My practise this year is an exploration of contemporary modes of portraiture and photography by analysing historical examples and theoretical discourse relating to appropriation and copyright.
I an very much interested in the ‘deconstruction of traditional modes/form/notions surrounding portraiture in its most formal sense, and feel that the theoretical discourse of John Baldessari has been a influence in my motivation to pursue this line of thinking within my practise.
Theoretical Discourse:
I enjoy reading his ideas surrounding ‘What is Painting?’ or ‘What is Art?‘; his very plain speaking apprehension of what makes art art (in a conceptual framework) is a line of discourse that I find endless fascinating.
His discourse arrow categorisation of art works is also interesting as it has allowed me to assess not only where my own practise cane placed, but also interesting in terms of where art (in general) can be related.
Work:
His work in many was dabbles with portraiture, subverting its traditional mode of presentation by blocking/removing/covering the face or major action within the photographs with his signature coloured blocks/circles.
His dissection of narrative within his images is a theme I also find very interesting about his oeuvre, and I feel that the deeper political intentions of his work are endlessly entertaining, touched upon in such a clever mode of practise and style.
Appropriation:
Known primarily for his work extensively ‘featuring found photography and appropriated images’ this is a line of discourse that has been a constant focus not only within my studio practise, but also within the types of reading and lines of question that has been constaly explored within my essays and theoretical reading.
In addition, his use of printmaking, film and photography remain practises that form the core activities that motivate my practise.
He has created thousands of works that demonstrate—and, in many cases, combine—the narrative potential of images and the associative power of language within the boundaries of the work of art
Furthermore, his demonstration of the above is something that I try to communicate within my images. The inevitable narrative in a still framed drawing/photograph or image (whether appropriated or the result of primary research) is a line of dialog that I ry to active communicate within my drawings and photographs.
Work and Themes:
Early Text Painting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baldessari#Work_and_themes
His early major works were canvas paintings that were empty but for painted statements derived from contemporary art theory.
Baldessari decided the solution was to remove his own hand from the construction of the image and to employ a commercial, lifeless style so that the text would impact the viewer without distractions.
The words were then physically lettered by sign painters, in an unornamented black font. The first of this series presented the ironic statement
“A TWO-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE WITHOUT ANY ARTICULATION IS A DEAD EXPERIENCE” (1967).
The seemingly legitimate art concerns were intended by Baldessari to become hollow and ridiculous when presented in such a purely self-referential manner.
Juxtaposing text with images:
Baldessari is best known for works that blend photographic materials (such as film stills), take them out of their original context and rearrange their form, often including the addition of words or sentences.
Related to his early text paintings were his Wrong series (1966-1968), which paired photographic images with lines of text from an amateur photography book, aiming at the violation of a set of basic “rules” on snapshot composition.
Another of Baldessari’s series juxtaposed an image:
“A glass is a glass” or “Wood is wood” combined with “but a cigar is a good smoke”.
These directly refer to René Magritte‘s The Treachery of Images. However, the series also apparently refers to Sigmund Freud’s famous attributed observation that “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”, as well as to Rudyard Kipling’s “… a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.”
In “Double Bill”, a 2012 series of large inkjet prints, Baldessari paired the work of two selected artists (such as Giovanni di Paolo with David Hockney for example on a single canvas, further altering the appropriated picture plane by overlaying his own hand-painted color additions. Baldessari then names only one of his two artistic “collaborators” on each canvas’s lower edge, such as …AND MANET or …AND DUCHAMP.
Text/Quote:
Boris Groys – From Image to Image File—and Back: Art in the Age of Digitalization
pg 1
“On both sides of the digital divide one feels a certain discontent. On one side, the liberated digital image seems to be subjected to a new imprison– ment, a new confinement inside the museum and exhibition walls. On the other side, the art system seems to be compromised by exhibiting digital copies instead of originals.“
pg 2
“the digital image is functioning as a Byzantine icon—as a visible copy of invisible God.”
p4
In his famous essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Walter Benjamin assumes the possibility of a technically perfect identical reproduction that no longer allows a material distinction between original and copy. Nevertheless at the same time, a distinction between original and copy remains valid. According to Benjamin, the traditional artwork loses its aura when it is transported from its original place to an exhibition space or when it is copied.
p5
And here, each presentation of a digitalized image becomes a re-creation of this image.
p8
This shows again: There is no such thing as a copy. In the world of digitalized images, we are dealing only with originals—only with original presentations of the absent, invisible digital original…. It transforms a copy into an original.
Walter Benjamin – A Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
pg 239
“Quantity has transmuted into quality”
John Baldessari
I could never figure out why photography and art had separate histories. So I decided to explore both
I go back and forth between wanting to be abundantly simple and maddeningly complex [at that in the same breath needs to be be accessible and meaningful is the eternal contricidction of art, my work in particular]
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