Author: Nikita Emma

by Barbara Bolt

I read this over these last few weeks and really wanted to take my time with it. At the start I found it a bit hard to get into with the sheer number of times that representation and representationalism was said. I really believe that ideas like these can be described in lamen terms for everyone to understand and that makes the idea stronger because more people can grasp it. I persevered on and did begin to understand and appreciate how much attention was payed to these minute details. Some really interesting ideas came up such as…

“Derrida writes of this thinking without knowing or as he puts it writing without seeing”[pg43] which to me I feel really relates back to Manulani Meyers epistemology and these two are intwined both of them talk about how to create deeper research through understanding. I would say I was reading without seeing some of this text but as I would continue it would become clear and I would understand.

“In practise, as we have seen, the work can take on a life of it’s own. This movement, suggests Delueze is: Capable of affecting the mind outside of all representation; of substituting direct signs for mediating, representations; of inventing vibrations, rotations whirlings, gravitations, dances and leaps which directly touch the mind” [pg 41]

I found that I could contextualise this from when I play piano without sheet music. A lot of the time I will close my eyes and let my hands do what they want. I found that it was less about the notes that I was playing but more the timing not my brain actively engaging I let go and everything sounds nice. ” through the handling of materials, methods, tools and ideas-in practise, that art becomes experiences. Thus it it at the level of the eyes and hands that the work of art escapes from the frame of representationalism”. [pg 48]

Reading theory like this I am uploading someone else’s consciousness into my brain and from that my brain picks out what I can relate too which was talked about in the text “For example, when I first read Heidegger’s work, I would try to fit it into preconceived categories in my endeavour to “grasp the meaning”[pg 49] and I was like yes I have been doing this the whole time. But through reading and opening my mind to this other way of thinking and understanding that deepens my understanding.

” when Heidegger talks of understanding, he is not referring to understanding as a cognitive faculty that is imposed on existence. Understanding is the care that comes with handling, of being thrown into the world and dealing with things. Levinas notes that the originality of Heidegger’s conception if existence lies in positing a relation that is not centered on the self- conscious, this self knowledge, this inner illumination, this understanding….. refuses the subject/ object structure(Levinas 1996;23). This relation of care is not the relation of a knowing subject and an object known it defies the logic of representationalism”. [pg 48]

I found the end a bit anti climatic I had read this whole big thing and it wrapped up pretty nicely but I thought I would be mind blown but to transcend representationalism is to just go with the flow and enter a state of zen and not be the overly critical artist. Which I know but it’s nice to have a nudger to re remind me. I learnt a lot before coming to this idea and am intrigued to see how the book turns out. It’s all about the journey and not the destination. I enjoyed have something academically heavy to read to challenge my brain.

BIBLIOGRAHPHY

Bolt, Barbara. Art Beyond Representation : The Performative Power of the Image. London: I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited, 2004. Accessed October 25, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.

DAY ONE

I found it very eery and quite scary being there at night. Matt also feels a bad vibe from there. The valley is wedged between my apartment building and another next to it was what used to be Artizanz which was an apartment/ Hotel that was owned by a wealthy man called Mark Lyon he however dived very deep in to meth addiction which ended up with drug and sexual assault charges. He would hold people victims and sexually assault and beat them apparently someone escaped out of a window into the valley. With this history and it being a big open space where you feel looked at, it is very quite unsettling. I felt kind of bad leaving my Chimera there when I scurried back home.

I was so shocked that the whole mound was pretty much gone all had been eaten and the un wanted food stuffs had been pushed around.

DAY TWO

I went back in the light to see if it would make me feel more at ease. I was surprised to see how much of the food had all-ready been eaten the cakes, rice and pizza crusts . It is cool to see what food the animals like and that I am actually feeding animals as well as the earth. I want to bring down more food not just compost scraps. What I brought down today was avocados, lettuce, rice some onions and garlic.

DAY THREE

When I left I looked back and saw a bird had swooped down and was picking at what I had left out. I remember reading an article that talked about how ants and rats are the garbage disposals in our cities. I went back that night and left out more goodies for them.

DAY FIVE (I skipped day four)

I went down this morning It has been very windy and rainy today which has made me super excited to see how my chimera has held up under these elements.

DAY 6 (I skipped day 5 because rrrraaaain)

When I came today I was amazed to see 3 big blow flies just chilling on my chimera. I hadn’t seen these guys before and they were not afraid of me. The chimera’s whole body has turned to mush because of the rain.

I am interested to see what goes tonight. I will peep down in the morning.

During this experiment I have been able to feed the birds, rats, slugs, ants and flies in my area. I have explored and deepened my ritual of leaving my compost out to decompose. Before I had done this I had no idea what was eating the food and if anything was. I found that I have built more of a relationship with the site and a stronger connection to the land as well as the animals that inhabit it. I find it funny how I never really contemplated the effects my actions had on these animals I cohabit an area with. I feel like Anna Mendieta really drew me to work with the earth as a site and I have created a stronger connection and understanding to the valley. Which makes me really happy.

I like that I have been able to deepen my awareness through documentation and really show the decomposition of my chimera. I found it interesting how this year a lot of my teachers have been talking about entropy which was an idea I stumbled on in high school when doing research for the movie Run Lola Run. I really like the analogy that if you have an office in a room and you never go in over time dust will build there will be cobwebs and as more time passes things will start to deteriorate. Through the deterioration things are breaking down and multiplying smaller and smaller- like compost until it is a cohesive whole. We are all made of atom’s so it makes sense that everything over time will sift into a soup of everything. I find that making my chimera out of materials that will degrade and decompose allows me to watch and explore this degradation to wholeness. Kind of like the points between my printed assemblages that open and close. It’s a nice juxtaposition to explore and I feel that if I continue documenting my chimera I could see all parts of this process.

In Transcending Representationalism towards the end they talk about deterritorialisation in critical theory it means ” the process by which and social relations of components, a territory has its current organisation and context altered, mutated or destroyed. The components then constitute another new relation and become reterritorialized. ( I feel like this is a more bougie way to say what I did with my chimera) It is beginning to transmute.

All done. yay! I feel like every-time I come down here I make an offering to the Animals and the Earth and it is really nice and I feel really happy.

fish

duck ugly boots

fishing pole

frog

Grass

tiger

teddy bear

Pillow

These are eight more 3D models. I have found this pretty hard and challenging a lot of the models I would download wouldn’t show up in the preview so had to find more different ones making it a little frustrating but all done now which I am happy about. I haven’t really gotten the hang of putting everything together in mesh mixer when importing different objects. I haven’t figured out how to move things around……. hmmmmm I feel like it would be something cool to pursue in the future but not right now 🙂 just checking off the list! hehe.

MARINA AMBRAMOVIC- RISING

This was a VR piece created by Marina Abramović in 2018. The viewing puts on VR goggles and stands on a moving plate they are transported to the Arctic where glaciers are melting you get scared you are rocked and feel unstable. You then enter a room and with Marina’s avatar in a box filling up with water you have tasks set to you you must complete and finish the tasks to save her.

This art pieces was created to explore “If immersive play will increase empathy for the present and the future victims of climate change, and how this experience with affect players’ consciousness and energy. In real life, when someone rescues another person or offers aid of any kind, there is a transfer of energy. The recipient of the help and the provider of aid are both affected by the experience. Will the same happen in virtual reality?”

Marina highlights the importance of acting to prevent a climate catastrophe and talked about how all of us should try and do one things everyday that will benefit the environment.

I really like how she is playing with virtual reality to create an emotional response in the hopes that you will leave and maybe bring more consciousness to the impact you have in your world. As well as being technologically advanced and sort of like a video game. It makes me wonder about the effects of video games on peoples brains and behaviour I remember a few years ago when I would play Grand theft auto and when I was in a car my mind would be like hehe lets run these people over ( I cannot drive I am only a passenger) but it was pretty crazy how that thinking pattern was normalised from me playing these games. I stopped playing after that happened. I was like nope.

https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/44432/1/marina-abramovic-rising-is-using-vr-and-empathy-to-help-save-the-world

JACOLBY SATTERWHITE- RIEIFYING DESIRE

Jacolby created a six part video series which depicts a utopia. This video series was inspired by drawings his schizophrenic mother would do. She would stay up late watching informercials inspired by the phrases “You could come up with a invention that would make you a Millionaire!” She created these inventions to gain financial security.

“Satterwhite now makes three-dimensional worlds out of his mother’s graphite work. He starts by taking her linear works and individually hand-tracing his mother’s drawings with a cursor or stylus in a 3D-rendering program called Maya then places the drawings within a larger virtual landscape, pairing them with family videos, photographs, dance, and performance. The resulting piece–a whirlwind of floating photos, 3D drawings, the artist dancing and acting, and family footage–culminates in a video experience that explores the boundaries between reality, narrative, psychology, surrealism, and memory.”

Jacolby would spend hours tracing his mother lines getting to know her hand and how she drew. Which is a really beautiful way to create art. Jacolby created this uptopic world on epic proportions that combine his mothers inventions and dance and performance from themselves.

Jacolby’s use of voguing makes me think about how voguing and house of vogue came about because trans and queer people wanted a place in reality where they could exist and be them selves. Which they didn’t have in the outside world. As well as when the internet was first being created it was perceived to be this utopia where information and knowledge was shared and wouldn’t be governed like how we are today. What Jacolby created was a world where his mother inventions are realised and grand-scale as well as being a party fun place that is created for Jacolby. I love that technology allows us to makes these dreams and ideas come true even if it is in a different reality.

A Family Portrait

I brought my laptop with me when I was nannying and helped my kids make there own Mash up Chimera and they loved it and the freedom the software gives you is great for the imagination. I could also see the attachment of there relationships with the Chimera they created and instantly wanted me to email them to their parents so they can have a copy. It’s really fun blurring my uni work into my nannying work and gives me and added perspective of this process. Pretty much everything I do at uni is a fun thing to share with my kids so it’s a win win situation.

This is Atoms Crazy thing

This is Ezra’s Bunny Mouse that can swim

Aotahi’s Goose Bumpasaurus

Sids bunny

This was a really fun activity to do with my kids and Atom really got the hang of it and could bring in different parts and arrange them and paint colours. It was really cool to be able to make these with them as they have never really played with any software like this.

I brought Atom and Ezra up to the studio and the manually used the hands the paint a picture which was really cool and fun. They also really liked the machine we made.

I wasn’t there for the showing of our machine as I was at my minor. When I came back Cathy was already taking it down. It was so short lived but thats okay. I feel like my favourite take away from this project was getting to work with Olivier, Jeroja, Ian and Cathy I found it so much fun being able to bounce ideas off everyone and that we could all come together with different skill sets and create this machine. I also felt secure in the way we were working together I remember one day feeling really sick so I went home early and came back the next day and things had all-ready progressed. I also didn’t want them to feel like I wasn’t contributing so I did work when I was at home. It was a really nice team and super cool environment and machine we made. I am really happy and proud of everything we did. I hope we can do more collaborative assignments because it’s super fun and I feel like you come out with something way cooler then you would by yourself and you can learn more.

When we had our critique I was giving the idea of creating sculptures out of things that would more easily return to the ground. More natural materials that would be easier to break down or to assimilate with the environment they are in. I found that while I was nannying me and my kids would naturally do this so have documented some of what we have made.

The other day we were making fairy and insect houses. Aotahi and I went around with a bucket collecting all the perfect size sticks to make the houses. We then brought them back to the site we were building on and made one fairy house and two insect houses.

These are a perfect because as time goes on they will fall over and go back to what they came out of.

We also went to Pt Chev beach yesterday to dig big holes looking for skeletons and fossils. The Excavation site turned into an environment with cliffs and rivers houses and mountains It was really cool to see all the marks in the sand that are temporary but are an intervention until the tide comes in. During this lock down I have seen heaps of videos of people making sand art which is super cool and really play into this idea of using what is in you environment to create art that will dissipate back.

I find that my Uni life and Nannying life has blended pretty seamlessly together and it has allowed me to look at structures and ways of making that are not just in my home environment. I would finish a teams meeting and then go to work so it was really fun to be thinking about what I had been learning and then it be appearing in these ways around me while I was working.

Bear

Tree with a bird nest

Bird flying

Cow

Flower in a pot

Flower

Palm Tree

Im not too sure why they are all on a bit of a wonky angle… But here are some objects 🙂

7 objects I will add eight more in another post 🙂

When I set out this brief I wanted to see how my relationship with my Chimera would develop as I created it. I found that as I was slowly making piece by piece putting it in the oven and baking it and waiting, I didn’t have much attachment I just needed to get this done for the deadline today. I wanted to put it in the ground and take photos of it and maybe document it decomposing and show more of the cyclic nature of the materials that I am working with. But by the end of assembling all the labour and love made me feel attached and I wanted to keep it with me for a wee while to admire it, I am really proud how it turned out.

That night I ended up taking all my compost out to the valley and documented the mound I created. I added liquid yogurt on-top and there was also rice so it looked kind of like a snowy mountain. I know that slowly this food will rot and then break down feeding the earth, insects and rats? I still wanted to give something to the ground and create a site relationship. I usually take my compost here but what was different this time was that I also brought a camera to document my mound. This valley is very interesting a has a big sign saying NO DUMPING but I feel like it’s all biodegradable and helping the earth so it’s all-good (but it was a little scary).

I took the photos with a long exposure to allow the camera to get in all the light. They came out quite blurry but I like it like that.

I find it interesting how the relationships I was exploring weren’t just that of me making my chimera and developing a relationship with it but also what I have in my house that can feed the earth and how I can use these mundane activities to create art through compost.

The use of compost makes me think a lot about Dieter Roth and his methods of making art to decompose. In the last painting brief I added a whole bunch of time tams roasted food just everything from the fridge and cupboard that needed to go on a tray and set it in the bathroom for about a month now and it only just started getting mouldy. I took it out with the compost as It was time to say good bye.

I like that these things grow and are created but over time they wither and start to decompose to be returned to the ground. Everything I used in my chimera came from the earth and will go back to it. I enjoyed using the dead dough and baking it- It really makes me feel like I’m tapping into my domestic goddess. Dead dough has been around for thousands of years and was a popular sculpting medium in Egypt. Because we are in lock down this practice has been easy to recreate because it’s simple and you dont need much more than whats in your kitchen.

I used thorns for the teeth that I collected when I was out nannying. The cabbage was at the back of the fridge just withering and waiting for me to use it for dye.

I know that its not super “realistic” like mesh mixer or like Patricia Piccini. It is a form that has been put together like building blokes not so much fused. But I feel like this gives me freedom to recreate this Chimera as something else. When creating a Chimera I find it hard not to get attached as it is an animal and it is made by me. In Dantes Inferno Virgil talks about how art is the grand child of creation which makes sense, especially when I am making this hybrid creature.

I made two different coloured doughs the more purple one using cabbage and the yellow one using turmeric. This was just what I had in my house but I really like how the colours turned out especially the yellow.

I used my hands to create the indents and ripples just by squeezing. Kind of like a nikita mould.

This is a sea-lion, crocodile butterfly It’s really cute. I first thought about photo graphing it outside and leaving it to decompose but I have gotten a little attached and want to keep it in my house for a little bit.

I also made the candelabra that you can see in the back ground.

This is my sea bed that I will place but little Chimera on for presentation. I think it’s also quite funny with all the baking paper makes it very foody. And everything I’ve made it technically edible apart from maybe the candle wax.