Okay I have decided to move back towards looking at the way we treat our natural environment and not each other for a while. This is a coat I made out of recycled shopping bags and water bottles a while ago. I put it into a slow moving outgoing current at Nudgee Beach, Brisbane today to photograph and film it (hats off to the people behind a film camera who get those beautiful and smooth moving images that I take for granted). So much of our waste slowly moves out to the ocean like this. Shopping bags is one of those things that unless we are really going to recycle it into another use, it is something that we can easily, very easily shop without having to use. Clothes are something else that is readily discarded after minimal usage. We all have a hand in it.
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I have loved the work of artist Pawet Althamer (his outlook and approach) after seeing his work in a couple of exhibitions. Anyway, an artist he referred to often to drive his own concepts was from an artist around in the 60s and 70s named Joseph Beuys (his explanation after the performance is very good if you watch this link). I had never actually looked his work up, but the teacher brought his work to our attention this week and I am loving it. Beuys sees every person as artist whereas Althamer moved away from the 'glorification of the uniqueness of the artist...because he is so well aware of his position within a system of relationships, and thus distanced from the myth of the isolated artist (Gioni, p.91,92). Boundaries shift between engagement, influence, history, community and constant learning. (Matt Saunders, “Paweł Althamer” in Frieze 107 (May 2007), p. 162, cited in Gioni (above))
I have started back at classes at the University of Canberra @ Tafe Queensland Brisbane. One of the readings our teachers gave us written by Robert Pepperell, is among other things describing how we all view the world differently, but how often and similarly artists view their world. So much of this reading is resonating with me. It is blissfully reassuring. Anyway, I started a self portrait drawing at the beginning of the year and it seems to relate (in my mind anyway). I think I have done more to it since this photograph was taken, but while I was drawing it I tried to imagine my inside world in the external world and feeling thrown off balance. We can only see the image of ourselves in the mirror and the rest of it is sensations.
Years ago, because of the job I was doing at the time, I was able to help get a man from the street, that looked remarkably like this and take him to be assessed by a psychologist. The psychologist said the man was suffering schizophrenia and so would take him into his care. The problem was that the man did not want to come with me, my partner did not want to help me bring him in, the doctor did not looked pleased to see him (clearly homeless, smelt and very dirty). I ended up wondering why I even bothered. I never went back to find out what happened to him after I left that facility that evening. This man and many more like him are there but they are invisible. Often people don't always want to help others if they don't want to (or can't) help themselves. I have not stopped to help the homeless since, other than throwing them a few dollars which I expect helps them find their next fix, whatever form this takes. Before leaving for the trip to New York I outlined a few possibilities for artworks I could work on during the trip and on my return. This is one: I was lucky enough to go to New York as a tourist on a previous occasion. You cannot help but see the vast amount of cultures, the diverse backgrounds of the people and the overwhelming number of homeless people in the streets and in the subway train systems...everywhere. I would attempt to gain some knowledge of someone's life story, living in hardship, through conversation. Put some drawn images that capture their personal essence in a large perspex money box and sit the things they really need on top, out of their reach like food, books, mental health services, health, education and a pathway to shelter. I guess my experience from years ago keeps coming back to mind, or my lack of doing something about the others I see here and overseas in similar circumstances continue to haunt me. New York was an amazing city with warmth and energy like you would experience nowhere else. The people who live there were helpful, engaging and inviting, so this picture is by no means a reflection of the people and city in general. I just wonder sometimes who is actually watching out for these people - how do we make the invisible people be seen? Who wants a picture like this hanging on their lounge room wall or in their hotel foyer?? I am making comment but not actually doing anything to make a difference to somebody else. I did not even talk to this guy who was sleeping on a footpath side bench down by the Hudson River the day we were at the High Line.
Here is one of my paper wasp paintings on realestate.com.au
When I was in New York, Elise Engler suggested to us to watch John Berger's 'Ways of Seeing'. I got around to watching it yesterday and while is was done in 1972, it is still relevant today. To any non-artists it outlines why artists don't paint or draw things photographically realistic. That is what the camera is for. While we have moved well beyond this reasoning, it is still very good to watch documentaries like this again to reinforce our unique take and place in the world. Artists need constant validation that what we do has meaning and matters.
Today we fly home to Brisbane. We were able to spend a relaxing morning taking in some of the icons of New York. A nice way to wrap up our trip. Again, I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity that I will remember forever. I have some ideas on how to respond to this experience and will post its development.
Talk about saving the best til last. This gallery was amazing. The building and the artwork. I highly recommend the trip across to this gallery if you even remotely enjoy art! The building is an old primary school converted to the exhibition spaces it is. If there was a museum I wish I could have access to all the time, this would be it. The flat side of the knife (2015?), Everyday objects, video, sounds, foam insulation board etc. Samara Golden. This room was like an Escher drawing in the real with mirrors that reflected the under-surface rooms the artist built. On the information board she mentions she described her installation as a 'sixth sense' and 'maybe we can see that this kind of door is possible, but we don't yet know how to cross its threshold'.
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