10 Feb Natalie talks on Dead Swiss by Christian Boltanski

•Details of the work

•Medium

1. Black and white photographs

–selected from obituaries column in Swiss newspapers

–The victims were neutral and deceased

–They were anonymities

2. Metal Lamps

–shines on each photograph

3. Shelves

4. lengths of fabric which gathered around shelves

His quote 'What drives me as an artist is that I think everyone is unique, yet everyone disappears so quickly. I made a large work called The Archive of Dead Swiss (1990) and all the people in photographs in the work are dead. We hate to see the dead, yet we love them, we appreciate them. Human. That's all we can say. Everyone is unique and important

•How does the installation express the holocaust-effect?

1.Photographs
a)absence of portrait’s standard

à human is only an object, not a subject
b) The sameness face of the photographs
à neglect individuality

2. Spotlight- shines on each photograph

àcreate interrogative atmosphere and reminds people of torture

•How do his work evokes audiences a sense of identity?

•Anonymous victims

–Accompanying text in the newspapers were not shown in the installation

•How does the installation express a sense of mourning?

1.Shroud-like draperies

2.Spotlights
Shines on each photograph

à Create a sinister atmosphere of funereal

January 27 Fischli and Weiss Der Lauf Der Dinge (JoyceMa)

February 3 Emily introduces Camptown Ladies by Kara Walker

Details of the work

•Kara Walker
•Camptown Ladies
•1998
•Cut paper and adhesive on wall
•Overall size 9 x 67 feet

Kara Walker

Kara Walker (born November 26, 1969) is a contemporary African American artist who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes.

Part of Camptown Ladies

Part of her work

Part of her work

Part of her work

The content expressed

•In the theme of history
•Explore stereotypes about blacks and women with narratives from the old south and the time of slavery
•The use of black material on white emphasizes her racial agenda
•Bad treatment from the white to black
•Reflected on the consequencesof slavery and American racism

Reshuffling the Past

•Rapid change of style in recent
•The past styles are not eliminated completely
•Forged her individual styles by characteristic manner
•Destabilize the present
•Audience’ understanding rely on the background information of the work

Reframing the Past

•Change how we understand the present
•Appears in new context and more critically
•Close relationship between representation of history and race relations today
•Revisiting the history needs artist’s past related experience

My opinion

‧Audience’s participation in the work
‧Good idea of reminding viewer of the past in a simple way- black and white
‧Not only remember, but also think about the content of work

Discussion:

What do you think of investigating the aspect of racism in this way (black cut-paper silhouettes) ?

References:

•http://artpup.blogspot.com/2007/04/camptown-ladies.htmlladies.html
•http://www.30americans.com/Artist/Kara_Walker/1.htmler/1.html
•http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/kara-walker-at-the-whitney-museum/at-the-whitney-museum/
•http://www.terminartors.com/walker-kara-2662-a
•Jean Robertson and Craig McDaniel, “Time” , 58-60

February 3 Cookie introduces Red Humour by Wu Shan Zhuan

February 3 Zoe introduces Mao Zedong No.1 by Wang Guang Yi

1.Details of the work
Artist :Wang Guangyi
Title :Mao Zedong No. 1
Year :1988
Medium :Oil on canvas.
Size :59 x 141 in. (150 x 358.1 cm).
Collected :Private collection.

2.Wang Guangyi’s aesthetes value

"To liquidate the enthusiasm of humanism."*
*"To liquidate the enthusiasm of humanism." In Chinese is “清理人文熱情”

3. Mao Zedong No. 1 and History
3.1Background
In the late of 80s , Wang made a set of works about Mao Zedong. Since Mao Zedong died in 1976, The Chairman Mao cult of personality was still prevailing over the China while people were mourning over his death sorrowfully. From that time the portrait of Mao became rarer from that moment. And these works make a strong impact to China.

3.2Expree the theme of history by Content
In Mao Zedong No. 1, Mao’s image was difference form the classic Mao’s image, which is for propaganda poster. Wang want to sent a massage of anti heroism. Using the red and gray color to re-create Mao’s, the red line like a jail for Mao. Wang mocked the dull portrait as usual.

3.3 Express the theme of history by visual Language
• Color: gray tone/ black and white and Red
Gray > Cold color (calm, rational)
>Dead (dead of heroism, idealism)
(dead of Mao and Cultural Revolution)
Red > Symbol of Maoist and used in propaganda poster
In the past, Mao ‘s image always with energy and fresh, like goddess. But Wang used gray color to show a lifeless feeling. Make joke on the dull Mao’s portrait in Culture Revolution.

• Subject matter: Mao
Classic face (boring face)
Mao’s face : symbol of “enthusiasm of humanism” (main sprite of Cultural Revolution)
Icon of Cultural Revolution, Red culture
“Hero” in Chinese history

• Line: straight lines (Rational thinking)

3.4Mao Zedong No. 1 & History
• Provided definite reference to prototypes about complicated or disguised of feeling
• Try to farewell to the Culture Revolution, directly respond to China’s current saturation
• Communist symbols in his work, creating a surprising tension between consumer and Maoist imagery
• Turned away from their earlier heroism, idealism, metaphysics and high-mindedness towards more popular and deconstructionist themes
• Focus on uneasy points of confluence between China’s Maoist past and its promising economic future.
• Wang began to produce Political Pop art rife with irony. He saw irony as a necessary tactic in the tense atmosphere that preceded the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. It was a reaction against the tragically sincere use of symbols
• Wang using cultural capital from a history of suffering, the visual arts is deeply dependent of the cultural context in which works are made, cannot express the massage without history
• These style later become the pre eminent authors of Political Pop.

4.Other issue relate with Mao Zedong No. 1
4.1Political Pop Art
Pop Art in China became a historical commentary; social and political, work that appropriates the visual style of the propaganda of the Cultural Revolution, reworking them in the flat, colorful style of American Pop.

"When Pop Art came back into the scene, it was with relevance to China's history and culture, rather than a mere imitation of the Western version of the art form."

Difference people view’s on Political Pop Art

Chinese viewers: the Chinese political Pop Art represents a memory for the older generation. For the young it holds a mystery that cannot be explained in words

Western viewers: a way to know more Chinese culture and history, perhaps it simply represents enormous collectible value

Chinese artists: allows the modern Chinese artist to enter the international art market place with a much better chance of success
Also, Pop Art is an easy way to understand the artist's spiritual world.

4.2 Wang Guangyi VS Andy Warhol
In China Art field, there have a hit debate between Wang Guangyi and Andy Warhol. As we all know Andy Warhol are king of the Pop Art. Meanwhile People in China called Wang as the leader of political Pop Art. For that reason, some people think that Wang Guangyi is Andy Warhol’s copycat. They question about the value of Wang.

They said that Wang just follow what Andy did, like using the popular icon (for example: coca-cola) to earn money.

Andy Warhol:

Green Coca Cola Bottles (1962)
Andy Warhol selected an icon of mass-produced, consumer culture of the time, the Coca-Cola bottle. The familiar curved Coke bottle was part of the visual imagery American consumers encountered frequently. (Copy from http://www.oil-painting-shop.com)

Wang Guangyi:
Wang said that coca cola and farmer-army could create a cultural conflict. He wanted to put history and now together and let citizen think. (More details: http://blog.udn.com/ibao/2770688)

People claim that Andy Warhol gain a first move benefit of Pop Art. Andy’s work are reflection of American Society, but Wang’s work not. Wang’s works are outdated, cannot show the mass culture of modern China. Those works is just for money.
They think if Wang just using the Pop Art skill and keep repeating the same style. It’s meaningless.

5.My opinion (with Quotation)

“Respond to china’s current transformation, not to history or memory”

-Wu Hung (1999) "Ruins, Fragmentation, and the Chinese Modern/Postmodern". In Gao Minglu (ed.), Inside Out: New Chinese Art (exh. cat.). New York: Asia Society Galleries and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Berkeley: University of California Press. 59-65

My view:
I don’t agree with this statement, because we cannot separate with history. Even though we may want to escape / deny our history, but we are part of the history. Especially in the Cultural Revolution, whatever the artists did, they still have to face the history.

6. Question

“History” sells!
The theme of Chinese history art works have a good price in current art market, some people claim that they just work for money but not about Chinese history, what do think about their work? History art works for marketplace or critic?

My answer:
I believe that the first motivation of Wang and the others was good. They want to tell the truth/history of China. However, after money involved, something change, Wang made countless of works in a SAME style. In my point of view, later period works are totally about money.

7.Reference

Chinese Pop Art
http://www.fineartregistry.com/articles/zhao_lihua/chinese-pop-art.php

Wei Guangqing: His Historicalized Pop Art
http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/texts/id/725;jsessionid=0373028f4cb49aa5d026d894561d

Wang Guangyi
Wang Guangyi > http://wangguangyi.artron.net/main.php

Andy Warhol VS Wang Guangyi
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/ailleurs-art/article?mid=68&prev=79&next=42

February 10 Kason introduces The Living Water Garden by Denis Betsy Damon, 1998

1. Details of the work
•Artist: Betsy Damon
-Keepers of the Waters
-Environmental activist
•Title: The Living Water Garden
•Year: 1998
•First theme park located in Chengdu, Sichuan
•24,000 square meter
•An organic system for water purification
•An educational centre





























2. Background

•Serious problems of Fu-Nan River in Chengdu
-Pollution
-Old structures
-Poor conditions
-Flooding

*That’s why Betsy Damon came with The Living Water Garden!
She creates art parks featuring sculptural flow forms and public art events to help clean urban waterways and raise water awareness around the globe

















































3. The Cleaning Water Process through the natural treatment system in the park

The Living Water Garden consists of several stages to clean the water:

3.1) Settling Ponds
-Larger materials settle to the bottom
-Microbiology will be injected into the pond
-Good water contains minerals and micro organisms
-Past over a stony area to aerate
-Air helps the water to clean
-Through many different plants that absorb different chemicals
















3.2) Flowforms
-Sculpture in shape of petals
-Water always moves, forming and reforming vortices (not in straight lines)
-Regards as a motion which helps to clean water

3.3) Constructed wetlands and Fish Pond (Major part of purifying system)
-Plants and animals will further clean the water
-Plants: absorb pollutants and transform it into nutrients
-Fish: settle out the dirty matter









































3.4) Water Monitoring Station = Environmental education center
-Serve the 9 million citizens of Chengdu
-Large public green house is located in the center
-Children and others can play in the water































4. How the work expresses the theme of PLACE? (With quotation in required reading)

A)By historical significance (collective memory)

Quotation:
- “The theme of place intersects with the theme of time, especially the subthemes of memory and history. … Places that are steeped in historical significance may become part of nation’s identity and collective memory.” P.70

-The Living Water Garden
-Address the exceptional history of water in Sichuan province and Chengdu
-With a long history of grace and charm
-A water system that describes the history of water through an experience of water
-Citizens gather along the river, with a passion for their historical memories

B)By symbolic meaning and aesthetic value

Quotation:
- “Places have literal value; they may contain natural resources such as timber, oil, or abundant water …” P.71
- “The symbolic value of a place reflects an accumulation of psychic meanings.” P.71

-The Living Water Garden
-Symbolic meaning:
-Fish shape of the park = symbol of regeneration in Chinese culture
-Relationship between fish and water
-Water = spiritual basis of life
-Aesthetic value:
-Particular esthetics of architecture such as fish shape/ petals/ circle … etc.

C)By environmental protection and educational purpose

Quotation:
- “In the case of attempts to protect natural places, some artists subscribe to a pantheistic view of nature, a belief in wilderness as a source of spiritual energy.” P.80
- “Throughout the last three decades, artists have expressed the alarm felt by many people over the increasingly imperiled ecology of the earth.” P.81

-The Living Water Garden
-A response to serious environmental problems (I.e. Pollution in Fu-Nan river)
-Arouse the sense of citizens in keeping the water clean
-Connect the nature with people (Human engagement and the natural site)
-Aim in teaching and inspiration (People can walk everywhere in the park)

5. Other works from Betsy Damon

A)The DaVinci Water Garden; Portland
-Completed in 2003
-Community based collaboration between Urban Water Works and da Vinci Arts Middle School
-Located on an abandoned tennis court
-Redirects stormwater from rooftops and a parking lot through an educational and artistic water garden

B)Sounds of Water Fountain Model Project ; Redding , CA.
-Multi-functional water feature and a metaphor for the mountains and earth
-Uses of water are represented as three systems: agriculture, industry and domestic water
-Water bubbles, sprays and gurgles through the system and discharged → wetland
-Waters are recycled














6. My Own opinion on The Living Water Garden

6.1 Transferable concept (Useful+Meaningful)

-Can apply to other countries in relations to specific sites
-Response to the environmental problems and cultural resources in the whole world
-Real impact may be small but the sense of encouragement in reclaiming the river is high
-Cleaning: symbol + learning

“The park is not mine,” she says. “That is a really important truth. We did it together.”
--- From an interview with Betsy Damon

6.2 Garden of harmony

-Beautiful public park with different forms of sculptures
-Flood walls of the garden → design to encourage inter-action with the river and assist new life
-Maybe it can apply in Hong Kong since HK lacks of this kind of garden?!

7. Two important quotes on environmental arts that I found …

7.1) “Nature is a part of the medium employed by the artist, in some substantial sense. … Natural materials are not only a crucial element of the artwork’s medium, they are also a part of its content.”

7.2) “That is, acknowledging the natural element of an environmental artwork is vital for understanding the meaning of the work.”

Text: From Aesthetics and Nature by Glenn Parsons, P.129

8. Here comes to the question time … : ]

Question: Due to the increase in environmental artworks nowadays, what kinds of natural materials (except WATER mentioned by THE LIVING WATER GARDEN) would you want to incline to work with if you are an environmental art pioneer?

Please kindly suggest or name one natural material you may think of… rather than WATER… Why do you suggest this kind of natural material?

*Kason’s suggestion … : ]

My choice:
Timber

Reason:
-Great impact on nature and environment
-Having a sustainable forest utilisation
-Maintenance of protection forests
-Keeping the forests healthy and young, etc.
-Preservation of our natural landscape

Example:
Timber Construction Art project in Austria , 2005.

http://www.cipra.org/alpknowhow/bestpractice/Timber%20Construction%20Art?set_language=de&cl=en
















*Reference

1) Bibliography

Robertson, Jean, and Craig McDaniel (2005) Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Parsons, Glenn. Aesthetics and Nature. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008.

2) Articles about the Living Water Garden in Chengdu

Damon, Betsy, The Living Water Garden of Chengdu, China, Earthlight, Fall 2001
Damon, Betsy and Anne Mavor, The Living Water Garden, Whole Earth, Spring 2000
Editors, EDRA design award, Living Water Park, Places, Winter 2000
Mavor, Anne, China’s Living Water Garden, YES! A journal of positive futures, Winter 1999/2000

3) Websites and newspapers online

http://74.6.146.127/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=The+Living+Water+Garden+by+Denis+Betsy+Damon%2C+1998&meta=rst%3Dhk&fr=FP-tab-web-t&u=www.forumonpublicpolicy.com/archivesum07/graham.mark.pdf&w=living+water+garden+gardening+denis+betsy+damon+1998&d=MntBmKm4ULv5
http://www.keepersofthewaters.org/resources.cfm
http://www.wellnessgoods.com/garden.asp
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/changing-the-climate/312
http://hk.search.yahoo.com/search/combo?p=The+Living+Water+Garden&fr=FP-tab-web-t&fr2=sb-top&rd=r1
http://www.cipra.org/alpknowhow/bestpractice/Timber%20Construction%20Art?set_language=de&cl=en