blogart

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Mark Lombardi

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Art & Spirituality / Art & Audience

1. Art & Spirituality: How does spirituality differ from religion? Can one be spiritual but not religious? Can one be religious but not spiritual? Are the terms mutually exclusive?

2. Art & Spirituality: What makes a piece spiritual? Is it the viewer's interaction with that work? Is it the spiritual state of the artist as he/she is creating that piece? Is spirituality equivalent to consciousness or awareness?

3. Art & Audience: Hans Robert Jauss's "'reception theory' held that the reader/viewer does not passively receive a text, but actively 'negotiates' with it to reach an interpretation based on his or her cultural background and personal experiences." If our cultural background and personal experiences change over time, do we "negotiate" the artwork differently? How does art exist in relation to time?

4. Art & Audience: John Ahearn's Homage to the People of the Bronx, Double Dutch at Kelly Street I uses body casts of local residents and the casting is often done during block parties. In such works where the audience participation becomes part of the piece, is it necessary for the viewer to know the history to fully appreciate it? Can an outside viewer with no previous knowledge of Ahearn's works appreciate Homage without explanation?

5, Art & Audience: Where is the line between art and activism? Is Tim Rollins, founder of Group Material and K.O.S., an activist or an artist? What about Rick Lowe's Project Row Houses or Bolek Breczynski and Dr. Janos Marton's The Living Museum? Lowe, Breczynski and Marton are creating places in which art is created... but does that make them artists or just the facilitators?

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Art & Globalism / Art & Its Institutions

1. Art & Globalism: Juan Munoz and Antony Gormley create sculptural installations that describe the "pathology of the crowd." Munoz bases his figures on Chinese terra-cotta warriors; Gormley casts his own body out of lead. By using one figure and repeating it, Munoz and Gormley are able to comment on the human condition. What if this "crowd" of figures were more like a real crowd, cast from a variety of shapes and sizes? Would the lack of homogenization curb the effectiveness of the installation? What if the figures were female? Would they have the same effect?

2. Art & Globalism: Lothar Baumgarten wrote the names of disappearing tribes on the interior of the Guggenheim. How effective is America: Invention? Can an outsider speak for a group, especially a group that isn't represented? Because Baumgarten is an outsider, does that diminish the persuasiveness of his voice?

3. Art & Globalism: What is the difference between globalism and globalization?

Globalism: The attitude or policy of placing the interests of the entire world above those of individual nations

Globalization: The tendency of investment funds and businesses to move beyond domestic and national markets to other markets around the globe, thereby increasing the interconnectedness of different markets.

Globalization seems to imply a more single-minded movement outward, an expansion of one country that overtakes another. Globalism implies a more mutual connection in which no one country gets lost or overlooked. Globalization also seems to be based more on economics, whereas globalism seems to refer to more cultural aspects.

4. Art & Its Institutions: In the Museum of Jurassic Technology, a micro-miniature portrait of Pope John Paul II is displayed. The portrait is carved from a human hair and placed in the eye of a needle. Where is the line between technology and art? Can it still be distinguished?

5. Art & Its Institutions: Performance artist Andrea Fraser auctioned herself off as a sexual partner to a collector in 2003. What are the ethical ramifications of this performance? How does ethics play into the question of what is art?