Bill Viola

Bill Viola is an American artist born in 1951. He is internationally recognised and was seen as influential to the establishment of video in contemporary art, his works being shown in museums and galleries all over the world. His works involve ‘videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television broadcast’. His work often focuses on universal human experiences such as birth, death and the unfolding of consciousness, trying to explore the sense perception as an avenue to self-knowledge. His videos communicate to a wide audience by using the inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories.

Viola has been involved in the Kaldor Projects in both 2008 and 2010. In 2008, two works from Viola’s 2005 series The Tristan Project were presented nightly at St Saviour’s Church in Redfern, Sydney. The darkened church was lit with a larger-than-life projection of Fire Woman and Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall), the memorizing images accompanied by sound. After the presentation in Sydney for Project 17 in 2008, these works were installed again for a second time for Project 21, inside a church in Parkville, Melbourne. A second work, The Raft, was also presented at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image as part of the project.

 

 

Fire Woman
Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall)

Mark Dion Bibliography

Mark Dion Bibliography

Kwon M, Bryson N, Corrin L G. Mark Dion. London: Phaidon, 1997.
This book was quite relevant as it contains plenty of information on the artist. The front cover includes a short biography on Dion and the final pages at the back include exhibitions and projects he worked on until 1997. However as the book was published at this time it does not include his more recent artworks which I had to seek information on elsewhere. The book includes an interview with the artist, which includes information on the start of his career and life as an artist. Writings from the artist himself are also present which gives a direct insight into thinking and works. A chapter of the book also focused on an artwork I was looking into which also proved to be quite helpful.

Coles A, Fontana E, Williams R, Cotton J, and Renfrew C. Mark Dion: Archaeology. London: Black Dog Publishing, 1999.
This book looks into the ‘digs’ undertaken by Dion, including the Tate Thames Dig which I had chosen to research. The book includes several images of the work being carried out which help convey the process of the dig. At least half of the book being dedicated to the work, how it was carried out and what came of it, which was more than enough information to interpret.

Dion, Mark. "Mark Dion." Artforum 51, no. 1 (2012): 441-441. http://ezproxy.library.usyd.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1039645515?accountid=14757.
This journal article provided me with an insight into the mind of Mark Dion. The excerpt is direct conversation from the artist, who discusses his style and way of working. He speaks of how the results and contents of his work are often dependent on the site he is working from, and other factors including the budget of the project and the skill level of the team of people assisting him. He also expresses how he likes to include information on the subjects of his works, knowing that while being surrounded and taking in the actual installation works, he also cares deeply of the printed materials he produces.

Buchhart D, Gamper V. Mark Dion: Concerning Hunting. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2008.
Goffredo, Theresa. "Sculpture Park is an Art Treasure." The Herald, Jan 19, 2007. http://ezproxy.library.usyd.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/334279086?accountid=14757.
Glueck, Grace. "The Line between Species Shifts, and a show Explores the Move." New York Times, Aug 26, 2005. http://ezproxy.library.usyd.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/433133219?accountid=14757.
Temin, Christine. "Scavenger's Mark Dion's `Urban Archeology' Seeks Not Historical Truth but Beauty." Boston Globe, May 27, 2001. http://ezproxy.library.usyd.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/405394192?accountid=14757.
Mark Dion <http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-dion-2789> Tate
Mark Dion <http://www.art21.org/ > Art21
Mark Dion <http://edu.warhol.org/app_dion.html>The Warhol

 

"Aviary (Library for the Birds of Massachusetts)"
2005
Steel, maple tree, plywood, books, and mixed media

20 x 18 x 20 feet

Summary: Clock Time – Rosalind E. Krauss

In this article Krauss looks into the work of Christian Marclay, prominently his latest piece, The Clock (2010), a 24 hour running combination of film clips which while being projected relate to each exact time of day. ‘Technical support’ is made necessary for his work, this term is the use of ‘commercial or industrial products’ and for Marclay this being commercial sound film.

‘Synch-time’ is the result of the combination of the films individual frames being projected at the viewer and the optics created to produce the retinal construction of the after-image, the ‘phi-effect’ - creating the illusion of movement. The result of this can often achieve a sense of a suspension of disbelief, where the viewer can become enveloped into the film and the position of the characters, being empathetic to their situation and feelings.

In Marclay’s The Clock the exact moment in time displayed on the screen corresponds to the ‘real time’ of the viewer. The use of cutaways creates suspense in the work as the ‘plot’ (time being shown through views of clocks, watches and dials in each film clip) unravels with the characters and their reactions to each reflected moment in time portrayed on screen, ‘reel time’. Each clip he uses becomes part of the overall plot, where the characters used await moments of catastrophe: a bomb’s explosions or a missile strike. However the suspense created in Marclay’s The Clock in ‘real time’ does not correspond to that of the original film that they were extracted from.

The relationship between the ‘reel time’ of Marclay’s The Clock and the ‘real time’ of the viewers creates a realisation and sense of present time and self-presence in the ‘now effect’. The exploration of The Clock in its use ‘technical support’ is a feat by Marclay, consequently creating a new medium.

Summary: An Archival Impulse – Hal Foster

In this essay Hal Foster discusses the presence of archival art in contemporary art through the use of three contemporary artists, Thomas Hirschhorn, Sam Durant, and Tacita Dean - who share the same notions of ‘artistic practice as an idiosyncratic probing into particular figures, objects, and events in modern art, philosophy, and history’.

The main purpose of archival art is to ‘make historical information, often lost or displayed, physically present. To this end they elaborate on the found image, object and text, and favour the installation format’. Artists often use ambiguous references and as these sources are often found, archival art can be seen as art of ‘post-production’. The information so easily available on the internet as ‘virtual readymade’ ‘might imply that (this source is) the ideal medium of archival art’. However archival art are not databases, and are ‘fragmentary rather than fungible’ so as to remain for ‘human interpretation, not machinic reprocessing’.

Archival art can also be seen with likeness to museums, however the primary distinction between the two is that these artists ‘are not concerned with critiques of representational totality and institutional integrity.’ Another point behind what archival art is that it ‘not only draws in informational archives but produces them as well... (where) all archival materials as found yet constructed, factual yet fictive, public yet private’.  Archival art placing its found materials within a new context, whether with private or public collections, within a new situation so it can be read in its own way by the viewer.

Archival art attempts to relate and ‘connect what cannot be connected’, from the desire ‘to recoup failed visions in art, philosophy, and everyday life into possible scenarios of alternative kinds of social relations, to transform the no-place of the archive into the no-place of a utopia’.

Unmonumental

Sorry that its super late...

Unmonumental

Sculpture is leading the contemporary art discourse - the particular king that is ‘built, sewn, glued or tied together.’ Components being found, made and detritus, these sculptures ranging in size, delicacy, weight and appearance (figurative to absolutely non-objective), due to the artists who make them and their ranges in age.
All can be described as the two related ideas: assemblage and unmonumentality. Both a result of the excess of choice and the new paradigms that have arisen.  As every loose object, along or in combination is (at least theoretically) available as an element of the sculptural, then the mechanism of filtering, selecting and assembling becomes a large part of making sculpture. The placement of preformed materials, objects or fragments not intended to be art materials in juxtaposition with one another being named ‘assemblage’.
In contemporary sculpture, the re-emergence of assembled forms have adopted the method of juxtaposition of forms, rather than a compositional blending of them. Each sculptural component having a duel identity, being read for what it was while at the same time participating in the overall meaning of the whole sculpture. To some, a combine, and  by extension assembled art, was less a representation of the world filled with chaos of information, than an actual piece of it.
The arrangement of two unrelated objects meeting on the strange ground of art has turned into ‘stunning intelligent arrangements strung together in ways so clever as to make one bark with laughter or gasp with astonishment.’ The sculptural elements are not random but chosen carefully for their meaning.
For many of today’s sculptors the interest of the work isn’t to expand the notions of what sculpture or art can be, but to engage with the larger issues of contemporary life in a straight forward manner.
The term monumental connotes- ‘massiveness, timelessness and public significance, where ‘unmonumental’ is meant to describe a kind of sculpture that is not against these values but intentionally lacks them.’

Bibliography

Bibliography on Stelarc.

Stelarc’s webpage, http://stelarc.org/, (2012)
This website hold a copious amount of information on Stelarc’s career as an artist including explanations and interpretations on most of his works alongside detailed photographs and diagrams. Also found on this website is the artists biography and sources of relatable essays and quotes to characterise the artist and his motives. Being a performance artist, suitably the website contains a gallery of images of his works as well as an archive of video footage of his performances, which allowed the viewer a greater understanding of each piece and the feelings and interpretations obtained from each work.

Stelarc - The Body is Obsolete, http://www.artfilms.com.au/Detail.aspx?ItemID=220, Artfilms, (2005) – an excerpt from the film
This short excerpt contained information on the concept and notions of Stelarcs work, focusing on his interpretation on the use of his body in his art. Suspension was also addressed, developing an understanding on how Stelarc chose to come about using piercings in his pieces and the various ways he explored this suspension direction.

Stelarc - Art, Design, Future of Man, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1SPish8ZwQ Adam A. Ford (TheRationalFuture), (28-06-2011)
This was video footage of an interview with Stelarc. Being quite a long video, it held a helpful amount of information on his works and concepts directly from the artist. His manner of speech and occasional manic laughter assisted in understanding the character and artist that is Stelarc.

Still hooked after all those years, Stelarc suspends pain threshold, http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/still-hooked-after-all-those-years-stelarc-suspends-pain-threshold-20120313-1uyia.html, Ashley Crawford (The Age), (March 14, 2012)
This was an article on Stelarc’s most recent suspension piece, allowing and understanding of the happenings of the performance and a sense of the mood and audience reaction to this work. It included quotes from the artist before the performance to discover his feelings moments before the painful suspension. The image included also helped with and understanding of the layout and feel for the work.

Performer gets third ear for art, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7039821.stm, BBC News UK (11 October 2007)

Extended-Body: Interview with Stelarc, http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/stelarc/a29-extended_body.html, Paolo Atzori and Kirk Woolford

Enchantment Summary

When referring to enchantments-type installation, Kurt Schwitters’s work ‘Merzbau’ is often thought of. The work being a walk-through environment built into his home in Germany, compromising every surface with rectilinear or biomorphic wood and plaster forms, discarded objects, and materials donated by friends.
‘An installation can transport its viewer into a state of awe, providing also a sense of physical smallness,’ possibly even convert the viewer to the vision of the creator, Schwitters writing a “contemplative immersion of the self in art.”
Enchantment relates mainly on theatrical roots and the a suspension of disbelief, as the viewer witnesses an extreme vision of reality or a sense of being inside the artist’s mind.
Due to the envelopment of the viewer completely, enchanted spaces won’t often relate to the architectural setting they are installed into, artist quite amenable to moving their installation or fitting into another location if asked.
In the 1920s, experimentation of installation began to grow. Duchamp was a crucial figure of this form of art, he made an installation that ‘at once compromised all the paintings by other artists hung in the space, while embodying a work of art on its own.’ Duchamp hanging 12 hundred sacks of coal from above, along with leaves and a brazier on the ground. Salvador Dali also braving installation pieces, his work ‘Dream of Venus’ a full scale, highly theatrical installation, along with ‘Merzbau,’ set the stage for enchantments through a surreal tinge that either bewitched, perplexed and frighted viewers.
After WWII, the development of Disneyland in California was seen as another example of enchantment. “Here you leave today and enter a world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.” It shaped the public’s expectations about similar experiences – suggesting that a complete environment of sensory pleasures can be a possible ‘leisure situation.’ The development of Disneyland having possibly influenced the events known as the happenings. Begun by Alan Kaprow, these were theatrically orientated, offering the possibility through staging replete with sensory stimulation.
Video instillations also follow the model of the enchantment, with the viewer standing before a dream or nightmare like world, more often contemplating that participating.
Enchantment creating the feeling that one has entered the mind of the artist, seeing the wildly diverse ideas and interests they possess.