Weekly Lectures and Resources

Welcome to ART 101!

Throughout this course, you will be asked to keep an ART 101 Artist’s Sketchbook. Use your Artist’s Sketchbook as a place to make notes during class; write down key concepts, questions and definitions from course readings; capture images and artifacts; collage, paint, doodle, and draw.

By the end of the course, you should have a minimum of 12 entries. Artist’s Sketchbooks will be due at the midterm and again at the end of the course.

Your entries will provide you with material for your final project/portfolio.

For inspiration, please see examples of visual artist and cartoonist Lynda Barry’s work, below:

Week 1: What is Contemporary Art? How do artists work today?

In the first week of ART 101, we began thinking about the definitions of art and contemporary art that we bring with us to this class. At the end of our first class on 8/28/17, everyone wrote down definitions of art and contemporary art on an index card, and handed them in. As I read through your definitions, I noticed a few themes; for example, many people defined art as a means for artists to convey ideas, experiences, and emotions using a variety of media. Some people talked about the social role of artists, and described art as a form of engagement with issues in the world. Some of your definitions also suggested that while art communicates meaning to viewers and audiences, our encounters with art also open up spaces of interpretation. A number of people pointed out that “anything can be art.”

In our second class (8/30/17), we approached our study of contemporary art practice through the artist Ai Wei Wei. From the documentary film, Never Sorry (2012), we learned that Ai Wei Wei is a conceptual artist whose practice encompasses photography, sculpture, architecture, and social media. We also learned that Ai Wei Wei works collaboratively; he describes himself as bringing the ideas while other people (mostly) make the art. Ai Wei Wei is in active dialogue with the Chinese government regarding their track record on human rights, and he also has an international following on social media. Ai Wei Wei’s life and work involve considerable personal risk, and inspire active engagement in audiences.

One of Ai Wei Wei’s best-known works of art is Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995) – a photographic triptych of Ai Wei Wei dropping a 2000-year-old ceramic vessel. What is the message the artist is trying to convey? In order to approach this question, it is interesting to recall the interpretation offered by Ethan Cohen, We Wei’s New York gallerist, in the film Never Sorry. On the act of dropping the Han dynasty urns, Cohen argues, “Wei Wei is saying, I love the culture, but I want to break from the culture.” What do you think? How else might we interpret this work?

It is interesting to note that during the Western Han Dynasty’s (206 BCE–9 CE) age of ceramic innovation, the vessels that are the subject of Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995) were forged by craftsmen in kilns that have been forgotten by history. The use of these traditional materials was banned by the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution. In 1994, Wei Wei created Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo (known as the Coca-Cola Urn). In this iconic work, he painted the Coca-Cola logo on the side of an ancient ceramic vessel. Wei Wei’s artistic study of ancient Chinese urns raises questions about the status of the object in contemporary art, how artists are recognized and forgotten over time, and how art becomes valued, commercialized, and commodified.

How does Ai Wei Wei’s practice support your definition of contemporary art? How does his practice expand or challenge your definition of what contemporary art is, and what it can be? Ai Wei Wei has been described as a citizen-artist. What is a citizen artist? How would you defend the claim that "anything can be art" using Ai Wei Wei as an example?

To learn more about Ai Wei Wei, visit http://www.npr.org/2013/01/23/169973843/in-according-to-what-ai-weiwei-makes-mourning-subversive

Week 2: Reading Prompts

For class on 9/11/17, we are reading

Sturken & Cartwright (2017), Practices of Looking, Chapter 1 – “Images, Power and Politics” pp. 13-29.

Cardoza, Kerry. (2017, Aug 2). How Amanda Williams Draws Attention to the Valuation of Black Neighborhoods.The Chicago Reader. Retrieved from:

https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/amanda-williams-museumcontemporary-

art-englewood-houses/Content?oid=28611796

As you are reading this material, answer the following questions:

1) Where in this chapter/article do I find myself feeling most interested/engaged?

2) Which part of this chapter/article do I find myself wanting to argue with?

3) One part of this chapter/article that I am struggling to understand is...

4) A question that this reading raises for me is... ?

As you respond to the reading prompts, be specific about the part of the reading you are referring to. Which paragraph or claim or argument do you find most engaging? Is there a quote that really resonates for you? Underline, put stars beside sentences, highlight, write in the margins.

Remember, in this class, our goal is to read actively. When we read, we are not just passively consuming information. Reading is a way to access our thoughts, feelings, experiences, and knowledge. It is a way to stretch ourselves beyond what we think we know or believe. If you get frustrated while reading, keep going. Push through. You are getting smarter.

Week 3: Writing a Response Paper

The first ART 101 Response Paper (Draft 1) is due on 9/15/17. Please share your paper with me via Google Drive. Below you will find a worksheet on how to go about writing your response paper. The worksheet includes some questions you might use to focus your paper. You may use these questions, or come up with one of your own (as long as it is related to this class). Write the question or questions you will be exploring in the paper in your first paragraph.

Remember, your writing will get better when someone else reads it. Before you turn in your first draft, please swap papers with a classmate and give each other feedback. Write the name of your reader at the bottom of your paper. Please do not ignore this. Final papers will not be accepted until you have gone through the peer feedback process.

Week 4: What is Visual Culture?

Lecture notes from 9/18/17 are posted below.

Visual Culture papers are due on Friday, 9/22 @ 5:00. Please make sure your paper is in your Student Work folder in Google Drive. https://sites.google.com/uic.edu/art101/art-101-student-work

Upcoming assignment!

Viewers Make Meaning Presentations (5 min)

During weeks 5, 6, and 7, each of you will take a turn giving a short presentation on how you, as a viewer, make meaning. Your presentation will have three components:

1) Find or create an image that makes you notice your own everyday experiences of meaning-making. For example, how does the image make you do a ‘double take’ or question something? Think about how context, image manipulation, framing, text-image juxtapositions, and so on shape the experience of meaning making.

2) Find an idea, quote, or concept from the Sturken & Cartwright chapter that relates to your experience of meaning-making. Choose something from the chapter that we are reading for class the week you are presenting. If you were to choose the concept of ideology, for example, you could use a quote from the reading to define this term and then talk about how ideology helps you think about your experience as a maker of meaning.

3) Write a question that you want to think about with your peers in class.

As you prepare your presentation, be thoughtful about your image-choice. Pay attention as you move around campus, the city, or your neighborhood. What do you notice? If you plan to create an image, how can you use social media to see how others will react?

Classmates can support their peers by coming to class prepared to discuss the weekly reading material. When it is your turn to present, you will appreciate it if your peers are prepared.

Weeks 5, 6, and 7: Thinking about Subjects and Objects

A reminder that the first draft of Reading Response Paper #2 is due on Friday, Oct 13th @ 5:00 pm.

The first draft of your paper should be 2-pages. In draft 2, you will expand the paper to 3-pages.

Please make sure your paper is clearly labeled and shared with me via your Student Work folder in Google Drive. https://sites.google.com/uic.edu/art101/art-101-student-work

Please remember to swap papers with a peer reader and include your reader's name at the bottom of your paper. Guidelines on how to approach paper #2 are posted below.

And who doesn't love citing sources in APA format?

Some people have let me know that they are finding it a challenge to locate examples of how to cite sources using The Owl at Purdue website. I do think this is a useful resource, but it takes some time to learn how to navigate it. Please keep the URL handy: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/

To help you learn how to cite sources in APA format, I have put together a brief APA style sheet, below. Please use this resource!

Week 8: Subjects and cities - Urban interventions

William H. Whyte was a journalist who studied organizational spaces, and a keen observer of urban space. He wrote The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1980). Prior to the 1960s, “observational research” was typically used by American/Western sociologists and anthropologist to study “other’ cultures; Whyte turned the gaze back on people and urban spaces in the U.S. He used photography and time-lapse film to observe how people moved through urban space, and how they interacted with other people in urban space. Whyte argued that you can tell a lot about how ’livable’ a space is based on what people do in it. You can watch the film version of The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces here:

https://archive.org/details/SmallUrbanSpaces

Candy Chang is an American artist whose work is inspired by William H. Whyte's research. Chang lives in New Orleans. She is interested in urban spaces, and what these spaces mean to the people who inhabit them on a daily basis. Chang takes 'inactive' urban spaces, and intervenes creatively in these spaces to engage people in conversations. In the process, these spaces become active. Click here for a short, 6 min TED talk by Candy Chang:

https://ed.ted.com/on/LBe0GRpZ

Barry McGee is an American artist whose drawings, paintings, and mixed-media installations take their inspiration from contemporary urban culture, incorporating elements such as empty liquor bottles and spray-paint cans, tagged signs, wrenches, and scrap wood or metal. McGee is also a graffiti artist. McGee has been working on the streets of America’s cities since the 1980s, where he is known by the tag name “Twist.” He views graffiti as a vital method of communication, one that keeps him in touch with a larger, more diverse audience than can be reached through the traditional spaces of a gallery or museum.

McGee believes: “It’s immediately how I engage how healthy a city is by the amount of tags. It’s in direct competition with advertising.”

Watch a short film about Barry McGee here:

https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/barry-mcgee-tagging-short/

Urban Interventions Research Question #1

1) Where do you spend time on the UIC campus when you are not in class?

Take a photograph of this space and write a paragraph about what it means to you. What do you think about and/or do in this space?

When writing your paragraph, remember to use descriptive detail. What does the space look/feel/sound like? Do you spend time alone there, or with other people?

Upload your photograph and paragraph to your page on our ART 101 course website.

Urban Interventions Research Question # 2

Take an observational walk around the UIC campus. Ask yourself the following:

Where do people tend to gather on campus? What makes these spaces appealing or habitable?

Where are the empty spaces?

Where are the congested spaces, or “choke points?”

What do you notice about gender in these spaces?

Can you find examples of defensive architecture?

2) Find a space on campus that is being used for something it is not intended to be used for.

Take a photograph of this space and write a paragraph about it. What is the purpose of this space? How are people using it otherwise?

When writing your paragraph, remember to use descriptive detail. What does the space look/feel/sound like? What, specifically, are people doing there?

Upload your photograph and paragraph to your page on our ART 101 course website.

Urban Interventions Photo Essay Guidelines

The Urban Interventions photo essay is due on Friday, November 10th at 12:00 midnight. Here are some guidelines to help you write your essay.

1. What is an Urban Intervention? What is Socially Engaged Art? Choose an interesting quote from a course reading to frame your photo essay. Hint: have a look at the following course readings:

Jackson, Shannon. (2012). Living Takes Many Forms. In N. Thompson (Ed.), Living as Form: Socially-Engaged Art from 1992 to 2011 (86-93). Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.

Kennedy, Randy. “An Artist Who Calls the Sanitation Department Home.” The New Yorker, Sept 21, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/arts/design/mierle-laderman-ukeles-new-york-city-sanitation-department.html

Lind, Maria. (2012). Returning on Bikes: Notes on Social Practice. In N. Thompson (Ed.), Living as Form: Socially-Engaged Art from 1992 to 2011 (46-55). Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.

McGee, Barry. Public and Private Space (Interview). Art 21.

Michaels, Samantha. “A Conversation with Candy Chang.” The Atlantic, Aug 15, 2011.

Whyte, William. (1980). The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (excerpts). New York: Project for Public Spaces.

2. Did your group have a name? What is the title of your intervention?

3. What was the purpose of the intervention? What questions did you ask?

4. What space did you choose to work with, and why? What were the possibilities of the space?

5. What were the restrictions of the space, and how did you navigate around them?

6. How did you feel about doing the intervention, initially? How do you feel about it now?

7. Describe an interaction you had that was interesting or surprising.

8. What worked? What would you do differently next time?

Your photo essay should address these questions both visually and through your written reflection. Choose 2-5 images to help you illustrate your essay.

For examples of student photoessays about "Artist in Residence" experiences from ART 101 2016, click here: https://signifyingpractices.wordpress.com/

Week 11: Socially Engaged Art/Social Practice

11/7/17

What is socially engaged art/social practice?

No simple definition will do it justice; however, a good definition comes from Maria Lind (2012), in her chapter, "Returning on Bikes: Notes on Social Practice":

"At the core of social practice is the urge to reformulate the traditional relationship between the work and the viewer, between production and consumption, sender and receiver. Furthermore, social practice tends to feel more at home outside traditional art institutions, though it is not entirely foreign to them" (p. 49).

Lind suggests that artists who work in the arena of social practice do so in order to engage in complex forms of critique - of society, of public space, of institutions, and of the art world itself. Socially engaged art draws upon different kinds of knowledge, from anthropology to architecture, from economics to environmentalism.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, unpaid artist in residence for the New York City Sanitation Department, is one example of how social practice takes art out of the galleries and into public space. Another example of an artist working in public space in order to critique the impact of capitalism on her home town of Braddock, PA is LaToya Ruby Frasier. Check out this 6 min Art 21 video about how Frasier "claims space" by taking on the Levis corporation: https://art21.org/artist/latoya-ruby-frazier/

Socially engaged artists tend to see everyday life as artistic material; they make no clear separation between art and life. Social practice creates alternative economies and relational networks, and helps us to reflect on "what living means in our contemporary moment" (Jackson, 2012, p. 89). The focus in on the process of engagement, rather than on the art object. It is a process in which, as Jackson puts it, "Living does not just 'happen,' but is, in fact, actively produced" (p. 93). For an example of an artist who creates alternative spaces for experiments in living, check out the Art 21 video about Andrea Zittel's project, "Wagon Station Encampment": https://art21.org/artist/andrea-zittel/

Thompson, N. (Ed.). (2012). Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011. New York: Creative Time Books.

Art 21: Art in the 21st Century

Art 21 is an excellent resource for research on contemporary art and artists. The online archive contains many videos about contemporary art, from short profiles to feature length documentaries.

https://art21.org/about/

For class on Monday, please watch this 55 min film, "Art in the 21st Century - Chicago:

https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s8/chicago/

"How does the city of Chicago inspire the artists who live there? How is the architecture, history, and character of the city interpreted and reflected in the work of Chicago-based artists? Which parts of the city are most moving and motivational?

In this episode, artists reveal the ways in which their communities ignite ideas for photographs, sculptures, and drawings, and how those communities are invited by the artists to become part of the artworks themselves."

What should be posted to my page on the course website?

____ 1. 5x5 Presentation

____ 2. Viewers Make Meaning presentation

____ 3. Response Paper #1

____ 4. Urban Interventions Exercise #1 (Find a space on campus that is meaningful to you. Take a picture and write a short paragraph about it.)

____ 5. Urban Interventions Exercise #2 (Find a space on campus that is being used in an interesting and unintended way. Take a picture and write a paragraph about it.)

____ 6. Sketch Book pages (3)

____ 7. Response Paper #2

____ 8. What does it mean to claim space? One paragraph response + photo of Hull House exhibit.

____ 9. Urban Interventions photo essay + group video

Are your permission settings open in Google Drive?

Week 12: Social Practice - Place and Context

11/14/17

This week we watched ART 21: Chicago. https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s8/chicago/

This documentary features the work of four local artists: Nick Cave, Chris Ware, Barbara Kasten, and Theaster Gates.

Artist Bios from Art 21:

Nick Cave creates “Soundsuits”—surreally majestic objects blending fashion and sculpture—that originated as metaphorical suits of armor in response to the Rodney King beatings and have evolved into vehicles for empowerment. Fully concealing the body, the “Soundsuits” serve as an alien second skin that obscures race, gender, and class, allowing viewers to look without bias towards the wearer’s identity. Cave regularly performs in the sculptures himself, dancing either before the public or for the camera, activating their full potential as costume, musical instrument, and living icon. Cave’s sculptures also include non-figurative assemblages, intricate accumulations of found objects that project out from the wall, and installations enveloping entire rooms.

To read Nick Cave's artist bio, visit: https://art21.org/artist/nick-cave/

Theaster Gates creates sculptures with clay, tar, and renovated buildings, transforming the raw material of urban neighborhoods into radically reimagined vessels of opportunity for the community. Establishing a virtuous circle between fine art and social progress, Gates strips dilapidated buildings of their components, transforming those elements into sculptures that act as bonds or investments, the proceeds of which are used to finance the rehabilitation of entire city blocks. Many of the artist’s works evoke his African-American identity and the broader struggle for civil rights, from sculptures incorporating fire hoses, to events organized around soul food, and choral performances by the experimental musical ensemble Black Monks of Mississippi, led by Gates himself.

To read Theaster Gates's artist bio, visit: https://art21.org/artist/theaster-gates/

Barbara Kasten makes photographs and video projections in her studio that evoke an experience of movement through modernist architecture. While abstract, her work is subversively political, asking viewers to fundamentally question their perceptions. Trained as a sculptor, Kasten began to investigate photography through cyanotypes of fabrics and photograms of objects placed directly on the paper. This led her to photograph elaborate compositions of objects in the studio—such as Platonic shapes, paper, plexiglass, and wire—often illuminated by theatrical lighting and colored gels. Kasten’s video projections of rotating objects and planes of drifting color, cast onto building exteriors and interiors, destabilize the architecture through the optical fragmentation of forms.

To read Barbara Kasten's artist bio, visit: https://art21.org/artist/barbara-kasten/

Known for his New Yorker magazine covers, Chris Ware is hailed as a master of the comic art form. His complex graphic novels tell stories about people in suburban Midwestern neighborhoods, poignantly reflecting on the role memory plays in constructing identity. Stories featuring many of Ware’s protagonists—Quimby the Mouse, Rusty Brown, and Jimmy Corrigan—often first appear in serialized form, in publications such as The New York Times, the Guardian, or Ware’s own ongoing comic book series Acme Novelty Library, before being organized into their own stand-alone books.

To read Chris Ware's artist bio, visit: https://art21.org/artist/chris-ware/

Discussion questions for ART 21: Art in the 21^st C - Chicago

1) What does this artist DO? How do they MAKE their work?

2) What MATTERS to this artist? What ideas, issues, or beliefs do they care about?

3) How does CONTEXT (personal/social/political/artistic) shape this artist’s work?

4) Who is their AUDIENCE?

5) How do you RELATE to this artist’s work? What do you connect with? What do you struggle to connect with?

Writing Your Artist Statement

11/15/17

Week 13: Postmodernism and Portfolios

Contemporary artists use postmodern strategies that reference, question, play with, and ultimately move past the values and styles of modernism.

Examples of this include the ways in which artists use appropriation, juxtaposition, repetition, mixed media, and found objects and materials - often those that reference a specific place, or another art form. The vernacular, or the everyday, is an open resource for inspiration.

Postmodernism overturned the idea that there was one inherent meaning to a work of art or that this meaning was determined by the artist at the time of creation. Instead, the viewer became an important determiner of meaning, even allowed by some artists to participate in the work as in the case of some performance pieces. Other artists went further by creating works that required viewer intervention to create and/or complete the work.

Mark Bradford is a contemporary artist whose work references the modernist painting style of abstract expressionism. Although Bradford call himself a painter, he uses found posters and billboards, and hairdresser's endpapers, to make his large scale, abstract canvases. Bradford's work is autobiographical and connected to place, albeit indirectly. He is interested in how personal stories and histories are conveyed through materials.

From a 2011 exhibition of Bradford's work at the MCA Chicago:

"An anthropologist of his own environment, Bradford describes himself as a 'modern-day flaneur,' saying, 'I like to walk through the city and find details and then abstract them and make them my own. I’m not speaking for a community or trying to make a sociopolitical point. At the end it’s my mapping. My subjectivity.'"

https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2011/Mark-Bradford

Find out more about Mark Bradford here: https://art21.org/artist/mark-bradford/

Final Portfolio Assignment

For this assignment, you will create a digital portfolio of your art practice. The portfolio will include examples of artworks, an artist statement, and your resume/CV. Portfolios will be presented during the final class.

Artist Statement and Resume

The artist statement is a crucial part of an artist’s practice. This piece serves as an introduction to your work as an artist and can touch on your biography, context, personal philosophy, areas of interest, and contemporary issues. Your artist statement should touch on the WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHY, WHERE of your work. For this assignment, you will create an artist statement that touches on all of the above. (1-2 pages max)

As part of your professional presentation, please include your current resume. (1-2 pages max)

You can find info about writing resumes and sample resumes here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/564/1/

Chronological resume example: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/927/03/

Functional resume example: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/927/04/

What else should I include in my portfolio?

In the portfolio, include examples of the full range of your art making skills in at least 3 different media: painting, drawing, sculpture, digital media, performance, moving image, and/or socially engaged art. Be sure to include examples of work you have produced in this class, and also in your studio classes this semester. You may also include work you have created in other contexts; for example, if your creative practice includes social media (E.g., blogging, Snapchat) please feel free to include examples. If you make great artist journals or creative protest signs, you can include this type of creative production in your portfolio as well.

Present a portfolio that shows depth as well as breadth of knowledge. Present a portfolio that shows us WHO YOU ARE, WHAT YOU MAKE, AND WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT at this stage of your life as a student/artist.

Your portfolio should reflect more than just a demonstration of skills in various media. PUT YOUR WORK IN CONTEXT. Include art works that show how you investigate questions, themes, and ideas that matter to you. Show us what influences you as a maker; E.g., other artists/makers, places, social issues.

Contents of portfolio

Minimum 10 examples of art works – Maximum 20. All art assignments from this class plus additional pieces of your own choosing from other art classes at UIC and your practice outside of UIC.

Artwork in at least three different media: Painting/drawing, sculpture, digital media, performance, moving image, and/or socially engaged art.

Do not include more than 20 examples of your art work.

Present your work in a clear, neat, and aesthetically pleasing way. Do not include images that are dark and out of focus.

Only submit numerous views or details of the same artwork if they add significant new information or insight.

Statement about each artwork (50 words) including:

· information about size, medium, date, title

· description of each artwork with reference to ideas and concepts from this class

Organize the portfolio presentation clearly.

Criteria for assessment of portfolio

Well written, engaging artist statement (1-2 pages)

Well organized resume (1-2 pages)

Ability to put your work in context

50 word descriptions of each artwork are well written and reflect your understanding of course concepts

Skills in at least three different media

Ability to use art skills to explore personally and/or culturally meaningful content

Demonstrated ability to create an engaging, organized presentation

11/27/17

How do I put my artwork in a context?

There are a few ways to approach this. You can talk about artists whose work you relate to because it informs your practice in some way. You can talk about how your work relates to a specific geographic location or place. You can talk about how your work explores and/or comments on a topic or social issue (history, culture, and so on). The goal of putting your artwork in a context is to think about what you do, but also to think beyond yourself in order to situate your art practice in relation to the world.

Try this exercise!

Circle three of these terms/concepts that are most relevant to Cathie Opie’s art practice.

Representation Meaning Making Signs and Signifiers

Power/Ideology Place and Context Art in Everyday Life

Criticality Feminism Economies

Modernism/Postmodernism Content/Form Institutions

Juxtaposition Mixed media Social Practice

Composition Subject/Object Autobiography

Gender Abstraction High/Low Culture

Questions for your enjoyment

Why did you choose these three terms/concepts?

What’s missing from the list?

Which three of these terms/concepts are most relevant to your art practice, and why?

Want to refresh your memory of definitions of key terms and concepts?

You can find Sturken and Cartwright's (2017) handy Glossary of Terms BELOW: