Week 6- Anish Kapoor Sculpture

Anish Kapoor

                                                           Cloud Gate (2004), Millennium Park, Chicago

 

Celebrated for his gigantic, stainless steel Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park, Anish Kapoor is changing the cultural environment with his public works.

1.Research Kapoor's work in order to discuss whether it is conceptual art or not. Explain your answer, using a definition of conceptual art.

Kapoor produces large scale site specfic works such as the "Marsyas" 2000, installation at Tate Modern, "Cloud Gate"(2004)Millennium Park,Chicago and the "ArcelorMittal Orbit" 2012 for the London Olympic games. "Conceptual art is a art that favors the concept over material and process. It's when concept decides what materials and processes are used to realise the work. Conceptual Art often refers to art that does not use the traditional processes and materials of painting and sculpture." These works by Kapoor are conceptual in that he has the idea and organizes others to have them made.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_art)

 

2 research 3 quite different works by Kapoor from countries outside New Zealand to discuss the ideas behind the work,Include images of each work on your blog.

                                         Tall Tree and the Eye, Stainless steel, 13×5×5 metres  

The steel structure of an arrangement of 76 glossy circles was bubble up to the level of the surrounding Palladian buildings. It was fifteen metres high. But it seems weightlessness from the ground view.  "It is a conjunction of images I have always loved in his Sonnets to Orpheus and this work is in a way, a kind of eye which is reflecting images endlessly." said Kapoor.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/20/anish-kapoor-sculpture-royal-academy)

                                                                     
                                                   "Leviathan"by Anish Kapoor
                                     grand palais, Paris May 11 to June 23ed 2011

Provides  a chance for  viewrs  to  go inside the sculpture, which is made out of a red rubber material. It is 35 metres high and comprised of tautly-stretched PVC over a giant metal frame. The scale alludes the idea of cathedral, such as living body, breathing scared space and a  literally cathedral inside structure. 

(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1385590/Anish-Kapoor-Leviathan-sculpture-unveiled-Grand-Palais-Paris.html)

               Anish Kapoor - 'Yellow', 1999, Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery, London 

it is a six-square-metre disc, which was made from fibreglass and covered in 12 coats of yellow paint. Only when you approach it, you could understand that the wall is concave, rather than flat. It looked solid but it is actually a void .

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/6218813/Anish-Kapoor-retrospective-at-the-Royal-Academy.html?image=2)                      

3.Discuss the large scale 'site specific' work that has been installed on a private site in New Zealand.  

  

 

 

Dismemberment, Site 1, 2009 Mild steel tube and tensioned fabric; West end 25 x 8m, East end 8 x 25m. Length 85m," transitions from a vertical ellipse seaward to a circle at mid spam to ellipse at lands end." The title of the work and its color refers to the removal of flesh, body parts and both views through the vertical and horizontal ellipses look similar to the Indian Hindus male and female symbols.

(http://fabricarchitecturemag.com/articles/0110_sk_sculpture.html)

 

4. Where is the Kapoor's work in New Zealand? What are its form and materials? What are the ideas behind the work?

Gibbs Farm is an unusual setting for a sculpture collection. The North Auckland property is dominated by the Kaipara Harbour,The materials of 'site specific' are steel tube and tensioned fabric. Based on title and color of this work, which reflect the removal of flesh and body parts, the views from vertical and horizontal ellipses seem like the symbols of Indian Hindus male and female.

5. Comment on which work by Kapoor is your favourite, and explain why. Are you personally attracted more by 

the ideas or the aesthetics of the work?

My favorite work of Anish Kapoor is "Cloud Gate" because i find the shape comforting, it is round and very smooth. I also like the way it looks like a mirror, the way it reflects and distorts the world in it

 

Youtube has some excellent footage on Kapoor-take a look at Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy.

 www.royalacademy.org.uk › 
http://www.robgarrettcfa.com/thefarm.htm
http://www.billslater.com/cloudgate/ 

 

 

Week 5 - Pluralism and the Treat of Waitangi

Pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi

In teaching week 5 you will discuss pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi in your tutorials. Use this discussion, the notes in your ALVC book and the internet to respond to the following
questions;

1. Define the term 'pluralism' using APA referencing.

Pluralism is the idea or system that a society can include two or more principles, elements or groups that are independent yet are able to coexist together at the same time.

(Oxford Dictionaries Online,2012)

2. How would you describe New Zealand's current dominant culture?

For me, NZ's dominant culture is Kiwi. I mean people born in NZ and who speck with a NZ accent and have New Zealand mannerisms. Statistics show that the majority of NZ have a European, in particular a British heritage, so consequently a Western European cultural heritage is dominant.

3. Before 1840, what was New Zealand's dominant culture?

Maori culture was dominant in New Zealand before 1840.

4. How does the Treaty of Waitangi relate to us all as artists and designers working in New Zealand?

It means that artists and designers need to be aware of the Treaty of Waitangi and in being aware will be understanding and sympathetic when dealing with Maori and their cultural heritage.

5. How can globalization be seen as having a negative effect on 'regional diversity' that leads to a 'homogenized world culture' in New Zealand in particular? (ALVC2 handbook page 52, http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/globalization)

Globalisation can have a negative affect on diversity when for example, McDonalds can spread throughout the world changing their means to suit local taster and therefore leading to a "Homogenised"world.  

6. Shane Cotton's paintings are said to examine the cultural landscape. Research Cotton's work 'Welcome'(2004) and 'Three quarter view ' (2005) to analyze what he is saying about colonialization and the Treaty of Waitangi.

'Welcome' (2004) Shane Cotton 

                                                 http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/work/52293/shane-cotton-welcome.aspx

Shane Cotton in ‘welcome’ (2004) compares a suffering head of Jesus Christ; he is wearing a crown of thorns, and a preserved head of a Maori man's head, 'Mokomoki'. This could symbolize Maori suffering since arrival of the Europeans and their religion, Christianity. The other two images look like the fantail bird one looks almost ghost like and could also refer to those birds that have become extinct since Europeans came to New Zealand

      

'Three Quarter view'(2005) Shane Cotton

http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?IRN=14999

 http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/shane-cotton-paintings-examine-cultural-landscape-126412

The painting, "Three Quarter View" (2005 refers to Maori, a tattooed, Mokomokai head and extinct New Zealand birds are targeted or have been targeted since the arrival of Europeans. The dominance of the color blue seems also to refer to loss and "links between the physical, historical and spiritual landscape."

(The National Business Review,2012)

7. Tony Albert's installation 'Sorry' (2008) reflect the effects of colonization on the aboriginal people of Australia. Research the work and comment on what Albert is communicating through his work, and what he is referring to. Describe the materials that Albert uses on this installation and say what he hopes his work can achieve.

"Sorry commemorates the apology on 13 February 2008 by the former Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, to Indigenous Australians who have suffered as a result of ‘past mistreatment’ by the Government of Australia. Yet, Tony Albert is neither championing hopeless blind optimism nor pessimism through his work. Aboriginal people have been offered many broken promises. Here, Albert and his army of kitsch faces, has taken this word on face value until real change is observed.”

 (Queensland art gallery,2008)

                                  Tony Albert | Australia b.1981 | Girramay people | Sorry 2008 |
                                                       Found kitsch objects applied  to vinyl letters | 99 objects :   
                                                       200 x 510 x 10cm (installed) | The James C Sourris Collection.
                                                       Purchased 2008 with funds from James C Sourris through the 
                                                       Queensland Art Gallery Foundation | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
                                                                    

8. Define the term 'kitsch'.

“Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior,tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of, as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that are unoriginal.”(Wikipedia,2012)

9. Explain how the work of both artists relates to pluralism.

Both artists employ or use different subject matters and references within their works. The content and use of those subjects also refers to different ideas i.e. Colonization, Globalization, and Diversity.            

                             

Reference

Oxford Dictionaries Online. (2012). Pluralism. Retrieved from http://oxforddictionaries.com/

Queensland art gallery. (2008). Tony Albert. Retrieved from http://qagoma.qld.gov.au/collection/indigenous_australian_art/tony_albert

The National Business Review. (2012). Shane Cotton paintings examine the cultural landscape. Retrieved from http://m.nbr.co.nz/article/shane-cotton-paintings-examine-cultural-landscape-126412

Wikipedia. (2012). Kitsch. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch