Eleanor Antin
Eleanor Antin as The King, 1972
black and white photograph mounted on board
13 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches
Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New YorkEleanor Antin 100 Boots, 1971-73 Halftone reproduction (postcard) 83.116.48_01_b01, 8/4/08, 3:40 PM, 8C, 5036×8964 (1501+923), 138%, Custom, 1/30 s, R119.3, G93.7, B102.7Eleanor Antin
Plaisir d’Amour (after Couture), 2007
Chromogenic print
60 x 91 1/2
61 x 92 1/2 inches (F)
Edition of 5
Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New YorkEleanor Antin, The Artist’s Studio from “The Last Days of Pompeii”, 2002 Chromogenic print. Paper: 78.7 x 63.5 cm. Image: 76.2 x 45.7 cm Image courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, 2017.Eleanor Antin, A Hot Afternoon from “The Last Days of Pompeii”, 2002 Chromogenic print. Paper: 78.7 x 63.5 cm. Image: 76.2 x 45.7 cm Image courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, 2017.Eleanor Antin The Tourists, 2007 chromogenic print 61 x 77 7/8 inches (F) edition of 5 Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York
Born in 1935, Eleanor Antin has become a cultural icon when it comes to recreating scenes from history with a current social commentary. Before photography and other forms of art, Antin was a poet and an actress that became fascinated by the Yiddish theater and other artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Fluxus. She later moved to San Diego in 1969 where she became involved in an arts and education center in LA along with in the local feminist movement. Antin also became a key figure in the community of leftist artists and writers who were affiliated with the University of California at San Diego, where she taught from 1975 to 2002.
Through the 1970’s and into the 90’s, Eleanor created different egos that had different genders, races, professions and were even from different eras. These different versions of herself later influenced her photographs in the early 2000’s that depict photographic tableaux, or a living picture. These images are often historical recreations of scenes with a modern twist, or at least provide commentary on current social issues. Emily Liebert of moma.org says, “In transforming herself into one character after another, she performed the proposition that gender, class, and racial identity are fluid. If such categories are unstable, the works suggest, then so too must be the social hierarchies that are built upon them.”
Tabaimo was born in 1975, as Ayako Tabata. She Grew up in Hyogo, Japan as the middle child between two other sisters. Her father was a salaryman, which is a Japanese term for a “white-collared man” who shows a great amount of loyalty for the corporation he works for. Her mother, Shion Tabata was a notable ceramicist. Due to Ayako’s love of wordplay, she decided to combine her last name with the Japanese word for “little sister”, imooto; this created her new name, Tabaimo. She graduated from the Kyoto University of Art and Design, for her senior project she did an installation piece, Japanese Kitchen, which would become the first of many. Her methods of animating consist of creating line drawings of her imagery, then she colors it digitally and moves the images around in order to create her animations.
Tabaimo’s Japanese kitchen was show inside a small Japanese house.Screenshot of Japanese KitchenTabaimo WorkingTabaimo’s Dog (aw)
“My generation seems to stand on unstable ground, and this is shown in my work in many different ways.”
Tabaimo “Boundaries” Art21
Her first show was in Kirin Plaza (2000), and she did two other large showings at the Yokohama Trienniale (2001) and the Sao Paulo Bienniale (2002). Despite these accomplishments, she was still considering a career in design and spent a year in London working as a graphic designer. She went back to creating installments. Her work is styled off Japanese manga, but she also heavily was inspired by ukiyo-e woodblock prints.
Ukiyo-e wood print by Kyosai Kawanabe Ukiyo-e wood print by Utagawa Toyokuni
Tabaimo would go on to create a series of animated art shows. In 2011, Tabaimo represented Japan in the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia with her work, Teleco-Soup. She strived to create a fully immersive environment showcasing a visual commentary on Japanese culture and society. She explained that she wanted to use a venue that allowed rain to come inside through the ceiling in order to make the building itself one with nature (Tabaimo, Artist21). Using this venue she projected her work on every inch of the inside in order to create the illusion of another world for her viewers. The same reasoning was the same when she coined the title of the show, Teleco-soup which is the idea of an “inverted” soup or the contradiction of the water and sky, or self and world.
Image from Tabaimo’s show, Teleco-SoupAnother image from Tabaimo’s Teleco-Soup
“A lurking, gnawing sense of dread, a fear that all is not well with the world persists throughout Tabaimo’s work. Be it a cook using human ingredients, a turtle being flushed down a toilet or nerves running between the floors of a dollhouse, the imagery that makes up the artist’s animated videos is at once nightmarish and alluring,”
Ashley Williams in ArtAsiaPacific
“In my work, I take 50% of the responsibility, the rest is up to the viewer, then the work is complete.”
Tabaimo “Boundaries” Art21
Her work is known to showcase Japanese culture and societal issues. Tabaimo also creates work that captures personal experiences in her life. One of her animated videos shown at the exhibit “Boundaries” shows a woman pulling a baby out her nose, and leaving it on a tortoise which crawls into the toilet and swims away. This story is about the time a very close friend of hers had a baby and immediately put it up for adoption. The toilet represents water which Tabaimo expresses symbolizes going into another world. Another video from the show captures the feeling of atopic dermatitis in her hands; she says the sensation feels like bugs crawling in her skin, and she wanted to portray that for the viewer.
Tabaimo’s work
An example of a work of her that shows a social commentary is one of Tabaimo’s videos set in a bathroom, which she says parallels the internet. This is because of how a bathroom is such a public place until one goes into a stall, then it becomes extremely private. That is how it represents the internet.
What Tabaimo is up to today is unknown, but hopefully she is creating more art.
Ron Mueck working on one of his hyper-realistic sculptures.
Ron Mueck was born in Australia to German parents in 1958. His parents were toy makers and he grew up making all sorts of toys, dolls, and outfits. Later, he began his career in making models and worked in the art of puppetry. Soon after, he began creating realistic pieces for an advertisement company. By 1996, Mueck committed his life to his own contemporary art, abandoning any commercial company he would have worked with.
Ron Mueck creates hyper-realistic, large and small scale, human sculptures out of resin, fiberglass, silicone, and other materials. Unlike other artists, Mueck chooses to use his art to portray current human life. He creates sculptures that depict people from all stages of life, ranging from birth to death. While putting a piece of his own personality into all of his work, Mueck strives to show the audience what life really looks like. He doesn’t want to sugar-coat it or sweep it under the rug. He feels like life needs to be seen the way it is felt.
“A Girl” – Ron Mueck
Pictured above, is Ron Mueck’s “A Girl,” where he depicts a new-born, baby girl. He uses the scale of the sculpture to emphasize the trauma and the miracle of child birth. The baby has a disgruntled face, as most do when they are first born. The sculpture also has red coloration throughout to show that the baby experienced some sort of trauma, i.e. birth. Child-birth is such a mystery to many people, as no one remembers what it felt like, but Mueck created this piece to show the reality of the event.
“Boy” – Ron Mueck
Another ginormous sculpture that Ron Mueck created is called “Boy.” The boy’s stature and facial expression makes the viewer wonder what the boy is going through. The sculpture is relatable in a way that the audience is drawn into his emotions, wondering what is going on.
“Mask II” – Ron Mueck
“Mask II” is the second independent, gigantic face that Mueck has displayed. This piece depicts a relatable man, seemingly lying on the platform it is displayed. This sculpture represents the everyday man in society because of the imperfections that are shown, He has wrinkles, a five o’clock shadow, and even some gray hair. Mueck uses this relatability to pull at the audience’s emotions when seeing the sculpture’s face morphed into a concerning look.
Ron Mueck working on sculpture called “Spooning Couple.”
After creating any of his sculptures out of clay, creates a plaster mold, paints some coloration into the mold, then they are then casted into the material Mueck chooses. Typically this is either silicone or fiberglass and acrylic. These materials are used to create the hyper-realistic look that his pieces contain. Afterward, like shown above, Mueck carefully paints the details and sews in the hair.
“Spooning Couple” – Ron Mueck
The sculpture above is known as “Spooning Couple,” and is a small-scale sculpture of a man and woman cuddling. This piece shows the couple with discontented looks and does not portray the “ideal” body types. This is meant to be an image that depicts the imperfections of a relationship. Life isn’t perfect, as Mueck shows in all of his pieces, let alone an intimate relationship.
“Dead Man” – Ron Mueck
The photo above is a sculpture representing Ron Mueck’s father in “Dead Man.” The piece is quite small and is displayed on a large platform, giving the viewer an immediate sense of loneliness. The man depicted is pale, confirming that the man is dead. This shows that death is lonely to everyone. Death is just another phase of life and Mueck felt that is shouldn’t be shut up and not talked about. It is emotional and everyone has to experience it, as is the basis of all of his work.
Works Cited
Mourier, Adam, and Zoey Coen. “13 Hyper-Realistic Sculptures by Ron Mueck.” Bored Panda, 2019, www.boredpanda.com/13-hyper-realistic-sculptures-by-ron-mueck/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic.
Mueck, Ron. “A Girl.” National Galleries of Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/94045/girl.
Taylor, Alan. “The Hyperrealistic Sculptures of Ron Mueck.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 9 Oct. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/10/the-hyperrealistic-sculptures-of-ron-mueck/100606/.
Jacob El Hanani was born in Casablanca, Morocco, but moved to Israel when he was 7 years old. This change of scenery influenced his art through the style and type of meaning that his art holds to him. One specific example being his piece Gaza that he created in 2001. initially it was created as a sense of expression, however he later realized it resembled the gauzes that he had seen while he was in the army in Israel.
This Gaza symbolized the time that he spent within the army while stationed at the West bank and how it was an everyday part of life to him at the time, however, it was not an intentional design.
His art not only displayed himself, but it also served as a means of expressing his culture and the beauty hidden in the people of Israel.
At first glance, you may only see it as a jumble of lines , but is not so. If one takes the time to truly observe this piece, there are hundreds of Hebrew letters scattered throughout. Deliberately, he presented the letters in order to convey the simplicity and beauty of his language.
Hanani does hide some things into his drawings, but the most hidden feature of all stands directly in front of you. These lines may seem only like lines, however the true nature of them derives from the line within itself. Within the lines are more lines, psalms(The Tehilim) and even calligraphy that is so tiny that a person simply passing by could miss it. This tradition pays homage yet again to Israel and the tradition of micrography that is used in Judaism to translate holy texts.
Within these lines there are hidden words and secrets that you should maybe go find out one day for yourself.
Another objective of Hanani’s is to show the beauty of his country without directly showing you a map or a photo of it.
This piece portrays the towns layout and hundreds of intricate details that build up his home.
The Mishley 1978 made in Israel
Hanani’s art also combats the culture that we once had, which included the ” mine is bigger than yours” movement in the 70’s. His minimalist and tiny art created the illusion that it was a large piece when in reality it was made up of tiny cooperative parts that created something bigger than itself. It also was simply made of ink and paper, rather than any other material that could deter the eye from the beauty in simplicity.
His pieces created a sense of grandeur when it was built of minimalism.
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Hanani’s pieces are meant specifically for him and his life, not for other and to make a statement on anything that is going wrong, but rather to show the beauty of the one thing he truly loves, which is ultimately his country. With all the forms of art he has created, the art has always been supported by his country. At a young age he went to Avni school of fine arts that those around him encouraged and even pushed him in a positive way, that many artists lack. His love and thankfulness to the home that loved him, truly shows throughout his art. As stated by Hanani, his art is the passage of time and the link between microscopic and the infinite.
The Tehilim 1978-81
As a closing remark, Hanani made and continues making his art, however, has also indulged in the making of figures. Who are those he simply sees.
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese activist artist actively engaging the government’s corruption through his work. Ojoeifdjopsdijfojdspjkp
Ai Weiwei “Stools” at his Zuoyou studio in Beijing (2013) | Instagram by @aiww
Some more writing down here discussing his work, his materials, his impact on Chinese life.
More writing down here. You need 500 words and about 10 images. Your presentation to the class will be about 5 minutes. Make sure that you know as much as you can about the artist and their work.
Ai Weiwei – Lu, 2015. Courtesy of Marciano Art Foundation
