a) Saskia Leek
b) Fiona Connor
c) Dan Arps
d) Alex Monteith
This week we will be visiting the Auckland Art Gallery to view, research and write about the artists selected for the Walters Prize 2010. Discuss the work in the gallery with your tutors and other students and answer the following questions.
1. What is the background to the Walters Prize?
The Walters Prize is highly regarded as the most prestigious award in New Zealand contemporary art. It is awarded biennially and is named after artist Gordon Walters. The award comes with the chance to travel to New York to exhibit their work at the famous Saatchi and Saatchi gallery, aswell as $50,00.
2. List the 4 selected artists for 2010 and briefly describe their work.
Saskia Leek's 'Yellow is the Putty of the World' is an oil painting depicting what appears to be a house on canvas.
Fiona Connor's 'Something Transparent (please go round the back)' is an installation set up using plastic wood and acrylic. It is an eerie display almost like a maze of plastic and has a ghostlike feel to it.
Dan Arps's 'Explaining Things' is a series of works using mixed media including newspapers. On a side note, for extra information I watched his interview on the art gallery website, and not only was it unhelpful, this guy was seriously boring.
Alex Monteith's 'Passing Manoeuvre with Two Motorcycles and 584 Vehicles for Two-Channel video' is quite aptly and slightly unoriginally named, as it features as its namesake implies, 2 motorscyclists lane splitting during gridlock public holiday traffic and passing 584 vehicles by traveling between rows at speed. It has both video and performance elements.
3. Who are the jury members for 2010?
According to the Auckland Art Gallery website, the jurors are:
Jon Bywater - Programme Leader, Critical Studies at Elam School of Fine Art, The University of Auckland.
Rhana Devenport - Director, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
Leonhard Emmerling - Visual Arts Adviser, Goethe Institute, Munich, Germany, former Director, ST PAUL St, AUT University
Kate Montgomery - Director, Physics Room, Christchurch
( http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/events/2010/july/the-walters-prize-2010 )
4. Who is the judge for 2010 and what is his position in the art world?
The judge for the 2010 Walters Prize is the highly respected former-director of London's Tate Modern, Vicente Todoli. Todoli's destinguished career includes being the artistic director for The Valencia Institute for Modern Art aswell as successfully curating renowned exhibitions of contemporary artists internationally.
5. Who would you nominate for this years Walter's Prize, and why? Substantiate
you answer by outlining the strengths of the artists work. How does this relate
to your interests in art? What aspect of their work is successful in your opinion,
in terms of ideas, materials and/or installation of the work?
you answer by outlining the strengths of the artists work. How does this relate
to your interests in art? What aspect of their work is successful in your opinion,
in terms of ideas, materials and/or installation of the work?
Personally I would nominate Alex Monteiths's 'Passing Manoeuvre with Two Motorcycles and 584 Vehicles for Two-Channel video' for the award this year as I believe hers to be the most original and successful of the entries. I really enjoyed watching her interview also as she was by far the most entertaining when describing her work, not trying to make up bullshit to justify secret meanings behind her work anywhere near as much as other contestants (I wonder if its too late to enquire whether we're meant to keep language in these blogs PG? bit late I guess). Her work shows 2 masked nameless motorcyclists riding cycles with the liscence plates blanked out 'lane splitting' during Aucklands famous public holiday gridlock traffic. Having driven through gridlock traffic only to see some smug motorcyclist or scooterist whizzing down the middle of the lanes of traffic is not only infuriating, its an experience almost every Aucklander can relate to. It's like the big bloke cutting infront of you in line at McDonalds, it pisses you off, but the bloke has more muscles then he does brain cells, so theres not much you can do about it, only with cars and motorcycles, by the time you realise theres a cyclist lane splitting, its too late to swing your door out for a last minute clothesline (not that I've ever done that, as my lawyers would have me write here).
As you only really "Get" art when you can relate to it, I believe this is a very strong piece. It's also a very daring performance piece as the danger to these cyclists is very real, with the chance of hitting a car or last-minute-swung-out car door is very high. The riders names have no been divulged, I assume as to avoid prosecution for both riders and artist, which I think is also another strong point, the secretive element behind it all.
6. Comment on other blogs from your ALVC group to agree or disagree with other people,always backing up your answer with clearly stated reasons.
I agree with you Matt, I think Alex Monteith shoudl win the prize, because it is very smart to use camera to be involved in the work. when you go to the art gallary, you can just sit down take a rest and stearing at the big screen for a long time and think lots of ideas behind the work.
ReplyDeleteI said that i would nominate this one too..as I found hers the most interesting. The strengths of her work were the ideas that she was trying to portray and how she portrayed them. I have to say that i definitely did double take on her work possibly even 2 or 3 times. I didn't even really realize that it was a work. Then i read the Statement on the wall and kind of had to laugh...."Makes the most of the unsettling potential of the double take". This is exactly what she was trying to get me and other people to do all along. She did it very well..I loved it. BUT i do have to say i did enjoy watching the motorcycle one, was really exciting cause it was projected so big on the wall!
ReplyDeleteLike all of you I said I would nominate this artist too. But I don't think that's what the question meant. It said nominate...so I think you pick an artist that's not in the list that you think is good enough to be about to win the Walters prize.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, Alex Monteiths artwork was brilliant and very well done. It made me think about how it was created and how long it took.
Thumbs up!