Julika Rudelius (Response) 10/5/10

Quotation

"They are all my creations."

This quote was used to answer a line of questioning relating to Rudelius' position of control in her working projects. The audience at the end of the lecture, was very concerned about Rudelius' role as the artist and director of the work she termed, "representations of truth." When asked if she controlled the dialogue in her videos, she confirmed and related this discussion about reality and script to issues of authenticity throughout film. "The unguided truth doesn't exist," she said in relation to documentary. I believe this concern of the audience for validation of truth in her work is exactly the reaction Rudelius hopes for with her videos.

3 Words

1) Truth
2) Control
3) Generalizations

About Rudelius

The most interesting thing I learned about Rudelius that I did not know before is about her background in documentary photography and its role in the development of her art practice. Her disenchantment with documentary is clearly evident through her work, which I was having a hard time connecting before the lecture. The content as well as the way it is presented in her final piece references the uncertainty of authenticity she must have experienced as a documentary photographer and filmmaker.

Answers to Questions

1) My first question to Rudelius addressed the format she uses frequently involving a double projection of two subjects simultaneously with dialogue rotating between the two. I wondered if this technique was meant to reinforce the sense of generalization and cataloging I got from pieces I saw of her work before the lecture. During the lecture, she confirmed this in answer form. In her search for "truths" she catalogs her subjects into groups in backgrounds stripped of clutter, reducing the subjects to their very generalized groups and environments. Rudelius mentioned that she was "not so much interested that it is about especially one person," and the techniques she employs to create these groupings, such as the double projection, reflect this.

2) The second question from below dealt with commonalities between the different pieces, or different groups Rudelius references in her work. I think I was questioning whether it was important at all which specific group she filmed. The answer is that this work seems to be to a large extent a direct reaction to situational anxieties she experienced personally. For example, the Moroccan men who mugged Rudelius in Amsterdam subconsciously planted a racist seed in her, which she dealt with by examining the culture of this demographic through film. I was also questioning below whether the work was meant to be didactic in any way and I gathered from the lecture it is. Rudelius wants the viewer to think about the "truth" behind the subjects and channel their own experiences when approaching her work, so they can interact co dependently with the work.

Compelling Piece

After hearing Rudelius discuss Rites of Passage, I find it is extremely compelling. I think this piece in particular rides the line of uncertainty as to the artist's control. It seems as though she is documenting conversations nobody would normally see anyway, so a reference point to understanding this type of situation does not yet exist, at least to me. The relationships between the subjects in this piece don't seem controlled by the outside artist in a weird way, because they are obviously not quite right. However, this was the only piece I was really left wondering about. Do these closed-door conversations mimic this piece in actuality? What elements of this work does in fact represent a reality? If I included mental reality in this question, would the answer include more of the work?

Beth Campbell (Questions) 10/4/10

Question 1

Campbell's installations and sculptures seem to be interactive on two levels: to herself as the artist, and also to the viewer. Her close attention to detail (mirror image installations) is noteworthy in both discussions. One article written by Jerry Saltz about her work described "its form is ordinary while the amount of self-observation that goes into every work is incredible, if not slightly scary." (Saltz) My first question for Campbell is how she sees her own work functioning. Is the work more of a tool for self expression, or more guided towards interactivity within the viewer's space, or both equally?

Saltz, Jerry. "Repeat Performance" The Village Voice. 8 Oct. 2002. Accessed 10/4/10

Question 2

Campbell's wire sculptures seem to serve a dual function as well. On the one hand, they reference a conflict between form and material, (such delicate sculptures created out of dark, heavy, metal wire.) On the other hand, they seem to internalize a scientific thought process, visually referencing flow chart diagrams. My second question for Campbell is whether these two functions I noticed, have a common message for the viewer. How does the material used, the way it is displayed lend itself to the shapes she made?

Julika Rudelius (Questions) 10/4/10

Question 1

Using the two projections seems to be an ongoing theme in Rudelius' work, which really interests me because it creates sort of a panel type discussion with the different subjects, who actually are not speaking together. My question is is this method of exhibition supposed to even more so generalize the subjects in their respective cultural hegemony? I focused on Forever for this question. Is the double projection a tool to give strength in numbers to these women at their pools, in order to group them into an almost zoo-like category of people?




Question 2

Rudelius' work deals with cultural or societal phenomenon spanning a very wide range of situations. (Teenage boys, older rich women, businessmen, etc.) My second question addresses the overall theme of these pieces. Is there an overarching sense of understanding Rudelius achieves through making this work? Is this work meant to be didactic to any extent? Are there any common sociological threads or clues one piece can lend the next, or the previous? For example, has studying sociology in this particular way lent itself to a better understanding of effective methodologies for continuing the work based on what works best when dealing with all sorts of subjects?

Marian Drew (Artist) 10/3/10

Work
Marian Drew Wallaby and Tarpaulin archival pigment on hahnemule cotton paper 112cm x 134 cm 2006
Marian Drew Pelican on Paper and Linen archival pigment on hahnemule cotton paper 70cm x 90cm 2005
Marian Drew Tasmanian Rosella with Apple archival pigment on hahnemule cotton paper 90cm x 110cm 2006
Marian Drew Crow with Salt archival pigment on hahnemule cotton paper 112 cm x 134cm 2006
Marian Drew Wombat and Watermelon archival pigment on hahnemule cotton paper 112cm x 134cm 2005
Marian Drew Marsupial with Protea archival pigment on hahnemule cotton paper 112cm x 134cm 2005
Marian Drew Bandicoot with Quince archival pigment on hahnemule cotton paper 70cm x 90cm 2005



Bio

Marian Drew is an Australian photographer and video artist, born 1960, educated post graduate at Kassel University, Experimental Photography, Germany. Her experiences in Germany shaped the vision for her work, mimicking Dutch still-life paintings of wild animal offerings. Drew parallels the art historical reference in content, as well as in practice. She creates still life tableau out of the local Brisbane fauna which fell to the consequences of societal and economic advance. Drew relates this effect on the wildlife of Australia by the social sprawl to concepts she derived from the Dutch still life paintings, saying, "the wealthy landowners in Renaissance Europe believed that the abundance of nature was for their human consumption." (Drew) For Drew to achieve the painterly quality she does in her work, she exposes her subjects onto film in a dark studio for fifteen minutes, an almost ritualistic practice, before she buries the dead wildlife in her large backyard.
Marian Drew has exhibited in solo and group shows in many countries worldwide, and her work is placed in many institutions in Australia, such as, The National Gallery of Australia and The Queensland Art Gallery.

"Marian Drew: Biography" Dianne Tanzer Gallery and Projects. Accessed 10/3/10

Relates

My work relates to Drew's, for one, in its references to death, and the symbolism within it. In my work, I explore the culture and reasoning behind the practice of taxidermy, which I find merely a more conscious display of answers in the same line of questioning used by Drew to come to her photographic conclusion. The reasons for hunting are boundless, however, trophy hunting, to me, displays the existence of human and animal life colliding in terms of relative boundaries, and the trophies resulting as an exaltation of a successful encounter, a display of dominance physically, mentally, evolutionarily, and even sexually. Boiling it down, taxidermy results from a more generalized socioeconomic sprawl than roadkill and Drew's subjects symbolize death in a way similar to my subjects. In both settings, the once alive subject, in a way, represents the placement of humans in the hierarchy as well as the need for that current placement to expand and include more power.
My work relates to Drew's also, in that I too am interested in incorporating historical references in my work which further the concept. I am very interested in the mythical and folklore references to bestiality and how it plays into the discussion of modern inter-species relationships, like hunting and stuffing.


Quotations

"Marian Drew's art practice in photography, video drawing and sculpture explores the connection of domestic activity to cultural identity and the relationship to place through an acknowledgement of history and the physical engagement with landscape."

"Associate Professor: Marian Drew" Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Accessed 10/3/10.

"By imitating the historic painted forms of 'Still Life' but replacing paint with photographic verisimilitude, and familiar European animals with Australian native species, a discord is exposed. The work aims to overlay the historical and the present, the European with the antipodean, and photography with painting, while exploring contemporary notions of death and a changing relationship with animals."

"Marian Drew: Biography" Dianne Tanzer Gallery and Projects. Accessed 10/3/10

Interview
(Art World Magazine)

http://www.emotionadvertising.com.au/artworldmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=72%3Aissue-4-uk&id=46%3Amarian-drew&itemid=37

Also,
Here is a video of Drew working on some large-scale photograms.

Galleries

http://www.diannetanzergallery.net.au/artist.php?name=Marian%20Drew

http://www.hillsmithgallery.com.au/gallery/gal_01.html


Website

www.mariandrew.com

"Dissect" Idea 9/29/10

Defined

dis·sect (d-skt, d-, dskt)tr.v. dis·sect·ed, dis·sect·ing, dis·sects

1. To cut apart or separate (tissue), especially for anatomical study.

2. To examine, analyze, or criticize in minute detail.

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.
"dissect." The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Accessed 9/29/10.

Quotations

"The more I consider this mighty tail, the more do I deplore my inability to express it. At times there are gestures in it, which, though they would well grace the hand of man, remain wholly inexplicable. In an extensive herd, so remarkable, occasionally, are these mystic gestures, that I have heard hunters who have declared them akin to Free-Mason signs and symbols; that the whale, indeed, by these methods intelligently conversed with the world. Nor are there wanting other motions of the whale in his general body, full of strangeness, and unaccountable to his most experienced assailant. Dissect him how I may, then, I but go skin deep; I know him not, and never will."

Melville, Herman. "Moby Dick: The Tail" 1851. Free Library by Farlex. Accessed 9/29/10 <>

Herman Melville Moby Dick 1851

"Open up a few corpses: you will dissipate at once the darkness that observation alone could not dissipate."

— Marie Francois Xavier Bichat

Anatomie générale appliquée à la physiologie à la médecine (1801), avant-propos, xic.
"Dissection Quotes" Today in Science History. Accessed 9/29/10 <>

"Human sciences dissect everything to comprehend it, and kill everything to examine it."

Tolstoy, Leo. "War and Peace" 1869. Free Library by Farlex. Accessed 9/29/10 <>

Annotated Bibliography

De Villiers, Rian, and Martin Monk. "The first cut is the deepest: reflections on the state of animal dissection in biology education." Journal of Curriculum Studies 37.5 (2005): 583-600. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 30 Sept. 2010.

In this essay, De Villiers examines the issues of animal dissection in education and explains, in a neutral way, both sides of the argument surrounding the practice. He points at rapidly evolving societies as catalysts to the argument for alternative methods of scientific education, using South Africa as an example. De Villiers targets the country's turbulent societal history and rapid modern democratic steps to explain the increased opinions on "many of the old assumptions about what should be taught, to whom, at what stage, and how..." In South Africa issues of scientific dissection "have been under sharper scrutiny than in other countries where change has been a less radical." I think taking the argument out of the purely ethical realm and applying it as a consequence of social dynamic is a very interesting one. De Villiers begins to question the democracy allowed for animals, in a dimension not solely devoted to ethics and cruelty. He is almost beginning to propose anthropomorphism in social structure and within a civil rights dimension.
In another section of De Villiers' essay, he contrasts the ethical dilemma of animal dissection to an argument of evolutionary consequence.
"The justification of the ethics is transcendent rather than personal. God supplies the wrongness. However, somewhat surprisingly, a justification may also call upon biology itself for its arguments. Burkett (2000) asked the following important questions: Do humans, as a species, have a ‘right’ to dominion over animals? Do humans, as a species, have a superior place in the biosphere? If so, does that superior position grant a privilege to kill animals for learning activities? The post-Darwinian biologist is driven by an evolutionary perspective to respond to these questions with the answer of ‘No’. Ethical opposition to dissection can make for strange bedfellows."
I find this argument fascinating as well as it pertains to dissection and its resulting upset in natural evolution. Humans exhibiting this "dominion" in this sense is unnatural due to its lack of basic instinctual necessities. Opponents to dissection argue for alternative scientific discovery through photographs, interactive learning, etc, which also poses the issue authenticity because the experience is no longer that of a "natural" dissection.


Relates

This topic relates to my work in a variety of ways, the most obvious of which, is the visual imagery. I have been working with dissecting images to form sequential redefinitions, or disfigured forms. The idea of dissection involves my work on a conceptual basis as well, as I am creating a moments of inter-species awareness and transcendent discovery without boundaries normally drawn around such discoveries, but in place of new ones, such as negative photographic space. Dissection is, by definition, used to study. Whether it be studying a literal specimen, or scrutinizing an issue, dissection involves disassembling in order to enhance understanding in some way. In an abstract way, which is not by any means meant to be didactic, I am striving for this sense of "understanding" or heightened instinctual awareness, with the subjects as well as viewers, via the dissections I make in my work

Mark Ryden (Artist) 9/26/10

Work
(From Snow Yak Show 2008)
Mark Ryden Heaven Oil on Canvas 16"x20" 2008

Mark Ryden Yak Dream Graphite on Paper 9 1/4"x 12 1/4" 2008

Mark Ryden Abominable Oil on Canvas 20"x16" 2008

Mark Ryden Long Yak Oil on Canvas 12"x30" 2008

Mark Ryden Fur Girl Oil on Canvas 30"x20" 2008


Bio

Mark Ryden is an American painter, born in Medford, Oregon and educated at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where he received his BFA. He now works out of Los Angeles and has exhibited worldwide. He is known as "the persuasive representative" of the modern lowbrow art world, due to the kitschy and culturally recognized symbols constantly reappearing in his work. "The contemporary-art world seems to be successfully gobbling up Street art. I can readily imagine kitsch being on the menu—with Mark Ryden right at the top." (Haden-Guest) Ryden's massive, almost cult-like following spans from average viewers to icons, such as Michael Jackson and Steven King. Ryden's paintings often portray reoccurring images, such as "wide-eyed, Victorian children, Abraham Lincoln, and grade-A beef," which harmoniously link the gap between "lowbrow culture and highbrow surrealism." (Haden-Guest)
Ryden tends to leave his work fairly open-ended, inasmuch I sense from multiple interviews I read, allowing for extensive viewer interpretation. "The most powerful meanings in art come from another source outside an artist's own literal consciousness. " (Ryden) There are many issues in which Ryden is overtly involving his work, such as portraying meat as a symbol of unquestionable physical presence and existence. His work also obviously references object culture and "toy art." I have been focusing on Ryden's recent series, "The Snow Yak Show," which he exhibited in Tokyo in 2009. These ethereal paintings place similar Victorian girl-women in scenes displaying their interactions with snow yak. These paintings speak, to me, to a sense of surreal inter-species connectedness on a dreamlike level.

Haden-Guest, Anthony. "The King of Old-Time Kitsch" The Daily Beast, Art Beast. 29 Apr. 2010. Accessed 26 Sept. 2010.

Relates

I mentioned above that Ryden's work leaves room for interpretation by intention. My interpretation of the Snow Yak series is not supported by any secondary source, and in fact, locating any legitimate critique or review of the show was not easy. This series relates to my previous work, and work I am planning, in its references to surrealism and bestial cues. I have been studying bestial themes in history and literature, especially fairy tales, such as Beauty and the Beast. Ryden's Snow Yak series, to me, portray the darker, dreamier equivalent to this pseudo-archetype in folklore. I would like to work with models more adaptable to this timeless, folklore imagery perhaps, to create more of a narrative in my work with taxidermy.


Quotations

"His dewy vixens, cuddly plush pets, alchemical symbols, religious emblems, primordial landscapes and slabs of meat challenge his audience not necessarily with their own oddity but with the introduction of their soothing cultural familiarity into unsettling circumstances. "

"Biography" Mark Ryden, Bio. Accessed 26 Sept. 2010.

"Viewers are initially drawn in by the comforting beauty of Ryden’s pop-culture references, then challenged by their circumstances, and finally transported to the artist’s final intent – a world where creatures speak from a place of childlike honesty about the state of mankind and our relationships with ourselves, each other and our past."

"Biography" Mark Ryden, Bio. Accessed 26 Sept. 2010.

*These quotes both address what I find relate-able about Ryden's work to my own intentions with my work. I am essentially taking commonplace objects and inserting them into a recontextualized situation as well, in a way I hope will make the viewer pause and re-examine.


Interview

http://www.markryden.com/press/highfructose/index.html


Gallery

http://www.kohngallery.com/artists.html


Artist's Site

http://www.markryden.com/

"Bestiality" Idea 9/22/10

Michelangelo Leda and the Swan 16th Century

Defined

bes·ti·al·i·ty (bĕsˌchē-ălˈĭ-tē, bēsˌ-)

noun pl. bestialities bes·ti·al·i·ties

1. The quality or condition of being an animal or like an animal.
2. Conduct or an action marked by depravity or brutality.
3. Sexual relations between a human and an animal.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

("bestiality." Dictionary Definitions. LoveToKnow, n.d. Web. 18 September 2010. .)

Quotations

"The ancient Egyptians worshiped Gods with animal shapes almost exclusively in the pre-dynastic period before about 3000 BC (Douglas 1992). Animal–human sexual contacts are occasionally portrayed on the tombs (Bullough 1976), and bestiality was recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphics as far back as 3000 BC (Ramsis 1969). Several kings and queens had a reputation
of engaging in bestiality (Rosenfeld 1967; Rosenberger 1968), most famous was Cleopatra, who was said to have had a box filled with bees which she had placed against her genitals for stimulation, similar to a vibrator (Love 1992)."

Miletski, Hani. "A history of bestiality." Anthrozoos (2005): 1-22. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.

"Beast: The Beast is the animal bridegroom, an animal with human abilities, grotesque in appearance. He is usually wise and kind as a result from his suffering but in de Villeneuve's version he is required by the enchantment to appear stupid. He can only win Beauty with gentle stupidity, more like a dumb pet dog. In Disney's version, the Beast is a beast in personality, too. He is quick to anger and has a hard time controlling his temper. Beauty and the Beast's relationship is much more volatile in the film than it is in the traditional versions of the tale in which the Beast woos with courtly manners."

Heiner, Heidi Anne. "Annotations for Beauty and the Beast" SurLaLune Fairy Tales. Accessed 22 Sept. 2010.

Walter Crane Beauty and the Beast 1874

Annotated Bibliography

Morgentaler, Goldie. "The Beast Within: Animals as Lovers in Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads." 145-161. 2007. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.

This essay by Goldie Morgentaler is a very well researched and simultaneously probing investigation into the occurrence of bestiality within literature (folk ballads), and more specifically, in Francis James Child's "canonical" The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. "Drawing on both folklore studies and literary analysis, this essay contends that the figure of the animal paramour in the Child ballads represents, in objectified form, the inherent animality and duality of human nature. Ballads featuring sexual relations between humans and anthropomorphic animals address the complex human interaction with the natural world." Morgentaler is constantly questioning the existence of the human soul within the animal, visa versa, as well as historical reasons for this intertwining of species in popular folklore. The passages she wrote about life and death; hunter and prey, I found to be especially helpful, as these sections clearly reference my work and my subconscious instinct to research the topic of bestiality in the first place. Usually, I have an idea of where I want to end up with these idea posts, but this time it found me, as evidenced by Morgentaler's essay. Below are the passages.

"Clearly both animal and human at the same time, the doe's dual identity, like that of the other animal paramours in the ballads, implies the humanity of the animal world and the animality of the human one, with distinctions between the two collapsed into one entity. Symbolically, the doe stands as a median not only between animal and human nature, but also between such other opposing poles as birth and death, hunter and prey."

"The beauty of the deer, as well as its inherent vulnerability, highlights the paradox of the love-hunt in which the intended prey is also the beloved."

These passages will help to inform my work by prodding a folklore source for researching human relationships with animals in my images. I found Morgentaler's essay to be very compelling and unbiased.

Relates

The topic of bestiality informs my work rather than directing it. Bestiality is vaguely referenced in my images through my investigation of human sexuality and its convergence with different species' sexual selection processes. My posts on sexual selection explain the human attraction to animals displaying naturally desirable mating traits to female individuals within the same species. This human acknowledgment and participation within the other species' mating process, whether it be evolutionarily detrimental consciously, is extremely compelling on a subconscious level. What is being hunted? What does it mean to "notice" the sexually desirable traits of other species' and care enough to hunt it down and covet it? Is taxidermy still just for show; for a simple ego boost? Or are these looming stuffed creatures symbols of something subconsciously bestial--symbols of dominance, submission, or sexuality surpassing the boundaries of exclusive species. I would like to allow this topic to more noticeably guide my investigation and work.

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