Iranian Contemporary Artist Speaks of exile, Diaspora, and Displacement

Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat started her artmaking in 1993, and her first exhibition was a set of photos called Women of Allah which proposed the issues of Neshat’s displacement within Islamic ideology and art. Born in 1957, Iran, she is one of the well-known, American-based contemporary artists of today, who has gone beyond to explore the issues of exile, diaspora, belonging, and displacement. In her series of photos, Neshat present the militant Muslim women that subvert the stereotype and examines the Islamic idea of martyrdom. All photographs are in black and white and in most of her photographs, she is including the Farsi or Arabic text on faces or hands, chador (which is the women cover), and showing gun in few of them.

Few years later, Neshat began working on video and sound installations which result Rapture in 1999, which was influenced by her Fervor. These two works including her earlier work called Turbulent has composed a “trilogy on human identity, inflected by differences in gender and culture, which situates the work at the heart of art world preoccupations today.”

Shirin Neshat, Rapture, 1999, video still. Images courtesy of the artist and Barbara Gladstone Gallery.

Rapture is a twelve minute poetic video in black and white which focuses on the differentiation of gender role both visually and spatially and addresses to the traditional and cultural aspect of patriarchy and fundamentalist society of Iran. After visiting Iran, Neshat started analyzing the differences between the western and eastern cultures and this emphasis has made a great impact on all of her artworks. Neshat’s powerful art is characterized by a visual lyricism and elegant beauty that is always captivating and occasionally confusing.

In today globalized world, artists such as Shirin Neshat play a significant role to represent the differences between the cultures of her homeland and home she currently lives in. As an Iranian, I feel privileged to look at Neshat’s work and compare and contrast my personal experiences through the different worlds. Also the foreign viewers, who never had experienced the Islamic country such as Iran, will definitely enjoy and get a sense of the way Neshat has illustrated her works through her own view.

By Jaleh Fotoohi

Check these two PBS interviews with Charlie Rose:  January 2002 and June 2006

Related Reviews: Global Art Database,Visual Art,Photography,Video

Manga Ormolu – Hybrid cultures in a globalized world

Manga Ormolu is one of Brendan Lee Satish Tang’s ceramic series, which amalgamates Ming Dynasty style porcelain with figures from Japanese anime and manga. The set is inspired by French ormolu, where Chinese ceramics were gilded with gold or bronze. Here Ming-style vases are usurped by futuristic robotic prosthetics, representing the ongoing process of globalization (as known as colonialism, nationalism, and capitalism) and of cultural appropriation. Tang criticizes the rate and extent of which globalization is increasing as we pass through various technological revolutions from agricultural, industrial, to now digital. The boundaries which define one’s identity are subjected to constant change, but now at an even faster pace.

Manga Ormolu version 4.0-c by Brendan Tang

The message of traditions taken over by technology and globalization and of cultures hybridizing and merging together reflects his personal history. Tang is born in Ireland to Trinidadian parents – father of Chinese decent and mother of Indian decent and now lives in Canada. Being ethnically-mixed and culturally diverse, he claims that he is used to a hybridized identity. Through Manga Ormolu, he wishes to address the issue of transformations in culture and identity in an amusing and not so serious fashion, while motivating viewers to become aware of globalization and to reflect on the realities of their world. 

By Athena Wong

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Immigration and Domination, Landscape: For the Birds

How Soon is Now is currently showing at The Vancouver Art Gallery, featuring contemporary works of over thirty artists from British Columbia. Each piece is from local artists, but the ideas behind them are not limited to local issues. Many of these artists have displayed the effect of the globalized world within their local artworks.

Abbas Akhavan

Abbas Akhavan was born in Tehran Iran, but has been living in Canada for thirteen years, currently residing in Vancouver. His work entitled “Landscape: For the Birds” is an intriguing piece that explores the issues of immigration. There is nothing installed, instead the viewer is directed to the gallery window where they are instructed to listen to the starlings outside. As Vancouverites we may hear these starlings everyday but probably know very little about their history. Starlings are originally from Asia and Europe but sometime in the 19th century they were introduced to Canada and began to take over. Starting off with only ninety birds, their numbers are currently at 200 million. Starlings can easily adapt to urban life and nest anywhere. They are a particularly aggressive species of bird that are known for pushing other birds out of their nests. This fierce competitive nature usually results in them taking over from the once dominant local bird species.

By pointing to the viewer in the direction of these starlings, Akhavan is conjointly pointing out Canada’s own history of immigration. During the gold rush of 1890 people emigrated from Europe and Asia in vast numbers. These newcomers quickly built homes and drove out the native tribes. Comparable to starlings, these immigrants quickly took over and became the dominant ones.

Click here to hear 

European Starling sound

“Landscape: For the birds” has successfully taken the global issue of immigration (of people and of birds) into a very localized area of the Vancouver Art Gallery. It shows how even a work that involves listening outside a window in Vancouver can point to worldwide issues.

by Kathryn Schmidt

 

 

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Temporality and Fragility in Kristi Malakoff’s “Skull”

One of Kristi Malakoff’s current pieces at the Vancouver Art Gallery, entitled “Skull” brings together two opposing feelings, that of life and death, and through looking at celebratory ideas of death Malakoff is also bringing together the global with the local. The piece covers a large white wall in the gallery, and at closer look one is able to see the fine craftsmanship that Malakoff has put into this work. A labour intensive piece the work consists of over 12000 cut out paper flowers, mounted on the wall to form the design of a skull. Fifty different types of flowers are displayed, and have all been photographed by Malakoff, and then cut out one by one, and reassembled in the gallery space. The work speaks of death and beauty, both through the initial design; flowers into a skull, as well as the fact that the piece itself is so delicate, and ultimately will be destroyed once the exhibition is over. Life is fleeting, just as this project in fleeting, in the temporality of it, the bright colours and impressive detail will all be taken down, therefore the work must be celebrated while it is still here.

“Skull” by Kristi Malakoff

Also in terms of celebration this work brings up ideas around celebrations of death, such as The Day of the Dead, in Mexican culture. This is where Malakoff’s work leaves the local space of the Vancouver Art Gallery and becomes a global piece of work, that cross-culturally can be talked about, and understand in the same, yet different ways as well. Celebrations of death are something that happens across cultures, not just in Mexico, similar celebrations occur in Spain, and the Philippines. In this way this large skull allows viewers to think about death, and how it is celebrated in their own culture compared to other cultures. Malakoff uses a beautiful design to show off the beauty in life, and juxtaposes this with an image that is understood globally to be one of death or destruction, in this way she is speaking to a larger audience, and making her point more globally understood, instead of only understood for the space of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
A common theme of fragility and temporality occurs throughout Malakoff’s pieces, and she is able to use a theme such as this to provoke cross-cultural discussion around her work, as well as aesthetically, the fragility of her work can be appreciated for both its beauty as well as the hard work that evidently went into it. A large-scale piece such as this screams to be talked about, and that is exactly what “Skull” achieves, discussion around the beauty of the work as well as discussion around the larger themes the work represents.

Kristi Malakoff’s "Star" and "Target" (both on the floor)

 

Two other Kristi Malakoff pieces are currently being displayed at the Vancouver Art Gallery now, both her piece “Target” which is made of layers and layers of crate paper, as well as “Star” which has been constructed with actors tape in the shape of a star on the gallery floor, can also be seen in the “How Soon Is Now” exhibit, running until May 3rd, 2009.

By Heather Palmer

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How Soon Is Now

“How Soon Is Now” is an exhibition that is happening now until May 3^rd, 2009 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The exhibition introduces selected artists from the province of British Columbia whose work utilizes range of forms such as sculpture, painting, video, audio installation work and more.

In one part of the gallery, a series of works that are bizarre yet at the same time eye pleasing, is Brendan Lee Saish Tang’s Manga Ormolu. Tang, born in Dublin and raised in Nanaimo BC, links his interest in hybridity to his family background, which includes a number of generations of ethnic intermarriage and intercontinental migration across India, China, Trinidad, Ireland and Canada.

 

Brendan Tang (in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery)

Manga Ormolu version 3.0-b

Manga Ormolu enters the dialogue on contemporary culture, technology, and globalization through the relationship between ceramic tradition (using the form of Chinese Ming dynasty vessels) and techno-Pop Art. The futuristic update of the Ming vessels recalls the 18th century French gilded ormolu, where historic Chinese vessels were transformed into curiosity pieces for aristocrats. But here, robotic prosthetics inspired by anime (Japanese animation) and manga (the beloved comics and picture novels of Japan) subvert elitism with the accessibility of popular culture (Brendan Tang—Artist’s Website).

The title “How Soon Is Now” evokes one characteristic of the work in the exhibition: a sense of immediacy that speaks to the present moment (19^th issue of Glance, news and event of the Vancouver Art Gallery). Through developed technology, it is un-questionable that the world is coming closer. Hence, Tang’s work flawlessly fits with the title of the exhibition and just like his background he has created work that mirrors the hybridization as a cultural effect of globalization.

 

Raymond Boisjoly—Expanding Fields. Christmas lights and wooden construction.

Wood and lights compose Raymond Boisjoly’s Beginnings and Latecomers, a unique hybrid of cultural ideas.  Made of yellow cedar, the sculpture is adorned by Christmas lights of different colours.  The lights form to outline figures similar to those found on totem poles.  This mixture of West Coast Native symbolism with Christian-based tradition evokes a strange juxtaposition, creating an odd, desecrated version of a totem pole.  

Boisjoly offers a unique translation of local Aboriginal tradition and culture. His representation of a totem pole, bright lights and all, is one for the modern, market-oriented world.  Today, artists are expected to go beyond their local art communities and serve and appeal to a more global market.  I see Boisjoly’s work as a critique of this idea, bringing to the viewer’s attention how Native culture has become a cheap commodity.  Aboriginal icons and beliefs have been appropriated time and again in order to make money in the name of celebrating local art tradition.  This is at the expense of true Native culture, however, as traditions are boxed up into packaged products for the mass consumer.

 

Noah Becker in the studio. Photo Big Tiny Smalls

Noah Becker’s piece entitled, Dysfunctional Landscape, is currently being featured at the “How Soon Is Now”.  This artist’s work is labelled as “commenting on contemporary culture.”  Becker’s, Dysfunctional Landscape, consists of a mountain structure broken down with levels of several tiers, containing both objects and human figures.  This frame provides the piece with a downward motion, containing an end when the bottom of the work is reached.  In the depiction, objects appear to be passed and shared.  Some are left on the floor, while others are in use.  These individual abstract fragments include a person with a marionette puppet and the act of building in progress.  While all these individual identities are presented in the piece, so are segregated entities. 

The notion of globalization is here evident.  Individuals choose to partake as consumers in the shared concepts and notions of cultures outside of their own, even if they are not aware of their involvement.  Together people are building a universal point of recognition; however humans are still members of their personal culture.  The scattered objects represent the notion that there is no infinite answer to the implications of globalization.  Cultural overlap exists, however no one is quite sure how to encompass identity into a single definition.  In other words, the lack of certainty of the meaning and repercussions of globalization is represented.

Other Artists in the exhibition:

Jackson 2bears, Abbas Akhavan, Sonny Assu, Cedric, Nathan and Jim Bomford, Aaron Carpenter, Hadley+Maxwell, Antonia Hirsch, Allison Hrabluik, Instant Coffee, Christian Kliegel, Germaine Koh, Laiwan, Kristi Malakoff, Kyla Mallett, Luanne Martineau, Damian Moppett, The Music Appreciation Society, Lucy Pullen, Marina Roy, Samuel Roy-Bois, Carol Sawyer, Kevin Schmidt, Kathy Slade, Ken Singer, Mark Soo, Erica Stocking, Dan Starling, Kara Uzelman, Holly Ward, Paul Wong, Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky.

 

Next Talk: Pleased To Meet You: Socialibility and Art Thursday, March 26, 7pm In the Gallery Panelists: Abbas Akhavan, Instant Coffee, Laiwan and Holly Ward; Moderator: Lorna Brown With: PDA for your PDA (Public Display of Affection for your Personal Digital Assistant) Laiwan will present this participatory event as a complement to the panel. Bring your PDA. 

Jen Lee, Matthew Sy and Melissa Assalone

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Busting through Globalization: A Look at Adbusters One Flag competition

Adbusters, a not-for-profit organization, describes itself as “a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society.” With the want to change a capitalist driven world, this British Columbian based company has worked since 1988 to change the way we think about consumerism, and the impacts we make on our world.

            In a time where we are “faced with some of the most daunting global challenges in human history, ” (Adbusters.org) Adbusters is running its “One Flag Competition,” to find a flag that is representative of all cultures, all communities, and ultimately of the world as a global community. From over 1000 entries, the competition has been narrowed down to 32 flags, to vote from. Out of these 32 flags a common theme of unity, and globalization arises. Looking at just one of these flags, one can see how a piece of art can represent a host of ideas, and in turn make a stand for a world in which we are able to work together.

Flag Of Pop World by Andy Shawber

            Flag of the Pop World, a piece by Andy Shawber of Seattle, Washington, is representative of how “our national identities are increasingly becoming abstract,” because of the increase of globalization. We continue to live together in this world, the colours we create, being side by side in his flag.  This piece uses a range of colours across the spectrum, which “depicts the blend of national colors as kitschy and banal” (Shawber). By using all those colours that are seen in flags around the world and mashing them all together, to create something new, Shawber is able to disassociate these colours with what they originally have represented and instead create a new flag that shows the break down of each individual country to form a new global community.

            The idea of finding one flag that is able to represent the world coming together to survive, as a single nation seems to be an unattainable ideal. Yet when one takes a look at the rate of globalization, and the already increasing coming together, in this world, a flag to represent, and support the idea of working together as one, is changing. A flag such as the ones represented in this competition, shows an awareness of what is going on around us, and shows that we are not only living as individuals, but are a part of something bigger around us, something that is subject to change and always subject to improvement. A contest such as this brings awareness to a larger group of people, using art to create change and consciousness of what is going on in the world around us.

            This work as a piece of global art shows how expression through art, literature, etc… is able to create representational ideas, that can bring forth ideas with just one look. This contest is able to use the created images to bring up ideas of globalization with just one look at each flag.

By Heather Palmer

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Inside the mind of Jacques Resch

"Le Diabolo" by Jacques Resch

A French surrealist artist born in 1945, Jacques Resch became a physics and chemistry teacher while painting and drawing on the side. Resch’s works are strongly influenced by what he perceives as onrushing problems that plague the world such as pollution, political and social instability, poverty, and even the modern day insistence and obsession with technology. According to his biography, Resch prefers to create his work spontaneously with no edits, as it is his point of view that these errors show and emphasize the feebleness of human nature and the limits of the human creature. Indeed, at first glance many of Resch’s paintings are difficult to take in due to its multi-layered characteristics. Pieces such as the “Le Diabolo” depict people, none of whom look happy, living, perhaps imprisoned, inside distorted structures. In this painting the people have become an inseparable part of the very structure that they had created.

"Le Vagabond" by Jacques Resch

In “Le Vagabon”, a human figure is seen walking on stilts with a heavy load on his back. But as to who is in control of the body comes into question as two faces (one of an old man and another of a child) emerge from the man. The ground is littered with garbage which the man dutifully avoids using his wooden stilts while carrying his own rubbish on his back. Resch brings into question the manner in which perspective comes to play on how we define boundaries, especially when defining human progress. When viewing his works one begins to wonder as to the extent that the very objects and events that we have created and started have in turn defined our very existence and influenced our perception of the human condition.

Anthony Bornia

 

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Deleuze’s Lecture Series: Anti Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus III

Dualism, monism and multiplicities

Gilles Deleuze

Lecture Vincennes – March 26th, 1973

Desire-Pleasure-Jouissance

In the Archaeology of Knowledge, Foucault said some profound things about statements [énoncés] that concern several domains at once, even if not at the same time. I take two very vague examples. There is a moment in the Greek City when statements of a new type emerge, and these statements of a new type emerge within assignable temporal arrangements, in several domains. They can be statements concerning love, concerning marriage, concerning war, yet we feel that there is a kind of kinship or community among these statements. We have seen certain thinkers try to give explanations of how statements emerge in diverse domains that have this kind of kinship. In Greece, for example, during the “hoplite” reform, new types of statements concerning war and strategy emerge, but also new statements concerning marriage and politics. All this, it has been said, cannot be unrelated. There are some people who immediately say, for example, that there is a system of analogies or a system of homologies, and that perhaps all these statements refer to a common structure. They are called: structuralists. Others will say that these productions of statements depend on a certain domain which is determinative in relation to the others. Such people, for example, we will call: Marxists.

Perhaps it would be better to look for something else.

There’s a book from which one can learn many things, entitled Sexual Life in Ancient China [by Robert H. van Gulik (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1961)]. This book shows clearly that manuals of love and manuals of military strategy are indiscernible, and that new strategic and military statements are produced at the same time as new amorous statements. That’s curious. I ask myself: OK, how can we extract ourselves, at the same time, from a structuralist vision that seeks correspondences, analogies, and homologies, and from a Marxist vision that seeks determinants. I indeed see one possible hypothesis, but it’s so confused . . . . It’s perfect. It would consist in saying: at a given moment, for reasons that, of course, must still be determined, it is as if a social space were covered by what we would have to call an abstract machine. We would have to give a name to this non-qualified abstract machine, a name that would mark its absence of qualification, so that everything will be clear. We could call it — at the same time, this abstract machine, at a given moment, will break with the abstract machine of the preceding epochs — in other words, it will always be at the cutting edge [à la pointe], thus it would receive the name machinic point [pointe machinique]. It would be the machinic point of a group or a given collectivity; it would indicate, within a group and at a given moment, the maximum of deterritorialization as well as, and at the same time, its power of innovation. This is somewhat abstract at the moment, it’s like algebra. It’s this abstract machine which, in conditions that will have to be determined, it’s this machinic point of deterritorialization that is reterritorialized in this or that machine, or in this or that military machine, amorous machine, productive of new statements. This is a possible hypothesis. I have the impression that there are things in Leroi-Gourhan we could use here, we would have to see how that works. This machinic point would indicate a kind of speed of deterritorialization. There are systems of indices under which reterritorializations are made in qualified machines, war machines, machines of love, machines of marriage….

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Deleuze’s Lecture Series: Anti Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus IV

Lecture Vincennes – January 14th, 1974

Gilles Deleuze

I must pass by a kind of terminological detour. This detour consists in recalling a certain terminology. We find that, in the whole current of the Middle Ages up to and including the seventeenth century, a certain problem is posed concerning the nature of being. And this problem concerning the nature of being adopted some very precise notions: equivocity, analogy, univocity.

At first sight these terms appear dead to us. They make up part of the great discussions of Scholasticism, but the great metaphysical disputes always hide something else: people are never burned or tortured over ideological questions, even less over metaphysical ones. I would like for us to try to feel what was very concretely in question in these stories which were presented under an abstract form: is being equivocal, is it analogical, is it univocal? And after all, this is not because today, except among the seminarians, we have abandoned these terms, not because we do not continue to think in them and through them. I would like to content myself with very simple definitions.

There are people who said: being is equivocal. They argued, they burned one another for things like that. But “being is equivocal” meant a precise thing: being is said in several senses. That means: being is said in several senses of that of which it is said. That is to say that the implication [sous-entendu] of the proposition was already: being is said of something. I’m not even interested in knowing if it’s an ontological problem; it’s a problem of utterances [ÈnoncÈs] as well. Being is stated [s'Ènonce] in several senses of that of which it is stated. Concretely, what does that mean? One assumes that a table is not in the same manner as an animal and that an animal is not in the same manner as a man; that a man is not in the same manner as God. Therefore there are several senses of being….

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The B-boy Subculture: whenever they dance, wherever they are in the world

Benson Lee’s film Planet B-Boy (2007) follows the lives of various dance crews around the world and documents their experiences within the B-boy subculture. The documentary focuses on the 2005 Battle of the Year, an annual global competition that culminates with the crowning of the best b-boy crew of the year. B-boying, or breakdancing, began in the 1970s as part of the hip-hop movement in the United States. By the 1980s and 1990s, b-boying had spread across Europe, and then to Asia and South America, with each country adding its own cultural influences to the dance form. The film specifically follows crews from Japan, South Korea, France, and the United States as they prepare for the international competition in Germany. The film includes in depth interviews with the dancers, coaches, friends, and families, as each crew struggles to balance their personal lives with their dance lives.

What I found most interesting about Planet B-Boy is the similar experiences of each dance crew. All of the dancers go through similar struggles: seeking parent’s approval, wanting to build a better life, fighting discrimination. A Korean b-boy dances despite his father’s harsh criticism just as an adolescent b-boy from France struggles to help his mother understand his alternative lifestyle. B-boying has become a shared medium for self-expression. Although they are from different continents, each crew is connected by the b-boy subculture. This belonging to a shared subculture often conflicts with their feelings of belonging to their own country. Each crew strives to win for their country, yet shares the wish to promote the b-boy culture and lifestyle. In the end, these b-boys belong to a culture that has no physical location. Instead, their culture is lived out whenever they dance, wherever they are in the world.

Matthew Sy

 

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Deleuze’s Lecture Series: Anti Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus II

Capitalism, flows, the decoding of flows, capitalism and schizophrenia, psychoanalysis, Spinoza   

Gilles Deleuze

 

Lecture Vincennes –  November 16th, 1971

What is it that moves over the body of a society? It is always flows, and a person is always a cutting off [coupure] of a flow. A person is always a point of departure for the production of a flow, a point of destination for the reception of a flow, a flow of any kind; or, better yet, an interception of many flows.

If a person has hair, this hair can move through many stages: the hairstyle of a young girl is not the same as that of a married woman, it is not the same as that of a widow: there is a whole hairstyle code. A person, insofar as she styles her hair, typically presents herself as an interceptor in relation to flows of hair that exceed her and exceed her case and these flows of hair are themselves coded according to very different codes: widow code, young girl code, married woman code, etc. This is ultimately the essential problem of coding and of the territorialization which is always coding flows with it, as a fundamental means of operation: marking persons (because persons are situated at the interception and at the cutting off [coupure] of flows, they exist at the points where flows are cut off [coupure])….

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The babel jungle

Walt Disney was a firm believer in utopias.  In all of his animated movies he strived to create lands that were full of harmony, acceptance and love.  One classic example is The Jungle Book (1967), a movie about a boy who is raised by wolves.  Both he and all the animals can talk to one another and more or less get along.  But what’s more significant than the utopian plots of Disney movies is their attempt at reaching global audiences.  Among many other movies, The Jungle Book was translated into twenty-four languages and distributed across the world. 

Thirty-five years after this movie was released, Pierre Bismuth (a French contemporary artist) decided to investigate Disney’s so-called ‘universality’ further.  Bismuth examined every translation of The Jungle Book and decided which character would best fit with each language.  For example, he decided that the patrolling elephants would speak German.  Except for the elephant general’s wife who would speak French, alluding to when France and Germany worked together in WWII.  He also purposely put Latin languages next to Semite languages in reference to issues in Palestine. 

In this video-installation for Manifesta 4 entitled The Jungle Book Project (2002, video on plasma screen), Bismuth transformed this childhood tale into a tower of Babel.  When God made everyone speak a different language, they could no longer understand one another enough to finish building their tower to heaven.  And when Bismuth made each of the nineteen characters speak nineteen different languages, he achieved a similar effect.  Nobody can understand one another within the movie, nor can those watching.  Both the viewer and the characters in the movie become isolated by which languages they speak.  “By mixing the languages in only one film,” says Bismuth in an interview, “you transform something that should be understandable by each of us into something that is incomprehensible to everybody.” 

Bismuth is pointing out that although we live in a globalized world, we are far from being in a utopia.  Movie companies like Disney may try and push their ideals onto other countries, but we are still divided and isolated by our languages and cultures. 

Kathryn Schmidt 

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Bottari: what comes next?

Sooja Kim’s Cities on the Move – 2727 kilometers Bottari Truck (1997) is an eleven-day performance piece where the artist fills a truck with bottari (bundles), and travels all over South Korea. The word bottari in the Korean language is defined as bundles wrapped in large cloth, where non-breakables items such as clothing, household utensils and books are kept. A Korean critic Airung Kim suggests that bottari is a symbol of not knowing one’s direction. This is significant in a country like Korea where a great number of people were obligated to leave their residences for reasons such as war or unemployment.

Today, Koreans leave their country to immigrate to North America in order to obtain better education and life. Therefore, bottari historically symbolizes both the refugees and tradesmen, transferring their belongings from one place to another. Furthermore, it represents mobility in an unlimited space, yet it remains as containers for what it holds. As the song in Laurie Anderson’s performance Empty Places (1989) tells us “we don’t know where we come from/we don’t know what we are”, Sooja Kim utilizes bottari as her “medium” to exemplify the universal notion of transition in life. Whether moving from one place to another or one phase of life to another, she evokes the questions of- what comes next? 

Jen Lee 

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Deleuze’s Lecture Series: Anti Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus I

The nature of flows

Gilles Deleuze

Lecture Vincennes – December 14th, 1971

I would like to pursue the problem of the economy of flows; last time, someone wanted a more precise definition of flows, more precise, that is, than something which flows upon the socius. What I call the socius is not society, but rather a particular social instance which plays the role of a full body. Every society presents itself as a socius or full body upon which all kinds of flows flow and are interrupted, and the social investment of desire is this basic operation of the break-flow to which we can easily give the name of schizz. It is not yet important for us to have a real definition of flows, but it is important, as a starting point, to have a nominal definition and this nominal definition must provide us with an initial system of concepts. As a point of departure for our search for a nominal definition of flows, I’ll take a recent study by a specialist in the flows of political economy: “Flows and stocks,” by Daniel ENTIER. Stocks and flows are two primary notions in modern political economy, remarked upon by Keynes, such that we find in Keynesian economy the first great theory of flows in his “General theory of employment, interest and money.” Entier informs us that, “from the economic point of view, we can call flows the values of the quantities of goods and services or money that are transmitted from one pole to another”; the first concept to be placed in relation with that of flows is that of pole: a flow, inasmuch as it flows on the socius, enters by one pole and exits by another. At our last session, we had tried to show that flows implicated codes, in the sense that a flow could be called economic insofar as something passed, and where something else blocked it and made it pass; the example given was that of the rules of alliance in so-called primitive societies, where taboos represent a blockage of the flow of possible marriages; the first permitted marriages, i.e. the first permitted incests, called preferential unions, which are, in fact, hardly ever realized, represent something like the first modes of passage: something passes, something is blocked (this blockage taking the form of incest taboos), something passes, the preferential unions, something blocks it and makes it pass, for example the maternal [utérine] uncle….

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Expanding global linkage in photography

Tim Barber is an American born, Canadian educated, photographer living and working in New York City. In 2005 he created Tinyvices.com, an online gallery aimed at showcasing the work of emerging photographs and artists from around the globe. It functions as an online gallery, community publication, editorial project and archive. Allowing these young artists to showcase their work creates a venue with an engrossing personal perspective despite the fact that it is online.

photo by Sean Dack

Anyone is able to submit images to the site regardless of location, education, or intent. Barber has been quoted to say he “wanted to create a simple, accessible and almost neutral venue to show stuff – my own and others.” Every type of image can be found on this site, from intimate snap shot moments to highly technical landscape photography. This site has even begun publishing books of its contributors as well as organizing several shows around the world. This site is an integral piece of stimulation to artists entering the ever-expanding global linkage of artists working in similar mediums. It allows unprecedented visual material for others to be inspired by and thus create their own work with.

Gordon Nicholas

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When Bollywood meets Hollywood

The film Slumdog Millionaire is possibly the most successful collaboration between Bollywood and Hollywood filmmakers in terms of the publicity and acclaim it has received from critics and the public. Yet its success as a big budget film should not eclipse the fact that in many ways it is an exercise in global art practice as well. The story, lifted from a recent Indian novel is brought to life by British filmmaker Danny Boyle incorporates elements of the traditional Bollywood style into the film.

It is an interesting mix of cultures because it involved Hollywood appropriating film styles from an India cultural product that originated from trying to emulate Hollywood type films. It reflects the global flow of culture that Hollywood’s crowning achievement this year is one that borrows heavily from an eastern tradition of filmmaking. It speaks to the surfeit of ideas that has befallen the western culture factory and the need to reach out to other cultures in order to develop new and meaningful narratives. It is a sign of the times that the tide of global culture is now flowing the other way and that for Hollywood to continue to be relevant it must borrow engage in a dialogue with other cultures.

Zorn Pink

 

Related Reviews: Cinema, Global Art Database

Liu Bolin: Almost Invisible

The photographs have been entitled “Almost Invisible” as well as “The Invisible Man in China” in various Internet sites, but despite the suggestive titles the meaning behind a series of Liu Bolin’s works of art are far from indiscernible.  The series features men, women, and children painted to blend seamlessly into the background to create the illusion of disappearing.  Bolin’s first piece in the series was in an organized group exhibition called “Demolish! Demolish! Demolish!” when Bolin and his peers found that their local arts centre was to be demolished.  Bolin created a piece that he called “Hidden-Demolition” which featured a person painted to be camouflage seamlessly with the background and photographed.  His intent was to voice the strength of the artists and how despite the demolition of their beloved studio, their, the artists’, spirits would live on. 

Bolin then followed this with a series he called “Urban Camouflage” as a reflection of China’s political and cultural climate.  In the series, Bolin reflects of how individuals have become a part of their backgrounds, a part of the city itself; molded and shaped by their experiences with each other and of the city, as the actors in the site become a part of it, its history and its meaning.  So the actors are seamlessly painted into the background, an intangible connection between country and citizen reflected through the visual impact in the photos.  His intention and social commentary is reflected well in his photographs.  Photos of barely visible people, half-vanishing into their backgrounds, initiate an idea that questions the division between man, government, and environment, as well as a reflection on representation; whether they are about fading individuals or ideals, Bolin successfully captures in his photographs that which cannot be seen. 

Anthony Bornia

Read the article Space, Scene and Actors by Sui Jianguo  

Related Reviews: Photography, Global Art Database

 

Global Traffickers of Music

Up, Bustle and Out is a group from Bristol, England that travel around the world to different locations in order to make music with the local musicians of different countries. The core of the group consists of two members, ‘Clandestine ‘Ein” and Rupert Mould, who travel the world recording in different countries and locales which have included Jamaica, Tibet, Cuba, Mexico, Palestine infusing their music with influences from each place. Their practice belongs in the realm of global art as they seek to navigate and negotiate new ways of interacting with other cultures that them come in contact with.

Up, Bustle and Out - click on the photo to download a song preview in mp3

Instead of stealing these musical traditions and recording them on their own,  Up, Bustle and Out often recruit local talent to play and sing on their recordings, providing a non-exploitative, collaborative process that could be useful in creating a meaningful form of global art. They can be seen as global traffickers of music as they go to different countries and ‘translate’ their musical traditions into a cultural form that is more accessible to western sensibilities. Yet in doing so they run the risk of misinterpretation or creating only a surface understanding of other countries’ musical traditions and forms or creating a two way dialogue that is limited in scope and doesn’t take the scheme of the global project into consideration.

Zorn Pink

 

Transmission of the Invisible: transmission of an almost-lost tradition to the modern global world

Choreographer Peter Chin

What happens to the culture of a country that is subjected to civil war, genocide, poverty, corruption and foreign industrial domination? One thing is for certain, the people will lack time and energy to express themselves through art forms. Even if they find means to produce artistic expressions, the traditional skills required is gone with those who lost their lives in the war. As 10 percent of dance artists were killed in the Khmer Rouge genocide, a large part of the repertoire disappeared. That is why Peter Chin, musician, performance artist, artistic director, travelled to Cambodia in 2004, to study and research on classical Khmer dance and music before such traditional art further fades into history. Chin wishes to rediscover, salvage, and revive Cambodian dance because Cambodian identity lies within these cultural forms.

Transmission of the Invisible, a challenging project put together by two Cambodian and three Canadian artists, demonstrates a traditional dance form to a backdrop of images highlighting the aftermath of the civil war. The title is inspired by Chin’s learning experience in Cambodia, when other students called out, “We never used to do it like that!” or “Not that fast!” in the spirit of an ancestral teacher. Chin comments in an interview with NOW Magazine that “[t]here really is a transmission of the invisible through other realms of time and space.” Rooted in Cambodian culture is the concept of ancestral worship and respect and Buddhist ideologies, which is seen on the projected screens and heard in the music.

Chin feels that the current Cambodian dance expressions are a mix traditional and contemporary and he is in contact with both. Transmission of the Invisible bridges these two styles, “glocalizing” if you will, by reviving the essence of Khmer dance in the local Cambodian communities and showcasing Cambodian culture to the global world. Hans Belting claims that performance arts in theatre serve the purpose of remembrance as it is removed from its local setting. At times it is seen as inauthentic, but I believe in the case of the Khmer dance, sharing with the world will strengthen the continuation of the Cambodian culture.

Discover why Peter Chin is described as a “renaissance man” and “a genuine international and global character” by visiting Tribal Crackling Wind Dance Company.

Athena Wong

Related Posts: Dance, Global Art Database

Fast Food Change: Supersize Me

Writer and director Morgan Spurlock documented the effects of a nation’s love of fast food, and what the consequences to something like this would be, in his 2004 smash-hit documentary Supersize Me. Although this movie was released five years ago, one is able to see the global impact it made, as well as the continuing effects of North America’s fast food eating epidemic. Throughout the film consumers will compare the size of McDonalds meals in the USA compared to the size of meals in say France, or some other part of Europe, only to prove that they would not only consume the food in America as the European chains seem to taste better, but as well because of the amount of food given in America.

 

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock in Supersize Me (2004)

The sizes of fast food meals have increased, and through the eyes of Morgan Spurlock the viewers see how his thirty-day fast food binge can go horribly wrong. A documentary such as this speaks to a host of people and uses a concept that is understood globally (that of obesity, and fast food chains) and displays it using the medium of film to cross culturally spread the word. By using America as its base for criticism it shows other countries both where they can go as far as obesity and over eating in their own country, as well as shows exactly what an over consumption of fatty foods can do to you.

The effects Supersize Me has made on chains of McDonalds restaurants is clear, although McDonalds does not admit to any affect this film had on their corporation, they have still changed their menu slightly to cater to a healthier lifestyle. Kids meals with apple slices and juice options, as well as salads, and wraps on their main menu. This documentary was meant for global viewing, and it has changed the ways in which fast food chains run their business, it was successful in both showing a global epidemic and well as fostering change. 

Heather Palmer 

Related Posts: Documentary, Society, Global Art Database

Dan Perjovschi: What happened to us? What is happening to the world we live in?

Dan Perjovschi is an anti-communist and visual artist, mixing drawings, cartoons and graffiti in artistic pieces drawn directly on the walls of museums and contemporary art spaces all over the world. What fascinates me about his work is the great sense of humour and satire about the actual facts that are happening in today’s globalized world. Perjovschi takes the simplest and most ordinary ideas and issues of the society such as clothing, or our everyday to-do lists and represents them in a totally different and most humorous way that makes the viewer realize that these “little” issues are no longer little anymore. What he identifies is the actual reality of our lives “with a profound ability to respond to his context, he deploys irony to comment cuttingly on local and global politics, economics, social and culture” (Perjovschi’s website, 2009) that we tend to ignore or bypass without regards. As we can see in one of his amazing works, figure 1.1 (photo below), he argues that capitalism in today’s world has become separated into two parts: capital and ism which separate people into two groups: capital becomes one person with the highest power and ism is the workers and employers with less power in the society.

 

figure 1.1

 

Also, the way Perjovschi signifies his art pieces is another phenomena. He draws his pieces on the walls as the audiences are watching and attending the exhibition. In figure 1.2 (photo below) we witness Perjovschi drawing on the walls of the gallery, and if we look closely we recognize the relevance of these issues in our lives. For instance, he draws two pair of pants one simple and the other ripped, and on top of the simple one there is a $25 price and on top of the ripped pants is a $125 price. It makes you laugh because it is true and is a reflection of the reality of our economic world.

figure 1.2 - Projects 85: Dan Perjovschi, What happened to us? t MoMA

 

Dan Perjovschi has introduced a new way to present globalization and its issues which people tend to grasp more when it is exhibited as little simple cartoons which speak of nothing but the reality. I believe he is a great artist who draws the most problematic issues of our society and world in the “simplest” way and that is why he makes a significant contribution in the art world. I encourage you to check out Dan Perjovschi’s website and also look at some of his interviews below. You will definitely enjoy them!

Jaleh Fotoohi

Related Posts: Visual Art, Museum, Global Art Database

Dancing with Matt Harding at the Internet as a way to find happiness and global reliability

In 2006, Matt Harding embarked on a 6 month trip through 39 countries to dance in front of famous landmarks. This was because after seeing his 2003 dancing video Stride Gum Sponsored Matt to do the trip again, but of course in more countries this time. However, in 2007 now quasi-famous Harding realized that his bad dancing was not that interesting and that his overflowing inbox proved that there were thousands of others that could dance just as badly as he could. That being the case, Stride sent him on another trip. The big difference on this trip was that Harding would invite the people from the cities that he visited to dance with him.

This viral video, that is one that has gained worldwide popularity, is an excellent example of how easy it can be to transcend cultural boundaries. From Canada, to the United States to the continent of Africa the people in his videos are not only dancing but they are happy. Dancing is one of the only forms of expression that seems to “transcend political boundaries that exist in nearly all human societies” [1]. Harding realized that he could capture something that would be meaningful to a lot of people – a way for us to bound and forget about our differences for a moment. His video allows the people of the world to shed their anger towards one another and dance for the sake of dancing – let everything go and be silly for a few minutes of your life. 

 

 

Not everyone has been impressed or moved by his video. In fact, there is a following claming that his videos were Photoshopped. In another video, Matt Harding responds to these vicious rumours by sarcastically claiming that, yes indeed, the videos are fake. I think the whole rumour thing is ridiculous. There will always be individuals and groups that will try and destroy something that is not trying to hurt anyone. That being said, I believe that there are far more people that know what is real and will try and make a difference because of Harding’s videos.

 

These videos are some of the simplest examples proving how globalized and interconnected we have become. Regardless of whether we agree or disagree on things, we do share distinct commonalities and we can bond over the simplest of emotions and expressions. I believe that through dancing, Harding has managed to bring every single person all over the world together. Happiness is contagious; can you watch the video without smiling?

Tara Turley-Dean

Related Posts: Dance, Cyberspace, Global Art Database

Alighiero Boetti: Political Map of the World (1971-1989)

Alighiero Boetti, born in Italy in 1940, was part of the Arte Povera movement that began in 1967.  This movement favoured traditionally ‘low’ forms of art like craft, design, embroidery and printing as a way to reject ‘high’ art.  In addition to this, Boetti was interested in different cultures, systems of classification, geography, order, chance and collaboration. 

Alighiero e Boetti. (Italian, 1940-1994). Map of the World. 1989. Embroidery on fabric, 46 1/4" x 7' 3 3/4" x 2" (117.5 x 227.7 x 5.1 cm). Scott Burton Fund. © 2009 Estate of Alighiero Boetti

These interests are brought to the forefront in his series, “Political Map of the World.”  In 1971, Boetti took his designs for a map of the world to artisans in Afghanistan. Boetti handed over creative control to the artisans and acknowledged their partnership by surrounding the map with Italian and Farsi writing. The artisans worked in fabric and used each country’s flag to represent it on the map.  Each country is put on an equal plane because they are all represented in the same way. Boetti wanted to focus on each territory as a unified whole and did not want to show the smaller divisions within each country, not even acknowledging national identity. 

But what makes this work truly global is that it evolved as the world did. Every time the geography of a country changed, a new version of the map had to be created. Looking at each map allows the viewer to see where the world was politically at the moment in time when the map was made.  Showing, for example, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the division of the Soviet Union. It lets the viewer see how countries worldwide dealt with the concepts of power and territory. 

By taking his ideas to people in another country, representing each country as a whole in the same way, and by making new versions according to global changes, Boetti’s “Political Map of the World” is certainly a global work of art. 

Kathryn Schmidt

Related Posts: Visual Art, Society, Global Art Database

Fusion music: the disappearance of local music

Musicians in Exile (1992), directed by Jacques Holender, follows the lives of severalmusicians who had fled their country. This film illustrates the musical styles the displaced musicians brought with them and how through their music they find their identity in a home away from home. The music is not particularly joyful or exciting, but melancholic and powerful. These musicians are reconnected to their homeland and the people they have left behind through their music. As they incorporate their feelings and reflection of the exile experience into their songs, they continue to share these sentiments with others who seek to belong.

Diaspora art, in Hans Belting book (Art History after Modernism, 2003, 63-73), meant a genre of art that people in exile would produce in order to reclaim a part of their identity. It however no longer considers as world art, as they have left the old identity behind and created a new style in the new world. Similarly, the musicians here are not producing world music but a fusion of world beats styles to grasp as part of their identity. Fusion music better represents today’s globalized world and diasporic peoples, as local music no longer exists. From an anthropological perspective, I believe that local music or art cease to exist due to influences from explorers, neighboring villages and even the radio and television.

Athena Wong

Related Posts: Music, Culture, Global Art Database

Globally understood: Food as a basic need. A look at Pierre Leichner’s Food Wars

Pierre Leichner’s exhibit Food Wars is currently running at the Maple Ridge Art Gallery, and consists of sculptures as well as photographs depicting a societal view of issues of food of the current generation. The exhibit consists of large sculptures of shrimp tales and their varying stages of infection as well as photographs in which army men have been positioned throughout food items in order to create a scene about the battle of food. The sculptures have been beautifully crafted and within each one the viewer is exposed to some sort of abnormality, that which does not belong in the food.

This exhibit is successful in discussingcurrent issues when it comes to what we eat and what is going into our food to keep it preserved. As well, the issue of food becoming so abstract and foreign from what it originally is, as it becomes pre-packaged, etc. that we loose track of what food is considered natural anymore. An exhibit such as this can be put into the category of global art in that it is able to discuss an issue that can be understood world wide, food is everyone’s basic need, and a piece like this is able to question the complex way in which food has evolved to more than just a basic need but a battle, or for some people a struggle for survival.

Heather Palmer

 

Related Reviews: Visual Art, Global Art Database

Conjure One: global network of music

At first listen, Conjure One’s self-titled album (2002) is just a standard electro-pop record. Delve deeper, however, to find that each track has been masterfully composed, layering lush musical textures and combining cultural influences. The artist behind Conjure One is Vancouver native Rhys Fulber, who recorded the album over three years in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and London. Stunning guest vocalist Chemda Khalili, who sings exclusively in Arabic on four of the tracks, adds a Middle Eastern feel to the album and evokes an almost primitive and primal sound.  Other guest vocalists include Poe, Sinead O’Connor, and Marie-Claire D’Ubaldo, each adding a more traditional pop sound.

Live music video for Redemption: Conjure One and guest vocalist, Chemda Khalili

Essentially what Fulber has done is create a cohesive global sound by gathering instrumentation, samples, and musicians from around the world through a number of digital means. Throughout the album, Fulber samples percussive beats he collected traveling around the Mediterranean and loops them against live string orchestration and his electronic keyboard driven melodies. String orchestration was composed in London and recorded in Vancouver. Sinead O’Connor recorded her vocals on Tears From the Moon from Ireland via Ednet, a phone patch network. (As a result, Fulber and O’Connor have never physically met.) These musical contributions from around the world are harvested by Fulber and transfused together. The end product is a single global musical effort made possible by the global network of communication. 

Matthew Sy 

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Sebastião Salgado

The photographs of Sebastião Salgado, are some of the rawest accounts of the disparity of human civilization. Compositionally and graphically, Salgado’s photographs are both stunning and beautiful. His use of strong contrast delivers such a raw punch of power to his images. It is impossible for the viewer not to be taken aback by the sheer force of his deep blacks, and pure whites. He is also a master of composing his shots in order to draw the viewer into the heart of the image; there is always something to lead the viewer’s eye.

 

School in refugee camp. Afghanistan, 1996 Photo by Sebastião Salgado

I find it difficult to think that some critics of Salgado find his work too beautiful to successfully provoke society into clearly seeing the message behind his work. Yes, Salgado’s photographs are beautiful.  But it is this initial realization or intrigue which first gets the viewer to look at his pictures. Without the captivity that these photographs exude on the viewer, it is impossible for them to truly reflect on the state of the individual in our massively capitalistic society. I find Salgado’s photography to be both visually and socially captivating. He is a master photographer and humanitarian. It is his accounts of the workingman in our world, which truly bring to light the social situations we are living in today. 

Check here Salgado’s lectures at UC Berkeley

Gordon Nicholas 

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New economic and social policies for an interactive age

Oliver Russler’s Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies is a thematic interactive art installation that challenges the audience to look their own country’s economic policies verses another country’s economic policies; what works and what does not work is very often debatable. The piece includes interviews from people all over the world, from the United States to Mexico to Denmark and their ideas for different social and economic models. They also come from a variety of disciplines from economists to political scientists, from authors and to historians. However, they all have one thing in common; they all reject a capitalist system of rule; proving that while very often our cultures disagree on many concepts, but there are some rejections that are universal.

 

Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies 2003 - 2008, (ongoing), installation

 

All of the interviews have been translated into English with the intention that Russle wanted to appeal to a more global market. On the floor and the wall near each television screen is a quote that is significant to the alternate model that is being talked about in the particular interview that is playing. It is a simple way that can introduce almost anyone from anywhere to each television screen.

This ongoing and continually developing installation has travelled to museums all over the world and is breaking down cultural barriers to continually show our global culture more ways to see how we can work together to change things. He chooses not to focus on the ways in which we are different and the concepts that only cause friction and tension.

Tara Turley-Dean

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