Tracy Emin - The Golden spoon of Art

The Golden Spoon of Art

The British conceptual artist, Tracy Emin, is an ordinary girl who caught the eye of an Art Collector. It is ten years since her installation, My Bed which caused much debate over the quality and content of British contemporary art. Shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1999, Ms. Emin's installation was constructed from her personal belongings which included an untidy mattress with a few effects piled on a blue rug. She left no mark untouched as the bedsheets was stained with her own body secretions.

Placed at the Tate, for all to grok and consider over her personal life whether it was appropriate, she had the courage to show that the aspects of an artist's personal life could be viewed as art in itself; She is female therefore she menstruates; She has a boyfriend, so she fucks; She like drinking and so forth and finally she keeps a messy room. One wonders, if this had been a photographic installation by Nan Goldin being beaten up if any debate surrounding the content would have been questioned.

Ms. Emin's hardest critic is herself as she among other artists in her rank find themselves in a place where they somehow need to top themselves. But she also must be true to her callings, and question the reasoning behind her work. To be casual about it may damage its credibility. Yet, the greatest aspect to her is the fertile environment which she has to produce work, to explore other areas less demanding to public scrutiny and more fulfilling to her heart.

.........................................................................................................................................................................


I was reading a letter from a friend about a topic that I discussed here on sexypink the other day. He was really upset about the work of Tracy Emin, his gripe was about taste and intention, purpose and shock value. A whole bunch of International names were thrown about, Gilbert and George, Chris Ofili and Kara Walker, to name a few.

Today I thought about an observation I have made about film. The Postman always Rings Twice was remade in the late nineteen eighties. I saw the remake before the original.Where to me, the Lana Turner version, was much more moving than the perceived, sexy, modern interpretation. That was one of the films that drew my attention to what films today bring to the genre.

Sometimes it is easy to think that all modern movies do is add sex and violence and tonnes of special effects. This is the belief that the movie industry has about what we, the public want to see. Are Artists in some way apeing this form of entertainment?

Let us just look at random of some of the Art offerings that I have seen on the Internet and up close for 2005/7. Actual dead bodies willed to science posed in a gallery space for viewing. This included a boy on a skateboard. Colourful murals of Anime-like characters half naked in a stylised forest with mist and running waters. A fox, taxidermied and repeated thousands of times to look as though it were a swarm of foxes within a gallery space and the larger than life sculpture of a woman in bed, caught looking vacantly into space.

Artists want to test themselves. Test what they can do, try things they haven’t seen before. Is it safe to say that they cannot help but be guided by their times? If Picasso were alive today, wouldn’t he be doing things like Jeff Koons? Perhaps when we look at Art, we should remember that there is a part of work, by its very presence, away from a studio space, that is an element of showmanship. Art is a verb, an activity that you respond to.

I started the entry with the words testicular fortitude. That was one of the things my friend talked about, the shock value. Tracy Emin’s work may not be liked by anyone. But it is her work, and she is moved by her times to create those things, and history shall determine her place, as she has managed to draw attention to what she does, and that in itself is no small thing.

The question we remain with is how and why? - Adele

Art - Who has to right to see it

These are the antics people do to cause some controversy and attention, or is it what goes around comes around?

It looked as if it was taken from a movie scene. In October, masked men stormed into the Kulturen Gallery in Skåne, Sweden and took a crow bar and axe to the large Ilfochrome works by the American photographer, Andres Serrano. In 90 seconds, it was all over, and what was left had the potential to be art in itself. In the rampage of the morality of taste, the photographs were scarred, scattered on the floor of the gallery or completely destroyed. It was by all means an unconventional installation piece.

But what incensed these thugs? What had them so outraged to give their forthright view on morals of Art? The show, A history of sex, was an exhibition that dealt with the perversive aspects that surround sex. Mr. Serrano's photographs may have very well been provocative, as he toyed with the idea within the spectrum of the unseen acts which people do engage sexually. To push the boundaries of what humans find pleasurable certainly wilded up these bandits as they hacked and gored at the parts of the photographs which exposed the genitals in some sort of physical contact.

At one point, the camera focused on a photograph of a white man giving fellatio to a upright black man and the attacker repeated hacked at the man's penis yet seemed less agitated with kneeling man. It made you wonder at the degree of racism at a time people should be less ignorant. Out of hate, envy and disgust, they neglected to allow individuals the right to express themselves, and further, it boosted the artist's career by the defiled act. His works are now more infallible. People will be curious to see which are the works that caused such repulsion.

In general, Mr Serrano photographs emanate an appeal from the Renaissance in the way light falls on the his subjects in the art of chiaroscuro. They look as if they were photographed outside at night. But they are stark cold with the undertones of grounded catholicism. Yet, not as clever as Pierre et Gilles or as warm and sensual as with Robert Mapplethorpe.

Mr. Serrano is not new to controversy regarding his work, in 1989, he used his own urine as a patina for the work entitled the Piss Christ. It raised the debate over public fundings and artistic freedoms in United States. So the age old question bubbles to the surface from both sides of the coin. Who decides in Art, what we can see?

Video stills from a Swedish Nationalist group responsible for the destruction of several photographic works in October, 2007, Kulturen Gallery, Sweden. The incident was posted on youtube.

A history of sex - Fotografier av Andres Serrano
Andres Serrano ställer ut sin bildsvit A History of Sex på Kulturen. Den består av 14 porträtt av människor som utför sexuella handlingar.

The History of Sex exhibition continues till December, 2007

The deadly sins in Art

Nothing we make or do can last for eternity

As it is reported, a man climbed over the guardrail of the chapel of the Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica and wheeled a hammer to the Madonna's left arm, it sheared off. He also smashed the nose and left eyelid of the marble sculpture. A work which took a toll of the young Italian sculptor for over two years.

Michelangelo's feat was that he encased both figures as one piece and the marble's grain had to be precise in every aspect so that the Virgin's lap was the center of balance. Here is were her son lay.

Yet, in the frenzy, in the assailant's quest for infamy, his actions proved the power which art possess, that is of its beholden truth, in its self sacrifice, in the blisters and weeping nights. From a block of stone, the form, the expression and weight conceptualized in the mind before Michelangelo wheeled at the marble with his chisel. The man found that by attempting to destroy an irreplaceable masterpiece, it could reflect on the fragility of man, and his man-made objects. In seconds, parts of the sculpture was reduced to dust. Nothing we make or do can last for entity.

The damaged Pietà by Michelangelo, 1499
Marble 68.5 × 76.8 in
St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

Left: The 33 year old assailant striking the Pietà, in May of 1972 at the St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

Two lefts confronts genius

The Pan tuner and arranger, Two Lefts, so named because he always had his left hand in his pocket was invited to a pan yard to train some guys and introduce new songs he had composed. He got to the yard a bit early and saw some young men playing basketball not too far from the yard. He waited and waited, then he got a bit impatient and decided to spend his time going through scales and trying out some of what he planned to show his late arrivals.

After more than an hour, the person who invited him to the yard casually showed up. He was naturally incensed by then and said to the guy, “Boy, you have me waiting here for more dan ah hour, boy! Where dees people I suppose to see? ” The guy casually pointed to the basketball players and said that they were there all the time. A bit miffed, Two lefts introduced himself and decided because he was pissed, to ask them what they understood about pan. One of the players took his sticks from him and proceeded to copy precisely all that he had played while they were dribbling the ball on the court. He was so shocked that all he could sheepishly say was, ‘Fine, let’s get right into the song I am here to show all you.” True Story - Adele

Above: A Steelpan arranger airbrushed on the interior wall, located at the Smokey and Bunty bar in St. James, Trinidad, West Indies.

Article courtesy of Point of Departure

Roberta Stoddart - The dark sides of society

The artist Roberta Stoddart is clearly a very strong painter. Her palette for her show as well as the scale of her work recalls the fine portraiture of British Artist, Lucien Freud in its classical sensibilities. She seems to deliberately choose a stark grouping of colour to drive home her messages and keep her focus very sharp.

I find this show very disturbing. The artist looks at beauty within the fringes of society. Yet there is a very harsh aftertaste, and this must be discussed because it is a very tantalizing, confusing and relevant underpinning. She is asking the question, why do we feel uncomfortable and by doing so, she places heads onto insects commonly referred to as vermin, in several small paintings that encourage coming closer to look at the details. Without doubt there is a searching to understand how she relates to the dark sides of society.

A gay friend of mine has spoken with me about feelings of being on the fringes recently. Despite the strides made in his society of Toronto, he has still felt the inability to be what he wants to be and this has left scars on his psyche. He asks the question, why does he have to be mindful of not putting his life out there because he does not want to upset the majority?

In Ms. Stoddart’s work, this is also apparent, but moreso, by her use of ‘black’ people as her
predominant choice here, she does bring to question the idea of the black place in society. The very real, tenuous reality of “these people” as problems. Very much like the challenged adult in society. Someone whom you may acknowledge, but be at pains to associate with. Unless you have to. This may be impolitic to say, but it is the truth of many circumstances where people have difficulty with differences of any kind, difficulties that show up deficiencies in themselves to be tolerant for any length of time.

Is she saying that she feels as alienated as people of colour who are caught between races? What of the insect paintings? Is she looking at this group as many believe them to be? There is a clear wrestling with prejudice. I can skirt the fact that she is a Jamaican, Caucasian artist and say that this has nothing to do with her painting choices. But this would be disingenuous, because hers is a long, difficult struggle of privilege in a predominantly black society. There is no way to discuss this artists works and not feel the growing pangs and delicate balance that is race, class and colour in the islands.

Miss Stoddart also includes an older painting of children and a self portrait in a wedding gown. I have written about the former painting before, but the latter, being a new work and chosen for this show, is a bold statement about marriage. Although she may be dressed in wedding finery, her pose is stiff and doll like. Marriage is certainly more than the day in question. Is she perhaps saying that marriage is not all that it is cracked up to be?

People naturally gravitate towards her work because of the excellent technical skills, but how many really want to look at the gut wrenching questions she employs? I suspect not many, as I have found in the writing I have come across on her works, and I believe that we are poorer for not engaging the questions that Miss Stoddart is trying to articulate through her work.

An exhibition of recent works, In the Flesh - Roberta Stoddart. National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad, West Indies. 22th November till 8th December, 2007.

Beauty in all living things - Roberta Stoddart.

People in general want the same things, they deserved to be respected and acknowledged. And this is where the conflicts arise in all societies, from injustice to hate, to violence, to war and finally to genocide

At the National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago, Roberta Stoddart's much anticipated show, In the Flesh opens to a large turnout. Held at the Annex, Ms. Stoddard shows a body of work that deals with the subject of discomfort and unseen social obligations. She includes a portrait of herself in a wedding dress, yet unwed.

By a simple study of a common Roach, she paints to disturb the mind with living things which may repel the viewer because of its parasitical quality. Ms Stoddard, otherwise sees a beauty which she translates onto the canvas in the finest veneer. Here, she captives the notion of Race by replacing the head of the insect with the portrait of a human. It should be noted in the history of Western Art, Michelangelo played on similar puns by painting the faces of clergymen as the gland of the penis. These were a satirical commentary on the ills of religion. With Ms. Stoddard, it is the racial stereotyping she sees.

A clue to her composition, Saints and Sinners 120 x 72 ins, is a place quite recognizable to the Tortuga Roman Catholic Church, which sits at the crest of the Montserrat hills in Gran Couva, Trinidad and Tobago. The composition includes four studies, were Ms. Stoddart is portrayed to the lower right in a posture somewhat bereaved. The unusual perspective tilt is taken from the upper level of the church, where the organ once stood. Her subjects are the freaks of nature who suffer from a skin disfigurement by the absence of pigmentation. What is unique about these studies is that her pallet offers a similar approach in the splotches of colour, as with their skin cancer. The overlaid are precisely layered to give the skin its tonal flake.

For those who have a love for fine art, In the flesh offers a scope to the island's finest painter whose technical range is clearly shown in oils. There is an opportunity to see what portraits should look like, as Ms. Stoddart's strengths are those very aspects in a smaller scale.

An exhibition of recent works - Roberta Stoddart. National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago, 22th November till 8th December, 2007. A catalogue accompanied this show which is a retrospective of her work. Enquiries regarding the publication

Albrecht Dürer's perspective

Albrecht Dürer is much known for his copper engraving, but he also devised the means in which the line, geometry and perspective were an essential part of composing. The devisions of the human body could be calculated mathematically and Dürer stressed that with drawing any object, the proportion and weight was needed to give a realistic sense of what was observed.

With these superimposed portraits painted between the period 1493 and 1500, Albrecht Dürer viewed himself as an noble man, equating himself to the deity of the Christian faith. Yet, it is in his work, in the simple life of the peasant, and the representation of his Deutschland that bequeaths his legacy.

Madness, Surrealism and Meret Oppenheim

Geniuses don't need to think

For those of you who studied twentieth century Art. The object superimposed over a image of the artist marked a period of the amalgamation of readymade objects. It is one of the most recognized feminist pieces produced during the Surrealists movement. In 1936, the German, Meret Oppenheim devised the object by simply covering a cup, saucer and spoon with fur.

Ms. Oppenheim brought to the foreground the agility of class, refinement and fetishism. Holding the object could bring some sort of pleasurable sensation. The object was merely to poke fun at the absurdity of it, which in itself, the work, Le Déjeuner en fourrure was surreal. (Lunch in fur) examined the concept that an idea could be more important than the creation of an object itself. The piece is a collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Twentieth century Art: Le Déjeuner en fourrure by Meret Oppenheim

Why paint - Oh what joy it brings

A rainbow fertilizing the soil of a nation
Esmand and Ann Dasent are an older couple from Trinidad and Tobago. Together, they have a great history of the originals of the Trinidad Art Society, and a calender highlighting Chinese painters brings back fond memories. It is, as Ann says, as refreshing as if they were painted yesterday, the works by Sybil Attect, Amy Leong Pang, Willie Chen and master of them all, Carlise Chang. Both she and her husband are grounded in a period when painters who meant something, painted something of more substance. There is no comparison from works seen today.

But in their small home, there is a humble painter, a man trained by America's very best among others, Norman Rockwell in the 1940s. There, he was taught about the principles of the form, anatomy and the differences between illustration and painting. Illustration was for the common man, while painting was purely artistic in its content.

Mr. Dasent has stopped painting due to his poor eyesight and his scenic oils have become etchings in color pencil kept in a small drawing book. The drawings look as if his vision is masked by a curtain, his pencil strokes fill in shapes that represent a landscape.

But it is his broken-spirit of not being able to have a clear focus of his subjects that detours his efforts. And yet it is his inner passion to work from pencils and colour markers that gives a clue that artists are born artists.

Found Aboriginal Art - Readymade

The term "Readymade Art" can be traced to the French artist, Marcel Duchamp whose work in 1917 titled, "Fountain" changed the world of twentieth century art. It was basically a urinal placed at an exhibition.

Yet, objects of any kind can have a presence of symmetry, beauty and power if considerable thought is behind it. As with these aboriginal stone discs, shields and war clubs, they are arranged to evoke a sort of tribal honor. In itself, the formation of these objects are an art installation. The weapons circumvent the entrance door, and the ceiling of a colonial building is eclipsed by the Bird of Paradise.

Postcard - New Guinea 1889