Industrialisation and Cao Fei's RMB City

Industrialisation in the late 1800s, and today.

Dynamism of a dog on a Leash (1912) Giacomo Balla

RMB City (2007-9)  Cao Fei

The artists of the late 1800's and early 1900's, in Europe, were influenced by the Industrial revolution.

1. What and when was the Industrial Revolution?

According to the wikipedia, the Industrial Revolution was a period from 1750 to 1850 where changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times.

Both paintings featured on this blog, that are from the early 1900s were painted by Modernist painters from the group called 'Futurists'. The Futurists celebrated the machine, and objects in motion. Their primary objective was to depict movement, which they saw as symbolic of their commitment to the dynamic forward thrust of the 20th century.

2. Research both Modernist paintings in order to comment on the subject matter, form and style used to celebrate the machine and motion in each painting. Answer the question in 2 parts for each painting.

From The City Rises, buildings in construction in a suburb can be seen with chimneys in the upper part, but the most of the space is occupied by men and horses, melted together in a dynamic effort. Boccioni thus emphasizes some among the most typical elements of futurism, the exaltation of human work and the importance of the modern town, built around modern necessities. The painting portrays the construction of a new city, with developments and technology.In this painting the naturalistic vision of the previous works is partly abandoned, replaced by a more dynamic vision.

In Giacomo Balla's Dynamism Of A Dog On Leash，we can almost feel the frantic energy of the little dog, it's feet shuffling quickly, it's tail wagging excitedly, and the hurried footsteps of the person trying to keep up. The picture's sense of movement is created out of stark black forms and weird flowing lacey veils. It illustrates the precepts of the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting that, "On account of the persistency of an image upon the retina, moving objects constantly multiply themselves; their form changes like rapid vibrations, in their mad career. Thus a running horse has not four legs, but twenty, and their movements are triangular."

Cao Fei's RMB City (2007-9) refers to China's recent rapid industialisation and urbanization.

(www.artspace.org.nz/exhibitions/2009/cafeintopia.asp)

3. Research Cao Fei's RMB City (2007-9) in order to comment on this work in more depth. I.e. describe the images that has she used in her digital collage that refer to China's present and history, and explain why has she used these images.

In Cao Fei’s work RMB City, she uses the images of Tiananmen Square, CCTV new building, Shanghai Pearl TV Tower, Panda, single wheel, schedule, villages and other reality scene. RMB City is a platform for experimental creative activities, one in which Cao Fei and her collaborators use different mediums to test the boundaries between virtual and physical existence.

4. RMB City is described as an utopia/dystopia. Comment on what these terms mean, and how they can be applied to the work.

The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society.Utopia described in the dictionary means, an ideal and perfect place, especially in its social, political and moral aspects of the problem.  however dystopia exactly the opposite, in the extremely harsh living conditions ofdeprivation, oppression, or terror, a country. In Fei's work RMB city, it describe the fast development of China now,  but on the other side it bring the serious pollution problem and decrease the life standard.

5. Although the Modernist paintings and the contemporary digital work have emerged from different contexts, there are also many similarities. Comment on the similarities that you can see in the work. Look at the moving digital image at vimeo.com/4272260, if you have not already researched it.

In my opinion, there are many similarities between Fei's work and Modernist paintings. RMB city use modern technology to communicate, but the idea about "celebrate" and "furture" are same as many modernist paintings.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMB_City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism

Ron Mueck's sculpture and Humanism

Mask II (2002) Ron Mueck

A girl (2006) Ron Mueck

Ron Mueck has become internationally recognised for his unique sculptures, which replicate the human figure with unrivalled technical skill. His work has a powerful psychological range, focusing not only on universal experiences like birth, life and death but on emotional states such as isolation, fear and tenderness. His startling manipulations of scale are key to our experience of each work.

Mueck's work showed at the Christchurch Art Gallery from the end of 2010 through to January 2011. Research Mueck's sculpture in order to answer the following questions;

1. Mueck's sculpture is described as 'hyper-real'. Define the meaning of this term and explain how it is evident in his work.

In painting and sculpture , the word "Hyperrealism" describes a photorealistic rendering of people, landscapes, and scenes. Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. Mueck's work focuses much more of its emphasis on details and the subjects, faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images.  Mueck's lifelike sculptures are scaled much larger or smaller than life and finished in incredibly convincing detail through the meticulous use of polyester resins and multiple molds.

2. Mueck says he is not interested in making life size sculpture. Find out why he is more interested in working with the scale of the figure which is not life size, and mention 2 works which use scale that is either larger or smaller than life.

 According to Sculpture Magazine article，Mueck says “It makes you take notice in a way that you wouldn't do with something that's just normal.”  Above all, Mueck is a master at orchestrating tensions that both attract and estrange.His figures invite close-up inspection of blemishes, hairs, veins, and expression, taking you on a psycho-topographical journey.If you stare long and deeply enough, you experience a horrific beauty. Mueck's works command an uncanny ability to amaze with obsessive surface detail and intense psychic discharge.

Youth (2009),Diminutive figure (65 cm high) of black youth, holding up his T-shirt to examine a wound in his belly.

Mask III (2005),Huge (1.5 metre tall) face of a black woman.

3. Define Renaissance Humanism , and identify which aspects of Humanism can be seen in Mueck's work. Note that the contemporary definition of Humanism is much broader than the Renaissance definition.

Humanism (the philosophy that people are rational beings) became quite popular during the Renaissance.The dignity and worth of the individual was emphasized.

Mueck's work reproduce the minute detail of the human body who didn't wear any clothes to present  the nature way that human beings are exist in the world. 

4. Research and discuss one of Mueck's sculptures that you might find challenging or exciting to experience in an art gallery. Describe the work, upload an image of the work, and explain your personal response to the work. Comment on other student blogs to develop the discussion around the variety of our own personal and individual responses to art and design.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreality

Damien Hirst's work 'For the Love of God' and Mercantilism

For the Love of God(2007) Damien Hirst

Research Damien Hirst's work For the Love of God(2007) in order to answer the following questions;

1. Describe the work, giving details of the form and materials. 

It consists of a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds , including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead, over a platinum cast, cover the entirety of the skull, with the exception of the original teeth of the skull.

2. What does the work mean? What is Damien Hirst communicating in the work?

The life and death.

The Diamond covered skull by Damien Hirst is a continuation of the artist's exploration of death and the way we react to it.

3. How does Hirst's diamond encrusted skull relate to Mercantilism and to conspicuous consumption?

Conspicuous consumption means buying expensive services and products in order to flaunt your wealth.In my view, the skull with diamonds didn't have any practical function but the symbol of "wealth", which relate to the concept of Mercantilism and conspicuous consumption.

4. How much did the work cost, and how much was it sold for, and who bought it?

It cost $20 million to make the skull (diamonds and fabrication)，and sold for $100 million dollars, a record price for work sold by a living artist. 

According to the gallery a group of anonymous investors purchased the work.

5. What are some of the differing opinions of the journalists in the newspaper and blog articles?What did they think of the work?

The New York Times magazine states "the dazzle of the diamonds might outshine any meaning Hirst attaches to it" suggesting the writer sees strong "conspicuous consumption" ideas behind the work, however he later goes on to say that "Its value as jewelry alone is preposterous."

6. Based on your research, what is your opinion of the work, as an object or a work of art.


In my opinion, "For the love of God" looks beautiful, but is not an "artwork". I think the wealth of this work is make more profit than communicate the ideas of life and death.

www.telegraph.co.uk › Culture › Culture News
www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/.../01/hirstsskullmakesdazzlingde
boingboing.net/2007/06/02/damien-hirsts-diamon.html 
www.gagosian.com/artists/damien-hirst/ 

Fiona Hall‘s Work

Research the two examples; 'Tender'(2003-05) and 'Leaf Litter'(1999-2003) to explain how they relate to this concept.

1. First define mercantilism, using material from your ALVC handbook, and explain how it has developed since the Renaissance.

According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. (2005).  Mercantilism is a economic system of the major trading nations during the 16th to 18th century, based on the premise that national wealth and power were best served by increasing exports and collecting precious metals in return. The period 1500-1800 was one of religious and commercial wars, and large revenues were needed to maintain armies and pay the growing costs of civil government. Mercantilism nations were impressed by the fact that the precious metals, especially gold, were in universal demand as the ready means of obtaining other commodities. 

By the end of the high Renaissance mercantilist policies were giving way to a new economic system, capitalism. People such as Adam Smith were extremely critical of the mercantilist system.

2. Identify the ideas or concepts in Hall's work that relate to Mercantilism? 

Hall use the material such like money and leaf, trying to make the relation between economic and environment. 

Hall's work is not only just relate to the mercantilism by using money, but also make us think about the environment and society. Underpinned by her continuing investigation into the relationship between nature and culture. 

3. For each work describe the shape, form and materials used, and also explain the ideas behind each example.

'Tender' (2003-05) Fiona Hall

Tender “consists of dozens of simulacra of birds’ nests of all shapes and sizes, improbably fashioned from American one-dollar bills, each bearing the official declaration: “This note is legal tender”. The American dollar is the most desired currency in Third World countries, for those desperate for it, like birds scavenging for material to build their nests, the greenback provides shelter. Here, in its ubiquity and availability, the dollar bill is made to assume the form of each exquisitely differentiated  avian habitat, at exactly the moment of modernisation, the advance of capitalism and the spread of deforestation is depriving many birds, animals and indeed people, of their environments.”

 ' Leaf Litter' (1999-2003) Fiona Hall

Leaf Litter is an ongoing series of two hundred gouache paintings of botanically-specific leaves on foreign paper currency. Hall has said of Leaf Litter: “Money doesn’t grow on trees–or does it? Plants have played a crucial role in the history of colonisation and the development of world economies. Many species have been responsible for the rapid growth of European power and wealth over the past five hundred years. Plants, and along with them people, have been shifted across oceans, battles have been waged over them, forests razed. But everything comes at a price, and now we are paying heavily for over-taxing the environment and for cultivating an ever-widening gap between rich and poor nations. Many of the once most plant resource-rich countries are now amongst the poorest on earth. Leaf Litter aligns the distribution of plant species with the distribution of monetary wealth.”

4. In your opinion do the materials communicate the ideas of the work? Please explain your answer. 

Yes. Materials communicate the ideas of the work in different ways. From Hall's work, she uses money as a material to relate the money and nature. Material can always make different effects on the works.

5. Fiona Hall's recent project The Kermadecs focuses on issues around the Pacific ocean. Research this project to summarize the importance of the area and upload an image to your blog for discussion. 

It was an image in reverse, and it reflect that our lives are lived in a world composed largely of water, in which we are all passengers sailing on the model ship marooned inside the bottle, tossed about in the sea of our dreams and wild imaginings.