Forbat Sophie, 40 years Kaldor Public Art Projects, (Kaldor Public Art Projects: Art Gallery of NSW) 2009
This provides a good introduction to Tatzu Nishi's practice and provides a short critical analysis of his artwork. There is a brief biography and several of his artworks are touched upon and colour photographs of his artwork are featured. The focus is on War and peace and everything in between (2009) which was a Kaldor Public Art Project so there are reproductions of his plans for that installation. Direct quotes from the artist are featured alongside the text and photographs.

Parry Ben, Cultural Hijack: Rethinking Intervention (Liverpool University: Cambridge) 2011
This discusses Villa Victoria (2002) and War and peace and everything in between in particular. The writer argues that whether or not it is intentional, Nishi's artworks parodies colonialism. The surreal experience created by his installation is examined by how the sculptures are presented in domesticated settings. The writer relates his experience of Villa Victoria. The writer praises Nishi and consider himself a successful artist as his artwork allows the viewer too see the world in new ways.

Lasky Julie, New York Post, A Living Room Suspended Over Columbus Circle
last modified September 19, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/garden/a-living-room-suspended-over-columbus-circle.html
In this interview Nishi discusses Discovering Columbus (2012), the focus of this interview how he creates the living spaces based on what he considers to be the average living space instead of his personal aesthetic taste. Nishi explains that he choose the monument of Christopher Columbus as the site because of its height not the historical significance of Columbus. He explains that having his name translated from one Japanese character to the alphabet is why he took on having a series of new names as an artwork.

Pogrebin Robin, New York Times, High Above Columbus Circle, a Living Room, TV Included
last modified August 12 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/arts/design/in-columbus-circle-tatzu-nishi-to-build-living-room.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
This article provides technical information about Discovering Columbus like the safety regulations such as the limit of fifty people in the space at one time and the ticketing system. The reactions to the artwork are featured, including that were protestors at the installation. This article is good for learning about how the general public react to his artworks.

I can't post an image with this because I don't have a functional computer but will have it up Thursday. Sorry.

Scottish artist Martin Boyce was born in 1957 and his oeuvre features sculptures and installations. He was the winner of the 2011 Turner prize. Boyce created We are shipwrecked and landlocked for Kaldor’s 18^th project, an installation in Old Melbourne Goal’s courtyard. It’s stylised form references the modernist sculpture Exposition des arts décoratifs, 1925 by Joël and Jan Martel.

This sculpture interacts with the landscape, existing in a place between a place between the real and the imaginary, which is achieved by how he manipulates basic shape referencing the concrete trees from Exposition des arts décoratifs by reshaping them which contrasts the surrounding landscape. This juxtaposition creates a surreal feeling which is emphasised that suggests the sculpture is not a natural element of the landscape. A metal fence and mesh-wire rubbish bins are the main materials used in this sculpture. 

Frazer Ward

Frazer Ward explores the connections between the performance and conceptual art by examining Mirror Piece by Ian Burn (1967) and Step Piece by Acconci (1970). He explains that Conceptual art focuses on the intellectual aspect of art rather than aesthetics. Conceptual art was a movement that focused on the object and it's status by emphasizing the intellectual process surrounding art instead of aesthetic pleasure, often utilizing language to do so. Language was given priority over visuals in an attempt to make the aesthetic experience less elitist. The key difference between performance art and other mediums is that performance art is a 'temporal event', with the body being key. Performance and Conceptual art are seen to be in opposition because some critics state Conceptual art denies the body. Ward argues against the two being constantly in disagreement. Mirror Piece is a perfect example of Conceptual art. The artwork is thirteen pages featuring typed diagrams and notes displayed in frames. It is potentially an unsuccessful artwork because Burn doesn't differentiate between an artwork featuring a concept and an artwork featuring an artist's intention. Mel Bochner, one of the pioneers of Conceptual art in the 1960s, argued that the term Conceptual art confused "concept" with "intention". Step Piece combines performance with Conceptual art, pushing Conceptual art to the limit by how it presents rationality. Acconci isn't taking Conceptualism completely seriously so he escapes the pretensions. Step Piece shows how Conceptualism and performance art can be used to examine each other rather than being deadlocked in opposition. Conceptual art is a movement with defined parameters while performance art is a medium. Because of this, performance art has been used by a variety of artists. Both Step Piece and Mirror Piece are ambiguous about the possibility of the artist communicating with the audience. The artworks originally took place in a private context, documentation and reproduction of them brings into the public realm.

Annonated Biblography

Judovitz D, Unpacking Duchamp: art in transit, University of California Press, University of California, Los Angeles, 1995

Judowitz examines Duchamp's career, in particular the role of language and puns in his artwork. In the second chapter, the ready-mades are focused on. Leonardo Da Vinci and Giuseppe Arcimboldo are examined as an inspiration behind the ready-mades. Duchamp stated that Roussel's Impressions of Africa influenced his work. Duchamp was interested in the nonsensical aspect of language and explored this though the creation of the ready-mades. Duchamp asserts that the painter is using the readymade because paint has been manufactured. Duchamp's originality lay in applying this approach to objects, by doing so he revaluating the iconic status of painting in art history. 

Camfield W, Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain: Aesthetic Object, Icon or Anti-Art?”, The MIT Press, Cambridge,1991

In order to reassess Duchamp's ready-mades generally and Fountain in particular, Camfield examines the correspondence and articles by Duchamp's contemporaries. Two of whom noted Fountain's resemblance to a Buddha and Madonna which disputes it's status as anti-art. Fountain also expresses a duality of gender. The artistic influence of Brancusi and Stieglitz is examined. Having explored various interpretations of Fountain, it becomes apparent the audience has appropriated the ready-mades for their own objectives. Reintroducing the historical context of the ready-mades into the discussion about them will enrich our understanding of Duchamp's oeuvre. 

Housefield J, Marcel Duchamp's art and the geography of modern Paris, Jstor, Geographical Review, Volume 92, 2002, pp. 477-502, 18.03.2012

Examining the ready-mades shows the relationship between modern art and geography. Duchamp is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century; he is famous for ready-mades, which were selected by the artist instead of being made. Until the 1960s the ready-mades were shown alone or seen in small groups. Close friends and patrons saw them in Duchamp's studio that gave them a personal meaning. Housefield agrees Duchamp was recreating the Parisian landscape in his New York. Fountain is representative of the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur. Multiple meanings can be found in the ready-mades, individually and as a group. 

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'But is it art?'^[1] Heartney opens with this question about the Quotidian object and goes on to examine its place in twentieth art from Duchamp's Fountain to the works of contemporary artists, which highlights the artistic value of using the everyday object. Heartney, discusses critics' perspectives on the Quotidian object which provides a useful intellectual framework for analysing the cultural significance of it. She comes to the conclusion that Duchamp's ready-mades challenged art as well as broadening its horizons. 

v Antliff A, The Making and Mauling of Duchamp, Canadian Art, Volume 23, 2006, pp. 56-61,  18.03.2012

v Goldsmith S, The Readymades of Marcel Duchamp: The Ambiguities of am Aesthetic Revolution, Jstor, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 42, pp. 197-208, 18.03.2012

v Housefield J, Marcel Duchamp's art and the geography of modern Paris, Jstor, Geographical Review, Volume 92, 2002, pp. 477-502, 18.03.2012

v Speyer J, Marcel Duchamp Exhibition, Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, Volume 68, pp.16-19, 18.03.2012

v Heartney E, Art and Today, Phiadon Press, New York, 2008

v Judovitz D, Unpacking Duchamp: art in transit, University of California Press, University of California, Los Angeles, 1995

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^[1] Heartney E, Art and Today

Summary of Unmonumental by Laura Hoptman

In Unmonumental, Hoptman discusses assemblage in sculpture from the contemporary world, the 1960’s and makes references to the Dadaists. She argues that in each case it’s a product of it’s times.

She begins by stating that assemblage has brought sculpture to the forefront of the contemporary world, the assemblages vary in size, weight and appearance. Art can be made from anything, choosing what to use is an important part of the artistic process.

Hoptman establishes assemblage’s origins come from European experiments with found objects. The term was used by Jean Dubuffet to describe the juxtaposition of things not originally meant for artistic purposes.

Seitz organised “The Art of Assemblage” at the Museum of Modern Art in 1961. Hoptman disagrees with his ideas about the assemblages of the 1960’s, referring to his history of assemblage as revisionist. Steiz connected the assemblage of the 1960s to the 1930s and 1940s, which ignored the divide that existed between the two eras.

The history of Dadists, assemblage, Robert Rauschenberg’s Combines as problematic yet useful as a context for contemporary assemblages. Rauschenberg’s Combines, a series of works created from 1954 to 1964, combined painting and sculpture. Rauschenberg argued the objects in the assemblages were connected by nothing but chance and the objects became ‘mysterious’ by how their context was changed by juxtaposition. Steinberg and Marcel Duchamp supported the assertion that the assemblage was the result of chance, which was later questioned by academics. The Combines and assemblage art in general can be seen as showing the world to be a ‘chaos of information’. This era was ultimately dubbed the ‘neo-avant-garde’ and critics were dismissive of the artwork.

In the 21st century, it is impossible to be informed about everything because so much knowledge exists. The key difference between the assemblages of the 1960s and the contemporary era is that contemporary assemblages create a narrative by taking a part of that information, Not Sorry is an example of this. Many contemporary sculptors explore the issues of the surrounding world in their artwork. If there are visual similarities between the assemblages of these two eras, they are in the ironic tone of 1980s approbation. The creation of narrative is what makes these pieces culturally relevant.

The term Unmonumental is used rather than anti-monumental because artworks consciously lack the aspects of monumental rather than rejecting them.

Sherrie Levine
Fountain (After Marcel Duchamp)
1991
cast bronze on wood artist's base, 26 x 15 x 14 in.