Artist Series: Hamilton, Sikander, McGee, & Walker

What enables an artist to create a work of art that they become fully invested in? PBS’s Art 21 documentary series attacks this question from all angles. Featured artists Ann Hamilton, Shahzia Sikhander, Barry McGee, and Kara Walker have each developed a breadth of work that explores common themes such as spirituality, place, and storytelling. Our class’ reading accompaniments offer an expansion upon these themes and focus on each specific artist’s work, while giving the reader an art critic’s personal interpretation and reaction.

            Ann Hamilton stresses the importance of verbal language and it’s ability to be broken down into abstracted and fragmented visceral experiences. This different way of seeing with fresh ideas of natural materials and functions can define Hamilton as a modern artist. Her thoughts and experimentation with different mediums plays a progressive and conceptual role. Intuitive experience is essential within her work entitled tropos. Viewing sections of a whole, such as a strand of thread for example, Hamilton connects this building block and it’s capabilities to a bigger scheme of thought, just as words within sentences. This process takes on a spiritualistic resonance to Hamilton that she interprets and defies within her fiber pieces and art installations. Lynne Cooke’s essay on Hamilton’s tropos installation at the Dia in Beacon, discusses the artist’s continual interest in visceral experiences, especially leading an audience into them. Her choice of tactile material like the terrain of horsehair enveloping the gallery floor, and her manipulation of light, transform and transfer familiar space and substances into a realm that challenges or provokes viewers innate tendencies to act towards these stimuli (tropos). Experiences can be of a spiritual sense regardless their connection to a god or supernatural force. In the words of Cooke, “ experience for Hamilton, leads to knowledge, or, more precisely, to a form of knowledge which is far greater value and significance than mere codified information.” I believe Hamilton’s act of making things is a spiritual process that creates a whole entity and experience when finished. This end result becomes something that can take on new meaning and definition.

            New meaning and definition is a perfect lead-in to Shahzia Sikander and her modification of traditional miniature paintings. Her work, constantly combating the exoticised tags of being simply “Asian” or “Pakistani”, offers more than its roots to a methodical and ritualistic process. Sikander addresses contemporary issues within her work; and incorporates personalized imagery that she develops out of memory. Breaking tradition, her paintings vary in scale from small book leaflets to large elaborate gallery installations. I admire Shahzia’s carefully executed and patience-required process. In a sense, this method of becoming so focused and engulfed within a meticulously painted work becomes a spiritual meditation. An approach to painting such as this should not be overlooked, but more importantly overshadow the important themes and conflicts Sikander includes within her work. Her ethnicity surely plays an important part in her art, but it is not confined to Muslim or Pakistani culture. Many of her paintings reference the Italian Renaissance (Venus’ Wonderland) and/or American pop culture as well. Sikander meshes Eastern and Western mythology and identities with a post-modern flair and in turn creates a unique and personalized line of work accessible to anyone.

            From working within the confines of a gallery to tagging highly trafficked city streets, Barry McGee is shown as a versatile graffiti artist whose art is accessible to an array of people depending on location. John Haber’s art review of Deitch Project’s Barry McGee and SWOON show highlights the dichotomy of space and place in conjunction to how a gallery functions in comparison to an outside urban setting when dealing with “urban” or “low-brow” art. McGee’s post-modern work pulls inspiration from graffiti artists of the 70s and 80s, tramp art, and Mexican murals. His highly characterized figures and use of found objects have been painted and adhered to gallery walls. Place is an essential component to McGee’s art, thus taking it out of it’s context within an environment where it is usually frowned upon into a setting where it is welcome, takes on a different connotation.

            Kara Walker’s work can be interpreted as the prevalence of racism throughout history and in modern times. Her post-modern approach in depicting stereotypical silhouettes of African-Americans, characterized white southern belles, and southern gentile men, refer to America’s racial discrimination and segregated past. But these depictions concurrently spark a reflection and create dialog between generations and race. Her contemplative approach to controversial topics and presenting them in such an uncomfortable juxtaposition to her viewers opens her work up to many interpretations as well as negative and positive reactions.

            Ann Hamilton, Shahzia Sikander, Barry McGee, and Kara Walker, are artists of the 21^st century who offer new insights on today’s modern culture as well as the past. The incorporation of general themes such as place, identity, sexuality/gender roles, spirituality, and storytelling, help viewers understand an aspect of their work. This general idea of subject and or art “genre” can then become expanded and unfolded even broken up into something quite more elaborate and personal to both artist and viewer.

Cody & Mcgee,walker,hamilton,sikander

After viewing these artists and reading the articles presented about them, it is obvious that their relationships with art very similar, Ann Hamilton stands out.

McGee and Swoon present themselves as graffiti artists who have refined their work to fit a gallery setting. This in itself almost contradictory and McGee tells about how he finds it difficult to keep the street crowd’s respect of him. He says for every inside work, he tries to do one hundred outside to keep his credibility. It’s always fairly clear that most intense graffiti artists have created their styles and usage from their own culture o living in a highly urban area. Shahzia Sikander also uses her cultural background in her artwork.
Sikander focuses on religion, painting miniature paintings in the classical Middle Eastern fashion. She incorporates her own feelings of the strain of living in a volatile area, religion and society. Sikander uses her experiences with life to send the message of Muslim women and women’s oppression. Her artwork is a direct result of her cultural background and when/where she is living.
Kara Walker uses her cultural identity as an African American woman to act as a catalyst between our society and its past. Her blatantly minimalist works include black silhouettes of harsh scenes that play on black stereotypes and factual events from the older generations. Her works encompass issues within race, violence, sexuality and identity with such a minimal piece of art.

Now it is apparent that many artists use their cultural identity as inspiration for their works, whether it is in style or in message. Ann Hamilton uses mostly external sourcing to fuel her next projects. For instance, the camera from the mouth was externally sourced in her examination of the eye as a camera and to push that idea further to the mouth. She also focuses a lot of attention on the notion of line. This is transparently external, much like my materially inspired phase, so she explores how far line will take her.

Lauren & art21

Of the four artists reviewed, Ann Hamilton is the only one who can be more rightly described as modernist rather than post-modernist. The way she views the world is highly conceptual, and the methid in which she presents he concepts through her works is often in the “advant garde” theme. You get the sense she wants us to look at the world around us in a way we haven’t experienced before, like her mouth-camera portraits and her fascination with the concept of the line.

The other three artists are better classifies as post-modernist:

McGee and Swoon, in trying to be respectable artist but retain their “street” cred, bounce off the origin of graffiti while also re-interpreting it in a way that is suitable for an art gallery installation. I didn’t think much o their work but I thought the whole idea of tailoring one’s work for a specific space that represents the culture we live in, even as the work itself comes from something that’s about defying convention and putting a mark where it doesn’t belong is more than a little amusing.

KaraWalker and Shahzia Sikande lend themselves as the most obviously post-modern, because both of them are very influenced by their backgrounds and how their history relates to the world around them. Sikande goes for an extremely global interpretation that is both informed by her Pakistani background, but also must reject it to some extent. It creates a really interesting identity paradox. Walker deals with culture in a much more personalized way, dealing with loaded subjects like racism and telling them with a very stark, poignant use of silhouettes. Of all the artists, I like Walker the best because of the way she utilizes such a minimalist visual to tell such complex and jarring narratives. I also like how she does not shy away from controversy; she creates images that illicit a reaction from both the black and white communities for very different reasons, and uses her work to force people to confront issues we’d rather avoid. It is very easy for an artist who deals with such a loaded issue to fall into the visceral-reaction category—making art just to get a rise out of people, to play up on easy targets like white guilt and black anger—but I don’t find her work to fall into that category. She handles the issues deftly and interestingly, and even more importantly the impact of the work itself lives up to her intent.

anna's art21 writeup

In both viewing and reading about McGee, Swoon, Hamilton, Skiandar, and Walker, all can be looked at as storytellers.

Ann Hamilton is shown during the sprituality segment, but with her simple, yet ingenious pin-hole mouth camera, she becomes like some sort of intimate roving reporter. The images her mouth camera create are immediate and intimate. In the video she states how the mouth actually mimics the shape of the eye, and she sees herself as the pupil within. She also creates that same feeling for the viewer, as if we were able to stand within her line of vision.

Shahzia Skiandar also is featured in the sprituality portion. She adds both history and the personal to her traditional miniature paintings. In this she combines Hindu and Muslim culture. I wonder how much of this would be lost on most western viewers, as many people don't understand the differences of and Indian Sikh and a Pakistani Muslim. After 9/11, people were being attacked for wearing a turban. Many were Indian Sikhs, who are not Muslim (not that Muslims should've been attacked anyway, but were, due to ignorance and fanatacism). I actually liked her wall pieces, where she uses layers of papers with paintings, patterns of light, making them luminous and mysterious.

Kara Walker is the one artist under the stories category. Her silhouettes are powerful. I like how she said she chose them because of the way you cannot look at the subject directly. This is the perfect vehicle to bring home our own attitudes we won't address directly. We are onthe cusp of possibly electing our first African-American president, yet reacism still shows itself (in a more subtle way). Everyone says how monumental and wonderful it is, but really it is a shame that it has taken this long to come about.

Barry McGee and Swoon re-create street scenes in gallery installations. Beginning as graffiti artists who have crossed over into the mainstream, it reminds me of the band that makes it big. McGee wonders about his relevance to today's graffiti kids, and whether or not he has sold out. Swoon and McGee though, are telling stories about those streets through their installations.

Graffiti has become mainstream because they found a way to make money off of it. Graffiti markings can be unsightly and crude, but they also tell stories about the surroundings. Both Picasso and the French photographer Brassai shared a love for the graffiti carvings in France. Brassai photographed these, and later the sprayed graffiti in color on his only visit to America. He was fascinated with how these walls would change over time, old images would morph into new ones, continuing the stories of its' surroundings.

Matthew Day Jackson, "Terranaut"

Check out the wonderfully creepy wrinkled wall install.
Check out his work

this friday

Dear All,

If possible, I highly recommend you attend the artist presentations this Friday 12-3pm. These are three finalists the Department and School have invited to propose for site-specific work in conjunction with the new building. The artists will discuss their process and make a formal proposal in order to aquire the bid to be the finalist. Artists are working with a budget that will have to be considered in their presentation... it should be REALLY informative.
(The artists are Willie Cole, Jonathan Shahn, and Chakaia Booker)

The meeting is in the ADMIN SERVICES BLDG (look on tcnj map, if you are not aware of it) rooms 103 and 203.

PLEASE RSVP to me with a yes or no, so I can give a final headcount to the Dean.

THANKS!!!

Nadia and Barthes and Warhola

I feel like I can't even say, "Death of the Author" by Barthes because it would contradict his entire essay. This essay actually took me back to my first year at the college taking an approaches to lit class. My professor threw two poems at us and said, "One of these is good and one of these is bad." After reading the poems (The authors and titles escape me, It was 3 years ago) I concluded that first one was very open to interpretation whereas the second one was much more specific and personal. The second poem was certainly not easy to relate to and it was also the poem that earned the most merit in my professor's eyes. You could essentially figure out the author without ever being told.


Warhol truly had a way of unifying his life and his work almost completely and at the same time managing to keep himself personally out of a majority of the works. It's interesting to once again encounter one of his more well known quotes, "In the future everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes" because he totally called it. I feel that if Andy were alive today he would fit in perfectly with the advent of reality TV. Sure, he was shrewd and at times stresses this lack of emotion, but I think this technique benefited him as a business man. The lack of emotion is what makes him fascinating. As artists we tend to conduct pieces based on feelings. Feelings and emotions are bursting out of almost every kind of art, but what a concept to create art that tries to make us numb to all emotion. He states, "...Because the more you look at the same exact thing, the more meaning goes away, and better and emptier you feel."

External Sourcing Documentation

James G: Warhol, Barthes, and that dude who talks to himself

The readings this week talk about the way audience responds and interprets art, how they should interact with art. In “Death of the Author,” Barthes suggests there should be a disconnection between the artist and the audience. He feels that artwork or literature should stand alone with no regard for who made it. He feels that if the author’s biography is taken into consideration a caricature of the author/artist casts a cloud over the work which then prevents it from being properly analyzed.

Lucas Samaras says that he wants to protect himself from other people’s imagination. Lucas Samaras seems to simultaneously want to keep himself separate from the audience and be accepted by them. Within half a page he says “most of my work was done to prove to others including myself that I was an artist” and then that he is running away from people’s evaluations. He doesn’t want the audience to interpret his work, but he makes it anyway. It is an interesting question whether or not the artist and the audience should have a relationship, or just the audience and the artwork.

There is no direct contact between the artist and the audience, the only communication is the artwork. There isn’t an ongoing dialogue between the two, the artist throws his work into the world, and then it is consumed by masses with the artist having no say over how the audience digests it. I think that aspect scares Lucas Samaras.

In contrast, Andy Warhol probably thought it is a wonderful idea that his artwork could be treated like a commodity, to be consumed and digested without his say in the matter. Andy Warhol says that his work is distant from himself, that there is only surface to the work. He doesn’t seem to want there to be an interpretation at all, just consumption.

Exhibition and external documentation - Lauren

Case exhibition:




External sourcing: