Thursday, August 31
art in postmodern visual culture
visual arts 101
ok today's lecture was highly politically-charged and by far, one of the most exciting ones. so i shall jst highlight some historical moments i deem worthy of your precious attention.
**warning: images may be deemed offensive**
1) let's start with the funny stuff. IN THE LATE 1960s, Parisian Yves Klein (the Pollock equivalent who socialized with the aristocrats), held a grand exhibition in upscale Paris, inviting the PM and the who's whos. the gallery was beautifully draped with curtains and at the entrance, dear ol' klein gave out cups of blue liquids as refreshment. upon entering, viewers were faced with an empty gallery, with freshly painted white walls. in the meantime, klein was frantically running about the gallery thru the throngs of ppl (thousands of ppl went) and trying to trap air into bottles, in which he sold for gold bars. klein had told ppl if they wanted to buy his stuff, they shld bring gold bars instead of money. the very next day, he dumped these gold bars in the river, leading to a national uproar. the gold bars were worth tens of thousands of pounds. in the meantime, ppl who had attended the art gallery were peeing blue urine in the morning, failing to capture the real art, and with that in mind, the urine of these uppity aristocrats flowed into the river to where the gold bars lay.
we had a discourse on institutional framing and the hypocrisy of the art system.
even funnier was this artist who sealed his shit in cans and sold for thousands and thousands according to weight.
2) another brillaint artists- Austrian Valie Export. there she is below in a terribly challenging pose entitled "genital panic" that aptly set off a moral panic. she is seen with her legs splayed open and a segment of her jeans cut off at her crotch.
she also fixed up a type of cinematic box around her upper body and she roamed the streets inviting ppl to put their hands in this "touch screen cinema" and not surprisingly, ppl went straight for those boobies.
3) Vito Acconci had an installation/performance piece. the art space consisted of a room, with an angled ramp inclined upwards and nth else in the room. here's the intrigueing part. as the viewer walked up the ramp, strange noises cld be heard echoing all over the room. now beneath the floor panels, there Acconci was hiding and furiously masturbating while amplifying his sounds of pleasure. the 'exhibition' was aptly titled 'seedbed'. i personally think he shlda come right out and did it there and then. if he wanted to be naughty, go all the way. this fella really was a historical try-hard. but still noteworthy.
xoxo;
5:17 PM
