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/
Saturday 23 May 2009
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.
Friday 22 May 2009
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?
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?
Thursday 21 May 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday 20 May 2009
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
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
Sunday 17 May 2009
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
