WEEK 5 - Pluralism and the Treat of Waitangi

Week 5 - Pluralism and the Treat of Waitangi

Pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi

In teaching week 5 you will discuss pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi in your tutorials.

Use this discussion, the notes in your ALVC book and the internet to respond to the following

questions;

1. Define the term 'pluralism' using APA referencing.

“A theory that there are more than one or more than two kinds of ultimate reality” (merriam-webster n.d.)

“A state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain and develop their traditional culture or special interest within the confines of a common civilization” (merriam-webster n.d.)
2. How would you describe New Zealand's current dominant culture?

While it is largely being occupied by both Maoris and Europeans, in my opinion, I believe that New Zealand is the only country that is successful in being culturally diverse, while this land was once dominated by its indigenous people the Maori, and later by the European settler who later colonized it, I believe that this country is one of the special few that accepts all forms of religion, and belief, not just European, or Maori, but Asians, pacific, Indonesia etc. Even if we are defined by such icons as the kiwi, black boots, all blacks, etc, these things themselves don’t represent one culture of either the Maoris, or European, they represent all. So in conclusion, I don’t think we have specific dominant culture (than just being New Zealand).
3. Before 1840, what was New Zealand's dominant culture?

The dominant culture that exist before 1840 were the Maoris, the indigenous people of New Zealand who originally settle here from the pacific before the British came and adapted themselves towards the Maori culture. They ultimately lose control when the treaty of Waitangi was signed.

4. How does the Treaty of Waitangi relate to us all as artists and designers working
in New Zealand?

After the Treaty was signed allot of Maoris lost their land due to European influences, causing their people to decrease during the later decade, but after that, the European began to realize their mistakes and gave back their land and help reignite their rich culture which was restricted during that time, this part was famous in New Zealand history as it help the people in accepting other cultures into their society, allowing artist to not just being inspired of Maori cultures, but other culture that exists as well. Without it, Maori would of course never lose their land, but it would also mean that they and their Europeans counterparts would have never learnt to accept others in the first place.

5. How can globalization be seen as having a negative effect on 'regional diversity' that leads to a 'homogenized world culture' in New Zealand in particular? (ALVC2 handbook page 52, http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/globalization)

This can be seen as having a negative effect, not just in New Zealand, but in all parts of the world. Known as cultural appropriation, this term refer is a theft of ideas from primitive culture by more dominant and modern culture, sometimes doing it without having a real understanding to it. These actions would stop not just Maoris but any indigenous or primitive culture from practice their customs, due to such theft, becoming more isolated from the world, which they would rather hide them, then let them get stolen by other.
6. Shane Cotton's paintings are said to examine the cultural landscape. Research Cotton's work 'Welcome'(2004) and 'Three quarter view ' (2005) to analyze what he is saying about colonialization and the Treaty of Waitangi.

Shane Cotton was an New Zealand artist who is heavily influence by the history of Maori and New Zealand culture, including the Treaty of Waitangi. Shane Cotton’s “Welcome” shows the image of both the head drawings of Jesus (who of course represent the European settlers) and a Maori, they are done in a proportional manner to help show their connection and common relation that they have in terms of cultural diversity. While the second artwork, called “ Three Quarter View” is a depiction of a European man named Barnet Burns, former sailor who was the first white man to have ever gained a full moko (Maori facial tattoo) when he decides to live among the Maori people before returning to Europe years later. The artwork depicts a copy of Burns face, which is strip back to leave only his moko intact, converting him from appearing as a European man with a Maori tattoo into a Maori man, without showing any hints of before. This work, including additional abstract design and color clearly not associated more with Maori culture help to represent more of the idea in cultural diversity and the effects of colonization in New Zealand.

 

'Welcome' (2004) Shane Cotton 

http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/work/52293/shane-cotton-welcome.aspx

  

'Three Quarter view'(2005) Shane Cotton

http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?IRN=149998 

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/shane-cotton-paintings-examine-cultural-landscape-126412

Barnet Burns

7. Tony Albert's installation 'Sorry' (2008) reflect the effects of colonization on the aboriginal people of Australia. Research the work and comment on what Albert is communicating through his work, and what he is referring to. Describe the materials that Albert uses on this installation and say what he hopes his work can achieve.

Tony Albert’s work “Sorry” is based on a apology made from 26^th Australian Prime Minster Kevin Rudd to the Aboriginal people. The idea of the work was trying to capture and reflect the great deal of emotion of the indigenous people, who had suffered of the many years by the British people who colonized the lands. The work is made up of framed pictures and trinkets displaying the people of the aboriginal, along with the apology. And what he hopes to achieve though his work obviously is to make people understand the mistake that they have done to the people, the after math of their actions, and to help the people give
8. Define the term 'kitsch'.

Based on the German word meaning “Rubbish” it is something that appeal to low taste and of poor quality. And in terms of art, it is a form that is considered inferior and tasteless version of an art of recognized value.
9. Explain how the work of both artists relates to pluralism.

They both related due to both their acceptance of respective cultures. Since pluralism is about having two or more things exist in the same space or reality, both work focuses on the ideas of cultural differences and how each of the cultures relates to each other in their respective pieces, relating back to the acceptance and value of everything.

                                       Tony Albert | Australia b.1981 | Girramay people | Sorry 2008 |

                                               Found kitsch objects applied  to vinyl letters | 99 objects :    

                                               200 x 510 x 10cm (installed) | The James C Sourris Collection.

                                               Purchased 2008 with funds from James C Sourris through the 

                                               Queensland Art Gallery Foundation | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pluralism

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kitsch

http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/kitsch.htm

http://www.realartroadshow.co.nz/essays/Cotton%20Shane_Kenesis-Kotahi%20Ki%20Kotahi.pdf

http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=149998

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/curios-of-the-contemporary/story-e6frg8n6-1111119151528

http://www.slideshare.net/diversityforum2011/living-in-new-zealand-in-your-culture-poverty-and-cultural-privilege

WEEK 4 - Kehinde Wiley and inter-textuality

Week 4 - Kehinde Wiley and inter-textuality

Kehinde Wiley

1. Untitled (2009)

Van Dyck 'Prince Thomas'

2. Untitled(2009)

3. Kehinde Wiley Count Potocki, 2008 oil on canvas, 274.3 x 274.3cm

4. Kehinde Wiley Support Army and Look after People, 2007 oil on canvas, 258.4 x 227.3cm

Kehinde Wiley is a Gay American based painter born in Los Angeles, who has an international reputation. Wiley lives and practices between Beijing and Brooklyn.

This weeks ALVC class focuses on the Postmodern theme "INTERTEXTUALITY", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 44 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley. 

1. Find a clear definition of Intertextuality and quote it accurately on your blog using the APA referencing system. Use your own words to explain the definition more thoroughly. 

“The concept of Intertextuality reminds us that each text exists in relation to others.” (Chandler 2003)

“The complex interrelationship between a text and other texts taken as basic to the creation or interpretation of the text” (merriam-webster n.d.)

In my own personal perspective, this term refers to a complex relationship between two or more previews concept or idea which is used as a basis in a creation of a new concept or idea. What this tells us is that nothing that is made is original, and that everything is build on something else, one way or another, throughout every work, even works that are considered to be new and original of their time e.g. Stars Wars, Avatar, Pulp Fiction, etc, are just based on other ideas that are either not as popular as their later ideas, or that their perspective media were so different that no one could make that connection.
2. Research Wiley's work and write a paragraph that analyzes how we might make sense of his work. Identify intertextuality in Wiley's work. 

Kehinde Wiley is famous due to his naturalistic heroic portraits paintings of young African-American men in contemporary culture, mostly of young American street youths of New York wearing clothes and expression that relate to black culture. His work shows clear depiction of intertexuality, due to his adaptation of “heroic poses” that is a clear reference to classical European/ renaissance portrait art of the 16^th to 17^th century. Using famous scenes of other historical portraits such as Napoleon, he used these “structures” to depict the value and pride of the black community, in contradiction to the violence and poverty that are usually common to the life of African American. He also uses the adaptation of renaissance art, ones that are commonly associated with depicting those who have greater power and wealth, and use those to also depict the strength and wealth of the African American people. This influence of classical European art in his own style is what supports the notion of intertextuailty in his work.  

3. Wiley's work relates to next weeks Postmodern theme "PLURALISM" . Read page 51 and discuss how the work relates to this theme.

A term used as the main characteristic of post modern and universally defines as two or more s kinds that exist in once space or reality at the same time, pluralism in a society is an acceptance of different culture and form within the confines of common civilization. His work relates to this theme as it expresses Wiley’s ideas of ethnicity and cultural diversity, including all people regardless of race, sex religion, etc. So having these young African-Americans depicted in these heroic pose typical to upper class white males challenges the viewer, in terms of breaking these social boundaries.

4. Comment on how Wiley's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview. 

Wiley’s artwork is shown to challenge the western society of the dominant white culture. Using his artistic skills to adapt the style of the Classic renaissance period, and reinventing them in the presence of African American, he is breaking the boundaries of classes based on cultural ethnicity, most obviously in terms of white and black American, and just switch their roles, to help show the equality between these cultures, and questioning these ideas on today’s society, contradicting past laws and accepting more of his ideas.
5. Add some reflective comments of your own, which may add more information that
you have read during your research.

Personally I enjoyed watching this artwork, I find them to be very interesting in terms of how he approached his work, in terms of making them very detailed, showing great skill, as well as for the use of bright colours and patterns, in contrast to traditional paintings. What I also admire about his work is how clever his was of mixing these ideas together, combining the subjects to help communicate his ideas.

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem09.html
http://www.deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=11

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/kehinde-wiley/#_
http://www.kehindewiley.com.html

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intertextuality

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pluralism

WEEK 3 - Hussein Chalayan and Post-Modern Fashion

Week 3- Hussein Chalayan and Post-Modern Fashion

Hussein Chalayan

Chalayan is an artist and designer, working in film, dress and installation art. Research Chalayan’s work, and then consider these questions in some thoughtful reflective writing.

1. Chalayan’s works in clothing, like Afterwords (2000) and Burka (1996) , are often challenging to both the viewer and the wearer. What are your personal responses to these works? Are Afterwordsand Burka fashion, or are they art? What is the difference?

Not all clothing is fashion, so what makes fashion fashion? (Research some definitions  for these terms.)

For me personally, I believe that Hussein’s work closely resembles more in terms of the genre of post modern design. Similar to the arts previewed from the last blog, one of the artworks (called Burka-1996) shows this idea as it helps gives the viewer a shocking idea in terms of what we normally see, challenging the viewers ideas in the world’s popular perspective of its culture (for that being of Muslim tradition for woman, who would cover their entire body, particularly the face to avoid being seem from strangers) as well as the plural idea that came along with it, not truly making sense in a way and therefore mixing the contrast between the culture and its time difference as well as breaking from its original tradition to from this new hybrid form of high and low class. This is also seen in its other work, called the Afterwords, which also shows the idea of post modern based on texture and time, where the “metal skirt” gives a more ancient and traditional look in contrast to the rest of the contemporary modern look, creating a big contrast related to post modernism.

In terms of separating art from fashion, I found it quite difficult in some way of separating the two works, believing them both to be considered as art and fashion, as the fact that fashion is mostly considered being part of art. But in the end, I choose them to be more of art.  the difference that can be found in both the dictionaries as well as from my personal perspective, Art (being mainly focused in terms of visual arts that focus more on drawing, painting and sculpturing) is any class of subject and/or thing that focus mainly on the anesthetic features, and used to express either an emotion or ideas, while fashion, most commonly known for the style of any clothing worn is either a once conventional usage, or in the current status in society, is also related to a phase “the make or form of anything”. So this is why I consider them difficult to contrast.

I guess that for fashion to be fashion in terms of contemporary society, I believe that they are the ones that can obviously be worn, but worn in a way that is more in terms of style, where it is more related to its use, better than the look and idea behind it.  

Hussein Chalayan, Burka (1996) (99

6

                                                                 Hussein Chalayan, Afterwords, 2000

2. Chalayan has strong links to industry. Pieces like The Level Tunnel (2006) and Repose (2006) are made in collaboration with, and paid for by, commercial business; in these cases, a vodka company and a crystal manufacturer. How does this impact on the nature of Chalayan’s work? Does the meaning of art change when it is used to sell products? Is it still art?

As explained in the first question, while art is mainly consider a visual representation, that are commonly associated with drawing, painting and sculpture, It is accurately if not quite recently considered ‘Anything’ that is used to express or convey a form of idea and/or emotional state. It is limitless and could be anything whether they are symbolic, ritual, behavior, and of the kinds of media they used such as music, poetry, etc. I believe that Chalayan’s work is still art. But how I believe these commercial businesses

 Impact on the nature of his work is how the audience now receives them to be. Due to his strong connection to the industry, instead of the companies using his work, Chalayan is instead using them to show his work. He uses the companies as a form of visual communication used to help gain a mass media attention to his work, making them famous and popular. Even though they would be more associated with the product then the artist, Chalayan would have still achieve his goal of showing his ideas to the world, as he once said during a interview “My work is about ideas. If I had to define my philosophy in just a few words, it would be about an exploration, a journey, and storytelling”. So therefore, it is why I believe they are still considered art.

3. Chalayan’s film Absent Presence screened at the 2005 Venice Biennale. It features the process of caring for worn clothes, and retrieving and analysing the traces of the wearer, in the form of DNA. This work has been influenced by many different art movements; can you think of some, and in what ways they might have inspired Chalayan’s approach?

For the Film Absent Presence, the several different art movements which could have influences and inspired the movie by Chalayan, were the ideas of humanism, shown through the uses of processing the worn clothes by using DNA, as well as the story being based on “identity, geography, genetics, biology and anthropology” (“Hussein Chalayan,” 2011). But the main art movements which could have mainly influence the idea of the film were the Enlightenment, and the industrialization, both due  to the use of science and technology that make up the concept of the story, as well as how it could remind us of how our clothes were being made through the use of machine, as well as its concept that despite what me make would not last very long, we still leave a bit of ourselves in them (in this case, our DNA), which could have been how and why he as so inspired with this approach. 

by m

Hussein Chalayan, still from Absent Presence, 2005 (motion picture)

4. Many of Chalayan’s pieces are physically designed and constructed by someone else; for example, sculptor Lone Sigurdsson made some works from Chalayan’s Echoform (1999) andBefore Minus Now (2000) fashion ranges. In fashion design this is standard practice, but in art it remains unexpected. Work by artists such as Jackson Pollock hold their value in the fact that he personally made the painting. Contrastingly, Andy Warhol’s pop art was largely produced in a New York collective called The Factory, and many of his silk-screened works were produced by assistants. Contemporarily, Damien Hirst doesn’t personally build his vitrines or preserve the sharks himself. So when and why is it important that the artist personally made the piece?

I don’t think that it is very important of whether or not the artist personally made the piece, although having them make it would both have them work being understood more by the artist and that it help audience to sometimes identify the work due to the approach in style, the most important thing I believe show be shown is the idea. Having someone physically design a particular or complete aspect of the work is like using a tool, you are using their ability or what they good at to create your idea so it is instantly their property and that is why they would get all or most of the credit. In fact, most of ideas uses other people to help make it into reality, rather they be thoughts who mass produces them or ones that design them personally as much as the artist. So even if someone makes most of the hard work without their ideas and their direction that shape the work to where it is, most works would have never existed.

http://art100.wikispaces.com/Hussein+Chalayan

http://arttattler.com/designhusseinchalayan.html

http://designmuseum.org/design/hussein-chalayan
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fashion?s=t
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/art

http://dilsahdesigndiary.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/review-on-hussein-chalayan.html 

http://www.husseinchalayan.com/#/home/
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/chalayan.html