Huang Yong Ping and the Power of Zoomorphic Ambiguity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Kleutghen
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
One To One ◽  
Contemporary Artist ◽  
French Citizen

Born in China but now a French citizen, the contemporary artist Huang Yong Ping (b. 1954) prioritizes the contradictions and ambiguities that arise from overlapping motifs that signify differently in different cultural settings. Juxtapositions of Chinese and Western zoomorphic symbolism characterize his work since the mid-1990s, seen across diverse pairings and groupings as well as strange hybrid single creatures. Rather than resolving the disjunctions that arise from these works, however, the shape-shifting nature of Huang’s animals emphasizes their polysemy and the profound lack of one-to-one symbolic correspondence in global contemporary art. The power of his zoomorphic works derives from his comfort with ambiguity: although often derived from Chinese ideas, Huang’s works are globally applicable in their complexity of transnational experience and their reflection of human nature as both instinctual and rational.

scholarly journals A wider study of contemporary art based on Mikel Diez Alaba´s Mínimos series

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 237-242
Author(s):  
Irene Cárdaba-López ◽  
Iraia Anthonisen Añabeitia
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Natural Heritage ◽  
Acrylic Paint ◽  
Museum Of Fine Arts ◽  
Contemporary Artist ◽  
Working Method ◽  
New Strategies

This research is based on the work of the Basque contemporary artist Mikel Diez Alaba and his series called Mínimos, which gathers up to 144 small size pieces made out of acrylic paint applied on printed images. This collection was displayed on the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao during 2014. The main objective of this paper is to reach a more integral conception of conservation –based on the latest theories regarding heritage-, focusing on material aspects and the conceptual characteristics of the artwork, alike. Thereby, the working method in Mínimos series has been analyzed, as well as the presence of elements linked to the natural heritage. All this, taken together allows the establishment of new strategies towards the conservation of contemporary artworks.

scholarly journals O Corpo Racializado nos Muros da Cidade: imagem e decolonialidade nas intervenções urbanas de Éder Oliveira

ILUMINURAS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (56) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Simoes Viviani ◽  
Rômulo Fonseca Morais
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Brazilian Society ◽  
Home State ◽  
Contemporary Artist ◽  
The City

A obra do artista contemporâneo paraense Éder Oliveira cria ressonâncias com o imaginário popular sobre os corpos racializados que pinta monocromaticamente nos muros da cidade de Belém do Pará. Este artigo traça paralelos entre autores decoloniais e o contexto brasileiro a partir da análise da obra de Oliveira. Ao esboçar as singularidades de seu trabalho, procuramos refletir sobre as potencialidades que este tem de instigar e dialogar com seus interlocutores, principalmente na problematização do racismo estrutural presente na sociedade brasileira. A partir dessa reflexão, buscamos ressaltar o importante viés crítico que a arte contemporânea exposta e acessível na cidade pode assumir na descolonização dos olhares e percepções sobre estes corpos.Palavras-Chave: Decolonialidade. Corpo. Imagem. Arte. Urbano.  THE RACIALIZED BODY ON THE WALLS OF THE CITY:IMAGE AND DECOLONIALITY IN URBAN INTERVENTIONS BY ÉDER OLIVEIRA Abstract: The work of the contemporary artist Éder Oliveira from Pará, Brazil, creates resonances with popular imagination regarding bodies seen in a racial light that he paints in monochromatic murals in Belém, the capital city of his home state. This article draws parallels between decolonial authors and the Brazilian context from the analysis of Oliveira's work. When sketching the singularities of his work, we attempt to reflect on the potential it has to instigate and talk to the audience, especially on the problem of structural racism present in Brazilian society. From that reflection, we strive to highlight the important critical bias that contemporary art, when exposed and accessible throughout the city, can achieve when it comes to decolonizing the sights and perceptions on those bodies.Keywords: Decoloniality. Body. Image. Art. Urban.

scholarly journals A voz feminista em ação: Suzanne Lacy e Andrea Dworkin

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-417
Author(s):  
Mirna Xavier Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Target Audience ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Contemporary Artist

Dentre todas as possibilidades de ação feminista, há a militância em espaço público e a prática em apoio às mulheres, bem como a levada de consciência sobre pautas feministas para as mulheres, tanto no âmbito privado como no público. Esta era a abordagem de Andrea Dworkin, que proferia discursos em marchas e levava suas próprias experiências para o âmbito da escrita, sua prática profissional. A mesma abordagem era utilizada por Suzanne Lacy, artista contemporânea que, através de instalações urbanas, realizava suas ações de militância combinada à arte. Este trabalho visa traçar parâmetros comuns entre estas duas mulheres, focando em suas pautas e na reverberação de seus trabalhos um em relação ao outro, bem como na sociedade.Palavras-chave: Público. Arte Contemporânea. Feminismo. AbstractAmongst all possibilities of feminist action there’s the militant strategy: to take the word of action into the public space, to act in women’s aid, to talk to your target audience and bring your discourse to the people. That was Andrea Dworkin’s strategy, who would bring her speeches into women’s marches and take her experience into her writing, which was her profession. The same strategy was taken by Suzanne Lacy, contemporary artist who focuses on urban installations to mix political and artistic action. This paper correlates these two authors, focusing on their preferred subjects and how their works reverberated together and in society.Keywords: Public. Contemporary Art. Feminism.

scholarly journals Ectoplastic Art Therapy as a Genre of Contemporary Art

Arts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Peter Tzanev
Keyword(s):  
Art Therapy ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Medical Psychology ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Automatic Writing ◽  
Experimental Project ◽  
Contemporary Artist ◽  
Art Therapist

Art therapy is the successor of “psychological Modernism”, which during the late 19th and early 20th centuries included medical psychology as well as theories and practices related to more speculative practices of hypnosis, somnambulism, interpretation of dreams, automatic writing and spiritualism. Art therapy emerged in the second half of the 20th century as a new psychological genre and, the author argues, a new kind of art that offered the opportunity for psychological “salvation” in a “psychological society”. This article explores an experimental project called “Ectoplastic Art Therapy” begun in 2002 by the author as a form of therapy and as a form of contemporary art. This therapy has been performed in various institutional settings, such as therapeutic centers, museums and galleries, as well as educational seminars and courses. Focusing on the usual marginalization that accompanies conventional art therapy within the established framework of the contemporary art system, this article examines the situations in which an art therapist could present his practice as a contemporary artist. The author prompts questions concerning the possible kinds of self-presentation that can be found in art therapy as a form of contemporary art.

scholarly journals Art as Critique under Neoliberalism: Negativity Undoing Economic Naturalism

Arts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Alexander Gawronski
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Art World ◽  
Real Nature ◽  
Political Critique ◽  
Individual Enterprise ◽  
Neoliberal Economics ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Contemporary Artist

This essay considers the possibilities of contemporary art as a viable medium of socio-political critique within a cultural terrain dominated by naturalised neoliberal economics. It begins by considering the centrality of negativity to the historical project of critical theory most forcefully pursued by Adorno as ‘negative dialectics.’ Subsequent varieties of postmodern critique fairly dispensed with dialectics variously favouring complexity and an overriding emphasis on textuality. With the birth of neoliberalism and its burgeoning emphasis on ‘the contemporary’, economic values begin to penetrate every aspect of contemporary life and experience, including art and culture. Contemporary capitalism dematerialised as financialisation now comprises a naturalised ambience that is both everywhere and nowhere. Capitalist ambience is echoed in contemporary art that suggests criticality and yet seems to side with the imagery, values and logics of the prevailing financial order. The naturalisation of the neoliberal order is further internalised by artists online. Exacerbated contemporary emphasis on the ‘self as entrepreneur’ coincides with the biopolitical transformation of the contemporary artist into an individual ‘enterprise unit’. This is particularly observable online on social media where an artist’s whole life is simultaneously the subject and object of art. Criticality in art does not disappear but becomes ‘self-annulling’: it acts as a conduit questioning the commodity-identity of art while pointing to phenomena and affects outside the art world. With the recent appearance of the COVID-19 virus, added to the unignorable impact of global climate change, ‘real nature’ assumes a critical role, undermining neoliberalism’s ideological naturalisation while laying-bare the extent of its structural contradictions. Art criticality is revivified by divesting from art contexts saturated with neoliberal imperatives. Criticality is negatively practiced as an ‘un-’ or ‘not-doing’, defining modes of exodus while, crucially, not abandoning art’s institutional definition altogether.

scholarly journals SCREEN FORMS AT BIENNIALS OF CONTEMPORARY ART

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 11-30
Author(s):  
EKATERINA A. KARTSEVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Video Art ◽  
Investigative Journalism ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Public ◽  
International Projects ◽  
Full Screen ◽  
Contemporary Artist

Video today is a popular tool for artists of postmodern, poststructuralist, post-conceptual orientations. These practices have not yet developed their economic model and have spread mainly through biennials and festivals of contemporary art, as the main form of their comprehension and display. At the same time, “video art”, “video installations”, “video sculptures”, “video performances”, “films” at the exhibitions are far from an exhaustive list of strategies, stating a cinematic turn in contemporary art, where videos are considered among the basic tools of a contemporary artist and curator. It gets increasingly difficult to imagine exhibitions that resonate with the public and critics without video. From an avant-garde countercultural practice, video has become the mainstream of contemporary exhibition projects and is presented in exhibitions in many variations. The article analyzes the strategies for including video in the expositions of national pavilions at the 58th Venice Biennale, among which the production of video content in the genre of documentary filming, investigative journalism, artistic mystification, and interactive installation can be distinguished. Artists both create their own content and use footage content from the Internet. The main awards of the Biennale are won by large—scale projects that dialogize fine art with cinema and theater. For the implementation of artistic ideas curators of biennial projects attract professional directors, screenwriters, sound and light specialists. The biennials of contemporary art, by analogy with the term screen culture, can be attributed to the large format in contemporary art. At them, video goes beyond the small screens with the help of full-screen interactive installations, projections on buildings, films timed to exhibitions are broadcast on YouTube and Netflix. As the coronavirus pandemic has shown, the search for new tactics using screen forms is sometimes the only way out for a large exhibition practice in a situation where it is impossible to conduct international projects and comply with new regulations. The Riga Biennale of Contemporary Art, Steirischer herbst in Graz, followed this path. The exhibition is moving closer to film production. New optical and bodily models are being formed. The contemplative essence of art is being replaced by new ways of human perception of information, space and time, built on the convergence of communication means—video, music, dance, the interpenetration of objective and virtual realities.

Researching children’s play and contemporary art

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Dickerson
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Performance Studies ◽  
Art Museum ◽  
Research Methodologies ◽  
Children's Museum ◽  
Alternative Research ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Contemporary Artist ◽  
Learning Through Play ◽  
Conceptual Work

The New Children’s Museum is a museum in which each ‘exhibit’ is a conceptual work of art by a contemporary artist, commissioned by the museum as a springboard for playful experiences. Neither a children’s museum, where the focus is on learning through play, nor a standard contemporary art museum, The New Children’s Museum is a hybrid space that calls for new ways of doing research, requiring tools that can go beyond positivist and ethnographic approaches. This review assembles examples of alternative research methodologies, drawn from diverse practices such as performance studies and performance art, that may contribute to mapping the complexities presented by a children’s museum that also actively engages in the production of contemporary art. It includes some experiments with a/r/tography, and in conclusion offers a method assemblage that might be termed ‘ludo-artographic’.

Re-imagining research with children through an engagement with contemporary art

Childhood ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Semenec
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Visual Research ◽  
Research With Children ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Art Film ◽  
Research In Education ◽  
Contemporary Artist

This article explores how an engagement with a contemporary art film can foster a different attitude in relation to research with children through the following question: How might an engagement with a contemporary art film inform/disrupt/provoke how we do research with children, and what new ways of thinking about children might it invite? Informed by post-qualitative research in education, this article explores how a different attitude to visual research opens the possibility for re-thinking concepts of voice and agency. Through a discussion of the role of visuals in the field of anthropology as well as education, this article engages with the film Pódworka by the American contemporary artist, Sharon Lockhart.

Leo Tolstoy on the Purpose of Art

Philotheos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-124
Author(s):  
Predrag Čičovački ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Leo Tolstoy ◽  
Works Of Art

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was one of the greatest artists of all time, but also one of the harshest critics of the contemporary art. In the conclusion of his controversial book, What is Art?, Tolstoy claimed: “The purpose of art in our time consists in transferring from the realm of reason to the realm of feeling the truth that people’s well-being lies in being united among themselves and in establishing, in place of the violence that now reins, that Kingdom of God – that is, of love – which we all regard as the highest aim of human nature.” In my paper I want to examine what Tolstoy means by that, and also how his understating of the purpose of art applies to his own works of art, as well as how it applies to some other contemporary works of art.

scholarly journals Cy Twombly’s seasons, in the shadow of Renoir

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1(17)) ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
Marta Mitjans Puebla
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Four Seasons ◽  
The World ◽  
Cy Twombly ◽  
Contemporary Artist ◽  
Emotional Education

The iconographical analysis of Four seasons (1993), by the contemporary artist Edwin Parker “Cy” Twombly (Cy Twombly, 1928 – 2011) must be understood considering the importance of one of the most famous impressionist painters: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919). La vague (1879) and Paysage bords de Seine (1879) are two oil on canvas where Renoir prints the feeling of captivating the ephemeral through the colour and the movement of light. Four seasons has its roots in American lyrical abstraction. The need of making a portrait of lightness, through a creation where image and text are together, represents the evolution of Renoir’s work in contemporary art. As an impressionist artist, Renoir describes beauty as the reflection of the harmony of the world, as such as a bridge between aesthetic and emotional education. With this proposal, Cy Twombly sublimates the idea of beauty in contemporary art.

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