James G: Ali, Suh, Zittel, Hawkinson

The artists presented this week all seem to speak about postmodern ideas. Layla Ali’s comic books are vague and lowbrow which are then translated into the gallery space. The combination of a high level of interpretation and the lowbrow comic book relates this very similarly to Barry McGee from last week, who worked with graffiti. I think graffiti and comic books are both considered some sort of low art, and postmodern thinking throws this into the “high” forms of art.
Do-Ho Suh and Andrea Zittel both work with this idea of home. Do-Ho Suh makes immense sculptures of houses or living spaces out of fabric. These installations include fabric shelves and fabric stairways. He works with this idea of carrying his house with him wherever he goes. Andrea Zittel is working with ideas about consumerism and daily life. Much like Do-Ho Suh many of her works are portable, but they are also meant to be self sufficient and practical.
Tim Hawkinson is working with machinery to make large installation pieces. Rhythmic dripping, organic air musicals, or a motorized face all work similarly towards making an automated system. He is interesting because he is working completely differently than the other artists in the same sort of installation setting that both Suh and Zittel are utilizing.

James G

Laylah Ali, Do-Ho Suh, Andrea Zittel, and Tim Hawkinson-by RY

Through the exploration of videos and writings on different artists it can, most often, be decided what movement the work can be categorized as. In the particular work of Andrea Zittel, this distinction is one that seems very iffy. With a strong emphasis on progress, Zittel’s work strides to create environments that aid in performance and the enhancement of space. Through pieces that can easily switch uses and stride to stay true to the initial intentions of the materials, this artist creates a strong message on how the world can become a more efficient space. Even in her fabric and textile work Andrea speaks about her intent to not “destroy” the original creation of the material, but instead utilize its shape and form. Some of these tendencies seem to lead conclusions to that of a Post-Modern mind set, but the strong sense of progress pushes my decision to that of a Modernist outlook.
Tim Hawkinson’s work is one that seems to be far more clearly defined in its categorization. Utilizing found objects as well as the inclusion of different types of media and mechanisms, this work falls into that of Post-Modernist ideals. Creating large pieces like Uberorgan, Hawkinson uses found materials such as fishing net while also including multi-media aspects like as photosensitive sensors. These pieces not only appeal to the visual sense, but also the auditory one. Viewers are able to walk through the pieces and in some ways interact with them. Although this artist seems to stride far into a realm of engineering and mapping out these intricate machines, his work style and creative mindset sets him apart from someone who is just creating a mechanic object. This conceptual distinction and Hawkinson’s creative mindset highlights this difference. It is this playful nature that nurtures a strong foundation in the Post-Modernist movement.
Do-Ho Suh is another artist that can be thrown into the category of the Post-Modernist. The work of this particular artist references the thought of a transportable living space which can be easily paired with some of the ideas of Andrea Zittel. Do-Ho Suh’s work however relates more to the idea of nostalgia. In the video Suh states that he created this process in an effort of finding a more active way of dealing with his feeling of longing for home. This displacement into a new city was a great contributor to this artist’s pieces. Sewing large fabric instillations that interact with the architecture that they are housed in, these pieces hang with an astonishing affect. The sheer nature of the fabric used as well as the impeccably sewn structures, establishes an extreme sense of awe when viewed. It is the nature of the work and the ingenuity of the use of materials that pushes the pieces into ideals of interaction and construction seen mostly in the work of Post-Modern artists.
Lastly, the artist Laylah Ali creates works that are also highly influenced also by an idea of memory and nostalgia. This idea of nostalgia however does not reference a distant homeland, but rather the large influence of television and cartoons on the artist’s mindset. Ali states that it was these two things that created her strong connection to the description of figures as two-dimensional forms. In pieces that hold a velvety visual quality because of the use of gauche paints, characters spring to action usually displaying a sort of violent natured act. It seems that Laylah Ali’s work style is one of great rigidity and one that in a sense turns her into a sort of machine. I felt that this idea related to those of Tim Hawkinson in a way, while also the artist can be related to Kara Walker in her stories about the confrontations of racism that she had experienced. The work stands quite distinctly from these two with direct visual references to comics and a color and visual quality of precise methodic decisions. The use of the comic structure for a newer message and meaning strides closely to the Post-Modern way of thought and places this artist decidedly into this category.

Images of Folkert De Jong, a guy I mentioned in class a month ago

Hope some of the images look familiar from the "classic" well known painters!

SAVE THE DATE!



The 11th Annual Postcards From the Edge benefit for Visual AIDS will be hosted by Metro Pictures on January 9-10, 2009.

Preview Party
Friday, January 9, 2009 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Your only chance to get a sneak peek at the entire show.

Benefit Sale - ONE DAY ONLY!
Saturday, January 10, 2009 from 11:00 - 6:00
Over 1500 original postcard-size works of art.
$75 EACH. Buy 4 cards and get 1 free!

Postcards From the Edge is a show and sale of original, postcard-sized artworks on paper by established and emerging artists. Offered on a first-come, first-served basis, each piece is exhibited anonymously, and the identity of the artist is revealed only after the work is purchased. With the playing field leveled, all participants can take home a piece by a famous artist, or one who’s just making his/her debut in the art world. Nonetheless, collectors walk away with something beautiful, a piece of art they love. For more details, visit

Attention Artists!
DEADLINE: Wednesday, December 10, 2008
We are looking for artists to donate a 4" x 6" original work on paper for the exhibition and sale. Painting, drawing, photography, printmaking and mixed media are all welcome. If you would like to participate in Postcards From the Edge, download submission forms at

External Sourcing Documentation and Glass Case Statement

Trapped, 2008. Television screens, Animation © James Giblin

"Trapped", an exhibition utilizing animation and screens, speaks about the troubling relationship that we as humans have to the digital world, which is oftentimes addictive. Three animations that use the upper body as a visual motif are shown on a loop interacting with the rectangular space of the screen in ways that speak to the isolation and self-entrapment that accompanies the widespread excessive use of computers and television. The monochromatic and overwhelmingly minimal quality of the exhibition space seeks to draw parallels between the vastness of the internet as well as reinforce concepts of isolation. "Trapped" is an investigation into this relatively new phenomenon of what can be called "multimedia addiction" that seeks to draw up questions relating to the ultimately solitary experience of digital worlds and addiction in general.

anna's writeup on suh, hawkinso, zittel, ali

Each of these artists could be categorized as Post Modern. Do-Ho Suh, Zittel, and Hawkinson could be seen as Conceptual as well. Zittel creates a 'lifestyle' as art. Do-Ho Suh creates sculptures from fabric (buildings you can fold up and take anywhere). Hawkinson uses his own body through photos, and everyday household and industrial items to create sculpture. Ali's paintings depict societal issues in a comic book style with glimpses of American folk art.

Andrea Zittel's intial inspiration came from a 200 sq ft apartment when she first moved to New York City. Do-Ho Suh's inspiration came from adjusting to noise and trying to get sleep while settling into his new apartment. both are affected by their living conditions, but concentrate on very different aspects of those conditions.

Suh's thought is to create a home you can take with you anywhere. This is a very comforting thought for anyone who's ever emigrated. The only piece of home that can be taken with you is usually just your memory of it. He creates fabric sculptures with a ghost-like feel, creating a sculptural memory of place.

Zittel's inspiration leads her to create her own company, A-Z Administrative Services, to hawk her ideas about daily living. while her company has employed non-established artists and her designs do inspire ideas about sustainable living, the artist is becoming her own corporation. It's ironic that her actual living experience consists of three homes, bi-coastal teaching jobs and businesses, while creating artworks as consumption. She actually seems to be living the ultimate consumer's dream. In the interview she states, "You keep thinking if you get another house, take another vacation, or that if you make more money, that it will free you up. But it only becomes a larger and larger web of entrapment." She doesn't seem to heed her own advice.

Tim Hawkinson's work in some ways is as ecological, in that he uses common household and industrial material to create his pieces. He also photographs his own face in body, as a way of saving time and not having to worry about copyrights, etc. if he was using other people's likenesses.

Laylah Ali's gouache paintings touch on society issues of violence and power. Her figures are stark and flat, like a cross between Egyptian art and Southpark. One of her projects was a collaboration with Dean Moss, who created a dance based on her paintings. This was surprising and scary to her because of the interaction with live people.

Two themes came to mind when learning about these artists. The first was, even though initial inspirations can come from a similar source, they can vary greatly in how we choose to express them. The secon thought was about collaboration. Zittel discusses communes, Ali collaborates with a choreographer, Do-Ho Suh explores the collective in his piece Some/One. It made me think of how this semester is really going by fast. In reworking our artists statements, what do we really want to convey? Each of us has a very different way of making art. How do we take what we've learned collectively to inform our own work?

Exclusively Postmodern

I feel a little bit trigger-happy with the postmodern label, but it seems as though all of these artists fit under that category.

Some of Do-Ho Suh's pieces seem to fit best in the postmodern movement, because he is essentially making replicas of pre-existing places in cloth, which seems to prove the post-modern theory that nothing is original.  His work questions reality by presenting us with a ghostly facsimile of it.

Andrea Zittel's line of art products is undoubtedly postmodern, because of its heavy emphasis on consumerism.  In fact, I found her work incongruous with her statements in the interview.  She talked about how people believe that owning more will free them, but that it is those very possessions that become "a larger and larger web of entrapment." I found this statement hypocritical, as the article mentions that she owns three homes, not to mention that her art comes in the form of "furniture, clothes, food, management units, living structures, even administrative services" that can actually be consumed. Imagine my relief when D.K. Row confronted her about this inconsistency, pointing out, "Aren't you manufacturing layers of consumption for yourself?" Needless to say, she avoided answering the question fully.  She could have so easily stated that her work was a critique of that vicious cycle, but she missed the chance.

Tim Hawkinson's images remind me of the dada collages.  He must fall under the postmodern heading because of his hodgepodge approach to image-making.

Layla Ali's comics are postmodern as well, just as Barry McGee's graffiti was.  Both of their mediums are considered low art and many think that their brand of art has no place in a gallery.  Consider the chain of events: modern artists made original work, which in turn was appropriated for advertising, which the postmodernists used in their work.  This translation of high art into low art back into high art is true of comic book artists as well.  

Assigning Movements

This exercise reminds me a little bit of trying in vain to chose a political party. None exactly fit what I believe in, yet I'm too stubborn to compromise on anything, so I've remained an independent, whatever that means. The same problem arises when I try to explain my work to someone who has never seen it and does not have a background in art. I resort to a strange string of hyphenated words, like fiber artist/cardboard-sculptor-inventor-of-impossible-objects...

Of course it's nearly impossible to accurately do the same for another artist, but I'll attempt it.

Ann Hamilton: (a fiber artist/sculptor/installation artist/performance artists/unconventional photographer) MODERN. (incidentally, the Walt Whitman poems she used were "Song of Myself" and "I Sing the Body Electric") 
McGee: (a graffiti/street artist)POSTMODERN.  He recontextualizes graffiti by placing it in a gallery and making it a desirable commodity instead of vandalism.

Kara Walker: (installation artist)POSTMODERN.  She references the silhouette portraits, but depicts caricatures of slaves and slave masters.
Shahzia Sikander: (painter/installation artist) A marriage between traditional eastern practice, which prizes conformity to a formula, and western art practice, which prizes individuality)  POSTMODERN

James G: Hamilton, Walker, McGee, Sikander

I feel like all the artists we read about are postmodern, with maybe the exception of Ann Hamilton. Modernist ideology was to reject tradition and be part of the avant-garde, while postmodernism rejects this notion of progress. Perhaps most obviously, Shahzia Sikander rejects this idea of the avant-garde and directly works within her traditions. Her personal identity is a strong influence in her miniature paintings, mixing her traditional Pakistani technical background with more Western ideas about content and expression.

Kara Walker is much like Sikander in the way that her personal identity is very relevent in her work. Her vinyl silhouettes draw reference to, as she mentioned, olden silhouette artists while, as the NYT article mentioned, keeping an “Old South Flavor.” The ambiguous figures and mini narratives call on the audience to piece it all together, a very postmodern idea.

Barry McGee, also following postmodernist ideas, makes an interesting distinction between what is and what is not “high” art. Preoccupied with his “street cred,” he works both inside and outside of the gallery space, using graffiti art as his aesthetic and medium. The use of low-brow medium in a high-brow place, such as a gallery, seems directly related to postmodern thinking. Interestingly, and perhaps hypocritically, Barry McGee desgined a shoe for ADIDAS, which I think is somewhat ironic considering he that he has complained about “trying to maintain a level head under the constant bombardment of advertising” and expressed many concerns about “selling out” in the video.

It is harder to get a read on where Ann Hamilton is coming from, because she very much is rejecting the traditions of classical art, and makes very conceptual installation pieces, which are definitely “advancing the guard.” But her highly abstract installations are also highly open to interpretation and rely on the viewer to take away their own interpretation. She is definitely in contrast to the other three artists we looked at this week. The others seem to be rejecting this idea of progress, that their work has to be “new,” but Ann Hamilton seems to be interested in this idea of progress.

James

Art 21: Past and Present

Within the readings and video segments centered on the well-known artists Shahzia Sikander, Barry McGee, Ann Hamilton, and Kara Walker, each individual seemed to speak greatly about the world around them. Creating statements through their art, these different artists each speak in an original and groundbreaking manner. Each creator uses their own perspective of the world and creates pieces that speak of the environment and cultures around them as well as their experiences with the things. With each reading and video centered on the individual artists the viewer is able to gain a general understanding about the artists’ processes, messages and perspectives. The viewer is also handed an opportunity to her each artist speak on their inspiration, which then aids in the realization of the artist’s evolution and content.
Ann Hamilton is an artist that creates many different types of pieces, from ideas founded in media presentation to more instillation-type artworks. Hamilton seems to stand out in a world of many creative minds because of her distinct ideas of line and the ingenuity that can be seen in her use of certain materials. In one piece that is highlighted in the video segment, Ann uses her mouth as a pinhole camera to create a new take on the relationship to the photographed object, as well as the artist placing one’s self into a situation of vulnerability. Hamilton is shown creating an instillation piece entitled “Tropos” that focuses on the movement of line and transforming it into a sort of epic journey. Through such pieces it seems that this artist was not only influenced by line, but also by the idea of capturing a moment much like that of the impressionist mindset. Striving to show the evolution of line over time and the perspective of a person, or camera, Hamilton creates a new way of capturing a moment of time that shows her own personal ideas as well as partakes in the experience of the viewer which is a more post-modernist stand point.
Creating dramatic silhouettes the fill up walls, rooms, and even animated media pieces Kara Walker finds a seemingly simple way to express her view of the world as well as her creativity. Through the video segment Walker is seen as a strong woman who channels the struggle of African Americans through out history in order to create pieces that use a simplistic presentation and somewhat devious imagery. Within the silhouettes that seem to depict stereotypical images of slavery in America and era surrounding it, Kara twists the description of figures into images that may seem simplistic and creates a more interesting and thought provoking experience. With figures that evolve into grotesque and sexual images, the interaction with Walker’s pieces creates a strong message on the views that address identity, racism and sexuality. With this transformation of representation, as well as breaking down walls of subtly, this work stands strongly in the ideals of Walker’s historical perspective and the post-modernist mindset. Walker’s art becomes about experiencing these tainted compositions as well as discovering that everything may not be what it seems. While maintaining this interaction the pieces also address issues such as race and sexuality, which both remain very current and controversial, in a fairly novel method.
Shahzia Sikander is an artist that devotes her time to creation that is bound to the very traditional form of Western art of the page. Creating pieces that mostly focus on the idea of small but elaborately detailed paintings, Sikander is another artist who comments on her cultural background as well as her personal history. In one segment from the videos Sikander speaks greatly on the idea of transforming words into movement and figurative formations that create an image rather than a legible text. This idea strides away from that of those of what may be traditional in Pakistani and Western art of the page, but still shows us the inspiration that has be taken from this area. Sikander can be seen very obviously as a Post-Modernist in the way she relates to the transformation of traditional representations, like in her manipulation of words, while also becoming very relevant to carrying on a culturally traditional art form and adapting it for a different time period. This is a mindset that could also be linked to that of the Dada movement in its approach to poetry. At this period of time and in this mindset the meaning of words were being stripped away so that the viewer was forced to experience more of the words’ aesthetic qualities rather than the meanings that have been inflicted on them by scholars throughout history.
The last artist is one that throws his attention to the streets and the ideas and philosophies that take refuge there. Barry McGee is an artist that focuses greatly on graffiti styles and transforms these methods to fit into the space in which he is working. Although Barry states a sense of uncomfortably with the idea of galleries when compared to placing his work out in the streets of the public, he successfully carries the ideas of graffiti art over into a space that might not be seen as the conventional form for the particular subject matter. When placed in a show with the artist known as SWOON, the gallery is transformed into an environment where the viewers can experience and in some ways interact with the art work. The art takes a turn from being confronted in a wide open space to one that is almost thought of as intimidating when spoken on by SWOON. The characteristics of McGee’s work bring the idea of the low-brow artist off the streets and into a venue that is perceived by many as a far more respectable one. This distinction and struggle between the two environments becomes and large commentary in the work of Barry McGee and SWOON. It becomes a commentary on how art is broken down into categories which then influence the level of respect it should typically receive. With ideals and inspiration taken from graffiti of the 1970’s both artists, much like those that were discussed above, transform their chosen medium in a way that allows them to comment on the issues of today’s current societal state as well as personal artistic viewpoints.