Barbara Kruger

"I think I developed language skills to deal with threat. It's the girl thing to do-you know, instead of pulling out a gun."
– Barbara Kruger. 

Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual/pop artist born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1945. She worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at House and Garden, Aperture, and other publications. This background in design is evident in the work for which she is now internationally renowned. She layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her captions speak to. 

Kruger is another artist that I feel appeals to me as she is very out spoken and open minded and this shows within her work. She is basically saying what people are thinking but to afraid to say, but by also putting a little twist to it. 

One of my favourite pieces of work is ‘Your body is a battleground’. The reason I like this piece of artwork so much is because it is so true. Some women feel insecure about their bodies and are always constantly trying to change how they look. What this image is doing, is speaking out aloud. Much of her text questions the viewer about feminism, classicism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire, although her black-and-white images are culled from the mainstream magazines that sell the very ideas she is disputing.

“Kruger's practice reflects the discovery, evident throughout contemporary art, of the formative power of images, the capacity of signs to affect deep structures of belief. Her art is concerned with positioning of the social body, with the ways in which out thoughts, attitudes and desires are determined by society's dictates.” (Kruger, B 1990)

References:

Kruger, B. (1990) Love for sale: the words and pictures of Barbara Kruger

Available at: http://www.barbarakruger.com/index.php (Accessed: 19th May 2011)

Available at: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Barbara-Kruger.html (Accessed: 19th May 2011)

Appropriation

‘Bad artists copy, great artists steal’ – Pablo Picasso

Appropriation is when you change the context of an original and give it a new meaning. They might represent it in such a way, that you will be confused as to which one is the original. Or they might just change a few minor things and by adding some text it will give a whole new meaning to the piece of art, in comparison to the old one.

“Scavenging, replicating, or remixing, many influential artists today reinvents a legacy of ‘stealing’ images and forms from other makers. Among the diverse, often contestatory strategies included under the heading ‘appropriation’ are the readymade, detournement, pastiche, rephotography, recombination, simulation and parody.” (Evans, D 2009)

Pablo Picasso is an example for appropriating not other people’s work but objects such as newspapers. Using existing objects and changing their purpose, gave them a new importance. This was looking at things from a different perspective and creating fresh pieces of art.

“As the word ‘appropriation’ was originally used, no moral stigma was attached to it. One did not necessarily act wrongly when engaged in appropriation. In its original use, the word usually referred to taking something from nature.” (Young, J 2008)           

                                   

I wouldn’t say an appropriation artist is someone who cheated their way but instead someone who thought they could put a better meaning on something that was already created.

“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” – Salvador Dali

References:

Young, J. (2008) Cultural Appropriation and the Arts (New Directions in Aesthetics)

Evans, D. (2009) Appropriation

http://manduh.jasonspadaro.com/wordpress/a-short-introduction-to-dada

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was born in Figueras, Spain in 1904

To bring up images from his subconscious mind, Dalí began to induce hallucinatory states in himself by a process he described as “paranoiac critical.” Once Dalí hit on this method, his painting style matured with extraordinary rapidity, and from 1929 to 1937 he produced the paintings that made him the world's best-known Surrealist artist. It was a tragedy when he died in 1989. I would have loved to have met him. 

Salvador Dali is like an inspiration, his work is very attention grabbing and quite provoking. It’s very intriguing the way he recreates objects into such a way that you don’t even recognize the object, you just see the image he has formed, which is just remarkable. Through these images you feel like you can almost connect with what was going through his mind...

“In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.” – Salvador Dali

He is best known for his images in his surrealist work, but also Dali’s crazy facial expressions and the legendary moustache. He is one of the most talked about figures in the twentieth- century art. His incredible artwork and unusual personality account for his widespread recognition.

“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.” – Salvador Dali

References:

Available at: http://www.virtualdali.com (Accessed: 21^st May 2011)

Available at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/salvador_dali.html (Accessed: 21st May 2011) 

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/surrealism/room8.htm

Tuition Fees Rise!

Thousands attended the big protest that took place against the rise of tuition fees. I attended this as I felt very strongly about it. Everyone gathered in Trafalgar Square before marching down to the Palace of Westminster. However, on Oxford Street fights started to break out and everything was getting out of hand. Windows were getting smashed and shops were graffitied on and the police were finding it difficult to control the crowd.  Retailers were being attacked because they don’t pay their taxes and therefore leave students and other workers to suffer! The government is making us pay more taxes, money we really don’t have! Just so they can recover from the recession, but where does that leave us...

“Labour's Gareth Thomas said the fee hike represented a ‘tragedy for a whole generation of young people’. The National Union of Students dubbed the plan, which will mean almost a threefold increase, ‘an outrage’. Much of the proposed fee rise, up from the current £3,290 per year, will replace funding cut from universities in last month's Spending Review. This will mean that many courses, particularly in arts and humanities, will almost entirely depend on income from students' fees. Labour's university spokesman, Gareth Thomas, warned that ‘students will be forced to choose the cheapest courses, not one that suits best’.”

Hearing this just outrages me because students that actually want to go onto university won’t be able to go, simply because they can’t afford it. Or if they manage to go, they will just barely have the funds for the cheapest course.

And just stating, I didn’t attack any of the shops, I simply went there to show my support.

References:

Pictures taken by me

Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11677862 (Accessed: 21st May 2011)

Ed Fella

“Design is either permission granted or allowance taken.” – Ed Fella

Edward Fella was born in Detroit in 1938. He is an artist, graphic designer and educator, whose work has had an important influence on contemporary typography here and in Europe. He has devoted his time to teaching and his own unique self-published work which has appeared in many design publications and anthologies. Ed Fella is that rare designer whose work is highly personal yet enormously influential. 

Ed Fella is one designer which I truly look up to as he is encouraging and a good influence. This is one of my favourite pieces of his work. What firstly attracts me is the colour, design and layout but most importantly the text itself.

Fella calls himself an exit-level designer. “I’m my own history! Now I can do what I want.” (Bucher, S 2006)

I wanted some advice, so I emailed him and this is what he wrote back. I was actually amazed that firstly, he replied back to my email and secondly, in less than 24hrs.

References:

Bucher, S. (2006) All Access: The Making of Thirty Extraordinary Graphic Designers

Available at: http://www.edfella.com (Accessed: 19^th May 2011)

Available at: http://www.jamierayslater.com/index.php?/projects/ed-fella-poster (Accessed: 19th May 2011)

http://www.manystuff.org/?p=1943

 

http://www.cranbrookart.edu/Pages/AlumniNews.html

Prices escalating year by year!

One of my concerns is the prices of everything literally going up year by year! Costs of travel, food, gas, electricity, petrol, taxes, insurance, medications etc are rising fast. 

“Consumers have limited amounts of money and a sense of how much they can budget for given items. If the price of a good is too high, the consumers cannot be persuaded by advertising or any other source of information to make a purchase. The product is ‘beyond the means’ of the potential consumer.” 

(Schudson, M 1986: 113)

You may not think of it as much now, but when it slowly adds up you will realise... I remember when it only used to cost 40p to get on the bus, and now it costs £2.40! If you have an oyster it is cheaper, but this is still ridiculous! How much longer can people survive with prices going up and wages staying the same?

“Prices will rise globally for decades because of four factors; population increase, water shortages, increased biofuel production and climate change.”

References:

Schudson, M. (1986) Advertising: The Uneasy Persuasion

Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/food-prices-going-up-british-shoppers-warned-464037.html (Accessed: 21st May 2011)