Steve Lovett

David Wojnarawicz 1991 Photostat one day
Mother and Daughter by Steve Lovett

Millennium Walking 2000 by Steve Lovett

Steve Lovett
21, Aug., 2009
Aspects of an artist identity can define their practice. Discuss how the role of identity is important in the practice of Steve Lovett and then how it might be important in your own art making.

Steve is a visual arts practitioner and art educator with considerable and broad print-based knowledge His practice compacts his thinking related to the role and identification in the society.Viewing a series of slides introducing the process of his development about his print works. Some artists who inspired him and made him extend and explore different ways to his art works with extraordinary mediums.

As an art educator who are struggling to acquire new skills. Continually adventured the unfamiliar conceptual and mechanical field into the connection between tradition and new technologies of image-making. His work adds an additional focus of how new imaging technologies impact on more traditional print making practices. Much of his work is printed. Printed images are nomadic by nature. They are about recording, processing and transmission information.

His research are primarily concerned with questions of time , transition, loss and the narratives of location and displacement. Exploiting the techniques of audio and typography with the images to imply the conflict and emotion between his identification with the society, culture even the politics and history.

Glenn Ligon, Glenn Ligon, October 27 - December 8, 2007; No Room (Gold) #13, 2007
Around the time of the Million Man March in Washington DC ,the American painter Glenn Ligon observed that the way that painting looks in on itself was no longer enough. There was a need use something other than paint to make an image. From that time on Ligon has used language and photography to respond to the world.
By early the early 1990s the impact of HIV AIDS on his world was that painting was set aside for something more able to report events from the world. Maybe not more truthful, but certainly more direct.

David Wojnarowicz 1991 Photostat One Day
Wojnarowicz makes his social and political circumstances, his sexual orientation is the center of his work.

It’s a life © Steve Lovett 1992

Formally some concerns with the voice of the subject becoming present in the work. This piece is perhaps the first work where narrative becomes expressed through patterns of speech. Narration being means to metabolize the world and our experience of it.

Millennium Walking 2000. commissioned by the Tautai Trust .
Vinyl billboard 2.8 m X 48 m. © Steve Lovett.
The work is the transcription of a series of interviews and conversations with people in the immediate area, The piece developed a visual solution - looking for a typographic solution for the spoken word. The collaborators introduced their mates to volunteer a story to the archive-it make the work became a network, it's a kind of social activity.
The Millennium Walking piece deployed a similar visual solution - looking for a typographic solution for the spoken word.

A series slides with detailed introduction about Steve’s works. Steve as an open gay man tells his own stories through his print works. The shift s of the process on his works into the exploration about the issues of identity. The identification about his sexual orientation, and his then and now. It’s related to “who you are?”, where are you from”, and “how did you grow up?”, “What’s majority culture?”.
The identification of himself impact on his works. It’s not only an art work but an social, political issues. The art became an accused tool to tell his own story over grief in the public. The art is public, it belongs to the audience.

As a Taiwanese in New Zealand, sometimes I feel isolated from the majority society where I am now .There are many contradictions between my cultural background and the surroundings around me. I might experiment to depict indigenous images into my practice from my culture, like the motifs from Taiwanese Mountain People (There are 13 tribes of the native people in Taiwan). I would be mostly based on the visual imagery rather than the thinking of identification. The work I intend to focus on the impact of the visual effect instead of the implied meaning of identification.

Deborah Crowe

1)Bridge riley Chant 2 1967

2)Tokyo Ito Blurring Architecture 2001

Discuss the idea of containment in relation to Deborah Crowe’s work.
14, Aug, 2009

Deborh Crowe has always been fascinated by the construction and lines from the architecture. She talked about one of her fascinating building “Forth Railway Bridge”, North Queens Ferry, Scotland while her childhood. It interns of –how it constructed? How the intersection of lines form the sense of geometry?
The organized brainstorm self training with a scientific way is very helpful for her development and exploring into her art works. She thinks herself as a 'practitioner' rather than as an 'artist' to point to the range of practices she engages.One of her proposal for The Public Art Gallery, Dunedin-try to make moving image. What’s it looks like between night and day.”Shift 2000 all part of one world”, the viewers experiment the three dimension form and their shadow drawing. Shadow drawings create an environment which presents a series of contradictions. A spacious yet crowed environment where light woven form have a heaviness to them.She creates the space between the art works and viewers ,to regenerate the contradiction by the light and shadow from the inspiration of architectures, textiles.

She also works around the restrictions of the body and how the body can be contained in many different ways. A collaborative fashion work , “fashion for the future “. People must feel horrible to wear a cloth like a construction with heavy copper material. The containment with 3 D internal and external space. Her work is like and constructed building mounted on the body of model. A clothing on the body restricts the movement of the body. The containment of her using way with contradiction on the work. It makes me feel quite different visual view to her work. Not only the effect of visual and space about an art work. It’s related to the thinking about an installation work on the stage.
During the lecture, I am very interested to know the introduction about some artists inspiring to Debora’s work.

Researching and thinking in depth is very important to compact to the process of Deborah’s work. Overall her habit for the practice way to her work that I would follow the way into my work. The way to regenerate and develop a work is very scientific proven.

Bridget Riley’s work On Chant 2, 1967-No painter, dead or alive, has never made as more aware of our eyes than Bridget Riley.-said by Debora.

Toyo Ito-Blurring Architectur, 8/8 ~8/9, 2007 Sydney, Australia
“Since the mid 1970s, Toyo Ito has been one of the world's most innovative and influential architects, creating new concepts for life in modern cities, searching for an architecture appropriate to our electronic, image-oriented consumer society. Ito describes his latest project, the Mediatheque (media and culture centre) in Sendai, northern Japan, as the culmination of his quest to fuse the physical and virtual worlds. Its unusual function and radical steel-tube structural system have forged new approaches to spatial definition, building services, circulation and construction. Its floors hang on penetrating conduiting masts. Just opened, the Mediatheque is innovative at every level. The centre piece of Blurring Architecture will be a spectacular four channel data projection, where building plans and schematics for the Mediatheque are overlaid and animated, with a soundtrack by electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda.” (From http://www.artspace.org.nz/exhibition%20/2001/blurringarchitecture.asp)

Naham Tevet-Seven walks, Dundee 2004
(http://www.tevet.net/)

Julius Shulman (October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009) was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22[1], Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as The Stahl House. Shulman's photography spread California modernism around the world. Through his many books, exhibits and personal appearances his work ushered in a new appreciation for the movement beginning in the 1990s. His vast library of images currently reside at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. His contemporaries include Ezra Stoller and Hedrich Blessing. In 1947, Julius Shulman asked architect Raphael Soriano to build a mid-century steel home and studio in the Hollywood Hills.[2]Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman
http://www.juliusshulmanfilm.com/about-the-film/

Researching and thinking in depth is very important to compact to the process of Deborah’s work. Overall her habit for the practice way to her work that I would follow the way into my work. The way to regenerate and develop a work is very scientific proven.

Mary Curtis

2009/8/21
Mary Curtis

Artists working in contemporary jewellery and crafts use a wide range of methods for presenting their works. Use some of the example we looked at in class, from Object Space, and say how you think their presentation helps create meaning and helps the audience understanding the ideas/conceptual side of the work.

The Object Space on Ponsonby Road, one of the leading gallery spaces supporting contemporary jewellery and crafts practice. Mary involved the establishment of Object Space for 3 years from start to open. Being an organized contemporary object artist, she had very purposely contributed into it for the need of the social community, the artist, objects and the audience.
An art work placing in the space of a gallery is related to the relationship of the art work, the space, gallery and the viewer. How to place the work in the space to present the artist ideas and help the viewer understanding the concept and the power from the art. To build up the atmosphere from the work and space to fascinate the viewer and create the imagination by the audience.
6th Sep. 2008 – 4th Oct., 2008
Material : Various materials
Lisa Walker-Unwearable
All the small art works with various materials –unwearable, putting on the colorful prints. Is it a maze? What is the game ? It’s a provocation for unwearable of jewelleries. It’s an exciting and innovative installation for the object and space. Being unwearable, each small object putting on individual print with different bright color looks more confident on its location. It’s not related to the function of wearing on the body. They bring to mind jewellery experiments which liberate the common concept to the jewellery. And draw the view’s attention to the object itself.

Numbers one to Eleven
Maker: Tony Bond
Material : Ceramic, wood, enamel paint, installation works.
Tony is a Christchurch sculptor, Tony Bond works occasionally with ceramics. He describes Formuchculae as, “decorative objects for the twenty-first century. The pots as a everyday life homeware put on the wall with the function of decoration. Make the focus on the decoration instead of pot’s’ usual function. Put all stuff together and they look similar but can see the differences between them.

I found it’s very interesting to know different way for the installation and the concept about arts presentation from different artists in the space of gallery. It’s a further thinking about the installation related the meaning of artwork itself. That’s why Mary needed spent 6 hours to do to put the layout of tiny objects in the cabinet in the exhibition of “stuff” in fingers gallery 2001.

Frances Hansen

Week 18 31, July


Materials are important In Frances Hansen's practice. Say something about the materials she works with and reasons for choosing them, how does this relate to the idea of Gleaning? You can extend this by discussing the exhibitions we visited this week and the work of Judy Darragh. Go on to write about the materials you choose for use in your studio practice. What are they and why do you choose them?

It’s very interesting that Frances uses many varieties of material in her collection from the environment in her everyday life. These material including the package, wrapping paper, recycled bread tags, notes with text, canes, bottles, letter box, card board, bed post and board. She collects the recycled material and exploits those into her art workings. The combination of her thinking and imagination putting into her art works to recreate and renew the life of recycled material. This is a project about dissolution and re-materialization.
Sometimes the nothing-material became her source of objective images on her drawing. The process of painting, arranging and composing these images on the panel. Simplify the composition with clean images and spacing in simple color tones. Her drawing in the library looks like an un-finished work with simple composition which can make me feel very peaceful. It’s absolutely very suitable to hang in the library.
She collects the leftover stuffs randomly after shopping and hopes those can be used into her art works in the future. The process of collected bits and pieces, brought together by selection into the art works are very French practice of gleaning. She still continues and enjoys collecting what’s leftovers after using and shopping because it can amuse herself.
The work I practice on art must include the elements of my thinking, illustration and aesthetics. In contemporary art, it has became more flexible for artist to explore more and more mediums in it. I don’t mind what kind of medium on my works, but the works should be based on visual aesthetic. I prefer to collect some stunning decorated porcelain because I am used to do China Painting on porcelain. Toys and DVDs collection already became our family activities.

The Gleaning that means taking what’s left, gathering and revalue nothing into something. In Agnes Varda’s film Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse(The Gleaners and I)
The Gleaners François Millet (1857) . In the beginning of film, In this depiction of the rural life of nineteenth century France, we see three female figures gathering the leftovers after the harvest. It is known as gleaning. The un-shaped potatoes, some comes with heart are discarded by the farmers can be undertaken by the poor after harvest. The gleaning is still existed in modern society in French. It’s a kind of social issuing in French.

Judy Darragh ‘s exhibition at Two Rooms Gallery, Newton until 1, Aug. 2009. Judy’s art practice has been distinctive as she consistently works on the margins, railing against conventions and expectations. From early works in the late 1980s made from op-shop materials and ready made material. She uses cheap material to DIY and remake into colorful objects with luxury visual effects. It’s quite different to the simplicity style with France’s although they both use non-valued material to make something from nothing. Judy reflects that “The maxim of the Bahaus, which I loved studying at school, was ‘less is more’, So when I started out I took the opposite approach of ‘more is more’ and embarked on making things with a passion, teaching at secondary school during the day, getting up at 5am on a Sunday to go to the markets and plugging in the glue gun at night.”

“Art news New Zealand, autumn 2009”
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~waste/timeline/story-pic1.html

Emma McLellan

Jul., 24,2009/7/31

Emma McLellan

Emma’s latest exhibition ,Silk Purse from a Sow’s Ear, in The Lane Gallery, 33 Victoria St East, Auckland during Jun till 4, Jul.
From the beginning of slide introduction, her animal visual diary in 1993, she always enjoys the repetitive things, the animal and animal-human relation argument. Her work has a long time featured animals. Emma’s works with exploration of the ideas of hybrids and genetically altered animals. The animals from encyclopedia, and design or collage by Photoshop to re-create the creature. The sheep in the centre with wings and tail in Silk Purse from a Sour's Ear II(Woodblock Print, Drawing,, Ink, Acrylic pen) looks very strange and mysterious. Combine with the decorative wall paper or fabric pattern in 19 century by screen prints and paintings. The high lighting around the animal makes it more obvious from the painting. The simple color tones with white, blue-green, black and light brown present the antique-like effects. It also makes this painting imply the atmosphere of ancient mythology.
Most of her workings employ the modern technology of computer to cut the images and join together to make the design. And re-combine them with decorated patterns from Wall paper or fabric. She uses a lot of patterns which were designed by Williams Morris in 19 century. Emma has the passion about antique wallpapers, furniture and fabric. Explored multiple variation through screen prints and painting. The unique prints with paint are handmade, non-mechanical. Her work is created intuitively, printing on painted panels, and then scrubbing back to reveal layers of print and paint. She is happy with mistakes, not hope the print to be perfect. Must have some missing. There are almost 20 layer each painting. The in-perfec and fading off effects make her painting more like and traditional painting from Victorian era.

Emma’s paintings can be used for the kitchenware design. Especially the antique like design is suitable to the pattern on porcelain and jewellery. As I know, she likes anything sparkling with interesting detailing. Her design attach with porcelain or jewellery will become high quality production and popular by the porcelain collectioners.

www.nzherald.co.nz/viva-magazine/news

george o'keeffe

First time I knew Georgio O'keeffe was from the slide during the lecture in DVA this year. The slide introduced Judy Chicago's installation art "Dinner Party" (1979), the Dinner Party composed in part of thirty nine plates with vaginal imagery honoring thirty-nine women from prehistory to the early twentieth century.From screen, Georgio O'keeffe's work was set on the first place at left side from the angle. We were introduced Chicago's Dinner Party drew criticism from many feminists for what they believed to be its ' essentialism', or its association between women and an essential biological quality like the possession of a vagina, although it was enormously popular with the general public. Georgia O'keeffe's flower- vagina like art was so obviously, I could not help cennecting to the sexuality. In the library, there is a book related to O'keeffe and the women of the Stieglitz circle "Modernism and the Feminine Voice" during my research about the gender and feminism. I was charmed by her fantastic drawing especially her unique drawing style related to the various flowers, and her neurotic appearance. I felt more curious about O'keeffe's background and her art.



Georgia O'keeffe(1887 ~1986) was born in a farm house on a large dairy farm outside of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin on Nov. 15, 1887, the second of seven children. As a child she received art lessons at home, and she was recognized and encouraged by teacher for her brilliant art abilities through out her school years. When she was in the eighth grade she had determined to make her way as an artist. "I am going to be an artist!" " I don't really know where I got my artist idea... I only know that by that time it was definitely settled in my mind." http://www.ellensplace.net/okeeffe3.html
During her study in school, she was influenced by some teachers. One particular teacher, Elizabeth Willis encouraged her to work at her own pace and afforded her opportunities that the other students felt unfair. 1905~1906, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. 1907~1908, at the Art students League, New York, then moved to Chicago to find a work as a commercial artist. During this period, she quit her brush for the sake of the smelly of turpentine. 1912, she went to Texas as a drawing teaching position. In the same time, she took a summer course for art teachers at the University of virginia.1912 ~1914, She taught art in Texas public schools and working summers in Virginia s Bement's assistant. Another teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow had made big influence on her about the idea for art making. Dow believed that the goal of the artist's personal ideas and feelings and that such subject matter was best realized through harmonious arrangements of line, color and notan(the Japanese system of lights and darks). He encorage O'keeffe experited with Dow's ideas for an alternative to imitative realism. She then decided to try Dow's theories to the test. In an attempt to discover a personal language through which she could express her own feelings and ideas.She tried a series of abstract charcoal drawing of the period.


u take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower - and I don't.
- Georgia O'Keeffe
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/okeeffe_georgia.html

Indegenous Narratives

"Le Folauga ",the past coming forward contemporary PacificA art from Aotearoa New Zealand 12, Dec, 2008 ~05, Apr, 2009 Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. An introduction related to the exhibition in Kaohsiung , the second big city in Taiwan, from an Art magazine "Artist". Le Folauga represents the past, the present and the future. It means the voyage and the changes that occur along the way. It shows the movement towards the future and traveling in the direction of the current.
Le Folauga brings sixteen Pacific artists who work with painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation. Some of them I had heard like Johny Penisula, Tatu Feu'u, Filipe Tohi, and Shigeyuki Kihara.

One of the corporated organizations is "Tautai contemporaty Pacific Arts Trust".
The name Tautai drawn on the Samoan word for navigator and,
Tautai supports the development of contemporary pacific art through activities and play an important role to promote and assist the recognition of contemporary pacific visual art artists.

The goal of Tautai is " For Pacific Artists, By Pacific Artists". It was founded in New Zealand in the 1980s.,and now located in Newton, Auckland. I wish go to view the arts if any exhibition in Tautai.
As I know The Formosan languages are the languages of the indigenous people of Taiwan. Taiwanese aborigines currently comprise about 2% of the island's population.Taiwanese aboriginal language have significance in historical linguistics, since in all likelihood Taiwan was the place of origin of the entire Austronesian language family. With similar pronunciation for " one", "two"," three" and "four" between Taiwanese aborigines and Maori. And "ear" and" eye" with the same pronunciatin with Maori's " tangira "and" mata" . The y had similar living styles,mythical stories, festivals and tatoo presenting the society status.
Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer people can speak aborinal language in Taiwan. The goverment in Taiwan had discouraged local languages including Taiwanese, Hakka and aboriginal languages except Mandarin( the public language )over 30 years. For the past 15 years, the goverment has chaged to concentrated to the education of local culture and languages. They started the language education from primary school and established culture centers in each tribe.There are many organizations involve the activities of recovering the aboriginal traditional culture and arts. Compare to the majority culture, it's still a big gap between them. I think do something is better than do nothing. I hope the contemporay arts related to Taiwan oboriginal culture can have the chance to present internationally not only limit in local Taiwan. Like "Tautai, organized the exhibition in Taiwan. The culture communication is the best way for the education to make people understand the arts and culture in New Zealand. After checking from internet, there are many blogs introduce this exhibition even some primary students'.
http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E5%8D%97%E5%B3%B6%E8%AA%9E%E7%B3%BB&variant=zh-tw
http://www.tautai.org/artists/

http://www.artist-magazine.com/
The magazine "Artist" (Taiwan)Jan. 2009 No. 404