Humanity’s self-image was redefined in the modern era not by art but by the mass medium of photography. Take for example the photograph from the American Civil War reproduced here (click image left). Previously artists had mythologized war as heroic due to the fact that their patrons were the ones who waged the wars. But the photographs of carnage during the American Civil War (1861-65) represent one of the first occasions when the general population could begin to see war and human behaviour from a much more pragmatic and demythologised perspective.
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It appears that the two principal forces keeping sculpture alive today are: firstly, the art market which always needs new objects to sell; and, secondly, the art education system which is largely unable to provide students with skills in the newer media that are more able to critically communicate in the culture in which we live. It was the sculptor Carl Andre who said why produce new objects when there are already too many, but if you can turn them into gold, and it doesn’t really matter what they look like, then why complain? (more…)
David Maljkovic’s video Lost Memories from These Days, 2006-2008 (6min loop)—exhibited in the KW Institute at the 5th Berlin Biennial, 2008—is quite a remarkable deconstruction of advertising spectacle. Like most quality art it is simple in conception. Instead of prostrating themselves in a state of orgasmic rapture on the cars in this particular advertisement-like mise-en-scene, the female models appear to be bored to death. (more…)
Kijong Zin’s piece at Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves — On Air, 2006 – is demented in the best possible sense of the word. It is a masterpiece of absurdism. At first sight it is not especially prepossessing, simply consist of three television monitors depicting what appear to be slightly weird versions of American television such as CNN and the Discovery Channel. The wonder of the work begins when one notices a little door to the side of the monitors. (more…)
The artist group AES+F (made up of Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich, Evgeny Svyatsky + Vladimir Fridkes) showed their three-screen CGI film Last Riot 2005-07 (VIDEO CLIP) in the Russian Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale. (more…)
Hannah Starkey’s work destablises the association of photography with realism evident in the genres of photo-journalism and social realism which are such key players in the sphere of photography. One of the keystones of classic photography as opposed the discourse of fine art is the claim to being an imprint of the real. The concept of capturing the moment this fundamental to so-called “straight photography”. Starkey’s work is of interest because it appears to be straight photography but isn’t. When we look at Starkey’s works we appear to be looking at moments captured from everyday life, in particular the everyday life of women. In fact Starkey’s photographs are constructed, the people we are looking at are actors. (more…)
Aernout Mik’s videos are resolutely anti-narrative, they are tableaux vivant, mises-en-scène that deliberately dispense with any sense of narrative progression or reward for narrative expectation. They operate in the interstice between still photography and film; they are, essentially, still photographs that move. His work is partially comparable to instances of ‘still-moving’ video art such as Sam Taylor Wood’s video portrait of the British celebrity footballer David Beckham filmed when he was asleep in a hotel room.[1] (more…)
Humanity’s self-image was redefined in the modern era not by art but by the mass medium of photography. Take for example the photograph from the American Civil War reproduced here (click image left). Previously artists had mythologized war as heroic due to the fact that their patrons were the ones who waged the wars. But the photographs of carnage during the American Civil War (1861-65) represent one of the first occasions when the general population could begin to see war and human behaviour from a much more pragmatic and demythologised perspective.
