The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Walter Benjamin
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Walter Benjamin writes about the conditions of the authenticity (Echtheit) of an artwork, and how it disappears while new technology appears such as photography and film.
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According to him, an original artwork's authenticity is consist of its presence in time and space, but the authenticity decrease when there are more its reproductions as it is no longer like that unique. Also, the idea of authenticity has the similar idea with religion, and religion is often seen quite mysterious, for example, the sculptures are covered in church. In contrast, reproduction provides more copies and make people get them easier, and this also reduces the distance between things and people, thus mysterious is disappearing as well as authenticity.
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In terms of cult and exhibition values, the former is more about existing rather than exhibiting but the later is opposite. As we see nowadays many artworks are apart from religion, so promoting an artwork can be more popular than making, and it is vital that today artists seek exhibitions and spread their images of works on social media and websites for more people to know.
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The author also notes, when art is no longer base on ritual, it begins to build upon the political way. As John Berger notes that seeing before knowing, this means that we probably cannot create something with nothing, and this also proves that copy has its value. It can be true that new things come from copy and mix. In addition, innovation is for we copy easier. For example, the camera, today we can use our smartphone camera to record (copy) thing very easily. Also internet, we share, copy and paste information.
Christian Boltanski: Éphémères
12 April – 12 May 2018
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Animitas (small souls), 2015 Video projection (Animitas; 13 hours, 6 sec), flowers, hay, one bench Duration: 11 hours 31 minutes
Éphémères (Mayflies), 2018 Video installation, veils, fans
Misterios (Mysteries), 2017 3 screen video installation Duration: 11 hours 31 minutes
Christian Boltanski’s first solo exhibition was taking place at Marian Goodman Gallery in London since 2010. This show consists of his several new projects which include photography, sculpture and film. His work as known often explores the idea of memory and his own history,
The first impression was mysterious as the entrance was covered, one entered, you can see the soft light reflection from veils with some bell sounds around, and it brings ambiguity. This makes me very interested how the artist to build up the atmosphere and coordinate each work’s dynamic for the whole exhibition.
The artist uses everyday life objects such as paper, veil, hay and flowers, and they are delicate and transparent. It creates a sort of hazy sense, and this is just like the memory, part is clear and another is not.
The artist also choose images is characterized as historical signs, for example, he prints the old time pictures on the veils, in his film, there are fish bones and old metal sculpture, they are showed they have been there for the very long time.
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The objects he uses such as veils and wind chime in his film, they are all easily rocked, and he also uses the fans to make this happen, I understand this is kind of representing his childhood, he had to move around between different places.
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At the up floor, there is a 3 screen video installation, this work is more like a live video as it is 11 hours 31 minutes. artists reproduce a scene in the gallery to let the audience feel the same moment as well as his history.
The Weak Universalism
Boris Groys
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At the beginning of this essay, the author points out it is a utopian hope of the Joseph Beuys’s famous slogan: Everyone is an artist. He also brings a phenomenon: when a fashion emerges, we often think when it will be out-of-date.
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Like the idea of weak messianism and Giorgio Agamben’s The Time That Remains, Boris Groys notes that the avant-garde artists use weak signs to show people that there is a scarcity of time. We often think when it would be out-of-date when we talk about the idea of fashion, such as styles and movements in art. As we know artists establish their own movements by rebuilding up icons, so the avant-garde artists wanted to create something which can survive in any revolutions.
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In their works, they reduced the signs into basic units, such as geometry and color blocks. This reminds me of the story from Laozi, he said teeth are strong and tongue is weak, but when people get older, teeth fall off firstly but you can still use your tongue. In art history, the black square by Kazimir Malevich, reduce art into image and frame.
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Pop art provides art into everyday life so that it is hard for people to distinguish the difference between art and ordinary life. The author calls this trend is de-professionalism, and it is very professional movement, but audience often has seen it as non-professionalism and art conspiracy. We can also see that today many art projects have to artists and audience finish together, artists give some right to audiences. according to the author, 'The avant-garde art denies originality because they do not want to invent, instead, they want to find transcendental, repeated and weak sign.'
Lessons from the Screenplay
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The lessons from the screenplay is a Youtube channel which provides film knowledge by analysing movies from different perspectives. The channel teaches how to tell the audience a story more effectively as well as well the language of the lens. If the role of an artworks' meaning and inspiration is the script for a film, the artwork can be like the scenes in the movie.
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Here I am going to talk about an episode called Where Story Meets Style, it is the case about the movie, the Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson. The video has an interesting point of view: bring visible everyday details into scenes, for instance, an antagonist is always eating or doing something while protagonist acts, this can make the audiences have more information to familiar with the film’s storyline. Also, a work should establish its own reality, and this can avoid fragmenting the entirty.
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The video also talks about the importance to set up the boundary, which means what could happen and some are not, the advantage doing this is the viewers can get the relationship between the film story and their own guess and understanding. There is also a useful skill that how to make work less conventional: find something different from others, for example, most films want to audience immerse, but in the Moonrise Kingdom, the movies tell people they are watching a film constantly, and this is one of reason makes this film unique. In addition, There is another feature: the Moonrise Kingdom let the audience get information directly, and this can create quirky and funny scenes.
The Art Assignment
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The Art Assignment is a video series talking about art history and present, for example, they made the videos about copying, aesthetic, minimalism and abstraction. The whole series gives me a more positive way to approach the art world as well as offering some awareness about the relationship between art and its market.
In the video of the case of copying, they note that it is more important that we think about how art functions in the world rather than decoding their meanings. For the case of abstraction, we can also hear that people often say that a 5 years old child can do that. Sometimes it may be not true, some works also present very skilled details although they look quite easy to do, and also sometimes artists are very brave to make some choices. art is something that makes us think about how we expect art.
According to the video, minimalism wanted to remove expression completely and emotion, resistant to biographic reading, avoid metaphor. This makes me rethink the relationship between the artwork and its meaning. I often think that if an artwork is just trying to representing what its description writes, so what is the point to make artworks instead of just using words.
Art can bring many discuss, but often it is difficult to get a conclusion, this may show that there is democracy in art. On the other hand, art also seems not that Democratic because people cannot decide which artwork goes into museums.