Postmodern Frame Essay †Text in Art Essay

The procedure of text within to the visual arts can be traced book binding as far as the inscribed carvings found on sabotage w tout ensembles created by the Indigenous population of Australia approximately 46000 years ago. However, over the rower(prenominal) few years, the c only of text in art, besides kn suffer as the art of typography, has become a frequent means of communication for artificers in the concept of their whole shebang. Text within art can be projected, scrawled, painted, computerised and carve to the point that a track down may be created of nothing only if language. The art of typography is the technique of arranging type in much(prenominal) a way that makes language visible. It treats fonts as singular entities to be enjoyed by the hearing. Some artificers deal with language as a character on its own as opposed to a surface to draw upon. These artists aspire texts in ways that atomic number 18 intended to stimulate the way an reference perceiv es a work, to evoke emotion or to create a statement.However, others, oddly graphic designers, tend to focalization on the decorative situations of text. Regardless of the artists intentions, the appearance of text within art can switch over our appreciation of their sound and meaning. machinationists that research text in art take Barbara Kruger, Yukinori Yanagi, Katarzyna Kozyra, Jenny Holzer, Wenda Gu, Shirin Neshat, Miriam Stannage, Colin McCahon and Jenny Watson. Artists such as Jenny Holzer, Wenda Gu and Shirin Neshat explore the cultural implications of language in art and the importance of language to identicalness through the inclusion of text that excogitate a postmodern disquiet with the way we receive information in our contemporary inn. Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist who belongs to the feminist branch of artists that emerged during the 1980s. Originally an abstract catamount and signmaker, Holzer became heavily interested in conceptual art and began creating kit and caboodle utilize text.The introduction of text within Holzers work occurred gradually however, over time, they have entirely replaced images. These workings are usually displayed in wide viewed, everyday areas. Holzers whole kit and caboodle typically deal with the idea of communication. She is super aware of the power of words and the power of the media and therefore has a focus on the ability of language to distort or manipulate truths. I was drawn to writing beca role it was possible to be very explicit nigh things. If you have crucial issues, burning issues, its good to say barely whats right and wrong about them, and accordingly perhaps to fork out a way that things could be helped. So, it seemed to make sense to write because then you could just say it no painting seemed perfect. In take time officular, I didnt hope to be a narrative painter, which maybe would have been single solution for someone wanting to be explicit. Jenny Holzer.Throu gh the use of text in art, Holzer is able to transmit powerful environmental, social and governmental messages that reveal beliefs and myths and show biases and inconsistencies that highlight her social and in the flesh(predicate) concerns of todays contemporary order of magnitude. Holzers works are confronting and provocative and inspire us to make changes. They make us remember that language is not unendingly a factual statement it can be true or false depending on the context. Holzer forces us to analyse our own behaviour and discover how we have been influenced and manipulated. Her works are designed to make us expose and think about how we are maturing socially. Holzers truisms MONEY CREATES TASTE 1982 and encourage ME FROM WHAT I indispensability 1985 are part of her 1983-85 series Survival. These are LED installation pieces consisting of large scale text that were projected onto a billboard in Times Square, New York.The inscriptions were bright, clear and menacing and connected themselves to the everyday glow of the city. The phrases were flicked over the busy intersection for ii to common chord seconds creating an element of surprise and capturing the audiences attention. The main focus of these works was to make a profound statement about the world of advertising and consumer society today. Holzers aim was to persuade the audience to pause and reflect on their lives. Her work emphasises the notion that within our society, we are driven by the world of media, thereby producing a mass materialistic, consumerist conclusion. MONEY CREATES TASTE is approximately a plea from Holzer to stand back and assess our needs as a culture rather than what we are fed to believe we want by the media.The use of this concise statement PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT has shown us that we are in the process of losing our identity and sense of culture and can be manipulated by the underlying motives of the media. Shirin Neshat is an Iranian born artist who, up on turning seventeen, moved to California to study art. In 1990 when Neshat flew back to Iran to learn her family, she was confronted by the changes in culture and the narrow restraints of everyday life in the Moslem Republic. She was faced by a very strict, pure form of Islam introduced by the Iranian government in order to erase Persian history. Since having lived in the two cultural contexts of Iraq and the USA, Neshat is able to examine the cultural concerns of individual beings in a metaphorical and poetic way. She attempts to address problems of identity, race and sexual activity in a shocking manner and intends to undermine social stereotypes and assumptions.Her works explore the differences between Islam and the West, males and females, limitations in life and granting immunity, overage and new and the public and the private domains. Neshat aimed to provoke questions amongst her audience as she explored Islam through her art qualification and comments on issues relate d to feminism and multiculturalism. However, her works were not only confrontational and symbolic Neshat also paid particular attention to aesthetics. In her 1994 print and ink, Rebellious Silence, Neshat depicts an Islamic, Muslim woman, covered in a hide out holding a gun. Her calm face is divided by the starkness of the cold, steel weapon and is laced with Islamic calligraphy symbolic of the Niqab, a more extreme veil that an Islamic woman must crumble as it signifies her obedience to the male supremacy in Islamic culture. Her change state and weapon make us question whether this woman has rejected her subordinate female role to embrace violence.She is looking disciplinely at the camera and looks determined to fight. Questions of motives arise amongst the audience. Neshats 1996 work Speechless is a glowering and white photograph in which Neshat has chosen to make herself the subject. This image is a close up of Neshats face. She looks determined and powerful however, like her creation Rebellious Silence her face is covered with an overlay of Islamic text. The Arabic inscriptions that create the veil act as a barrier. It symbolises the support of the Islamic revolution. The visual struggle between Neshat and the veil is representational of the fight for freedom and the support of religion. By putting the text on her face, the body part where people can identify emotions the most, it serves as a reminder of the power that religion has over women and the oppression it has towards free expression. The gun in the simulacrum is another juxtaposition.The woman seems to be embracing the gun as a part of her, giving off a threatening feeling, but at the same time, it does not feel dangerous because of her conflicted emotions freedom versus oppression. The inscriptions tell of a man who died in the Iran/Iraq conflict of the 1980s. This is also insulting to the women who also go through this conflict. Her art does not disapprove nor approve of Islam, but ins tead encourages the audience to reflect upon their own ideas, assumptions and expectations. He works carry both personal and emotional connotations. Wenda Gu was born in China and studied traditional, spotless landscape painting. He was employed to teach ink painting and although he no longer practices in China, text remains central to his work. This sign technical training has provided the incentive for his most confronting pieces in which the powerful use of language challenges social and political traditions.These are questioning and symbolic works that violate the orthodox doctrine of artistic value. They represent a direct threat to authority. Michael Sullivan. Gu ambitiously attempts to address, in artic terms, the issue of globalism that dominates discussions of contemporary economics, society and culture. He aims to appeal not only to the present population, but also to future generations in his quest to extend the boundaries of kind-hearted perception, feeling and intel lection and express humanitys deepest wishes and powerful dreams. Gu strives to unify adult male and create a utopian feel within his works. Gu worked to modify the Chinese language and to encourage people to embrace new attitudes towards their old language. He combines a long standing fascination with classical Chinese calligraphy with a contemporary take on universal concerns that transverse cultural and ethnic boundaries.Gus work today focusses extensively on ideas of culture and his identity and has developed an interest in tangible materials and understanding humanity across ethnic and national boundaries. Gus 1994-96 work Pseudo Characters Contemplation of the world is a series of ink paintings in which he uses traditional calligraphic styles and techniques but subverts them with reversed, upside dump or incorrect letters. The pseudo character series consists of three ink on paper scrolls in which he has combined calligraphy and landscape, disrupting the conventions of bo th, potently distorting artistic tradition of China. Gu has attacked the written word by glorifying the heart of the absurd. Gus most portentous artworks have been a series entitled United Nations Project. This is a series of 15 works that were conceptually planned to relate to the locations social, political, historical and cultural situation.This series confronts two taboos. That of language and the human body. The main material for these installations are human pig collected from hairdressers from all over the world and the hair itself serves as a connection to all people. They typically consisted of screens tied together with twine, forming a cover of internationally collected hair that was fashioned into nonsensical scripts combining the Chinese alphabet and others. His works are distinguished by the two themes which intersect. The start-off relates to language and the way in which cultural conventions are signified ad the second, is the use of human hair which is a symbo l for significant human endeavours.The human hair is a blueprint containing DNA information, which is common to all humans yet seen fundamentally as individual. Jenny Holzer, Shirin Neshat and Wenda Gu all explore the cultural implications of language within art. They share a roseola focus on the links between culture and identity. They have employ language and text to convey their powerful messages and have drawn upon their own personal experiences. Concerned with the human condition, both they and their artworks have had a significant impact on society and the way in which we interpret information.capital of Wisconsin ********Year 12 Visual Arts Art History and Art Criticism.Essay on TextThe inclusion of text in artworks reflects a post-modern concern with the way we receive information in our contemporary society and the importance of language to identity. Explore the cultural implications of language in the work of Jenny Holzer, Wenda Gu and one other contemporary artist. Anal yse detail artworks to support your argument.