Week 9 EEA211

Review of Geelong By Night: New Wilderness

The Death of the Artist:

Democratise of the gallery space –

Imbued with ideas of connoisseurship –
- Inviting people in/closing them out
- Allowing and inviting response to the work – in our exhibition – the spectators ‘made the work work’ – they completed it –not just visible – engaging
- Reference to occupy – playing in the space – not ‘privileged few’ but projections inside the tents –
- Disruption – with shadow puppets.
- Engagement with others – chatting – singing – Jonathan
- Hundreds visited and many stayed for quite a while (but the VC – was there for only a short time – ‘What did she think?’ –
- Children – ‘self-monitoring’ – kids played on the instruments –
- Reflect on all of this for response in journal
E.g. Picasso – went back to primitive and children’s art – despite his skills being at a massively high level by age 17.
Cites David Cross’s – inflatables play activities

Response about your work – second handout sheet –

What does Geelong mean to the artist? – depends on the artist

How do you present yourself to the world? (Radio Monocle)

How do people utilise space? – e.g. the body in space through skateboarding –

Constraints – things you can’t change – e.g. the poles disrupt the field of view

Not enough powerpoints – need for overhead tags
Lack of quality in projectors (e.g. will not do full size – would not focus properly)

Considerations – negotiations

Multiple artists – working together/rubbing against
Seeking help where needed
Treading on the toes of other Deakin issues – e.g. can’t interrupt ‘The Cube’

Relationships to other art forms – e.g. skateboard to Jackson Pollock’s gestural lines – using whole body to paint the large canvases.

The popularism of the sub-culture – e.g. the punk being taken over with bejewelled safety pin art – for rich society ladies

The tents – what do they represent – could they be a reaction to militarism – the lines of tents in occupation zones – e.g. Iraq, Queenscliff (Fred Kruger photographs in late 19th century)– the politicising of space – reclaiming space – the tents were inside – a safe and easy space for non-Deakin people to feel comfortable in the Deakin campus

The big picture

We live in a world of visual imagery – the picture is the new literacy
Use an interdisciplinary approach to make meaning of art /art practice
Semiotics – signs and symbols – how the meaning may be consistent for some over time, but for others (e.g. the swastika) change meaning
All you look at is strained through the culture of the artist and the spectator –
E.g. photography – there is really no neutral portraiture
Reason for making art has changed, the nature of art has changed – e.g. from mere recording, and religion, mapping, information, The gaze, the nude (looking at this historically – in part 2 subject Visual Culture)
In recent decades the bounds of art have changed – not mere recording, propaganda, commodifying, now more pluralistic, bounds change due - ideas, topics, themes, political is really strong
Art knowledge – no longer an linear movement from e.g. commercial art to fine art, we are still steeped in Western Art – some change to voices from different cultures, different sub-cultures (e.g. feminist, indigenous, ethnic) – the white European artist is no longer supreme –
The death of the author – the viewer is now constructing own meanings
E.g. The Christian story – used politically – to keep people in line, frightened, to promote male supremacy
Karl Marx – on art – eg. No need for commodities in the family unit – no money – each to his own needs – MK cites Facebook – all about commodities –
Modernism-v.s. Post Modernism
Not just one institutional position or school of thought – plural views – but was it ever thus?
Representations of people are really just statements of position – bring the artist’s perception to the work.
The critic no longer knows it all –
More sceptical – leading to challenges of assumptions –
E.g. Occupy – a struggle site
New technologies have democratised the art space – anyone can have their art out there on the web (e.g. sites like Tumbler), self-published books, audience has much more sway, choice
Galleries need to move into this space – by making the work more participatory, more accessible –
The moving image – an art of time – time can be manipulated – doesn’t need to be narrative – but may be.

For the response on the Major Project – tie this into the above.

All work for this unit is due on 8th June.

Feedback from Cameron

Merinda – asked the students to look at how people used the space
Adults – looked at Eben’s sculpture – didn’t react – children – straight in an using the music sticks (‘children’ not saddle-bagged by the white cube syndrome’ – MK)
Did we get video footage – e.g. jonathan – tenor – singing to the sculpture.
The tents – children in the main enjoyed playing with the light in the tent – commenting on the democratisation of the art-making process – kids just do what they want – without being restrained
Cam’s reflection –
The viewers effected the work – almost the atmosphere of the disco – (Meg’s work plus the lights
The tents as a recurring motif for Merinda/Cameron’s ongoing New Wilderness work
‘it had to be calibrated very quickly to work with the other artists in the space’
The animations – successful – the constraints – poor projections (better projectors) – no way to work outside the space –
CB – the democratisation of the image is really important – we’re so well geared to the white cube mentality – as artists we are also breaking this –
MK – there’s a letting go process – going past the aesthetic constraints – sharing a space with others – kids moving around the space –
Children got a bit excited – some bad behaviour – didn’t want to leave the tents.
Jane den Hollander sees this space as a place to demonstrate that Deakin is a ‘risk taking’ institution. CB
Suggestions of using the waterfront.
Had my vision been corrupted? No!
Comment (MK) – of the 4 images of Meg’s reflecting – on all screens and also projected in the window.
Cam – “how did Eben feel about the work and how successful it was?” Merinda knew that it did work – in the end
How did the diverse work work together – MK – would have liked more time to put it all together.

In response to an email about our work for the exhibition, Jane den Hollander replied:

Thanks for the nice email Helen. Yes I had over promised too many people and had agreed to look at a number of Deakin things – all magnificent and your installation amongst the most thought provoking in my view. The photographs are beautiful thank you. Jane