Sense of abandonment and invisibility takes theme for Great Britain in this Venice Biennale

The more and more read about Great Britain's entries for the Venice Biennale a sense of familiarity in theme crops up. That it seems is an overall focus on abandonment and invisibility. Scotland's representative Martin Boyce on visiting the site initially for his proposed work at a 15th Century 'Palazzo Pisani', states, ' There was something in the atmosphere and the journey through the different rooms that stayed with me...It had a sense of abandonment.....For some reason I kept imagining the Palazzo as an abandoned garden'.1 His sculptural/installation, 'No Reflections' disrupts the dichotomy between constructed space and real/natural space together with displacing the original building's solidarity or roots reinterpreting your perception of the space. It's the perceived abandonment of the Palazzo that led Boyce to envision the exterior natural space re-entering and re-gaining or sweeping in on the lost space. Boyce's use of, chain made bins and bits of furniture and bedframes adds a sad sense of abandonment to the space. However then there are deconstructed letters on the wall and Boyce has replaced the Venetian chandeliers with Constructivist sculpture in black aluminium which begins to stir up Boyce's previous preoccupation with constructed space, it's interesting that he's deconstructed the letters? Any sense of the living/history, natural elements or resources he sucks the life out of or turns into the functional/constructed. The main piece includes two for one, 'A River in the Trees' and 'Evaporated Pools'. The use of concrete stepping stones together with fake leaves and a dryed up or 'marble pool' again restates his theme of constructed, superficial space. Such abandonment of nature leads to the title, 'No Reflections'. Amazingly this was Boyce's first visit to Venice and clearly it had a huge impact, he commented on the lack of traffic and a general sense of abandonment throughout the city, interesting that he takes Venice's central feature water and drains the life out of it so as to refuse reflection. The piece is quite powerful in the sense that he dares to take the 'majestic beauty' out of Venice, naturally and historically and instead replace it with the irony of a new re-interpreted/ fake 'natural beauty' constructed for you, nature becoming invisible. It raises many questions within the context of one of the places in the World valued so much for it's natural beauty and light together with it's position as forefronter in the creation of constructed artistic beauty. Is it about loss of respect for nature, natural beauty, abandonment of nature/invisibility of its value, the power of the man- made to control and overpower nature and beauty?
What's very strange is that Brit representative Steve McQueen in his video, 'Giardini' takes an almost too simalar approach to that of Boyce, his two screen film piece revolving around Venice mid-winter, post Biennale, post season, post peak life or presence. He again breaks away from conventional views or perceptions of Venetian life but rather than reconstructing nature McQueen presents the winter wildlife of Venice as eerie minimalistic vision of the area around Giardini. What both Boyce and McQueen do take from Venice however, that seeps into their work is a feeling of the gothic,the British Pavilion as the 'haunted castle on the hill'. The 'invisibility' of unseen aspects of Venice or the 'everyday', wild dogs, rain, bells chiming in the background become elevated in importance visually in his minimalist approach. A work very different from his other politically rooted works such as Camera D'Or winner Hunger, 2008 based on the 1981 IRA hunger strikes, focused on Bobby Sands and the British governments treatment of him or his ongoing Queen and Country project which juxtaposes the images of soldiers who've lost their lives in Iraq with the Queen's head on individual stamps as commemorations.
As mentioned in an earlier post the Wales representative this year is Velvet Underground's John Cale with his audio-visual work, 'Dark Days'. Here Cale looks back to his roots and produces a work which expresses the struggle between the disbanding of his homeland and reasons for doing so expressed in the title and respect for his beginnings in the Welsh Youth Orchestra and family. Cale bears resemblance to the above works also in his approach to filming adding a ghostly gothic feel to the piece through his audio/visual autobiographical journey through his old house, focusing on everyday features and his phantom piano playing within the spiritual Welsh chapel, at one point he sits, gets up, sits but never once ends up playing the piano. Its almost a ghostlike travelling back through his past, a past thats there, that made him but was abandoned due to its 'darkness'. He also combines narration, Welsh rugby anthems and the violin one note humming creating ambient edgy moods throughout enhancing artistic experience.However the darkness appears again in the contrasting of this with images of waterboarding, highlighting how the nostalgia contrasts with torture, he himself has claimed he abandoned his home as he felt there was more out there. He wanted to be visible.
Finally the last artist is an extremely interesting up and coming one, Northern Ireland's representative, Susan MacWilliam. She is known for her focus on the paranormal and psychic perception and investigation, focusing on the laboratorial and scientific processes involved. The work is titled, 'Remote Viewing' and involves three works, there is Dermo Optics, 2006 in which she travels to the Dermo Optical Laboratory of Dr Yvonne Duplessis in Paris, where she becomes involved in experiments testing ‘fingertip vision' or a sensory technique in which the eye vision/visiblity is denied as proof. An example of this is an ability to say visualise the colour of something just by touching it say blindfolded. Of course there's a fine art approach to filming, enhancing the experience of the event.The next work is 'Eileen', a fine art biography of the famous Irish medium, Eileen J. Garrett. It features interviews with family and friends and so takes a personal subjective approach studying the social interaction in her life combined with the objective relationship between camera and psychic both portals of exposure, one of life and one of the afterlife.Both exposing a sense of invisibility or the 'unknown', one the scientific depth of parapsychology and the parapsychic scientific process in life many of us don't have a clue about and the other a connection or interaction with a possible afterlife/afterworld.
Finally a series of photographs by Thomas Glendinning Hamilton takes place in the work, F-L-A-M-M-A-R-I-O-N, 2009.The title references French astronomer and psychical researcher Camille Flammarion and also includes a redevelopment of TG Hamilton’s séance cabinet, the Belfast poet/writer Ciaran Carson together with poltergeist researcher Dr. William G Roll.

1 Boyce,M., 'Visual Arts Review: Martin Boyce', 2009, 05/06/09, http://www.scotlandandvenice.com/news/visual-arts-review-martin-boyce

First British showing of Luke Fowler's films at Serpentine

Winner of the Jarman Award 2008 for filmakers and having gained international success it's now time for the Glaswegian to showcase in Britain at the Serpentine until the 14th June. The Jarman Award recognises filmakers who move outside of the filmaking box, pushing boundaries and refreshing perception, Fowler has been compared by critics to the 50s New Wave of British filmakers who broke the mould with their kitchen-sink realism and gritty filming, idealism flushed down the toilet.Fowler produced four 3 minute wonders for Channel Four which involved taking 'everyday life' as a subject. He documents flat tenants, Anna, Helen, David and Lester, in the Victorian house Fowler he used to live in in the West End of Glasgow, some being his neighbours whom he never met previously. Fowler claims he's interested mostly in the relationships of people and between them but approaches filming in his own unconventional way. He takes his work one step further when he moves from everyday subject-matter to individuals who too break with convention in their lives, biographies of unconvention represented unconventionally.For example their is Pilgrimage From Scattered Points, 2006, which covers Cornelius Cardew, an English composer who broke tradition with his alternative, experimental Scratch Orchestra. In The Nine Monads of David Bell, 2006, the life of David, a patient at Kingsley Hall, a centre set up by rebel psychiatrist R.D. Laing. This is a personal project for Fowler who experienced the treatment of mental illness within his own family. Laing believed madness was a product of family and society nothing else and used radical techniques and experimented with LSD in his treatments. Fowler follows Bell’s psychological journey within this context together with including a film that recreates his dreams. Works on paper, including newspapers, which Bell wrote and expressed on are also included.

The depth of Raqib Shaw at White Cube

Raqib Shaw is one fascinating artist with a depth of character and expression that is overwhelming, just viewing his studio within an interview on White Cube's website you get a grasp of his intensity. The gallery appears more of a florists or botanists dream swarmed by rainbows of colour that radiate from the varied flower arrangements invading clusters of his working space, fit for a small wedding. His gallery emanates the vivid palette his works portray highlighting the Persian miniature influence and Indian/Kasmir heritage. The many flowers highlight the importance of nature and a connection to it's flora, fauna, behaviour, power and good and bad forces to him and his work. The title to this show, 'Abscence of God' relates personally to his exposure to Muslim, Hindu and Christian doctrines providing him with a multicultural interpretation of 'God' and 'his' representation. Shaw's work pays definite and clear reference to Persian miniatures that began in the 13th Century but peaked in the 15th and 16th Century.For example you can see a clear parallel in the work of Sultan Muhammed, in works such as "Miraj" (Muhammad's ascent), 1539-43 which like Raqib obtains a depth of intricacy that constantly tickles and tintilates the senses while holding gaze through it's depth of discovery or tale. Raqib's depth is constantly penetrable allowing reinterpretation after reinterpretation but provides a fantasising escapism unlike any other works. Raqib's work are by no means miniature, they take that concept and multiply it repeatedly, he has seven paintings on show here the biggest reaching seven metres. Also featured is his first large sculptural installation titled, 'Adam'. On coming to England Shaw became influenced by Hans Holbein the Younger and in the paintings references his 'Dance of Death' a series of wood engravings. Holbeins miniature or book design and other works are of definite influence and a reproduction of some works aids his own. As with many artists there is a clear interest for Shaw in life and death, mother nature, heaven and hell, Bosch's style relates. In 'Abscence of God VII' its shown how in this exhibition Shaw interveaves classical architecture into his fantasyland integrating West and East. What is most interesting about these works however are the narratives they create, mixing fictional grotesque hybrids with the purity of intricate butterflies, portraying himself as a butterfly catcher hybrid with a broken net. Added to the spectacle of the fantasy is his expansion of palette, a bit like an Indian dish filled with depth of flavour and spice his works involve enamel, acryclic and are transported into fiction via the use of glitter and rhinestones. The vivid palette of colours used projects like an indian spice rack, powerful and bold yet fragmented into a world of fantasy via the use of a scroll to manipulate the surface and create many characters within nature's beauty.
His works have so much to them they can tell a hundred stories time and time again, his liking to Rimbaud is very apparent. While his works portray a rainbow of beauty they also take you to a darker side as does Rimbaud:

'For Hurrah! the wind whistles at the skeletons' grand ball!
The black gallows moans like an organ of iron !
The wolves howl back from the violet forests:
And on the horizon the sky is hell-red...'1

While the paintings take a calmer stance in this exhibition his sculpture, 'Adam' creates an uncomforting disturbing very life-like vision, Adam's head is replaced with that of a bald-like bird, a more crow- like one who is being wrestled by a human-sized highly detailed lobster. There is no surrealism to this though, here fantasy is brought alive, almost as if you were reading Lord of the Rings or Terry Pratchett and the characters suddenly appeared, dark fictional hybrids within your reality.

1 Arthur Rimbaud, 'Dance of the Hanged Men', Document from site Arthur Rimbaud, http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Dance.html, 30th May 2009, from site http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/index-en.php

Arte Povera not so 'poor' it seems..

Tate Modern, London has re-hung one of its wings on level 5 encompassing works revolved around the theme of 'Energy and Process' and by the sounds of critics it is proving to be a great success. What seems to be attracting the most attention apart from Anselm Kiefer is a focus on the 1960s-70s Italian movement, Arte Povera ('poor art') coined by Germano Celant as curator of an exhibition in Genoa in 1967. Although Italy flourished from 1960 with migration from the South slowing down, by 1963 the Socialist Party took over Italy which led to a multitude of problems resulting in the increasing popularity of workers unions, the rising of inflation to account for promised pay rises and eventual economic decline. Student protesting accompagnied this labour protest involving disconcern for Communism, religion, consumerism, traditional family values. Artists from Turin, Milan, Rome and Genoa all formed part of the group, most then being from the poorer half of Italy, bar Rome and used everyday materials to create sculpture, photos, installations, pastiche. It was a focused anti-formal art, leftist based that fulfills process through, '.. the discovery, the exposition, the insurrection of the magic and marvelous value of natural elements...What the artist comes into contact with is not re-elaborated; he does not express a judgement on it, he does not seek a moral or social judgement..he draws from the substance of the natural event..' and from this, 'The first discoveries of this dispossession are the finite and infinite moments of life; the work of art and the work that identifies itself with life; the dimension of life as lasting without end...the explosion of the individual dimension as an aesthetic and feeling communion with nature; unconsciousness as a method of consciousness of the world...for an abandonment of reassuring recognition that is ontinually imposed on him by others and by the social system.'1 Clearly there was a clear retreat back to mother nature for answers and experience due to decreased confidence in socio-political factors and the idealism of consumerism. Arte Povera looked for a more ephemeral mindfulness that lived in the momentary interconnectivity of nature not bound by any didactic control, influence or archetype. Everyday objects in combination with natural elements were popular mediums for 'povera's' expression. Michelangelo Pistoletto's, ' The Venus of the Rags', initiated in 1967, features a copy of Venus classical marble statue facing a huge pile of everyday clothes.Other artists included are Giovanni Anselmo, Lynda Benglis, Anselm Kiefer, Susumu Koshimizu, Ana Mendieta, Marisa Merz, Robert Morris and Michelangelo Pistoletto. Galleries featuring Land art should enhance and stir multitudes of perceptional experience.
Other works by Arte Povera artists have included:
Giovanni Anselmo, 'Untitled, 1968' /'Eating Structure' involves a lettuce squeezed between a large granite block and a smaller granite block, stabilised via copper wire. Once the lettuce deteriorates the wire slackens and the small stone topples. To regain balance fresh 'natural product or lettuce' must be re-added. There's a clear reference to the insertion of nature and it's contribution to balance or bridge the gap between larger forces and the smaller ones.
Alighiero Boetti works with the dichotomy of chance and order, classification, culture and looks 'outside of Western traditions'. He is renowned for a series of embroidered world maps, aided by crafts-workers from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Each country is embroidered as it's national flag but obviously the fact he didn't use embroiderers from each individual country (and of non-Western) raises questions of nationalism, Western control, non- Western regain.The process of 'stitching' also used as a process during a time of global social , economic and political turmoil with Vietnam, Communism and Consumerism is also interesting. "For me the work of the embroidered Mappa is the maximum of beauty. For that work I did nothing, chose nothing, in the sense that: the world is made as it is, not as I designed it, the flags are those that exist, and I did not design them; in short I did absolutely nothing; when the basic idea, the concept, emerges everything else requires no choosing." Alighiero e Boetti, 1974 ² Clearly here is how chance and order play a part in this work.
Obviously these works reflect many conceptual ideas well known to the present but context still separates them and provides fresh inspiration, influence and re-interpretation within contemporary gallery space and arrangement under theme and interaction with variable works.

1 Art in Theory 1900-1990 An Anthology of Changing Ideas, Harrison, C. and Wood, P., Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 1992, pg. 887
2 Quoted in Mappa, Luca Cerizza, Afterall Books, 'Alighiero Boetti', 2008,cited in Wikipedia, viewed 30th May 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alighiero_Boetti

New Sculpture park, 'Jupiter Artland' opens in West Lothian, Scotland set to add 'alternative twist' to artworld

Jupiter Artland is the mystical name appointed to an exciting privately funded new sculptural park found within 80 acres of the grounds of the chairman of the firm that owns Bach remedies, a 17th-century house in West Lothian. The park is commissioning major pieces by the likes of Antony Gormley, Marc Quinn, Anish Kapoor and Andy Goldsworthy. Cornelia Parker added to the opening events by firing a moon rock spectacle into the air. On their website they promote, 'The garden is a garden of discovery - an earthwork here, a copse of cradled rocks there, the entrance to a fathomless burrow right before your feet. We provide a map but no set routes. There are pathways, in places, but no path. Come and discover, contemplate and delight. '1

1 JupiterArtland, 29 May, 2009, http://www.jupiterartland.org/the_unfolding_story/

Abramovich's girlfriend lands 92, 000 sq.ft 'garage space' in Moscow thats due to provide spectacle for Gormley's Domain Field

Just found out about this new space within the North of Moscow that was obtained by Roman Abramovich's girlfriend to be used as an art space, the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, a 92,000 sq. ft, red-brick industrial former bus garage designed originally by Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov. Currently it's holding works from the collection of Christie’s owner, François Pinault. Antony Gormley’s Domain Field, is due to show there from the 17th July to 2nd September featuring 287 sculptures made from the body moulds of 200 volunteers previously on show at the Baltic, Newcastle in 2003.With so many works and such a huge space this is bound to be a powerful exhibition, Gormley's Domain Field started originated from moulds made of local inhabitants of Newcastle-Gateshead aged from between 2.5 - 84 years. These moulds were then reinterpreted into representations of human existence and it's interfiltration with space today. The works reject past reproductions of the human human body as a wholly enclosed singular entity with it's own internal 'untouchable' space and fixed outline. The resulting works made from many small pieces of stainless steel positioned at different angles provides a fragmented vision of the human body and highlights the true penetrative interaction that goes on (though not always visible) between body and space. As we become open to a new digital generation space and take on new digital identities with the popularity of the internet, it's representation, social networking and control of global interaction these works make us really consider our new identities.

Christies somewhat back in the game however collectors still holding back

Christies recent spring auction sale in New York totaled $93.7 million with Larry Gagosian cornering the Lichenstein's lots. Last year in May the total sales reached $348 million, more than three times this but there's some stability there, unfortunately Sothebys aren't keeping up however. See what unfolds.Collectors are apparently refusing to sell within the present climate.

Ben Lewis puts the pin in Contemporary Art's Bubble

Just finished watching the BBC's show 'The Contemporary Art Bubble' in which Ben Lewis, a contemporary arts journalist allows us into the backdoor dealings of the business of the contemporary art trade. Since the YBA and Saatchi boom contemporary art went from strength to strength ignited and paralleled by the rise in power of the media to filtrate financial control. If you can catch this series on BBCiplayer it exposes from internal sources the cornering of the market that takes place from collectors and dealers (no laws for this in art as other areas) who control rises in price of their personal favourites for cumulative personal gain, how Sothebys 'lend' buyers money cunningly to raise overall value in their market and so increasing revenue, how they also use guarantees as incentives to buyers insuring a fixed bar of value for certain works if they are to bid on them. Also for the big collectors who lend to the larger galleries or exhibitions huge tax breaks take place. Private galleries for example White Cube or Gagosian use representative artists as pawns within the auction game of nudge nudge wink wink as obviously you would predict but to some extents their more black market dealings are exposed, for example Lewis reignites the controversy that took place over Damian Hirst's, 'For the Love of God' in which it was said to have been sold yet it was later discovered Hirst and possibly others still contained a share interest within the piece.
As the show wraps up we see the demise of the bubble, defllating under the crunch, sales of auctions down some 70-80%, guarantees reduced, leaving trading and profit floating. However Lewis reminds us that Hirst's own personal sale of his collection of works split solely from any gallery/dealer control raised £111 million not so long ago as the crunch started so the future is unpredictable, how much time does it take for contemporary art to really loose chunks of it's value, will collectors control their assets or loose out to financial crunch?

Public Art's progression and the success of The Big Art Project for Britain

Alfred Cass (huge commissioner of art) in the first episode of The Big Art Project which is taking place on Channel 4 quotes on public art, 'Well, it's whether it sings to you' and such is projected through Channel Four's new show. It's lovely to see, as Simon Schama would say, ,'The Power of Art', this show highlights how art can reignite hope in a community, can act as a core magnetism or force that draws nucleus' of societies back together as communities and can also get people talking again in real space and time. Communities surrounding the particular sites worked with curators appointed by the Big Art Trust. Funding is provided via the Arts Council, England and The Art Fund together with any subsidiaries. Selection was started in 2005 and by 2006 seven commmunities were chosen: St. Helens, Burnley, Cardigan, Mull, Newham, North Belfast and Sheffield.
St. Helens, a former mining town which lost it's trade within the 1990s was appointed Jaume Plensa, an artist bron in Barcelona but renown all over the country for his work particularly his Chicago piece, 'Crown Fountain at Millenium Park'. He's well known as creating works that facilitate the use of light. What was really interestin when the community ex-miners became involved in the process of the development of Sutton Manor Coillery site, a former mine was how open they were to a contemporary piece of art taking hold rather than a memorial/monument.
What's acheived is a 65ft-high sculpture on top of the coal mine made out of concrete and costing £1.8million with 90 separate individual parts.
The resulting sculpture, 'Dream' stands like a futuristic/contemporary Olmec, 'Colossal Head',albeit with sense of smooth elegance, lifting the space out of it's rut into a new cerebral escape, a huge thinking space in which the communtiy can put it's heads together to acheive the dream. In a way it resembles the huge Buddha on Landau Island, Hong Kong or some Grand Wizard that will answer the miners prayers, it's glows a white light of future peace and future hope. However it resembles a girl with her eyes closed pondering the dream so really it's hard to say if this negates value within the piece, a miner's tribute represented by a young girl? It's somehow becomes vulnerable and fragile now unable to carry it's stature, however strength is regained in appeal to the younger generation for regeneration, input into the dream of their community together with attention to historical acheivement and relevance by site significance. To catch the rest Channel 4 at 7pm.


Richard Wilson's site- specific works are also featured in the show and want to do a post on him soon.

What makes Russian art Art? A look back in relation to OrelArt UK new 'Liquid Modernity' exhibition by their Venice Biennal hope Andrei Molodkin?

Fitting that the Tate Modern has just ended a grand showing of Rodchenko and Popova's Constructivist acheivements eighty to ninety years ago at the same time that London gets a new gallery from the OrelArt group dedicated to Russian art. OrelArt Gallery, London, opens with a showing of Russia's representative for the Venice Biennial, Andrei Molodkin's, 'Liquid Modernity (Grid and Greed)'. First 'Das Kapital' the famous Marx manifesto title is referenced and moulded out of transparent acrylic which is then filled electronically with Russian crude oil. Accompanying and connected to this is a replica which 'productively then' projects neon light.Then there are his 'grid' works which pay clear linear reference to the Constructivists also in transparent acrylic, one appears to be seeping/'bleeding' oil, the other connected to the former within a system of compressors and pipes again projects neon light.

Molodkin's work although eighty to ninety years on from the Constructivists is firmly cemented in their practice.The Constructivists, 'intended to organise their material according to the three principles of tektonika ('tectonics', or the functionally, socially and politically appropriate use of industrial material), konstruksitya ('construction', or the organisation of this material for a given purpose) and faktura ('texture', or the conscious handling and manipulation of the chosen material).1 Molodkin's tektonika is found in the use of acrylic (an industrial material?) however the 'tectonics' are fake/only representative of the reality of 'systems' i.e.oil and functionally at present oil can not be pumped in acrylic. The 'construction' has taken place for the purpose of 'socio-political' reasons albeit it message rather than function like that of Rodchenko, Tatlin and Popova say. As far as faktura it seems quite hard to say, however you can say like the Constructivists he has gone to a lot of trouble manipulating acrylic and it does result in the functioning of a system of productivity, he like them is a skilled draftsman. The Constructivists ideology, 'of objectivity by artists who sought to render their practice compatible with what they called the 'social command' rather than with what they saw as the compromised bourgeouis conception of 'inner necessity' and subjective intuition. This process became known as 'Art into Production' or 'Productivism''.2 Molodkin's work parallels his nations predecessors in it's rejection of subjectivity and emotion.In it's 'social functioning' or 'social command'3 to the public.In it's roots playing back to Communism versus Capitalism.It's use of language in combination with material to promote.He also uses acrylic linear structures on the wall which resemble test-tubes (filled with crude oil and blood) and provide a link to the past titled Constructivist 'laboratory works'.
However where it is set into context is in it's conceptual framework together with you could say minimalist referencing and the use of common 'art-based materials' such as acrylic and a conceptual title. Molodkin is hoping to influence thoughts rather than create social function as in the past. However really this is what such 'laboratory works' as Konstantin Medunetskii's, 'Spatial Construction', 1920 did, they were, 'aesthetic explorations that might eventually contribute to the evolution of more utilitarian designs'.4 It's very unlikely Molodkin's work will evolutionise into more utilitarian designs however he draws his Russian past and makes us realise how valuable and relevant it's message is still today with Iraq versus America oil scandals as such.Also the concept of a liquid modernity is very present with our global interconnectivity increasing all the time with new technological advancements and access. Mondrian's,' Broadway Boogie-Woogie' 1942-3. work keeps coming to my mind in terms of his representation of modernity however Molodkin takes it one step further into own new technical age through the use of technological or productive art.
Will be interesting to see his Venice piece as its said he is believed to be injecting, 'Winged Victory of Samothrace' with crude oil and blood.


1 Art of the Avant-Gardes, Edwards S. and Wood P., New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004, pg. 361
2 The Challenge of the Avant-Garde, Wood, P., New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1999, pg. 245
3 The Challenge of the Avant-Garde, Wood, P., New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1999, pg. 245
4 Art of the Avant-Gardes, Edwards S. and Wood P., New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2004, pg. 366

Jordan Wolfson.. worthy of Cartier......Award 2009

Jordan Wolfson has been announced as the winner of the Cartier Award 2009 and will go on to produce a site-specific artwork for the Frieze Art Fair. His video works play on many themes but it's thought before these are discussed it would be valuable for you to read his contribution to the Whitney Biennial catalogue as an aid to thoughts within his mindset:

In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls—has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say, “Do not despair.” The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people will return to the people, and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish.... Soldiers—don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you—who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate—only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers—don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty. In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written “the kingdom of God is within man”—not one man, nor a group of men—but in all men—in you, the people. You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. 1

The above was included within the Whitney Biennial in which Wolfson presents, 'The Great Dictator', 2005, a black and white 16mm film which involves a 'Hollywood-esque tuxedoed' male figure signing Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) - his first 'spoken' comedic spin about Nazi Germany. The shots focus on the speedy signs expressed by the man's hands cropping his head and legs. Direct attention is placed on the speed of his signing. You can now see how the above manifesto suits its subject. Chaplin was known to have caused a stir politically with his leftist views resulting in his possible exile. When you watch Wolfson's piece you can see where Mia Fineman identifies his, 'poetic conceptualism' 2, the actor in the piece almost presents the sign in a Chaplin like manner, artistically beautiful with a satirical twist, aided by the 'black and white' Chaplin related link of the tuxedo.There's lightness to its political roots, a beauty and comedy which keeps you interested. For the majority of us there does of course become a frustration or barrier in not being able to translate what the beauty is saying triggering an empathy and frustration towards the attempted silencing of Chaplin's political views through exile. Of course this then has wider implications for reality as reiterated in Wolfson's piece above. There's an irony that plays a wonderful part in the work in the sense that although Chaplin's views were attempted to be silenced it was originally his silence which gave him power in the film and financial world and now Wolfson is using that silence again to create powerful messages. The choice of film, 'The Great Dictator' being Chaplin's first 'spoken film' enhances this. It's interesting how you relate the piece to present times also as Wolfson here expresses the power previously that the state had over the media/celebrity in terms of control however nowadays the media world is becoming the higher power, you only have to think about what Joanna Lumley is doing for the Ghurkha's.

1 Wolfson, J., Jordan Wolfson, Altria, Deutsche Bank, Brilliant Blue, 2006, 16 May 2009 13:48:27, http://www.whitney.org/www/2006biennial/artists.php?artist=Wolfson_Jordan
2 Fineman, M., Jordan Wolfson, BeautyUser, OOKSA, New Retirement, 2006, 16 May 2009 14:25:06, http://www.slate.com/id/2137034/

The frustration created in lack of able translation for the majority in this piece creates feelings of isolation and 'lost voices' that makes you want to release the inner voice inside. What's enduring about Wolfson's work is the play he creates between the animated and the real, the humorous and the serious, the superficial and the real. The paradoxical play with animation to stamp the big serious questions into your mind reflects the power of the media in reality. In another work, 'Dreaming of the dream of the dream', 2004, Wolfson presents a 16mm film again in which different images of water from various animations are repeated within a silent one-minute loop from sunrise to sunset. It is looped continually until the film stock is destroyed and the artwork is no more. What dream is being dreamt of? Again here we have a reference to the fictional/fantasy in contrast to the purest reality of Mother Nature. When you read Wolfson's piece above and he discusses the loss of humanity in the world and the 'machine-men' controllers you can see how he reverts back to nature for sanity and balance. Does he think we've lost touch with nature or disrespect it's power? Is his use of silence a search for peace? In this piece the death of nature's cycle takes place as does a specific time cycle from the start of the day to the end of the day in 'nature's terms' conducted by the sun.

In 'Perfect Lover', 2007 Wolfson presents a film in which a solitary crow in various settings in a forest repeatedly announces the time every hour until midnight is reached. This time a second day is entered announced by the crow again before he starts hourly once more. The crow begins to deteriorate after an amount of time, counting out of order then stopping, has a cough, only to start again until he disappears into darkness. So many references to childhood are churned up within this piece, animated animals playing a key point to all children in storybooks, programs, the forest setting throwing you back through the wardrobe to Narnia. It's this escapist aspect, 'the dreaming of the dream' that pulls at your emotions yet this escapist euphoria is brought thumping back down to reality (like with all of his pieces) in this piece with a powerful melancholy, touched on in the previously discussed piece with the 'self-destructive' film. The melancholy rests in the crow, a known symbolism of death, Van Gogh's, 'Wheatfield with Crows', 1890 was believed to be his last work possibly foreseeing his death. This work also references Felix Gonzalez-Torres' work, 'Untitled (Perfect Lovers)', 1987-1990 showing two wall clocks set to the exact time, however as time ticks away they go in opposite directions and out of sync.A lot of Torres' work is said to be influenced by the power the death or separation of his partner to Aids had on him. With the crow known as the messenger of death it leaves us to question what is at death's door, is it soceity, our greed and misery, the 'machine-heads' he talks of controlling us. Is it only a matter of time before nature deteriorates and order is lost? The lightness of his work returns in the animated crow yet we are left to consider how funny he is actually or the melancholy of his message is? In a way you could say it reflects the power of the media to entice us, make us escape yet at the same time it may be destroying us? I relate to the media because it's a film-based work using 'narration'. However you could say he is referencing relationships in the title, 'perfect lover', the loss of a relationship over time, its idealistic fantasy as perfection and its melancholy or death? What seems perfect may be destructive? Where there's perfection there's also madness? Wolfson's work's are great in that they make you consider the relationship between idealism and reality in our world today (good and bad), they bring your mindset into the present through their direct realisation of time scale in relation to life and death. While they also reconnect you with the power players in life, love, nature, media, politics and their relationships. Who is the crow?...the media..politicians..love..are they in control of our time, our life, are they the death of us? Have they taken over nature as power player? Just questions but his combination of fiction and non-fiction are so dually fun in many aspects.

New Art Fair takes hold after Moscow falls, Vilnius, Lithuania 09

A fresh new cultural experience is available this July from Vilnius, Lithuania; ArtVilnius’09 will run from 8-12 July, hosting 101 galleries from 31 counties. Will be interesting to see how it's hosted and the response that comes with it opening up the artworld's reach and potential for growth outside of the focused West of Europe.

What's at the heart of our art in England now? Art and it's anthropological reminder

Funny but while reading through various art news today two different art exhibitions in different locations created a synthesis around the same core questions. It started while reading about Tim Crouch's new play at the Whitechapel Gallery, 'England'. It narrates a mini-exchange between a Western art dealer and non-Western heart donor's widow, both who are connected solely through survival, an art piece is exchanged for a second chance at life. Various dichotomies arise from the work via symbolism intended within subject such as West/non-West, Heart/heartless, Art/Life, Art/Heart, Art with a heart/Art without a heart, Life/Death, Art as financial object/Art without financial value. Then you have to centre all of this within the title 'England', how is our art valued all over the world? How do we value our art? Has England's art lost value? Have we lost the heart in our art? Does art matter more to us as financial object or heart gripping power?
From this the next article read came as sad disappointment in terms of capitalism, globalisation and financial power within the world. Western Australia's Burrup peninsula contains aboriginal carvings that are believed to pre-date present art historical carving recordation.However it is shockingly at present under threat from a liquid natural gas plant. Those who live there are said to be devastated understandably so as it can be said areas of the non- Western world have a connection with nature that some would say we in the West have lost, developed over or left behind in our numbing of our natural instincts and sensuality. A touring festival, 'Origins-Festival of First Nations' around London at present covers theatrical performances, shamanistic expression and healing, films from Canada, Australia,New Zealand and America. Named because all nations involve people indigenous to countries of colonisation with events such as a theatre piece about the Maori Battalion in Second World War Italy. It sounds like the festival will be a great eye-opener to what Bourriard would call translation expressing the relativism and deconstruction taking place as our world becomes more interconnected dialetically. Unheard opinions, expressions and understandings of the West and other nations history and understanding of them will be expressed.Together with a reminder of how spirituality, art, nature and healing interact in relation to our artificial made 'gallery space' controlled by market power. Will non-Western art be more powerful to the heart of humans, more representative of real life, spirituality or is this being eurocentric in itself, though if you think how much Hirst's collection raised not long ago you could say not. He himself as many artists challenges life and death, nature and art in fact he turns the reality of nature into a huge commodity?You could say he tries to control nature/life, 'preserve it'?

Focus on Russian Art and exhibition 'Liquid Modernity' from new Orel Art Gallery in Victoria,London

Interested in a concentrated look at Russian art, well head down to Victoria to see the new gallery by Orel Art, originally a Paris creation by Ilona Orel. The first exhibition centres around Russia's representative of the Venice Biennale, Andrei Molodkin and the exhibition, 'Liquid Modernity (Grid and Greed)'.Will be looking at and commenting on the exhibition in future posts.

John Cale from Velvet Underground to exhibit at Venice Biennale

Sounds interesting eh? Think it's always hard to know how well different musicians transcend into the art world, most harbour enough creativity to produce high standards but you wonder if lack of experience in production lessens the level of the work.However from the sounds of it John Cale has held his own. Of course it helps that he's apparently produced an audio-visual artwork, a multi-screened video work with accompanying audio that focuses on his roots in Wales. It sounds like a media-based snippetted autobiography however with a fine art twist to it of course.It covers his classically trained youth in Wales together with his home and homelands surrounding landscape, narrated with it seems beautiful audio.It seems theres a mix of audio from spoken word to song, interesting as he was said to love Dylan Thomas to see any reference there. The review I read said it was a very beautiful piece with great depth, sounds definitely worth a look and worthy of the Biennale, such an audio work has to become enhanced within the beauty and history of artistic Venice.Especially as it will be presented in the old brewery building on Giudecca where the last few Wales exhibits have been shown.

Saatchi Middle East Exhibition

Right just got through looking at the Middle East exhibition presently at the Saatchi and was really interesting to see areas of the world's thoughts expressed that have been really hidden from us before or not focused on anyway.In a way it was also very refreshing and inspiring to see different cultural expressions and opinions together with style and skill. What struck me the most in fact which put a different spin on the viewers experience was how strong the presence and impact the metaphysical played in producing and in the end designing or developing these works. It made it clear how important it is to have a multiplicity of cultural influence in our lives and also to be witness to the process of cultural 'creolisation' and translation as Bourriard would say. To see how different people and cultures deal with their situations and struggles together with the development of our interactive global world at present is really fascinating. I kept reflecting back to reading 'A World History of Art' and thinking how beautiful some of the intricacy of Umayyad palaces are, the Great Mosque, Cordoba and then later Moors influence of Alhambra and such. But what was missed out on here was the presence of figures, banned from using holy images or visual symbols focusing on inscriptions if anything.Still with such abscence such beauty was produced in their work.But how great it is to see now Middle Eastern images and figures together with opinions which have somehow escaped the shadow of religious control.
It's obviously interesting that the show starts with 'Unveiled' in it's title, 'Unveiled:New Art From the Middle East' referencing obviously the presence of the female veils worn within Islamic culture together with a long awaited exposure of Middle Eastern cultural expression for so long 'veiled' beneath dedication to Allah. Diana Al-Hadid's works undoubtedly highlight the presence still however of the influence of older Middle Eastern art and its focus on intricate forms and patterns to create beauty over the use of images. Her sculptures or 'Towers of Infinite Problems' play metaphor to many interpretations but rest between a mystical and yet very realistic interpretation of the present context. In 'Self-Melt' the towers are not finished solid wholes but are instead in a process of morphosis, its funny but Bourriards reference to the 'AlterModern' and creolisation versus deconstruction as a state of affairs at present seems to fit well with what these sculptures express. You could say they are 'time-specific', in a process or state of metamorphosis yet while resting within a magical, mystical parallel.The towers look as if they are melting, turned upside into egg-timer like forms not quite sure what their outcome is.There are many references that can be made here to housing regeneration, development, deonstruction and renewal via war, destruction of historical land, culture and really a change in the spirituality of homeland as destruction through war takes place. In 'The Tower of Infinite Problems' she creates more solid sculptures yet they are still fractured broken into pictures and rearranged like jigsaws to create spiral type structures with many layers and jagged edges. References to global capital developments, the effect of capitalism, etc. can all be made. Al-Hadid reanimates the ordered, coldness or brick of many a tower and reinterprets it in a metaphysical sense with infinite possibilities that affect the global and spiritual world.
The theme of the 'unveiled' plays throughout this whole exhibition in an almost cathartic process.Halim Al-Karim's works leaves a very haunting imprint in which the presence of the metaphysical plays a huge part. His photographs all bare titles wrapped around a 'hidden' theme: 'Hidden Prisoner','Hidden Victims', 'Hidden Themes'. The photographs take on a intended blurry feel or vision in which interpretation is denied reflecting the way some would interpret Middle Eastern culture and you could say the masked veils worn by women.What's fascinating is how this cultural aspect filtrates into the artists actual presentations formatically, for example in some works the photographs are presented beneath a tightly bound white silk fabric, humanising the work almost. Al-Karim's work reflects almost directly personal experience during the Gulf War in which he fled and hid in a hole. He gives metaphysial statues the same priority as human presence using both as 'hidden' themes or presences behind the blurry veil. Sufi tradition and reference occurring here, still it seems hard to pin down exactly his spiritual path or opinion on Islam tradition. The 'blurry' indeterminate' style of his photographs brings photographs of ancient statues to life, the lack of detail diminishing the reality of their stone/clay structure and instead animating them onto a level of the other human prisoners he uses. There becomes a conflict with spirituality as it is involved in the 'hidden' aspect of human 'oppression' yet its presence is still very powerful and important to some.Nadia Ayari takes a simalar approach yet with a different medium of painting, her works are a lot more direct or simple yet powerful in message.Large paintings of eyes behind prison fences or over the top of womens veils highlight lost vision or voices behind the veil. When this exhibition gets interesting is when you get a simple yet ingenious idea by Kader Attia to convert perception of the veil via the use of a fittingly domestically used product as foil. There are so many connotations that can arise from this usage, as said the domestic reference is there for one.There is also the fact that dark veils suppress light where as foil reflects it, projects it, expresses it. Theres also the fact it's usually used to contain and cook an animal which an be interpreted anyway you like.What's most interesting to me though again is the 'metaphysical' presence that is created by using foil.For me seeing so many of the figures which are made to appear a lot more squatted and smaller than human versions brings up links to an almost 'alien' or E.T. type theme, 'foreign entity' or masses, foreign to this world. From here so many links can be made, women feeling alien beneath the veil or 'outsiders', then there is the fact Americans call immigrant or those of non-American entity or anti-American 'aliens' in visa application.This is no direct statement obviously but creates a very interesting outlook.Ahmad Morshedloo's works possess the haunting emotional draw of Al-Karim's work with a near perfect rendering of foreshortening and artistic skill. The haunting picture head first of a women laid out flat on a table appearing inhumane, non-present and dainty and presented in an almost monotone palette creates a daunting effect. We are left wondering what she's doing there, it almost feels like she's on a butchers table but I don't want to go too far with that. Her face is hidden almost no real visible features can be determined and she seems determinate of her fate almost.
The mixing of ancient traditions with modern mediums becomes expressed in Ramin Haerizadeh's, 'Men of Allah'. The reference to ancient Persian style is present in the intricacy and detail/style of his figures however he fuses this within the CGI age using graphic effects to bring it into the here and now. Doing this helps with the projection of the regeneration of issues of gender, sexuality and ancient attitudes that he challenges by re-enacting the historical theatre of the Qajar Dynasty.For one he brings theatre into digital age through graphic effects but he also casts himself as every part in the play which raises issues surrounding this male-dominated theatrical past in which female roles were also played by men. It's interesting how the organic forms of Persian art become graphic or flatter, 2-dimensional in a way, not sure how good a move forward this is though as some quality/depth is lost in intricacy.Exposure of tradition is unveiled in the work of Rokni Haerizadeh who exposes to the world aspects of the Iranian wedding. Again the intricate, organic style of ancient Islamic or Persian work seeps through in her style of painting which contains many different forms which weave and melt into each other, creating really the 'wedding' dynamacy. Shes highlights to the outside world the rituals of Iranian weddings though in which women and men are divided and the male experience seems a lot more pleasured or spoilted in constrast to the more stagnant women.It's interesting again how Middle Eastern culture is projected more by formal arrangement via the use of a diptych in which the female interpretation is on one and the mens experience at the wedding on another.Men and women not even united in art, producing fragmented art forms.

Nicolas Bourriaud and the new 'Altermodernism'?

So I thought I would do my first post on Tate Britain's upcoming debate that will focus around Nicolas Bourriaud's 'Altermodernism'. It's a term that's entering the art consciousness as representative of the 'new age' in art or context. It was bound to happen soon the term postmodern and contemporary were starting to get old and don't really encapsulate the multidimensional interactive ways art is expanding and growing at present.
To understand 'Altermodernism', 'Postmodernism' can first be attempted to define? Thinking of Greenberg, Fried and TJ Clark there seem a lot more clear boundaries for an art historical critic of its former 'Modernism', starting some would say around the 1860s. For example you had those who focused on art for arts sake and development or expansion of the boundaries of different mediums in art i.e. Abstract Expressionists, Expressionism then you had those who believed art to be a socio-political tool with a clear societal role i.e. Constructivists, Realists/Social Realism, and of course there were those that both experimented with composition/style yet involved subject matter, sometimes with socio-functional message i.e. Futurists, Cubists, Surrealism, Pop Art. With 'Postmodernism' some say it's description is less defined due to a shift in ideology and interpretation of artwork compared to those of the 'Modernist' era. The majority seem to agree postmodernism begins around the 1980s with a focus on conceptual art taking control, although you could throw that back to Duchamp and Dada/Surrealist artists or even possibly the Land Art of the sixties, Smithson's, 'Spiral Jetty ' say, all involving conceptual experimentation and manipulation, with installation, intermedia, pastiche, or bricolage, etc. With the development of globalisation, the internet and cheaper travel  cultural fusion or interaction became a more complex, interactive and interpretive part of our lives. Identity becomes challenged, new cultural influences take hold and a wide variety of knowledge is made available via the interweb and so emotions change and develop. Frederic Jameson believes the postmodern rejects fixed, straight interpretation and instead pastiche and discontinuance become popular. A new hybrid type artwork develops, such as that of Louise Bourgeois becoming very multi-dimensional in terms of interpretation and message. However you could say that 'Modernism' is still present in some work of say Anish Kapoor in which medium is experimented with and expanded solely creating illusion, fantasy and escapism. There's definitely a sense of instability or insecurity that develops with global expansion however as nationalist borders open up in terms of cheap travel and the internet in particular. Rasheed Araeen's work particularly highlights the attempt to develop a 'hybridity' of East and West art. Really modernism as it's written about is the modernism of the Western world, in some ways postmodernism expresses a more global artworld formation, expression and influence.Developments in technology and an increase in availability of technology increases experimentation with a variety of media, even though others have experimented in the past, photography developing at the start of modernism, the increased access to it and development of the media world increases its importance to context.
There is also the development of art theory, the disintegration of the influence of Barr's direct timeline of art, one movement influencing and developing the next in linear progression has been replaced by looking at all movements as interactive really, old art being regenerated into again new hybrids, for example Grayson Perry's ceramics with contemporary subject-matter. Nicolas Serota for example puts different artworks from different periods into 'clusters' to encourage new multidimensional interpretations in the Tate Modern. In terms of ideology there could be said to have been a definite reduction in painting as popular artwork in the 'postmodernist' era, some theorists have talked of the 'anti-presence' as 'postmodern' in terms of conceptual art and in comparison to the 'god-like' presence of 'modernists' art such as Rothko and the importance placed on originality of hand with painting. Brit Art took hold and conceptual art has been popular since with a focus on the idea and theory, however rather than just the one painting as in 'modernism', artists such as Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois,Tracey Emin use many different objects in arrangement which create multiple meaning and interpretation. However many of the Dada performances could be said to have done this and Duchamp plus others and other cultures have used alternative mediums than painting with 'avant-garde' approaches. It's interesting to wonder how countries outside the Western world become integrated into 'modern/postmodern' art, for example the 'Nok' /Nigerian culture's sculptures could be read as abstract and conceptual yet are thousands of years earlier? With the development of media and a change in our perception or sense of time and space developing with globalisation video, photography and performance become great representative mediums. Bill Viola however could be seen to be quite 'modernist' in the way he slows down video to unseen speeds to produce new visual affects and perceptions. Others challenge the influence of metanarratives and issues such as gender, race, sexuality...you could say grand institutions and their theories are being challenged, questioned, researched and the power their hold has had. Artists changed your outlook on race in 'Victorian Dandy' say by Yinka Shonibare or approach to gender by Emin by challenging conventional visual representations or perceptions and institutional or metanarrative control and how it influenced such representations. Lyotard defines such challenges as essentially 'postmodern', for example Emin's 'Unmade Bed' changes the whole history of women's representation of art in books, galleries, etc . This can be combined with the idea that as nationalism is losing some hold and identity becomes expanded and cultures interact global society looks towards 'metanarratives' for a common challenge or areas to relate to. You could say therefore some modernism focused on challenging national ideology/politics i.e. Constructivism, Futurism, etc. whereas postmodernism might be seen more to challenge metanarrative ideologies and use a multitude of approaches to do this mixing/using many different mediums, particularly due to technological developments in media and moving 'outside' the art gallery. This then leading to multiple interpretations rather than one political stance say. Again however Dada and Constructivists could be said to do this.

So how does 'Altermodernism' fit into all this? Nicolas Bourriard believes theres a new art movement developing focusing on confronting standardisation and commercialism.It seems quite straight forward when approached like that however it comes across repetitive of 'postmodern/modern' artwork which has challenged materialism, commercialism and standardisation, for example Andy Warhol, Constructivists, etc. 'Altermodernism' also talks of new translations taking place in the new age, new interconnections of time with space, text with image, the affect of travel and interaction but as said a lot of it seems repetitive of 'postmodernism' and the effect of 'globalisation'.Where it starts to become clarified is when you consider postmodernism as having jumped a level towards what some are calling 'creolisation' of cultures in which there becomes a struggle for identity and autonomy or singularity.Bourriard talks of art as now 'time-specific' as the world interacts and artists try to translate the 'creolisation' taking place, new interactions of text and image taking place in a world under deconstructivism teamed with cultural relativism.It seems that Bourriard is saying that such a situation is producing a new age in which standardisation and commercialisation are being challenged via the many translations taking place in time and space due to 'creolisation', travel, cultural relativity combined with deconstruction. He believes new 'time-specific' works are expressed in 'trajectory' like forms or expressions, transitory and unfixed.Bourriard also associates 'Altermodernism' with the decreasing importance of a focused Western model of art.

Many believe Bourriard takes on simalar thoughts to some of Foucault. Foucault considers a switch from 'knowledge is power' to 'power is knowledge' involving the power the media has over our development of knowledge in society. Also considered by some is the loss of value in 'real experienced-developed/experimental knowledge' in exchange for increased accessibility and speed of knowledge attainable on the internet as such. When related to the power knowledge on the interweb you can see a development from postmodernism .Wrapped in this is the power the media has on imprinting knowledge in the psyche, is this not what Barbara Kruger approaches or Cindy Sherman as well as a multitude of others. It's hard to identify what the 'alter' is in altermodernism?
So it seems that there's a struggle for autonomy and singularity in the creolisation of cultures together with the power and influence the media has on new forms of knowledge being created, new ways to access this and new ways that knowledge is being interpreted via such as inter-web.The later could be labelled as standardisation and a focus on the commercial.