Reading Response 5

This article talks about the Scottish artist, Jenny Saville. She graduated from the Glasglow School of Art in 1992 and has since been one of the most complex figurative painters in the world. She was discovered when an art collector came across her graduation exhibition and instantly fell in love with her work. Her paintings usually have ambiguous subject matters, large scales, and mainly consist of nude women's bodies. Saville says that she likes to provoke discomfort, fascination, repulsion, and attraction, sometimes all within the same piece. She is very interested in the construction of genders and manipulation of the human body and is heavily influenced by feminist theory. One thing that she does that is considered a "contemporary subject" is the highlighting and celebration of larger, more unappreciated bodies. Bodies that are not usually recognized as beautiful in a modern society. What i found most interesting about Saville's work is that she not only displayed construction of the piece through her energetic brush strokes, but also would incorporate bodies, such as the one in her piece "Plan," that were marked up in a way in which a woman would be before having plastic surgery to enhance themselves. The countless ways in which one can manipulate and contort their body was what drove Saville to some of her most popular works. She also talks about how nowadays, there are so many different options one can select when describing their gender. It's like a spectrum from male to female and everything in between. Saville says that when she began creating these works, this concept hadn't arouse in society yet. One of my favorite ideas that she explains is how she thinks of "paint as liquid flesh." She came up with this idea when she was pregnant, a time when her body was massively changing and growing. She also tried to replicate that on her canvas. She tries to make art that sparks controversy and debate in viewers' heads and I think that is very admirable.

Inside Body

For my Inside/Outside body piece, I wanted to draw inspiration from the poses of traditional reclining nudes in a way that evokes a similar sense of grace and relaxation, but with a twist of irony in revealing the innards of the figure. In my research, I found many pieces with the theme of inside/outside body, but primarily with a sort of ethereal, magical sense to it. Though I found those types of images striking and beautiful, I wanted to take a different approach. In my image my main aim was to convey relaxation in the figure, as if whatever may be going on in the image is entirely normal to the subject. I wanted to remove the face of the subject in order to strip it of any identity or gender. Though the pose is feminine in nature, the subject is purposefully ambiguous so to allow any viewer to identify with the image. I chose to have the lungs and heart falling out of the figure’s chest cavity because to me, the sight of these particular organs brings me to the thought of motion as in the swelling of lungs through inhalation and exhalation, as well as the heart’s pulsing. I removed any other potential visible skeletal components so to bring the focus of the bone element to the exposed skull. In including the intestines, I aimed to evoke a visceral response from the viewer, and then to juxtapose this against the delicate collaged flowers. Overall, I hoped for the piece to show a slightly shocking version of something like Olympia, through the positioning of the figure. The close crop was to show the visceral nature of the organs, and allow the flowers to be a sprinkling of delicacy in a much different way from the slightly feminine nature of the figure. 

Reading 4 - Olivia Collins

Amelia Jones’ ‘The Body and Technology’ explain how artists explore the idea of the human body or mind in reference to technology. She says that even in performance art the body is almost used as a machine, something I have not heard in terms of this medium. It is an accurate way of wording it since the body will literally move for the piece. With the drastic change and advances in technology now, it dictates our experience of life and ourselves. 

The next article was written by Geoffrey Bratchen titled ‘Carnal Knowledge’. This article focuses more on the camera itself being the technology as it capture indexical moments of the body. He states that “photography allows an imagined exchange of touches between subject, photograph, and viewer.” Thinking of all these aspects as conversation is relevant to all mediums of art. There is always a dialogue between the artist, the subject of the piece and the viewer. 

Another one of the articles was written by Ken Gonzales-Day where he posed the question on whether Latino bodies are cyborg bodies. He makes this comparison due to the fact that “monsters” have always been defined by Western cultures. He references the Cyborg Manifesto where it proposes a world without gender. Gonzales-Day wonders if this idea could apply to race since Latios are referred “other race”. 

Project 4- Inside Out Collage- Olivia Collins

For the Inside out Drawing I wanted to have most of the figure in the piece. In doing this I was researching on photos that would have this element, but also have enough exposed skin to have a representation of the inside of the body. I came across an image of PJ Harvey taken by Anton Corbjin that had the things I was looking for to have in the drawing. Her pose had a vulnerable aspect but also a powerful feeling and I appreciated the contrast between these two. Since Anton Corbjin focuses his work on black and white photography I had to make the decision if I went with charcoal and ink or a colored media. I wanted to experiment with color temperature in shading the figure and I felt it was going to be more cohesive with the ripped magazine that was going to eventually be collaged. I wanted to keep with the traditional ripped magazine that I have been collaging with for years but also with a new element of paper cutting that I have not done before. This paper cutting technique is an art found in China and has been a form of around for centuries. I knew I was not going to be able to make an intricate cut out due to materials but I thought having an exposed part of the drawing through the magazine would be a good abstract way of showing the inside of the body. For the size of the piece, I did the same as last time where I taped two of the pieces together. I kept the background as negative space to show some of the little overlap of collage on the body. I also was not interested in the background of the reference photo in relation to the collage.

Project 4--Inside Out Body

While working on this project, I was very unsure of how I wanted to go about my execution. I began by researching artists who specifically focus on anatomical art. Through my research, I came across Danny Quirk and Trisha Thompson Adams. These two artists have done several studies that focus on the anatomical workings of the human body, but in very different ways. Danny Quirk is a recent graduate of Pratt University who grew up in Oregon. His main themes at the moment include both human anatomy and the military. His work on human anatomy is significantly different than other artists I've seen. Quirk's work really grabbed my attention because he uses the human body as his canvas. Rather than painting traditional anatomical paintings, he uses body paint to make it seem as if the inside of the models' bodies are exposed. The detail and accuracy that Quirk incorporates into his projects is amazing and it made me wonder why he would put all of this work into something so temporary. The only remains of his work are the pictures he takes of the models he works on. I think this is such a wild concept, especially because of how easily and quickly the work can be removed. Secondly, Trisha Thompson Adams is another artist who works closely with the anatomy of the human body. She lives in a bungalow in the middle of Oklahoma, which is why she is so inspired by relationship between humans and nature. What initially drew me to her work was that she incorporates nature into her work. This is what really inspired me for my own project. I decided that I wanted to incorporate flowers into my drawing. I decided, rather than just drawing the insides of the human body with nature, I wanted to show the outside and inside of the body simultaneously. I drew a face with pieces of the skin removed, with flowers and plans growing out of the inside. Rather than sticking to traditional anatomical accuracy, I thought replacing this with flowers would be much more interesting. I was really inspired by these two artists and tried to incorporate concepts from both of them into my work.

http://trishathompsonadams.com/

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS731US731&q=johnny+quirk+anatomy&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwim-fn37PflAhXUvp4KHRN7DJgQsAR6BAgHEAE&biw=1280&bih=650

Reading Response 4

In this article, it talks about how many visual artists express the different aspects of the human body and mind through their visions. All visual culture views the mind and body as a "complex machine" in which can be expressed through various different media. This usually explores the relationship between the body/mind and the industrial society.  After the industrial revolution, the culture of cybernetics and technology hit an all-time high, intriguing visual artists all over the world. Both Amelia Jones and Geoffrey Batchen compare how photography has become considered visual art, and what impact that had on society overall. The big reason they focused on is contiguity-- the condition of being in contact. This, meaning, you never (or hardly ever) actually see what the photographer saw in front of them because you were not there. Through the concept of contiguity, viewers of that photograph are able to conceptualize what they are looking at and therefore can get a realistic appearance of what the photographer saw. The article then goes on to explain how several artists, such as Cornelia Parker and Anne Ferran, incorporate contiguity through both photographs and digital media in their work. I also really enjoyed when they referenced the movie, "Cyborg Manifesto." I watched this film for a class about three years ago, and was immediately interested by it. The cyborg is said to have placed limitations on society, later on reflecting on the aspect of race. According to the Cyborg Theory, the limitations placed on society (the cyborg) was race. This then led to the discussion of the frequency of Latino bodies in art. They compare workers in a field in Mexico to Jennifer Lopez, a Latina woman who was on the top of the charts. Their appearances are different because there are countless numbers of gene combinations. The Cyborg Manifesto suggested a world without gender, but if that's the case, then are we trying to create a world without race? This posed a really interesting thought that I'm not quite sure how to answer. Some artists have been "defeated" by the unavoidable triumph of technology in developing societies. The idea of a cyborg suggests a combination of technology with the human body, and nowadays that is much more apparent through visual art.

Performance Art

Lilly Stene
Performance Art Project
I chose to depict a performance art done from 1983-1984 in a piece titled “Art/Life: One Year Performance 1983-1984 (Rope Piece)” by artist Tehching Hsieh. This performance was composed by Tehching Hsieh and his friend Linda Montano spending one year between July 4 1983 and July 4 1984 being tied to each other with an 8 foot long rope. They were required to remain in the same room as each other and not allowed to touch each other until the end of the one year period. They both shaved their hair in the beginning of the year, and their performance was witnessed by Pauline and Paul Grassfield. I chose to depict this performance piece because I felt that it showed a message of freedom, vulnerability, and determination to persevere even in uncomfortable situations.
I began this project by taping two pieces of drawing paper to meet the size requirements. When viewing the picture I was referring to I noticed that Montano and Hsieh were clearly different heights, so made sure to measure how many heads tall they were and mark them on the page separately. I then began to sketch out the basic proportions of Montano with graphite pencil. I had difficulty at first with finding the correct proportions of the width of her body, since she had a smaller head and broad shoulders with a skinny frame throughout the rest of her body. She was also wearing baggy clothes which made it more challenging to depict her correct proportions. After sketching out her general proportions I went back to add detail to the creases in her clothes, as well as value in her facial features. After, I began to sketch out the basic proportions of Hsieh, I began to add value to his clothing and facial features as well. I then added the rope that connects the two artists, and the gravel that they were standing on. I next went in with charcoal to start adding value to the background, but quickly realized that the contrast in intensity of tones between the charcoal and graphite didn’t look aesthetically pleasing. Instead, I decided to incorporate ink into my piece. I painted over the charcoal with black ink, then took a much smaller brush to begin adding value and outlining Montano and Hsieh. I accidentally painted over the rope when originally using ink, and did not have white acrylic paint. So I looked online and found inspiration of artists using white out as a medium in their pieces and was inspired to do the same. I used white out to go over where the rope was originally placed, and then cleaned up the edges with a tiny brush with black ink. For the ground, I wanted to add texture as it had appeared to be a gravel ground they were standing on in the original photo. I used the edges of a very wide and large paint brush that I used to paint the background, and stippled it across the page. I thought this added an abstract appeal and was glad that I chose to use this method instead of painting the ground a light grey.

Sources:
https://www.tehchinghsieh.com/artlife-oneyearperformance1983-1984

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-performance-artist-tied-woman-year/amp\

https://www.google.com/amp/s/culturacolectiva.com/art/tehching-hsieh-one-year-performance/amp

https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/tehching-hsieh-when-life-becomes-a-performance/

https://www.tehchinghsieh.com/biography

Images: