"you mean you actually study all these?!"
Since SOVA is drawing to a close (i know i'm going to miss it), I figured i'll dedicate this post to celebrating the
Top 10 of the Favorite Artists/ Artworks
that I've come across. Artists who made my H2 subject so fun and attractive, so interesting. These people have inspired me in a million tiny ways, showing me how influential an individual can be, how images are powerful, and the importance of aesthetics and design in our consumer culture. Last but not least, they make me appreciate the little moments of life, and acknowledge that beauty always turns out in places least expected.
In no particular order,
(1) Edward Hopper
Medium: Oil Painting
Isolation, human alienation, fear, anxiety and tension are themes that revolve around Hopper's paintings. He was touted as one of America's greatest realist painters, my favourite artist of all time. He paints the American landscape and the effects of the American Dream on its people.
(2) Cai Guo Qiang
Medium: Installation
This artist isn't in the SOVA syllabus but we got him as an unknown artist how prelims. This work, Head On, portrays the life cycle of human beings and the Wall Street Crash in US. Using life sized wolves as metaphor for "following the pack" or rather herd mentality, Cai forces his viewers to accept the cruel reality of the Sub Prime Crisis.
(3) Piet Mondrian
Medium: Painting
Life in its essence that is reduced to red, blue and yellow which represents love, spirit and intellect respectively according to Theosophy. He believes in abstraction and that all subject matter should be eliminated from the canvas so that the viewer can fully comprehend his intentions.
(4) Ron Mueck
Medium: Hyperrealistic Sculpture
This work's called Pregnant Mother and Child. Mueck usually does blown up works of life proportions. He is extremely skillful and his works are usaully highly immaculate, pristine and the exactitude is astonishing. He enjoys depicting intimate moments of life and is usually a celebration of beauty in the human condition.
(5) Alberto Giacometti
Medium: Sculpture
Walking Man, is a highly attenuated, filament thin bronze casted sculpture depicting the vulnerability of Man living in a highly stressed up and competitive city. His works makes use of negative spaces and agitated surfaces to convey his messages. By the way, this fragile sculpture is 1.78 metres tall.
(6) Bill Viola
Medium : New Media Installation
Dolorosa, is a table sized photo viewer style video and sound recording of a couple (below). Viola utilises technology to create alternative spaces that addresses issues of spirituality. The couple below are weeping actually, and they occasionally turn and face each other to acknowledge their presence.
(7) Damien Hirst
Medium: Livestock/ Installation
G-R-O-S-S. I can't believe I actually abhor the aesthetics of his works, but underlying each dead lifestock (notice the irony) lies meaningful messages of mortality. I refuse to explain more, Google to find out more. He is America's "shock" artist afterall.
(8) Andy Warhol
Medium: Screen Printing/ Paintings
Another one of my favourite artist. Warhol is the iconic figure of the mass media, lives on Campbell Soup everyday for his lunch. That explains his obsession with painting soup cans. He repeats his images (usually of Pop Culture) numerous times to desensitise viewers, showing them how the Mass Media actually numbs them with the swift desemination of information and its omnipresence.
(9) Mona Hatoum
Medium: Installation
Feminist, Palestine artist who questions our assumptions about the female, installations that embed danger, threat and fear. Very innovative use of mateials and technology! I like her work, Corp Estranger the best.
(10) Jospeh Beuys
Medium: Performance/ Installation
The Installation by Beuys (below) is one of my favourite. This piece is called Silence. It speaks about the sufferings and muted voices (literally) of the civilians in the Nazi Germany War. Beuys used felt (material) as a metaphor for warmth and insulation. In that sense, all contact with the outer world is cut off, and the viewer is left to contemplate and reflect about the work and his position in society. His works are so poetic and metaphorical, filled with symbolism in every inch of all his performances.
PS: they have other works that are more interesting! Google to find out.
Ciao!