Agnes Denes

Agnes Denes is an early land artist born in Budapest. Her most famous work, ‘ Wheatfield – A Confrontation’ was located facing the World Trade Centre and the statue of Liberty. This temporary work was created on an area of eight-thousand square metres. The land used was dumped soil and rubble excavated from the construction of the World Trade Centre. The artist spread topsoil over this area and manually shifted rubble and waste before hand sowing the wheat. The field was cared for so that grain actually grew on the site of rubble and waste. 

 From above, the work looks like a strange golden brown rectangle, next to the water and surrounded by a deserted waste land. Juxtaposed with the city the natural golden wheat gives an amazing contrast to the industrial landscape. I find it interesting that a wheatfield being placed out of its usual context creates something very poetic and romantic. The fact that it is near the big city, one of the biggest in the world. Wheatfield also plays to the people who live in cities, their aspirations of visiting the countryside and see the world outside. It brings up images of peace, calm and childhood. Perhaps memories of better times and forgotten values. 

When the crop was harvested it value was £158. The actual land value was around $4.5 billion. This massive difference in money was part of the point. She referred to mismanagement of money the fact that world wealth is only enjoyed by few and hunger and poverty a part of the majorities lives.

The location of the site is very important, as it is in most land art. Where the work could not be moved or it would change meaning completely. It is placed near the World Trade Centre where the price for food is determined. This work could only be viewed at the actual site. The way she showed this work in galleries was through photographs documenting the piece. It is an action imposing itself on the landscape. A real space a temporary work that had an end.Another work with the land was,

‘Tree Mountain’. It was a man made mountain planted with 11, 000 trees by people from around the world. They were given certificates granting them ownership of one tree. It is valid for four hundred years passing on to relatives or friends insuring maintenance for next generations. The work deals with personal and global responsibility.

Mark Wallinger

Last night I was lucky enough to see Mark Wallinger talk about his work. He was completely normal something I guess I didn’t expect. His work is highly conceptual. He works in video and installations. He has exhibited worldwide and won the Turner Prize in 2007 with his piece State Britain.I got the feeling that his work was really quite simple and eloquently so. He seemed to use the simplest most effective means to get his point across.

His piece State Britain was a complete replication of Brian Haw’s protest against the Iraq war. Haw had been protesting after the first gulf war. His protest consisted of banners, teddy bears and photos. This protest, under a new law, was deemed illegal and taken away by Police at two in the morning. The law stated that no protest could be carried out within a one kilometre radius of Parliament. Wallinger made a video documenting the removal with Brian still there protesting. Wallinger’s reconstruction took five months gathering copyright to every image and teddy bear that was used. It was installed in Tate Britain which runs through that radius. Wallinger put tape running through Tate Britain marking where the radius ended. Half the installation was put on the illegal side and half on the acceptable side.

This is the artist dressed up in a bear suit. He spent nine nights in an empty Berlin glass building with the lights on. He said he had to get over the fear himself and do it which I think was odd as he was hidden in a bear suit. People sometimes would stand and watch outside and take photos. I liked this piece because it was really playful and I think quite personal to him as an artist. It also had meaning for Germans as the bear is the symbol of Berlin.

Wallinger was the first artist to use the forth plinth in Trafalgar square. He installed his piece, ‘Ecce Homo’ a life sized figure of Christ. It means behold the man spoken by Pontius Pilot as he presented Christ to crowds before his crucifixion. The piece was created around the turn of the millennium and Wallinger felt it was eerie how little was being talked about Christ even though this is how we count the years.

‘Life Class’ used the Christ figure but it was put behind a wall. Life drawing donkeys were positioned on the other side of the wall with accurate drawings on the figure. I liked idea that something behind a wall may or may not be there but people were still thinking about it and trying to draw it.Two video pieces he showed really stood out to me. Both had religious themes. ‘Angel’ where the artist had dressed up as a blind man walking on the bottom of the escalator at Angel station reciting words from the bible and played backwards. ‘Threshold to the kingdom’ a video capturing people coming out of international arrivals. It had a religious song playing over and it was in slow motion. 

There seemed to be quite a lot of religious references and I really wanted to know what he believed himself but didn’t have the guts to ask him infront of everyone.

Ori Gerhst

I don’t know if Ori Gerhst would accept the term conceptual artist because his work seems heavily formal. He creates incredibly beautiful photographs but the concepts are equally weighted. I think his work achieves the kind of balance that David Hockney talked about needing to create a great picture. I came across his work by chance going into a group exhibition in London called, ‘Twilight Photography in the Magic Hour’. This was a brilliant exhibition that I liked so much I bought the catalogue, something I’ve only done once.

Gerhst’s photographs from the Twilight exhibition titled, ‘Rear Window’ were all taken from the same view out of his flat window at different times of the day and year. These photos have no filter effects added to them. They are of the space just above London. The colours are the result of light and pollution trapped by the clouds. The photos highlight the difference between what we think we know and what is actually there. London is familiar but we rarely see it like this. I particularly think the composition is amazing. The amount of space, with very little detail grounding us to what is there, is so exciting. There seems to be so much space and possibility when you look up. The colours seem totally unrealistic but they do not look like they’ve been touched up with tacky editing. They seem unrealistic because we rarely see colours like this above our cities.

 Recently in the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh Gersht had a solo exhibition consisting of photographs and a film. They were shot in the Ukraine where his family had sought refuge from the Nazis. His work deals with time and memory. His photographs show the places where terrible atrocities happened. There are no traces in these photographs and in the places themselves of these events. The only things that remain are the trees and houses that were there at the time. His photographs show these houses and trees as if they hold memory. They existed through Nazi oppression and build up such history, living through every event. The photographs are beautiful and calm. Taken with long exposures, some are blurred and show a site loaded with history and its trace today.The film was of falling trees taken in a forest in the same area. It was almost like a photograph with the camera set still. It showed the tranquility of the area and all the slight rustlings and movement of the forest. Then the noises became louder and you heard large bangs of falling trees. Soon after the peace was returned until another falling tree hit the ground. It was to show how quickly order and peace seems to be returned after each incident. The event was only in you’re memory as there was no visual trace. In addition it proved that a tree in a forest surely does make a sound. A rather loud one. These conceptual elements are what make the work successful even though the photos and the film definitely have aesthetic elements. I feel the work is a good balance of both.

Bernd and Hilla Becher

Bernd and Hilla Becher are a married couple of conceptual artists who work in  black and white photography. They document anonymous architecture. They have captured images of water towers, blast furnaces, grain elevators, gravel plants, winding towers, gas tanks, industrial facades among others with a large format camera. This started through Bernd collecting subject matter for paintings. Then the couple began to work together doing the same roles, photographer, scout for sites, negotiations with owners and authorities and printing. They are German artists but their subjects have been photographed internationally over a period of around 40 years. 

Their photos have particular parameters which they decided upon early on in their projects. They describe each structure in a clear, objective manner placing it in the centre of the photo, almost out-with its environment. They objectify each structure showing it without any people. They are calm photos, taken in similar overcast conditions to show the buildings and not the atmosphere. It is purely about the building. 

                                                               

New York City, Broadway/Spring St., USA, 1979 

The documentation of the work was highly important to the Becher’s. They made sure every photo was completely legible. The photos were taken so every detail and texture of the materials were viewable. This let the structures speak for themselves so that nothing was obstructed or miss read. Every photo was dated and categorised. In the early books short notes accompanying the photos gave information on the structures. This has meant that their work is also incredibly valuable for Industrial history. These photos are all what remain of an age recently lost.

 The format of the photos were in groups of nine. Juxtaposed together the subjects all appear similar if not the same on first viewing but after a little inspection you begin to see how different each structure is. The slight personal touches that make each building unique. They become very different and you begin to appreciate the form and beauty in the construction.The work is, ‘anonymous sculpture’. Skilled work by unknown people, not often recognised or considered worthy, and presented as a thing of beauty.

Even though there are thousands of photographs of industrial buildings each will have a story and personal memories to certain people and the artists themselves. Some with very strong personal associations. Places people had grown-up, lived and work. Every photo had to be planned and set up during just the right lighting conditions sometimes early in the morning. A lot of waiting and travelling would have to have be done. Really quite adventurous work. They were once taken in by miners and lived with them for a short period. Accused of being spies during the fifties and sixties with the fear of war. They were suspected of finding targets to bomb. And the fact that they have spent most of their lives taking photos of very similar subjects is very exciting. They found what they wanted to do in life and did it and I think that’s to be admired. 

 

Water Towers, 1980

 http://www.signandsight.com/features/338.html ( a good interview ) 

Christo

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are a couple who make art projects. They work outside in the environment creating temporary artworks that cost millions. They fund the work themselves so they have complete control over the work and aren’t forced to do what sponsors want. They’re work is incredibly monumental not only in size but in time spent from the start of a project to the realisation. This has sometimes taken years because of considerable opposition and bureaucracy. When they are realised they may only be around for two or three weeks.This This is a preparatory drawing used to fund the Umbrella project. It was a joint project situated in the USA and in Japan. There were 1340 blue umbrellas in Japan and 1760 yellow umbrellas in America. The project was a piece about the similarities and differences between the two places. They were opened for a period of eighteen days and totally accessible to the public. The colours were chosen to compliment the two areas. In the wet rice paddies in Japan the blue was appropriate and in the sunny and bare hills of California yellow was picked. The work was dismantled when, during a storm, a woman was killed by a falling umbrella in America. A man in Japan also died when a he was electrocuted from dismantling an umbrella.

  

Valley curtain is a huge bright orange stretch of material over the dip in a valley. It’s almost as if Christo just wants to paint the landscape with his own colour. The part I found the most exciting part of this project was when the material was tied up over the valley then they released it and it unfolded and fell into position in the valley. These projects also involve so many people, construction workers, landowners and committees. They are able to be part of the work  through helping to build it. Once they are convinced of the work, as many are not at first, they seem to really take it on as their own. They are able to totally experience the work go up to it touch it like it’s not a precious piece of art but a totally public piece. Everything about the project seems so impossible and when something like it is finished the people involved seem to feel extremely proud.

Conceptual Artists – Sophie Calle

I have had a total turn around in my idea about conceptual art. I used to almost completely dismiss it, but I didn’t know what it was about and I didn’t really want to. 

I’m looking at Sophie Calle, I really like her work. She is a conceptual artist in the sense that her concept leads her work. She uses photography mainly to document her work. Her work is very personal and she almost uses her life as her work. She uses projects or games that she wants to play and documents these events and actions. She has followed people, been followed, invited them into her bed, asked people about the worst time in their lives. She usually compiles very elegant books for each project.
I found out about her work though her exhibition in the Venice Bienalle where she displayed, ‘Take Care of Yourself’.

This title was taken from the end of a break-up email sent to her ending with those words. She took this advice literally by asking 102 women to read and examine the letter with respects to their own profession. There was a criminologist, lawyer, police captain, writer and actor among the many others. So that the writer would describe the letters style and the lawyer defends Calle’s ex-lover. These all appear as written texts and really great photos of each woman. The actor and singers were filmed. The work publicly displays her private life and its great to see honesty throughout her work.

Another work I’ve been able to see is her book, ‘ Exquisite pain’. This is another piece about a break-up. This is an earlier work dealing with the worst pain she and other people had experienced. She tells the story of a 92 day journey, away from her lover, through the east by train to Japan. She was given a grant and she decided to go somewhere uncomfortable for her somewhere she didn’t want to go, as a way to get the most out of the experience. She chose Japan as she had never wanted to go there and it was totally foreign to her no idea of the place and language. It was planned at the end of the three months that she would meet up with her lover in a hotel room in India. He had arranged it and when he didn’t arrive on the given date she was devastated. She received a phone call in that hotel room and new it was over. The book shows how she told people this story and asked them about when they hurt most. She asked around 92 friends and as she heard their stories her pain gradually dulled. The book shows her story becoming less and less emotional with each new story. These all are accompanied by a telling photograph.

 In, ‘Double Game’ her works are collated together and are very interestingly presented. The book is influenced by another called, ‘Leviathan’ . This is a piece of fiction by a writer called Paul Auster. In it he asked Sophie Calle if he could use some of her life to include in the book. For about seven or eight pages the character Maria takes on the life of Calle. Paul Auster adds his own rituals and games for his character. In, ‘Double Game’ Sophie Calle has three parts. She first of all takes on the roles Auster adds to her own character and makes them real. She follows his instructions for the chromatic diet and letters of the alphabet controlling a day. She eats only yellow food on a certain day, red, green, white in keeping with the book. She lives a day under the influence of the letter C. Spends all day at the cemetery at her father’s grave.

The second part of the book is the real life projects Calle has enacted and are used for the character of Maria in, ‘Leviathan’. These are fascinatingly original projects, totally exciting and enchanting. She plays around with privacy and peoples lives. She decided to stalk a man by chance in the street lost him shortly after, then later in the evening saw him at a party, overheard his plans to travel to Venice the next week. She took this as a sign that she should follow him. This took her to Venice for over a month. After tracking him down with a lot of time an effort she began photographing him in the street and would photograph the things he just photographed. Building up a relationship with him without talking to him. She discovered his likes and dislikes through where he would go and what he would do. Incredibly interesting and slightly creepy. I love her ways how her projects lead her life and if she wasn’t regarded as an artist she would still continue to do these projects irrespective of people knowing about them. I am extremely taken with one project in this part where she took it upon herself to dress a man she thought good-looking but poorly dressed. She did this by sending him a new item of clothing ever Christmas anonymously. This may be an on-going project and she has said she would love to be introduced to him when he was better dressed in his new clothes. I find it extremely interesting how she uses this surprise to better a stranger’s life without taking any credit for it. He would be completely perplexed and intrigued who would be sending him clothes but so happy to have this ritual each Christmas waiting for something new and exciting. Each mystery package bringing something new!

The third section of the book is documentation of Calle’s project dictated by Paul Auster. She asked him to give her instructions. He responded by giving her notes to beautify part of New York city. She decided to decorate and up-keep a phone box, placing note pads, pencils, flowers and a mirror, with other things. A generous project adding a little surprise and joy into people’s normal lives by something slightly out of the ordinary. The work is documented by photographs of the both and written responses on the sheets of paper, comments on crumpled paper.

I find all these projects exciting and interesting because they are all actions, ideas and instincts that Calle really goes with. She doesn’t hold back and lets the projects take her places, literately. They unfold in ways she couldn’t imagine when she starts and this is exciting to read about. Her photographic documentation really helps illustrate the stories and brings them to life. She is daring which is very inspiring.