Week Two:
Tutorial Week Two:
Look at the Gallery Barry Keldoulis (http://www.gbk.com.au/ ) and find some examples of an artist statement from a high profile Visual Artist.
Written statements are important because they can help tell a story or send a message accompanied by the art work is trying to get across. Some times artworks aren’t a dead give away when it comes to gaining the statement just from the piece it’s self. This can explain the artist’s thoughts, feelings and process that they went through to create the work that we see in front of us.
Hitesh Natalwala
A lack of marmalade was my only real grievance
Pressetext:
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
The works deal with changes in cultural norms and the intertwining of East and West. So many aspects of both are fast becoming parts of a world culture, making it easier for people like me to develop a hybrid that exists somewhere between the two. In these works I am also layering memories as a way of dealing with certain issues that will hopefully allow me to reach a greater understanding of their relative value to my life and my art.
In the largest works, e.g. ‘have you ever tried this’ (2008-9), I have started with a base of pages printed from Australian Women’s magazines from the 50’ and 60’s. I happened upon a whole pile of these magazines some years ago, and reading them took me back to a time when, in my own family, my mother was living a very oppressive and subjugated life. My mother worked in a factory all day then came home to cook for up to 20 people. This was a time when women were expected to accept whatever treatment was handed out to them by their husbands’ family, without any complaint. The word ‘divorce’ was absolutely taboo.
The Bollywood images from the 50’s and 60’s provide a strong reminder of my grandmother, who brought up seven children almost singlehanded. While all our parents went to work, my grandmother would pack us all of to school, feed us, take us on outings and generally entertain us. On Sundays she would take us to the local cinema in Finchley in the North of London to see 3 Bollywood movies in a row - almost 9 hours of solid entertainment. Here there were only Indian people; they ate packed lunches and dinners, discussed their happenings during the week and even sang along to the very popular tunes in the movies. On top of these Bollywood posters, I have overlayed images of myself as various heroes of my childhood. It was a time when Indian heroes were hard to find in mainstream culture, and as we became more accustomed to the culture we were living in, the easier it became for us to not only amalgamate into western culture, but to actually feel a part of it. This is partly the reason that I have made myself into these characters. In addition is the fact that at the time there was a lot of racism around: a very conservative England, which had not yet implemented race relations.
The flowers that are present all throughout these works are, for me, not just signs of my love of the colours and textures of nature, but also signposts of places that have been important to me. For instance, all the old photographs we have of our lives in Africa where I was born are taken in gardens and parks, surrounded by exotic blooms of all sorts. In England we loved Roses, Magnolias and Wisteria, for example, and they are still amongst my favourite flowers. Now that I am in Australia, I am once again surrounded by exotic flowers of all sorts very different to those in Africa.
Finally the bold and graphic nature of the works is influenced by graphics of the 50’s and 60’s, American comic books and Japanese wood block prints.
Hitesh Natalwala
February 2009.
Natalwala, H. (2009) Hitesh Natalwala: A lack of marmalade was my only real grievance. Retrieved: http://www.kunstaspekte.de/index.php?tid=51932&action=termin
Natalwala, H. (2009) Image ( A lack of marmalade was my only real grievance) Retrieved: http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/12215702/The-TimeOut-mint-Planner.html
Tutorial Task: Find other artists/ curators that are writing about the artist you have chosen to look at.
The Gallery writes about Hitesh Natalwala:
Hitesh Natalwala (born 1964, based in Perth) crafts self-portraits of his own hybridized identity using a complex process of collage. He starts with images culled from pop culture sources (album covers, movie posters) and inserts himself as the central protagonist, performing as a diverse array of characters linked to the role models of his formative years. His works comment on stereotypes associated with the Indian diaspora while not exactly being paintings, photos or drawings.
Also one technique for a high profile gallery is to show an artist with other high profile artists. Natalwala was also shown with Shilpa Chavan, Alice Cicolini, Aditya Pande and Samaraendra Raj Singh for the exhibition Nature Morte.
Bajaj, G. & Dhawan, R. (2010) GALLERY NATURE MORTE. Retrieved: h
Tutorial Task: Look at Deborah Kelly and he
r work.
· What is the message of the work?
· This is not just about high profile artists, it’s how they have gathered together a concept in their work and ideas and taken it into a skilful visual image
· Strength of the image (colour, tone/elements, form, texture.)
· How was the artist successful in presenting to the public?
· How have the artists reached a particular standard?
· By analysing work, how does this benefit me as a visual artist?
When looking up Deborah Kelly I found a few articles that online journals and art spaces have published about the artist. Two of the articles I found were at:
ABC (2010) Artist Bio- Deborah Kelly. Retrieved: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/yours/artists/kelly.htm
SMH (2007) Deborah Kelly- Kn
icker knot Retrieved: http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts-reviews/deborah-kelly-knicker-knot/2007/04/25/1177459755726.html
The message of her artwork (Empress) using a busty pin-up girl, circa 1967 turning the tables on hairy apes everywhere. Still sporting her centrefold staple she straddles a tiny city and clutches a helpless King Kong.
Kelly has gathered a concept in her idea and work by turning the table on a common idea and flipped it on it’s head by having the sexy ‘damsel’ as the monster destroying the city instead of King Kong. This can get a audience thinking that maybe that everything isn’t as it seems? The use of composition helps to give the central focus onto the female figure.
The artist has reached a particular standard by using a well refined photography image amongst other digital images to create an image. This has all been printed as one print onto a canvas. This shows a high standard of finish as the artist had thought about making the image finished and ‘tidy’ in a sense.
By analysing the work as a beginning visual artist I think this helps me to see what other artist are producing and how they are going about making successful art works. This then can give me my own ideas and help me to develop my own original skills and talents to become a successful artist.
Tutorial Task: Find high profile visual artists who you think are mentors to your work. They must also have curators or other art writers publishing about their work. Why is this useful to me?
Deej Fabyc was another artist that caught my eye. This artist is experimenting in video and photography with different ideas and concepts. On the Gallery Barry Keldoulis page I came across her video “we can work it out” (2002) and was interested in the image still of two female figures slapping each other. (http://www.gbk.com.au/artists/deej-fabyc/extended-remix-we-can-work-it-out )
I then visited her Website: and browsed through some of her other images and was interested in her ideas. http://www.fabyc.co.uk/html/quiet.html
It was good to see that the Nation Library of Australia had an article on her. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/389732
And another article appeared on the Prints and Printmaking website. http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/artist/5806/deej-fabyc.aspx
She is a mentor to me because she has taken a media that I would not be so confident in touching and make some very successful art out of it. This is evident being published in the National Library of Australia and other various places. This helps to motivate me to try new things and aim for high goals.
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