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Art Still Matters: Art in the Contemporary Australian ContextShepparton Art Museum2015LECTURE 1: CONCEPTS OF REPRESENTATION

1Luigi Russolo Russolo and Piatti with noise instruments 1913ARTstor CollectionARTstor Slide GallerySourceData from: University of California, San Diego1

Lecture Schedule

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Drew Pettifer, Mapping the Interior: In search of an inland seavideo still, 2013

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Contact DetailsCourse Lecturer

Drew PettiferRMIT University and SAM FoundationEmail: drew.pettifer@rmit.edu.auWeb: www.slideshare.net/DrewPettifer

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CONCEPTS OF REPRESENTATION

Rene Magritte, The Human Condition, 1933

REPRESENTATION

No single, united theoryDifferent theories from different schools of thought

THEORIES OF REPRESENTATION

Different theories in:philosophyliterary studieslinguistics/semioticspsychoanalysisaesthetic theorycultural studiesand other fields

REPRESENTATION

The idea of one thing standing in for, taking the place of or representing something else

THEORIES OF REPRESENTATION WE WILL BRIEFLY COVER TODAY

Sign theoryGaze theoryTheory of the death of the author

SIGN THEORY

Sign =

Signifier:symbol, image, word or sound that represents or signifies+

Signified:the concept to which the signifier refers

Signifier:the word tree

+

Signified:the mental image of a tree

=

Sign:the meaning of tree

Denotation:the basic or literal meaning of a sign-eg. rose = a flower

Conotation:the secondary, cultural meanings of signs-eg. rose = passion

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965

13oil/canvas 55x72cm. ID Number:mod5-091Rights 2009 C. Herscovici, London / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork

Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images (This is not a Pipe), 1929

14oil/canvas 55x72cm. ID Number:mod5-091Rights 2009 C. Herscovici, London / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork

"Through looking we negotiate social relationships and meanings. Looking is a practice much like speaking, writing, or signing. Looking involves learning to interpret and, like other practices, looking involves relationships of power.

-Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, Practices of Looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture, 2009, p. 10

THE GAZE

a particular perspective considered as embodying certain aspects of the relationship between observer and observed

-Oxford Dictionary

Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure in Narrative cinema, 1975

The gaze is genderedThe normative gaze is the male gazeThe female gaze only exists when a woman adopts the male gaze

Robert Doisneau, Un Regard Oblique, 1948

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Marcel Duchamp, tant Donns, 1946-66

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Marcel Duchamp, tant Donns, 1946-66

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Barbara Kruger,Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face),1981

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Guerilla Girls, Naked (1988)

Mary Cassatt, Woman in black at the opera, 1880

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THE POTENTIAL GAZES INVOLVED WHEN YOU LOOK AT A FIGURATIVE WORK WITH MORE THAN ONE SUBJECT

You, looking at the painting;figures in the painting who look out at you;figures in the painting who look at one another;figures in the painting who look at objects or stare off into space or have their eyes closed;the museum guard, who may be looking at the back of your head;the other people in the gallery, who may be looking at you or at the painting;the artist, who was once looking at this painting; the models for the figures in the painting, who may once have seen themselves there;all the other people who have seen the painting - the buyers, the museum officials, and so forth;people who have never seen the painting, but know it from reproductions.

-From James Elkins, The Object Stares Back: The Nature of Seeing, 1996

THE DEATH OF THE AUTHORto give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text

-Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, 1967

THE DEATH OF THE AUTHORThe aim is to shift control over the creation of meaning within a work from the author/artist to the audience

Martin Creed, Half the air in a given space, 1998

Martin Creed discussing Half the air in a given space, 1998

EXAMPLES OF REPRESENTATIONAL METHODOLOGIES

Rachel Whiteread House, 1993

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Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA), 1991

31Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon, cup 4 3/8" (10.9 cm) in diameter; saucer 9 3/8" (23.7 cm) in diameter; spoon 8" (20.2 cm) long, overall height 2 7/8" (7.3 cm). Purchase. 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Pro Litteris, Zurich http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80997

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Perfect lovers),1991

32pen and ink on paper, h. 29-7/8, w. 20 inches (75.9 x 50.8 cm.), (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949, Accession ID: 49.70.14); 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris, photo The Metropolitan Museum of Ar

Marc Quinn,Self, 1991

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Damian Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

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Damian Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

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Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964

Copyright not yet available.

Magritte, The Human Condition II, 1935

Copyright not yet available.

Magritte, Not to be reproduced, 1937

Copyright not yet available.

Yayoi Kusama, Tender are the stairs to heaven, 2004