Btec Photography Blog 3: September 2012

As for our end product for our new assignment on abstract fear (phobias, anxieties and more) we are creating an installation. Our installation should include text, moving images (animated still images or video) and sound.

Installation art is a style of three dimension work that is created for a certain space or area to transform the sense of the space.
Installation art was first introduced in 1917 when Marcel Duchamp submitted a porcelain urinal which was signed R Mutt and named Fountain. He took it back to his studio rotated the urinal 90 degrees and signed it.

The fountain caused outrage with George Bellows who was one of the members of the society of independent artists as he thought it was indecent. The fountain was not allowed to be exhibited and was hidden behind a screen. Apart from the disruption it has caused Marcel Duchamp was very pleased with his work and had it photographed by Alfred Stieglitz. This photograph is the only one to exist of the original urinal as it is thought to have been thrown away as rubbish. The photograph was included in a magazine called 'The Blind Man'. The text that accompanied the image was a statement to modern art "Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view - created a new thought for that object." This is when the fountain became famous.

Ed Kienholz

Ed Kienholz constructs environments with figures. His first scene was called Roxy's and was influenced by a trip to a brothel when he was a teenager. The rooms he creates are human sized and props are added to the spaces such as calenders and magazine from his childhood years. He uses dolls boxes and skulls to interpret his image of the prostitutes. Ed Kienholz has a different idea for art as he uses objects that have been discarded to create his masterpiece rooms.

Ed Kienholz artwork was reflecting his views of American society, the troubling aspects in 1950's everyday life such as violence, racism, prostitution and lonely deaths which were generally not included in artwork. Ed wanted to create artwork that was more real than anything that had ever been created like other artists such as Kaprow and Rauschenberg. In 1958 Kaprow who was teaching at Rutgers University and an art historian had created his first environmental room made of cellophane, strips of fabric that were dangling from ceiling, lights and musical notes that were played at hour intervals. The shape of his room was a maze structure. Rauschenberg also created his first exhibition with collages and paintings that were wall mounted naming them 'combines'.

Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman experiments with lots of different materials for his artwork. In the category of art Bruce Nauman also experiments with photography, sculpting and printmaking. He has many installation works one of these is a video called Good Boy, Bad Boy which he made in 1985. The video consists of two people acting as newsreaders on two different screens reciting a commentary about the negative and positive aspects of being a human being for example love,death, childbirth, emotions and reproduction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VugLUa47sLI

Bruce Nauman originally wanted to show this commentary as a performance but he had never felt comfortable with performances so video was the best way forward for this. The videos are placed at head height so that they can look the at viewer directly. They are reciting the same 100 phrases at first with no emotion but then they become more emotional. As the individual tapes play they become out of sync creating a distorted sound. Bruce Nauman's artwork is meant to interact with the viewers for example he wants his artwork to have an effect on people whether it makes them uncomfortable, frightened or make them stop and think about his artwork. As well as video installations Bruce Nauman also uses neon lights as an important part of his work.

His neon works are very pleasing to look at because of the bright colours. The words and facial expressions he incorporates encourages viewers to interact with his work.

Bill Viola
Bill Viola creates very slow moving videos which resembles paintings. His installations are about life and death mainly because when he was younger he nearly drowned by falling out of a boat. He describes his near death experience as 'the most beautiful world he's ever seen in his life'. I think that is why most of his installations include water. Some examples of his work are the reflecting pool, ocean without a shore, the lovers, the raft and the crossing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHqhaH6m9pY

The crossing is about a man walking towards the camera then he stops and then water drips on his head but then more and more water comes cascading down to the point where he is not visible anymore. When the water stops pouring down the man has disappeared. In the video there are sound effects of water as well to add effects. Part of the video is water's opposite element - fire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20gS1l7kHFg&playnext=1&list=PL0CADEFC6909B287B&feature=results_main
This video is only short and is sideways. The video on fire is the same as the water cascade but the flames start at the man's feet and overpower him until he disappears behind the flames.

Another installation I like is called the lovers. The video is about a couple standing alone together and then a wave of water hits them but during the whole video they remain together hugging each other waiting for the wave to pass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfnqQmmttxE

Some websites used for help:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3671180/Duchamps-Fountain-The-practical-joke-that-launched-an-artistic-revolution.html#

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/K/kienholz.html

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/146915

http://russellhillresearch.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/bruce-nauman-good-boy-bad-boy-1985-ars.html

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/146915

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2004/oct/12/1

http://tjcalistro.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/bruce-nauman-jack-of-all-art-forms/

http://artelectronicmedia.com/artwork/the-crossing

To influence the next part of 6 images we went to an exhibition to look at some photographers work on the quirky side of Britain. One of the main photographers was Peter Dench.

These 2 photographs are taken from his album called SummerUK. Peter chose to photograph the summer in Britain as we don't really have a summer apart from a couple of days of sunshine, but when the sun does shine the Britons like to organise days out and make the most of it.

These two photographs are about the English weather. If I could describe the weather in one word it would be RAIN! Which is why Peter Dench named this category RainUK.

Peter Dench has added teenage pregnancy into his LoveUK category because in all of Western Europe the UK has the highest teenage birth rate.

These two pictures are from Peter Dench's DrinkUk section. Peter states how Britain has turned into a binge drinking nation and younger people now are getting intoxicated. I think these photographs sum up what happens when British people drink because fights do break out as the drink overpowers emotions. Also when some people drink they disrespect their surroundings so the picture of alcohol bottles on a gravestone is very upsetting to look at.

Overall I think Peter Dench is very brave for taking these photographs because they do represent the high's and low's of Britain very well.

Here are my inspired British Images:

1) Old fashioned telephone box