Gillian Wearing and Vanessa Beecroft.

Mark Bleier

Gillian Wearing and Vanessa Beecroft are artists who utilize the public when creating their art. They both use random people and objects within the public society to enhance their work. They utilize just about anything in public, such as people, buildings, or general themes. Their work has many similarities that run parallel to one another.
Gillian Wearing is an English conceptual artist who is concerned with examining the details about people. She uses common people in the public to accent her work. One of her first major works was called, Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say. She took a series of random people on the streets and asked them to write something down on a piece of paper. She photographed the random people holding up the piece of paper. There was a police officer who wrote ‘help’ and a person dressed up a casual business suit wrote ‘I’m desperate.’ This piece of work got a lot of recognition and it solidified Wearing as a respectable artist.
Wearing also uses videos in her art works. She once videotaped people’s reaction to a certain advertisement. She wanted their reactions on videotape. She also has a video called Drunk which is four drunk men stumbling around. All of her works have to do with individuals and their behaviors. I enjoy looking at Wearing’s art work. I feel that she encompasses the individual and the public in fun and interesting way. I like her piece on taking random people and telling them to write something on a piece of paper and photographing it. It made me think about what I would write, Even though I have yet to make a decision. I overall enjoy viewing Gillian Wearing’s work. Vanessa Beecroft is an artist who uses mainly performance art to examine individuals
Vanessa Beecroft is an Italian contemporary artist who focuses on individuals in performance art. She uses many nude females within her work. This has created a lot of controversy within her work. One of her first performances included a series of drawings of her Food Dairy. In a recent performance she made one hundred nude women wearing pantyhose; stand in Berlin for three hours. This is an example of why her work is considered controversial. Her work is mainly live, consisting of female models and only recently has she considered males. I feel that her work is a little extreme and should not mainly include nudity. I do not see the message that one hundred nude females standing for three hours is sending. I do not consider that real art. I do however like that she uses the public and individuals within her work. I enjoy art work that encompasses the common citizen within it. It gives the everyday person a chance to participate in the creation of art. I can see why much of her work is seen as controversial.
Gillian Wearing and Vanessa Beecroft are two artists who encompass individuals and the public within their work. I enjoyed viewing Wearing’s work and I enjoyed parts of Beecroft’s. Beecroft’s work is too extreme while Wearing’s is interesting and fun to view.

Mid-Term part 2

Mark Bleier

Performance art is a type of art that is performed live and in front of an audience. The themes are usually on current topics which communicate a specific message. The theme for my performance will be about the environment. The purpose of my performance is to bring attention to, and remind the audience on how badly we are polluting and destroying our environment. The environment is a major topic in today’s society. The “going green” aspect is becoming huge and everyone is becoming more environmentally friendly. Many people are buying Hybrids instead of regular cars and doing everything they can to clean up our environment. I will show the audience numerous pieces of art which bring attention to the horrible things we do to our environment. I will show how everyday activities, which we rarely think about, can affect our environment. I will show the audience through a short PowerPoint presentation. An example of art will be a picture of millions of cell phone batteries, which represent the batteries that are thrown out and pollute our earth daily.
There is going to be green lighting to reflect the environment and also to represent “going green.” I will play a different audio during each slide which corresponds to that specific art piece. This performance will take place in New York City and will be a half hour long. If it is any longer than that, the audience will lose focus. It will also be broken into six parts. I will be the only performer and I will have one person switching slides per my request.
Script
1- Before I come out on stage, I will show a short video clip, showing how badly we are polluting our earth. 3 minutes
2- I will then come out on stage and introduce myself and give the audience background information about myself. I will also explain why I am showing them this presentation.- 2 minutes
3- I will then show my first art piece. It will be a big picture of a plastic grocery bag which will actually be made out of millions of small plastic grocery bags. I will have to zoom-in to show the audience how the big plastic bag is made up of little ones. This will represent the millions of plastic grocery bags that are thrown away and pollute our earth daily. I will give background on how they pollute the earth and why people throw them away. The audio will be the sound of plastic grocery bags when they are touched. It will not be loud because it will distract the audience. 5minutes.
4- My second slide will be a picture of a large cell phone battery. At first glance it just looks like a normal picture of a battery. I will once again zoom-in and show the audience how it is made up of millions of little cell phone batteries. This will represent the millions of wasted cell phone batteries, which are thrown away and pollute the earth daily. I will explain how easy it is for people to just throw away their batteries out the window or in the garbage. I will also explain why the materials in the cell phone batteries are hazardous to the environment. The audio will be the sound of a cell phone ringing. It
5- My third and final slide will be a picture of a Coca-Cola can. At first glance, it will look like a typical can of cola. I will once again zoom-in and show the audience how it is made up of millions of little Coca-Cola cans. These can represent the non-recycled cans that pollute our earth every day. I will stress the importance of recycling and show how something as simple as recycling can help our environment. The audio will be the sound of a can when it drops into a bin. 5minutes.
6- I will then thank the audience for watching and do 10 minutes of question and answering. I will also give them my contact information.

Reaction to Dave Hickey's lecture

Mark Bleier

Dave Hickey delivered a humorous and effective art lecture about selling without selling out. He explained how people are becoming too infatuated with the price of the art and not the beauty of art. Art works are becoming too expensive and in return, it is diminishing the meaning of real art. Real art should not encompass an outrageous sum of money, which is created by the transaction of the buyer and seller. Unfortunately, artists mostly develop their work with prices and money on their mind.
The art market place has drastically changed from the transition into the twenty first century. In the twentieth century the art market place was a ‘finite market place,’ which means that there was always more works of art than there were people to buy them. That is not the case today. People are buying numerous pieces of art at a time. I feel that this is becoming a big problem. People have forgotten the real meaning of art and cannot even look at an art piece without wondering the price of it. Artist should go back to creating and showing art that they actually believe in, instead of creating art for the money and collectors. Art in supposed to be fun and not concentrated on money and capital gain. Hickey also states that the art world consists of greedy artists and stupid collectors and these are the people who get hurt. Greedy artists and stupid collectors is exactly what negatively affecting the art world today. When I listened to that, it really occurred to me how ridiculous the art market is becoming. People need to stop worrying about the price of art and start enjoying the beauty of it.

Dave Hickey’s lecture is similar to the documentary on the “Mona Lisa Curse,” by Robert Hughes. The Mona Lisa Curse outlines how the art world in too consumed with money and prices. The Mona Lisa created an art market which is capitalistic and commercialized. Collectors buy any type of art work that they can get their hands on and I feel that it is ruining art within galleries and museums. The art market is not even about the art anymore, it is about how much money the seller can make off the buyer. Collectors do not need hundreds of art works, but they feel they do in order have bragging rights. Hickey talks about how there is an abundance of money is circulating in the world and jokes that it is hard to get your hands on some without selling art. Art has become too capitalistic as means for collecting money.

I think that Dave Hickey delivered an interesting and influential lecture on art. All the arguments that he made, I agreed with. The art market has changed throughout the years and it became mostly about money. Art is now about selling to the collectors and the consumers.