Contemp Art Final

• Matthew Barney

  • The Cremaster cycle, 1-5 Art Films
  • Reference to the cremaster muscle that moves the balls up and down with temperature
  • Ascending and descending, Fascinated by Vaseline and self lubricating plastic
  • Neo-mythology for himself, non-narrative movie
  • Sex and conflict
  • Interest in fetal development
• Meshac Gaba

  • Invites both African and Western perspectives on cultural identity
  • Reading and sharing – promotes community
• Documenta 11


  • Curated by Okwui Enwezor, who was the first non european curator
  • Trans disciplinary platform
  • The art featured implies the creolization of culture
• Yinka Shonibare


  Nigerian and British artist

  • Tends to work on themes of colonization, specifically in the 18th century
  • Convergence of Colonialism
  • Gallantry and Criminal Conversation
• Doris Salcedo


  • 6 November 1985, seen in Documenta 11, 2002, reflected insurrection (type) event that took place on that date in Bogotá
  • Plegaria Muda, tables sandwiched with soil, live grass began to grow, real materials, prayer for victims of gang violence
  • Plegaria Muda
  • Incorporates her Columbian heritage and anger for the civil unrest and prevalence of gang violence into her work
• Thomas Hirschhorn

  • Bataille Monument for Documenta 11, 2002
  • Bataille Monument, community engagement, would shuttle people from the town of Kassel to Documenta
  • Included a snack bar that's open for 12 hours in a working-class neighborhood
  • NOT relational aesthetics or museum practices
• Olafur Eliasson

  Icelandic – Danish artist

  The Weather Project, 2003, Tate Modern Turbine Hall

  • Used elemental materials, created micro-atmospheres
  • The Weather Project, incorporated artificial sun and fog to simulate a constructed nature
• El Anatsui

  Ghanaian sculptor

  Behind the Red Moon, 2023, Tate Modern Turbine Hall

  • Used recycled or wasted products for some artistic production, namely bottle caps
  • Behind the Red Moon, thousands of metal bottle caps and fragments, migration of goods and people (invites connection to transatlantic slave trade and modern-day liquor sales that follow colonial ties)
• Do Ho Suh

  Korean artist, Sculpture, installation, drawing

  Staircase-IV, 2004

  Reconstructs architecture with fabric, memorialization
• Rachel Whiteread

  First woman to win Turner Prize, Untitled (House), YBA

  • Untitled (House), 1993
  • Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial, 2000, Vienna
  • Made everyday architecture and objects look ghostly
• William Kentridge

  White South African artist, Animated films, printmaking

  • The Refusal of Time, 2012
  • Felix in Exile, 1993
  • Impacts psychology background in theatre, animation
  • "Drawing is a way of thinking"
  • The Refusal of Time was featured in Documenta 13
  • About mortality between breathing, heart beating, and pulse
  • Einstein's theory of relativity inspiration
  • Black and white projector as sculpture
• Isaac Julien

  British, Filmmaker and installation artist

  Looking for Langston, part archival part reconstruction, followed Langston Hughes life during Harlem Renaissance

  Ten Thousand Waves, 2010

  Looking for Langston, 1989
• Jonathan Lasker

  Discursive, rather than monotopical painting, abstraction

  • The Quotidian and the Question, 2007
  • Picture with Outstanding Form, 2019
  • Narrative + abstraction
  • Ideal of the doodle, unconscious line
• Beatrix Mihazes

  Brazilian artist, Color and abstraction, Painting and collage

  Dancing, 2007

  Mitsura Sagrada, 2022

  • Blend of Brazilian motifs with references to western modernist painting
  • Inspiration from carnivale in Brazil
• Emily Kame Kngwarraye

  Aboriginal Australian artist, one of the most prominent and successful artists in the history of Indigenous Australian art

  *Anwerlarr anganenty (Big Yam Dreaming), 1995, name reference to the Yam Dreaming piece by Yuendumu community in Magiciens de la Terre
• Shahzia Sikander

  Pakistani-American artist, Neo-miniatures and animation

  Used traditional miniature supplies like wasli paper, tea staining, gold leaf, and dry pigment

  • The Many Faces of Islam 1997-99
  • Intimacy, 2001, 4 min computer animation
• Edmund de Waal

  Psalm/Library of Exile shown at Venice Biennale but not in national pavilion

  Personal look at his family Jewish diaspora a part of speech
• Grayson Perry

  British artist, Ceramicist

  Dissected parts of British culture that is prejudice, partook in cross dressing

  Jane Austen won 1st Turner Prize
• Hans Haacke

  German artist, Conceptual art that speaks to connections between money, art, politics
• Peter Doig

  Scottish painter

  Depicts his experience of the landscape, autobiographical elements

  Swamped, 1990 was sold for $39 million
• Hahan

  Indonesian artist

  • Speculative Entertainment No.1, made their own version of art auction, people would bid for small sections of the overall piece then that section would be removed, allowed more people to engage in the art market, commentary
  • "The true art is the selling of it"
  • Metafetishsizing
  • International nature of the art market in Indonesia
• Banksy

  British (English) artist

  Unknown identity

  began as a street artists and wants to maintain that level of incognito

  disrupts purchases of his work, namely, his shredding of "Girl with Balloon" in 2018 auction
• Theresa Margolles

  Mexican artist, Photography and performance art

  Mexican Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2009, mopped blood of killed Mexicans by the cartel.

  Openly critical of Mexican government

  Centers on death in the social context, how it effects the community and what consequences result from an individual's death
• Maria Eichhorn


  German artist, Site specific installation

  Relocating a Structure, Venice Biennale, 2022

  • Interacts with political and economic issues and their complexity and overarching acceptance of its dominance
  • Piece for Biennale worked to engage the viewers understanding of what modern buildings are placed on top of and the significance of the history
• Ai Weiwei


  Chinese artist, Documentarian, sculpture

  Study of Perspective, 1995-2003, flipping off significant monuments, landmarks, and institutions

  Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995

  Openly critical about the Chinese government, example of this is his performance art demonstration where he shattered an urn from the Han dynasty in 1995
• Jill Magid


  Surveillance capitalism

  • Worked with police who monitor the cameras in public spaces for Evidence Locker (2004), staged incidents, was directed by police while her eyes were closed
  • Turned the tables on how surveillance works
• Hito Steyerl


  Trained in camera operation and documentary filmmaking

  How to Not Be Seen (2013)

  Operating systems for the world (television, movies, surveillance), observational films (unexpectedly humorous)
• Trevor Paglen


  Work tracks mass surveillance and data collection

  PAN(2010), tracks of satellites in the night sky

  Photos of these data collection facilities show how unassuming they are, meant to invoke a bit of fear in the viewer to question how these institutions are using us and our data
• Lauren Woods


  American Monument (2018) shares the 911 calls following instances of police brutality against Black folks

  The curator and coproducer of this piece, Kimberli Meyer, was let go from her position with little evidence as to why, resulting in Woods pausing the exhibition and eventually relocating
• Steve Kurtz


  Member of Critical Arts Ensemble

  Pioneered politically engaged art, intervention on behalf of betterment

  Spoke at Creative Time's Democracy in America Summit, 2008