Shaun Gladwell - Annotated Bibliography

 

Shaun Gladwell

 

·         Shaun Gladwell: Stereo Sequences Exhibition Catalogue (Victoria: Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Schwartz City)

This exhibition catalogue of the Stereo Sequence Exhibition shown at ACMI was very important in my research. Not only did it display a wide variety of film stills of Gladwell’s work, but it also had relevant essays by Sarah Tutton, Rex Butler and Adrian Martin.  Tutton’s essay goes into detail on a selection of Gadwell’s works and explains them well.  As it is hard to find the full video works online to view for most of Gladwell’s films, it is valuable to get a thorough description of the works.  I found that this publication allowed me to increase my understanding of the works and their installation at ACMI in more detail.  Butler’s Essay was helpful in providing an insight into the works created in Afghanistan which were hard to find specific info on.  The other crucial part of the catalogue was the extensive list of video stills along with all the info such as type of video, performers, sound, how it was displayed and when it was made.

·         Blair French, “Return to Earth,” in Shaun Gladwell: Videowork, (Sydney: Artspace Visual Arts Centre, 2007)

I found Blair French’s essay on Gladwell’s work very useful, mainly due to the comprehensive explanation of themes that Gladwell explores in his work.  Themes such as gravity, place and status are discussed along with Gladwell’s background in painting.  The discussion on how his painting background affects and shows itself within his video work, through his framing and choice of perspective and shots, I found noteworthy as it was something I had never considered in terms of mark making and painting within video and film space.  French’s essay also helped me understand Chrissie Iles’ Video and Film Space essay in more depth.

·         “Australian Story: War Paint,” ABC1 Monday September 3, 2012, also online http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/998528

Even though this Australian Story was specifically about Ben Quilty it gave me a better background understanding into the duties and position of being a war artist. Gladwell’s work in Afghanistan, I found, was the most difficult out of all his artworks to get information on. This Australian Story gave me an idea about what is involved in being a war artist and what exactly the Australian War Memorial commissions artist to do.  The interviews with the troops were particularly insightful and the preconceptions they have about the war artists and the subsequent relationships they form are very interesting.  Overall I think the most important thing I became aware of from watching the program was the emotional intensity that is connected with being a war artist.

 

Sally Breen, “Remixes for a new[ish] millennium,” in Shaun Gladwell New Balance Exhibition Catalogue, (Perth: Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2004)

Igor Holubizky, “Shaun Gladwell: Beating a path, an enactment,” in MMXBreakless Sessions Exhibition Catalogue, (Paddington: Sherman Galleries, 2005)

Chrissie Iles, “Video and Film Space,” in Space, Site and Intervention: Situating Installation Art, trans. Erika Suderburg (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000): 252-62

Daniel Baumann, “Shaun Gladwell: Public space, translation and beauty,” Art &Australia 44 No.4 (2007): 570-575.

Elizabeth Fortescue, “Shaun Gladwell on life in Afghanistan,” The Art Newspaper, January 13, 2010, accessed August 20, 2012, http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Shaun-Gladwell-on-life-in-Afghanistan/20001 

Reuben Keehan, “Shaun Gladwell’s moving pictures,” Art &Australia 45 No.4 (2008):650.

 

John Kelly, "The Beauty of Distance," Art Monthly Australia 221 (2009):10-13.

Steve Meacham, “Catching a creative wave,” The Age October 8, 2011, accessed August 20, 2012, http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/catching-a-creative-wave-20111006-1la3t.html

Joanna Mendelssohn, “Shaun Gladwell,” Artlink 23 no 3 (2003), accessed August 9, 2012, http://www.artlink.com.au/articles.cfm?id=2334

Daniel Palmer, “Shaun Gladwell,” Frieze 114, April (2008), accessed August 8, 2012, http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/shaun_gladwell/

Michael Young, “Shaun Gladwell – Riding with Death: Redux,” Art Asia Pacific Online, accessed August 20, 2012, http://artasiapacific.com/Magazine/WebExclusives/RidingWithDeathReduxShaunGladwell

“Shaun Gladwell,” Anna Schwartz Gallery, accessed August 22, 2012, http://www.annaschwartzgallery.com/works/works?artist=86&c=s

“Shaun Gladwell– Afghanistan,” Australian War Memorial, accessed September 1, 2012, https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/gladwell/

“Shaun Gladwell,” Australian Centre for the Moving Image, accessed August 8, 2012, http://www.acmi.net.au/shaun-gladwell.aspx

 “Josh Raymond Projects,” Josh Raymond, accessed August 20, 2012, http://www.joshraymond.com/projects/

“Shaun Gladwell: Move Video in Schools,” Kaldor Public Arts Projects, accessed August 20, 2012, http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/move-artists/shaun-gladwell

 Penny Craswell, “PROFILE: SHAUN GLADWELL,” accessed August 8, 2012, http://www.experimenta.org/mesh/mesh17/gladwell.htm

“Art Nation - Shaun Gladwell,” ABC Arts Online, Last modified April 23, 2010, http://www.abc.net.au/arts/stories/s2881260.htm

“Shaun Gladwell: Stereo Sequences Interviews,” ACMI online, last modified June 6, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ataRzGlLlsw

“Shaun Gladwell,” DasPlatforms, last modified November 27, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MeOguswrc0&feature=related

 

 

 

Interceptor Surf Sequence (Exit), 2009 2-channel, HD video,16:9, silent
27:42 minutes

Clock Time - Rosalind Krauss

Clock Time

In this essay Krauss talks about Christin Marclay's unusual choice of medium, a video artist using commercial film as his medium.  In his work Video Quartet (2002) he uses sound, often to highlight silence and in his mor recent work The Clock (2010) he uses time. In The Clock, which was recently displayed at the MCA, he has selected sections of commercial films showing a clock and placed them in order to form a clock which then plays over a 24hour time period.  What is interestion about this work is it's use as a clock by using clocks.  Where Video Quartet's focus was on sound, or lack of, The Clock focuses on time.  In engages the audience and makes them think about time and the space they are in, however by watching the work they also loose track of time by thinking about it.  It also features the shots of actors reactions to the time, which in turn makes the audience look at their watch, seeing it is the same time, should they be having the same reaction? The Clock brings to light a new medium of time. The combination of he time in moovies - reel time - into the real time of the current, humanising the often fictional movies and putting them in the present. 

An Archival Impulse - Hal Foster

An Archival Impulse

In An Archival Impulse, Hal Foster discusses how the archive is once again a popular form of art making since it first emerged in the pre-war period.  Archival art is often historically based, with artists wanting to physically present lost or forgotten infomation.  This can take numerous forms with most artists tening towards installation.

Foster makes reference to the artworks of Thomas Hirschhorn, Tacita Dean and Sam Durant who all work with the archive in completely different ways.  This shows the diversity in which the archive can be sed, researched and presented.  Hirschhorn works in public spaces creating his sculptures, altart, kiosks and monuments and aims to "connect what can not be connected." Dean finds neglected historical stories and follows them up or re-enacts them and often her work is unfinished or ongoing and the findings of her exploration.  She is ofter drawn to stories of abandonment and failure, the opposite of Hirschhorn whose art rotates around known cultural figures such as artists and writers.  Durant shows the struggle between the upper class of design and the working class through multiple mediums (drawing, photography, sculpture, sound, video and installation) and presents these in an unpredictable way.

Ultimately that are all searching and trying to piece together their own parts of the world.  To bring together infomation, find the missing pieces and their art making is a collection, combination or ramification of this infomation.

Summary - Performance Art

Summary of 'Some Relations between Conceptual and Performance Art" by Frazer Ward

Frazer Ward’s article discusses the relationship between Conceptual Art and Performance Art.  The definition of conceptual art has been the focus of ongoing discussions and is still up for debate however for the purposes of this argument Ward decides to use the definition that Conceptual Art is a work where the aesthetics become secondary to the concept or thought behind the work.  Later on in the piece Ward also discusses how Conceptual Art is sometimes hard for the public to accept due to the reservations about giving up the priority of aesthetic pleasure.   Performance Art is a term more easily defined.  It is considered to be a form of art that happens in a moment in time.  It has a beginning, middle and end and is often performed in a specific location where the artist carries out an action or activity often in front of an audience.

In this piece of writing Ward compares the works of Ian Burn and his Mirror Piece (1967) and Vito Acconci’s work Step Piece (1970).  Burns piece being considered typically conceptual where as Acconci’s work is seen as more a conceptual piece of performance art. However during the 1960s and 1970s both these forms of art were overlapping, sometimes working in conjunction with each other and sometimes working against each other.  Both Burn and Acconci were questioning what art was and the place of art, in the gallery or institution and in society similar to Duchamp and his Readymades.

Burn’s piece is deemed conceptual in terms of its rejection of aesthetic qualities. Consisting of 13 typed pages of notes and diagrams framed and covered in glass and also a rectangular mirror, Burn’s work explains itself in the notes and in turn allows the viewer to understand the intentions of burns work and the mirrors function within it. In Acconci’s piece he steps up and down on an 18 inch stool every morning at a particular rate until he is out of breath and the informs the public of his progress through announcements and allowing the public into his home on key performance dates.  By doing this he takes the artwork out of the gallery which challenges the thought patterns of the time in regards to moving out of the gallery space and away from the commercialisation of art.

It is also important to note also that Conceptual Art is a movement, a period in time, similar to minimalism or any other type of ‘ism’, however Performance Art is not a movement.  Performance Art has emerged and subsided throughout the last century in a number of movements and ‘isms’, some being more apparent than others.

John Kaldor Family Collection at the Art Gallery of NSW

The John Kaldor Family Collection, which opened at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) in Sydney on 21st May, 2011, is not only historic in its contents but also in its donation.  The $35 million private collection of the Kaldor Family was donated to the State of NSW in 2008.  The collection consists of more than 200 works and has been collected for the last 50 years by Sydney collector and director of Kaldor Public Art Projects, John Kaldor and his family.  This generous contribution is not only the single largest donation of art to a public gallery in Australian history, but it means that the AGNSW has now acquired Australia’s most extensive collection of contemporary art from the last half century.  Even though the collection was donated in 2008 it took the NSW government 2 years to provide the funds to develop the AGNSW’s art storage facility into a new floor.  After the makeover, the new floor is home to the Kaldor Family Collection alongside the existing contemporary art collection, modern gallery, dedicated photography gallery and a study room which houses the gallery’s collection of works on paper.

The floor's transformation from a storage space to one of the "greatest collections of international contemporary art" was amazing.  “It is a milestone in the history of the Gallery” and is “the result of incredible generosity of individuals and the positive support of our state government."[1] said Edmund Capon, Director of AGNSW.  “The Kaldor Collection brings not only a new breadth and personality to the Gallery’s collections, but also exciting opportunities, in collaboration with our existing holdings, for exploring and illustrating the art of our times.”[2]  

The collection covers multiple themes although there is a particular focus on sculpture and installation, pop art and minimalism. One of the main features on the collection are the five gigantic wall works by Sol LeWitt, along with some of his other original installations and sculptures, that span over several decades of his career.   The sculptures of Carl Andre, Christo, Jeff Koons, Nam June Paik and Robert Rauschenberg and the video works of Francis Alÿs and Bill Viola are also some of the celebrated work that has made its way into the collection.  It also contains multiple site specific, commissioned works including an installation by Ugo Rondinone and a wall work by Richard Long. 

The John Kaldor Family collection is on display at Art Gallery of NSW until 2^nd May 2012.

---

[1] Simon Black,  “John Kaldor gives away his $35 million collection of a lifetime” , news.com.au, May 18, 2011, accessed May 1,2012, http://www.news.com.au/national/john-kaldor-gives-away-his-35-million-collection-of-a-lifetime/story-e6frfkvr-1226057911673

[2] “John Kaldor Family Collection”, Art Gallery of NSW, accessed May 1, 2012. http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/contemporary-art/john-kaldor-family-collection/

Summary - Interventions

Installation has been used by artists to further explore the relationship between the artwork and it’s surroundings.  Interventions are a string of the art movement in which the viewer’s ideas of art are challenged and the artist creates confrontation and confusion for the viewer.  The 1960s brought on many changes in the art world which involved attacks on the traditional view of art.  This was demonstrated in sculpture movements such as minimalist, post-minimalist, earth and conceptual art, where the sculptures branched out from the walls and plinths of art galleries and museums and into the real world.  The viewer, while engaging with the artwork, is also engaging in the location and sharing the surroundings alongside the artwork which is a challenge for the viewer who is used to viewing art traditionally on a wall or a plinth.  This is shown through Carl Andre’s work where the viewer is confronted with a tricky situation in regards to whether the floor bound work can be walked over or not.  The viewer is allowed to be part of the artwork which breaks thoughts of traditional art viewing and thrusts the viewer into a foreign and challenging world.

Even though minimal art is not often site-specific it does work in unison with the selected space and the space can alter of influence its meaning.  Often however the artwork can be moved and a new artwork/location influence is formed.  Richard Serra was one of the artists that challenged this idea.  Serra wanted to “attack” a given space rather than work beside it. Serra and Bruce Nauman both created works which were aggressive towards the viewer, forcing participation and placing the viewer in an unpleasant situation.  Even though they are both interventions there is a clear contrast between Andre’s work where the viewer can choose if they want to participate and Serra and Nauman's work where they are forced.

During the mid 1960s the principles of the museum also changed.  What was once something to aspire to, having your art hanging in a gallery, was now the subject of critique and even anger.  With this, artists such as Michael Asher created works that were challenging the idea of a museum or art gallery.  In the Claire Copley Gallery in 1974, Asher removed all the internal walls of the gallery meaning the viewer was confronted by all the internal workings of the gallery. The location, the space itself is the artwork. 

With site-specific installation the artwork is made completely for that space and that space only.  If you were to move it, it would no longer have meaning.  The artwork is not just an object, but an object attached to a space in which it inhabits, and in the extreme case of artists like Asher, the actual space itself.

Annotated Bibliography

Claes Oldenburg

Free Stamp

Steel and aluminium; painted with polyurethane enamel
28 ft. 10 in. x 26 ft. x 49 ft. (8.8 x 7.9 x 14.9 m)
Willard Park, Cleveland, Ohio
Commissioned December 1982 by SOHIO (later BP America, Inc.)
Installed August – October 1991 http://oldenburgvanbruggen.com/largescaleprojects/freestamp.htm

Annotated Bibliography

Heartley, Eleanor, “Art & the Quotidian Object”, in Art & Today (London: Phaidon, 2008)

In this chapter, Heartly introduces us to the influence of Duchamp’s ‘readymades’ on the art world and the concept of “anti-art” which I knew little about before reading this piece. She shows us the different interpretations the art world has made on Duchamp’s work and the consequences this has had on the art world in term of the everyday object as art. I found that the first half of the chapter was helpful in giving me a solid foundation on which to start my research. The second half of the chapter was less relevant as referred to specific artists and their practices; however I still found it useful as an overview of Duchamp’s influence.

Hayward Gallery, Claes Oldenburg: an Anthology, (New York: Abrams, 1995)

 A compilation of Oldenburg’s works, this book contains numerous essays about the different parts of Oldenburg’s life and art practice.  It provides a comprehensive biography on Oldenburg and has an overview and photographs of almost all the artworks he has created during his life. There are also excerpts from his diary and the detailed information, focusing especially the earlier years, was priceless for my understanding and research.  I found if anything, the amount of information was overwhelming and therefore it was hard to distinguish what information and excerpts were relevant to my research.  However, having this amount of information available to me was invaluable.

James, Jamie, POP ART, (London: Phaidon, 1996)

This book reviews the movement of Pop Art in Britain and the USA.  It is an introduction to the movement, explaining its history and prior movements, influential artists of the time and their relevant works. I found that it gave a great explanation of Pop Art.  The information was easy to understand and explained the movements before Pop Art and what influenced the artists practicing at the time. Unfortunately the two examples of Oldenburg’s work that were discussed weren’t ones that I had chosen to evaluate and therefore weren’t relevant to my presentation.  I only had a general understanding as to what Pop Art was about prior to reading this book and even though it is a very small portion of my presentation this book gave me the necessary background knowledge I needed to understand the movement.

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, http://oldenburgvanbruggen.com/index.htm [accessed March 13, 2012]

This is the official website of Oldenburg and van Bruggen’s collaborative work from 1977 until 2009. This website had individual biographies of both Oldenburg and van Bruggen. It listed all their collaborative works with measurements, dates, locations and a photograph. It also listed selected publications written both about and by Oldenburg and/or van Bruggen which was very useful. Occasionally there would be a brief explanation about the work but it would have been beneficial if there was a description from the artists about the insight into all their large-scale projects, rather than just a select few. Overall the website was minimal, but the information was concise and valuable to my research.

Bibliography

Bibliography

Heartley, Eleanor, “Art & the Quotidian Object”, in Art & Today (London: Phaidon, 2008)

Princeton University Art Museum, Pop Art: Contemporary Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007)

James, Jamie, POP ART, (London: Phaidon Press Ltd, 1996)

Oldenburg, Claes. Photo Log, May1974-August 1976, (New York: edition hansjorg mayer, 1976)

Johnson, Ellen.H. Penguin New Art 4: Claes Oldenburg, (England: Penguin, 1971)

Oldenburg, Claes, The Multiples Store (Manchester: Cornerhouse, 1996)

Hayward Gallery, Claes Oldenburg: an Anthology, (New York: Abrams, 1995)

Celent, G, et al., Claes Oldenburg Coosje van Bruggen: Sculpture by the Way, (Milan: Skira, 2006)

Bonham-Carter, Charlotte and Hodge, David, The Contemporary Art Book, (London: Goodman, 2009)

Rose, Barbara and Museum of Modern Art, Claes Oldenburg (New York: Chanticleer Press, 1970)

Oldenburg, Claes and van Bruggen, Cooosje, Claes Oldenburg: Large-scale Projects, 1977-1980 (New York: Rizzoli, 1980)

Haskell, Barbara, Claes Oldenburg, (London: Oxford University Press, 2009), http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=4397  [accessed on March 13, 2012]

 Luthy, Michael, “The Consumer Article in the Art World: On the Para-Economy of American Pop Art”, in A Century of Art and Consumer Culture, ed Max Hollein and Christoph Grunenberg (Liverpool: Ostfildern-Ruit, 2002), http://www.michaelluethy.de/konsumgut-englisch.pdf [accessed March 17, 2012]

Steven Stern, “Taking Stock”, Fireze Magazine, Issue 76 June-Aug 2003, http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/taking_stock/ [accessed on March 17, 2012]

J.S. Marcus, “Supersizing It with Claes Oldenburg”, The Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577215551291098684.html?mod=WSJ_topics_obama, [accessed on March 8, 2012]

Carol Kino, “What Happened at Those Happenings?”, New York Times, February 2, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/arts/design/recalling-happenings-events-on-eve-of-pace-exhibition.html [accessed on March 13, 2012]

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, http://oldenburgvanbruggen.com/index.htm [accessed March 13, 2012]

Robert Ayers, “A Conversation with Claes Oldenburg”, September 21, 2010, http://www.askyfilledwithshootingstars.com/wordpress/?p=1371 [accessed March 17, 2012]

Summary

A summary of  UNMONUMENTAL: Going to Pieces in the 21^st Century  -  Laura Hoptman

Sculpture has come back into the spotlight recently with a new appearance.  Sculpture has moved out of a place where it was considered a moulded, cast or carved and is now varying as widely as physically possible in appearance. This new association, and the idea of assemblage, is a result of the large amount of choice we have and the thought that any material can be used as part of a sculpture, resulting in the process of making the sculpture being as important as the product itself.

Jean Dubuffet first used the word assemblage to describe works in the 1950s, however it was William Seitz, who held an exhibition in 1961 called “the Art of Assemblage”, that referenced Picasso and Duchamp’s works as assemblage therefore saying that the movement started well before the 50s and that the artists of the 50s and 60s were merely new recruits.  Having said this, the term assemblage never had enough momentum to become a movement, let alone and art period.

Rauschenberg’s series of “Combines”, which were a mixture of paintings and sculptures created between 1954 and 1964, is an example of assemblage’s height during the 50s and 60s.  The main point of many of the works of the assemblage period is the juxtaposition of everyday objects and the fact that two or more objects can live within the artwork and have both and individual and collective meanings.

In recent times assemblage seems to link more closely to that of the practice of appropriation, popular in the 80s, than the artwork of the 50s and 60s. Critics of the 80s thought that assemblage of the 60s closely resembled works of the 1910s; however close they looked in form they were completely different in meaning. For the majority of today’s sculptors they are not interested in pushing the boundaries of sculpture or art, they are more interested in the connection with the issues of the time. 

Contemporary assemblage is known as being unmonumental. An unmonumental sculpture intentionally lacks the values of massiveness, timelessness and public significance and is a representation of the sculptor, their beliefs and opinions.  These sculptures of the 21^st century are more personal than the art world has ever seen before and due to technology are easily available for the world to see.

Hello! from Jess