#readymade revisited

[fatehbaz]

Coral today is an icon of environmental crisis, its disappearance from the world’s oceans an emblem for the richness of forms and habitats either lost to us or at risk. Yet, as Michelle Currie Navakas shows in [...] Coral Lives: Literature, Labor, and the Making of America, our accounts today of coral as beauty, loss, and precarious future depend on an inherited language from the nineteenth century. [...] Navakas traces how coral became the material with which writers, poets, and artists debated community, labor, and polity in the United States.

The coral reef produced a compelling teleological vision of the nation: just as the minute coral “insect,” working invisibly under the waves, built immense structures that accumulated through efforts of countless others, living and dead, so the nation’s developing form depended on the countless workers whose individuality was almost impossible to detect. This identification of coral with human communities, Navakas shows, was not only revisited but also revised and challenged throughout the century. Coral had a global biography, a history as currency and ornament that linked it to the violence of slavery. It was also already a talisman - readymade for a modern symbol [...]. Not least, for nineteenth-century readers in the United States, it was also an artifact of knowledge and discovery, with coral fans and branches brought back from the Pacific and Indian Oceans to sit in American parlors and museums. [...]

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[W]ith material culture analysis, [...] [there are] three common early American coral artifacts, familiar objects that made coral as a substance much more familiar to the nineteenth century than today: red coral beads for jewelry, the coral teething toy, and the natural history specimen. This chapter [...] [brings] together a fascinating range of representations of coral in nineteenth-century painting and sculptures.

With the material presence of coral firmly in place, Navakas returns us to its place in texts as metaphor for labor, with close readings of poetry and ephemeral literature up to the Civil War era. [...] [Navakas] includes an intriguing examination of the posthumous reputation of the eighteenth-century French naturalist Jean-André Peyssonnel who first claimed that coral should be classed as an animal (or “insect”), not plant. Navakas then [...] considers white reformers [...] and Black authors and activists, including James McCune Smith and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and a singular Black charitable association in Cleveland, Ohio, at the end of the century, called the Coral Builders’ Society. [...]

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[H]er attention to layered knowledge allows her to examine the subversions of coral imagery that arose [...]. Obviously, the mid-nineteenth-century poems that lauded coral as a metaphor for laboring men who raised solid structures for a collective future also sought to naturalize a system that kept some kinds of labor and some kinds of people firmly pressed beneath the surface. Coral’s biography, she notes, was “inseparable from colonial violence at almost every turn” (p. 7). Yet coral was also part of the material history of the Black Atlantic [...].

Thus, a children’s Christmas story, “The Story of a Coral Bracelet” (1861), written by a West Indian writer, Sophy Moody, described the coral trade in the structure of a slave narrative. [...] In addition, coral’s protean shapes and ambiguity - rock, plant, or animal? - gave Americans a model for the difficulty of defining essential qualities from surface appearance, a message that troubled biological essentialists [...]. Navakas thus repeatedly brings into view the racialized and gendered meanings of coral [...].

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Some readers from the blue humanities will want more attention, for example, to [...] different oceans [...]: Navakas’s gaze is clearly eastward to the Atlantic and Mediterranean and (to a degree) to the Caribbean [...], even though much of the natural historical explorations, not to mention the missionary interest in coral islands, turns decidedly to the Pacific. [...] First, under my hat as a historian of science, I note [...] [that] [q]uestions about the structure of coral islands among naturalists for the rest of the century pitted supporters of Darwinian evolutionary theory against his opponents [...]. These disputes surely sustained the liveliness of coral - its teleology and its ambiguities - in popular American literature. [...]

My second desire, from the standpoint of Victorian studies, is for a more specific account of religious traditions and coral. While Navakas identifies many writers of coral poetry and fables, both British and American, as “evangelical,” she avoids detailed analysis of the theological context that would be relevant, such as the millennial fascination with chaos and reconstruction and the intense Anglo-American missionary interest in the Pacific. [...] [However] reasons for this move are quickly apparent. First, her focus on coral as an icon that enabled explicit discussion of labor and community means that she takes the more familiar arguments connecting natural history and Christianity in this period as a given. [...] Coral, she argues, is most significant as an object of/in translation, mediating across the Black Atlantic and between many particular cultures. These critical strategies are easy to understand and accept, and yet the word - the script, in her terms - that I kept waiting for her to take up was “monuments”: a favorite nineteenth-century description of coral.

Navakas does often refer to the awareness of coral “temporalities” - how coral served as metaphor for the bridges between past, present, and future. Yet the way that a coral reef was understood as a literal graveyard, in an age that made death practices and new forms of cemeteries so vital a part of social and civic bonds, seems to deserve a place in this study. These are a greedy reader’s questions, wanting more. As Navakas notes [...], the method [...] is to understand our present circumstances as framed by legacies from the past, legacies that are never smooth but point us to friction and complexity.

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All text above by: Katharine Anderson. "Review of Navakas, Michele Currie, Coral Lives: Literature, Labor, and the Making of America." H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. December 2023. Published at: [networks.h-net.org/group/reviews/20017692/anderson-navakas-coral-lives-literature-labor-and-making-america] [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism.]

[maebyyork]

Readymade Revisited Returns

Episode 4 has taken me more than a month to get out -- probably closer to a month and a half. I could blame it on the fact that school is back in session, or that I’ve been sick and quarantined while waiting for my Covid-19 results, or that, because my doctor’s office has gone through four primary care physicians in five months, and now there just isn’t one, I’m off my antidepressants for the first time in a looong time.

But those are all just excuses. Sitting down to write, even for a few minutes, has become an anxiety inducing nightmare.

Today, I am writing. The world is on fire - literally and figuratively. The United States is being eaten alive by climate change and hate. It’s exhausting. I’m writing anyway. 

Issue 4 of Readymade Magazine, released in Fall of 2002, ticks all my boxes. The Go Bungalow article probably had nothing to do with the reason I purchased a 1918 bungalow a few years back. The article about Shishmaref, Alaska, has led to me planning an entire -- post Corona -- trip to the tiny fishing village. The projects include a lot of weird lamps, Halloween costumes, holiday cooking,  and a DIY advent calendar. This is the nonsensical novelty of Readymade that I live for.

But until now it wasn’t enough to get me to sit my ass down and write. I have been creating PTSD-induced mixed-media collages and sullen poetry in an attempt to stay grounded. It’s been therapeutic, or at least it’s been a socially acceptable cry for help/time sink.

So, here we go, Readymade Revisited, post hiatus, begins now. Thanks for coming along on this journey.

Issue Details:

Chief Editor: Shoshana Berger

Publisher: Grace Hawthorne

Cover photo: Jeffery Cross

Contributors: Alan Deutschman, Adrian Tomine, Sherif Shalaby, Anthony Discenza, Jenn Stroud Rossmann, Josh Greene, Tim Parsons, Haywood Augustus Rose, Rachel Hutton, Evan Ratcliff, Nik Schulz, Boym Partners, James Chiang, Diane Goodman, Kate Lacey, Adrian Van Allen, Steve Dodds, Neal Pollack 

Publisher: Grace Hawthorne

Cover photo: James Chiang

Contributors: John Beckman, Jessie Scanlon, Jeffery Cross, Margaret Kessler, Tucker Nichols, Jim Rosenau, Susan Beal, Michael Ray, Lisa Marie Rovito, Greg Lindsay, Mimi Zeiger, Joshua Bernstein, Gayla Sanders, Noah David Smith, Bill Evans, Lizz Zitron, Erin Lewis, Sherif Shalaby, Tim Parsons, Evan Ratcliff

Editor in Chief: Shoshana Berger

Publisher and CEO: Grace Hawthorne

Art Director: Lucas Irwin

Copy Chief: Sean Cooper

Editor-at-Large: Evan Ratcliff

Cover photo: James Chiang

Contributing Editors: W.O. Goggins, Jill Hudes, Todd Lappin

Contributing Writers: David Boyer, Sean Carman, Steve Dodds, Caterina Fake, Jessica Halgren, Christopher Hawthorne, Jill Silverman Hough, Jonathan Kiefer, Sam Martin, Evan Ratliff, Tommy Wallach

Contributing Artists and Designers: Roger Bombardier, Jesse Brink, Paul Donald, Dave Eggers, Scott Flora, Justin Godar, David Graas, Steven James, Christopher Lindstrom, Mark Mulroney, Jerinne Neils, Paul Schifino, Sheriff Shalaby, Greg Tate, Erin Lewis, Adrian Van Allen

Chief Photographer: Brian Slaughter

Contributing Photographers: Brian Bloom, James Chiang, Jeffery Cross, Timothy Hursley, Denise Prince Martin, Emily Nathan, Christopher Pilaro, Candace Vivian 

Illustrators: Bill Evans, Martin Rich, Adrian Tomine, Jayme Yen

Interns: Jill Bliss, Katie Anne Fehenbacher, Jessica Fennel, Marcella Gries, David Howenstine, Kiera Lofgreen, Marie Mathieson, Sarah Pulver

 References

https://tinyurl.com/yb5mgjbc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyMade_(magazine)

[daphunkphenomena]

Track List

00:00:00 Gang Starr - Jazz Thing (Video Version) 00:04:43 Buckshot LeFonque - Ladies & Gentlemen,  Presenting... 00:05:46 Buckshot LeFonque - No Pain, No Gain (Salaam Remi Remix) 00:10:41 Black Sheep - Autobiographical 00:16:10 United Future Organization feat. Galliano - The Sixth Sense 00:23:13 Digable Planets - Time & Space (A New Refutation Of) 00:26:40 O.M.U. - We've Got Two Choices 00:32:01 Digital Underground - The New Jazz (One) 00:32:37 Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Escape 00:37:53 The Nimbus Sextet - Dreams Fulfilled 00:46:59 Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad - African Sounds 00:50:04 Tomppabeats - Puffin' 00:50:52 Incognito - Barumba (Daniel Maunick's Mix) 00:56:42 Roni Size - Jazz Thing 01:02:31 Mark Morrison - Crazy (DJ Pulse & Professor Stretch Main Mix) 01:08:26 Attica Blues - Contemplating Jazz 01:14:00 Apani B. Fly Emcee - Picture This 01:16:52 The Herbaliser - The Sensual Woman 01:22:34 Davina feat. Raekwon - So Good (Remix) 01:26:07 Erykah Badu - Window Seat 01:30:57 Neneh Cherry - I Ain't Gone Under Yet 01:34:56 Beastie Boys - B-Boys Making With The Freak-Freak 01:38:48 A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation 01:42:26 DJ Krush feat. C.L. Smooth - Only The Strong Survive 01:46:33 House Of Pain - On Point (Lethal Dose Remix) 01:49:57 O.M.U - Endless Sky 01:56:26 Paul Mac - Samba Interlude 01:59:10 Digable Planets - Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat) 02:03:23 Tajima Hal - Grape Choice 02:05:51 MC Solaar - A Temps Partiel 02:10:00 St. Germain - Easy To Remember 02:19:34 N.E.R.D. - Everybody Nose (All The Girls Standing In The Line For The Bathroom) 02:23:00 Mr. Complex - Visualize (Remix) 02:28:59 Sarah Vaughan - Summertime (U.F.O. Remix) 02:35:43 DJ Cam - Innervisions 02:39:21 Eric B. & Rakim - Don't Sweat The Technique 02:44:29 Jeannie Hopper & Sabine Worthmann feat. Martha Cinader - Living It (Original Mix) 02:51:02 Rico - No Statick 02:54:43 Ty - Break The Lock 02:58:28 Pete Philly & Perquisite - Eager 03:03:25 Ariana Grande vs. John Coltrane - My Seven Favourite Things 03:08:40 The Pharcyde - Runnin' 03:13:28 Miles Davis - Mystery 03:17:35 Monday Michiru - Hear Between The Silence 03:23:11 dZihan & Kamien - Before 03:28:25 Mittensさん vs. Chet Baker - I Fall In Love Too Easily (Infinite Coffee's Continuous Mix) 03:34:14 B. Love - Lucy 03:39:53 Aloan - Azimut 03:45:41 US3 - Doin' A Crime 03:51:15 Cee Knowledge feat. Sun Ra's Arkestra - Space Is The Place 03:56:55 The Roots feat. A.J. Shine, Bo-Watt, Lord Akil, Malik B., Me, Myself & I, Mr. Manifest, Pazi Plant & Shorty No Mas - The Session (Longest Posse Cut In History) 04:09:34 RZA - Untitled #12 04:12:17 Palmskin Productions - Spock With A Beard 04:17:11 Serge Gainsbourg - Aéroplanes (Readymade's Bold Mix) 04:22:26 The Black Eyed Peas - That's The Joint 04:26:11 St. Germain - Rose Rouge 04:33:05 Motorbass - Open Sesame 04:39:09 Marc Moulin - Into The Dark 04:45:38 Mr. Scruff - Get A Move On 04:53:09 Laquan - Witness The Drift 04:57:42 Télépopmusik - Jazz Interlude 04:58:48 DJ I.N.C. - True School 05:02:50 Les Sages Poètes De La Rue - Amoureux D'Une Enigme 05:08:33 De Puta Madre - Trippin' Tranquilo 05:12:27 La Cliqua - Comme Une Sarbacane 05:17:05 Suprême NTM - Paris Sous Les Bombes 05:21:18 MC Solaar - Qui Sème Le Vent Récolte Le Tempo (Gang Starr Mix) 05:25:14 Queen Latifah - Unity 05:29:13 Nicolette - No Government (Extended Mix) 05:32:51 Portishead - Numb (Remix) 05:36:30 Micatone - Quiet Boy 05:40:08 Caravan Palace - L'Envol 05:43:52 Kendrick Lamar - Free 05:46:03 MOAR feat. Rita J - Party People (Fly Mix) 05:49:05 B-Bandj feat. DJ Krush - The Habit 05:53:05 Joey B4da$$ - Big Dusty 05:57:08 Henry Mancini - Silver Tears 06:00:13 Guru feat. Erykah Badu - Plenty 06:04:41 Busta Rhymes - Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check (The Jay-Dee Other Shit Remix) 06:09:22 Jungle Brothers - Spittin' Wicked Randomness 06:12:45 De La Soul - I Am I Be 06:17:47 U.M.C's - One To Grow On 06:21:36 Credit To The Nation - Teenage Sensation 06:24:45 Polyrhythm Addicts - Big Phat Boom 06:28:25 O.C. - Word Life (DJ Celory Remix) 06:38:13 Minus 8 - Cold Fusion 06:37:24 Kira Neris - Judy In June (Cosa Nostra's Shuffle Remix) 06:43:36 Alex Gopher - You, My Baby & I (Pepe Bradock Remix) 06:48:01 Pharoah Sanders - The Creator Has A Master Plan (Trip-Hop Remix) 06:52:56 MC Solaar - Love Supreme (Instrumental) 06:54:15 Jesper Dahlbäck - Stora Eken 06:59:41 Idealism - Falling Asleep At 3:37 A.M. 07:01:40 Soho - Hot Music (Jazz Mix) 07:04:47 Q-Tip - Things U Do 07:08:50 Dream Warriors - My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style 07:13:15 Billie Holiday - Don't Explain (dZihan & Kamien Remix) 07:17:55 A Tribe Called Quest - Vibes & Stuff 07:22:18 La Chatte Rouge - Ecouter, Fumer 07:29:53 St. Germain - Forget It 07:37:47 A Tribe Called Quest - Push It Along 07:42:32 Ronny Jordan - My Favourite Things 07:48:02 The Hunch - Alone 07:52:29 Soul II Soul - Intelligence (Jazzie II Guru Mix) 07:56:51 Smif 'N Wessun - Bucktown 08:00:54 Digable Planets - Last Of The Spiddyocks 08:05:22 Gang Starr feat. Big Shug - F.A.L.A. 08:09:48 Bubbatunes - This Is just A Dance 08:13:38 MC Solaar - Caroline (La Funk Mob Aeroplane Mix) 08:19:56 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) 08:24:12 Black Sheep - The Choice Is Yours (Revisited) 08:28:10 DJ Cam - Friends & Enemies 08:34:32 dZihan & Kamien feat. Daniela - Basmati 08:39:59 St. Germain - Mama Said 08:45:21 Idealism - Hishitsu (Stormy Weather Extended Edition) 08:50:35 O.M.U. - Song For Children

[zeroistes]

Door, 11 Rue Larrey Revisited (After Duchamp), readymade / installation

[wodexuexiao]

@gwndlnstudies tagged me in this game. Thanks sweetheart!

If you wrote a book, what would it be about?

I’ve long wanted to write a book about an 18th Century Rake, using it as a space in which to explore gender, sexuality, and religion. I’ll probably never write it, but I did an absolute boat load of research back when I was 18 hahaha

Do you find the most comfort in the forest or by the sea?

I love both, but the forest feels more comforting to me. It provides cover, and there are so many things to see! Insects and animals and lots of plants. The sea is exhilerating, but the fact that it is so open means I never feel like I can just let go and enjoy it, as I fear I am being watched.

Name at least one lovely thing about yourself or that happened to you in the past few days

I’m afraid that the past few days have been rather nothing-y for me, so I’ll have to go for something I appreciate about myself. I like to think that I’m a rather kind person, and I enjoy helping others feel accomplished.

Are you a hopeless romantic or a realist?

A realist, I reckon. But being a realist doesn’t mean I’m not entirely romantic. For example: I don’t believe in soul mates, but I believe that you can love someone enough to put in the effort to make your relationship similar to soul mates.

What do you do to take care of yourself and feel at peace?

I’m actually AWFUL at doing things to take care of myself. Every now and then (read: once a year or less) I’ll buy a face mask, but that’s really it. If I’m really ill I’ll curl up and watch a film from my childhood. If I’m feeling jittery, I’ll drink some good quality tea. Otherwise, I’m known for not really looking after myself very well (as my doctors will attest).

Does the weather have a strong effect on your emotions?

Horrifically so! My mother is the same. On a sunny day I have boundless enthusiasm and happiness, it’s really hard to get me down. On cloudy days (or worse, rainy) I get really really down to the point of sometimes struggling to get out of bed. I have big fluctuations with the season, too. Winter is the hardest time of year for me, and late Spring to mid Summer is the easiest.

Describe a cute date idea (either as a date with yourself or with someone else)

Oh! Okay, so a trip to London, definitely. In the morning go to The Wallace Collection. At lunch find a cafe. In the afternoon go for a walk around Hyde Park. In the evening, eat Pho. I really miss living in London hahaha. Alternatively: go to Oxford, go through museums, take a walk along the Thames in the afternoon, swim in it in the evening, say hello to the cows.

Where is it that you would most like to be right now?

London. Honestly I don’t really know? I think with the whole world at a standstill at the moment (or moving when it really, really shouldn’t be) I’m quite content to be at home. If it weren’t for COVID-19, though, I’d want to be returning to Shenzhen. I miss living in China and I miss working as a teacher hahaha.

What is your definition of art?

Allow me to don my art historian hat for a moment. I used to be very much in the “Art is something very specific” school, but after my studies I’ve become one of those very annoying people who honestly enjoys contemporary art and will go on for an age about the validity of the “readymade”. Art is anything one ascribes artistic significance to. Through the act of looking at something and contemplating it, it becomes art. If you put your glasses on the floor in an art gallery and “pretend” it’s art - congratulations, you just made art! The banana on the wall was art.

What is your definition of beauty?

This is a tough one. I think beauty is a malleable, fluid concept and that it changes based on circumstance, experience, and opinion. Personally, some of what I sometimes find beautiful can be found in the following, non-exhaustive list: bird song, cherry blossoms, the smell of a farmer’s market, crowds of people singing together, tiny little mice running along the tracks in the tube, the colour green, disgustingly over the top furniture from the baroque and rococo ages, humanity’s desire to communitcate with one another, crows, cows, well-planned public transport systems.

My questions for the following five people: @i-hope-its-raining, @jingxixuexiblr, @whorumadh, @studiousghost, @studylikeara

What is one place you’ve always wanted to visit (and why)?

What is one thing that never fails to cheer you up?

Do you prefer hot weather or cold weather?

What is one thing you think everyone should be taught at school?

Would you rather be unable to taste things that are sweet, or unable to taste things that are salty?

What is one good memory you like to revisit?

If you had to pick your greatest achievement, the thing you were most proud of, what would it be?

Which song do you think everyone should listen to at least once?

If you could choose one language to be able to speak fluenty without studying, which would it be and why?

If you could somehow befriend and keep the companionship of any animal in the world, what sort of animal would it be?

Of course, no pressure to play! Thank you again @gwndlnstudies for the tag, this was actually really fun!

[kakaji]

In the first room of the exhibition The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, three jade-coloured Peking Opera costumes are suspended from the ceiling in a sentry-like manner. Lined up one after another, they have been rendered in a stiff, translucent PVC that make them appear as apparitions. Draped behind them are oversized chains entombed in silk. The juxtaposition of these two works, by artists Wang Jin and Liang Shaoji respectively, promises museumgoers an image of traditional China revisited with a sense of play, drama and surprise in its use of unconventional materials. Drifting from room to room, visitors are rewarded by works that function similarly, in that none of them are as they appear: Liu Jianhua’s thin slabs of porcelain resembling blank sheets of paper; what presents itself as an abstract painting by Ma Qiusha, made from pantyhose stretched over concrete shards; and Gu Wenda’s rainbow tent fabricated entirely out of human hair.

Prior attempts to introduce contemporary Chinese art to Western audiences have often adhered to the narrow framework of the Western canon, as was done with Cynical Realism and Political Pop. In this case, however, the curators Wu Hung and Orianna Cacchione place their focus on the idea of material and with it, the cultural, historical, political and personal specificity that each material carries. Because of this, material operates as the perfect vehicle to dispel conventional notions of China within the East/West dichotomy and expand how contemporary Chinese art can be understood. In using material as its underlying conceit, the exhibition refuses a tight definition of contemporary Chinese art, revealing the impossibility of containing cultural production under one unifying ideology.

At the heart of the curators’ argument lies the idea of ‘Material Art’, or ‘caizhi yishu’. Rather than proposing a new art movement, the term denotes a general art-historical approach to understanding works that share similar characteristics. In the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, Wu writes that this ‘type of art entails an artist’s consistent use of unconventional materials to produce works in which material, rather than image or style, is paramount in manifesting the artist’s aesthetic judgment or social critique’ (p.15). In other words, material is the key element in deciphering the meaning of a work of art, over image, object or concept. Indeed, Wu deliberately makes a distinction between Material art and Conceptual art, arguing that contemporary Chinese artworks had previously ‘been vaguely – and often inaccurately – labeled as Conceptual Art, assemblage, readymades, or object-based art’.

This positioning against Conceptual art is framed as a way to understand contemporary Chinese art outside of the Western canon, and therefore outside of the East/West binary. However, it also suggests that Conceptual art is completely divorced from material and negates the presence of material throughout art histories. Contemporary conceptual practices often incorporate material for both its physical qualities and its conceptual contents. Furthermore, discussion around materiality has always been present in art making, particularly within marginalised practices such as feminist, queer, craft, indigenous, and outsider art, often playing a central role in art histories outside of the Western canon.

The term ‘Material Art’ prompts further questions. What qualifies as unconventional material? Why is it culturally specific to China, and to which artists does the term apply? How are the parameters of Material Art defined? In spite of the fact that Wu is careful not to define a coordinated artistic movement, he nevertheless seems to treat Material art as one, located in time and place (post-1980s China), with identifiable artists and characteristics and a unified approach. In her catalogue essay, Cacchione explains that that the emphasis is not necessarily on the materials themselves, but rather, on the new relationships between artwork, artist and viewer activated by those materials. Material Art, she writes, is characterised by its ability to index the body, rupture the distinction between work of art and the commodity, and spark a direct response in the viewer. Cacchione also narrows the timeframe of Material Art to post-Mao China to examine how it influenced the artistic landscape. According to her, ‘the use of these new materials characterizes a break with past art practices and styles in China, and can be used to identify the emergence of the ’85 New Wave Movement and contemporary art in China’ (p.44).

However, for those visitors who have not read the catalogue, the exhibition reads as a presentation of a cohesive movement under the vague theme of material. Almost all of the heavy hitters in the world of contemporary Chinese art, from Ai Weiwei to Lin Tianmiao, are represented here, but without the acknowledgment that these artists are often working across different generations, continents, politics, practices and themes. Without this crucial information about the specific contexts that led these artists to investigate certain materials, the exhibition easily slips into flattening the works of these diverse artists into one simplistic narrative.

As difficult as it is to represent the nuance in the landscape of Chinese art, it is perhaps even more difficult to convey the complexity of the entirety of China. In some cases, the exhibition would benefit from more information on the traditional forms of Chinese art that are referenced by the contemporary artists, for example, or translations of Chinese characters into English and vice versa. One example is He Xiangyu’s A Barrel of Dregs of Coca-Cola, in which the artist boils the soft drink until it is reduced to nothing more than a pile of ashes. The piece is accompanied by his notes, written in Chinese, referencing ideas of transformation and impermanence from the Buddhist Diamond Sutra. Thus, while some viewers could interpret his act as a nihilistic comment on capitalism, others fluent in Chinese might instead see a reflection on the nature of metamorphosis. Without a translation of the Chinese notes, though, audiences are left with only half of the information for understanding He’s work.

Other works do however present a compelling opportunity for audiences to learn about the realities of China. Yin Xiuzhen’s installation Transformation (1997) features over one hundred roof tiles collected from various demolition sites of traditional siheyuan houses in Beijing, carefully laid out to fill the room. On top of each tile is a photograph of the site from which it was taken, each one showing the particularities of differing courtyards. By offering visitors a direct glimpse into the spaces from which each tile came from, Transformation allows visitors to draw their own insights into the tensions between tradition and modernity within the context of urban development in China.

Moments of cross-cultural insight like this are rare, particularly in a time when China and the United States are often pitted against one another. With a planned partnership with the Yuz Museum Shanghai, the exhibition signals LACMA’s position at the forefront in introducing contemporary Chinese artwork to Los Angeles, which, despite its massive Chinese and Chinese-American population, has seen few comprehensive exhibitions of art from China, or indeed Asia. For now, unusual materials such as hair, gunpowder and Coca-Cola are certain to entice new audiences to enter its discourse.

[kolajmag]

COLLAGE ON VIEW

House + Wife Revisited

Evelyn Davis-Walker at the Thompson Gallery at the Cambridge School of Weston in Weston, Massachusetts, USA, 17 December 2018-15 March 2019. The second show in the "Circulus Retro" (Circle Back) exhibition series presents Davis-Walker’s assisted readymades installation, which converts the Thompson Gallery into a 1940s home, replete with period objects littered with collages that critically explore advertisement imagery. “My work is predicated on images that were created for the people of the 1940s, 50s and 60s,” the artist said. Utilizing various industrial decaling techniques, Davis-Walker creates collages on top of consumer goods that reunite message with object. MORE

Kolaj #24 is now available. Our goal with every printed issue is that Kolaj Magazine is essential reading for anyone interested in the role of contemporary collage in art, culture, and society. Kolaj #24 is no different.

Are you getting Kolaj Magazine delivered to your door? Subscribe Today! U.S. & International Subscribers go HERE | Canadian Subscribers go HERE

[grad504madisonwolfgramm]

Rationale

GRAD504/52

Type Matters - Project 2: Social Media Type Animation 

Madison Wolfgramm – Rationale

After working on Project 2 - Social Media Type Animations for the past seven weeks, I can confidently declare that I can design one. I produced four outputs, two in GIF and MP4 formats, using Adobe Photoshop to build my Frame by Frame Animation and Video Timeline, as well as Adobe Illustrator to generate graphics. Because they were built to function together, these two platforms made my life easier by importing and exporting my work from programme to programme, which was really useful when done correctly. I am really pleased that I was able to work with the same allocated typeface, 'IBM,' and that I was able to experiment more than in my Type Specimen Book Project 1. By completing this, I had done additional research on existing animations on IBM Plex, mainly looking into various ways to include my typography and material in an animation. With so much study, I recall periods when I focused more on aesthetics, such as repetition and confusing transitions, rather than a unified design informing viewers about my typeface. I had several roller- coaster designer moments when I wondered if having so many readymade animations out there under IBM Plex made this designing process harder through a mental battle that I had to either live up to those standards or make it even better which made this process challenging personally.

By sketching out frame by frame with various annotations of transitions and text to be created, I was able to gradually overcome this hurdle. I accomplished this by categorising the information I had and choosing what would work best. Each Animation focused on a different component of my typeface, such as the Introduction, Glyph Matrix, Type Features, and History. Sorting them into sections made the design process go more smoothly.

Throughout the creative process, I became familiar with setting up my canvas with the proper dimensions and saving it as a pre-set. Working with RGB benefited me and my work because I was able to work with the vibrant blue that I had always wanted to use to highlight IBM Plex alongside black and white, and I finally decided to use these as my colour palette. I was able to use groups for my layers as well as rename them to make it easier to work with while generating frame-by-frame or video animations so that I didn't get confused and that I was working with a clean workspace before I used the timeline window after learning technical abilities. This method improved and worked best for my process because it did not require me to look at and click on every layer when I could simply read and tick or untick the layers to proceed. This was very helpful, especially when it came to adding transitions to my animations, whether they were gifs from one end to the other or keyframes for the video timeline to ensure it was smooth rather than jagged and delayed, making it difficult to watch.

I had very little experience with Frame by Frame Animation in the past for Semester 1 Design Studio Class, but I had no idea until these last few weeks working up to this project that you can do so much more. The in-class workshops were extremely beneficial in terms of watching, applying and revising the work completed. Along the way, I learned a new language and gained technical abilities and tools to help me improve as a designer and in this project. I took care to practise on my own to completely understand the tools utilised so that I don't fall behind and become comfortable with them when I make my own. I had some challenges with exporting the two different formats, dealing with keyframes in the video timeline, and motion tweens along the way, but I was able to resolve these issues with the help of one- on-ones, feedback, and recorded content to revisit. Receiving feedback this time around was very useful in this process, as was talking to my lectures about the ideas I had produced and evaluating what needed to be better. This assisted in the refinement of my work into better animations for my summative.

I've learned a lot during the last seven weeks of working on this animation project. Looking back at the work I've done in the past and now has made me the happiest person in the world with what I've created and turned in. Through the static arrangement of type and layout of generating 2D Type Specimen Animated Movies, this project has taught me so much about design. I'm excited to see what I can achieve with these skills in the future of my design career, as this project has given me the ability to create a professional-looking series of animations.

[artbookdap]

"A new facsimile edition of a 1959 monograph of the artist provides a timely insight into his foundational, profoundly political act of negation."⁠ ⁠ Read @charlesworthjj on the new @hauserwirth facsimile edition of 'Marcel Duchamp' @artreview_magazine via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ "…This facsimile edition is a lavish remaking of the original in faithful detail, and collectors will covet it. (Penniless art students may want to borrow from the library, assuming there are copies enough to make it to art colleges.) But this ‘first take’ on Duchamp, long before he was an art-school-seminar mainstay, is genuinely impressive. Lebel, art historian, supporter of the Surrealists and other cultural radicals, offers a rhapsodic but fluid account of Duchamp’s life and works, with George Heard Hamilton’s translation managing to keep Lebel’s elaborate Francophone syntax readable to the uninitiated, even when Lebel is hauling the reader through the thickets of Duchamp’s more esoteric ruminations.⁠ ⁠ Unlike posthumous academic analyses of Duchamp, Lebel’s account emphasizes the ethical nature of Duchamp’s strategies of evasion and negation. The supposedly arbitrary choice of the readymade Lebel interprets as Duchamp’s desire to ‘depreciate our… notion of value in order to exalt the strictly private and sovereign choice which is accountable to no one’. Individual sovereignty is not arbitrary, but unbeholden to the values of others. Duchamp refused to be professionalized by the ‘art system’, even if this meant abandoning his ‘career’. Rejecting the repetitive status of a cog in a machine underpins the machinelike, sexualized binaries of Duchamp’s cryptic works, his play with gender (his alter ego Rrose Sélavy) and his constant sabotaging of desire and visual pleasure by language and cognition. At a moment when an over-institutionalized artworld is desperate to rediscover a sense of its positive purpose and fulfillment, it’s fascinating to revisit Duchamp’s foundational, profoundly political act of negation."⁠ ⁠ Read the full review via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ #marcelduchamp #duchampcatrais https://www.instagram.com/p/CbvBkXFLZut/?utm_medium=tumblr

[maebyyork]

Happy ThankSummersGiving!

Today was our ThankSummersGiving Day celebration. We had to make some last minute changes when we found out Thursday afternoon that I had been exposed to Covid 19 at school. We couldn’t take the chance of Parker, Taggert, or Nanny being exposed. So, Ken, Benjamin Rothlesdogger, Scooter, and I had a lovely meal together.

I know you’re wondering why on earth we’re celebrating Thanksgiving in July. You’re probably drawing correlations to another holiday that is celebrated at a more convenient time instead of on the celebratees actual birthday. That’s right, I’m talking about Abraham Lincoln, but this has nothing to do with him at all.

We had our giant meal today, because this week I’m covering the fourth issue of Readymade Magazine - the Fall 2002 issue. This issue has a bunch of awesome projects, but as soon as I saw Jill Silverman Hough’s Thanksgiving for Idiots article I knew that I’d hit gold. The recipes were simple enough to follow that even I couldn’t screw them up.

The recipes included Idiot’s Brined Turkey and Gravy, Drunken Stuffing, Uncanny Cranberries, and Acorn Squash Stuffed with Polenta, Wild Rice, and Mushrooms. Acorn squash and turkey were difficult to find in mid July, but fresh cranberries were a nonstarter. That’s okay. I like the good old can shaped cranberries.

I did make a couple additions to the menu. I took the article’s advice to “get them drinking” by making cranberry sangria and drunken punkin pie. All Silverman Hough’s recipes are directly from the article. I hope you like them as much as we did.

By Jill Silverman Hough

Idiot’s Brined Turkey

4 cups kosher salt

1 turkey rinsed with the giblets removed

1 cup chicken or turkey broth

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons sage, thyme, and rosemary

1 ½ teaspoons fresh ground pepper

Dissolve the salt in 2 gallons of cold water and a clean, non-reactive stock pot or bucket big enough for your turkey. Add the bird. Make sure the salt water solution covers the turkey  –  if it doesn’t, add more. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. (If it won’t fit in your refrigerator, an ice chest kept at about 40° will do it.)

Remove the turkey and rinse well, pat dry inside and out with paper towels. Preheat the oven to 400°.

Rub the turkey all over with butter, and sprinkle inside and out with herbs and pepper. Set a V-shaped rack in a roasting pan. Spray both with nonstick cooking spray. Set the turkey on the rack breast side up. Loosely tent the breast with foil and roast for an hour.

Remove foil and baste turkey with half the chicken stock. Rebaste with pan drippings and stock every 10 minutes or so, until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast (not touching the bones) registers 165°, and the thickest part of the thigh registers 170 to 175°. If any part of the skin starts looking to brown, cover it with foil.

The turkey should cook for a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Remove the turkey from the oven and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes before carving. Meanwhile, make the gravy.

Drunken Stuffing

1 package fine Pepperidge Farm seasoned stuffing mix

2 cups chopped celery

1 stick salted butter

1 cup chopped onions

1 box golden raisins

1 cup burgundy wine

Bring a pot of water to boil and dunk in raisins to plump them up. Sauté onions and celery in butter until soft. Add sautéed mixture to raisins, and combine with stuffing mix in a big bowl. Add more melted butter as needed, then add wine and a stir. If you’re stuffing your bird, the mixture doesn’t need to be as moist. Extra stuffing reheated in the oven may need more butter chicken stock.

Uncanny Cranberries

12 ounces fresh cranberries

1 firm, ripe pear

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

In a small pan over medium heat, combine the water and sugar and stir until dissolved. When it comes to a boil, add the cranberries and pear. Return to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool and refrigerate.

Idiot’s Brined Turkey Gravy

Pan drippings

3 cups chicken or turkey broth

1 cup water

¼ cup flour

¼ cup unsalted butter

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Remove the turkey from the roasting pan. Pour off all the pan juices – don’t throw them out, just set them aside. Dissolve the flour in the water. (This is called a slurry.)

Arrange a roasting pan over one or two burners of your stove top. Turn the heat on low. Melt the butter in the pan. Stirring constantly with a whisk or heat resistant spatula, add about half the slurry, a little at a time, scraping up the burn bits at the bottom of the pan. This will thicken the gravy.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Polenta, Wild Rice, and Mushrooms

4 small acorn squash, halved lengthwise, seeds and membranes scraped out

1 cup wild rice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup sliced shallots

½ pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, and quartered

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage, or 1 teaspoon dried sage

½ pound washed, trimmed spinach leaves

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

2 eggs

2 tomatoes

1 pound prepared polenta, cut into ½ inch cubes

½ bread crumbs

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400°. Season the flesh of the squash generously with salt and pepper. Select enough baking sheets to fit all 8 halves in a single layer, and coat sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Place squash onto the sheets cut side down and roast for 25 minutes, until they just begin to brown. Reduce heat to 375 and continue roasting until flesh is soft and easily pierced with a knife. Remove squash from oven but leave oven on.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add rice and cook until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain and let cool.

 While the rice and squash are cooking, heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add shallots and sauté for two minutes. Add mushrooms and sage and sauté until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Add spinach a little at a time until leaves are wilting. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, combine cheese, eggs, tomatoes, and polenta. Gently stir in rice and mushroom mixture.

Form a mound of stuffing on each squash half, then top with a tablespoon of breadcrumbs. The recipe up to this point can be made a day or two in advance and then refrigerate. When you’re ready to reheat, Bring the dish to room temperature and then return to the oven for 20 minutes, until the squash are cooked through and slightly browned on top.

[pavejewelers1]

4 Reasons That Will Convince You To Get Your Own Custom Engagement Ring

A customized engagement ring is woven with sentimental value. Therefore, a lot of couples rely on the Custom-made tradition. Customizing your ring is less bothersome because you can truly be involved in the process, and you have a clear picture of what the ring will look like eventually. Moreover, the design that you choose will be your Own along with the stone of your choice. You can either opt for a diamond or any preferable gemstone as the center stone of your ring. However, if a diamond is what you prefer buy them from the stores offering the finest quality loose diamonds in Virginia. The quality of the diamond will determine its durability, which is vital if you want to cherish your custom-made design eternally. The 4 reasons why you should get your ring custom-made-

They Are Easier To Get By:

When it comes to engagement rings there are multiple options available in the market. However, after exploring through multiple stores you will eventually be exhausted. But when you go to customize your ring all you have to do is pick a design that you like and your jewelry designer will work on the framework to design a ring for you. This will save you time and energy at the same time and you will be able to focus on other things as your Big Day approaches.

Budget Would Not Be A Concern-

If you are thinking of getting a custom-made engagement ring, you can easily get the best within your significant budget. The jewelers in Virginia are the most sought-after if you want to pick a custom engagement ring in DC. You can tell them your budget and with their suggestions, you can get your engagement ring custom-made.

The Metal And Stone Of Your Choice:

If a readymade engagement ring does not excite you, custom-made is your best option. While customizing your ring you have the option to choose the metal and stone of your choice. You can either choose a diamond or any gemstone of your choice and pair it with a metal band you like.

It Will Always Resonate With You:

Custom engagement rings hold a lot of value and are a good source to revisit the memories time and again. The efforts and time that went into designing it will always be cherished by both of you. Furthermore, a custom-made ring always stays in the family and tends to become a potent family heirloom. You can never go wrong with getting your engagement ring customized. Therefore, visit the best jewelers in town to get your ring designed the way you want. Also, make sure that the elements you choose for your ring complement one another perfectly. Pave Jewelers is among the best jewelry designers and diamond sellers in Virginia. They specialize in designing unique custom designs that are highly admired by their clients. They have the right expertise and skills to design a one-of-a-kind ring for you.

Original Source: https://pavejewelers.blogspot.com/2021/11/4-reasons-that-will-convince-you-to-get.html

[lsmithart]

** Revisiting Artist Theory Research: The Object by Antony Hudek - Casting, Transitional and Part Objects (Klein & Winnicott)

I revisited old research from this book as I remembered there was a helpful paragraph that discussed casting and moulding as having a relation to the psychoanalytic term ‘part-objects’, coined by Melanie Klein. It also discusses Donald Winnicott’s ‘transitional objects’. As I am planning to make casts of significant objects from my childhood and life, both of these felt important to reconsider at this point in my practice.

Page 22:

Casting and moulding – the subjective or positive application of plaster, clay or papier-mache on an object and the objective or negative indexical trace of the object’s voided form. E.g. Bourgeois and Hesse’s casts of quasi-body parts (resembling), Alina Szapocznikow’s partial body casts ‘awkward objects’, Marina Abramovic’s clay mirrors. Rooted from Duchamp – small casts Objet Dard and Feuille de vigne femelle.

Links to Freud’s theory of the drives;

Melanie Klein’s ‘part objects’ is *;

Reconnecting the object to the human body;

Identifying the artwork with transitional objects such as toys**;

Psychoanalysis – identifying the object as more than a thing in itself lying statically outside of the subject. It is a dynamic element in constant flux, mediating the subject’s inner and outer worlds.

Krauss on Hesse’s reliefs: a demonstration of a ‘wonderfully humorous elaboration of Duchamp’s interest in the mechanics of desire and the relays established by the readymades between bodies and objects.’

‘This mechanistic as well as psychic interpretation identifies the artwork closely with other intermediary or transitional objects (Donald Winnicott), such as toys. Indeed, one of the indisputable achievements of psychoanalysis is to have identified the object as more than ‘a thing in itself’ lying statically outside of the subject, but as a dynamic element in constant flux, mediating the subject’s inner and outer worlds as well as coercing the subject into varying configurations with itself and (other) objects. the toy, like the relational art object, is unpredictable; there is no telling when it will lose its aura and lapse into thingness, or, on the contrary, change from mere thing to object of ceaseless wonder.**

Klein: Part-Objects:

This theory relates to an object being something that is ‘toward which a component instinct is directed, with such an object usually being a part of the body rather than a whole person’.

American Psychological Association, (no date). Part-Object. [Online]. Available at https://dictionary.apa.org/part-object. [Accessed on 20/10/2020].

‘Splitting of the ego’ is a key notion that depicts Klein’s theory. Splitting occurs when a person (especially a child) can’t keep two contradictory thoughts or feelings in mind at the same time, and therefore keeps the conflicting feelings apart and focuses on just one of them. Splitting as a defence is a way of managing anxiety by protecting the ego from negative emotions. It is often employed in trauma, where a split-off part holds the unbearable feelings (Mcleod, S., no date).

The primary object is the mother, the first person you come in contact with and you are aware of. It is really your relationship with your mother that creates who you are. The father comes into the picture later as the giver of the law.

Object relations says the mum is of prime importance.

Donald Winnicott: Transitional Object:

** The term transitional object was coined in 1951 by Donald Winnicott as a designation for any material object (typically something soft—a piece of cloth, say, or part of a plush toy) to which an infant attributes a special value and by means of which the child is able to make the necessary shift from the earliest oral relationship with the mother to genuine object-relationships.

Winnicott first spoke of the transitional object on May 30, 1951, in a paper read before the British Psycho-Analytical Society and published in 1953 under the title "Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena. A Study of the First Not-Me Possession." This article was recast twenty years later and incorporated into Winnicott's Playing and Reality, a book concerned entirely with transitional phenomena.

In his observation of infants, Winnicott noted that between the ages of four and twelve months children would often become attached to a particular object that they invested with a primordial significance. This object would be manipulated, sucked, or stroked, and often became an indispensable aid for falling asleep. Parents recognized its value, taking it along everywhere and allowing it to get dirty in the realization that washing would introduce a break in continuity in the infant's experience and destroy the object's meaning and special worth. Such objects in fact constituted a defense against depressive anxiety.

This paradox will never be resolved: in the course of normal development, the object is destined to be gradually decathected, losing its significance as diffuse transitional phenomena spread over the entire intermediate realm between subjective inner reality and common external reality, until the whole sphere of culture is included (art, religion, imaginative life, scientific invention, and so on).

The transitional object and transitional phenomena may be conceived of in three ways: as typifying a phase in the child's normal emotional development; as a defence against separation anxiety; and, lastly, as a neutral sphere in which experience is not challenged—an area of play and illusion.

References:

Adorno, T. W., (1969). On Subject and Object. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. pp. 256-257.

Encyclopedia, (no date), Transitional Object. [Online]. Available at https://www.encyclopedia.com/psychology/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/transitional-object. [Accessed on 02/05/2020].

Hudek, A., (2014). Documents of Contemporary Art: The Object. London: Whitechapel Gallery, The MIT Press. pp. 14, 15, 20, 22, 23, 24, 30, 32, 40, 42, 43, 94, 97.

Mcleod, S., (no date). Melanie Klein and Object Relations Theory | Simply Psychology. [Online]. Available at https://www.simplypsychology.org/Melanie-Klein.html. [Accessed on 22/05/2020].

Modern Psychoanalyst, (2018). What is Object Relations Theory in Psychoanalysis? Youtube. [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwv3-hhJ9R4&list=PLTi6OHh9i_g7Io00pk9gdr8D1DHDIgtNH&index=2. [Accessed on 13/05/2020]

[priyasriartgallery]

Delighted to announce our very first digital exhibition to be put up soon!! It will give us glimpses of how the artists continue to express and produce.

Navigating through experiments, contemplation, revisiting works, alternating methods and challenging mediums.

Exhibition will commence on and will remain till May-June 2020 with 8 artists coming together.

Ritesh Rajput -

Under graduation - 2012: Maharaja Sayajirao University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara, Gujarat, India Major in Sculpture.

Post graduation - 2017: Maharaja Sayajirao University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara, Gujarat, India Major in Sculpture

Miscellaneous Installation: Marble, paint and readymade objects

#artgallery #onlineexhibition #virtualreality #artist #print #paper #covid19 #baroda #mumbai #finearts #graphic #mediums #artwork #painting #profile

[p-xckers]

FMP Evaluation

Final Major Project Evaluation: Lost and Found

Pathway: Illustration

·      Be able to submit a personal statement of intent

·      Understand the importance of contextual references

·      Know how to solve problems by applying knowledge and experience

·      Be able to present a Final Major Project

To begin my Final Major Project, I revisited areas from both exploratory and pathway stages. Finding my strongest work to be that from ‘Paris in the Park. I have enjoyed experimenting with processes, other than my chosen pathway, which have allowed me to develop a wider range of skills to produce my strongest work for the Final Major Project exhibition. I feel that this course, solely FMP, has allowed me to step out of my comfort zone with both materials and scale.

Following from the work I produced for ‘Paris in the Park’, I again felt that the Paris residential could be a major influence in my work and research for FMP. I wanted to utilize the rest of my found objects and photos that I brought back from the residential in my final exhibition; I also thoroughly enjoyed the procedure of collecting and gathering items that have no significant meaning to me, but would have once to someone else.

I initially started this project by researching other artists known for using found objects in their work; Annette Messager, Christian Boltanski and Lisa Kokin have heavily influenced my work throughout. I then began my project by looking at the found objects, photos, letters and documents to see if anything had a significant link, as I liked the idea of mystery playing a part in my work. I settled on working with material and stitch early on in the project, as my previous works had proved successful and I enjoyed the process and final outcome when using it. However, I wanted to widen my capabilities for this project and decided to trial another route; where I visited Eden Camp and deeply researched into Auschwitz, again focusing on the documents and items recovered from real life events. This was a dead end for me as I couldn’t get new ideas flowing and felt that if I was to carry this idea on, I wouldn’t have had a final exhibition.

I then looked at the idea of putting certain items and photos together to create some sort of missing identity or lost memory based project. As well as the idea of items losing their purpose after being lost or abandoned. I started the process of testing out different thicknesses of material, to see which would be suitable to use to print/transfer images onto using the printer. The yellow base tone of the Calico material worked for the outcome image I was aiming to produce and played well with the old and used condition of the items and photos I was going to be printing with. I created 36 individual A4 sized material pieces to use as a large scaled piece, as this was something I’d previously struggled to do within my work. Returning back to the idea of lost identity I decided to use red paint, stitch, wool, paper, acetate and fabric to mask some of the faces and features of people in the photos I used. I chose to use the colour red as knew it would stand out from the dull base I’ve chosen for the rest of my work. I also wanted it to be the first thing your eye is drawn to within my piece and make the viewer wonder who the people are and why they’ve been masked/concealed.

Throughout the project I have utilized my spare time by visiting markets and car boot sales to source other personal items that once belonged and had meaning to someone else. During one of these trips I found an old garden chair that I felt I could use to experiment with. Referring back to another of my initial ideas, I decided to break the chair so that it had lost its purpose and couldn’t be used. I then decided to photocopy some of my found photos and image transfer them onto said chair with white emulsion, and then tea stain to play back on the old, worn out look the rest of my exhibition has.

As my pathway was based on drawing and illustration, I wanted to incorporate some of that into my FMP work. I have done this by experimenting with photographs, drawing from them both freehand and digitally. Using materials such as tracing paper to print onto and work back over the top with my illustrated designs. I’ve drawn from the objects I have used throughout this project; those being material, clothing, chair, teapots, typewriters and books.

My final exhibition has taken me around 3 weeks to fully complete, with last minute changes being made to the display of certain aspects so that the whole was pleasing to look at and worked well with the other pieces displayed. My favourite piece being the suitcase with shirts hung up the wall, again incorporating different items, documents and photos, as well as a book and pair of shoes again to play on the idea of lost identity.

During the course of FMP, it was essential that I kept up to date with sketchbooks, Tumblr and my journal, as well as a constant thought process of what I was going to do next. My journal helped me the most as I used it to reflect after a day’s work and to self-criticize the work I was creating to help me improve. Group and sketchbook critiques helped me to gain a better understanding of how other people worked and what would help me to again improve and develop on the work I had been doing, I really benefitted from the input of other people and enjoyed seeing how they chose to document and display their work too.

Extended Bibliography

Artists

·      Lisa Kokin

·      Annette Messager

·      Christian Boltanski

·      Kyra Clegg

·      Damien Hirst

·      Alison Knowles

·      Lorraine Reynolds

·      Lee Mckenna

·      Mark Dion

·      Marcel Du Champ

·      Austin Kleon

·      Robert Rauschenburg

·      Kirsty Whitlock

·      Rebecca Petty

·      Raubdruckerin

·      Sue Brown

·      John Stezaker

·      Hannah Hoch

·      Tim Noble and Sue Webster

·      Emma Parker

·      Kennard Phillips

Visits

·      Paris Residential

·      Tate Modern London

·      Musee Pompidou

·      Eden Camp

·      Musee D’Orsay

·      Salts Mill

Videos

·      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypiSVnP2aRQ

·      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ml-oLmpXU

·      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8IbN7HNIhM

·      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv7tatnhFAc

·      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZlrHyzIwcI

·      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSKxJc_J0No

Links

·      http://www.lisakokin.com

·      https://www.tayloepiggottgallery.com/artist/Lisa_Kokin/biography/

·      https://www.textileartist.org/lisa-kokin-content-materials-driven

·      https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/messager-the-pikes-t07436

·      https://arteverdayblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/annette-messager-the-pikes-1992-3/

·      http://www.artnet.com/artists/annette-messager/

·      https://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/annette-messager

·      https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/21/annette-messager

·      https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/christian-boltanski-2305

·      http://www.christian-boltanski.com

·      https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jan/13/christain-boltanski-grand-palais-paris

·      http://www.kyclegg.co.uk/

·      https://www.saatchiart.com/Kyra

·      http://www.damienhirst.com

·      https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/damien-hirst-2308

·      https://aknowles.com

·      https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/performance-at-tate/case-studies/alison-knowles

·      https://www.lorrainereynolds.com

·      https://glimmeringprize.blogspot.com

·      https://www.flickr.com/photos/stitch-therapy/

·      https://hanguppictures.com/exhibition/blue-murder

·      http://toombes.com/2019/01/08/interview-lee-mckenna/

·      http://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2016/04/25/lee-mckenna/

·      https://leeamckenna.tumblr.com

·      https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-dion-2789

·      https://art21.org/artist/mark-dion/

·      https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/dada/marcel-duchamp-and-the-readymade/

·      https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/marcel-duchamp-1036

·      https://www.widewalls.ch/dadaist-artists-dada/marcel-duchamp/

·      https://austinkleon.com/

·      https://austinkleon.com/category/newspaper-blackout-poems/

·      https://www.bustle.com/p/what-is-blackout-poetry-these-fascinating-poems-are-created-from-existing-art-78781

·      https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-rauschenberg-1815

·      https://kirstywhitlock.weebly.com

·      https://www.textileartist.org/embroidery-transforms-kirsty-whitlock

·      https://rebeccapettystudio.weebly.com

·      https://raubdruckerin.de/en/

·      https://www.twenty-twenty.co.uk/artists/brown/

·      https://suebrownprintmaker.blogspot.com

·      https://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/john_stezaker.htm

·      https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-stezaker-2000

·      https://www.theartstory.org/artist-hoch-hannah.htm

[caveartfair]

The Three Graces Have Inspired Centuries of Artists, from Botticelli to Picasso

Raphael, The Three Graces, 1504. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Creative freedom and originality can begin with old tropes. Working from age-old stories, artists make readymade subject matter distinctly their own. Such is the case for millennia of artists who have rendered the Three Graces in their work. Towering figures from Sandro Botticelli to Pablo Picasso have proven the timelessness of the gorgeous triumvirate, which they’ve interpreted in their own unique styles.

In many ways, the Graces are an ideal aesthetic subject. According to classical lore, the group of minor goddesses—part of Aphrodite’s retinue—consists of Euphrosyne (joy), Thalia (bloom), and Aglaia (elegance or brightness). Together, they personify grace, beauty, and charm. While their attractiveness and rich symbolism make them easy artistic targets, the mythological characters also come in that most magical number—three. Visual harmony is nearly built into their likeness. Taking these three glamorous figures as a starting point, artists are already at an advantage to create a pleasing, balanced composition—a perennial goal across cultures and modalities.

Marble Statue Group of the Three Graces, 2nd century A.D. Roman copy of a Greek work of the 2nd century B.C. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns an early sculptural example from the 2nd century C.E., discovered under Roman streets in 1892. The unknown artist carved the Graces in marble; they stand in elegant, dynamic contrapposto. They’re arranged in a line, two facing forward and one backward, with their arms draped around each other. Cloth-draped urns bookend the figures, who stand atop a platform. Lacking heads and significant distinguishing characteristics, the Graces are less individuals than they are compositional elements—subjects for the artist to manipulate into the most pleasing configuration of ideal beauty.

The Met sculpture is a copy of an ancient Greek artwork—evidence of a widespread Roman craze for all things Hellenic. A reverence for the past also dominated the Renaissance: From the 14th through 17th centuries, European artists looked back to the Greek and Roman glory days. Three of the era’s most important painters (Botticelli, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Raphael) all captured the Graces in their canvases to very different effect.

La Primavera (Spring), 1477. Sandro Botticelli Ufizzi, Florence

Botticelli famously depicted the Graces as part of a larger ensemble scene. One of his most beloved paintings, Primavera (ca. 1482), shows the trio wearing diaphanous dresses as they move in a circle. They’re situated in the middle of an intricately decorated forest. A colorful assortment of fruits and flowers adorn the grass below them and the canopy above. The Graces share the scene with six other mythological figures, including Venus, Mercury, and Cupid. According to Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, where the canvas hangs, the painting’s meaning remains a mysterious “celebration of love, peace, and prosperity.” In her 1997 book Botticelli, Elena Capretti writes that the Graces each wear a jewel from the Medici family, who commissioned the painting, and “allude to generosity and to the ability to exchange gifts in a sort of circle of give and take which is typical of love and culture.” (Just a few years later, Botticelli returned to the subject with yet another ensemble scene, Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman, ca. 1483–85.)

The Italian master Raphael and Northern Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder similarly represented the Graces in a circular arrangement. In The Three Graces (1504–05), Raphael situated the figures at the foreground of a multilayered, pastoral landscape. Each holds a circular object, alternately identified as apples or golden orbs. For his iterations on the theme, Cranach rejected pastoral settings in favor of monochromatic backdrops. He distinguished his Graces with different hairstyles—blonde ringlets hang from one of the goddesses’s heads, while another wears a hat. While Raphael’s Graces look like triplets, Cranach’s hint at individuality.

Les Trois Grâces (The Three Graces), 1531. Lucas Cranach the Elder Musée du Louvre

The Three Dancers, 1925. Pablo Picasso Tate Modern

During the Modernist period—itself a kind of 20th-century Renaissance—artists again adopted the Three Graces as a subject. In 1923, Picasso painted them in grisaille, or grayscale. Scholars believe that his Three Graces inspired his 1925 Cubist canvas, The Three Dancers. In other words, working with an ancient trope probably enhanced his ability to construct a thoroughly modern composition. As Helen Little wrote for the Tate’s blog, “the figures appear more classical in form, with rounded limbs in balletic poses.” Yet their fractured, abstracted bodies reveal a new way of looking at the world.

In 1999, towards the end of her life, the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle offered a female perspective on the Graces. For years, she’d been making “Nanas,” or colorful, large-scale sculptures with exaggerated female forms. Les Trois Grâces (1999) consists of three mosaic-ed Nanas with black, white, and yellow bodies, all in brightly-patterned clothing, dancing in a circle. Sited in the yard of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the sculpture celebrates femininity and reclaims the symbolic, often sexualized figures through a feminist lens.

The Graces, Los Angeles, 1988. Joel-Peter Witkin Etherton Gallery

Contemporary artists with global perspectives have similarly found conceptual potential in the Three Graces. Kehinde Wiley has reimagined them as three black men in athletic tees (Three Graces, 2005). He revisited the subject in 2012, painting the figures as thinner, younger men in jeans. Dense patterns overlay both iterations, harkening back to decorative art-historical motifs. The paintings ask viewers to rethink their conceptions of the ideal form: What if ultimate beauty and virtue resides in African-American men?

American photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, for his part, challenged rigid definitions of gender in The Three Graces, New Mexico (1988). His gelatin print imagines the Graces as masked, intersex figures. Yinka Shonibare’s 2001 sculptures of the Graces feature three headless female figures draped in printed cotton textile. The British-Nigerian artist used patterns that refer to an intercontinental trade that allowed Western nations to colonize the design traditions in the lands they invaded.

Over the centuries, depictions of the Three Graces have become less about fealty to legend. Instead, they’re representations of what societies and individual artists find virtuous and beautiful. As long as moral and aesthetic perceptions continue to shift, the Graces will remain potent subject matter, endlessly renewable for an ever-diversifying group of artists.

from Artsy News

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Godsky by Liu Wei (刘韡). Oil on canvas. 2006.

Beijing-based artist Liu Wei rose to prominence as a creator of multimedia conceptual content. The themes of his works have evolved over time, lessening in degree of political polemic and instead focusing on broader, universal subjects of cities, nature, the everyday, and humanity. Through installation art—such as his 2006 collection Anti-Matter, which utilized “readymade” products like exhaust fans and washing machines to portray materialist consumerism—Liu weaves intricate artistic narratives from seemingly ordinary objects. 

As time and worldwide renown have expanded his horizons, Liu has enlisted fabricators and assistants to help manufacture his works, instructing them step-by-step through each unique creative process. However, he refuses to mechanize his productions, instead preferring the human touch and its fluid, subtle imperfections. Liu often revisits and alters old works, rendering him an artist whose profession is constantly in motion. He never stays within the boundaries of a certain style; after exhausting the obstacles of a certain medium or technique, he moves on to a new scheme with a new set of challenges.