Appropriation is a fundamental aspect in the history of the arts (literary, visual, musical). Appropriation can be understood as "the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work" Strategies include "re-vision, re-evaluation, variation, version, interpretation, imitation, approximation, supplement, increment, improvisation, prequel...pastiche, paraphrase parody, mimicry, homage, shan-zhai, echo, allusion, intertextuality and karaoke". The term appropriation refers to the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work. This involves ideas, symbols, artifacts, image, sound, objects, forms or styles from other cultures, from art history, from popular culture or other aspects of man made visual or non visual culture. Inherent in our understanding of appropriation is the concept that the new work recontextualizes whatever it borrows to create the new work. In most cases the original 'thing' remains accessible as the original, without change.
To appropriate is to take possession of something. Appropriation artists are copying images to take in their own possession. They are not stealing or plagiarizing. They are not passing off this work as their own as some want the viewer to recognise it, and hope that the viewer will bring their own associations which the artists bring with their new context. The deliberate borrowing of an image for this new context is called 'Recontextualization'. For example Andy Warhol's 'Campbell's Soup' can series (1961). These images are appropriated as he copied the original labels exactly, but filled the picture plain with it's iconic appearance, which looks like portraits of a soup can. The brand is the image's identity. Warhol isolated the image of these products to simualte product recognition (just like in advertising) and stir up associations with the idea of Campbell's Soup. He also tapped into a whole bunch of other associations such as; consumerism, commercialism, big business, fast food, middle class values and food representing love. Warhols use of popular imagery became a part of the pop art movement.
Sherry Levine's 'After Walker Evans'(1981) - is a photograph of a Walker Evans photograph. She is challenging the concept of ownership: If she photographed the photograph, whose photograph was it, really ? And she is addressing the predominance of male artists in the textbook version of art history. Kathleen Gilje appropriates masterpieces in order to comment on original content and propose another. In 'Bacchus, Restored' (1992), she appropriated Carvaggio's 'Bacchus' (CA 1505) and added open condoms to the festive offerings of wines and fruit on the table. Painted when AIDS had taken the lives of so many artists, the artist commented on unprotected sex as the new forbidden fruit. Other well known artists who have explored appropriation are Richard Price, Jeff Koons, Louise Lawler, Gehrard Rithter, Yasumasa Morimura and Hiroshi Sugimoto. Marcel Duchamp - is credited with introducing the concept of readymade, in which 'industrially produced utilitarian objects achieve the status of art merely through the process of selection and presentation.'
Thursday
Tiny plastic figures
Artists such as Vincent bousserez, Slinkachu and Willy Rojas use tiny plastic figures carrying out day to day activities photographed. Everything is the wrong way round, not to scale, replacing real life sized people. Each photo becomes poetic and humoristic screenplay. The work itself is outside of the art gallery but captured to produce photography to display in an gallery space. It is as if the work itself, is primary source because it is actually their in the outside environment where as the gallery only can convey secondary source photographic evidence of the work existing. The figures are placed in ordinary everyday situations outside gallery but does this mean that the art is less recognised? Or do the photos degrade the piece of work?
Vincent Bousserez
Slinkachu
Slinkachu- Whats interesting about his photography is that some of the photographs are close ups of the figures, while others are a step back revealing the small scale compared to the real size objects surrounding. Some of the photos captured are in focus while the background is blurred out. Then when you see the photos revealing the background it is only then when you realise how small they are and how they could easily be obscured.
Willy Rojas
Rojas now works and lives in Barcelona where he specializes in very accessible photography; colourful, bright and humouristic. Little miniature figures, posing in the world of fruit 'n veg . For a moment you're actually convinced that there's probably nothing more there. Just an optimistic scenery that provokes a smile. Pleasing to the eye for a moment and then it's gone. Rojas has a skilled eye for composition and definitely knows how to show it through his photograph. His pictures bizarrely capture little things in life without trying too hard, as if it's his way of showing what he's thinking and how his mind works. This a playful response using a necessity like food to demonstrate everyday activities performed by the plastic figures. The food is almost 'played with', contaminated and tampered by small figures. An aspect of life which is portrayed as great importance is used as a 'prop' for his photography, taking away the function of food itself. Rojas defies the normality as he places foreign objects in the food, almost breaking the rules by manipulation. As children, we are told not to mess with our food and eat it all up, for an adult to perform childish behaviour like this is contrary to what is expected. In his photography, Rojas conveys a sense rebellion; as if because it is his own food, he can choose what he wants to do with it. It could be said that he feels that he can step over the boundaries due to his form of status reaching adulthood. Food has its own value and status, its there for our survival, having this privilege and taking advantage by wasting it is not something you would use for art if you was less fortunate.
Vincent Bousserez
Slinkachu
Slinkachu- Whats interesting about his photography is that some of the photographs are close ups of the figures, while others are a step back revealing the small scale compared to the real size objects surrounding. Some of the photos captured are in focus while the background is blurred out. Then when you see the photos revealing the background it is only then when you realise how small they are and how they could easily be obscured.
Willy Rojas
Rojas now works and lives in Barcelona where he specializes in very accessible photography; colourful, bright and humouristic. Little miniature figures, posing in the world of fruit 'n veg . For a moment you're actually convinced that there's probably nothing more there. Just an optimistic scenery that provokes a smile. Pleasing to the eye for a moment and then it's gone. Rojas has a skilled eye for composition and definitely knows how to show it through his photograph. His pictures bizarrely capture little things in life without trying too hard, as if it's his way of showing what he's thinking and how his mind works. This a playful response using a necessity like food to demonstrate everyday activities performed by the plastic figures. The food is almost 'played with', contaminated and tampered by small figures. An aspect of life which is portrayed as great importance is used as a 'prop' for his photography, taking away the function of food itself. Rojas defies the normality as he places foreign objects in the food, almost breaking the rules by manipulation. As children, we are told not to mess with our food and eat it all up, for an adult to perform childish behaviour like this is contrary to what is expected. In his photography, Rojas conveys a sense rebellion; as if because it is his own food, he can choose what he wants to do with it. It could be said that he feels that he can step over the boundaries due to his form of status reaching adulthood. Food has its own value and status, its there for our survival, having this privilege and taking advantage by wasting it is not something you would use for art if you was less fortunate.
Robert Smithson-collective writing
Robert Smithson collective writing- cultural confinement takes place when curator imposes his own limits on an art exhibition, rather than asking an artist to set his limits. Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories, some artists imagine they're got a hold on this apparatus, which in fact has got a hold of them.
Seeing Art gallery as a space of restrictions, where the artist ends up supporting a cultural prison 'museums, like asylums and jails, have wards and cells - in other words, neutral rooms called 'galleries'. When a piece art is an art gallery it looses life and becomes a dead piece which is disengaged from the outside world.Works of art seen in such spaces seem to be going through a kind of aesthetic convalescence. They are looked upon so many inanimate invalids, waiting for critics to pronounce them curable or incurable. The function of the warden-curator is to separate art from the rest of society.
The gallery gives the art piece a certain status and value is distinguished from where the art is placed, for example; art gallery.I think this relates to societies status and class difference - Capitalism. When art is placed in an art gallery it has automatically achieved status, where as if art is placed outside of the gallery space; does it have less value and status?
Art shows that have beginnings and ends are confined by unnecessary modes of representation both 'abstract and realistic' limits of the neutral room. There is no freedom in that kind of behavioural game playing. Confined process is no process at all. It would be better to disclose the confinement rather than make illusions of freedom.'I am for an art that takes into account the direct of the elements as they exist from day to day apart from representation. The darks that surround some museums isolate art into objects of formal delectation. Objects in Park suggest static response rather than any ongoing dialectic. Parks are finished landscapes for finished art. A park carries the values of the final, the absolute and the sacred. Parks are idealisation of nature, but nature in fact is not a condition of the ideal. Nature does not proceed in a straight line it is rather a sprawling development. NATURE IS NEVER FINISHED.
A park is seen as almost a sculpture and structure displayed in natural environment which is public, everyday is different and brings new liveliness. Emphasising that nature is ongoing and never finished.
When a finished work of 20th century sculpture is placed in an 18th century garden, it is absorbed by the ideal representation of the past, thus reinforcing political and social values that are no longer with us. Many parks and gardens are re-creations of lost paradise or Eden, and not the dialectical sites of the present. Parks and gardens are pictorial in their origin-land-scape's created with natural materials rather than paint. Apart from the ideal gardens of the past, and their modern counter parts-national and large urban parks-there are the more infernal regions -slag heaps, strip mines and polluted rivers. Because of the great tendency towards idealism, both pure and abstract society is confused as to what to do with such places. Nobody wants to go on a vacation to a garbage dump.
Smithson is particularly interested in alternative work spaces. He compared art galleries to rubbish dumps or garbage yards. When this collective writing was written it wasn't commonly known that pollution was damaging the environment. Now that the world is finding new ways to ensure we prevent harming the natural environment e.g recycling.
'Could it be certain art exhibitions have become metaphysical junk yards ? Categorical miasmas ? Intellectual rubbish ? Specific intervals of visual desolation ? The warden - curators still depend on the wreckage of metaphysical principles and structures because they do not know any better. The museums and parks are graveyards above the ground-concealed memories of the past that act as a pretext for reality. This causes acute anxiety among artists, is so far as they challenge, compete and fight for the spoiled ideals of lost situations.
Robert Smithson - Spiral made out of pebbles and rocks, weather and sea levels changed his outdoor project over time. What was unusual about this piece of work was that it was outdoor, natural materials and most unusual; it was temporary the way it looked, but constant as it left its mark forever. Over time the spiral disappeared due to water levels rising, then re-appeared when sea levels decreased. His work was pictured from great heights due to the size of it. His Anti-gallery view allowed him to explore different environments which did not hold some sort of restriction. Audiences where drawn to this location due to his work, which we do not know whether that was his intentions.
Seeing Art gallery as a space of restrictions, where the artist ends up supporting a cultural prison 'museums, like asylums and jails, have wards and cells - in other words, neutral rooms called 'galleries'. When a piece art is an art gallery it looses life and becomes a dead piece which is disengaged from the outside world.Works of art seen in such spaces seem to be going through a kind of aesthetic convalescence. They are looked upon so many inanimate invalids, waiting for critics to pronounce them curable or incurable. The function of the warden-curator is to separate art from the rest of society.
The gallery gives the art piece a certain status and value is distinguished from where the art is placed, for example; art gallery.I think this relates to societies status and class difference - Capitalism. When art is placed in an art gallery it has automatically achieved status, where as if art is placed outside of the gallery space; does it have less value and status?
Art shows that have beginnings and ends are confined by unnecessary modes of representation both 'abstract and realistic' limits of the neutral room. There is no freedom in that kind of behavioural game playing. Confined process is no process at all. It would be better to disclose the confinement rather than make illusions of freedom.'I am for an art that takes into account the direct of the elements as they exist from day to day apart from representation. The darks that surround some museums isolate art into objects of formal delectation. Objects in Park suggest static response rather than any ongoing dialectic. Parks are finished landscapes for finished art. A park carries the values of the final, the absolute and the sacred. Parks are idealisation of nature, but nature in fact is not a condition of the ideal. Nature does not proceed in a straight line it is rather a sprawling development. NATURE IS NEVER FINISHED.
A park is seen as almost a sculpture and structure displayed in natural environment which is public, everyday is different and brings new liveliness. Emphasising that nature is ongoing and never finished.
When a finished work of 20th century sculpture is placed in an 18th century garden, it is absorbed by the ideal representation of the past, thus reinforcing political and social values that are no longer with us. Many parks and gardens are re-creations of lost paradise or Eden, and not the dialectical sites of the present. Parks and gardens are pictorial in their origin-land-scape's created with natural materials rather than paint. Apart from the ideal gardens of the past, and their modern counter parts-national and large urban parks-there are the more infernal regions -slag heaps, strip mines and polluted rivers. Because of the great tendency towards idealism, both pure and abstract society is confused as to what to do with such places. Nobody wants to go on a vacation to a garbage dump.
Smithson is particularly interested in alternative work spaces. He compared art galleries to rubbish dumps or garbage yards. When this collective writing was written it wasn't commonly known that pollution was damaging the environment. Now that the world is finding new ways to ensure we prevent harming the natural environment e.g recycling.
'Could it be certain art exhibitions have become metaphysical junk yards ? Categorical miasmas ? Intellectual rubbish ? Specific intervals of visual desolation ? The warden - curators still depend on the wreckage of metaphysical principles and structures because they do not know any better. The museums and parks are graveyards above the ground-concealed memories of the past that act as a pretext for reality. This causes acute anxiety among artists, is so far as they challenge, compete and fight for the spoiled ideals of lost situations.
Robert Smithson - Spiral made out of pebbles and rocks, weather and sea levels changed his outdoor project over time. What was unusual about this piece of work was that it was outdoor, natural materials and most unusual; it was temporary the way it looked, but constant as it left its mark forever. Over time the spiral disappeared due to water levels rising, then re-appeared when sea levels decreased. His work was pictured from great heights due to the size of it. His Anti-gallery view allowed him to explore different environments which did not hold some sort of restriction. Audiences where drawn to this location due to his work, which we do not know whether that was his intentions.
Jean Francois Rauzier - Barcelona
Jean-François Rauzier
French artist, born 1952.
Fascinated by photography from an early age, Jean-François Rauzier graduated from the School Louis Lumière in 1976. He has since been working as a professional photographer, while developing a personal creative work.
In 2002, his artistic work takes an innovative and radical turn: he invents the concept of the HYPERPHOTO. He creates virtual images consisting of several hundreds of shots, taken with a telephoto lens and assembled by computer.
In his monumental works he mixes the infinitely big and the infinitesimal, in a profusion of details so unusual as fascinating. The image thus recomposed numerically gives way to the dreamlike world of the artist.
For a few years, this virtuoso of the digital technologies has been receiving the recognition and praise of his peers. He is the winner of prestigious artistic and photographic awards: in 2006, the show Up-date in Berlin awarded him the Screenings prize, in 2008, he received the Arcimboldo award for the digital creation, in 2009 he was rewarded by the APPPF in the category photograph of architecture and in 2010 he received the Eurazeo prize.
His works immerse the spectator into a dreamlike, sometimes fantastic universe. They offer a reflection on reality, the place of man in the city, the perception of the world and an invitation to a an exceptional journey.
he is exhibited throughout the world : New York, Londres, Los Angeles, Paris ou Séoul…
Jean-François Rauzier was immediately captivated by numerical photography when it penetrated the professional market 15 years ago. He has been exploring the multiple opportunities offered by computer’s retouching since then, turning himself into a “virtual” painter.
In 2002, he created the “Hyperphoto”, a concept which enables him to deal with the impossible: to combine both infinitely big and infinitely small things in one same image, out of time.
To simulate the illusion of reality, Jean-François Rauzier first had to cope with all the inherent limits inherent of the photographic and technological equipment.
He found his way by juxtaposing, duplicating, twisting images with Photoshop, making it possible for him to reproduce human vision more accurately. This way, he generated a genuine numerical puzzle, in which the pieces, cut out, “drawn again”, come up along on top of the imagination of the artist.
From this technique is issued numerous fascinating and unusual details on which the spectator can dwell on.
The multitude of images invite the spectators to an inside journey, in dream-like, fantastic and timeless worlds. These worlds are filled with icons and references born of the artist’s cultural hall of fame.
My photography of the insides of Barcelona
French artist, born 1952.
Fascinated by photography from an early age, Jean-François Rauzier graduated from the School Louis Lumière in 1976. He has since been working as a professional photographer, while developing a personal creative work.
In 2002, his artistic work takes an innovative and radical turn: he invents the concept of the HYPERPHOTO. He creates virtual images consisting of several hundreds of shots, taken with a telephoto lens and assembled by computer.
In his monumental works he mixes the infinitely big and the infinitesimal, in a profusion of details so unusual as fascinating. The image thus recomposed numerically gives way to the dreamlike world of the artist.
For a few years, this virtuoso of the digital technologies has been receiving the recognition and praise of his peers. He is the winner of prestigious artistic and photographic awards: in 2006, the show Up-date in Berlin awarded him the Screenings prize, in 2008, he received the Arcimboldo award for the digital creation, in 2009 he was rewarded by the APPPF in the category photograph of architecture and in 2010 he received the Eurazeo prize.
His works immerse the spectator into a dreamlike, sometimes fantastic universe. They offer a reflection on reality, the place of man in the city, the perception of the world and an invitation to a an exceptional journey.
he is exhibited throughout the world : New York, Londres, Los Angeles, Paris ou Séoul…
Jean-François Rauzier was immediately captivated by numerical photography when it penetrated the professional market 15 years ago. He has been exploring the multiple opportunities offered by computer’s retouching since then, turning himself into a “virtual” painter.
In 2002, he created the “Hyperphoto”, a concept which enables him to deal with the impossible: to combine both infinitely big and infinitely small things in one same image, out of time.
To simulate the illusion of reality, Jean-François Rauzier first had to cope with all the inherent limits inherent of the photographic and technological equipment.
He found his way by juxtaposing, duplicating, twisting images with Photoshop, making it possible for him to reproduce human vision more accurately. This way, he generated a genuine numerical puzzle, in which the pieces, cut out, “drawn again”, come up along on top of the imagination of the artist.
From this technique is issued numerous fascinating and unusual details on which the spectator can dwell on.
The multitude of images invite the spectators to an inside journey, in dream-like, fantastic and timeless worlds. These worlds are filled with icons and references born of the artist’s cultural hall of fame.
My photography of the insides of Barcelona
Katya Usvitsky -
'My family immigrated from Minsk, Belarus to the suburbs of Cleveland in 1992, when I was 11 years old. This major transition made me feel like a fish out of water for most of my awkward teenage years and it really wasn’t until I embraced my roots that I felt like I could develop my own voice.'
- Katya Usvitsky
Katya Usvitsky is a fiber artist who has used thread and yarn as three-dimensional image-making tools throughout her work. Also using Embroidery and knitting as forms of expressing her work shes sees these means as timeless methods of human expression that have a hidden history. Embroidery and knitting are Seen as mere women’s work, and solely utilitarian, they were not welcomed into the gallery world. Usvitsky's work seeks to build on notions of femininity, family and tradition, while introducing fiber arts into the contemporary art realm. Personal tradition is obviously an important aspect and influence throughout her work using meditative process and repetitive motion of art form to feel natural and organic compared to the pace of contemporary life.
From looking at some of her pieces, I feel a connection to my theme, decay. The three-dimensionl cancerous, growth like masses are perceived as negative as they destruct a body or structure. Seeing this as an art piece, you know there is More depth and meaning behind the piece.
Angela Canada Hopkins
'I wanted to embrace an enemy to overcome it; within the playful and spontaneous brush strokes I lay a colorful conquest of cancerous matter. After loosing my father to cancer in my last year of art school--June 2001--the bittersweet and therapeutic irony began to spill out onto the canvas. I use a pure and lively incorporation of acrylic on canvas to create galaxies of basic fatal structures studied on a microscopic level. My process is a non-traditional manner, originally forming these metastasizing expressions out of intuition and the study of photographs of cancerous cells. I assess and reassess the spontaneous marks, adding and taking away, until I feel like it is complete.'
http://www.canadahopkins.com/links.php?53769
-Angela Canada Hopkins
Visually, The paintings can be deceiving and misinterpreted, associated with space, galaxy and the unknown. Cancer is common, in fact 1/3 people get cancer and its the cause of 13% of all human deaths worldwide. This killing disease, although familiar, it is almost a forbidden topic. People usually know someone who suffers or has died from this, therefore it may be personal. For the artist she uses painting as her personal therapy and way of releasing emotion and accepting what cancer did to her father. The paintings are beautiful which contrasts to the intense lively brush strokes and feelings which have gone into each piece. It is only when you research the meaning and concept of this work when you can begin to understand and appreciate it. I am particularly interested in how the work is portrayed by the audience, contrasting with the actual concept. Hopkin's work is a great example as her paintings are attractive and beautiful, almost for the wrong reasons as she is displaying her acceptance of her dads killer being cancer. Microscopically cancer is physically appealing but the destruction what it can bring to the body is unattractive.
Ideas-
My theme 'Decay' is in relation to class and status, lead me to think if I was able to change the galleries status by creating an environment of decay and growth, would this change the value of the work? The decay would be displayed in all corners of the gallery, eating away at the galleries structure, line and form. The clinical looking white cube space destructed by cell-like growth, eating away and attatching itself to the straight edges of the room.
What materials would i use?
bubble wrap?, variety of fabrics? melting and painting on top to create this festation of mold. Artist such as Ernesto Neto- have similarly degraded and manipulated the space, creating an abstract installation made from biomorphic sculptures which the audience could interact with.
What I like about the idea of decaying the gallery is that the art space which usually gives the piece of art, more value, status and sense of achievement is manipulated with something connected with death and deterioation.
Wednesday
Run Down Societies
A housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance.
In the UK ,housing estates have become prevalent since World War II, as a more affluent population demanded larger and more widely spaced houses coupled with increase of car usage.
During the Second World War almost 4 million British homes were damaged or destroyed, and afterwards there was major boom in council home construction. The bomb damage of the Second World War only worsened the condition of Britain's housing stock, which was in poor condition prior to the outbreak of the war.
The Council House (also called council estate or council housing), otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at reasonable rents to primarily working class people. Council house development began in the late 19th Century and peaked in the mid-20th Century, at which time council housing included large suburban "council estates" and many urban developments featuring tower blocks. These developments did not live up to the hope of their supporters, and now suffer from urban blight.
Since 1979 the role of council housing has been reduced by the introduction of right to buy legislation, and a change of emphasis to the development of new social housing by housing associations. Nonetheless a substantial part of the UK population still lives in council housing. Approximately 40% of the country's social housing stock is owned by local authorities, 15% is managed by arm's length management organisations, and 45% by housing associations. In Scotland, council estates are known as schemes.
Criticism is that the system favours those who have already secured tenancy, even after they are no longer in dire need. The combination of security of tenure and affordable rent gives little incentive to tenants to downsize from family accommodation after their children have moved out. Meanwhile, those who are on the waiting list are often in much greater need of this welfare, yet they cannot have it; once a council house has been granted to a tenant, they cannot be evicted except for anti-social behaviour, serious offences committed at the premises or serious breach of the tenancy conditions, such as rent arrears.
Rachel whiteread
Rachel Whiteread is an English artist I have come across which links to my research of uniform structure, shape and architecture. Best known for her sculptures and casts, Whiteread's decision of space is usually ordinary but described as negative. Whiteread mainly focuses on the line and form for her pieces. 'Ghost 1990' a large plaster cast of the inside of a room in a Victorian house, the living space is working class home, Bethnal Green District in London's East end. This cast, shows signs where it has been inhibited, with patches of wallpaper and specks of colour. Other pieces such as 'House 1993' drew mixed responses winning her both the Turner Prize for best young British artist in 1993 and the K Foundation art award for worst British artist. This concrete cast of the Victorian house (193 Grove road in East London) is exhibited in original location of the house itself . Tower Hamlets London Borough Council demolished House on 11 January 1994, a decision which caused some controversy itself.
"A strange and fantastical object which also amounts to one of the most extraordinary and imaginative sculptures created by an English artist this century.
— The Independent
Embankment (2005–2006)
Embankment In spring 2004, she was offered the annual Unilever Series commission to produce a piece for Tate Moderns vast Turbine Hall, delaying acceptance for five to six months until she was confident she could conceive of a work to fill the space. It consists of some 14,000 translucent, white polyethylene boxes (themselves casts of the inside of cardboard boxes) stacked in various ways; some in very tall mountain-like peaks and others in lower (though still over human height), rectangular, more levelled arrangements. They are fixed in position with adhesive. She cited the end scenes of both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Citizen Kane as visual precursors; she also spoke of the death of her mother and a period of upheaval which involved packing and moving comparable boxes. It is also thought that her recent trip to the Arctic is an inspiration, although critics counter that white is merely the colour the polyethylene comes in, and it would have added significantly to the expense to dye them. The boxes were manufactured from casts of ten distinct cardboard boxes by a company that produces grit bins and traffic bollards.
The critical response included:
"With this work Whiteread has deepened her game, and made a work as rich and subtle as it is spectacular. Whatever else it is, Embankment is generous and brave, a statement of intent."
— Adrian Searle, The Guardian, 11 October 2005.
"Everything feels surprisingly domestic in scale, the intimidating vistas of the Turbine Hall shrunk down to irregular paths and byways. From atop the walkway, it looks like a storage depot that is steadily losing the plot; from inside, as you thread your way between the mounds of blocks, it feels more like an icy maze."[26]
— Andrew Dickson, The Guardian, 10 October 2005.
Rachel Whiteread various pieces of work, focus on line, form and structure. The use of casts deliver a sense of suspense and curiosity of whats inside them. The shell is non-existent but the inside is solid and brings a heavy feeling to the space with negative attatchments. Dull, grieving, lowering, oppressive, sad, sorrowful and overbearing ambience.
Ideas-From looking at run down areas, in particularly council estates, I found that they are usually built in single contractor, very few styles of housing designs and tend to be uniform in appearance. This idea of repetition of a particularly design lead me to consider using an allotment of cardboard storage boxes, single style filling a gallery space. stacked at different heights like mountains, visual statistical graph maybe? which the audience can walk through and feel the towering pyramids which represent the intense reality of crime within society today.
In the UK ,housing estates have become prevalent since World War II, as a more affluent population demanded larger and more widely spaced houses coupled with increase of car usage.
During the Second World War almost 4 million British homes were damaged or destroyed, and afterwards there was major boom in council home construction. The bomb damage of the Second World War only worsened the condition of Britain's housing stock, which was in poor condition prior to the outbreak of the war.
The Council House (also called council estate or council housing), otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at reasonable rents to primarily working class people. Council house development began in the late 19th Century and peaked in the mid-20th Century, at which time council housing included large suburban "council estates" and many urban developments featuring tower blocks. These developments did not live up to the hope of their supporters, and now suffer from urban blight.
Since 1979 the role of council housing has been reduced by the introduction of right to buy legislation, and a change of emphasis to the development of new social housing by housing associations. Nonetheless a substantial part of the UK population still lives in council housing. Approximately 40% of the country's social housing stock is owned by local authorities, 15% is managed by arm's length management organisations, and 45% by housing associations. In Scotland, council estates are known as schemes.
Criticism is that the system favours those who have already secured tenancy, even after they are no longer in dire need. The combination of security of tenure and affordable rent gives little incentive to tenants to downsize from family accommodation after their children have moved out. Meanwhile, those who are on the waiting list are often in much greater need of this welfare, yet they cannot have it; once a council house has been granted to a tenant, they cannot be evicted except for anti-social behaviour, serious offences committed at the premises or serious breach of the tenancy conditions, such as rent arrears.
Rachel whiteread
Rachel Whiteread is an English artist I have come across which links to my research of uniform structure, shape and architecture. Best known for her sculptures and casts, Whiteread's decision of space is usually ordinary but described as negative. Whiteread mainly focuses on the line and form for her pieces. 'Ghost 1990' a large plaster cast of the inside of a room in a Victorian house, the living space is working class home, Bethnal Green District in London's East end. This cast, shows signs where it has been inhibited, with patches of wallpaper and specks of colour. Other pieces such as 'House 1993' drew mixed responses winning her both the Turner Prize for best young British artist in 1993 and the K Foundation art award for worst British artist. This concrete cast of the Victorian house (193 Grove road in East London) is exhibited in original location of the house itself . Tower Hamlets London Borough Council demolished House on 11 January 1994, a decision which caused some controversy itself.
"A strange and fantastical object which also amounts to one of the most extraordinary and imaginative sculptures created by an English artist this century.
— The Independent
Embankment (2005–2006)
Embankment In spring 2004, she was offered the annual Unilever Series commission to produce a piece for Tate Moderns vast Turbine Hall, delaying acceptance for five to six months until she was confident she could conceive of a work to fill the space. It consists of some 14,000 translucent, white polyethylene boxes (themselves casts of the inside of cardboard boxes) stacked in various ways; some in very tall mountain-like peaks and others in lower (though still over human height), rectangular, more levelled arrangements. They are fixed in position with adhesive. She cited the end scenes of both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Citizen Kane as visual precursors; she also spoke of the death of her mother and a period of upheaval which involved packing and moving comparable boxes. It is also thought that her recent trip to the Arctic is an inspiration, although critics counter that white is merely the colour the polyethylene comes in, and it would have added significantly to the expense to dye them. The boxes were manufactured from casts of ten distinct cardboard boxes by a company that produces grit bins and traffic bollards.
The critical response included:
"With this work Whiteread has deepened her game, and made a work as rich and subtle as it is spectacular. Whatever else it is, Embankment is generous and brave, a statement of intent."
— Adrian Searle, The Guardian, 11 October 2005.
"Everything feels surprisingly domestic in scale, the intimidating vistas of the Turbine Hall shrunk down to irregular paths and byways. From atop the walkway, it looks like a storage depot that is steadily losing the plot; from inside, as you thread your way between the mounds of blocks, it feels more like an icy maze."[26]
— Andrew Dickson, The Guardian, 10 October 2005.
Rachel Whiteread various pieces of work, focus on line, form and structure. The use of casts deliver a sense of suspense and curiosity of whats inside them. The shell is non-existent but the inside is solid and brings a heavy feeling to the space with negative attatchments. Dull, grieving, lowering, oppressive, sad, sorrowful and overbearing ambience.
Ideas-From looking at run down areas, in particularly council estates, I found that they are usually built in single contractor, very few styles of housing designs and tend to be uniform in appearance. This idea of repetition of a particularly design lead me to consider using an allotment of cardboard storage boxes, single style filling a gallery space. stacked at different heights like mountains, visual statistical graph maybe? which the audience can walk through and feel the towering pyramids which represent the intense reality of crime within society today.
Contrasting Themes; Decay and Society
From looking at HIV and how it destructs and deteriorates the body, I wanted to use this term to represent and explore the nature of violent crime and the deterioration of society and its values. Moral decay and lack enequality of our society has prompted Marginalisation, leading people to turn to crime as a response to their problems. Material deprivation is the most common result of marginalization, when looking at how unfairly material resources (such as food and shelter) are dispersed in society. Along with material deprivation, marginalized individuals are also excluded from services, programs, and policies (Young, 2000). Ensuing poverty, psychoemotional damage, and its resulting diseases often result in catastrophic damage to lives, health, and psyche. In gay men, results of psychoemotional damage from marginalization from both heterosexual society and from within mainstream homosexual society include bug chasing (purposeful acts to acquire HIV), suicide, and drug addiction. Globalization (global-capitalism), immigration, social welfare and policy are broader social structures that have the potential to contribute negatively to one's access to resources and services, resulting in marginalization of individuals and groups. Similarly, increasing use of information technology and company outsourcing have contributed to job insecurity and a widening gap between the rich and the poor. Welfare states and social policies can also exclude individuals from basic necessities and support programs. Welfare payments were proposed to assist individuals in accessing a small amount of material wealth (Young, 2000). Young (2000) further discusses how “the provision of the welfare itself produces new injustice by depriving those dependent on it of rights and freedoms that others have…marginalization is unjust because it blocks the opportunity to exercise capacities in socially defined and recognized way” (p. 41). There is the notion that by providing a minimal amount of welfare support, an individual will be free from marginalization. In fact, welfare support programs further lead to injustices by restricting certain behaviour, as well the individual is mandated to other agencies. The individual is forced into a new system of rules while facing social stigma and stereotypes from the dominant group in society, further marginalizing and excluding individuals (Young, 2000).
"Isolation is common to almost every vocational, religious or cultural group of a large city. Each develops its own sentiments, attitudes, codes, even its own words, which are at best only partially intelligible to others." (Frederic Thrasher, The Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1927)
Functionalist Merton(1968) He sees inequality or oppurtunity as the major cause of crime and delinquency, and implies that measures to increase equal oppurtunity will solve many of society's problems.
Lea, in each people are differently treated. Policies tend to become more localised in focus. Ghettos and suburbs are seen as having different policing needs and are treated differently. Thus, the criminaljustice system starts to take accounts of peoples diverse lifestyles and needs. Lea sees some of these changes as welcome. While others carrying dangers. For example, dangers such as 'Ghettos' will either be left alone to fend for themselves, or that they will be repressed through military-style policing. If people are treated as consumers, then those with no spending power will be less likely to have their needs met. No on can afford private security in the areas where people are most likely to be the victims of crimes.
Subculture - Lea and young - see subcultures aas the collective solution to a group's problems. A group of individuals share a sense of relative deprivation, they will develop lifestyles which allow them to cope with this problem. However, a particular subculture is not an automatic inevitable response to a situation. For example, second-generation west indian immigrants' subcultural solutions to their problems include The Rastafarian and Pentecostalist religions, as well as 'hustling' money and street crime. Lea and young stress that crime is only 'one aspect, though generally a small one, of the process of cultural adaption to oppression.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZaTEIyo8rk
http://www.123helpme.com/assets/13274.html
‘A Clockwork Orange’ is set in a futuristic dystopian Britain, where old certainties and order appear to be absent. The violence demonstrated in the opening scenes appears to be a symptom rather than the cause of the society’s breakdown. It is a grimy dystopian setting that only the young criminals appear to seek refuge, particularly after dark where ‘the night was still very young’. The darkness provides the seclusion needed for an individual to exist and make their choices with freedom.
The narrative of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is communicated in first-person and therefore Burgess gives a personal voice to Alex, distancing the reader from the reality of events through the employment of ‘Nadsat’ a mixture of Russian and ‘Cockney’ colloquialisms. Burgess makes use of first-person narration to give insight into the mind of the protagonist, Alex directly appealing to the reader in a polite manner addressing them that ‘It would interest me greatly, brother, if you would kindly allow me...’ However, despite the friendly tone of the prose the reader is witness to the senseless brutality he inflicts upon others such as the ‘old veck’ who ‘starts moaning a lot’, describing the brutal mugging of a pensioner. Burgess’ clever linguistic manipulation leaves the reader not fully digesting the horror of the attack but is cushioned from the impact as the new words do not carry the same intensity. The attacks have echoes of youth violence that Burgess witnessed against his own wife from American soldiers stationed in Europe.
Burgess is direct in ridiculing many prominent characteristics of teen culture, such as their pop music which is illustrated when Alex ‘cracked’ the drugged-man in the Korova Milkbar because of his hatred of the song ‘You Blister My Paint’ illustrating the futility of youth violence. He is derisive in describing the accessories of youth culture, denigrating their collective fashion sense describing their ‘black very tight tights’ creating a fashion that belongs in the Elizabethan period. He does not offer the reader the opportunity to apply any great depth to the youth culture, portraying it as complacent, regarding the rebelliousness of the Droogs as shallow and superficial. Burgess, a musician and composer himself, disapproved of pop music enjoyed by the youth in the 1950s and 1960s, indicating that he carries no love for youth culture, but this distance allows the reader to view the children, in spite of their sadistic mannerisms, as children. In the Korova Milk bar the reader is told that they ‘hadn’t been more than ten minutes away’ from the women ‘in the Duke of New York’ implying that the older women maternally protect the characters obvious juvenility.
Burgess employs ‘Nadsat’ combining Russian and English suggesting that Alex’s society is encouraged by two major influences of Burgess’s time, American capitalist democracy and Soviet Communism, linking them together and making them in closer proximity than the reader would envisaged. Russian culture was pertinent in the period of the novella with businesses such as ‘The Korova Milkbar’ which ‘sold milk plus something else’. Their drinking of milk is suggestive of the immaturity of the boys in conjunction with the defenselessness of the State’s citizens.
*The Inherent Evil of Government
Just as A Clockwork Orange champions free will, it deplores the institution of government, which systematically seeks to suppress the individual in favor of the collective, or the state. Alex articulates this notion when he contends, in Part One, Chapter 4, that modern history is the story of individuals fighting against large, repressive government “machines.” As we see in A Clockwork Orange, the State is prepared to employ any means necessary to ensure its survival. Using technological innovation, mass-market culture, and the threat of violence, among other strategies, the State seeks to control Alex and his fellow citizens, who are least dangerous when they are most predictable. The State also does not tolerate dissent. Once technology helps to clear its prisons by making hardened criminals harmless, the State begins incarcerating dissidents, like F. Alexander, who aim to rouse public opinion against it and thus threaten its stability.
Original Sin over environmental behaviorism
The oppression of Socialism
Immaturity of youth culture
In a prefatory note to A Clockwork Orange: A Play with Music, he wrote that the title was a metaphor for "...an organic entity, full of juice and sweetness and agreeable odour, being turned into an automaton (robot/mechanism)."
"Isolation is common to almost every vocational, religious or cultural group of a large city. Each develops its own sentiments, attitudes, codes, even its own words, which are at best only partially intelligible to others." (Frederic Thrasher, The Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1927)
Functionalist Merton(1968) He sees inequality or oppurtunity as the major cause of crime and delinquency, and implies that measures to increase equal oppurtunity will solve many of society's problems.
Lea, in each people are differently treated. Policies tend to become more localised in focus. Ghettos and suburbs are seen as having different policing needs and are treated differently. Thus, the criminaljustice system starts to take accounts of peoples diverse lifestyles and needs. Lea sees some of these changes as welcome. While others carrying dangers. For example, dangers such as 'Ghettos' will either be left alone to fend for themselves, or that they will be repressed through military-style policing. If people are treated as consumers, then those with no spending power will be less likely to have their needs met. No on can afford private security in the areas where people are most likely to be the victims of crimes.
Subculture - Lea and young - see subcultures aas the collective solution to a group's problems. A group of individuals share a sense of relative deprivation, they will develop lifestyles which allow them to cope with this problem. However, a particular subculture is not an automatic inevitable response to a situation. For example, second-generation west indian immigrants' subcultural solutions to their problems include The Rastafarian and Pentecostalist religions, as well as 'hustling' money and street crime. Lea and young stress that crime is only 'one aspect, though generally a small one, of the process of cultural adaption to oppression.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZaTEIyo8rk
http://www.123helpme.com/assets/13274.html
‘A Clockwork Orange’ is set in a futuristic dystopian Britain, where old certainties and order appear to be absent. The violence demonstrated in the opening scenes appears to be a symptom rather than the cause of the society’s breakdown. It is a grimy dystopian setting that only the young criminals appear to seek refuge, particularly after dark where ‘the night was still very young’. The darkness provides the seclusion needed for an individual to exist and make their choices with freedom.
The narrative of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is communicated in first-person and therefore Burgess gives a personal voice to Alex, distancing the reader from the reality of events through the employment of ‘Nadsat’ a mixture of Russian and ‘Cockney’ colloquialisms. Burgess makes use of first-person narration to give insight into the mind of the protagonist, Alex directly appealing to the reader in a polite manner addressing them that ‘It would interest me greatly, brother, if you would kindly allow me...’ However, despite the friendly tone of the prose the reader is witness to the senseless brutality he inflicts upon others such as the ‘old veck’ who ‘starts moaning a lot’, describing the brutal mugging of a pensioner. Burgess’ clever linguistic manipulation leaves the reader not fully digesting the horror of the attack but is cushioned from the impact as the new words do not carry the same intensity. The attacks have echoes of youth violence that Burgess witnessed against his own wife from American soldiers stationed in Europe.
Burgess is direct in ridiculing many prominent characteristics of teen culture, such as their pop music which is illustrated when Alex ‘cracked’ the drugged-man in the Korova Milkbar because of his hatred of the song ‘You Blister My Paint’ illustrating the futility of youth violence. He is derisive in describing the accessories of youth culture, denigrating their collective fashion sense describing their ‘black very tight tights’ creating a fashion that belongs in the Elizabethan period. He does not offer the reader the opportunity to apply any great depth to the youth culture, portraying it as complacent, regarding the rebelliousness of the Droogs as shallow and superficial. Burgess, a musician and composer himself, disapproved of pop music enjoyed by the youth in the 1950s and 1960s, indicating that he carries no love for youth culture, but this distance allows the reader to view the children, in spite of their sadistic mannerisms, as children. In the Korova Milk bar the reader is told that they ‘hadn’t been more than ten minutes away’ from the women ‘in the Duke of New York’ implying that the older women maternally protect the characters obvious juvenility.
Burgess employs ‘Nadsat’ combining Russian and English suggesting that Alex’s society is encouraged by two major influences of Burgess’s time, American capitalist democracy and Soviet Communism, linking them together and making them in closer proximity than the reader would envisaged. Russian culture was pertinent in the period of the novella with businesses such as ‘The Korova Milkbar’ which ‘sold milk plus something else’. Their drinking of milk is suggestive of the immaturity of the boys in conjunction with the defenselessness of the State’s citizens.
*The Inherent Evil of Government
Just as A Clockwork Orange champions free will, it deplores the institution of government, which systematically seeks to suppress the individual in favor of the collective, or the state. Alex articulates this notion when he contends, in Part One, Chapter 4, that modern history is the story of individuals fighting against large, repressive government “machines.” As we see in A Clockwork Orange, the State is prepared to employ any means necessary to ensure its survival. Using technological innovation, mass-market culture, and the threat of violence, among other strategies, the State seeks to control Alex and his fellow citizens, who are least dangerous when they are most predictable. The State also does not tolerate dissent. Once technology helps to clear its prisons by making hardened criminals harmless, the State begins incarcerating dissidents, like F. Alexander, who aim to rouse public opinion against it and thus threaten its stability.
Original Sin over environmental behaviorism
The oppression of Socialism
Immaturity of youth culture
In a prefatory note to A Clockwork Orange: A Play with Music, he wrote that the title was a metaphor for "...an organic entity, full of juice and sweetness and agreeable odour, being turned into an automaton (robot/mechanism)."
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