- One historical artwork or movement presented to you in lecture:
Conceptual art – is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object.
- Research the work and in your blog, describe its historical context and how you think it relates to modernism. Also write about why it interests you.
Bicycle Wheel is a readymade from Marcel Duchamp consisting of a bicycle fork with front wheel mounted upside-down on a wooden stool. This piece is quite controversial which it is also representing a part of Dadaism, because it challenges strongly held beliefs about the nature of art and celebrates meaninglessness and uselessness. The historical context of Bicycle wheel is the artwork as a protest against the excessive importance attached to works of art in the period of 1913.
When the artwork is challege the idea of painting that is inspiration and suddeness of the idea, he is trying to explore more possibilities of art, experimenting the new concept of how art could be made, composite readymade elements into “artistic” way. This is deeply connect to modernism, which is a break with the past and the concurrent search for new forms of expression. It has break the trend of making regular paintings and 2D designs, it create a new concept of art, which is not limit with only paint and canvas, not limit with visual or appreciation. He encourage audience to question art with their artistic brain, how can an artwork can be called art? Why it is art? Is the concept strong enough? Or idea and concept itself could already be art?
5 Key Characteristics of Modernist Literature
- individualism;
- experimentation;
- absurdity;
- symbolism;
- formalism.
However, with this new concept, l personally hold a different point of view, l found paint and canvas are also elements that is conposite together by artist, it might not be readymade, but the concept of connecting two elements could be challeged and doubted in many different way. The originess for instance, how it definite whether the work is made by the artist when it is not completely made by them? Is this concept completely new or is just another way to perform “paint and canvas” but given a new title.
The retina is very intrest, because he think there are large amount of people including artist are only focus on visual, which is using their eyes to judge art, the concept of art, the creativeness of art without dig in deeper to the art itself. Therefore, this artwork is taking away this beauty and visual, is asking the audience to use brain to appreciate this piece of art.
It interest me because l really like 3D artworks especially installation work, which contains many construction and composition inside, it could be a totally different concept vs how it visualised. Also l very much enjoy the idea of questioning what is art? When he create his conceptual work he’s now thinking about how can l let the audience to question what is art, and this question is the doubt that himself having to the art fleid, which could be abstract, but this abstract is for letting people to doubt it.
- Read Douglas Kahn “The Latest: Fluxus and Music” (1993) in Caleb Kelly (ed) Sound (2011) (p28-42):
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances. Fluxus is often described as intermedia, a term coined by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the interdisciplinary nature of the movement.
In a general context, Kahn might explore how Fluxus artists used sound and music within their work. Fluxus had a unique relationship with music, largely because of the influence of John Cage’s teachings on many of the artists involved in the movement. The group embraced a broad definition of music, often incorporating everyday sounds, silence, and non-traditional instruments into their performances.
Kahn might also discuss specific Fluxus artists who used sound in notable ways, such as Yoko Ono, who incorporated elements of chance and audience participation into her performances, or Nam June Paik, who is known for his experimental performances and installations that combine sound, video, and television.
In Caleb Kelly’s “Sound,” a collection of foundational texts in sound studies, Kahn’s piece would likely fit into the larger context of exploring the role of sound in contemporary art and theory.
Citations:
Designercityline (2016) Analysis of Bicycle Wheel (1913), AEP E-portfolio. Available at: https://designercityline.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/analysis-of-bicycle-wheel-1913/ (Accessed: 29 October 2023).