Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell’s lecture I must admit was one that has been most interesting thus far. Due to Mitchell’s use of humor that plays on the idea of the childhood imagination, this particular lecture enabled the audience to have a breath of fresh air from the typical contemporary art lectures expected each week.

Another reason for favoring Mitchell’s lecture and works so much is based on the close similarity of how I approach my latest project. Like Mitchell’s idea of the present moment, spontaneity, and cutting to the chase, I am trying to create something different that offers both the audience and myself a breath of fresh air, thus focusing on the idea of the plethora of the cat phenomenon that has grown online. Whilst discussing her works, Mitchell often notes on how the inspiration of her works are often random and spontaneous adventures that she wanted to experience for a period of time that seems to be impossible. For instance, Mitchell’s work ‘This is not a joke’ (2008) plays with the idea of how Looney Tune characters are often seen falling into random holes within cartoon. Mitchell recreates this scene (that would never happened in reality) by using a saw to cut a circle beneath her, which she eventually falls through. This idea of playing with the impossible being impossible is quite interesting and it allows me as the audience to reminisce about the situations that every child wanted to re-enact based on what they saw on cartoons where the impossible was possible through its fictional setting.

However, the only aspect that I would possibly change would be the way Mitchell had set up the lecture. Although it was a great that she did not read off a pre written script, her constant breaking after each sentence was very hard to follow. I would often find myself stopping and collecting what she said as her lecture did not provide a constant well-articulated flow.

Reference:

Kate Mitchell on Artabase. 2013. Kate Mitchell on Artabase. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artabase.net/artist/1181-kate-mitchell. [Accessed 30 March 2013].

Grant Stevens

Throughout the lecture, Stevens’ showcased a series of works, which predominantly focused on our use of words and language. Stevens explains the reason for predominantly using words for his works is based on the idea of how he believes imagery has become too powerful and straight forward in directing what the audience thinks and feels. Therefore, Stevens explores the effects of words and language by the removal of all imagery in this series of works.

During the lecture, Stevens introduces the work ‘Really Really’ and ‘Crushing’. Both these works I realized have deeply affected my understanding and feelings towards his work as they both seemed to be greatly unfavorable to my personal taste of art. Both works features Stevens’ feelings toward his then girlfriend, where he meets in Los Angles, which continues into a long distance relationship when he returns to Australia. Stevens uses words to conduct a series of sentences which sums up his feelings towards this girl. However, whilst viewing these artworks it did not challenge or question my understanding for this work, nor did it affect me deeply, but instead became quite offended as I could not believe that a piece that looked as if it was made by a hormonal adolescence was displayed in a museum.

Also, as Stevens’ were discussing these works, it was becoming evident to me that he may have contradicted his earlier point of how imagery has become too powerful. Yes it is understandable that the point of these works is for Stevens to highlight the lack of sincerity and authenticity in what we say in this generation due the excessive use of ‘Like’ and ‘LOL’. However, I felt as if Stevens work was becoming too powerful as it was clearly telling what the audience to think or feel. Imagery allows one to create their own interpretation, even with the presence of dialect, there is still space for the audience to make sense of. However, in Stevens’ work we are told what to feel, think, as well as making our own imagery of the scene as there are sentences to create a story present.

In my opinion, Stevens’ could have used the use of language and words in a different light. ‘In the Beyond (2008)’ is a good example of Stevens’ exploring the world of language and words as a series of text collected from people’s MySpace pages are rotating to highlight the profound and banal nature of what people used on the profiles. This use of rotating text allows the audience to make sense of the context themselves are there is no evident source of where these text were collected from. Whereas ‘Really Really’ and ‘Crushing’ has become to straightforward to the point where the audience does not feel challenged to make meaning of.

Reference:

Grant Stevens wins QANTAS Spirit of Youth Award for the Visual Arts | GBK. 2013. Grant Stevens wins QANTAS Spirit of Youth Award for the Visual Arts | GBK. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.gbk.com.au/news/2008/11/grant-stevens-wins-qantas-spirit-of-youth-award-for-the-visual-arts. [Accessed 25 March 2013].

Tranquility Falls, Art Month pop up exhibition | Grant Stevens | GBK. 2013.Tranquility Falls, Art Month pop up exhibition | Grant Stevens | GBK. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gbk.com.au/artists/grant-stevens. [Accessed 22 March 2013].

Tim Silver

*Unattended Lecture

Tim Silver, Untitled (bust) (Pine Timbermate Woodfiller), 2011. Is the artwork featured in the 2011’s ‘Everything in its right place’ Breenpace exhibition in Sydney which include a series of photographs of Silvers’ sculptural bust that are made from various types putties. In the interview with ‘Australian Art Collector’, Silver explains how this series of work is created to highlight the exaggeration of the aging process. As the busts are made with different types of putties such as Timbermate Wood Fillers, Selleys Wood Putty and Spakfilla, the busts are determined to decay and deconstruct overtime to emerge a new form. The exhibition is also accompanied by casts of tree burls that signify the physical manifestation of trauma as burls are trees that have been damaged resulting in wood grains growing against its natural source.

This exhibition overall I believe is a very beautiful show that inflicts an emotional feeling towards the idea of ephemera. However, a suggestion that I could possible offer would be Silver’s use of the space in the exhibition. Instead of presenting simply the photographs of the bust, why not feature the real sculpture? It is understandable that the piece is ephemeral and does decay and deconstruct over time. The use of photographs takes away from the audiences’ response to the work as photographs contradict the idea of the ephemeral moment as it captures a moment to allow it to last forever. If the piece was to sit in front of the audience, the idea of ephemera could be communicated rather more effectively as we could be able to physically see the deconstruction of the piece that would eventually become nothing. Thus, allowing the audience to have a better understanding and experience with the idea Silver is trying to communicate.

Reference:

Artist interview: Tim Silver - Australian Art Collector. 2013. Artist interview: Tim Silver - Australian Art Collector. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.artcollector.net.au/ArtistinterviewTimSilver. [Accessed 14 March 2013].

Todd McMillan

Todd McMillan was the first lecturer of the public lecture series. McMillan describes himself as a romantic, a term used to describe one that practices the idea of Romanticism – an artistic and Romantic Movement which originated during Europe in the 18^th century. Throughout the lecture, it was evident that McMillan was a well-practiced romantic through is constant reference towards a themes such as sadness and failure or rather a “melancholy and tragic comedy” (GrantPirrie).  

Prior to the lecture, the idea of failure has never been a theme that could possibly be translated into sound artwork.  This is due to the socially accepted notion that the end results of art is meant to be successful. A painter would always want to paint a perfect portrait to capture the person exact features, or rather a photographer who captures photographs with perfect light metering (Frost, A.).  Both these outcomes are evidently the success of artist. However McMillan seems to (in an ironic way) successfully capture the idea of failing in every piece of artwork, so far as to receive The Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship (2006) (Lanridge, C.). 

By The Sea (2004) was a piece by McMillan that also questioned my understanding of his work that could possibly be improved upon. During the lecture, McMillan had mentioned that he had previously attempted to create By The Sea, however was unsuccessful due to his lack of preparation. Later on when questioned about what he defined as a successful failure, McMillan replied by explaining how a successful failure would be the result of him trying his best. This statement somewhat contradicts the final result of By The Sea as McMillan decided to present the version of him successfully standing for a whole 12 hours by the sea instead of the version where he unfortunately fainted whilst performing his piece. Why was it that McMillan decided to publish the fail attempt of him swimming the English channel as inspired by Romantic Lord Byron but not for By The Sea? Although, it is understandable that McMillan is a romantic and the work did feature the characteristics of romanticism such as him being moved by nature, pondering the questions of life with no answers, and understanding the world, the idea of failing did not come across his lecture in relations to By The Sea as he explained.

Reference:

artwhatson.com.au :: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia - - albatross (production image). 2013. artwhatson.com.au :: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia - - albatross (production image). [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.artwhatson.com.au/mca/primavera-2012/albatross-production-image. [Accessed 25 March 2013].

Frost, Andrew., 2009. The Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Being a success is overrated – we should strive harder to fail well’. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/being-a-success-is-overrated--we-should-strive-harder-to-fail-well-20090721-drz0.html

Lanridge, Colin., February 2008. Luminal Catelogue – ‘Todd McMillan,’ Carnegie Gallery, Hobart City Council.

GrantPirrie, (n.d.). Last Accessed 10 March 2013, http://www.grantpirrie.com/artist.php?g=gallery1&a=7&e=67&s=1

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