Alexandre Singh (Lecture Response) 11/17/10

Quotation

"Manhole mayonnaise"

This quote summed up Singh's performance to me. His performance, for me, was less about the individual things he was referencing, and more about the general theme to the presentation, free association. The premise was about dreaming and started with the act of free association in one's sleep, and then stemmed into a myriad of directions based on the different types of associations able to be made between, around, through, etc two separate "objects." Manhole mayonnaise is very important to the point of Singh's work, because, at first it sounds nonsensical and then various associations can be found, no matter "how many words are required" for such associations to be "talked about."


3 Words

1) Performative
2) Narrative
3) Intellectual


About Singh

An interesting thing I learned about Alexandre Singh that I didn't already know is how diverse his education is and therefore, experience and knowledge of cultural idiosyncrasies. He was born in France, brought up in England, and educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York. This diversity reflects on his performances, because he actually is able to tailor them to the specific audience to which he is performing. For example, he can use Florida in his associations because the audience yesterday would be able to catch on to his quick references to Floridian history and popular culture. This, in itself is a sign of complete knowledge and dominance over his work, because he is able to accurately manipulate it this way or that. Also, it shows his sheer capacity for absorbing so many complexities of multiple cultures.


Answers to Questions

1) My first question regarded the importance of the viewer in Singh's installations and performances. I gathered from the lecture the audience is meant to be an audience, qualifying the piece as a performance. "People enjoyed me speaking at them about the work." Singh is an artist as well as an intellectual, so the audience, for me, seems to function as a sponge to absorb the complex narratives in his performances. In terms of his installations, the audience is important because thet can choose what level of presence they will have in the gallery setting. For example, in his installation, The School for Objects Criticized, the audience is ironic, because they are in fact, the critics at the time, watching a narrative unfold between anthropomorphized objects about the installation of which they are a part. The audience can choose to enter the installation before the "performance" and criticize only the objects, or stay and be entertained, or stay and criticize the "performance." Either way, they are embodying one or multiple roles in which the objects play.

2) My second question addressed the type of media and the importance of that decision. After the lecture, though, I realized Singh only makes one type of media: performance, whether that form is obvious at surface level or not. (See above description.)


Compelling Piece

I found the performance Singh made for us yesterday extremely compelling, probably because I am also searching for an avenue to make an audience understand complex associations between issues in my own work. The facts he is describing fall into the background the first time viewing the performance, which I think is the point. Singh's work becomes about the theme of connecting seemingly disconnected "objects" across history, culture, and popular culture within a culture. These associations are fascinating, and I plan to read more about them to understand better, but the performance is what I found compelling, because Singh was really successful in making the act of delivery a crucial aspect of the concepts within the work. It really felt like dreaming because I lost track of how I got to the particular slide, but it didn't matter, I knew it made sense somehow.

Alexandre Singh (Lecture Questions) 11/15/10

Question 1

From what I gathered online before the lecture, it seems Singh's work is very intellectual and comprised of installations and performance. My first question is, again, about the importance of the viewer in this work. For example, is the reaction from the viewer part of the piece?


Question 2

When deciding between media for a piece, what process does Singh use? For example, why is installation appropriate for some pieces and others, writing a book or performance? I would like to know the reasons for the media and how it informs the whole piece.

Roger Ballen (Artist) 11/15/10

Work

Roger Ballen Outland (Series) Silver Gelatin Print

Roger Ballen Shadow Chamber (Series) Silver Gelatin Print

Roger Ballen Boarding House (Series) Silver Gelatin Print

Roger Ballen Boarding House (Series) Silver Gelatin Print

Roger Ballen Boarding House (Series) Silver Gelatin Print



Bio

Roger Ballen is a South African photographer working exclusively in black and white film processes. Ballen's work is infused with a documentary-like style, however, also portrays the balance between realism and theatrics, living and inanimate, humans and animals. Ballen's use of carefully arranged objects allows the viewer to place the human existence within the environment without the presence of a human subject. He is a master of human psychology and portrays the depths of the mind through collaboration and directing, documenting and sculpting environments. The most recent series becomes increasingly tableau, including elements of sculpture, and increasing theatrical ambiguity. In a lot of ways, Ballen's process reminds me of Zoe Beloff's, like the blur between documenting and projecting. Ballen is represented in Johannesburg and worldwide.


Quotations

" The artist intends these miniature blasted landscapes to represent a psychological state dwelling somewhere within all of us. His descriptive precision, image to image, makes that claim to universality more plausible than most made by artists. "

Sholis, Brian. "Roger Ballen, Gagosian Gallery" Artforum. Feb 2010. Accessed 15 Nov 2010. <>

"The art of Roger Ballen is impossible to forget. It goes deep. Gets at places we didn’t know were there. Maybe hoped weren't there. It makes us wild. It opens us up to those uncertain, shocking and frighteningly banal aspects of the waking dream, twitching between animal and human, the clean and the unclean, the animate and the inanimate, the lived and the imagined, the natural and the performed."

Cook, Robert. "Robert Ballen.com Introduction" RobertBallen.com. Accessed 15 Nov 2010. <>

Relates

The work of Roger Ballen relates to my work through his use of animal imagery to represent, qualify, implicate or contextualize the human condition. All of his photographs contain a human presence, whether or not a human actually exists within the frame. Ballen's use of animals is one of the tools he uses to describe the human psychological condition. I feel my work is getting at this, through a more scientific approach. My images are meant to place humans into the scope of the evolving planet in a truthful, but also performative way. Ballen's environments in which he is contextualizing are much more confined than mine, however, my concepts sometimes deal with confinement in an evolutionary context. His methods of portraying humans without the presence of human subjects is very interesting and inspiring for me, and I hope to achieve this in my future work.


Interview

Gagosian Gallery

http://www.gagosian.com/artists/roger-ballen/


Website

http://www.rogerballen.com/

VMFA Fellowship Submission 11/11/10

Application Materials




Statement

The works submitted are portions of multiple series within the over-arching concept of interspecific (cross species) relationships with respect to the human condition and identity. Informing the work is a sense of connectivity humans experience with animals spanning across specific boundaries, which often materializes itself in taxidermy, the main subject component of my work. In all my work, I seek to portray the conundrum taxidermy creates within discussions of the “natural” world, in an effort to explore not only human causality and connections to such “objects,” but also the place of humans in the same natural context which produced the animals, later preserved by them.

Two major conundrums are addressed in the overarching work: artificial evolution and trophy culture, both which involve the process of taxidermy. For example, the “nature” inside natural history museums poses a conceptual issue for the missions of such places, with respect to the artificial preservation of animals. Humans seem to affect the natural selection process through various acts, such as trophy hunting and genetic engineering. Considering the interconnectivity of human and non-human species in relation to my work, themes of heightened instinctual awareness and an integrated animality materialize into compositions addressing the duality of human nature.

Work Submitted

Kathleen Jones A Short History of Mammals 2010 Archival Inkjet Print 11 X 17 inches

Kathleen Jones Trophy 2010 Archival Inkjet Print 11 X 17 inches

Kathleen Jones Storage 2010 Archival Inkjet Print 11 X 17 inches

Kathleen Jones Bones 2009 Archival Inkjet Print 16 X 24 inches

Kathleen Jones 40 Million Years 2009 Archival Inkjet Print 16 X 24 inches

Kathleen Jones Forever Together 2009 Archival Inkjet Print 16 X 24 inches

Kathleen Jones Kingdom 2009 Archival Inkjet Print 16 X 40 inches

Kathleen Jones Species 2009 Archival Inkjet Print 16 X 27 inches

"Hybridism" (Idea) 11/11/10

"Zedonk" Offspring of Donkey and Zebra

Defined

1: an offspring of two animals or plants of different races, breeds, varieties, species, or genera

2: something heterogeneous in origin or composition hybrids of DNA and RNA> hybrids of mouse and human cells>

MerriamWebster.com

Quotations

"Between his self-knowledge, which was considerable, and his vanity, which was immense, he had created a strange hybrid animal, and called it by his own name."

Stevenson, Robert-Louis. "Tales and Fantasies" Farlex. Accessed 11 Nov. 2010. <>

"The mule always appears to me a most surprising animal. That a hybrid should possess more reason, memory, obstinacy, social affection, powers of muscular endurance, and length of life, than either of its parents, seems to indicate that art has here outdone nature. Of our ten animals, six were intended for riding, and four for carrying cargoes, each taking turn about"

Darwin, Charles. "The Voyage of the Beagle" Falex. Accessed 11 Nov. 2010. <>

Annotated Bibliography

Lemmon, Emily Moriarty, and Alan R. Lemmon. "REINFORCEMENT IN CHORUS FROGS: LIFETIME FITNESS ESTIMATES INCLUDING INTRINSIC NATURAL SELECTION AND SEXUAL SELECTION AGAINST HYBRIDS." Evolution 64.6 (2010): 1748-1761. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.

This article discusses findings in experiments on hybrid species reproductive viability, frogs in particular. It was found that in this species, the sterilization of hybrid individuals was only partially attributed to natural selection against reproduction. Another cause of limited viability is the species sexual selection against hybrid individuals.

"Maladaptive hybridization is hypothesized to be an important force driving the evolution of reproductive isolation between closely related species."

This article was interesting because it describes a natural safeguard process against specific hybridization, in this case, scientifically imposed by humans. The article was scientific in nature and absent of any bias.


Relates

This idea relates to my work because, for one, genetic engineering across species to produce hybrids is commonplace in human societies. (Mules) Also, often in my images, I pose an anatomical conundrum between humans and non-human forms, symbolic of the power struggle between man and wild. Scientifically, hybridization causes a natural filtration process to occur to prevent the viability of such genetic traits, which is an interesting conceptual defense mechanism I think relates to this grotesque struggle I am portraying.

Columbia University (Graduate Profile) 11/8/10

Interest

My primary interest in Columbia University, like any graduate school in New York City, is the location. Secondly, the MODA (MA in Modern Art, Critical and Curatorial Studies) program combined with the school's reputation for academic greatness are the practical reasons for my interest. I was always interested in Columbia because I have alumni in the family, so when I came across the MODA program, I was even more interested. The attractions of this program in relation to competing critical art survey programs is definitely the access the school provides for their students into the art world, starting in NYC. Also, from reviews I have read, the program offers the students intensive professor resources, if needed, which is very valuable in my opinion.


Interesting Professor (David Freedberg)

"David Freedberg spent the fall term as Fellow of the Wissenschafskolleg in Berlin, working on his book on art and neuroscience. His Power of Images appeared in a new Italian edition (containing four prefaces translated from other foreign editions). He was elected a corresponding member of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti."

Fall 2010. "826 Schermerhorn: Columbia University Dept. of Art History and Archaeology" Fall 2010. Accessed 8 Nov 2010. <>

David Freedberg is the Pierre Matisse Professor of the History of Art and Director of The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University. He as previously researched in the areas of 17th Century Dutch and Flemish printmaking, but has recently taken a different conceptual direction in his scholarly research. Freedberg is working on a book in which he intensely examines the relationship between art and neuroscience, especially with regards to historical allusions. (Galileo, for example, and the relationship between science and art.) He spends most of his researching time teamed up with neuroscientists to discover the connections between the conscious or unconscious mind and art. What I find interesting about his question is the focus on censorship and what role it plays in the discussion.




Interesting Student (Catherine Roach)

Catherine Roach graduated from Columbia's Art History Department in 2006.
"Catherine Roach ’06 PhD is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of the History of Art, Cornell University. She curated Seeing Double: Portraits, Copies, and Exhibitions in 1820s London at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven."

Fall 2010. "826 Schermerhorn: Columbia University Dept. of Art History and Archaeology" Fall 2010. Accessed 8 Nov 2010. <>

As her first curatorial exhibition, Roach directed the exhibition based on John Scarlett Davis' Interior of the British Institution, in which he carefully painted himself and others into alluded images of English "high art", hoping for an access point to this elite group. The exhibition is based on the historical British art practice, and its intricacies, especially with respect to forgery, replications and fraud. Walker is now a Postdoctoral Associate in the Art History Dept of Cornell University.

School of Visual Arts (Graduate Profile) 11/8/10

Interest

I am interested in the MFA Photography program at the School of Visual Arts because, first of all, it is in New York City, which is pretty much a requirement for me. I honestly heard about SVA for the first time during Amy Stein's lecture at VCU. The lecture was inspirational because of Stein's late start in the art world, so I kept SVA in mind. Also, last semester, Jessica Miller showed us a few artists who were associated with SVA and talked to us about the photography program there. After researching on my own, I found the most differentiating aspect of SVA's Photography, Video and Related Media I read was the focus on the future careers of the students, instead on a common teaching track, which I consider very valuable in a graduate school. The aspects I think I want in a graduate school are substantiated by reviews I have been reading posted by students or alumni. I think SVA would be a good choice for me based on location, name recognition, diverse and experienced instructors and accessibility to career options afterward.


Interesting Professor (Andrew Moore)

Andrew Moore is a professor at SVA and is a professional photographer whose work is widely acclaimed and represented by many, such as the Whitney. He is described as being a "journalist-documentarian" and his images reflect this in subject quality. Moore reminds me a bit of Taryn Simon in that both work seeks to access normally inaccessible spaces. For Simon, this was maximum security prisons, or the CIA Headquarters, and for Moore, these spaces range from Cuba and Bosnia to Governors Island in NY. The images take on identities of their own, which is a valuable trait in documentary photographs. Moore's imagery is very stylized though, adding a personal aesthetic to the documentary institution. He deviates from pure document in more than just technical quality.

"At the same time, Mr. Moore borrows heavily from the bag of tricks employed by conceptual photographers like Andreas Gursky and Jeff Wall. His chromogenic prints mimic the scale of easel painting and the color saturation of commercial photography."

Schwendener, Martha. "Art in Review: Andrew Moore" The New York Times, Art. 12 Jan 2007. Accessed 8 Nov. 2010. <>

Wreck, Ibarra

Parliament Building, Sarajevo

Rouge, Detroit

Interesting Student (Sarah Schorr)

Sarah Schorr graduated from SVA Photography, Film and Related Media program in 2005. She now lives in Denmark, and her work is exhibited in the US and internationally. Schorr's images relate to the conflict between the performative and the natural as those extremes pertain to female nature and identity. She has photographed a wide range of groups including prostitutes, go go dancers, etc. Her images of the women take on an aesthetic and conceptual dynamic quality, whereas her photographs of the possessions of these women possess a more evidence-documenting style, which I find very interesting.

"Seeing Sarah Schorr's photographs for the first time, I got hooked on a white platform with a four-inch heel. It was clearly a performer's shoe, practical and ludicrous in equal degrees. It had an ankle-strap riveted with small metal eyelets, making the shoe both fetching and hard to lose, even in acrobatic performance. Rivets continued down the upper side of the shoe, a unifying visual element. The strap showed signs of wear only at the third eyelet, suggesting heavy use by a single owner. It had been smudged by fingertips tacky with make-up. Painted and repainted, two shades of white were visible on the heel at the scuff-marks. Tiny dark blue flecks were stuck to one side, probably confetti."

Fischer, Kyle. "Sarah Schorr Essay" SarahSchorr.com. Accessed 8 Nov 2010. <>

Work (From Borrowed Glitter)

Beth Cavener Stichter (Artist) 11/8/10

Work
Beth Cavener Stichter Rush of Blood Stoneware 2008

Beth Cavener Stichter Render, Husk Stoneware, wooden peg, wooden box 2009

Beth Cavener Stichter A Second Kind of Loneliness Stoneware, paper pinwheel, internal mechanical breathing device 2009

Beth Cavener Stichter Study for "Hare Leaping Over Nothing" Stoneware, rope, bronze hook 2008


Bio

Beth Cavener Stichter is an American sculptor, residing and working out of Washington State. Her work explores the human psychological condition articulated through animal morphology. "The sculptures I create focus on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal and human forms." Stichter believes that there is an instinctual truth in these sculptures because of the awareness across species and similarities in psychological makeup. Looking at the sculptures may initially unnerve the viewer, but after closer inspection, allow them to define a psychological condition of the animal beyond the surface level.

http://www.theartspiritgallery.com/html/ArtistBio.asp?artnum=57

Relates

My work relates to Stichter's because I too, am using a process which describes a facet of the human condition through animal imagery and research. Our work differs on many other levels, but the universality and interspecifc awareness is an overall similarity. My work focuses, as well, on the intricacies and subtleties of animal and human nature, however, in a more evolutionary way.


Quotations

"Both human and animal interactions show patterns of intricate, subliminal gestures that betray intent and motivation. The things we leave unsaid are far more important than the words spoken out-loud to one another. I have learned to read meaning in the subtler signs; a look, the way one holds one's hands, the incline of the head, the rhythm of a walk, and the slightest unconscious gestures. I rely on animal body language in my work as a metaphor for these underlying patterns, transforming the animal subjects into human psychological portraits."

Beth Cavener Stichter. "Artist Statement: Animal Body, Human Space" The Art Spirit Gallery of Fine Art. Accessed 8 Nov, 2010. <>

"I want to develop an allusion to those uncomfortable, awkward edges between animal and human. I aim for something subtly feral and uneasy - the way a roomful of strangers makes me feel. An uncomfortable relationship grows between the pieces and the viewer as familiar human proportions are confused with those of smaller species. Something conscious and knowing is captured in their gestures and expressions. An invitation."

Beth Cavener Stichter. "Artist Statement: Animal Body, Human Space" The Art Spirit Gallery of Fine Art. Accessed 8 Nov, 2010. <>

Interview

http://arcanalogue.blogspot.com/2009/10/interview-beth-cavener-stichter.html


Gallery

The Art Spirit Gallery of Fine Art
http://www.theartspiritgallery.com/html/artists.asp


Website

http://www.followtheblackrabbit.com/

"Reproduction" Idea 11/4/10

Defined

re·pro·duc·tion (rpr-dkshn)

n.

1. The act of reproducing or the condition or process of being reproduced.

2. Something reproduced, especially in the faithfulness of its resemblance to the form and elements of the original: a fine reproduction of a painting by Matisse.

3. Biology The sexual or asexual process by which organisms generate new individuals of the same kind; procreation.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Quotations

"I cannot here enter on the copious details which I have collected on this curious subject; but to show how singular the laws are which determine the reproduction of animals under confinement, I may just mention that carnivorous animals, even from the tropics, breed in this country pretty freely under confinement, with the exception of the plantigrades or bear family; whereas, carnivorous birds, with the rarest exceptions, hardly ever lay fertile eggs."

Darwin, Charles. "The Origin Of Species: Variation Under Domestication" The Free Library by Farlex. Accessed 4 Nov. 2010. <>

"Let us now take wage-labour. The average price of wage-labour is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the means of subsistence, which is absolutely requisite in bare existence as a labourer. What, therefore, the wage-labourer appropriates by means of his labour, merely suffices to prolong and reproduce a bare existence. We by no means intend to abolish this personal appropriation of the products of labour, an appropriation that is made for the maintenance and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no surplus wherewith to command the labour of others. All that we want to do away with, is the miserable character of this appropriation, under which the labourer lives merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it."

Marx, Karl. "The Communist Manifesto: Proletarians and Communists." The Free Library by Farlex. Accessed 4 Nov. 2010. <>

Annotated Bibliography

Laible, G., and D. N. Wells. "Recent advances and future options for New Zealand agriculture derived from animal cloning and transgenics." New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 50.2 (2007): 103-124. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 4 Nov. 2010.

This article explores the scientific and social complexities of the argument of animal cloning with respect to a particular set of cases involving agricultural-based cloning in New Zealand. The argument is based on economics, biological concerns, social and humanitarian concerns, etc, and findings are supported with evidential studies. I found the most useful the concept of cloning agricultural animals as an economic method in general, along with the question of biological viability of clones; mortality rates, mutations, abortion rates for non-viable clones in embryonic stages. The article is well-written with seemingly little bias.

Relates

This topic relates to my work because reproduction is so much a part of the evolutionary discussion. Reproduction symbolizes the "snapshot" in the process of genetic species evolution and is also a factor in the discussion of sexual selection and artificial selection. I am really interested in the findings of cloning and artificial genetic reproduction surpassing the scientific discovery stage and entering into the economic playing field. (Especially in areas pertaining to the agricultural food industry.) My existing work seeks to study causality of sexual selection and mutations resulting from tampering with the natural process. I am fascinated by the end product, displaying the grotesque limits of species evolution for the necessity of survival, and how this functions within a human world. Visually, I work with the concept of multiplication and reproduction of subject for similar reasons, and would like to expand that usage to examine cloning. (Especially because human cloning is a new topic for heated debate, placing the human life equal to that of agricultural livestock for the purposes of genetic modification) Also, the idea of human sexuality is examined in my existing work, with relation to bestial and ritual references across cultures.

Zoe Beloff (Lecture Response) 11/2/10

Quotation

"I am Albert Grass."

This quotation, for me, was the most important thing Beloff said about her work during this lecture. Before she revealed Grass' true identity was in fact equal to her own, Beloff was only just creating representations of a historic happening and well-known philosophies. Once she revealed the extent to her control over the "happening," Beloff's concept was demonstrated to me. Her work seeks to find the point at which actuality ends and theater begins. Through her residence within Albert Grass, who was an actual person, and control over his persona, Beloff successfully balanced on the tight rope separating reality and artifice. This fact was enhanced by the reveal at the end of the lecture, after feeding the audience "history" for over an hour.


3 Words

1) Philosophical
2) Embodied
3) Form follows function


About Beloff

An interesting thing I learned about Beloff that I didn't know prior to the lecture was the extent to which she "lives" through her work. I had read a few of the descriptions on her website of certain pieces and was aware of how much research she does into the concepts she references. However, only at the end of the lecture did she reveal how fully she is embodied in the work. The research she does into the concepts becomes evidence that functions as a continuity cloak within her work, preventing the viewer from questioning era, or any other facts. Even the type of media she uses becomes part of the research. Interestingly enough, Beloff does not even have to state one way or another where the research ends and the art begins because it is so seamless.


Answers to Questions

1) The first question I recorded before the lecture involved the role of the viewer in Beloff's work. As evidenced through the last piece she showed at the lecture, the viewer's function is to be drawn into an extremely seamless pseudo-fabrication and contemplate the referenced stories. She mentioned the conflicting viewpoints the Coney Island viewers had about the Freudian piece there last year, and made clear this work was meant to welcome open discussion of those stories it told. For a more academic viewing audience, I think, Beloff's work is meant to involve the viewer in the final "act" of the "performance": the reveal of the artifice. This final act is as much a part of the work as any existing portion, because it proves the functionality of the whole performance as an artistic tool used to inform the concept.

2) The second question I wrote before the lecture referenced the film medium in which Beloff often works, and particularly, the relevance of a time-based medium to the discussion of the "real" and the "imagined." Beloff answered this question in the beginning of the lecture when she discussed motion-picture analysis of 19th Century psych patients. The attempts to document patient's hysterical episodes was what interested Beloff in that it marked to her "the beginnings of cinema and narrative film." In this, she examines the line between a scientific hysterical moment, and acting, and the "relationships between scientific document and spectacle." Time-based media, especially the earliest forms used, is important because the idea of the "snapshot" was not yet conceivable, proving the existence of some amount of theatrics. Beloff used such media and performances to "show the concepts the way they would have been if cinema had started much earlier."


Compelling Piece

The most compelling piece Beloff lectured about was definitely DREAMLAND: The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and their Circle 1926-1972. The piece started off interesting based on extensive research connecting Coney Island to Freudian philosophy, and ended with a fully embodied work of art, whose performative nature is completely inter-related with the conceptual backbone. The line between actual and imagined is truly debatable in this piece.

Book based on the imagination of "Albert Grass"

Zoe Beloff (Lecture Questions) 11/1/10

Question 1

Some of your work is very interactive, such as "Beyond". Some is very performance based, such as the various "web serials." How important is the viewer to the work? Does most of your work involve collaboration from the viewer or other performers? What is the role of the viewer in the work and what implications does the concept have for them.


Question 2

Your work is time based and focuses on "recording mental states" and the line between "the real and the imagined". How does the time-based medium of film inform the conceptual aspects of the work? Is "time" important to discussions of "mediums" between living and dead or other concepts within the work, such as technological advances in society?

Misako Inaoka (Artist) 11/1/10

Work
Misako Inaoka Deer Family

Misako Inaoka Green-pin Bird, 2006 motion sensor, plastic, resin, foam, pins and paint
7" x 8" x 11"

Misako Inaoka Collage 4

Misako Inaoka Gemini, 2007 motion sensor, sound, artificial plants, toys, air bursh
4" x 5" x 3" each


Bio

Misako Inaoka is a Japanese artist, now working and residing in San Francisco, CA. She works in a range of media from drawing to installation and sculptures and her work references Darwinian theory and evolutionary causality. Her miniature sculptures of "invented" organisms combine the elements of artificial and natural contextually, through subject, and physically, through scale. Inaoka focuses on the miniature, she says, in hopes of "encouraging us all to stop and take a closer look at the world around us." (MisakoInaoka) Inaoka's work, being largely miniature and subject-focused, also adopts an element of kitsch and the relationship it shares within the discussion of artificial and natural. For example, Inaoka created mechanical bird-like sculptures, which visually function within a particularly kitsch atmosphere, and when approached, sometimes animate and emit sounds. The animation of these "objects" represents the artist adding the functionality of a "live" object, or one simulating something "live" in the natural world.


Relates

My work relates to Inaoka's conceptually and visually, in certain ways. My work is largely inspired by scientific and genetic causality and the relationship between natural and artificial, whether this be based genetically, or allegorically. Visually, Inaoka's work portrays subjects dismembered, however, strangely correct, enhancing the sense of confusion between what "is" and what "isn't." My work, as well, strives to isolate the balance of the distortion of an image and the implications of the distortion, representing an implied "truth". I am very interested in the visual functionality of Inaoka's work in relation to object fetishism and kitsch culture. I think this element could possibly be the softening element my work could use to prevent it from becoming too sterile or overly scientific. Maybe.


Quotations

"Still, she does all this with a certain lightness and humor, turning the animals from unfortunate science experiments into endearing and yet damaged creatures you want to take home and nurture. The fact that some are allowed to still move and sing only increases the fascination and humor inherent in these little oddities."

Warner, Tonya. "Misako Inaoka: The Origin Of Species." PercolatorMagazine.com Accessed 31 Oct. 2010. <>

"In Guided Growth, Misako Inaoka revamps Johansson Projects into a zoological garden run wild, existing in a strange parallel world that we are perhaps too familiar with. Inaoka's work echoes the alchemy of food processing by cross-breeding high art and toys, flirting with the familiarity of kitsch. Ceramic fawns with surveillance cameras for heads and a moose with ears-turned-bicycle-handlebars frolic in a wonderland impossibly sweet with an unsettling aftertaste. Inaoka's serious play addresses issues of cloning, bioengineering, alternative energy in pint-sized figurines suited for text books or toy chests."

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Johansson Projects. "Johansson Projects presents Guided Growth featuring Misako Inaoka" Rhizome: Announcements. Accessed 31 Oct 2010. <>

“To arouse notions of existence and coexistence, I construct environments that are rooted in the reality of vanishing species and mutating nature. Using minuscule sculptures and interactive site-specific installations created out of items such as mechanical birds, plastic plants and branches, forcing viewers to focus on small details and to take a closer look at their surroundings.”

Misako Inaoka. "Misako Inaoka Bio." The S & R Foundation. Accessed 31 Oct. 2010. <>

Interview

(Not very in-depth, but the only one available.)

http://sfist.com/2008/01/30/interview_misak.php


Gallery

Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA

http://johanssonprojects.com/default.htm


Website

http://www.misakoinaoka.com/

"Genetic Alteration/Engineering" (Idea) 10/28/10

Drosophila macromutations copyright David Roberts

Defined

genetic engineering:

n.

Scientific alteration of the structure of genetic material in a living organism. It involves the production and use of recombinant DNA and has been employed to create bacteria that synthesize insulin and other human proteins.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

---

Quotations

"The advance of genetic engineering makes it quite conceivable that we will begin to design our own evolutionary progress."

Isaac Asimov "Isaac Asimov: A Prophet for Our Time" Patduffyhutheon.com Accessed 10/27/10. <>

"In an age when the Earth was sturdy and indifferent to any damage that mankind with its small numbers and feeble power could do, refuge in fantasy-security was psychologically comfortable and could do little harm. Nowadays, such fantasies could kill us all ... we must all be very sure that, just as it is man alone who is destroying the world, so it is man alone -- alone -- who must save the world."²⁹

Isaac Asimov "Isaac Asimov: A Prophet for Our Time" Patduffyhutheon.com Accessed 10/27/10. <>

"Even minor tampering with nature is apt to bring serious consequences, as did the introduction of a single chemical (DDT). Genetic engineering is tampering on a monumental scale, and nature will surely exact a heavy toll for this trespass."

Eva Novotny (Astrophysicist) "Quotes from Members of ISP" Independent Science Panel.com accessed 10/27/10 <>

Annotated Bibliography

Dominic A., Edward. "Adaptations to sexual selection and sexual conflict: insights from experimental evolution and artificial selection." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365.1552 (2010): 2541-2548. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 28 Oct. 2010.

This is an article commenting on and studying the effects of experimentation on evolutionary gene modification. The premise is artificially altering the environment and experiences of fruit flies, in order to study the consequential change in behavior and eventual evolution.

"Alteration of the operational sex ratio of adult Drosophila over just a few tens of generations can lead to altered ejaculate allocation patterns and the evolution of resistance in females to the costly effects of elevated mating rates."

The findings substantiate hypotheses that isolating and altering certain experimental situations within a species can result in the mutation of the species on an evolutionary level.

"The types of studies described above have also been useful in testing the important prediction that elevated sexual conflict can lead to antagonistic coevolution (e.g. Parker 1979; Holland & Rice 1998), which in turn can promote reproductive isolation leading to speciation."

I found this article particularly helpful in my research into the possibilities of imposed evolution, especially in situations which such evolution can be observed and linked to a causal manipulation of the species. I am extremely interested in the implications such manipulation has, not only on the species wholly, but also sexually among male and female constituents. The findings here are substantiated with data and researched analysis.


Relates

The topic of genetic alteration/engineering has specific connections to my work, and my most recent work in particular. I have been studying the effects of artificial selection within the game industry and the genetic implications apparent in this discussion. I am very interested in the process of this work reflecting the concept of genetic alteration and circumstantial evolution. Researching this issue is extremely important to informing the process by which I photographically investigate this portion of the concept. Also, as seen in the above annotation, these issues have important resonance within the realm of species gender relations and sexuality, which is the second important channel of the work I am making. This particular post has helped me draw a much more direct connection between the two threads.
In the actual work, my process involves a controlled and uncontrolled method of isolating particular elements of a photograph's binary code and metamorphosing the image through continued manipulations. The result is a time-involved piece which portrays the degradation of the original photograph until the final mutations which render it, as well as the individual process, obsolete. Further research into the issue of genetic alteration, I am hoping, will lead me to specific genetic structures, which scientists have been able to isolate in similar experiments that symbolize the mutation of the species based on certain traits. This way, I can incorporate such findings into the process of the work I am creating.

Jason Houchen (Artist) 10/25/10

Work
Jason Houchen Hunters and Hunted 108"H x 48"W Woodburning

Jason Houchen Fallen Trees Spread No Seeds Woodburning 26"H x 24"W

Jason Houchen I Will Fight No More Forever Woodburning

Jason Houchen Adornment 22"H x 36"W Wood Burning on Maple, Cigar Bands, Carved Deer and Bird

Jason Houchen Hidden Evil 32"H x 22"W Wood burning, pigment, and cigar bands on wood

Jason Houchen Inferno Woodburning 35"H x 21"W


Bio

Jason Houchen is an American artist, raised and educated in the Midwest. He received his B.F.A. from the University of Missouri and his M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Houchen's midwest roots greatly influence his sculptures, woodburnings and paintings. In his woodburnings as well as wood carvings, Houchen often uses a variety of mixed media papers, usually cigar labels, to frame or pattern. His work makes clear references to human migration to the American West, however, steps beyond such clarity with allusions to disjointed history, mythology and spirituality, and is said to "provoke more questions than answers." (Houchen) Houchen refers to himself as an "urban folk artist" and his style is often representative of folk, surrealism and street art. His work is represented by galleries in New Orleans and Chicago, where he now lives.

Jason Houchen.com/bio. accessed 10/24/10

*I discovered this artist during a visit to the Antieau Gallery in New Orleans yesterday. His work is new and emerging, making it difficult to find a lot of information, however, his representation and upcoming exhibitions should hopefully help with publicity. (Art Basel this December)


Relates

I find my work relates to Houchen's in a few ways. Most obvious, to me, is a similar concept of migration and evolution being represented through use of relevant animal imagery as well as historical and mythical references. Houchen's work has the unique quality of representation of and within the context of the work, with its particular American Midwest and West conceptual and material backdrop. I am seeking to represent a more universal quality in my work, while alluding to similar issues and channeling certain definite and particular settings or contexts. I find similar connections to Houchen's work as those I made with Migrations by Doug Aitken, my first artist post. However, beyond references to human migration's effect on indigenous species and evolution, Houchen's visual portrayal is considerably relatable to my concept. He carves animal mounts from wood and then burns in images, referencing the same issues of trophy symbolism humans value as indicators to their discoveries and feats. His carvings take on a surreal, lifelike quality, supplying more meaning behind the symbolic head, which I seek to portray in my work as well. (However, the taxidermy I use as a material informs different aspects of my concept due to its actual past existence.)


Quotations

"In Falling Trees Spread No Seeds, the namesake piece of the exhibition, Houchen creates a woodburning on a carved moose head. The prized game bust, this icon of Americana, hangs on the wall of La luz de Jesus much like it would in a Midwestern hunting lodge, but Houchen exquisitely depicts notable world characters on its long neck, bringing the discussion up a few notches from hunting to matters of historical importance. Martin Luther King Junior appears next to Abraham Lincoln and alongside Gandhi and John F. Kennedy."

Gibson, Allison. "Jason Houchen" Daily Serving. 16 Dec. 2008. Accessed 24 Oct. 2010. <>

"Through his wood burnings, sculptures, mixed media and paintings he has developed a style that coalesce his Midwest influences with these newly found worlds. Described as being full of life and death, spirits and spirituality, history, as well as memories, his work provokes more questions than answers."

Jason Houchen.com/bio. Accessed 24 Oct. 2010 <>

Interview

Unfortunately, I found no interviews with this artist.


Gallery

http://antieaugallery.com/home.html


Website

http://www.jasonhouchen.com/