Semester 2 Week 5 - Pluralism and the Treat of Waitangi

Pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi

In teaching week 5 you will discuss pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi in your tutorials.
Use this discussion, the notes in your ALVC book and the internet to respond to the following
questions;

1. Define the term 'pluralism' using APA referencing.

“Inclusion of individuals of differing ethnicities, genders, ideologies, abilities, ages, religions, economic status and educational levels is valued. Pluralism honours differences within and between equitable groups while seeing their commonalities.” (Cultural Context: Pluralism in Art)

2. How would you describe New Zealand's current dominant culture?

I would describe New Zealand’s current dominant culture/ ethnicity to be mainly European. However there are a large and growing number of Asian immigrants, among other ethnicities as well.

3. Before 1840, what was New Zealand's dominant culture?

Before 1840 the dominant culture was the Maori people.

4. How does the Treaty of Waitangi relate to us all as artists and designers working
in New Zealand?

It gives us the right to call ourselves New Zealanders a call this land our home, to show the world the unique ideas and designs that comes from deign called a ‘Kiwi’. Now-a day’s to the rest of the world being a New Zealander is seen as a great asset, or a unique skill set or way of thinking. That is why there are companies like Weta work shop, and film industries come here to film because of New Zealand amazing landscapes, this gives artists and designers a chance to work with people from other parts of the world and show their work.

5. How can globalization be seen as having a negative effect on regional diversity in New Zealand in particular?

Because it can make us forget who ‘we’ as a people are. New Zealanders are seen as a creative people in their own way, so is other countries for their cultures. Globalization would strip us of our way of thinking and doing thing, it would take away what makes us unique.

Semester 2 Week 4 - Kehinde Wiley and inter-textuality

Week 4 - Kehinde Wiley

Kahinde Wiley is a Gay American based painter born in Los Angeles, who has an international reputation. Wiley lives and practices between Beijing and Brooklyn.


This weeks ALVC class focuses on the Postmodern theme "INTERTEXTUALITY", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 39 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley. 

1. Find a clear definition of Intertextuality and quote it accurately on your blog using the APA referencing system. Use your own words to explain the definition more thoroughly.
Intertextuality means that any text, painting, work of art, play or film we watch contain certain elements from any other text, painting, work of art, play or film. That no piece of work is a hundred percent original, because that would be impossible, lots of people find inspiration from the same thing. It can’t be avoided.

2. Research Wiley's work and write a paragraph that analyzes how we might make sense of his work. Identify intertextuality in Wiley's work.

Wiley dose highly detailed and very outrageous paintings. He uses the same style as Renaissance portraits that would in that era be commissioned by the rich and wealthy to show there status in society, however Wiley paints young African Americans in a reminiscence of this old Victorian style.  Intertextuality can be seen in Wiley’s work through the similarities of the Renaissance style panting and patterns.

3. Wiley's work relates to next weeks Postmodern theme "PLURALISM" . Read page 46 and discuss how the work relates to this theme.

Wiley’s work relates to pluralism by showing that power, wealth and freedom is not only for the white but for the colour as well. Simple rights aren’t reserved for just one race, ethnicity, or culture but too all people, no matter how they look, talk or dress. 

4. Comment on how Wiley's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies, colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview. 

I can see how Wiley’s work would be seen as controversial, in a video interview he said “it’s very loud and in your face... and it won’t go away quietly”.  It lets people see what is truly there, it breaks down barriers. They might not like it, but it’s still there and that’s the way it is.
               
http://www.cretique.com/archives/4012
http://www.deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=11

http://www.kehindewiley.com/

Semester 2 Week 3- Hussein Chalayan

Chalayan is an artist and designer, working in film, dress and installation art. Research Chalayan’s work, and then consider these questions in some thoughtful reflective writing.

1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) and Burka (1996) , are often challenging to both the viewer and the wearer. What are your personal responses to these works? Are Afterwords and Burka fashion, or are they art? What is the difference?

Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion?

Personally I do not see Chalayan work as just fashion or just art, because the outfits/ pieces of work he makes  borides on both sides, it almost blurs the lines and makes it hard to distinguish. But that is what makes his work so great! I was really surprised when I saw the dresses transform in the video below for ‘Afterword’s’. 

‘Burka’ is defiantly very thought provoking and controversial. It challenges the idea of modesty, identity and femininity. The burka is a piece of clothing that muslin women wear. In western culture it is seen as a symbol of oppression, as by covering the women’s face robs them of their identity.

2. Chalayan has strong links to industry. Pieces like The Level Tunnel (2006) and Repose (2006) are made in collaboration with, and paid for by, commercial business; in these cases, a vodka company and a crystal manufacturer. How does this impact on the nature of Chalayan’s work? Does the meaning of art change when it is used to sell products? Is it still art?

It depends, if the companies came up with the idea and just commissioned Chalayan to build the instillations then it’s not art. However if he was asked to/ and did design the instillation himself then yes, it is art, even if it is to sell a product. It could even help expand the artist’s name.

3. Chalayan’s film Absent Presence screened at the 2005 Venice Biennale. It features the process of caring for worn clothes, and retrieving and analysing the traces of the wearer, in the form of DNA. This work has been influenced by many different art movements; can you think of some, and in what ways they might have inspired Chalayan’s approach?

Absent Presence is a video installation telling a story based on identity, geography, genetics, biology and anthropology. The film questions whether the extent to which identities can adapt to new environments.

4. Many of Chalayan’s pieces are physically designed and constructed by someone else; for example, sculptor Lone Sigurdsson made some works from Chalayan’s Echoform (1999) and Before Minus Now (2000) fashion ranges. In fashion design this is standard practice, but in art it remains unexpected. Work by artists such as Jackson Pollock hold their value in the fact that he personally made the painting. Contrastingly, Andy Warhol’s pop art was largely produced in a New York collective called The Factory, and many of his silk-screened works were produced by assistants. Contemporarily, Damien Hirst doesn’t personally build his vitrines or preserve the sharks himself. So when and why is it important that the artist personally made the piece?

If it was made by the artist and only by them then you get a feeling of their work and their message sent just by themselves and not by someone else. I also believe that it’s more personal then as well, because is something they made themselves but they choose to share it with the word

http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/home/
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/chalayan.html 
http://www.husseinchalayan.com/blog/

http://ilikecatsmorethanpeople.blogspot.com/2010/11/hussein-chalayan-burka-1996.html

http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/home/

Semester 2 week 2 Post-Modernism, Ai Weiwei and Banksy

Post-Modernism

This week's ALVC tutorial covers Post-Modernism. Use the ALVC texts and definitions from the internet to define the term and answer the following questions;

1. Define Post-Modernism using 8-10 bullet points that include short quotes.

-“The period in which we now live is often called “postmodernism”.  (Saugstad, A. (2001) Postmodernism: What is it, and what is wrong with it?)

-“Postmodernism is associated with relativism. Relativism is the idea that “anything goes.” (Saugstad, A. (2001) Postmodernism: What is it, and what is wrong with it?)

-“...In Postmodernism, society is more fragmented. Belief in one Truth or universal criteria, has been substituted by a number of “small stories,” and a diversity of criteria” (Saugstad, A. (2001) Postmodernism: What is it, and what is wrong with it?)

-“Constructive postmodernism desires a return to premodern notions of divinely wrought reality, of cosmic meaning, and an enchanted nature” (Witcome, C (2000) Modernism & Postmodernism.)

-“... Postmodernism seeks to recover truths and values from various forms of premodern thoughts and practices.” (Witcome, C (2000) Modernism & Postmodernism.)

-‘... Postmodernism wants to replace modernism and modernity, which it sees as threatening the very survival of life on the planet.” (Witcome, C (2000) Modernism & Postmodernism.)

-“... Postmodernism seeks to overcome the modern worldview, and the assumptions that sustains it, though what appears to be anti-worldview.” (Witcome, C (2000) Modernism & Postmodernism.)

-“... Postmodernism is seen perhaps as anti-modern in that it seems to destroy or eliminate the ingredients that are believed necessary for a worldview, such as God, self, purpose, meaning, a real world, and truth.”  (Witcome, C (2000) Modernism & Postmodernism.)

2. Use a quote by Witcombe (2000) to define the Post-Modern artist.

“The post-modern artist is “reflexive” in that he/she is self-awere and consciously involved in a process of thinking about him/herself and society in a deconstructive manner, “demasking” pretensions, becoming aware of his/her cultural self in history, and accelerating the process of self-consciousness.”

3. Use the grid on pages 42 and 43 to summarize the list of the features of Post-
Modernity.

Post modernity has many theories and beliefs, ‘no one grand narrative’, where in modernity there was ‘Faith in Depth’ (meaning and value) over appearances. In Post modernity the artist made use of new technologies and media. There was so much more for the Post modernity artist to explore.

4. Use this summary to answer the next two questions.

5. Research Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's 'Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola logo'(1994)
in order to say what features of the work are Post-Modern.

Ai Weiwei is self-taught artists who challenged official communist icons and ideology and helped spark the modern art movement in Beijing. He placed the modern brand name “Coca-Cola” on a old Chinese vase to challenge the grand narrative of Chinas cultural Ideas and the ideas towards historical artefacts.  In another work he shows photos of him dropping an old urn to the grown were it smashes in to pieces. It’s like he’s questioning the importance of the historical pieces.

6. Research British artist Banksy's street art, and analyze the following two works by the artist
to discuss how each work can be defined at Post-Modern.

Banksy is a well known unidentified British street artist. His political and social works have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.

Banksy’s work is identified as post-modern work because he places them in random and unusual locations, their conversational and it makes the viewer stop to look at the work and engages with them. For example ‘Flower Riot’ and graffiti of McDonalds cave man shows the irony in modern times an society. Personally I love his work and think it slightly cheeky.

References: http://theworldsbestever.com/2008/02/new_banksy_pieces_surface_in_l.php

http://www.artzinechina.com/display_vol_aid109_en.html

Saugstad, A. (2001) Postmodernism: What is it, and what is wrong with it?

Witcome, C (2000) Modernism & Postmodernism.