John Pylypchuk is a “Mirroring the naked state of the human condition, Pylpchuk’s tragic-comic figures are both loveable and loathsome, recreating instances of pitiful irony that ring all too true.”
June 13, 2010
June 7, 2010
Clothing Fragments
60mm wide
These are works from Fran Allison’s series of Jewellery entitled ’Weeds’. Similair to Lisa Walker, this work is concerned with the connotations associated with found objects. I find this type of content very relevant to what I was trying to acheive with my jewellery (using materials that remind one of the home.)
from "weeds'. 2005
“ I like to use pre-existing objects in my work that come with an already established language. Then I like to mess with that reading in some way. The objects start off as decorative in one sense or in one environment and end up on the body as decorative jewellery pieces. A challenge for me is to reconfigure these ‘found’ fragments so that they still possess aspects of their original attractiveness.’
-Fran Allison, Artist profile, www.masterworksgallery.com
I am very interested in the method of sourcing materials from the domestic urban nvironment, and how the exploration of these materials relates to the content of the finished work as described by Allsison in the quote above.
Lisa Walker
June 4, 2010
http://www.thewhitebook.com.au/chapters/chaptertwentytwo.html
Lisa Walker is a New Zealand born artist now living in Munich. I have chosen to post this brooch of hers as it closely relates to the jewellery I have produced over the last three weeks in contemporary craft. Walker’s methods are very experimentational, using a vast range of materials. I am interested in the juxtaposiotion of precious and non-precious materials (as seen here with plastic and gold), her use of pre-made objects (readymades) and other unconventional materials. In this way Walker is always expanding her ways of working, pushing towards the extreme and challenging tradional notions of jewellery. Here method and content overlap, as it is with her use of materials that Walker questions what jewellery means.
My jewellery pieces combined found objects such as sim cards and bread tags with ephemeral materials such as kumara. This references reactionary ideas like Walker’s, suggesting that good jewellery does not have to last forever, or that a bread tag could hold as much aesthetic value as a jewel.
Shirin Neshat
May 14, 2010Shirin Neshat is an Iranian born artist who now lives in America. She is known for her photography and short films. Being familiar with the immigrant experience, Neshat’s work deals with many different subjects from religion to sexuality. She has participated in collaborations and even made a feature-length film, always working closely with production managers, however in the context of her work is an example of how Iranian art has developed throughout a history of oppressive dictatorships.
Blog assignment 2
October 28, 2009Globalisation is a concept that refers to the world-wide effects of technological advancements- particularly in communication and travel. Communication technology breaks down barriers between countries and places and creates an interchange of culture; transportation advancements have expansive effects on migration and economy. This combined with many other related factors has resulted in interdependence between previously isolated areas, and loss of cultural diversity in favour of a homogenised ‘global village.’
This phenomenon is present across a wide range of art, including the methods and processes behind the final art work. Many artists have utilised the various systems of circulation central to globalism, themselves contributing to it whilst avoiding censorship; for example Cildo Meireles who transferred text onto the glass coca-cola bottles circulated in Brazil in 1070. He also used bank notes to interrupt the system with phrases such as “Yankees go home”. In this way Meireles made a statement about the incisiveness of dominant American culture using one of its own methods. More recently, artists have utilised internet based social networks as a means of sharing work and spreading messages, for example Janet Lilo’s youtube video ‘So Sick’.
C.MEIRELES’ COCA-COLA BOTTLE PROJECT
For this assignment I have posted works from four artists: that of Cildo Meireles as explained above, and three others from the exhibition AC/DC: The Art of Power, which was on at the Gus Fisher Gallery from August 21st – October 3rd. The artists in this exhibition explored global environmental issues predominantly relating to energy consumption, globalisation and conservation.
BRETT GRAHAM & RACHEL RAKENA
Aniwaniwa stills, 2007. Aniwaniwa refers to the rapids on the Waikato river by the town of Horahora, where Graham’s grandfather used to work at the Horahora powerstation. In 1947 the town was flooded to create a hydro-electric dam and many historic sites were lost forever. The photographs show submerged people and objects as a metaphor for cultural loss. This kind of revolutionary industrial production results in the displacement of communities, in this instance the local Maori Ngati Koroki. This happens all over the world creating national (and ultimately global) intercommunalism.
JOE SHEEHAN 
Joe Sheehan is a sculptor who works with New Zealand green stone, Pounamu and Greywacke. By carving everyday items such as pens, milk bottles, light bulbs and teacups out of precious greenstone he questions our clean green image, confronting conservation and consumption issues. He used to work in tourist shops, but realising that commercial dominance in this setting has introduced problems with globalisation and diminishing resources he shifted from creating trinkets to works of art loaded with cultural and global significance. He is greatly concerned with the scarcity of jade, which has increased vastly in the last ten years. Entitled non-rechargeable, Sheehan’s fake battery packs (above) encapsulate scarcity of resources and the huge problem of wastage. His art unifies Maori and European cultures to survey our global future. The methods used to produce the pieces are also a critique on industrial consumption.
M.C. Escher
August 9, 2009
This drawing invokes the idea of infinite creation. Hands become a symbol of both creation and opposites, forever locked together.
help meeweathered art work
August 6, 2009
Art created with ink pottle contraptions utilising the wind as an independent power source,
left exposed to the elements for a period of time, producing intriguing expanses of the original ink marks aswell as textural effects
