Perception of Contemporary Art forms

Through this study of the contemporary artworld, I am personally reminded not to underestimate the ability each medium of art provides me with; for each idea there is a ‘best’ way and a specific context in which to most successfully create and present work to the public. Since first becoming serious about art making, I always thought about the context of my art in the public eye. After looking into the work of today’s successful contemporary artist who they are influenced by, I see art as even more of a two-sided story than I had before. The one side being the artist’s relationship with their work and the other being the ideas and response given to and generated by the public. Art has always been a catharsis, but now I can view it as a tool outside of the personal realm.

People will continue to disregard and be ignorant of the values in art and art making. But it is important to realize that art is and has become a necessary tool for daily use and expression. There is art for media, and art as a voice, and art as a combination of these things. Visual communication is so highly integrated into our daily lives that we may not even realize the amount of messages that are being communicated daily. The value therefore in knowing ‘what art is’ lies in being able to decipher the differences in, and therefore the value of, visual messages and ideas being taken into our minds daily. If you do not understand the value in what you are seeing, who knows what you are really missing.

Image Credits and Bibliography:

Robertson, Jean and Craig McDaniel. Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Institutional Theory of Art and the Art World,” http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/Institutional-theory-artworld.html (accessed Jan. 15,2012).

http://www.banksy.co.uk/index.html (accessed Jan.15,2012).

“Immaterials: Light painting WiFi,” http://vimeo.com/20412632 (accessed Jan. 5,2012).

“JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out,”TED 2011, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html (accessed Jan. 20,2012).

“one Minute Sculptures,” last modified July 12,2010, http://aplaceintheuniverse.blogspot.com/2010/07/one-minute-sculptures-by-erwin-wurm.html

“PhotoKitchen Projects 2007-2008,” last modified March 10, 2012, http://www.pbase.com/evledstudio/image/85821870

Patrick Frey, “The way Things Went.” Tate Online, http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue8/fischliweiss_waythingswent.htm (accessed Feb.25, 2012).

“Rebecca Horn: Body Landscapes,” Last modified August 2005, http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/hayward-gallery-and-visual-arts/hayward-gallery-exhibitions/past/rebecca-horn-bodylandscapes

“Honey and Lightening,” Mandy Greer Portfolio, http://mandygreer.wordpress.com/portfolio/ (accessed Feb. 10, 2012).

“Kiki Smith,” last modified March 2010, http://amac43.wordpress.com/kiki-smith/

“Kiki Smith,” last modified April 12, 2011, http://www.unknowninkdesign.com/blog/04/kiki-smith/

“Sifting Hazelnut Tree Pollen,” Last modified January 20, 2011, http://abriegrowsinbrooklyn.com/post/2842818042/pretty-awed-by-the-beauty-of-the-installation

“Janine Antoni,” last modified December 30,2010, http://washspring2011.blogspot.com/2010/12/before-january-21-listen-respond.html

“Feminist Art Base: Janine Antoni,” http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/janineantoni.php?i=647

“Stelarc: Still Hanging Around,” last modified March 23,2011, http://www.bornyesterday.ca/cyberstage-archives/2011/3/23/stelarc-still-hanging-around.html

“Stelarc,” last modified April 24,2011, http://kelley-art100.blogspot.com/2011/04/stelarc.html

­­­he t are communicated through them.ow artist are using these methods and concepts to make works which create discourse about a

As artists investigate the notions of personal and global identity in artwork, often the use of the body becomes, at some point, a medium or subject matter in how each artist expresses themself. While the use of the body in art can be visually literal, like a shadow or figurative image, many artists practice body art which involves using one’s body with other media to create art, or using the exploration of physical changes and limits to make art that becomes a commentary on those observations. Artist like Janine Antoni and Stelarc, who are among prominent artists who practice these artistic values, have made an effort to create discourse about how we perceive the human body, how we relate to it personally, or how it might be improved or changed. While Antoni’s work mostly deals with exploration of the body and its elements as both evidence of her identity and as a tool for connecting with her identity and history, Stelarc uses his body to make work which experiments with the value of the human body, its capabilities, and how science and engineering might change the physical limits and therefore value of the human body.

If Stelarc and Janine Antoni were to engage in a conversation about the meaning of the body and Identity, some very important and contrasting ideas might be brought to the table which could answer questions about the value of body art or artworks concerning the body: What is the role of the body in art? How is the body perceived and how do those perceptions relate to identity in artwork? Is technology an element of art or merely a tool for making and influencing it?These are probably the main questions which both artists’ works bring to mind.

Janine Antoni would probably approach the first and second questions with a handful of answers. It is evident in her work that she sees the body as both a tool and exploratory medium for her art making. The way she uses her own body for art could even fall under the categories of performance art or art as a process. For Antoni, using her own body as subject matter, as a tool for performance, or to create anthropomorphism in her works, means using her body to create a mold or interacting with replicas of her own body to explore her identity and perception of the nature of her own body. A prime example of Antoni’s replication of her own body is her work Lick and Lather. In this work she uses molds of herself to create a chocolate bust and soap bust, one which she licks repeatedly and the other which she washes herself with. She claims that while licking and lathering are both intimate and somewhat nurturing actions, while she performs them she is also slowly erasing herself in those forms. So, Antoni is exploring the physical body as means for understanding her own identity in art. Both Janine Antoni and Stelarc use the body as the subject matter in their art, but use it to create underlying concepts for the value and meaning of the body.

Loving Care (1992)[1] and Lick and Lather (1993)[2], by Janine Antoni. In Loving Care, Antoni paints the floor with her hair dipped in hair dye. She is using her body as a tool for art and making commentary about the way we perceive our own personal beauty. In Lick and Lather Antoni lick a chocolate bust, and cleans herself with a soap bust portrait of her own face. These pieces are commentary on the irony of self-image and how the artist can nurture her own body while destroying a representation of herself.

Stelarc would answer the first and second questions quite differently however, than Janine Antoni. He perceives the body as a stupid tool which he can improve upon and therefore use as a medium for experimentation for improving upon how he perceives the universe around him. Stelarc’s earlier works, which involved body suspension and overcoming pain through physical and mental strength, pushed the body to its limits while creating a spectacle for viewers. While using other objects, like large rocks and ropes, to offset his weight, Stelarc would suspend himself from hooks in the air. In terms of his own identity, Stelarc might say that these tasks of overcoming physical and mental pain gave him more control over his body and improved upon his understanding of how to use it better. Other body art Stelarc initiated involved cultivating and transplanting a human ear onto his arm, as well as wiring a robotic arm into the muscles on his shoulder, both which he learned to control. Stelarc, not in the same way as Antoni, seeks the limitations of his body and the extension of it through science and technology as a commentary on both the body’s usefulness, and how future technology might be combined with the body to create new and amazing advancements.

In Images 1[3] Stelarc suspends himself from the ceiling, counterbalanced by rocks to test the limits of his physical pain and his mental capacity to overcome it ,and in image 2[4] Stelarc explores the abilities of his body when combined with scientific and technological advances. His work is a commentary on the limitations of the human form and how they can be improved.

More than likely Stelarc would say that not only are technology and science influential upon art, but more meaningful than art or the body together because it can improve both and expand upon how both are used and perceived. Janine Antoni might not disagree, though her use for either is minimal compared to the prominence of both in Stelarc’s work. Antoni’s work, while it may not use technological advancements in the same way that Stelarc’s does, speaks to the natural technology and function of the human body. In works like Loving Care where she paints the floor with her hair dipped in hair dye, Antoni is using the body’s natural tendencies and movement to create work about how we adapt our bodies and take care of our bodies to change and maintain part of our identity. Stelarc would say that there is, so far, no end to the possibilities of how we might change and advance the original nature of the human body by expanding on its strengths and eliminating or compensating for its weaknesses.

Both Janine Antoni and Stelarc, however greatly their use of the body in art contrasts one another, would both argue that it is not only essential in art but also necessary to continue to use the body and explore its many uses and functions. The body should be applied to art and experimented upon for the sake of art.

[1] “Janine Antoni,” last modified December 30,2010, http://washspring2011.blogspot.com/2010/12/before-january-21-listen-respond.html

[2] “Feminist Art Base: Janine Antoni,” http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/janineantoni.php?i=647

[3] “Stelarc: Still Hanging Around,” last modified March 23,2011, http://www.bornyesterday.ca/cyberstage-archives/2011/3/23/stelarc-still-hanging-around.html

[4] “Stelarc,” last modified April 24,2011, http://kelley-art100.blogspot.com/2011/04/stelarc.html

Spirituality and Ritual in Art

In Mandy Greer’s most recent body of work she manipulates and crafts natural and manmade materials to create masterpieces which are costumes and installations reminiscent of another realm. In the piece Twin Paths, Greer’s ornate handiwork comes to life in a black web-like crocheted headdress. The multiple tiers of circular dream catchers confront the viewer boldly with their frontal arrangement atop a models head, an embodiment of Hecate, crowning her as tendrils of woven and twisted fibers dangle from the headdress. The twisted and braided shoulders of her dress create a strong, upright posture and the feathers gently protruding from Hecate’s sleeves are reminiscent of raven wings. This photographic artifact of Greer’s creation is the apparition of an ethereal woman, all black and gray, with icy eyes protruding from a dark mask. There she stands in a grassy mountain valley, the multi-faceted goddess Hecate dawned in the color of night.

Twin Paths (Hecate), Mandy Greer, 2011. Hand woven and crocheted clothing and headdress are embodiments of the spiritual realm in the form of fashion. The dream catcher-like formation alludes to ideas about the dream world and the fine line between reality and spirituality. The work evokes feelings about the veil between two worlds.[1]

Hecate is known in many cultures and myths as the goddess of physical and spiritual gateways, of the night, and is associated in many instances with witchcraft. And feathers also, hold a power and symbolism in many cases of protection. Hecate is representative of all of these spiritual and otherworldly associations harken to the desire for the mysterious and unknown. Greer’s interpretation of archetypal and mythical beings is evident in her choice of color and representations of cyclical nature through shape and repetition of patterns and detail throughout the piece. The close attention to detail in craftsmanship gives the work a control and power that alludes to the power and, as Greer might say, danger present in the tone of the work. The time that goes into crafting such a piece is indicated through the visual delicacy of the fibers and lace-like patterns of the headdress and its individual parts. The beauty in repetition of form creates a sort of comfort that draws the viewer into and under the spell of the complexity of the headdress, and the black contrasted against pale skin creates the desire to touch. Altogether the headdress forms a backdrop for the physical embodiment of Hecate. The work’s placement in the vastness of nature is representing a sort of frame to centralize the viewer’s focus on an image of desire and power. This intention of creating desire within the viewers’ realm is what Greer may have aimed accomplish. Location creates a question within the minds of viewers as to where the ideas of darkness and lightness, desire and power, fit into the world, or if they are a gateway to another non-physical place. Viewing the work makes the viewer feel like they are having an encounter with something physically intimidating yet spiritually captivating in its beauty and intricacy. The individual circles and webs of the headdress are like pieces of a life, each a different realm, coming together to create a talisman or symbol of the nature of rebirth that occurs over and over again in one person’s life. This crossroads or tri-faced imagery is integral in descriptive myths of Hecate.

Mandy Greer’s work, while so finely handcrafted, is connected with nature and points to natural elements on a close level. This connection to nature and animalistic duality in a person is not unlike the work of artists like Kiki Smith, who also seeks to create a sense of wonder and intimacy with nature and the earth.

Rapture, by Kiki Smith, (2001)[2] and her other versions of Genevieve[3] are about renewal and rebirth. The sculptures come from an inventory of personal sketches and images which were then created from casting the artist’s body and remolding it and shaping it over and over again for new purposes and representations of similar ideas.

They both draw upon the resilience and malleability of the natural world. These ideas of the relationships between danger of the uncontrollable elements present in environment and the pleasure of giving into it and melding with it are prevalent in both artists’ works. Mandy Greer’s play on dark and light qualities in our physical and spiritual worlds asks the artworld public to understand and find the spiritual essences that can return an individual to their most natural, pleasurable, and balanced form of existence. Both artists are attempting to reconnect the viewer with the animal nature that is believed to be spiritually dormant within our bodies and minds. For Kiki Smith, the act of re-carving and reshaping wax molds of her own body, is a reflection of her multiple spiritual rebirths; by putting the time and energy into manipulating her image, she is imparting spiritual energy into a new work , giving it a life of its own.

For artists who work in a way which reflects their perceptions of their own personal spirituality or the spiritual world, the work contains evidence of repetitive physical connection with a piece, or time spent with an object or idea. Without this action of revisiting ideas and imagery the concepts of spirituality would not translate well or be reflected in the work. A prime example of this devotion to spirituality and connection to nature is in the work of Wolfgang Laib, who collects pollen from the same plant daily and later displays the physical evidence of his communion with nature as a hazy geometric installation. Artists whose work reflects the spiritual aspects of life are dependent upon the culmination between physical embodiment and spiritual representation. The element of spirituality in artworks creates a sense of mystery and ambiguity which remains an essential part of creating allure in these types of works; without a concrete meaning the artworld public may interpret the visual manifestation of spirituality in endless ways.

Sifting Hazelnut Tree Pollen, Wolfgang Laib, 1986. After months of collecting pollen from hazelnut trees, the work is installed and displayed in an open space for viewers to experience; a collection of tiny particles displayed as one large form. The pollen is sifted evenly onto the surface creating a uniform presentation.[4]

[1] “Honey and Lightening,” Mandy Greer Portfolio, http://mandygreer.wordpress.com/portfolio/ (accessed Feb. 10, 2012).

[2] “Kiki Smith,” last modified March 2010, http://amac43.wordpress.com/kiki-smith/

[3] “Kiki Smith,” last modified April 12, 2011, http://www.unknowninkdesign.com/blog/04/kiki-smith/

[4] “Sifting Hazelnut Tree Pollen,” Last modified January 20, 2011, http://abriegrowsinbrooklyn.com/post/2842818042/pretty-awed-by-the-beauty-of-the-installation

Time as an Element of Art

The Olympic Sculpture Park takes the landscape and molds its shape to create an experience for the viewers and explorers visiting the Elliot Bay area of Seattle. Landscape is shaped to guide and direct pedestrians to participate in the landscape, view individual sculptures, and experience them in contrast with the surrounding city structures and bordering of ocean water. All of the elements hold a separate idea, while combining to create a beautiful conglomerate of images and structural elements within the park. The sculptures here embody time kinetically and the sculpture becomes a subjective work. The process of walking through the Olympic Sculpture Park helps in how we one might come to understand the time-based elements of art and art-making and to think of how artists use time and what they intend to communicate by doing so.

The manmade elements of the park enclose the viewer and space how each part of the park is experienced, so that whichever direction a pedestrian starts in, the elements of their surroundings are gradually pointed out. Just as each viewer is meant to experience and build an understanding of each sculpture individually, so are viewers of all time based art meant to experience those changes in time, or embodiments of time in visual movement or elements. A prime example of kinetic art which is also an embodiment and representation of time, both subjectively and objectively, is the work The Way Things Go by Peter Fischli and David Weiss.

The Way Things Go, 1987, Peter Fischli and David Weiss. The piece incorporates materials such as tires, trash bags, ladders, soap, oil drums, and gasoline. Fire and pyrotechnics are used as chemical triggers to set off chain reactions. The artists use these elements as embodiments of time and representations of time through kinetic energy and time-based experience for the viewer. The viewer is given almost a full half hour of suspense through waiting to see how one object will affect the next into motion or how chemical reactions set objects in motion.[1]

Fischli and Weiss use this physical experiment to embody time in process artwork. The work itself consists of numerous chemical reactions, including fire and air pressure, to set objects in motion as calculated by scientific methods and through physics to create a piece of performance art which last for nearly a half of an hour. The artists make a work which asks the viewers, and themselves, to wait and watch and listen in order to experience the piece fully. By watching this chain reaction the viewer starts to gain a feeling of suspense waiting to see what will happen next in the process and transition between objects. As a chemical reaction catches fire, it burns a rope which in turn affects another object making this contemporary time-based art spur the viewer to think about the value of time and what amount of action can take place in only a few seconds.

Other contemporary artist use time and its effects on change to strengthen their artistic messages. For example Rebecca Horn’s work Les Amants speaks directly to the sexual interaction between two people and alludes to the many contexts of human attraction through time-based visual elements, both time embodied and time represented. The piece is time-embodies because the liquids are being mixed live in front of the viewer and the images changes as time passes. It is also time-represented based on the evidence of what time does to the piece. Without the live mixing of liquids to make one explosive mark when combined, her work would lack in effectiveness of communicating her message. Artists who use time-based works are after a certain type of message and often indulge in the process of making that work or creating the artifact of their process.

Les Amants, Rebecca Horn, 1991. Here, liquids, probably representational of the male and female gender or of bodily fluids, mix together as they enter a single tube from separate chambers. The ink is forcefully spurted out onto the wall creating an organic pattern which changes as the ink is dispensed. Rebecca Horn also explores art as an extension of her body and how she perceives her physicality.[2]

Artists who work in time-based art are relying upon the physical representation of time as well as the measurable actions of time-embodied to communicate their ideas or create living works of art. In most of these cases the work itself is temporary or performance art which leaves behind an artifact or image which is representational of the ideas time creates within the work. Usually capturing a moment which evokes feelings and ideas concerning the fleeting moments in life or the climax and peak of points in life which cannot be repeated exactly, making them what they are in our memories.

[1] Patrick Frey, “The way Things Went.” Tate Online, http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue8/fischliweiss_waythingswent.htm (accessed Feb.25, 2012).

[2] “Rebecca Horn: Body Landscapes,” Last modified August 2005, http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/hayward-gallery-and-visual-arts/hayward-gallery-exhibitions/past/rebecca-horn-bodylandscapes

Object Appropriation and Subject Matter

In the realm of three dimensional arts, one might question what constitutes 3D art and what forms it appears in. Three dimensional arts in the case of one man’s perspective contains living and inanimate forms combined to create sculpture. Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculpture’s at the Henry Art Gallery are artworks which can be described not only as three dimensional sculptures, but also as performance art. Most of the works involve objects a person might encounter every day, as well as some sort of action performed by the human body, in this case his own body. In Erwin Wurm’s works, three dimensional art is living or interactive sculpture.

One Minute Sculptures, by Erwin Wurm, 1980’s to present day. Here Erwin Wurm combines either his own body or another person’s body with everyday objects in balancing acts or acts of multitasking. For a full minute, the person participating must accomplish the goal which creates balance or harmony between themselves and the object(s). This moment in time the person participates becomes separate from their other everyday actions.[1]

The works are performed in an empty area to make it clear that he is documenting the subject matter, which is inclusive of him, and some sort of physical interaction with objects and space. In one instance, the viewer witnesses Wurm attempting to balance a potato on the top of the handle of what appears to be a toilet bowl brush. It falls multiple times and finally balances. The goal in this case, as well as each other instance, is to create a sculpture which lasts or is interacted with for an entire minute. Another example of this interaction is Wurm’s attempt to balance himself lengthwise, sideways on a small beam of wood without touching the ground. The wood being the same length as his own body and only a fraction of it in width makes the attempt difficult for the artist to successfully perform and for the viewer to watch. The artwork is an action, and yet contains objects which cannot act on their own. The interactive study present in the Henry Art Gallery (in February of 2012) for participation asks the viewer to complete tasks involving balance and direct contact with the objects available, without planning. For example, the act of trying to balance a tennis ball, orange, and an apple on top of each other for an entire minute. The work asks the artist and viewer to incorporate a variety of everyday items and unify them based on scale and proportion, creating a rhythm and balance between the object and the human interaction with them. The artwork becomes dependent upon any one artists personal energy and movement. In some ways the action of performing the work of art has become a skill or craft, if not a commentary on both.

The fact that Wurm’s works must include human interaction of some sort puts an emphasis on the fact that sculpture is a 3D experience. Instead of just interacting with the sculpture on all sides visually, he asks people to be hands on. The blurring of lines between sculpture and performance art create an experience which the artist intended for himself and also the viewers to have. Recording the works and having the viewer watch them allows the viewer to try to understand and relate to the artist’s experiences while making the sculpture. While watching him try to balance, the artist might also feel his struggle. The implications of balance and symmetry in Erwin Wurm’s work make the viewer dwell on the idea of the struggle to create balance and to think about how we interact with things daily. He takes ordinary objects out of context to put emphasis on the fact that perception can be changed. He may inspire viewers to interact with the world around them from a different point of view and with a different mindset about what it means to relate to an object or space, and what a change in context can do to create or offset our perception of balance.

With recent traditions and changes in art, Erwin Wurm’s work is an example of appropriation: Using or placing objects and images out of context to give them a new purpose or meaning. Like other artists often do, Wurm is harkening back to ideas which are brought about in Marcel Duchamp’s work, one of Duchamp’s most famous works being Fountain.

Fountain, Marcel Duchamp, 1917. Originally displayed at a public gallery opening, Duchamp’s piece was removed based on the common response to its being derogatory and non-artistic. Duchamp repurposes a urinal to become, as he calls it, a fountain. Duchamp’s goal was to make a statement about how the viewer approaches art.[2]

Duchamp wanted to use appropriation of objects to create a subject matter which changes the framework for how a piece of art is viewed, or at least to start that thought process. Marcel Duchamp’s ideas became the basis for what I have explained as the institutional definition of art, and for the practices upheld in today’s artworld public. Marcel Duchamp, as well as contemporary artists like Erwin Wurm want to use objects out of their original context in order to (1) create discussion about how changing the context changes the objects meaning, and (2) make the viewer aware that art can no longer be viewed through a passive aesthetic lens, that it must be approached with a readiness to understand and learn from the work. Contemporary artists are constantly exploring the different uses of materials through which they might express their ideas and commentary on their personal life and how they perceive the world around them.

---

[1] “one Minute Sculptures,” last modified July 12,2010, http://aplaceintheuniverse.blogspot.com/2010/07/one-minute-sculptures-by-erwin-wurm.html

[2] “PhotoKitchen Projects 2007-2008,” last modified March 10, 2012, http://www.pbase.com/evledstudio/image/85821870

Creating a Mindset

The term Fine Art makes the implication that some art forms exist above other forms of creating work. This means that not all visual media is considered art, and that fine art is partially determined by the mindset with which it is viewed. To belong to the category of Fine Art, there are certain prerequisites that a piece must have; art has to be pre-meditated. Today, artists who want their work to be considered art must be concerned with who is viewing their art, ideas which the work communicates, the context in which the work will be presented, and what people will have to say about the work.

According to George Dickie in his Institutional definition for art, the artworld consists of the artist, the work of art itself, and the public which makes up the artworld system. The artworld system is a basis for the presentation of art, by an artist, to the artworld public.[1] The art maker has to make art with the intention of expressing a specific viewpoint or idea and in order for this idea to be considered art, the viewer must be approaching the work with a the correct mindset: they must have the knowledge and willingness to understand the history or context in which the artist is speaking through the use of any one medium. For example, many people are familiar with the works of the artist Banksy[2], but not everyone would consider him a fine artist. Those who do not understand the socio-political content of his works consider him among the many other ‘graffiti artists’ that roams the streets tagging objects with no higher purpose or message to their images.

Consider the Following works by Banksy: Someone who does not know the work of Banksy or understand its political and social implications may just see the image as a reference to art tools or graphics, maybe even simply graffiti stenciled on a wall. The artworld public looks further into the meaning of work by expressing a willingness to know or become aware of recent events, locally and globally, and apply the commentary surrounding those events to the context of the image. For instance, instead of just a pair of scissors and a dotted line, the first image becomes a commentary on what lies beyond the wall separating two social worlds, and the need to create a window for seeing and understanding whatever it is that exists on the other side. Also, the artworld public might discuss the second image as having implications about finding the strength to escape the cage we create for ourselves socially through mass consumerism. It can also be said that this limitation stems from the need to place a value on everything in out natural world.

Cut Out by Banksy, year unknown. Spray Paint [3]

Banksy, Spray Paint, year unknown [4]

Art is inclusive of a specific type of art medium, arranged in a composition which uses design elements to communicate a feeling, and uses those emotions as a vessel to create discourse about an idea. The artist Timo[5] uses the medium of time-lapse photography and a light rod to capture multiple images of otherwise invisible WiFi signals, creating walls of light where WiFi signal is available for users. Timo is laying the foundation for a discussion about things prevalent in our lives which we are less aware of, and maybe even take for granted. In the art community, this type of idea will branch out into multiple wavelengths, expanding upon the artist original ideas, and hopefully creating discourse on those ideas within the artworld public.

Artists like JR[6], winner of the 2011 TED prize, have learned to explore their mediums and involve others in their in order to spread the commentary outward from each work of art. JR has been successful at recognizing universal ideas revealed to him through issues in media and through face to face contact with people who both influence and are influenced by his work. By making public art he is involving people who may not begin as an art public, but through the involvement and impact of his works become part of the artworld public because they come to understand the significance of the messages imbedded in it. The people whom JR photographs will come to understand they are participating in cultural and social commentary. He creates a larger art public by involving his subject matter and allowing them to spread the meaning of the works. Because the works are images from the cultures in which they are displayed, the layers of meaning are gradually peeled back and understood by each individual culture’s public. This ripple of cultural pride and awareness spreads and creates eventually a common ground to connect different cultures together. JR’s work is an example of work that successfully communicates the artist’s ideas and imbeds them in the minds of the viewers.

Art is not just art because it is in the public realm. Art must be critiqued and commented on with the knowledge of both objective and subjective content. A viewer must be able to look at the subject matter and use of formal elements and use those to infer meaning. Furthermore, the viewer must have knowledge on which to base their understanding of the work. While art may be a form of indulgence or fun, when speaking of the Fine Arts, art must be made with the intent of creating discussion and spreading ideas while creating something that is visually interesting.

[1] “Institutional Theory of Art and the Art World,” http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/Institutional-theory-artworld.html (accessed Jan. 15,2012).

[1] http://www.banksy.co.uk/index.html (accessed Jan.15,2012).

[1] ibid

[1] ibid

[1] “Immaterials: Light painting WiFi,” http://vimeo.com/20412632 (accessed Jan. 5,2012).

[1] “JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out,”TED 2011, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html (accessed Jan. 20,2012).

Contemporary Art: An Introduction

In the artworld, questions often arise about what art is, who makes it, who is good at making art, how and why art is made. There is an endless list of reasons and answers for all these questions; many are conflicting or oversimplified since we all perceive art and the making of art so differently. Through a set of journalistic essays I hope to give insight into the contemporary practices of the artworld. For those who are unfamiliar with the art realm, and for those who know it well, there may be provided a clearer understanding of what art is, based on its components of exploring media in combination with the physical and spiritual aspects of the messages behind art, and how those concepts relate to how art has evolved from traditional methods.

In attempts to spread light on the context of art making and the artworld, an institutional definition can be prescribed. But however essential this basis is for the way we understand concepts in art, it is also necessary to walk through each of the different ways art is made, and what genres and concepts are in practice today, and overall how artists are using these methods and concepts to make works which create discourse about the very specific and intentional ideas that are communicated through them. Considering who makes art and what they are trying to communicate, to themselves and to others, directly addresses the foundations of what art is and what its purpose is.

As a conglomerate, the following essays will act as a guideline for existing in the frame of the artworld public and spreading awareness to create a larger artworld public: the artworld public being people who approach art with a knowledge and willingness to understand and respond to works of art. Just as art may aim to create discourse about topics and ideas relevant in today’s world, I aim to help set a standard of for how art should be made and viewed.