BVA312 Art History 16 September 2019 & 22 September 2019 Essay topic

BVA312 Art History 16 September 2019

Art History Topic for Essay two

Key Question

How has rapidly advancing technology affected the way we view 21st century contemporary art and how does this affect the way people view my own art practice?

In searching for a suitable and interesting topic for Essay Two - Art History, I find that to be able to understand contemporary art and all the movements associated with it I need to focus on a key and narrow question.  It would be easy to try and cover a broad subject badly!

I need to look at how my own practice fits in with other artists on the contemporary and 21st century scene.

A couple of ideas that come to mind are:

How has rapidly advancing technology affected the way we view 21st century contemporary art?

In contemporary art it doesn't matter what it is made from, what does it say?

Within these questions I can review the mediums and materials - can art still be beautiful and contain a narrative?  Think about the shock art and art that seems misguided such as animal cruelty, public endangerment and self-mutilation - are artists disengaging with their public? 

 Modern art is about communicating ideas - Michelle Marder Kamhi - Understanding Contemporary Art.  Kamhi also states

“that art from foreign cultures that are now accessible to a global audience can be difficult to interpret and understand.”                                                                                   

Why should you need a complicated artists statement to accompany your work?  Can't the audience work it out for themselves?  - as an aside I think that I only write one as a student because it is a requirement of the course - they should be for the public viewers and in a language that everyday people can understand.  Leave the art speak for your dissertation or essays who are aimed at an academic audience.

This makes me think of the use of materials and mediums in contemporary art, the use of the found object - which has its background and origins from 20th century artists such as Duchamp and Breton and the broad term of Surrealism  - to which there is a following and artists practicing some form or descendant of today.

There seems to be a real danger of cutting edge art not connecting with a viewer and the artists thinking they are somehow clever or that the viewers are philistines or ignoramuses, the art work is so obscure that it cannot be labelled and therefore exempt from criticism.

Another thing too - why it is perceived that the gallery is the realm of middle aged men who paint grand landscapes?  - Villia Merton – Fibre Artist from Napier.

Have art exhibitions become grand affairs with state of the art lighting, video and contrived performances with each trying to outdo the other with the next outrageous theme or reaction?

Representational paintings or traditional oils, watercolor or acrylics on canvases are what the public are used to seeing in an art gallery - sometimes it would seem that a museum is a more interesting place to visit than an art gallery - they often contain current exhibitions of artists works within the museum spaces and collections.    So,  within  my own practice, creative play driven assemblage dioramas - where does that fit and who else is making this type of art?   I have chosen  a public library display box  for my final exhibition and although I certainly don't like my art being labelled, I am comfortable that some viewers will enjoy my art and others will pass it by.

Rapidly increasing technologies  mean I can use a variety of techniques to create art objects and assemblages with the use of lighting and I have considered sound.  'Readymades' was an art term for Duchamp's work to explain it - generally regarded as altering the viewers understanding of an object - what is was originally intended for (Bicycle wheel)  - within my own practice I think of the altered suitcase and mannequin.

What does my art mean to me?  It is a combination of narrative and making, expressing a fairy tale in another format rather than a written and illustrated story book in a very saturated children’s literature market.    How does the viewer perceive it?  It is difficult to record accurate data on this other than a feedback sheet or link to my web site so a comment can be left.

If I had to lasso or corral my work into  a box, I would call it  'diorama meets storytelling' or 'folk art meets diorama' Assemblage meets storytelling etc, so what is in a name?

Do viewers now expect to see bigger and grander displays in galleries and spaces – what is happening in global galleries?

 Contrast and compare galleries from two diverse countries. 

What is similar and what is different?

Some of my  body of work - who else is making similar?

some of the collection - varying coatings and finishes,  one hand stitched character , one altered doll all illustrating the possibilities  of outcomes using creative play as a way to make an artwork.