The Agony of Finding Information on Asian Artists

Ibrahim Hussein, My Father and the Astronaut, 1970, acrylic.

Question 1a: Using what you know, why do YOU think that Ibrahim Hussein has juxtaposed the image of his father with an astronaut? What is the relationship between the two (also think about the title)?

I think it was used to juxtapose the different cultures and aspirations of different men in the world, more specifically, that of Asian and Western with this painting. The artist's father is most likely a man from a rural village (which comes from the words pisang (banana) and durian mentioned in the painting and his malay kudong worn without a shirt) and it shows the poorer background the artist came from. His father would represent the generation just before the one which is more exposed and accepting towards Western ideas and one which was primarily concerned about keeping the family held together and getting food on the table.

The astronaut conversely represents the Western ideas of gaining more, (the money the camera the film) and of a higher aspiration and knowledge than the father. The technology and modernism attached to the astronaut speaks of crossing new boundaries and things which are unexplored. 

In the same way, Asian views are more conservative, searching more for sustainability than really making it big as the astronaut would in the year 1936 when it's still three decades from the first man on the moon. 

It is possible that the astronaut represents the artist, as the date written on this piece of art was the artist's birth date. The idea that the astronaut's helmet reflects the rural countryside of Malaysia (most likely) probably was to show that this wasn't an entirely Western figure. Since it is most probably a depiction of the Malaysian countryside he grew up in and the title was "My Father and the Astronaut", the astronaut could have been the artist's persona. 

It was the American dream of reaching the moon which the author may have adopted to represent his own differences with his father. The artist most probably faced strong opposition from his father when deciding to become an artist (generally seen as unprofitable at that time) and since he always had a "knack" for art, there would already be this destiny of achievement that could be his. Most people also thought that reaching outer space and the moon was impossible too back in the 1939 period till the Russian team managed to get a contraption into space. So it could have been an analogy to describe his relationship with his father.   

Question 1b: Why do you think that the text that is placed between the figures relates to the artist's birth? Where does the relation lie between this and the rest of the work?

The text refers to the place where he was born in Malaysia and separates itself from the more lofty sayings on the right referring to the "magnificent desolation" and the idea about destiny. I guess it reflects two opposing views which similarly contrast the difference between the older era and the present which is changing (the artist growing up). The artist probably sees himself stuck between the two views of the text, one of the more practical scene of rice fields and where the artist is supposed to make his life and the other a bit more stretched in thinking.

Between the astronaut and his father, it's more of a relation between a comparison of two different viewpoints. One of a more tired, care-worn generation and one with new hope and ideas for tomorrow. The text to the left is more factual and fragmented, like it's not really thought through and symbolises a very simple way of life and language. The text to the right is more thought out and has a more sophisticated air to it. Then it explains the differences between the astronaut and the man.    

Question 2: DESCRIBE the mixed-media artwork:

Answer these questions as a guide for ALL 2-D mixed media works (some questions do not apply to every painting):

• What is the artwork an image OF? (What are the identifiable things IN the artwork?)
• An astronaut with a lot of things hanging off his arms and a more aged man in the rural malay dressing.

• Where are these things located IN the artwork?
• Text and the images.
• Where does the subject of the artwork take place? (in a room, at a festival, etc)
  
• On a piece of maroon colored wall. In a museum explanation chart with a timeline type of background.
• What COLORS are used & what do they look like? (bright, dull, earth tones, etc)
• Earth tones which are duller and white. 
• What type of PERSPECTIVE is used in the artwork?
• Flat, 2D, like a copy and paste of the images onto the background.
• What materials are used? Is there a unique effect that these materials create?
• Paint- a hazy impression and a blend into the background.

• What texture (if any) does the artwork have?
• Flat, wall paint.

The Half an Hour Assignment

1. Mark Dion dulls the line between artist, scientist, and historian. In his artwork,Neukom Vivarium, he focuses on re-creating nature in a lab/classroom-like environment.

a. Recall some of the steps that were used to recreate the environment of a tree underneath the canopy.

1) The fallen tree was found in the forest

2) With the biologists, students, experts, advisors, Mr. Dion collected specimens from the ecosystem existing around the tree. Insects, soil, ferns, moss, leaves, rocks, photo-documentation (done throughout the process)

3)The cranes and transporting vehicles (the type used for trade containers) brought it to the exhibition site.

4)The tree was cut down to size and assembled within the concrete perimeter of the installation with the original soil and the environment inside the canopy remaking the original forest conditions, after which, the canopy with its light filters, sprinklers, water reserves was built around the exhibit. The place is built like a greenhouse around the tree which is preserved to allow the original inhabitants of it found in the forest to continue to exist in the stimulated environment. Drawers like those found in a laboratory and tiles with illustrations of the biodiversity in it were added in.

b. Dion stated that each time this artwork is visited, it would be a different experience. Why is this? (also recall where the work is located).

The artwork is created in an art exhibition space where sculptors and installation artists are exhibiting. The area is also near a more commercial district, so externally, the surroundings are ever changing.

Inside, the biodiversity is continuously growing and changing, because its a living ecosystem. As the tree/log decays, more bacteria, fungi and plants will grow on it. Each time one goes there, there will be a new addition to the artwork.

c. How does this artwork create a commentary on how we treat our environment? Make sure to use supporting elements from the artwork itself, artist intent, and process to justify your answer.

It creates a commentary on how difficult it is for us to recreate the conditions made for ecosystems to function. The thesis of Mark Dion is that despite all the money and technology that humanity has, when we destroy a natural system, it's virtually impossible to get it back. This is emphasized by the great extents of technology and materials that were used to recreate the set-up already made in the natural environment to sustain the standards which the tree used to be in. It's also in a way the idea that we can do something to sustain the environment artificially after we destroyed, however, it will require gargantuan effort to sustain just a small ecosystem as compared to the natural world.

Another aspect of this artwork is that the trees bring life through their death in a continuous cycle of life in the natural environment as the nutrients from the tree sustains all the seeds and smaller life forms now inhabiting it. It's location in the city is to bring something of the world far removed from our daily life closer to the cosmopolitan society to show how much we've lost of the natural world and as a contrast the environment we now have to live in. The exhibit serves then as an informative showroom of the natural habitat, a laboratory of the science involved in the ecosystem and a classroom where the artist hopes visitors will leave with more questions than they had before they experienced the artwork.

For his artwork Rats and Tar, please answer the following:

1. What is the historical background of this work?

Rats were not native to the one of the islands off the coast of Wales. When people visited the island and inhabited it, the rats came along and because of their behavior and the micro-organisms they transported, destroyed many natural species in the island.

The use of tar to coat the rats dates back to the Middle Ages where it was coated on corpses as a sort of retribution and a sign of intolerance. It was similarly done in America when settlers who executed criminals and pirates coated the corpses with tar to preserve them longer for public display, a deterrence to the public and to demean the person the body represents.

The idea of hanging the rats on the tree similarly comes from humanity's horrible history of tying the said criminals to trees as warnings.

2. Depending on who you are, you may find this work humorous or offensive. Dion's work is creating a commentary. What is the work a commentary about, and do you believe that he is successful in getting his point across? Why or why not?

The work was a commentary of how rats was a species which wiped out other species and are as such seen as criminals in natural history. However, a human practice has been used against the animals, which was a warning to people previously. The irony is that the humans were the ones who introduced the rats to the environment in the first place. This work is then a warning to people that we are criminals with regard to the way we treat the environment and that we are no better than the rats, and possibly even worse because the extent of our damage far outstrips the "crime" that the rats were coated and hung up for in the installation.

I think he was successful in provoking people because of his unconventional use of rats' cadavers, and as with the pickled animals, often stimulates a lot of debate among people. But its only as successful as the extent that the viewers are willing to research and know about the criminal execution methods linked with the tar which is a strong symbol about the not so pristine records of the human race. The artwork carries a lot of weight with it but if its taken in the literal sense without any explanation, it is not an easy piece to interpret.

Don't recall the video? Catch it again @ PBS.org. Search Mark Dion.

VISUAL CULTURE AEP

Hello everyone! I'm back! Thank my art teacher, but I'm only going to be artsy for now on in case I rant in a blog post or something.

1. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have been made famous by their large wrapped installations. They are well known both in the art world, and by the general public. Is it ethical for AT&T to use a similar idea in their advertisement without the artist's endorsement? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QddkHo1X5qY

Please consider the following in your answer: how do you define ethical, how do we know that the artists do not endorse the product, supporting rationale. Also take into consideration Cristo and Jeanne-Claude's stand on having patrons for their own art, as well as the purpose of their art.

I define ethical as being of a right conduct. In the case of art, there are so many ideas and pieces of work which have been reproduced or tweaked to be used in other pieces of work or by marketing agencies. The whole idea of evolution of art was when people used certain ideas and changed it slightly to suit a different purpose and in doing so, advancing the art form, such as in the case of Pop Art where the media took ideas from Andy Warhol and used it till it became an icon. It is then ethical for AT&T to use a similar idea in the advertisement without the artist's endorsement.

In most cases, it is hardly ever possible to truly get endorsements from the artist himself, as in the case of the Singaporean mall which literally lifted Piet Mondrian's Compositions into their advertisements. More recently, the artist Richard Serra's painting of former President George Bush, which was a near copy of Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son. Most of the artists don't get recognition in many cases and they are acknowledged. In the case of AT&T using the idea of covering up buildings, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were mentioned, but in today's world, the idea of stopping a piece of art by not endorsing it because it contains certain elements of your own is almost unheard of.

If the artist has an objection to raise, then why not? But it shouldn't become a thing of ethics about whether it is right or wrong. In the artistic sense, plenty of our recent day singers and game producers would be campaigning against YouTube videos giving us parodies of top hits. I suppose the controversy comes because the firm was making money out of the idea by putting it into an advertisement, which is a perfectly valid point if someone took references from books and sources for a research paper, but with something as hard to pin-point as that idea, it's hardly possible. Besides, while the idea of wrapping a building was thought up by the duo, AT&T expanded it to include whole cities in America. By that logic that it would be unethical to use the ideas from another artist's work, even something as basic as a style from Vincent Van Gogh or the fashion sense of Lady Gaga.

In the above examples, the artists probably never intended for such uses for their art, but we can't exactly wake some them up in their graves to ask them. They just made the Mona Lisa talk, one of the most renowned paintings in the world, and it's going to be very vague to see whether it's really ethical to do that. It is relevant to talk of such works of art in this context because ethics is more than just law, the way a person would respect a dead man's body even if he wouldn't know or feel any mutilation one does to the body. If we would have a law requiring artists to endorse the product, there would be some logistical problems not just with the deceased, but also with how much a person needs to use from an idea to require the endorsement of the original artist.

AT&T while they used the idea of covering the building as Christo and Jeanne-Claude did, the technique was quite different from that of the original artists who painstakingly planned the drape of the fabric over whichever landscape or building they were going to create the artwork with. The cloth in this case was simply rolled off the edges of building and hung straight down.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude wanted to be self-sufficient in their artwork and they accept no sponsorship or commissions or public funds. Their stance to their work was that they wanted to just enjoy it with their friends and among themselves and if the public was interested, that was a bonus. In that sense, I think it's safe to say that they wouldn't have any qualms with AT&T using their idea of wrapping the building.

Therefore, I think that it was ethical for AT&T to use a similar idea as do many designers and artists when seeking inspiration for their own work. For the sake of allowing a more conducive environment for art and allowing the free market of ideas, it is a step backward to label the use of another person's idea as unethical. In someway or another, ideas will overlap, and if this principle were to be applied throughout the mainstream of art, it would be very difficult to change the trend of over-protectiveness.

eth-i-cal  adjective

1.

pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct.

2.

being in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct or practice, esp. the standards of a profession: It was not considered ethical for physicians to advertise.

Please tell me that the answer made some sense.