Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Daniel Buren the 74 year old French conceptual artist, classified as an abstract minimalist known best for using regular, contrasting maxi stripes to integrate the visual surface and architectural space, notably historical, landmark architecture. Among his chief concerns is the ‘scene of production’ as a way of presenting art and highlighting facture (the process of ‘making’ rather than for example, mimesis or representation of anything but the work itself). The work is site specific installation, having a relation to its setting in contrast to prevailing ideas of a work of art standing alone. Buren has been profiled in an article by Roberta Smith for the New York Times titled ‘Daniel Buren: ‘Electricity Fabric Paint Paper Vinyl …’, Smith states “[Buren]  who reduced painting to awning stripes printed on canvas or paper some 40 years ago, has probably eked more mileage out of this signature end-of-painting motif than any artist could logically expect. …Buren shows the latest versions of site-specific works in vertically striped paper that date back three and four decades. These pieces are, in effect, intermittent expanses of wallpaper that alter our sense of a space and create a nice graphic, even decorative punch. …Buren takes up the striped canvas again, but with several twists. In one he layers the canvas with white-striped Plexiglas to block or expose the colored stripes beneath. In the other group glam-rock chic prevails: the canvas is luminescent, cut with a curved or a diagonal edge that is lined with a glowing strand of fiber optics. Despite their newness, these pieces conjure the early-1960s work of artists like Frank Stella and Robert Mangold; they are arbitrary and conventional, and could be derivative student works that Mr. Buren abandoned to make the site-specific pieces at Petzel. Mr. Buren gets credit for choosing art over ideology, but he has to do more than relearn old tricks.”

Inspired by Roberta Smith, New York Times ow.ly/hYBrJ Image source Français ow.ly/hYBqs

I use materials: time, space, color, words (January 13 2013)Robert Barry the 76 year old American artist renowned for his non-material works of art, installations, and performances using a variety of otherwise invisible media, has been interviewed by Celine Piettre for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘Artist Robert Barry Discusses Working With “Time, Light, and Darkness”’.  Barry states “I don’t like this term [Conceptual Artist]. I find it very limiting, as far as I’m concerned in any case. I use materials: time, space, color, words. My work is visual, and not purely about ideas or concepts. …I don’t work so much on language as on words, which I perceive as objects. They have a color, a size. They exist in a given space and time. They have a tangible aspect. Words are also very personal. They come from us and say things about us. They have a story. We all interpret them according to our own experience. I’m always surprised when people ask me this question. I’m interested in words — that’s it. It’s like I painted flowers or landscapes. It’s a personal interest, a work material that offers infinite possibilities. …Video is a natural medium for me. I’ve used it since the beginning of my career. It’s a medium of time — a notion, a material that is truly integral to my work, like light. I like the idea of light emerging from the darkness and plunging into it again. It’s something that everyone experiences. …It’s important to me that there can be different levels of perception, experiences, and time. All these components of the real are combined here: the idea of art, war, light, words, and speech — they work together to make the piece. … In general, I like using music in my work because it’s an art that exists in time.”

Inspired by Celine Piettre ow.ly/gwWNu image source TownNews ow.ly/gwWMO

Lawrence Weiner the 70 year old Conceptual Artist whose work often takes the form of typographic texts, has been profiled by Louisa Buck for an article in The Art Newspaper titled ‘Lawrence Weiner: man of his word’. Buck states “For nearly half a century, the texts of Lawrence Weiner have been painted on the walls of cities and public buildings from Halifax to Hong Kong and galleries from Beijing to Mexico City. They have been spelled out in cobblestones, printed on beer mats, cast into iron manhole covers, floated inside souvenir Biros and sung as lyrics by a country and western band. Rendered in a utilitarian yet elegant typeface that is instantly recognisable, his cryptic but suggestive phrases operate simultaneously on several levels, whether spatial, poetic or political. …These constructions of what Weiner calls “Language + materials referred to” …Or, more specifically, a sculptor who works with words. “I never quite understand why the shit hits the fan when sculpture is presented within the form of language,” he says. “The use of language is the same as the change to being able to use acrylic or light to make things—it’s not exotic.” Weiner may not make objects per se, but he is adamant that the stuff of the world is always at the centre of everything he does. He defines his art as “the relationship of human beings to objects and objects to objects in relation to human beings”, and insists that “art is essentially a sensual relationship between materials and objects”.”

Inspired by Louisa Buck ow.ly/fKexX image source WeareBuild ow.ly/fKeuW

Crowded groups of dots so dense (January 12th)

Yayoi Kusama the 82 year old Japanese conceptual artist renowned for her obsessive repetition of dots and patterns has a major solo exhibition titled ‘Look Now, See Forever’ at the Queensland GOMA. One of the pieces titled The obliteration room 2011, is an interactive project where a large furnished room of stark white is in the process of being covered with various size primary coloured polka dots, applied by visitors (mostly children). The result according to Artinfo is “a hypnotizing variety of colors and patterns taking over the room like highly contagious rainbow chicken pox. The bare white walls, couch, tables, and lamps play up the intense hues of the stickers, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes… crowded groups of dots so dense that the wall isn’t even visible beneath.”

Inspired by Artinfo http://ow.ly/8lKJt image source yknow http://ow.ly/8lKPq

China’s most prominent conceptually oriented artists (December 14th)

Song Dong the 45 year old Chinese conceptual artist credited with having influenced many artists in China and abroad, has opened a new exhibition, the third with his wife and collaborator Yin Xiuzhen, titled ‘The Way of Chopsticks III’. In an article published by Artcat, Dong and Xiuzhen are said to be “Widely regarded as two of China’s most prominent conceptually oriented artists, the husband and wife team have pursued independent careers since the mid-1990s and have continued to do so until the present day … Working together for the first time in 2002, they chose the theme of chopsticks as, whether picking up a grain of rice or a more sizeable morsel of food, two chopsticks are essential . As a symbol of their long-standing personal and professional relationship, the humble pair of chopsticks was an essential element…”

Inspired by ArtCat http://ow.ly/7Vnm0 image source panacheprivee http://ow.ly/7VnyZ