Month: November 2015

Please remember to visit ONE research talk, a workshop, or an event at the Contemporary Islamic Art, Design, and Architecture conference held at ADM, CCA, and the National Design Center this week. Write a journal entry about what you saw and heard. Check out this web site for the schedule: http://www.ciada2015.com/index.html

Day 2 Lecture
Companionable Objects, Companionable Conscience: Ethical Pleasure, Islamic Art, and the Making of Happy Objects Kenneth George

Australian National University

The talk mostly centred on the works of Indonesian artist, A.D Pirous who does Islamic calligraphy in installations work and understanding the ideals guiding his works of art.

George highlighted an two points in the work of analysis that of aesthetic pleasure and then ethical pleasure as well, while the work is both pleasing to the eye, there is also greater meaning, an anticipation of being read in the calligraphy and then understood. A.D Pirous works then served as a time of reflection compared to merely seeing paintings as a unified whole.

George also mentioned the idea of happiness and how it sticks to an object with happy things carrying promises.

The work featured here is White Writing (1974). It’s a form of expressive calligraphy and interestingly, isn’t supposed to make sense, and becomes a form of unexpressed words but still, expressive in atmosphere, George commenting it to be an ambience of divine revelation.

It was abit certainly muddling to sit for the lecture and suddenly be bombarded with Islamic themed art, but I’ve certainly learnt more about the art scene there and also George himself had already highlighted the disparage between those who can read Islamic as compared to a legible pure image painting and how “reading is limiting in A.D Pirous’s work.”

What is a family portrait? What are some famous family portraits? How would you take a family portrait now?

A family portrait, to me, is … any rendition of.. a unit of people that lives together, be it a photograph, a painting or something even representational.. but by such nature, I think it be a fairly formal depiction, registering and confirming the idea of a family.

I thought a rather contemporary “famous” or rather viral portraits would be this article, comprising of people recreating photos of the past, which is heartwarming and hilarious, affirming, things change and sometimes, some things, don’t change.

http://www.boredpanda.com/before-after-childhood-photo-recreation/

Nowadays, cameras are pretty advanced and with the advert of photoshop, you can even insert yourself into a family portrait, even if you’re not there. These days, we would probably use the DSLR or a decent camera, to capture a portrait or to go even more casual, a group selfie with a phone camera could suffice. With the onset of better technology, its become apparent the level of formality and importance of these portraits diminish but certainly, still functions a moment, a time, a place along with the people.

How have artists made us think about labor? This past weekend, I saw this wonderful intervention by a dance company in Singapore in making us think about the migrant laborers in Singapore. They foregrounded the laborers by placing them on stage, by responding to their poems, and by inviting them to watch this celebration of their lives. Share with the class an image or a article that brings up this issue of labor.

Sam Chin’s photography of workers deemed “Super Heroes” of Singapore left quite an impression. It fun to see how the artist demands us to change the light of our perception through the framework and subject matter of the photograph. Certainly, artists shed insight and awareness and, appreciation of those laboring for our city’s development.

It reminds me of a recent news about a Singaporean house wife giving out fruit weekly, to workers in appreciation of their work.

http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/sporeans-give-back-foreign-workers

For me, I think it’s great there’s a level of appreciation and friendliness for these workers, who toil to do these work for us. It kind of still brings up the issue of slavery, and standard of living for these foreign workers.

Nevertheless, I hope our society can be kind to them, who already have to face hard labor daily.

How does Allan Sekula’s engagement with the sea, help us to think about trade in the 16th century? Link images or articles that you see relevant to this question or your reflections.

Allan Sekula’s Forgotten Space is a reflective critic of the world’s current trade and the unseen voyages, parcels, goods all boxed in steel. Despite the dreary modern visage of trade alluded the video, Sekula highlights an important point, that this business binds as together and its kind of ironic, the stranger “other” is a stranger being yet still my benefactor when goods are turned in.

Arrival of a Portuguese ship kind of reflects that tension, the people are all solely connected by the imports, and the scenery suggest only great interest centred around the goods, and not so on human interactions. Other namban screens, also depict the locals, curious but wary.

Which… links to the steel and desolation which Sekula mentions of order, efficiency and global progress, only leading to disorder and destruction? The wiki page of firearms in Japan, suggest the Portuguese were the first to bring gunpowder in the early 16th century.

However, at least trade was more interactive then, compared to the now global sterile approach(ebay, amazon comes to mind).

I wonder if ever in the future, will we regret the effects of capitalism, even though currently, it incurs positive benefits for the majority.