20/10
Sayaka Maruyama
Persona
These set of pictures are surreal and captivating. The overexposed lighting give it an angelic tone but there is still a fierceness in the expressions and the looks. Some colours are slightly faded but that aspect gives the pictures whole new charm and some colours are on the contrary amplified which adds jazz and musicality to the outcome. Not forgetting about the detailing in the second picture and fourth that makes them unique and somewhat precious. It seems like you have been digging up old photos of your family and you find pictures of your grandmother young and blooming or your aunt as a child.
18/10
Chinese Traditional Masks
After watching The King of Masks (1996) I wanted to learn more about traditional opera masks from China, to reference design.
Red Mask Guan Yu
Black Opera Mask Zhang Fei
Yellow Mask Tu Xingsun
Blue Mask Xia Hondun
Green Mask Zheng Wun
Deity Mask
17/10
Crash Magazine
Issue Spring (Printemps) 2003
Transformers
The makeup is executed splendidly and the use of lace and patterns was very helpful to see how far the manipulation of appearance can take you. The colours and the way the model is photographed inspired me to make the mask for my White Space project.
15/10
Marcel Duchamp
Fountain, 1917
Part of the Dada movement, I thought this piece was interesting as it makes use of the white space and is connected to one of the manifestoes in the research section. Marcel Duchamp's piece is insubordinate and defies the laws of beauty that preexisted in art. It questions the boundaries of art: what is art and what is not? Like many other Dada artists' works, Duchamp does not consider Fountain as art. There have been attempts from a devoted Dada admirer to destroy the work exposed at the MoMA. The fact that it is displayed in a museum makes Fountain a piece of art contrary to the author's intention.
13/10
Calligraphy
Kyuuseikyuu Reisennomei 九成宮醴泉銘, Ouyoujun 欧陽詢
Reversing the negative and positive spaces
The black would be the white space in this calligraphy. The opposite colours have a nice, classic looking contrast to them.
13/10
The Guerilla Girls (1985-1990), MoMA
A visual shock, the Grande Odalisque with a head of a gorilla. Beauty and the beast when in a conventional world. A rhetorical question as a heading, in bold. Followed by statistics. This manifesto is in my opinion, the most effective. It has a visual support on the left, colours that reminisces the Pop Art movement. As the name indicates, pops out from the ordinary crowd. A word play with gorilla and guerrilla along with an alliteration with /g/ "Guerrilla Girls". Not to forget the other alliteration: /m/ in "Met. Museum", with the Greek root "met" meaning above or beyond.
18/10
The King of Masks
I first encountered the Chinese masks when I was learning the Chinese language at school and we had a presentation at school. It was something that stuck in my mind for years and although hidden, it came back to me when I was watching The King of Masks (1996) by Wu Tianming. The film itself was truly touching and poignant, the masks of course were absolutely beautiful.
The scene where Wang (main character) flips endlessly the masks was both eye-catching and elegant, colours flowing, lines swirling forming circles and ovals.
5:24 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dRA0MbWBA
It taught me greatly on Chinese culture and the importance of masks in performance as well as its design.
13/10
Yayoi Kusama
I Who Have Arrived in Heaven
This exhibition gives a hyper clean impression and discloses a nice contrast between the white of the space and the colourful paintings. The amount of space between the paintings frees an air that does not make it seem overwhelming and excruciatingly tight. However, I must say that the rectilinear lines of both the rooms and the dimensions of the paintings give a clinical feel to it, as if in a futuristic, dystopian world, controlled by order.
13/10
Manifesto
A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government.
13/10
Founding and Manifesto of Futurism (1909), Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
1. We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.
2. Courage, boldness, and rebellion will be the essential elements in our poetry.
3. Up to now, literature has extolled a comtemplative stillness, rapture and reverie. We intend to glorify aggressive action, a restive wakefulness, life at the double, the slap and the punching fist.
This manifesto is effective because it is defiant from the existing artistic norms. It commences with a novel-like style, narrating the speaker and his friends installed in a mosque, adorned with Persian carpets, at night. The preface(?) is intriguing, thus making it easier to navigate the reader. The communication is more fluid and flowing. The beginning is rather peaceful, making use of imageries of stars and oriental ornaments. It is in great contrast with the essence of this manifesto. The core may seem abstract, but it is rebellious.
13/10
Dada Manifesto (1918), Tristan Tzara
A work of art is never beautiful by decree, objectively and for all. Hence criticism is useless, it exists only subjectively, for each man separately, without the slightest character of universality… Dada was born of a need for independence, of a distrust toward unity. Those who are with us preserve their freedom. We recognise no theory.
The Dadaism is one of my favourite artistic movement: eccentric and unconventional. It defies the existing norms in art and goes beyond the atypical. I think this manifesto is successful as it dwells within the theme of beauty, which is defined by our society. Not only aesthetic/artistic standards but it also defies the human beauty principles. We, humans are unfortunately vulnerable beings and are ever worrying, fretting about one's appearance. The Dada manifesto is game-changing as it turns the tables completely of those societally acceptable exteriors. Dada artists do not even wish to call their works art as the movement itself is the destruction of past art regulations.
13/10
J'accuse...! (on Dreyfus Affair), Emile Zola
A direct provocation from Emile Zola. This communication is effective as it explicitly denounces the president of France. The title "J'accuse" is in bold font, big letters and followed by three points for suspense and an exclamation point for climax. As a critically acclaimed writer, Emile Zola has more influence than a regular individual which makes the communication far more powerful.
13/10
Red Alan's Manifesto (2014), Grayson Perry