Site Specificity

     In conjunction with this class, I am also taking Philosophy of Art.  In that class, we covered Street Art at about the same time as we covered Street Art.  In that class we discussed site specificity and how and if that challenges the art autonomy theory.
     First off, we had to define what street art is.  The first idea was that a work of art is street art if, and only if, it is made in the street.  This doesn't work because then that would have to include any art that happens to be in the street.  This include those who set up an easel and canvas on sidewalks as well as art shows.  Nicholas Riggle proposes a far more acceptable definition: A work of art is street art if, and only if, its material use of the street is internal to its meaning.  I like this definition as it clearly defines that in order for a work of art to be street art, the site at which it has been placed in is also part of the meaning of the work.  Banksy has placed many works in places where what the meaning of that work is correlates with the surrounding area.  In the case where he painted what looks like a hole to paradise in the West Bank wall is both beautiful on its own and also a political statement.
     With regards to one of my images in my blog, "The World is Going Down the Drain," the use of the storm drain is internal to the meaning as the world is depicted as flowing down into it.  If this piece was taken and painted onto a canvas and placed within MOMA, it would would most likely be interpreted as though the world was melting and the true meaning of the work would be lost.  So, the site in which a work of street art is placed is both intentional and internal to the meaning of the work.

The World Going Down the Drain

     This image was painted in Spain, near a storm drain.  This image is meant to communicate mainly the artists viewpoint of the direction the world is heading.  I believe this is a great representation of that worldview.  In my journal section, I wrote a part about the importance of site specificity.  Would this image have the same effect if it was on canvas and placed within a gallery?  I would say that it would not.  It might get interpreted as the world melting or something similar, but not that the world was going down the drain.  So for me this image shows that street art must draw its meaning from the material in which it is placed or made from.

Lego Street Art

     I grew up with legos.  In the above image we have an optical illusion than looks as if a lego army is in the middle of the street.  When viewed from other angles, the image becomes distorted, as the picture below shows.  I found this image by simply searching for Lego street art.  The artists have correctly represented Lego men not only in their appearance, but in their attire and accessories.  The inspiration for this piece was the Terracotta Army found in China.  The event this was drawn at was the Sarasota chalk festival in Florida.  The Terracotta Army was buried with the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang.

Massive Nazi-Looted Art Trove

Man Behind Massive Nazi-Looted Art Trove Strikes Deal With German Authorities

     Cornelius Gurlitt inherited a massive collection of artwork from his father who was an art dealer who traded in works confiscated by the Nazis.  1,400 items were found at Gurlitt's home during a tax case investigation back in 2012.  Officials are saying that 458 of those may have been seized from their owners by the Nazis.  Some of the works include works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  It is predicted that at least 300-350 of those works will be returned to Gurlitt.  A task force has been set up in order to research each of the confiscated pieces.  If, in one year, research hasn't been completed on a work, it will be turned to Gurlitt.  Further research on a returned work is still able to be done after the year and any works with a pending restitution claim will be kept in trust.  This article was interesting to me because of the sheer number of works that were being looked into.

OakOak Uses Street Art to Clean Up the City

OakOak Uses Street Art to Clean Up the City

     During the day, the artist known as OakOak works a normal 9-5 job, but when the workday is over, he finds places within the urban city of Saint Etienne, France to paint.  The town is mainly fueled by coal mining and has begun to become "grubbier" as OakOak puts it.  Anyplace that has a crack, is broken down, or in disrepair he tags it.  The article has some of his works and they are amazing.  This reminds me a little of the documentary about Banksy I watched in my Philosophy of Art class earlier this semester and our discussions on site specificity.  If OakOak were to paint these on canvas and place them in galleries, it would change the meaning that was meant to be conveyed.  This brings me back to the John Ahern case where the message he meant to convey was not the one that was communicated.  Here, however, it is clear that he is trying to bring light and color to these parts of his town.

Famous Stolen Painting Recovered After Hanging On Autoworker's Kitchen Wall For Years

Famous Stolen Painting Recovered After Hanging On Autoworker's Kitchen Wall For Years

     This story almost echoes back to the Jackson Pollock movie.  A Sicilian man buys a painting and it turns out to be worth far more than what he originally payed for it.  The difference here is that there seems to be no doubt as to the painting being an authentic Paul Gauguin still life.  This article is interesting because all that the man has to do is prove that he bought this in good faith.  This painting was bought along with another painting at an Italian state railway in 1975 for $100.  After the autoworkers son noticed that it could be a Paul Gauguin, an expert was brought in and it was decided to likely be a Paul Gauguin still life.  It was the dog in the upper right corner that tipped the son off to the possibility as Paul Gauguin usually used dogs as his signature motif.  It's worth is now set between 19 to 13 million euros ($14 million to $40 million).

Steampunk

    I found this image via deviantART, one of the main sites I will discuss in my paper on fanart.  Steampunk is best described expediently as a depiction of what the past would have looked like if the future had happened sooner.  Normally, steampunk clothing falls into the British Victorian era or American Wild West.  The main point of steampunk is to imagine an alternative history, one that mainly employs steam power.  The man in this image is wearing a Victorian era style hat, a pistol of complex design, and his clothing is leather with metal bolts to fasten everything together.  One of the traits that makes us him is the capacity for imagination.  No other species would be able to invent an alternative history as they are unable to think any further ahead than their immediate need.  Many of us wonder what what life be like if things happened differently and steampunk is one way of doing that.  What would our world look like if we ran solely off of steam power?  Would that make any difference in environmental impact?

Immortal Picture Stories

     Amar Chitra Katha, or ACK for short, is a series of comic books that are extremely popular in India.  Printed in color, and mainly English at first, they tell stories of mythological figures and historical figures.  I found it really interesting the ways in which they told the stories.  The main problem I had with them is that all Muslim rulers were cast as villains, even Shah Jahan was cast differently than Hindu rulers.  Shah Jahan was depicted as old, feeble, and not much of a warrior, even though he had been earlier in life.  The cover of his issue shows him staring out of his cell at the monument he had made for his wife, the Taj Mahal.  Honestly, I didn't know that the Taj Mahal was built by a Muslim ruler.
     The fact that these comics became the authoritative way for Indians to learn the "root to their roots," kind of bothers me.  The issue is that these comic books are being read by children, who have yet to develop critical thinking skills and thus assume these to be true representations of history.  However, not all Indians truly see these as definitive sources of cultural identity.  A friend of mine, who grew up in the state of Kerala, enjoyed them when he was younger, but now sees them just as Chitra Katha's, or "Picture Stories."  However, many still believe that the stories depicted in ACK are in fact the true story, unclouded by any particular political agenda.
     Growing up in the Christian community, the Bible stories that I grew up learning were meant to be accepted as literally true.  The problem with a complete literal interpretation is that sometimes what occurs in both stories from the Christian and Hindu mythologies is that there are events that seem to defy natural laws.  How does one illustrate/explain something that is literally impossible such as Krishna lifting a mountain with one finger or the world being created in seven literal days?  With an increasing emphasis on science and technology, scientifically, these two events are impossible.
     Today so many people argue over literal and figurative interpretations.  In the end I think everyone must make a choice.  For Indians: Will you believe that Krishna really lifted that mountain with one finger or was it that he was credited with helping people to find respite from Indra? For Christians: Did God really create the universe in 7 literal days or was he using the number 7, which was considered the divine number, to establish his divinity?

Something Black In the Lentils

     How many times have we been swindled by what we thought was a good deal?  There are so many self-help books and hotlines promising this and that.  With the large amount that exists, how can we know what is really true and what is false?  Swamiji tells us a story of a disciple who stole.  When he was caught, the king had his nose cut off, and he began to dance around claiming that he can see God.  So he began to gather followers, cutting off their noses, and in turn they begin dancing and claiming to see God.  The story then takes us to a kingdom where the king is about to have the noses of his entire kingdom cut off.  The Prime Minister does not think this is a good idea, but is unable to sway the king.  The Prime Ministers grandfather then goes to the king warning him about the Nose Cutters, but the king only rebukes him saying, "What do you know?"  It is then decided that the grandfather will have his nose cut off first, and if he does in fact see God, then the whole kingdom will follow suit.  However, when the grandfather has his nose cut off, the disciple whispers in his ear that he will get laughed at if he does not say that he can see God, as by doing so he will earn a great amount of reverence and respect.  He returns to the king and says that he does not see God and is in a great amount of pain.  The Nose Cutters were rounded up and thrashed.  The story ends here saying that with only one king this group was caught and stopped.
     What I love about this story, and Indian stories in general, is that one can take more than jut one specific morale of the story.  Reverence for your elders, discernment, caution; these are some of the morale's to be extracted from the story.  We are supposed to understand that cutting off the nose, in this case, does nothing to increase our vision nor does it help us to see God.  Exercising caution and making sure you have all the facts before jumping in head first is a must.  Reverence for your elders, a cultural practice that is somewhat rare here in the United States, is very common in South Asian cultures.  So it is a very bad thing when the king says, "What do you know?", as it shows a disregard for the advice of those with many years.
     One of the other points that Swamiji made, although not within this particular story, was what he believed to be karma balancing itself.  Americans used to be slave holders, so now with so many Americans become slaves to these false gurus, it was to balance out our enslavement of African Americans.
     For me, caution was the main morale I took away from this story.  Now, whenever I am presented with something, I will check to see if there is "something black in the lentils."