork. Ideally, my artwork would be used as an avenue to collaborate with other artists and businesses, for exhibitions, advertisements or personal collections. If there were a person, company or organisation with a history of negligent operations or extremist ideals, then I would have to decline. I wouldn’t be comfortable having my artwork, for example, as the symbol of an unethical company. Q. Do you think it is wrong to follow fashions in art? Does this come at the expense of ‘staying true to your vision’? A. I think fashions in art are inevitable. There are trends in all walks of life, so to exclude art is unrealistic. I dislike the idea of an artist completely reinventing themselves or their art in order to gain publicity or credibility. In my opinion, there is no credibility in attaching yourself to a proven formula, in order to be successful. 1400-1700: Group Critique w/ Fran With my future career plan in mind, I decided to use the critique almost as a practise run, putting myself in the tutor’s shoes and considering the other student’s work as I would receive it if I were the tutor. I focused on their theme and reasoning, as well as the medium and composition. I tried to question and give constructive feedback to each student. It was incredibly pleasing to find that Fran agreed with me consistently, or that she had the same train of thought. For example, I questioned why Emily’s collages were venturing off the page/canvas, and why Dineo’s paintings and screen-prints all featured male figures. Naturally, Fran’s feedback and knowledge trumped mine continually, but I was happy to primarily, see if I could hold my own in that position, and secondly, provide constructive feedback for other’s work. The critique of my work was rushed due to me having to leave in order to meet my presentation group. The key points from my critique were:
I was happy with the comments relating to my work. I didn’t however agree with Fran’s comment about the boarding passes. The directive for the entire project was to create a response to the Berlin trip, nothing more. The meeting for the group presentation was very brief. Only three out of eight students turned up. Theo explained that marking criteria for the presentation was:
The conclusion of the meeting was that it would be easier to communicate to the whole group via a Facebook group chat. We discussed the ideas of Freudian slips, riddles and jokes, but had no substantial ideas. We agreed that in the meantime we would all keep a dream diary as a starting-point. On route to leaving the building, I counted the boarding passes. There were now 40 passes. Wednesday The lecture scheduled for 10am was cancelled. I spent the morning (before work) sourcing additional collage material from books and magazines from local charity shops. Thursday 1000-1600: Studio work With the group critique comments in mind, and with new material for collage, I started to explore the idea of creating collages within pages of book. I could remove and replace information from the images in the page, which would confuse the text and also potentially keep within the theme of Retro-Futurism. The idea of working within a page of a book applies an interesting restraint in size. It also ties in with the previous suggestion by Lois in Week 2 of creating fictional stories and telling them through my work. I recounted the boarding passes again before leaving. There were now 38 passes. Friday 1000-1600: Studio work Continued cutting in to the images selected yesterday in preparation for collaging. 1615: Individual Tutorial (Fran) Previously when speaking with Lois in individual tutorials, I was under the impression that the theme had to have emotional attachment, more of a personal drive rather than just an overall theme. When I spoke to Fran about this, she confirmed that Retro-Futurism is a strong enough theme to work with. I showed her my work since the group critique (collages within book pages) and it seemed to get a positive response. Boarding passes now down to 35.
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