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exploring the contemporary art interface

Having explored the relationship between art and artist in broad terms (the art interface - the previous insite article), and applying categorical reference points with which to describe those connections, it seemed important to move on to the next obvious step and take a closer look at what, in fact, artists are saying in regards to their own work. Historically artists have often verbalized their sources for motivation. Van Gogh, in one of his letters, wrote, "it's not for nothing that I have spent so many evenings brooding before the fires in the homes of miners, turf cutters and weavers", as he gathered material for painting the working class people that he used for many of his subjects. [1] In describing the sources of his own work, Marc Chagall noted that, "every painter is born somewhere, and even though he may later return to the influence of other atmospheres, a certain essence - a certain "aroma" - of his birthplace clings to his work." [2]

Contemporary Mississippi artist, Barbara De Blasi, draws her inspiration from the natural world, working on animations, illustrations and videos that are generated on her computer. Interpretation of human form and a desire to interpret images and experiences that have been gleaned from her strong desire to travel, all contribute to the direction in which she takes her artistic creations. Finally, she desires to bring a "beauty, peace, understanding or a questioning interest to the viewer", as well as to herself. [3]

Another computer artist, Paul Abell from California, expresses the belief that the computer will be to the art world in the coming century what the camera was in the last. The freedom to explore an even greater expanse of imagery via the computer will advance the possibilities of what can now be created, in much the same way as the camera, through its ability to duplicate the natural world, allowed for. As a result of what photography was able to do, the expressionists were free to be able to take the visual arts to a completely different level. [4] The ease with which the computer can be used to manipulate, blend and shape images in addition to the extraordinarily versatile palette that it offers the artist, provides an almost limitless array of directions that the artist can opt to go in. Abell's work illustrates a variety of forays into this brave new world in his artwork, which indeed seems to be breaking new ground as a result of the loosening of traditional constraints. [5]

Australian digital artist, Thomas McCluskey, is one of the digital artists who are helping to breathe new life back into the surrealism movement with works that incorporate believable 3D graphic effects into otherworldly compositions. [6] Even though the definition of style and focus remains rooted in historical tradition, certainly the effect of the new technology that is now available through the utilization of computer graphics is also helping to discover new ways of examining the world of dreams and imagination. [7]

Moving away from that which we typically define as aesthetic are artists whose work also relies on a technological component, but is based more in physically present pieces that are mechanical in aspect. A show that opened in Toronto, Canada in 1998, entitled the "Space Probe Show", brought a group of works together by artists whose sculptural assemblages fit this particular mode [8]. Among the works that were displayed was a piece entitled, "The Quantifications of Humans", by interactive media artist, Paul Davies. His work reflects western civilization's need to "continually remake itself", resulting in a process of continually throwing away the technology of the past for that which is identified as being in vogue in the present. Those discarded bits and pieces Davies asserts, become artifacts that take on new meaning and can help to generate new thoughts and ideas as a result.

Another work that was exhibited in the same show was a piece by Canadian artist Mike Steventon whose sculpture, "Intelligence Artificial", is reminiscent of the work of George Segal. Steventon created a plaster figure confined to a hospital bed, that is looking up at a television set mounted above its head. The figure in the bed appears to struggle to get closer to the TV while the responses to the images and sounds are being recorded through the movement of lines made on a medical monitor that is attached to the bed. The assertion being made in the sculpture is that as television gives us information that we typically cannot act on, and the information itself is not verifiable through any immediate means, we are held hostage in a sense to the believability of the commentator and the pictures themselves. The artist makes the statement through his work that television increases our levels of anxiety and apathy while, at the same time, compromising our intelligence to the point of invalidating our existence. [9]

"Intelligence Artifical", by Mike Steventon

During the past year, annihilation rather than invalidation became more of a concern since the events of September 11th, and artists have come forward using a number of different media to express the horrors of those events. Included in this genre have been a group of artists who had been working in the WTC and continue to exhibit in NYC to help commemorate those events. One of the artists in that group, Jamaican artist Michael Richards, died in the collapse of the Towers where he and the others had been working. [10] One touching photo tribute with song accompaniment entitled, "Can't Cry Hard Enough", may be found online at: http://www.cantcryhardenough.com/

"I Love New York", by Robert Rauschenberg

It strikes me as terribly ironic that that the articles written by me for this magazine earlier in the year, expressing the role of art as memorial, should be followed by such a cataclysmic event. [11] As the scope of the tragedy that occurred on that day unfolded, and unrest and destruction continue to be visited on various populations around the globe, it is clear that political and social tragedy will remain as strong interfacing points for artists long into the foreseeable future.

On a mellower and perhaps more introspective note, an artist who works in both digital media as well as paint, is Turkish artist, Necla Bal, who describes some of her motivation for her art in the following statement: "Colors express the opening gate of my emotional world. The theme I hope to capture in my paintings includes the lights and colors and even the imagined sound of an awakening at daybreak. Colors appear visible in seeming silence that mimics a perpetual image of my daily life beginning again and again." [12] Here again is a motivation based on the need to express one's emotional being, giving it a voice with which to interact with the day to day, bringing it ever more clearly into focus.

Cameroon artist Tania Siyam, echoed the words of Marc Chagall quoted earlier, when she stated that although she spends a considerable amount of time in Canada, the influences in her art are primarily African: "the rhythm of the village heartbeat is louder than city streets..." [13] The only difference between the motivation expressed concerning the two artists' work were the continents on which their respective villages were located.

Yet another viewpoint is expressed by New York artist Jonathan Talbot, painter, printmaker and collage artist. His view of art looks towards a need to develop more of a synthesis combining where our artistic roots have come from with the advent of the modern age. He states," We must bring together high-tech reality and pastoral ideal and form a new foundation for our aspirations. We must find new paths through the increasingly complex mazes which are the results of advancing technology. We must imagine new freedoms in response to new constraints and new hopes in response to new fears. We must weave the threads of the past into new patterns for the fabric of the future. We must create new dreams. " [14]

"Point of Departure", by Jonathan Talbot

"An Intellectual Approach", by Jonathan Talbot

What remains apparent throughout the variety of motivations and rationales for creating art that have been provided here, is that the common denominator seems to be a desire to communicate views and insights that, whether born as a result of either internal or external motivation, are clearly significant. It is equally clear that while the range of how people choose to interface with the artistic experience is great, there is a sense of continuance and attachment to those artists and artworks that have gone before. Alluding to styles and works that have preceded those considered to be more on the edge and working in the here and now, the foundation on which art in all of its many forms is being created on a daily basis, is quite solid. Perhaps though the trappings of that which is deemed to be the present changes as events both locally and globally unfold, the basic need that people have to be able to reach out to one another through their shared humanity, will forever provide the impetus for creative expression.

[1] Van Gogh by Charles Estienne, 1953, World Publishing Co., Ohio
[2] Artists on Art edited by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves, 1972, Pantheon Books, NYC
[3] http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/art/MVAI/D/DeblasiB.html
[4] http://www.paulabell.com/aboutpa.html
[5] http://www.paulabell.com/other.html
[6] http://arttech.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.ozartnet.com.au/ultraart/
[7] http://www.ozartnet.com.au/artists/
[8] http://www.interaccess.org/arg/spaceprobe/index.html
[9] http://www.interaccess.org/arg/spaceprobe/statements.html
[10] http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur120401.html#news1
[11] http://www.art-themagazine.com/pages/insite6.htm http://www.art-themagazine.com/pages/insite7.htm
[12] http://www.thedigitalartist.com/nbal.shtml
[13] http://www.thedigitalartist.com/tsiyam.shtml
[14] http://www.talbot1.com/artstate.htm

Kevan Nitzberg is an art educationalist and Minnesota Educator of the Year, 2000. To suggest a subject matter you would like searched, click here to send a message.

 

 

 

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