March 2017

There were 3 posts published in March 2017 (this is page 1 of 1).

4D II Project 3: Time, Space and Body – Part 1

Start of the last 4D II project is venturing into unknown fields wew. Admittedly, I am not completely foreign to the concept of installation art, video art, or performance art, as the A’level syllabus has managed to give me some knowledge about them.

To bring forward themes from precious projects, some themes I would be interested in developing would probably be, sexuality, the body and identity. Here are the artist researches that might be relevant to the upcoming project.

  1. MARINA ABRAMOVIC

I know Wen Lei has covered her in class but genuinely and honestly, she’s my idol. I love her works. She is a Yugoslavia born performance artist. Her performance surround themes of pushing the body to extremes, the interaction between the artist and audience. Rhythm 10 is actually my favourite piece of her work, but since it has been cover, I’ll cover another one of my favourites.

Marina Abramović and ULAY. Imponderabilia. 1977/2010
Performance. Reperformed continuously in shifts throughout this exhibition for a total of over 700 hours.
Courtesy Marina Abramović and Sean Kelly Gallery

In this work, Marina and her partner Ulay stood opposite each other, stark naked at an entrance to an exhibition in a way that people entering the exhibition had to squeeze through them, unable to avoid physical contact, and had to choose who to face. This particular work is about confronting the idea of the audience actively participating in the performance space, and being made aware of the human touch and their own bodies through the need to come into contact with a stranger. I think this work is relevant to my research, as the exploration of nudity, human contact, and the body is something I am interested in.

 

2. VITO ACCONCI

An American designer, landscape architect, and installation and performance artist. This artist I’m interested in particular one of his works called “Seedbed”. I though it was brilliant as it was a hidden performance art and more of sound art. The extremely disturbing and voyeuristic nature of the work is also rather amazing.

Vito Acconci. Seedbed. 1972
Medium: Super 8 film transferred to video (color, silent)
Duration: 10 min.
Credit: Gift of the Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf and Committee on Media Funds

View the work here: https://archive.org/details/ubu-acconci_seedbed

In this work, the viewers entered a room with an empty ramp and unknown to them, Acconci himself is lying underneath the ramp masturbating. He would do this intermittently, while he was doing this he would speak out about his sexual fantasies, based on the movement of the visitor’s above. The tension between public and private was overwhelming.

Found on the Museum of Modern Art Website:

“The following text, which documents and transcribes Seedbed, was published in Avalanche magazine in 1972:

. . . I’m doing this with you now . . . you’re in front of me . . . you’re turning around . . . I’m moving toward you . . . leaning toward you . . .

Under the ramp: I’m moving from point to point, covering the floor . . . (I was thinking in terms of producing seed, leaving seed throughout the underground area).

I’m turned to myself: turned onto myself: constant contact with my body (rub my body in order to rub it away, rub something away from it, leave that and move on): masturbating: I have to continue all day—cover the floor with sperm, seed the floor.

Through the viewers: because of the viewers: I can hear their footsteps, they’re walking on top of me, to the side of me—I’m catching up with them—I’m focusing on one of them: I can form an image of you, dream about you, work on you.

. . . you’re on my left . . . you’re moving away but I’m pushing my body against you, into the corner . . . you’re bending your head down, over me . . . I’m pressing my eyes into your hair . . .I can go on as I think of you, you can reinforce my excitement, serve as my medium (the seed planted on the floor is a joint result of my presence and yours). You can listen to me; I want you to stay here; you can walk around me; walk past me; come back; sit here; lie close to me; walk with me again.

Reasons to move away from a space: there’s no need to stay—I’ve left something there, outside, that used to be here, inside—I’ve left something there that can grow, develop, on its own.

Reasons to move: I can move with an easy mind—what’s left behind is safe, in storage.”

This artist would be useful in my research as sexuality was a strong theme in my previous works and I would like to explore this theme again.

3. MONA HATOUM

Hatoum is a Lebanese born Palestinian installation and video artist. But the work I’ll be speaking about would be “Homebound” an installation art piece arguably sound art as well.

Mona Hatoum. Homebound, 2000

Kitchen utensils, furniture, electrical wire, light bulbs, dimmer unit, amplifier and two speakers
, dimensions variable

 Courtesy Rennie Collection, Vancouver 
© Mona Hatoum
“Mona Hatoum” at Tate Modern, London

“Homebound” is a piece of work consisting of pieces of homely furniture laid out across the room. Wires are placed intertwining the entire work, with live electricity current running through them. The buzzing sound of the live current with occasional crackle and pop as different objects light up disturbs the quietness of the gallery, making it rather unsettling. I like this piece of work, as the tension between the familiar “home furniture” and foreign and dangerous “electricity” current leaves an interesting feeling in the viewer.

I this this work is relevant to my research as tension is one of the methods to immerse the audience in an installation art or performance piece, and I think Hatoum did so really well in her work.

 

References:
http://www.newmedia-art.org/cgi-bin/show-oeu.asp?ID=ML002604&lg=GBR
https://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/190/1974
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/109933?locale=en
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/266876
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/03/mona-hatoum-review-tate-modern-electrified

4D II Project 2: Soundscape

ARTIST STATEMENT

The clip is supposed to represent a metaphorical death, death of a person’s senses. My soundtrack is not narrative based but more of an emotional transition. The first part has indiscrete chattering, coffee-making machinery, and laughter. These represent the daily emotive way of living. However, along the way, the emotive sounds turned more and more odd and rather disconcerting. This is followed by a form of destruction, a shattering of one’s beliefs, a snap in the persona’s head, and the persona is plunged into a state of emptiness. There is a struggle to fight against the waves, but the persona eventually gives in to the calm stillness of the water.

 

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT/ RESEARCH/ CHALLENGES

I developed the concept purely based on interest. I was more interested in trying to create sounds that conveyed a certain idea rather than ambient sounds. However, I needed to create sounds that had emotions. So I started recording some of the places I go to, and some conversations I had, my laughter, to evoke the sound of happiness. Then, I proceeded to record generator sounds for an empty alienating effect, and dunked the recorder into the pool to create underwater sounds. These were the sounds I felt represented a lack of emotion.

Throughout the entire clip, there was a consistent rhythm of my breathing, initially extremely calm and slow, after the plunge, became faster as the persona struggles to hold on to life. Finally, the persona gave up and embraced the silence.

An artist that has inspired me would probably be AquaSonic, a band that produces underwater music. Check out their music video:

The main challenge I had for this project is that I couldn’t imagine the soundscape in my head, unlike being able to visualise a design before completing it. Therefore, even when I had the concept, I had trouble trying to create a clip for the concept. I also had trouble manipulating the different clips as I was unfamiliar with the program used.

Another thing is how I love music and use it as both inspiration and an outlet of emotions, but we cannot use music to represent our emotions, which is one of the hardest thing I was faced with.

To conclude, I think I tried my best to create the soundtrack for such a concept. I had fun doing this project and I look forward to the last one.

Credit for royalty free music:https://www.freesound.org/people/13FPanska_Cerny_Jan/sounds/379008/
https://www.freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/344265/

2DII Project 2: Singapore’s Chinese Garden (Final)

After doing site-research and exploration, I decided to focus on elements that made a garden a Chinese one for my infographic. It was something I found extremely interesting as I could distinctively identify Chinese Garden apart from Singapore’s many other garden’s and park regardless of them sharing similar objects.

In my class presentation, I started off by giving a brief timeline of Chinese Garden.

And the various landmarks of Chinese Garden. Some of which I have mentioned in the previous blog post.

Next, my infographic:

My infographic is a dissection of the four elements of Chinese Garden observed in Singapore Chinese Garden. This piece of dissection is then presented as a piece of “China” brought and pasted into Singapore, represented by the red and white MRT and HDB blocks surrounding the dissection.

A closer view of the dissection. I split the explanation into four elements: Architecture; Plants, Flowers and Trees; Rock Decoration; Water Element.

For the architecture, I decided to illustrate the building design I saw in the Bonsai Garden of Singapore’s Chinese Garden. Similarly for the Bonsai Plants. For the illustration of the rock element though, I illustrated it using one of the many rock table and chair sets I saw throughout the entire garden, which I found really interesting. Lastly, the water element, modelled after a pond of Koi fishes I saw in one of the Pavilions.

Final thoughts, challenges, and reflection:

For this infographic, I faced challenges of colour scheme and visualisation. My initial visualisation was just mainly the dissection zoomed in the presented. However, to make it more Singapore site specific, as it was too generic, it would be better to place it within Singapore landscape. I struggled a lot in trying to visualise how to do so. I also struggled to incorporate the information into the illustration. I think if given a chance to redo this project, I would have changed the style of illustration, and not do such colouring, as it does not reflect as well as a bigger picture.

To move on from here, I’m looking forward to the zine project next, and hope to develop my graphics and style while presenting the Singapore Chinese Garden in a creative way.