322 research outputs found

    Imperceptible Realities: An exhibition – and – Digitalisation: Re-imaging the real beyond notions of the original and the copy in contemporary printmaking: An exegesis

    Get PDF
    This PhD practice-led research project provides a broad overview of how newer print technologies can bring about enhanced understandings of the world whilst simultaneously questioning the value of such processes in contrast to traditional means of image making. My curiosity pivots on the worry that something essential about representation of the real might be lost if humanity were to embrace digital methods only. Through my creative project I address my concerns to re-image representations of the real beyond notions of the original and the copy through contemporary printmaking. The research culminated in the exhibition Imperceptible Realities and an exegesis. In examining Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra this research argues for the continuing relevance of traditional etching techniques through a pivotal case study that scrutinised Rembrandt van Rijn’s etching The Shell (Conus marmoreus). In contrasting traditional etching techniques with newer methods of digital printmaking a significant copy, derived from a similar shell specimen that Rembrandt had observed, manifested itself in contemporary 3D print. The copying process focused the investigation into questioning the aesthetic value of this new shell in digitalised 3D form. In the contemporary printmaking field there is evidence for the continued integration of traditional and digital approaches to printmaking. New pathways were examined in printmaking to allow creative explorations of visual boundaries between contemporary images affected by digital erasure. The innovative use of photogrammetry software focused the investigation into the effects of digital capabilities on image making. The effect of examining the digital relationship in contemporary printmaking revealed that ignoring aesthetic differences between the original and copy brought about by digitised re-imaging are seemingly lost at the expense of disengagement with the physical world. As a result digital and traditional spaces that meet collaboratively through print are advantaged in the 3D printed copy itself and employed to create new understandings in creative practice. Viewing observed differences in the 2D and 3D printed copy itself became key in creating new images, beyond a hybridised printmaking process—such understandings that examined the divisive relationship between digital and traditional printmaking processes becomes invigorated with possibility. This research posits such a position by suggesting that if traditions in the printmaking field are ignored by the continued digitalisation of images through and within the employment of technologies, something is lost. Perceptual experiences of the physical world are seemingly misplaced at the expense of replacing such immediate experience with simulacra and an inward bias toward the screen. Adopting a practice-led research methodology revealed the subtleties of the ongoing relationship of digital capabilities affecting the materiality of traditional printmaking. The applications of innovative interdisciplinary discoveries to my contemporary arts practice drew on strong partnerships and collaborative relationships developed with the fields of chemistry, engineering and science. I applied these discoveries to my contemporary arts practice to examine the effects of digital capabilities and the materiality of traditional printmaking. To embrace conceptual growth creative work the research drew on philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychiatrist FĂ©lix Guattari’s notion of the rhizome. The presence of simulacra in the world has continued to expand as digital technologies proliferate. The application of traditional printmaking and digital printmaking through open thinking offers a different way to understand physical aspects of the world and create propositions that go beyond re-imaging the real

    Goya's grotesque : abjection in los Caprichos, Desastres de la Guerra, and los Disparates

    Get PDF
    Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Arts Faculty (Fine Arts), 1999My basic premise in this study is, if abjection is a psychosocial phenomenon, even a kind of waste category and mechanism, it should be discernible and analysable as an underlying structure in the form, iconography and purpose of works of art. Certain modes of art will manifest or express it more lucidly and abundantly than others. Satire and the Grotesque, which Goya adopts in his graphic Work, are especially fruitful in this regard. In both, one can find processes and states of degradation and vitiation that accord with the two facets of abjection Hal Foster (1996) so pragmatically terms the operation to abject and the condition to be abject. Satire, with its inclination to criticise political, social and ecclesiastical figures, can chiefly be interpreted in terms of the operation to abject (to lower, cast down, depose, sideline), while the Grotesque, displaying the distorted, monstrous, 'freakish', hybrid, impossible, relates more to tire condition to be abject. This conjunction between satire/the Grotesque and abjection guides my interpretation of Los Caprichos and Los Disparates. Los Caprichos, in which Goya took it upon himself to "censure" and "ridicule" "human errors and vices", are marked by a quite strict use of satire to criticise, mock and marginalise certain social groups (prostitutes, nobles and corrupt clerics, in particular). Since society, or the Symbolic that undergirds it, cannot do without the abject, either in its role as midden or as oppositional determinant or defining other, the satirical project cannot banish or destroy the abject; it can, however, bid and lobby for some degree of social reclamation and rejuvenation. The satirist depicts the grotesque, sordid, obscene, deviant, abandoned and licentious to indicate to the viewer/reader what s/h e must laugh off to live a decent, obedient, constructive and law-fearing life. Goya takes this aapproach in Los Caprichos. After all, in at least one letter to his friend Martin Zapater he hinted that he feared the "witches, goblins, phantoms, arrogant giants, knaves" and "scoundrels" of his society, and evidently felt a need to part from them. How deep this need ran one cannot say; many of his images suggest a degree of equivocation (he vacillates between being on the side of the law and on the side of Ms own more incorruptible conscience, from which he upbraids the law) and ambivalence (on the one hand, he scolds his objects of attack and appears to be repelled by them; on the other, he seems to relish depicting them in grotesque and blighted shapes, as if the satirical purpose is secondary to the opportunity his art provides to invent forms and get close to the forbidden, the anti-social, the rotten, the abject). In Los Disparates equivocation and ambivalence come more to the fore. Goya often appears most aggressively satirical in the Disparates when he questions corruption in social institutions such as tire Church and the law. Some images, notably Folhj of the Mass, juxtapose a wrathful figure with a mass of social ills, foibles and depravities, and seem characteristically satirical, but the majority of the etchings are striking in their lack of closure, as if a "state of unresolved tension", to quote Michael Steig, adequately rewarded Goya for the labour of production. Man xoandering among Phantoms, for example, is ambiguous and seems to sum up Goya's relationsMp to the abject toward the end of his life: through the surrogate of an old man, Goya appears to have struck a deal with the abject; submerged in it, corrupted by it, impure, but nevertheless sufficiently single-minded to find an identity separate from it. Complicit, but differentiated: all subjects stand in this way to the abject. In Los Desastres, especially given that I do not deal with the Caprichos Enfdticos section of the series, my interpretation is determined less by satire than by the question of how an antagonistic nation uses war as a mechanism of conclusive abjection to extend military, political and, ultimately. Symbolic influence - by means of sanctioned murder, execution, even rape - over another nation, w ith the aim of making that nation succumb to the abjection of surrender and the imposition of a foreign Symbolic. War also produces heaps of corpses and, in the occupied cities, ill and starving destitutes: those reduced to conditions of permanent or near-permanent abjection by war's ballistic exacerbation of the operation to abject. Contact with abjection through art strengthens, weakens and expands the self. It carries the threat of immersion in the repressed and the promise of risque pleasure - both from the diminution of unpleasure through the making or viewing of art, and the more positive pleasure of jouissance. Contact with abjection allows, further, for the complicated experience of being liminal, grotesque and abject oneself while caught between the poles of the Symbolic and tire abject. Whether we, as makers an d /o r viewers, criticise or joy in it, abjection holds out the alluring prospect of catharsis and temporary relief both from its own hazards and the rigours and inhibitions of social life. Goya, it would appear, found this intervenient condition compelling enough to return to it - if he ever truly left it - over a period of almost three decades through the medium of the three graphic series I explore in this dissertation

    The Artist in Times of War

    Get PDF
    An investigation of the relationship between the artist and the phenomenon of war raises a number of questions concerning the nature and function of art and society, and the link between them. Arguing that war is a fundamental negative and that peace and its maintenance is not merely a goal or consequence of war, but a desirable state in and of itself, in this thesis it is considered how and why artists have responded to both through their work. Through an analysis of attitudes towards war (most particularly in Australia), it is asserted that the experience of war may lead to differing levels of acceptance of it generally and in the arts. It contends too that concepts such as community, service and sacrifice, while having an important social value, are often used to manifest political power and, through them, justify war. I maintain that, in Australia, attitudes towards war rarely include its civilian dimension and that, through the celebration of Anzac, national identity itself is currently defined by military involvement in war. It is suggested that this has its origins in unresolved issues from a colonial past and a hegemonic reluctance to accept a multicultural present. Historically, Australian artists may be seen to have supported that traditional view of national identity. The promotion of balanced interpretations of the past and cosmopolitan values now is offered as a pacificist alternative. In an Australian context, it is argued that this more cosmopolitan attitude towards war might be encouraged by the addition of indigenous, migrant and civilian- and gender-inclusive histories into a celebration of national identity, these currently lacking in ANZAC Day celebrations. These beliefs are supported by a selective investigation of the work of artists directly linked to the ideas of war and peace, through the candidate’s response to those investigations, and through a description of the candidate’s work and practice

    Re-imagining the great masters: translations into print by John Drawbridge

    No full text
    This thesis examines the prints of New Zealand printmaker, John Drawbridge, with a specific focus on a small but significant part of his print oeuvre, his mezzotints from the 1980s and 1990s, in which he directly quotes European great master artists. Drawbridge studied printmaking in London and Paris in the late 1950s and early 1960s and it is this experience that informed his artistic practice for the rest of his career. Through his quotations of great artists and his practice of working in the hand-made printmaking tradition, Drawbridge recreates that Western tradition through his own technical expertise and imagination. However, what is distinctive about Drawbridge’s contribution to this well-established tradition is how he treats his source material: how he takes it out of its original context, and modernises and defamiliarises it by relocating it within a pictorial space that references his own life and location. In the first chapter, Drawbridge’s English and European experiences and education are examined to reveal the background to his work: the traditional printmaking processes and the cultural ethos of the period. The second chapter looks at the artistic scene in New Zealand after he returned in early 1964 and the varied reception to his work. These two chapters provide the necessary context for the concluding chapter in which a case is made for the symbiotic relationship between the European tradition Drawbridge so much admired and his concern to locate his work back in New Zealand. By means of intertextual references, he engages with and explores the nature of the art of the past and the present, the traditional and the modern, the international and the local. This thesis argues that Drawbridge imaginatively critiques and renews the paintings he quotes in these translations from painting to print, and that consequently these prints reward a far more complex reading than they have been previously accorded. Through close examination of these prints it is clear that Drawbridge has made a unique contribution to New Zealand art

    NeuroArts Blueprint: Advancing the Science of Arts, Health, and Wellbeing

    Get PDF
    Scientific studies increasingly confirm what human beings across cultures and throughout time have long recognized: we are wired for art. The arts in all of their modalities can improve our physical and mental health, amplify our ability to prevent, manage, or recover from disease challenges, enhance brain development in children, build more equitable communities, and foster wellbeing through multiple biological systems.Most of us do not need rigorous research to recognize that arts and aesthetic experiences allow us to feel better; our own life experiences tell us that engaging with art, either as maker or user, can help us thrive. Why, then, have we developed the NeuroArts Blueprint: Advancing the Science of Arts, Health, and Wellbeing, a broad-reaching initiative designed to showcase the scientific evidence that explains these phenomena?The answer is that we have not developed the systems and strategies to use the extraordinary asset that is at our disposal to its fullest potential. We need a Blueprint to guide us through the vast body of knowledge that is accumulating across multiple disciplines, to identify collaborative opportunities to collect many kinds of evidence, and to employ these learnings in systematic and sustainable ways so that we can ease some of the most intractable problems that humanity faces.

    Collisions: drawing in the digital age

    Get PDF
    This research outlines the reconfiguration of the creative act of drawing through physical practice as a response to mass culture. This practice takes place in the context of developing digital technologies, culminating in metadrawing. Metadrawing is defined as the integration of the post-digital collapse of media specificity in the visual arts. This research posits metadrawing as a descriptor for the paradigm shift between the physical act of drawing in pre-digital mass culture and the principles of drawing incorporated into digital technologies. Through this shift, drawing has become an artistic act that is no longer working to collapse media divisions, and now operates within and without these divisions, destabilised by digital technologies. This research examines drawing as a history of innovations and responses to shifts in technologies and their applications. Questions of genre, form and medium are subsequently downplayed for an interdisciplinary approach. High and low are no longer distinct, as the internet search engine is adopted into the artist's toolbox, alongside the digital camera and animation software. The many accessible and disposable images are integrated as raw matter, to fossick and sift through. Accompanying studio research operates within the interdisciplinary freedoms of the metadrawing. Approaches to quotation, appropriation, pastiche, irony, detachment and sincerity are explored through a rigorous drawing practice, resulting in a vast, multilayered body of work. This self-reflexive and intuitive practice incorporates numerous ciphers into its many suspended, but interrelated narratives. Beyond the physical level, the work operates on an intertextual level, moving between the metaphysics of genre and previously separated art forms to create a reconfigured history, unhampered by previous distinctions and boundaries of media and form. This research posits the act of drawing as a reaction to, or divergence from, the dominant techno-capitalist status quo, treating the tactile experiences of studio practice as subversive, transgressive, and erotic. This research explores the subjectivity and the subjective agency of the artist. Drawing is therefore defined as a process of unrepeatability, a process that, while no longer necessary for picture making, still forms a crucial and engaging tier of the visual arts. Drawing’s divergence from the commercialised intangibility of the digital has revitalized its practitioners, demanding a reconsideration of what is means to draw today. This tension is explored through the different methods of studio practice, on the level of the personal-biological, the erotic, and in terms of collision and materiality. Specific images are selected through criteria directly linked with the subjective agency of the artist, and reconfigured through artistic practice, creating a new imbrication of the raw image matter

    Collaborative digital and wide format printing: Methods and considerations for the artist and master printer

    Get PDF
    This thesis investigates the collaborative production of fine art digital prints for artists,a process which is used by many contemporary practitioners including RichardHamilton and Damien Hirst. Digital print as a fine art process has emerged over the last twenty years, and as yet, there is no in depth evidence on the collaborative endeavour and production process which is central to the digital Master Printer’s role.The investigation first establishes the historical context and significance of the Master and Printer in traditional printmaking, and the more recent development of the digital print studio and the digital print pioneers of the 1990s. A series of seven artists’ case studies in the context of the collaborative digital print studio are then offered to demonstrate the working process. The analysis of these proposes a best practice model for Master Printers working with contemporary artists to produce high quality, fine art, wide format inkjet digital prints.The study also compares production methods at the cutting-edge digital facility of the Rijksakademie in The Netherlands, to assess the validity of the practices proposed through a facility closest to the study’s research base at the CFPR’s digital studio. The comparative study also explored the expanding digital production process and the role of the Master Printer. Evolving production processes are also considered in this study as a response to the advancement of digital print technology alongside a practical exploration of what actually constitutes a digital print in this rapidly expanding field of fine art printmaking.This study aims to reveal the inner workings of the digital collaborative process between the artist and Master Printer, and appraise the digital Master Printer’s role.It offers a set of best practice methods for the digital Master Printer developed from this research. The study also considers how the digital print, and the digital print studio may evolve in line with current and future developments in new technologies

    The Development of a Print Culture in South Australia Post-WWII to 2008: institutions, politics and personalities

    Get PDF
    In this thesis, there is an investigation into the factors that contributed to the ascendancy of printmaking in South Australia in the 1960s and the development of political printmaking in the 1970s. An analysis of key individuals is contextualised within the institutional and political frameworks operating in Adelaide at this time. An important aspect of this thesis is the examination of the transition from teaching craft and trade-based print subjects to fine art printmaking courses at the South Australian School of Art (SASA), one of the oldest art schools in Australia. Some of the research was based on the SASA archival material at the University of South Australia, which included the prospectus booklets, presentation of diplomas and prizes leaflets, SASA principal’s reports, and The Advertiser newspaper listings of students’ results. Paul Beadle and Charles Bannon were responsible for key developments in printmaking in South Australia. Beadle was a dynamic and far-sighted principal of the SASA from 1958-60. Bannon taught at St Peter’s College, where he instituted a ‘Bauhaus-style’ education methodology in the preparatory school. When Bannon was placed in charge of high school classes, he chose German printmaker Udo Sellbach to carry on his educational methods in the preparatory school. Beadle invited Sellbach to set up a graphics studio at the SASA and Sellbach and his then wife, Karin Schepers, became leading figures in the revitalisation of fine art printmaking in South Australia. Case studies of Charles Bannon, Barbara Hanrahan, Ann Newmarch and Olga Sankey are employed to extend the thesis narrative of printmaking education and professionalism in South Australia. In each case study, the formative years, studies, overseas travel and printmaking careers are considered in relation to their contribution to printmaking in South Australia. Despite the outstanding achievements of printmaking in Adelaide in the 1960s and 1970s, this has been a neglected area of research. In this thesis, important new research is presented and a number of reasons are canvassed as to why there was a subsequent contraction in printmaking in South Australia, especially in relation to the national context

    Together | Apart: Printmaking and the Space Between

    Get PDF
    In this practice-led creative research, being both artist and identical twin, I examine sameness and difference in the relationships between two people and between multiple objects/creative works. Through the inherent ability of printmaking processes to produce multiples and the attendant installation opportunities created by punctuated space, I unfold and re-tell a doubled and ambiguous understanding of being in the world. Martin Heidegger’s notion of Being-in-the-world (Dasein) underpins and situates my understanding of being in the world, thrown into a world as an individual, and my existence as a double: being in the world with others. I relate his thinking through Barbara Bolt’s interpretation of Heidegger’s Dasein to the artist’s making to seek new ways of understanding Dasein / being-there. The work I make is a metaphor for investigating how I understand the world around me. To do this, I discuss tacit methodology and draw together the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’, which forms and informs a praxical knowledge, a knowledge that comes from doing and its reflective dimension. By investigating practices by both historical and contemporary artists who employ the diptych as a device to present works as an interconnected pair, I position my forms of the diptych to create relationships of closeness and separation, together | apart. The space in between two people or artworks—a gap—becomes instrumental in separating while simultaneously relating to and evoking continuation and connection. Imagery derived from and alluding to the body, in a gap between figuration and abstraction, is developed in an iterative, open-ended series of prints. Academic discussions about the nature of studio research are applied and interpreted through creative practice, imparting and enabling both an informed, personally situated perspective and an appraisal of the engagement of other artists, such as Roni Horn, Lesley Duxbury, and Paul Uhlmann, whose practices of ambiguity, in-between spaces and gaps are embedded in the wider field of visual arts practices. This research contributes to a broader field of discussion of understandings of being in the world, of spaces in-between and impermanence as related to unique printmaking practices

    THE PITFALLS OF OBVIOUSNESS THE SELF-FRAMING PICTURE AND THE “TELEOLOGY” OF PAINTING IN A LATE SELF-PORTRAIT BY REMBRANDT

    Get PDF
    This study aims at a new interpretation of the late Rembrandt’s mysterious Self-Portrait with Two Circles at Kenwood House (1665). Former readings of the picture neglected the fact that in this case the work of painting itself became the explicit subject. Both the psychological evocativeness of the personality represented and the “circles” as enigmatic symbols elicited especial interest as they are very much in evidence – and although commentators realized the presence of the brush, palette and mahlstick, practically noone took notice of the work in progress itself, vanishing behind the figure in the grey area of the unusually light background. Following Gary Schwartz I argue that with the two circles Rembrandt refers to the legendary contest of Apelles and Protogenes told by Pliny and Vasari’s famous story about Giotto’s “O” – both stories are about the competence of the painters to understand abstract tracks as signs of artistic skills. By minimizing the iconic difference between the real and the painted canvas, Rembrandt indicates his ambition to be part of the contest of the great painters of the past – by showing himself present as an imaginary person before the imaginary canvas, and, at the same time, by calling attention to the presence of the material tracks of his “rembrandtian” manner, put between the fine tracks of his ancient predecessors, on the real canvas
    • 

    corecore