23/04/2009

Presentation seminar this morning. It was very interesting, a great variety of work and artists. The were a good few artists which I particularly liked; Gregory Crewdson for his film set type photographs, Claes Oldenberg, for the everyday objects he turns into 'extraordinary' sculpture pieces. I liked the humour in the artworks of Erwin Wurm (stuffing things up nose), Banksy's Elephant with wall paper, and Terry Borders' little wire sculptures; very humorous, something we could do with a little bit more of in the art world, it's far too serious ! Fred Wilson is an artist of particular interest to me as I will be referencing him in my thesis. Cultural identity is one theme in his work; he argues that museums are only a kind of truth, and not an absolute truth. There was mention or the Alter Modern exhibition in the Tate gallery in Britain; again this held a special significance for me, as I have a very strong interest in contemporary art. Charles Avery's Aleph Null head was intriguing. Issues of displacement and cultural identity, were a theme of Navin Rawanchaikul's work, while travel, politics of places, and trade borders were evident i n the work of Simon Starling's work (An artist of special significance to me). Walhed Beshty work about airport security x ray's were intriguing, while the artist as traveller was a theme covered by Darren Almond; Mark Dion was also mentioned. All in all it was an excellent presentation seminar, very informative, educational and thought provoking.