Conceptual Artists

Vito Acconci

Vito Acconci was an American performance, video and installation artist. His art was characterized by 'existential unease', exhibitionism, discomfort, transgression, provocation while also having wit. He liked exploring the barriers between private and public.

FOLLOWING PIECE (1969)

Acconci randomly selected and then followed passers-by's he encountered in New York City, maintaining his pursuit until the person entered a building. This piece he made contains photographs and maps of this happening. This whole 'performance' seems crazy to me, there is no way something like that would happen in society today. I'm not sure on the total facts like did the people know or not but if they didn't then I guess he's highlighting how unaware a person can be to someone following them.

"He said, “I am almost not an ‘I’ anymore; I put myself in the service of this scheme.” A typescript lays out the terms of the “scheme,” and this photocollage documents several of the actions." - MoMA

I watched this video on Acconci's 'where we are now' exhibition and got to understand a bit more about him. I can see how in the late 60's/ early 70's that his way of working was way ahead of it's time. He had the premonitions of social media in how he's capture every moment of his life. I wasn't so convinced on his way of working in the video however, the woman would express a lot of his opinions and when he's asked at the end what did he like about his exhibition he can't find an answer... it makes me feel like he's still lost and doesn't quite know where his work is taking him - which I guess is what he wants as he says he wants to work on a project that's never ending. But to me he's very odd and I don't always understand the concept or justification to some of his work.

MARY KELLY

Mary Kelly is an American Conceptual artist, Feminist, educator and writer. Her work often blends personal and political issues of Gender, Identity and collective memory.

http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/sisterhood/clips/culture-and-the-arts/visual-arts/143927.html

After watching the video on her piece 'Post-Partum Document' 1973-9, where she documented everything from her sons first years of life and had dirty nappies displayed with stains and texts of what her son had ate that day. It is shocking and was very controversial at the time that she made it because people still didn't understand the divide in equality between men and women (not that some do still to this day). So the fact that she was showing sexual social division when it comes to being a mother by using her son's nappies had to shock the world into seeing this divide because only then would they talk about it.

"Hearing her rather than looking at her"

"Thinking about the subject that than the position of objectifying her" -Mary Kelly

MARTIN CREED

Martin Creed is a British contemporary artist that makes installation art.

'Creed's work takes everyday objects, throwaway materials and playful subversions of familiar spaces and asks its viewers to divine meaning through the experience of their viewing. In doing so he raises questions about the material requirements of art and the hang-ups of skill, effort and training that dictate how we judge quality.'- theartstory

Work No. 227: The lights going on and off

This exhibition comprises of an empty room, which is lit for five seconds and in darkness for five seconds and repeats. It uses the gallery's existing lights and there is nothing new in the space. It leaves the viewer to interpret what they are seeing and find the significance of the piece.

"It has the ability to compress happiness and anxiety within one single gesture. Lights go on, lights go off - sunshine and rain, and then back to beginning to repeat endlessly."

This piece by Creed is intriguing to me as each individual will have their own experience of what they see or feel from viewing this exhibition, it makes it very personal to how we personally view the world. Light and darkness can trigger many different emotions to people.

Work 200: Half the Air In A Given Space

'The instructions for Work 200: Half the Air In A Given Space are as follows: "Calculate the volume of the space. Using air, blow up white 12in balloons until they occupy half the volume of the space. As usual the space should be full of air, but half of it should be inside balloons...".'

This piece by Martin Creed is interesting in that it will always have a different look/form each time it is made, it has no permanent appearance. I watched a youtube video on his exhibition with this piece and it was amazing to see people interact with this piece which seems to be a prominent theme in Creeds work. But once again people were talking about how they felt while being in the installation there was a range of feeling between, distorted, scared, free, enjoyment and so on. I really like Creed's work and how he always makes them a personal experience for the viewers.

Sherrie Levine

Sherrie Levine is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston. Her work is known to be considered as the 'Pictures Generation'.

"Fountain (Buddha) is Levine’s homage to Duchamp’s renowned readymade. Adding to Duchamp’s audacious move, Levine turns his gesture back into an “art object” by elevating its materiality and finish. As a feminist artist, Levine remakes works specifically by male artists who commandeered patriarchal dominance in art history."

"Her work interrogates notions of ownership and meaning by directly confronting canonical works and the viewer in gallery or museum contexts. “The world is filled to suffocating,” the artist has said. “Every word, every image, is leased and mortgaged. We know what a picture is but a space in which a variety of images, none of them original, blend and clash.” "- Artnet

Page updated

Report abuse