COFA Gateway 2 2014

What do these artist have in common? All three of these artists are famous and rebels at their time. Kathe Kollwitz made art that could be reproduced and reprinted during the time Hitler was burning culture which included books and art. Andy Warhol created pop art artworks which changed the image of current traditional art. And Damien Hirst conceptualized ideas into his manufactured artworks and push the boundaries for Contemporary Art.

What they also have in common is that they made a lot of money from just selling their artworks. In order to make that money they chose methods of art that enabled them to mass produce art and especially for Warhol and Hirst they used assistants and manufactures to help produce their work.

These successful and famous artists push the boundaries of "One of a kind" art and yet still make money from it. Damien Hirst employs other people to make his artworks, and is the most successful artist of our time. So questioning if contemporary art today is made from the artist him/herself or is it created by the conceptual idea?.

And if it isn't art when an artist employs other people to create their art. What is brand names in fashion? Is it Chanel if it wasn't directly made by Chanel, of course we don't question it because it's apart of society today. So if an artist chooses methods of mass production will it be valuable or desirable and can they still make art after death?.

Kathe Kollwitz photo is from http://myphototeacher.com/bc/CurrentFunArt/Artists/Page3/Kathe%20Kollwitz/Self%20Portaits/SelfPort.html

Damien Hirst photo is from http://www.sydneycool.com.au/2012/06/damien-hirst-tate-modern-london/

Like a rebel, I tried to change the context in certain rooms in my house which I got in trouble by my mother for.

Experiment one, I placed the acrylic/oil painting from the image above inside my shower. It stayed there for half a day until my mother went to take a shower the next day and I got in trouble for.

Experiment two I placed a “No stealing food from this fridge” sign on my fridge at home hanged up with fridge magnets. Everyone in my household disobeyed this poster and when I asked my brother if he noticed it he said “what poster”. The poster failed.

Experiment 3 Infront of my house has a bus stop and I placed a paper with writing saying “Don’t go on the bus”. Left it there for 3 minutes and took it off because I didn’t want to graffiti and no one saw it.

In week 6, we looked at changing context of something into something else.

I choose to change the lyrics from a parody song 'You Love Sin What A Tragedy' The extremist Westboro Baptist Church made of Panic! At the Disco's 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies'. The parody song was about extremely homophobic so I changed it's intended purpose into something in today's context is starting to become acceptable.

The reason why I choose impulsiveness as a emotion, is because I am the type of person who always tries to define what they want to do before they do something. For example if someone dares me, I need to know what I'm being dared before I say yes or no. And if I was impulsive I think I would say what I felt like. In the relation to my body of work I explored with experiments of what I personally desire.

In the relation of art, do we desire art because of the artist, method and materials the artwork was made out of?. If it was something that everyone could buy why do we not desire it? because it is a common object, instead of Fine art. My experiments looked why you desire something and how the value relates to need of desire. I realized I'm different to other people so I know being impulsive as a person will not be what people will relate to.

One particular artwork which relates to desire is Damien Hirst's 'For the Love of God' (2007), the artwork is made of Platinum, diamonds and human skull. This artwork speaks of mortality and how we desire valuable jewels and money but when we do die we can not take these jewels with us. So it is a human thing to desire something such as art, but what if the art becomes commercialized? When 'Fine Art' is repeated in many different ways like my flowers and becomes too common, will it be of value or worthless? Just like how rebellion is repeated many different times?. No, even if the categorization of something is the same the way it is present will never be the same if it is remade in a different way, different material and different person.

Earlier this year student from Harvard Business School named Grace Choi created a color printer which she claims to make "make up" which she has made accessible for the public to purchase. Make up has always been a desire for people, in particular women so when a larger commercialization of products was introduced to public it was a threat to the billion of dollar make up companies. So if someone made a printer for acrylic or oil paint and could digitally create fine art from Leonardo Da Vinci or Monet, would those particular artworks be desired and worth a high value?

Further exploring with the emotion of impulsiveness with my voice, by recording short 30 second clips. I made sounds with my voice changing from a high pitch to a low pitch and sometimes making no sounds at all. It was interestingly unorganized and unrefined.

I made two videos before this picture, which didn't upload properly after 1 hour of waiting. All the videos related to the feeling of being impulsive and were of me drawing onto paper with marker pens.

Video one is of me drawing straight lines onto lined paper and slowly I made random broken lines in between the straight lines to make a randomized pattern.

After all the experimentation with drawing, painting, sculpture and photography, I established my strengths and weaknesses. From the range of categories, I realized I was most strong at drawing, digital and sculpture because it was most enjoyable and easier to maintain a quick and simple design and image for my work.

While experimenting with different methods of art, I also looked at looking at a art subject with a different perspective for example the biologist and artistic view of flowers. And also represented flowers in many different ways from impression and abstracting the subject.

Example of digital art.

Experimentation with painting.

Experimentation with paper and tissue paper craft sculptures. I started making abstracted flower paper crafts. I realised the way I made them, it created a twisted pattern which draws you into the middle.

These paper crafts remind me of Georgia O’Keeffe’s artwork ‘Abstraction White Rose’ (1927) displayed at the top. I love the way the paint pulls you into the canvas, it demonstrates how lines and colour can create an interesting and intriguing artwork.