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Since the 1960’s artist have challenged traditional disciplinary boundaries. Analyse and contextualise the reasons for the breakdown of disciplinary boundaries through the practices of two artists (since the 1960’s).

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Melletios Kyriakidis is a contemporary artist based on unceded, Gadigal Country. Since the mid 90's Melletios has exhibited extensively, including shows in London, Beijing, Rome, Hamburg, Melbourne and Sydney. He now displays his work on Large scale Architectural facades, on iconic buildings like the Sydney Opera House.

Melletios Kyriakidis' interdisciplinary work is grounded in the profound consequences of identity and exploration of the political body, immersed in intergenerational, diasporic trauma. It draws on the premise of the disassociated state of Flux and the effects of post-colonial structures.

Expounding on Structuralism, Melletios' work is part performative, part situational, adopting a transdisciplinary framework for his aesthetic. He rejects the contrived legacy, the decorative by-product of the institutional hierarchy.

Presently he is collaborating with others to produce work that involves discourse concerning the frenzied state of affairs that has encompassed the conservative identity of the contemporary epoch.

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1. Artists propose, test and experiment through their art to expose and critique systems, contexts,
identities and institutions. Using three artworks since 1960, demonstrate the unique ways artists
have researched and presented ideas that challenge the audience’s “knowledge”.
2. Postmodernist theory and art challenged the idea of the original artwork. Using two artworks from
1960-1990 discuss how the notion of the “original” was critiqued. How did these artworks comment
on broader visual and consumer culture?
3. Using three artworks (since 1960) explain two different creative strategies used to critique “gender”.
Compare and contrast these strategies.
4. Discuss the complexities of “post” colonial art in ongoing settler colonies like Australia. Analyse
three artworks (since 1960) within the broader context of settler colonisation.
5. Since the 1960’s artist have challenged traditional disciplinary boundaries. Analyse and contextualise
the reasons for the breakdown of disciplinary boundaries through the practices of two artists (since
the 1960’s).
6. Biennales and Art Fairs have proliferated since the 1990’s producing “global” contemporary art.
Discuss the effectiveness of three artworks (since 1990) that problematise and critique “global” art.

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2. Postmodernist theory and art challenged the idea of the original artwork. Using two artworks from
1960-1990 discuss how the notion of the “original” was critiqued. How did these artworks comment
on broader visual and consumer culture?
_______________________________
Nothing is original. Everything is an imitation of something (Plato)
Does it take pressure off of artists, if nothing is original?
We live in a culture where you have to strive for originality. Being an imitation is bad. Yet, if we do live in a post-modern world then we never can achieve that originality we strive for.

Or are our imitations original because of how we translate other imitations? Is our re-interpretation of a thing still the same thing?

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Question 3. Using three artworks (since 1960) explain two different creative strategies used to critique “gender”.
Compare and contrast these strategies.

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Question 4: Discuss the complexities of “post” colonial art in ongoing settler colonies like Australia. Analyse three artworks (since 1960) within the broader context of settler colonisation.
Artists: Daniel Boyd, Gordon Bennett, Joan Ross

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First Choice

4. Discuss the complexities of “post” colonial art in ongoing settler colonies like Australia. Analyse
three artworks (since 1960) within the broader context of settler colonisation.

Second choice

5. Since the 1960’s artist have challenged traditional disciplinary boundaries. Analyse and contextualise
the reasons for the breakdown of disciplinary boundaries through the practices of two artists (since
the 1960’s).

What does this question mean to me?

4. This to me is about usurping/commoditisation/commercialisation of indigenous art. Conversely it is suppressing/whitewashing the history of colonisation

5. This to me is where painting and drawing lines blur or painting and collage blur

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question 4 or 5 🤠

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question 1 or4

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Discuss the complexities of “post” colonial art in ongoing settler colonies like Australia. Analyse three artworks (since 1960) within the broader context of settler colonisation.

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2. Postmodernist theory and art challenged the idea of the original artwork. Using two artworks from
1960-1990 discuss how the notion of the “original” was critiqued. How did these artworks comment
on broader visual and consumer culture?

# data[].attributes.body
2:Postmodernist theory and art challenged the idea of the original artwork. Using two artworks from 1960-1990 discuss how the notion of the “original” was critiqued. How did these artworks comment on broader visual and consumer culture?

4: Discuss the complexities of “post” colonial art in ongoing settler colonies like Australia. Analyse three artworks (since 1960) within the broader context of settler colonisation.

# data[].attributes.body
1. Artists propose, test and experiment through their art to expose and critique systems, contexts,
identities and institutions. Using three artworks since 1960, demonstrate the unique ways artists
have researched and presented ideas that challenge the audience’s “knowledge”.

4. Discuss the complexities of “post” colonial art in ongoing settler colonies like Australia. Analyse
three artworks (since 1960) within the broader context of settler colonisation.

# data[].attributes.body
2. Postmodernist theory and art challenged the idea of the original artwork. Using two artworks from1960-1990 discuss how the notion of the “original” was critiqued. How did these artworks commenton broader visual and consumer culture?
3. Using three artworks (since 1960) explain two different creative strategies used to critique “gender”.Compare and contrast these strategies.

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5. Since the 1960’s artist have challenged traditional disciplinary boundaries. Analyse and contextualise the reasons for the breakdown of disciplinary boundaries through the practices of two artists (since the 1960’s).

# data[].attributes.body
1. Artists propose, test and experiment through their art to expose and critique systems, contexts,
identities and institutions. Using three artworks since 1960, demonstrate the unique ways artists
have researched and presented ideas that challenge the audience’s “knowledge”.

# data[].attributes.body
3. Using three artworks (since 1960) explain two different creative strategies used to critique “gender”.
Compare and contrast these strategies.

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1. Artists propose, test and experiment through their art to expose and critique systems, contexts, identities and institutions. Using three artworks since 1960, demonstrate the unique ways artists have researched and presented ideas that challenge the audience’s “knowledge”.     or     3. Using three artworks (since 1960) explain two different creative strategies used to critique “gender”. Compare and contrast these strategies.

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1. Artists propose, test and experiment through their art to expose and critique systems, contexts, identities and institutions. Using three artworks since 1960, demonstrate the unique ways artists have researched and presented ideas that challenge the audience’s “knowledge”.     or     3. Using three artworks (since 1960) explain two different creative strategies used to critique “gender”. Compare and contrast these strategies.

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Question 2:
Postmodernist theory and art challenged the idea of the original artwork. Using two artworks from
1960-1990 discuss how the notion of the “original” was critiqued. How did these artworks comment
on broader visual and consumer culture?

What this question means to me:
The way that I interpret this question is that nothing is original - we may think we have come up with some 'new and original' idea, but that's never the case. I look at it in the sense that what is 'new' becomes 'old' very quickly because of how fast trends, beliefs, values, etc. change. Leading to this idea in me that nothing is every truly 'original', or that new things don't last > and this may have been what was being critiqued, or it may not be, but that's how I see it.

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Question 6:
6. Biennales and Art Fairs have proliferated since the 1990’s producing “global” contemporary art.
Discuss the effectiveness of three artworks (since 1990) that problematise and critique “global” art.

What it means to me?

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The decay of lying by Oscar Wilde
The only real art is the art that never existed
Inspiration ≠ imitation ?
Mimesis μίμησις
mimesis as the perfection, and imitation of nature
imagination

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When researching, I had come across that are many types of boundaries within traditional art. As years pass, the growth and expansion of technology and society, artistic practices have also grown simultaneously. Since the 1960s, artists have implemented different styles and approaches towards art whilst still capturing the main concept of art. Therefore, with this question, it is trying to allow me to understand the evolution of boundaries within art. As I have grown up within a generation filled with the magnification of technology, I have been exposed to many artists which implement technology within their artist practices, challenging the boundary around the production of art. I have yet to gained a deeper and greater understanding of what this question is trying to get me to think about but so far this is all I have understood about the question.

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share

Overview

The second exhibition in a three-part speculation on one idea, this year THE PUBLIC BODY .02 brings together the work of over forty artists and collectives from the 1970s to the present, integrating the archival and the contemporary to draw connections between works across decades.

Extending on THE PUBLIC BODY .01's exploration of contemporary representations of the body and, in particular, the naked and/or sexualised body, the second iteration delves further back to highlight a range of practices embedded in feminist, queer and anti-racist subjectivities. The exhibition includes new works alongside key contributions from renowned artists whose practices have been central to contemporary art's consideration of the body as agent and instrument.

In THE PUBLIC BODY .02 bodies are displaced, contaminated, insatiable and vulnerable; attempting to function within the constraints of the flesh and challenging its limits through a performative refrain. Bodies are both witnessed and witnessing. Some take refuge in the safety and power of distinct communities and networks, while others struggle to free themselves from the dictates of systems that reduce and subjugate.

The public body underscored is not a linear and knowable entity, but rather consciously fractured, complex and multifarious. It's wild and perverse, uncertain and unstable. The exhibition is deliberately troubled and thorny, juxtaposing a range of divergent works from emerging to deceased artists not previously exhibited together. An open, porous architectural structure has been deployed as a means of inviting connectivity throughout, encouraging a textured conversation and fluidity of ideas. In addition, a selection of manifestos billposted around the space illuminate the ways in which artists work with intertextuality to examine the political terrain of the public body.

The inclusion of international artists whose works are rarely seen in Australia is important to ensuring the dialogue has resonance beyond borders. To that end, THE PUBLIC BODY .02 includes artists from 14 countries including China, South Korea, Guatemala, Singapore, Pakistan, South Africa, Mexico and Russia, alongside 19 Australian and 4 Indigenous Australian artists.

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share The second exhibition in a three-part speculation on one idea, this year THE PUBLIC BODY .02 brings together the work of over forty artists and collectives from the 1970s to the present, integrating the archival and the contemporary to draw connections between works across decades.

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Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro | Stories & ideas | MCA Australia

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Curator Anna Davis on Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro.

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Listen to this episode from All My Relations Podcast on Spotify. Join us for a second discussion with Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Dr. Kim Tallbear on All My Relations.

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"If you can dream it, you can do it" were the inspirational words of Walt Disney. The father of the multi-national media company spoke of the future with a fantastical sense of triumph, a quality that anyone would wish to possess; truly believing that freedom and opportunity were at one's fingertips. When looking at Disneyland, however, the physical space where all those fairy-tale stories are actualised, one may be alarmed to find that it is not a place of infinite possibility; it is infact a place of many conditions.

The title of our project 'Conditions of Entry' landed us onto a particular work by the Finnish artist Pilvi Takala, Real Snow White; a 9:19 minute video from 2009 shows the artist dressed in a handmade Snow White outfit, attempting to enter Disneyland Paris. After being asked by many eager families for her photograph and autograph, she is pulled aside by a guard refusing her entry due to the rule that adults cannot enter dressed as Disney characters. The slightly bewildered guard struggles to express his reasons, managing to point out her costume is worn by actors within the venue and the unpredictable behaviour suggested by her unorthodox clothes could be a potential danger. After witnessing this commotion, the crowd of eager families slowly disperse, muttering to themselves "Come on, she's not the real Snow White". The film ends with Takala walking away, escorted by a guard.

Pilvi Takala: Real Snow White, 2009, video, 9:15 min, Courtesy of Carlos/Ishikawa

Pilvi Takala: Real Snow White, 2009, video, 9:15 min, Courtesy of Carlos/Ishikawa

Pilvi Takala's practice deals with the unspoken boundaries and implicit rules which we inherently skirt along in daily life. Our project group has analysed what happens in this situation that Takala creates in which she strips bare the power dynamic between the institution and the individual, focusing on appearance and social behaviour. We have discovered that it is not just the institution that determines Takala's entry, there is also an interplay between collective and individual - the collective influences the individual and conditions how that individual enters an institution. Therefore, to enter this fantasy land there is a collective notion to obey and accept the rules in order to gain what it has to offer. People want to believe in and contribute to the illusion and the overarching narrative.

Disneyland can be viewed as an exaggerated version of our patriarchal real world and by taking this example as a model we ask the question: How can Disneyland be emblematic for other kinds of institutions?

'In order to integrate into society, many have had to give up their individual identities of dress to become more 'French' otherwise facing exclusion.'

Takala was refused entry due to what she was wearing, evoking the memory of similar immigration movements in France. In order to integrate into society, many have had to give up their individual identities of dress to become more 'French' otherwise facing exclusion. In 2008, a Moroccan woman known as Faiza M, was refused French citizenship for wearing a niqab. In France, these strict wardrobe regulations in regards to attitudes to integration date back decades. In reaction to the emergence of new expanded ethnicities in post-war Europe, France addressed the situation through the implementation of secularity of peoples dress with the goal to achieve complete assimilation. Immigrants gave up their national identities, accepting the culture and religion of the French republic, to become real French citizens. Consequently, this escalated into severe conflicts as migrant numbers grew leading to disputes such as L'Affaire du Foulard (the scarf affair) that arose in 1989 in France. On 18 September, three female students were suspended for refusing to remove their hijab in class at a public school. The ban on hijabs was made the 'condition of entry' into schools and other institutions.

Pilvi Takala: Real Snow White, 2009, video, 9:15 min, Courtesy of Carlos/Ishikawa

Pilvi Takala: Real Snow White, 2009, video, 9:15 min, Courtesy of Carlos/Ishikawa

Unlike organisations, institutions provide a relatively predictable structure for everyday social, economic and political life. They shape people's motivations and behaviours, which is predictable, but not necessarily effective or uncontroversial. Human interactions structure these entities, leading to lasting patterns of behaviour. However, the institutionalized behaviour is not easy to change.
Institutions own their own set of principles in order to enter them rather like a club, requiring you to meet the principles according to the membership. Or an immigrant, unable to enter another country without the review by thestate. There is a manner of collective acceptance underlining this transition. Disneyland aims to build a dream world yet it is still a business, employing its own regulations for customers to enter and benefitting from these consumers, resulting in the consumer to bare an unthreatening stance towards the authority of the institution.

Using the writings of Judith Butler and Irit Rogoff on aesthetics and identity (particularly identity as a performance) as a starting point, wherein a person is really only what they are seen to be by others, and identity and character traits aren't a real 'part' of a person. You are only what you act and look like. With this in mind, we think of the border-crossing as an aesthetical, phenomenological situation, wherein one's 'identity' as it appears (3D into 1D) is judged against the atmosphere and aesthetic of the institution in question. If that 'identity' is judged to be supportive/constitutive of that atmosphere (institutional aesthetic is a collective aesthetic), then the person seeking entry is allowed in. If their identity doesn't fit or could upset the institutional aesthetic, the person is rejected.

'At the border, you are expected to prostrate yourself to the whims of the institution you are trying to enter.'

Takala, in her work Real Snow White, is, in the view of Disneyland, a sort of Trojan Horse. There is something about her performance in the film that is wrong and worthy of distrust. She upsets the positive feedback loop of the constituents of the institution by looking like the institution. She doesn't fit into the overall aesthetic of Disneyland-people vacationing, queueing up peacefully, unthinking acceptance of the hyper-reality of the park. She isn't a real Disney fan; she has failed to collapse her multi-faceted identity into the 1D identity desired by Disney; the one printed on her ticket. At the border, you are expected to prostrate yourself to the whims of the institution you are trying to enter. There is a one-sided economy of trust, wherein you aren't at all trusted, but you must nonetheless trust the whims and requests of those with the power to let you in or turn you away. You are expected to, as said, trade in the many intersectional traits and personal histories and performances that make up what you consider to be your identity for the identity that is stamped on your ticket, or passport, or CV. You must take on the aesthetic of "Finnish Caucasian Female not trying to start trouble." What gives Real Snow White its force, then, is Takala's refusal to abide by the "No Joking At The Border" rule, which essentially states that you can't act in any way other than that of prostrated peon. Takala subverts this dynamic and this economy of trust by joking, by tooling, by playing around at the border. She defangs the institution by making her entry-refusal feel weird and ill-reasoned, and showing that entry and expulsion are determined by something we can't quite put our fingers on.

Finally, others were allowed in because it was their job--their brief by the institution--to perform Snow White that day. This discrepancy between Takala's Snow White and the other Snow Whites points to the ability of an institution to render two materially similar things different. Just as two Brillo Boxes, materially exactly the same, might be considered differently because of its situation within and acceptance by an institution (one is art and the other isn't; it sits on a store shelf and not in MoMA), one Snow White is denied entry to the park because she isn't the real Snow White, while on the other side of the gates, another moves freely around the park, looking almost exactly the same.

'Ambiguity is not welcomed by the state. Inbetweeness is illegitimate .'

One facet of the institutional nature of Disneyland is found in its selectivity towards dress and gender norms. In Nav Haqs article 'The Invisible and the Visible: Identity Politics and the Economy of Reproduction in Art', he describes a process of legitimation within the art world establishment, as passing through a mould of approval. This mould of legitimation can be found within other entry points of the wider world. In his text 'My Body Doesn't Exist', the writer and philosopher, Paul B. Preciado describes his struggle with the impenetrable Spanish State from whom he desires to be officially recognised as a man after transitioning gender. Here the transitioning crosses the border line of gender within his own body and also crosses the exterior institutional borders of acceptance and recognition. He fights to keep his middle female name, Beatriz, which the judge deems to be gender ambiguous. Ambiguity is not welcomed by the state. Inbetweenness is illegitimate. He writes 'The state is a machine to fabricate the truth and I am a beggar'. Here, the hetero-normative institution that Haq described as a mould can be seen as a machine, leading us to forget that it is a man-made entitly.

In order to be part of society one has to follow the rules, sign the forms and make the choices. Preciado says freedom and happiness are not given lightly, by describing the ability to have one's own name and gender as a debt that must be confirmed to the state in order to freely live his life. Infact, as Sara Ahmed, proposes in her book The Promise of Happiness, happiness throughout history has been masked as a freedom, when it is infact conditional. Happiness has been awarded particularly on women in the expectation, that they compromise their own happiness in order to preserve the happiness of others. She writes that happiness is used as a technology or instrument that re-orientates individual desire towards a common good, in this way one does not become a troublemaker, or a killjoy upsetting the stable status quo.

The real Snow White is regarded in the story to be the fairest beauty of them all. She is innocent, polite and a mother figure, who soon needs to be saved by a man after sinfully taking a bite of the red apple. In Takala's film, this fictionalised character is retained by the institution of Disneyland and cannot be appropriated by others as they enter its gates. Pilvi Takala's character is an individualised self-identified character that has not been trained and vetted in the same way that the actors within Disneyland have. The institution sees this individuality as a threat to its overall polished image of Snow White, a narrative that it has managed to preserve over the many generations.

Pilvi Takala: Real Snow White, 2009, video, 9:15 min, Courtesy of Carlos/Ishikawa

The situation that Takala created is ironic, ambiguous, and very complex, in which it reflects the power dynamic relationship between the institution, the collective, and the individual. Although Snow White is a fictional character, in reality, Walt Disney's "the happiest place on earth" functions just like the real world. It follows a similar power structure, an atmosphere, as suggested by Arthur Danto, created and maintained by collective acceptance. What is unsettling here as we've pointed out in Nav Haq and Paul B Preciado's writings, is that these predetermined collective characteristics turn into a process of legitimization. In order to gain the entrance or to be a part of the collective, one has to pass through the mould of approval. Using the mould to verify an individual's veracity simply enables the mould to shape up, assimilate and control an individual's behaviour and appearance. The mould also flattens an individual from multi-faceted identity into one dimensioned identity. Wherein a person is really only what they are seen to be by others, and identity and character traits aren't a 'real' part of a person.

The real Snow White character's quality is her beautiful appearance and her innocent and obedient behaviour. The irony is, although Takala appears to be similar to the real Snow White, instead of being obedient, she confronts Disney and its social structure. What is real? How to examine realness? They perhaps remain undetermined for us, but what we do acknowledge is that the artist possesses more intelligence and complexity than that offered by the institution, at least in the act of expressing realness through individuality.

This was a collaborative research project between Royal College of Art students on the Curating Contemporary Art programme; Titus Nouwens, Miffy Shen, Jinghua Fan, Jordan Matthias, Charlotte dos Santos and Sha Li.

You can also see the text here.

REFERENCES

Ahmed, Sara, The Promise of Happiness, 2010

Butler, Judith, Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory, Theatre Journal, heatre Journal, Vol. 40, No. 4 (1988),

Danto, A. 1964, "The Artworld", The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 61.

Haq, Nav, 'The Invisible and the Visible: Identity Politics and the Economy of Reproduction in Art', Thread, Decolonising Practices, 2015

Preciado, B, Paul. 'My Body Doesn't Exist', from The Reader, Document 14, 2017

Rogoff, Irit, 1998, "How to Dress for an Exhibition", in M. Hannula (ed.), Stopping the Process? Contemporary Views on Art and Exhibitions, The Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art.

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Conditions of Entry: Thoughts on Pilvi Takala's "Real Snow White"

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"If you can dream it, you can do it" were the inspirational words of Walt Disney. The father of the multi-national media company spoke of the future with a fantastical sense of triumph, a quality that anyone would wish to possess; truly believing that freedom and opportunity were at one's fingertips.

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© 2021 Karla Dickens / All Content & Images are subject to Copyright

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question 2

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At the Wedding Circle, Chippendale

* ▫︎ melletios kyriakidis ▾
▻ ▹ ‣▷ he/him
Melletios Kyriakidis is a contemporary artist based on unceded, Gadigal Country. Since the mid 90's Melletios has exhibited extensively, including shows in London, Beijing, Rome, Hamburg, Melbourne and Sydney. He now displays his work on Large scale Architectural facades, on iconic buildings like the Sydney Opera House.

Melletios Kyriakidis' interdisciplinary work is grounded in the profound consequences of identity and exploration of the political body, immersed in intergenerational, diasporic trauma. It draws on the premise of the disassociated state of Flux and the effects of post-colonial structures.

Expounding on Structuralism, Melletios' work is part performative, part situational, adopting a transdisciplinary framework for his aesthetic. He rejects the contrived legacy, the decorative by-product of the institutional hierarchy.

Presently he is collaborating with others to produce work that involves discourse concerning the frenzied state of affairs that has encompassed the conservative identity of the contemporary epoch.

_______________________________________________

Photo documentation and the performance of 'Thrills and Spills', with James Gulliver Hancock, 2011.

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At the Wedding Circle, Chippendale * ▫︎ melletios kyriakidis ▾ ▻ ▹ ‣▷ he/him Melletios Kyriakidis is a contemporary artist based on unceded, Gadigal Country. Since the mid 90's Melletios has exhibited extensively, including shows in London, Beijing, Rome, Hamburg, Melbourne and Sydney.

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I am conflicted between two questions.

Question 3: Using three art works (since 1960) explain two different creative strategies used to critique "gender". Compare and contrast these strategies.

The relationship this question has to be is my own personal interest in gender discourse, and how artists explore these questions in art. As a cisgender straight woman, I want to personally investigate how my own notions of gender can be challenged through artists I come across. The artists I have in mind is Bhenji Ra, Caroline Garcia and maybe Vanessa Beecroft as well.

Question 4: Discuss the complexities of "post" colonial art in ongoing settler colonies like Australia. Analyse three artworks (since 1960) within the broader context of settler colonisation.

I feel that I relate to this question as well, especially as a Filipina whose cultural memory involves the colonial settlement of Spain, the invasion of Japan, and occupation of America in the Philippines. Two artists that I feel connected to and feel relates to question is Caroline Garcia and Marikit Santiago.

Still on the fence but leaning more towards question 4 at this stage.

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Growing up as an identical twin, with a sister with a similar name, I’ve always had a weird mindset around what it means to be original. Still, as I grew older this weird feeling developed, as I have heard teachers say that nothing I ever do is ‘original’ for two reasons; jokingly, because of my twin sister, and secondly to critique my work. It’s not to say originality doesn’t exist, but rather how it is presented that it no longer seems original. The failure of Modernism saw the Postmodern world take over, seeing the emergence of a new dominant culture at play. Coincidentally, this period saw the end of individualism and individual subject, seeing the rise of pastiche -  the imitation of “dead styles”. This new era criticized the idea of originality and visual, and consumer, culture through artworks in the 20th century.

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Angelica - how does this question relate to you?

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Angelica - how does this question relate to you?

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I've always heard from teachers and family members growing up that 'Nothing you ever do is original - you may think it is, but someone has already thought of that before'. I guess I related to this question because I've grown up having a twin sister, which make me question whether one thing can ever truly be original. I mean I grew up with an identical twin, with practically identical names (1 letter difference), so I have always had a weird relationship with the idea of originality. I wanted to explore how artists have questioned the notion of originality, and how this causes pressure for them to produce something - something that is 'unique' or 'original' - in a world/period that saw nothing as TRULY original.

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3. Using three artworks (since 1960) explain two different creative strategies used to critique “gender”.
Compare and contrast these strategies.

What this means to me:
How gender especially from a female perspective/ created by female artists are depicted, and how there is such a large under representation of this in the art world and in some forms of art education

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1.     Artists propose, test and experiment through their art to expose and critique systems, contexts, identities and institutions. Using three artworks since 1960, demonstrate the unique ways artists have researched and presented ideas that challenge the audience’s “knowledge”.

What this means to me...
-Socialised self... My identity as an Asian Woman...?
-Feminism... intersectional feminism

Artist ideas:
-Eugenia Lim
-Bhenji Ra
-

THESIS

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Manzoni, Kunstlerscheisse, 1961 - https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/manzoni-artists-shit-t07667
He sold cans with artist shit. To me he is questioning the consumption of culture/art and the capitalism it involves, but also originality, this can of shit only can come from him, but anyone could make this artwork, it does not require special skills.

AND

Cristo, 1963 – wrapped magazine showing mona lisa with mustache  - https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/christo-der-speigel-magazine-wrapped-p07640
Originality, when it is wrapped it is new, even though the original is not from him. You wrap it to consume it.

OR
Cristo, wrapped cans - https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/christo-wrapped-cans-part-of-inventory-t03290
Connected to Manzoni (cans) - same implications of consumption

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Summary

In May 1961, while he was living in Milan, Piero Manzoni produced ninety cans of Artist's Shit. Each was numbered on the lid 001 to 090. Tate's work is number 004. A label on each can, printed in Italian, English, French and German, identified the contents as '"Artist's Shit", contents 30gr net freshly preserved, produced and tinned in May 1961.' In December 1961 Manzoni wrote in a letter to the artist Ben Vautier: 'I should like all artists to sell their fingerprints, or else stage competitions to see who can draw the longest line or sell their shit in tins. The fingerprint is the only sign of the personality that can be accepted: if collectors want something intimate, really personal to the artist, there's the artist's own shit, that is really his.' (Letter reprinted in Battino and Palazzoli p.144.)

It is not known exactly how many cans of Artist's Shit were sold within Manzoni's lifetime, but a receipt dated 23 August 1962 certifies that Manzoni sold one to Alberto Lùcia for 30 grams of 18-carat gold (reproduced in Battino and Palazzoli p.154). Manzoni's decision to value his excrement on a par with the price of gold made clear reference to the tradition of the artist as alchemist already forged by Marcel Duchamp and Yves Klein among others. As the artist and critic Jon Thompson has written:

Manzoni's critical and metaphorical reification of the artist's body, its processes and products, pointed the way towards an understanding of the persona of the artist and the product of the artist's body as a consumable object. The Merda d'artista, the artist's shit, dried naturally and canned 'with no added preservatives', was the perfect metaphor for the bodied and disembodied nature of artistic labour: the work of art as fully incorporated raw material, and its violent expulsion as commodity. Manzoni understood the creative act as part of the cycle of consumption: as a constant reprocessing, packaging, marketing, consuming, reprocessing, packaging, ad infinitum. ( Piero Manzoni, 1998, p.45)

Artist's Shit was made at a time when Manzoni was producing a variety of works involving the fetishisation and commodification of his own body substances. These included marking eggs with his thumbprints before eating them, and selling balloons filled with his own breath (see Tate ). Of these works, the cans of Artist's Shit have become the most notorious, in part because of a lingering uncertainty about whether they do indeed contain Manzoni's faeces. At times when Manzoni's reputation has seen the market value of these works increase, such uncertainties have imbued them with an additional level of irony.

Further Reading:

Germano Celant, Piero Manzoni, New York 1972
Freddy Battino and Luca Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni: Catalogue raisonné, Milan 1991, pp.123-8, 472-5, catalogue no. 1053/4, reproduced p.472
Piero Manzoni, exhibition catalogue, Serpentine Gallery, London 1998, reproduced pp.201-6 in colour

Sophie Howarth
November 2000

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'Artist's Shit', Piero Manzoni, 1961 | Tate

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In May 1961, while he was living in Milan, Piero Manzoni produced ninety cans of Artist's Shit. Each was numbered on the lid 001 to 090. Tate's work is number 004. A label on each can, printed in Italian, English, French and German, identified the contents as '"Artist's Shit", contents 30gr net freshly preserved, produced and tinned in May 1961.'

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In relation to my on practice I like to draw hyperrealistic portraits of family and friends. I find myself having a bizarre relationship with the final works I produce as I draw exactly what I see, therefore is that even original? Is it an aesthetic looks? What makes it original? adding difference mediums?

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To make things easier, I thought I'd just put a link here for some of the work I've done because I don't want to make such a lengthy post :)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13TdGjITtd6TbTQcBBJcBFJWrQi7Y1c55yt91EbcqCCY/edit?usp=sharing

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Angelica Johnson (z5362492) Academic Essay

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Angelica some artist/artwork research notes

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Angelica some artist/artwork research notes

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‘Marilyn Diptych’ (1962) by Andy Warhol :

Demonstrates a part of popular culture's fascination with the celebrity, the repeated coloured prints of her face against the monochrome prints portray Marilyn’s presence in the media, and the long-lasting fascination she has left on people.

Also is a comment on mass production and how this causes there to be a lack of authenticity/originality because is everything is mass-produced; like a factory, producing the same product over and over again.

‘Untitled Film Still #21’ (1978) by Cindy Sherman:

Depicts a girl dressed in fashion from the 1950s in a black and white photograph. The series of photographs represent a lack of originality as they imitate old films - we feel like we can recognise them, the black and white film seems nostalgic to us - plays into ‘pastiche’ (imitation of dead styles) which was quite popular during the Postmodernist art era.

Borrowing from historic styles and reflects the fluidity of identity

Also questions the representation of women in the media and cinema (women were usually depicted as victims, pieces to move the story along for the heroic male).

Leaves the audience wondering whether they have seen this film before? Or is sit just a copy of something we’ve seen before? (bringing in this question on whether anything is truly original???).

‘Untitled (I shop therefore I am)’ (1987) by Barbara Kruger

Critiques Rene Descartes’ statement ‘I think therefore I am’, by demonstrating how our identity is made up by consumerism - we show our identity by dressing in the latest trends, we can’t help it, we have to buy what’s new, to CONSUME the latest and greatest.

Focuses on the image, the spectacle, and questions whether anyone is ever original/authentic if we’re all dressed by the same trends and fashion. Consumerism drives our identity, no longer our agency to do what we want. In some sense, this still applies today.

Appropriates/imitates mass media advertisements evident in the use of graphic block prints and colours (black, red, and white).

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“We are in a world/time that uses the languages of ‘diversity’, ‘chaos’, ‘multiculturalism’, ‘pluralism’ – the languages of difference, the non-unified, the pandemonium – not the languages of order, regularity, conformity.”[1]

“Eurocentrism, hegemony and colonialism (re-)produce “legitimate” knowledge and knowers in the Western world.” [2] In the context of colonial Australia, this ‘knowledge’ typically centres white epistemologies that maintain the status quo – the equilibrium of White supremacy and the incessant ‘othering’ of People of Colour. This essay will examine the unique ways contemporary Australian artists Makeda Duong, Eugenia Lim and ___ research and present ideas that challenge systems, contexts, identities and institutions that centralise white knowledge. Mixed Race Sweater, The Australian Ugliness and __ each expose and critique specific structures such as the “penetrative white gaze”, “ethics and aesthetics” of  Australian architecture and ___. Unique strategies - textiles, performance and __ - help reveal the diversity of histories, narratives and plurality of identity which is often unacknowledged by the white hegemonic system of knowledge. These artists explore different notions of identity and thus reveal the multifarious and complex nature of the so called ‘Asian Australian’ experience.

As a biracial Asian Australian this essay also functions as a personal investigation into the methodologies of other artists that are ethnically, culturally and/or legally linked to the continent of Asia. Within the context of white Australia these artists are repeatedly with terms such as ‘Asian Australian’ having a tendency to “disguise the enormous diversity of cultures, languages, beliefs, and political systems”[3]. How can I rethink and restructure my own knowledge systems and where can I locate myself in a broader art context?

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In the 21st century the mass culture machine is inescapable in its ubiquity. Images are able to be replicated infinitely and distributed en masse; often to accumulate capital. This brings into question the idea of the “original artwork” and its integrity. In the late 20th century, appropriation artists engaged with the ideas of [Roland Barthes and Walter Benjamin] in order to examine and critique the concept of the original artwork. This came at a time when artists and critics began to fully comprehend the undisputed pervasiveness  the capitalist culture machine.

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Artists always try to come up with original ideas for their work, very rare they would like to imitate someone's else. As a result of the rise of postmodernism, ideas of originality has become vague. Take an example from Marcel Duchamp's readymade artworks and Andy Warhol's advertising artworks that change the definition of real art. Some said that Duchamp's art is not a true work of art, same as Warhol's work, in contrary to Duchamp's belief that concept as something that is more important rather than the object. This essay talks about ... tbc