BOOM!

I’ve really enjoyed this class, initially I was very apprehensive, as I went on exchange last semester and was unfortunately completely forgotten and didn’t get to choose my theory class. But after completing a semester of social relations and critical spaces, I’m really glad I did. I think that since having more of a learning process when it comes to collaborative practices I enjoy the concept a lot more, I really appreciate this because I think that so many of us (myself included) just rely upon our knee jerk reactions, which is no good. I think we have this general negative exterior, we are apprehensive of the unfamiliar, which is human nature, the fear of the unknown, but it’s the personal choice to evolve past this and gain some form of understanding of whatever subject you may not agree with or completely understand. Choosing to not always take the easiest most convenient option, to extend your own personal abilities to understand is much more beneficial than being a judgemental creep. I think this is extremely pertinent when it comes to art, as the daughter of two very conservative parents I have found it extremely important to at least attempt to look beyond an initial reaction of “What? Eating noodles inside a gallery? That’s not art.” In order to broaden my own personal understanding of the world, especially the world I want to be a part of, the art world. I think that this particular course has shed a lot of light on the differentiation or the lack of a need for the differentiation of what art is. Who the fuck cares? Must we define everything? Human beings are constantly attempting to define and identify everything, we must conquer and pillage all, otherwise what? Nothing, it’s fine just to accept things as they are as opposed to having to know everything.
BOOM!!!! We’ve finished uni!

I Want to Make a Garden

I found last weeks visit to Lucas and Diego’s garden project very inspiring, I for one am not a successful gardener, but I found what they had to say and the constant munching of things that they had nurtured and produced themselves brilliant. I think some really interesting points were raised throughout our open discussion. One of which was the depressing but true reality that we as students are hindered by the constant cloud of “don’t trust the youth, they destroy all” hanging above our heads. One person mentioned a fellow students struggle to create an exterior installation on the SCA campus; this is extremely frustrating and disparaging. To me the idea of university is to encourage free thinking (hopefully) that eventuates in individualistic theorisation of life and it’s various facets. We are no longer teenagers and the need to be treated in a way which allows us to know that we are respected by our peers is fundamental to the possible growth and experience of university education. Now I’m sure that it may seem as though I’m talking out of my Steiner raised ass, but I truly believe this. Lucas also made a good point that their project should assist students in the future, now that the ice has metaphorically been broken administrative staff and various hindering of running wild may realise that we won’t shit all over the perfectly groomed campus. Although I’ve made my point being the fence sitter I am I do symapthise with the fact that Callan Park is a predominantly heritage listed site, this obviously results in boatloads of rules and regulations that must be abided by in order to continue to run and for me, a person who has no less than LOVED her university education, it would be a fucking travesty if the SCA wasn’t to continue due to such incomprehensible legislation.

Legalize LA

I’m sure the majority of us have seen the American Apparel t-shirts with the slogan “Legalize LA Immigration Reform Now!” the latter part of the sentence is in smaller writing, you may be forgiven for assuming legalize LA was in regards to the legalisation of homosexual marriage rights, as I did when I first saw them. I wanted to know what message this trendoid clothing company was attempting to spread.



America “land of the free” is a very promising prospect for millions of Hispanic nationals. Los Angeles is one of the closest large cities to the Mexico/USA border, proving to be a popular access point for illegal immigrants. Like most first world countries America relies upon these immigrants to continue to uphold the hierarchal systems implemented by the CEO’s and managing directors of the companies that in reality have a lot to do with running the country.

So what is American Apparel doing about this? Their “Legalize LA” t-shirts are sold all over the world, in an attempt to alter the perception of the general public or at least provide them with an alternative perspective. Fashion and clothing are often viewed as an art form in some contexts, art like fashion is often utilised in order to propagate a message to a wider audience, in this way American Apparel has succeeded, they’ve managed to enliven the message of immigration reform throughout all western countries in the world, obviously because this is where American Apparel have their stores.



Publix Theatre Caravan’s ideas of no borders is really fascinating to me, I have lived in Australia my entire life, as one of the most isolated countries in the world, the idea of boarders and boundaries is foreign to me, the only instance in our white Australian history of a realistic “invasion” was World War 2, when Darwin was bombed by Japan. Currently the raging debate of “boat people” and “queue jumpers” continues, the threat of people seeking asylum from warring countries is our biggest issue when it come to immigration. In reality 1% of illegal immigrants enter the country via boats and the majority of visa over stayers are British and American nationals, who most probably like the beach.
Immigration reform is a extremely pertinent issue facing everyone in this day and age, where we are more than happy to break down borders through technology and globalisation, yet there are still (according to UNHCR figures) 10.5 million refugees in the world, I think we should all runaway and join Publix Theatre Caravan, it’s brilliant and so incredibly needed at this time.

“All that is forbidden is art. Be forbidden!”

After our lecture on Laibach, I realised that I was completely and utterly ignorant, I knew nothing about art from the former Soviet Republics, and I thought I should.
Firstly I researched the censorship of certain forms of art within Russia and it’s surrounding countries. I read about Yuri Samodurov, and Andrei Yerofeev, both residing in Moscow who faced up to five years imprisonment in 2007 for "debasing the religious beliefs of citizens and inciting religious hatred" through their exhibition “Forbidden Art”. Almost thirty years prior to this in Slovenia, former Yugoslavia, the collective Laibach was formed, as we were told Laibach were banned in numerous countries because of the content and influences associated with their work, blatantly indicating that very little has changed in relation to the censorship of certain forms of art making and expression within eastern Europe. Tamás Szentjóby, Hungarian born Fluxus artist stated in 1968 “All that is forbidden is art. Be forbidden!”.
The three members of a really fascinating artist collective known as Ztohoven from Prague faced three years in jail for scaremongering and attempted scaremongering in 2007, after they hacked into a national television station and replaced the regular morning weather report with an image of an atomic bomb explosion over the mountain range that divides the Czech Republic and Poland. Through this radical display the group were attempting to bring to attention the gullibility of the public, and the general acceptance of what society is exposed to daily through mass media.




Ztohoven are a prime example of the idea that the more you repress the harder the rebellion will be. I feel as though it’s human nature to want what you can’t have and to do what you’re not allowed to, it’s a lot more fun. I find myself baffled by idea that in certain places there is no freedom of speech and that societies ability to express themselves in whatever way they deem fit is taken from them, this in turn seems to cause the nationals of these countries to go against what is being enforced in the most extreme way possible. This leads me to think that our western culture is completely desensitized, everyday we see the atrocities of war in what ever capacity, countless acts of violence and stupidity, as well as the ramifications of our societies actions on the natural world, pretty much if you participate in any form of media (which it is almost impossible not to do) you’re fucked, will we one day lose our ability to feel compassion and sympathy all together? Will we just forget how to be sensitive towards any issues at all? Let’s not close on this let’s look back and finish with my new favourite quote,
“All that is forbidden is art. Be forbidden!”

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/06/blasphemy_moscow

http://www.readrussia.com/magazine/winter-2008/00043/

You Turn Me On I'm a Radio

After our lecture on public art I began to think about what exactly constitutes public art?
One of my favourite artist groups is the Guerrilla Girls, a group of anonymous and faceless women, with pseudonyms of dead female artists such as Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keefe. Their tag line is “reinventing the ‘f’ word”, the group aims to be the “feminist counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger.”
This truly brilliant group of female activist have erected numerous billboards, all of which attempt to change the current position of women in the arts, through the use of humour they successfully gauge an equilibrium between the significance of the situation and the joke that is statistics pertaining to women and the arts.


Whilst the group put up billboards featuring their own designs they have also frequently altered sexist ad campaigns via their ‘guerrilla graffiti’, recontextualising the initial aim, most often overtly sexualising a product which in NO way relates to sex.
I am very proud to exclaim that I am a feminist, my own works, although not quite as admirable, relate to the continual belittling of women in general, I believe that our society in this day in age is lacking the public activism made by groups such as the Guerrilla Girls and Bugga Up, assisting the public who are constantly bombarded by unavoidable agenda pushing advertising everywhere to realise that this is a wrongful representation of women and that they shouldn’t be publicly viewed, the fact that there are groups out there willing to put themselves on the line in order to attempt to change the opinions of the public or even to make people more consciously aware of the brazen nature of the advertising industry is inspiring and motivating. I believe that these activists are public artists, brilliant and witty and eager to redefine the current acceptance of the degradation of female artists.

Craftivism

Earlier this year I was living in London, I was interning at a jewellery company called Tatty Devine, who sent me on a mission to take notes at an event at a pop up shop called Sketchbook (an interesting concept in itself), I met a girl there who told me about a collective she was involved in called craftivism, this to me sounded brilliant, craft and activism in the same combo, so I decided to do some research. On the craftivism website the creator Betsy Greer gives a short explanation of what she has created,

"Craftivism is a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper & your quest for justice more infinite. "

Via the craftivism website I found a work created by Catherine Mazza, founder of a craftivist group called microRevolt, their mission statement explains that,

"microRevolt projects investigate the dawn of sweatshops in early industrial capitalism to inform the current crisis of globa

l expansion and the feminization of labor."

The group recently completed a giant blanket featuring a white Nike tick on an orange background; the entire piece is knitted by people all over the world, and was eventually sent to the CEO of Nike in protest of their current means of production. This in my opinion is fantastic; I love the idea of heroicising female associated arts as a way of protesting peacefully.

Obviously the conception of craftivism is a progression from the domestic domain of women, these often demonized aspects of women's lives are now being heralded as a new way of expression and voicing serious concerns about current issues. I researched where these ideas of making a difference via craft came from, interestingly enough, I found some World War One propaganda pertaining to women knitting for defense. As well as an initiative from the Ministry of Information during World War 2, which stated "Make, Do and Mend", the Red Cross also promoted "Knit Your Bit", a campaign whose posters featured a nurse knitting and stated "You Can Help". More recently the aforementioned group microRevolt started a campaign called Stitch for Senate, attempting to encourage knitters to make helmet liners for each and every US Senator, attempting to motivate the senators to push for the return of troops from Iraq.

When I was researching this I began to think that it could be a pointless endeavor, despite the fact that I personally enjoy these forms of art making and love the idea of expressing personal opinions that may benefit the community if heard, but I wondered whether there was much success in the way of change, how many of these hardworking, rough handed women (being the majority) were actually being heard? I came to the conclusion that I don't care, it doesn’t matter, as long as the contributors are passionate about what they are prescribing they have succeeded.

Koons=Wanker

I hate Jeff Koons, he angers me greatly, from the way he says rococo to his full-page colour advertisements selling nothing but himself, like the big whore he is. I thought that it was interesting looking at the idea of situationalism in relation to Koons, the idea of the alienation of the individual once the creative process is taken away and replaced by an assembly line destroying any connection or love for the completion of the task at hand. I would view Koons as a poster boy (literally) for the ideas of capitalisation, he maintains his individuality and exemplifies his ego, all the while having little to no contact with the works he “creates”. The assembly line mentality frightens me, in a book I recently read called killing, written by Jeff Sparrow, he analysed the motivation for people to kill and the affects that this eventually has on the individual committing such a brutality. Sparrow joined kangaroo hunters, interviewed the creator of the electric chair and went on a tour of an abattoir in Victoria. He fascinatingly retold his experience, pointing out the vast difference of the traditional butchery and the current mass abattoir style of killing. He talks of this idea of the assembly line, much like Henry Ford’s. I think one of the most interesting aspects of this working lifestyle are the psychological affects, these workers continually carry out a particular menial task, they have a single role which they must carry out in order to complete the finished product. The artisan mentality of creating something from start to finish as opposed to creating a certain subset of a product that you will most probably never be able to afford, seems a lot more beneficial for the human condition.

Institutional Critique: Can't we all just get along?

The idea of the institutional critique raises a lot of confusion for me, to begin with the idea of being limited by the mundane and often conservative views of the establishment in order to gain success is a horrifying concept for me. Despite this I also can entertain the notion that the need for an institutional critique is almost imperative to the existence of artistic practice, funnily enough this seems to be reflected, as the existence of the institutional critique is void without the presence of art. In our recent tutorial on ‘Situationists: from anti art to Situationalism’, a member of the group brought up an example of an American man who decided to walk the Australian dessert, eventually having to be rescued from his self implicated struggle. This to me is an interesting analogy, the individual in question possibly decided to give up on society and the expected ways of life and walk off through the dessert in order to live via his own means, not bending to the whim of society but rather making his own personal journey with no particular goal in sight, other than the hope to survive. BUT, eventually this person was rescued, rescued by people employed by the establishment, funded via the government and taxpayers of this country. Using this as an example of the complete disregard for a capitalist system is nullified, the protagonist of this story decided to reject accepted norms, but eventually the establishment saved him. I’m not at all conveying that capitalism is the answer and that we should ignore the theories of a perfect socialist society, but I am making the point that until we can create and uphold an “art world” within which we enjoy and want to be a part of completely free from the structures and crutches put in place by the institutional critique, we should attempt to amend the current system before abandoning it.

The Actual Art Makers

As I read Hal Foster’s article Arty Party, one particular element of these “mega-exhibitions” seemed to be forgotten, I was aware of this as I have often been a part of this disregarded group, the volunteers. I have volunteered at a number of events, this has opened my eyes to the artist’s role, and has altered my perception of the depth of their function. Both Damien Hurst and Marcel Duchamp are referenced in Foster’s article, as advocates of the readymade, their art “is often mocking of high art or mass culture or both”, this led me to make an automatic comparison of Duchamp and Hurst, when thinking about the two artists, one of the many differences that stood out for me was Hurst’s complete absence in relation to the construction and creation of his art works, he completely outsources the entire production of his pieces, there is no longer any facet of the artists touch.

In 2009 I volunteered as part of a team to construct a work by Louisa Bufardeci, entitled Team Joy. I spent many weeks painting 1cm coloured stripes on various sized wooden poles. Each pole represents an international organisation, and each coloured 1cm stripe represents a country involved in that organisation, which equals a large number of painstakingly laborious painting. Throughout this experience, which despite my point I thoroughly enjoyed, I did not see nor meet the artist once. This altered my initial perceptions of the role of artist, and made me question the importance of the presence of the artists touch within a work. Team Joy, would be perceived as an exhaustive work of art created by Bufardeci herself, when in fact it was an exhaustive work of art created by a number of volunteers who wanted to be a part of the realisation of her work.

Relational Aesthetics: Tadashi Kawamata

Recently I was lucky enough to see an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, featuring Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata. He’s work takes over sporadic areas of the galleries within and outside the Centre Pompidou, with bird nest-like structures, compiled of wooden planks, precariously attached to the building. Inside Kawamata has produced a world of cardboard, within which you can construct anything you desire using cardboard, scissors and various sticky substances, these creations are made within a building of cardboard, literally. After building your cardboard brilliance, there are various documentaries providing explanation of the artist’s works and intentions.

The juxtaposition between the industrial interior and exterior of the venue and the organic use of wood, allows the viewer to recontextualise the role of both the artwork and the building itself, encouraging a varied perspective, created by the viewer of the work who is now transformed into the creator. This coincides with Godard’s sentiment that ‘it takes two to create an image’, although in Kawamata’s work much like Rirkrit Tiravanija’s work, Untitled (Tomorrow Is Another Day) 1996, the artist becomes void once the work comes into fruition, in order for the work to succeed the continual support from the audience is needed.