Monday, February 20, 2012

components – creative minds and social media


„components“ – the idea

With “components”, I am collecting portrait-photos of enthusiastic, creative people around the globe. All photos are welcome, from mobile-phone-shots to professional portraits. Through this blog you may follow who takes part, who joins in with a new image, and who comes from which country or continent.

In April 2012, all photos will come together as a collage on canvas and will be exhibited for the first time in conjunction with the art-exhibition “Project Social Media 31″ in Austria. I would be delighted if you would join in and let your photo shape part of the collage.

Join “components”, let your digital image shape part of the picture in an exhibition in Austria in May 2012. Share “components” on your Facebook-profile, on Twitter, and send an interesting portrait:

Email: components@simone-naumann.com


„components“ – the background

People growing up in a small village, as I did, learn the rules of social networks from early childhood. Who knows whom? Where do I get what? Who knows everything and forgets nothing? Where do similar interests find a way to meet?

Today, this village community bears – also – the name “social media”.

Knowing people and getting to know people, always be in contact, exchange information, discover common interests. Today, communicating and being together can take place everywhere and anytime, and from anywhere at any time.

Communication, information, curiosity, art, photography, cooperation and collaboration are the “components” which are joined together in this experimental project. Photographers, photo-enthusiasts and creative minds from all corners of the globe, digitally collaborating in order to create a physical exhibit.

„components“ – the person behind it all


Since 2009, I have been working as a photographer in Munich, Amsterdam and Oslo. I studied at the “Fotoacademie Amsterdam”, took courses and workshops, for instance with Prof. Harald Mante. At present, I am studying “Künstlerische Fotografie” at the “Prager Fotoschule Österreich”.

My workplace in the previous job could easily be called “Europe”. As a result, people important to me are living in Amsterdam, Oslo, Munich, Vienna, Tromsø, Edinburgh, Budapest, Prag, and in other corners of the world like Brasil and the United Arab Emirates.

Social media retains our social network.

Photographers are permanently on the lookout for captivating stories, themes and scenes, in all cultures. My new network of creative people is an enormous asset to me and to my work. Without these networks of wonderful and creative people, “components” would not have been dreamt of, let alone started.

I look forward to meeting you through “components”.

http://project-components.net/

* Simone Naumann Fotografie

* Simone Naumann on Twitter

* Simone Naumann Fotografie on Facebook

* Simone Naumann on Xing



Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Behind Every Revolution is an Artistic Movement: Graffiti in the Sights

Suzanne Albanus




The six common Arabic calligraphic styles are visible throughout the graffiti in Gaza.
Photo taken from the book “Gaza Graffiti” for Mia Gröndahl.
image source: http://alqlm.org/Jahan-e-Qalam/2011/09/17/urban-arabic-graffiti-within-political-arab-crisis/



Graffiti has existed since ancient times dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire in particular but also found in other cultures such as the Zuni of the United States in an area known in Spanish as El Morro National Monument or “A’tis’ina” meaning “ place of writings on the rock” (1) Anglo-Americans called it Inscription Rock. Both names suit the purpose of what the rock was about – travellers left signatures when passing through, along with names, dates and stories of their treks. Many of those “scribbles” can be still seen, some of them dating back to the 17th Century. Some of the petro glyphs and carvings made by the Aasazi people go back centuries before the Europeans made their marks. It would appear to be an intrinsic trait of human nature regardless of ethnicity or era, to want to leave a mark – to state “I was here, this is what I thought, do not forget me” for those who followed to see and perhaps remember.


From the Pen to the Wall.


The only known source of the Safaitic language, a form or proto-Arabic, is from graffiti inscriptions scratched on the surface of rocks and boulders predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the 1st Century to the 4th Century BC (2). Ancient graffiti displayed different connotations from today’s contemporary society’s content. Phrases of love, declarations, political rhetoric and simple words of thought compare with today’s words of social and political ideals. Insights into Roman street life emerge through the readings of the graffiti of Pompeii, including Latin curses, brothel addresses, food shops, and a verse to disappointed love which include the lines” If she can break my heart , why can’t I break her head?” –CIL IV.1284. The satirical Alexamenos graffito is believed to contain the earliest known representation of Jesus (3) . Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt and Lord Byron’s signature survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.


Graffiti in Beirut

image source: http://alqlm.org/Jahan-e-Qalam/2011/09/17/urban-arabic-graffiti-within-political-arab-crisis/


In the Middle East, graffiti is slowly emerging, with pockets operating in Beirut, Iran, Israel. The Israeli West Bank has become reminiscent of the Berlin Wall with graffiti artists from around the world coming to paint the site. The most common characteristic of graffiti in the Arab world is that of “tagging” and “bombing” the latter also known as a “throw up”. Tagging is the most basic way of writing an artist’s name and is their personalized signature. Tagging is often the example given when opponents of graffiti refer to acts of hand style graffiti and is by far the most common form of graffiti. This aspect of some graffiti is now being seen as having artistic value as a form of public art. That type of public art is in fact, an effective tool of social emancipation or in the achievement of a political goal. In times of conflict, such public art murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for these socially, ethnically or religiously divided communities. The murals have also been effective tools for establishing dialogue and addressing divisions within. In 2011 graffiti artist Mathangi Arulpragasam a.k.a. M.I.A. has become known for her integration of political violence into her cover art. Stickers of her artwork appeared on lamp posts and walls in Brick Lane, London (Hershkovits.1983).


Graffiti art at its very core is illegal in its nature, and so, is an act of defiance and revolt. Though the messages may not be directed authority figures or political ideals, the fact remains that behind each piece of graffiti lies public space.


Graffiti as a Form of Political and Public Resistance.


A visually salient, although often creative manner of resistance, graffiti irreverently opposes political domination and authoritative control of public space. The seeming blatant disregard for public space is interpreted by the public as a personal attack rather than a more general resistance to a system that leaves the public space in the hands of a minority. It becomes obvious then that graffiti promotes a message of rebellion and resistance, a type of resistance that promotes an anarchistic ideology in many layers. Graffiti is the voice of the common man; we discover evidence of another version of history, characterized by oppression and opposition to the official view. Topics too sensitive, too outrageous for the official version is the natural province (Lughod: 1981).


Discourse of Anti-Structure.


In her writings on Bedouin society, Abu-Loghud describes how the use of ginnahwas (Arabic جنهوزshort love poems) (4) is used to express love and desire. In reference to the Bedouin emphasis placed on autonomy and honour. She defines discourse as a formalized type of communication through which emotional sentiments are conveyed through an expressive medium. Graffiti may be understood as a discourse of anti-structure, a passive resistance to a social complacency and the elitist dictation of public space, graffiti challenges the core ethics of our culture, without actively posing a threat to its dominant ideology. In her work with the Bedouin community and their poetry Lughud (1981) her findings illustrated the link between poetry and its purpose with words far more than actions being the centre of an effort to work out the various possibilities and impossibilities of political relationships. The forms of the voice give meaning and shape to an experience. Relevant to this, in American ( or other Western) cultures) graffiti serves a similar purpose to Bedouin poetry, the writing on the wall is like poetry, sentiments about a cultural system are put forwards in a society, and through their passive nature, question societal norms.


Revolutionary Street Art and Graffiti.


Graffiti in Cairo


image source : http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5291/5488146832_65a4b67c6a.jpg



Young artists have beautified Cairo’s streets with their images and messages, although much of it is being painted over and covered up so now only photos remain. Many of the images are of those who died in the uprisings and are seen as a memorial to them (5) . One in particular commemorates a young blogger who was beaten to death on June 4, 2010. Despite efforts by officialdom to remove graffiti and street art from view/memory. New pieces keep the spirit of the revolution alive. One particular image was done on the road so that people would notice as they walked along. It contained the slogan:


“Beware, the revolution is back, Egypt is above us all” .(6)

لاثصشقثو فاث قثرخمعفهخى هس لاشؤنز ُلغحف هس شلاخرث عس شمم(ل (Arabic)


Graffiti and the Arab Spring.

In Libya the role of graffiti in the uprising against Quaddafi has been well documented by photojournalist, Wally Nell, in his article “One Way Street: graffiti and the Arab Spring” he reports that artists now operate under the name of a local artist, Qais-al-Halali, who was shot presumably by Government forces (7) . There are also reports that graffiti is refueling the rebellion in Syria as well with the uprising in Dara’a being touched off when children were arrested for scrawling anti-regime graffiti on a wall in their town. Graffiti has long been an expression of Arab uprisings and can be dated back to the uprisings of 1936-1939 in Palestine against British rule. Arabic graffiti in Beirut in particular is well documented and the city is perhaps the spiritual home of Arabic graffiti (8). Earlier pieces were done primarily in English but the introduction of Arabic calligraphy giving the pieces an interesting mix of Western shading and loops with Arabic characters (9) . Calligraphy in the Arab world is seen as a spiritual and artistic discipline with a devotional aspect. The use of this letter form does not always sit well with some, but as with the incorporation of use of poetry in Bedouin culture, both artistic tools have formed the roots of a newer strand of secular art proliferating in the Middle East .


Notes


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Morro_National_Monument

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/graffiti

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito

[4] http://she2i2.blogspot.com/2011/02/photos-more-revolutionary-graffiti

[5] Gulf News.com Monday July 11, 2011. The Region p.11

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito

[7]http://www.trust.org/alertnet/multimedia/pictures/detail.dot?mediaInode=2df22af1-3238-44b4-94d6-dbd86cba912a

[8] http://alqlm.org/Jahan-e-Qalam/2011/09/17/urban-arabic-graffiti-within-political-arab-crisis/

[9] http://hanibaael.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/graffiti-in-beirut/2295653895_fbe19c03f1/

[10] http://mideastcollective.blogspot.com/



Bibliography

Hershkovits, D. “London Rocks, Paris Burns and the B-Boys Break A Leg” Sunday News Magazine, April 3, `963.


Lughod, Abu. J. Rabat, Urban Apartheid in Morocco. Princeton Studies on the New East, Princeton University Press. 1998.



Dr Suzanne Albanus is a designer who was formerly a lecturer at James Cook University, QLD, Australia in the Bachelor of Communication design degree. She has been involved in many of the public works at James Cook, notably in the Graffiti murals in the Environmental Sciences Faculty, the Central air-conditioning block and the JCU Student’s Club. She assisted in writing the policy on Street Art for the Townsville City Council. She is currently an Academic Advisor at the American University in Dubai, UAE.




Saturday, December 17, 2011

ON PAPER at Cuadro Fine Arts, Dubai



“On Paper”, inagurated December 13, illustrates the interplay between the creation of figurative works and the subtractive nature of abstraction. Cuadro presents the works of Dale Chihuly, Alex de Fluvia, Marcelo Guimarães Lima and Samer Tabaa. All of these artists excel at exploring the prominence of the line through gestural mark-making and action painting. Although exploring the same theme, their distinct ways of seeing become evident in their execution.




Friday, December 9, 2011

Going Around: on Hannes Brunner´s Driver´s comments

Marcelo Guimarães Lima


A trip, explains Paul Virilio (*), is composed of three parts: the departure, the path or trajectory, and the arrival. According to Virilio, today we experience the dominance of the arrival over the other elements of a journey or voyage. The acceleration of time in communication and transportation in our period results in a loss of spatial extension: “real time” has absorbed space, in the same way that an absolute present, the “now”, exemplified by the immediacy of digital communication and of virtual models or virtual worlds, is in the process of absorbing the past and the future.

The result is a time without dimensions, concomitant to a space without boundaries or configurations ensuing not from unlimited physical expansion, but from speed and the contraction of our experience of distance, and therefore of our experience of place, and ultimately of physical space as such.


Roundabout: Media City, Dubai, 2009

Marcelo Lima, Artist and Art Historian in Dubai,
Roundabout in Media City, Dubai, 2009



In a world transformed by technology art becomes, according to Virilio, a strategy of resistance against the losses that technical transformations impinge upon human reality and experience: there is a price to be paid for every technical conquest and as much as the benefits of technical progress are in one way or another self-evident, it is the role of artists and thinkers to dwell in the negative of unintended (or unstated intended) consequences of poorly mastered or unmastered, that is, autonomous (J. Ellul) technical developments.


Roundabout: Altenrhein, SG Switzerland

Corinne Schatz, Independent Curator, St.Gallen Switzerland;

Roundabout in Altenrhein, SG Switzerland, 2011


Traffic circles in Europe as in the UAE display what we may call public artworks, monuments, and also advertising and other kinds of visual as well as textual messages. Categories that are sometimes amalgamated in the uncertain species of these sculptural or three dimensional structures in highways and cities´routes, these hybrid (?) super-objects (or meta-objects), these large significant objects, that is, these public conveyers of meanings associated with place and with the functions and the experiences of the modern road transport systems and their related urban and non-urban spaces. (more)

read the complete article: CITY-SHARING Projects (Zurich)


(*) Virilio, Paul – The Politics of the Very Worst, Semiotext, New York, 1999



Driver´s Comments

project by Hannes Brunner, Switzerland, (Europe+Emirates, 2009/11)

text copyright © Marcelo Guimarães Lima, 2011



link: DRIVERS' COMMENTS by Hannes Brunner at Kunsthalle Arbon, Switzerland




Friday, December 2, 2011

Fragmented Times, Fragmented Visions

Marcelo Guimarães Lima



Revolution! by Athier

180 x 180 cm
Acrylic on Canvas
2010

The works of Athier consciously elaborate on the question of the encounters between on one hand the calligraphic tradition and the calligraphic sensibility, that is, the calligraphic territory of the Arabic visual arts, as well as the pattern making inventiveness so central to the Eastern visual arts, and on the other hand painting on canvas as a particular art form or genre with its specific aesthetic and ideological constructs ( beyond the simple consideration of technique and materials per se) that were initially formulated within the Western historical development of the visual arts, specially since the Renaissance and the Venetian artists´ adoption of both oil painting as medium and canvas as support.

In the case of the present works ( Fragmented Events at Cuadro Fine Arts Gallery, Dubai) by the young British-Iraqi artist, it is possible to argue that we are presented with a kind of postmodern play on the history of early 20th century painting as both a recapitulation and a marking of distance, or the statement of repetition as difference, that is, an exemplary postmodern parody – both homage and caricature, one with the other, one by means of the other - of the formalistic and self-referential dimension of modernists artworks and artistic strategies turned into a reference to history and to historical closure, with all the complexities that such a notion entails. But certainly that is not all, for amalgamated to the subject of painting there is the other implicit or explicit reference, common to many forms of contemporary Middle Eastern arts, to the visible forms of language turned into images.

The strategy of formal fragmentation and the poetics of the fragment points also to a central art form or practice and a central artistic concept of 20th century art: the collage. The breaking of boundaries between genres and art forms, between contexts, between representation and reality, etc. resulting from collage (born out of Picasso´s Cubist experiments) anticipated the forms and conditions of art, that is, the artistic developments of the late 20th century into hybrid forms and hybrid art concepts. Here it is as if the postmodern artwork assigns itself the paradoxical task of representing the breakdown of representation as a finalized process (perhaps the very paradox of postmodern art itself). In such a process painting becomes the theory of painting or painting as its own theory.

The notion of historical closure and aesthetic closure leads directly into the question of historical experience and of the nature of the present period. A reference to the past is always also (or perhaps we should say: always already) a reference to the future and to the unstable nature of our historical experience, that is the experience of the modern world as such. Contrary to a commonly held notion, the past is as much an imaginary construct, an object of desire, as the future.

One may argue that in their own ways these paintings interrogate the fragmented nature of our historical consciousness by way of our artistic consciousness, and do so in the clash of language and image, of context and intention, of flow and form, division and unity, historical and cultural references, analogies and allusions, etc, including "oblique" allusions to the graphic forms of contemporary urban art and graffiti.

The result is a type of gently ambivalent architecture of form, of "soft" deconstruction and poetic fragmentation. It can (or must) be read at the same time as a “sign of the times”: as a kind of visual reflection on historical entropy. It brings to mind two interrelated theoretical motifs in Walter Benjamin: the poetics of the fragment related to the Romantic notion of the ruin as historical memory ( also as a kind of historical anticipation of collage), and his “untimely” meditations on the history 20th century expressed in the concept of modern history, or modernity itself, as catastrophe.




Fragmented Events: Works of Athier at Cuadro Fine Arts Gallery, Dubai


Eleventh of July (Ball, Bomb, Sun), acrylic on canvas



X=43, acrylic on canvas


Athier by Cuadro Gallery

British-Iraqi Athier (1982) has lived between London and Paris, after having left Iraq before the first Gulf War. He graduated with a Master of Arts in Communication Design with Illustration from Central Saint Martins. From 2007-9 Athier was the British Museum’s Artist in Residence, in association with the Karim Rida Said Foundation, teaching Arab world cultural awareness at selected UK schools. This was centered around engaging British students with the Arab world by breaking down aesthetic elements and creating new associations and references. During this period, he also collaborated on mural workshops for the Victoria & Albert Museum, focusing much of this work on similar Arab world constructs.

In 2010, Athier was given an artist residency by the Chargé de Collection et d'Exposition at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris as part of Al Mansouria Foundation’s Arab Artist Program. The UK’s National Portrait Gallery selected Athier for the 2011 “Changing Mirrors” initiative. The artist worked with children from underprivileged communities and his monumental abstract portrait of the children went on display on October 14, 2011. Athier's work was part of the 2011 Tashkent International Biennale in Uzbekistan.

Athier has created an instantly recognizable style through an innovative combination of geometric Islamic shapes and Arabic calligraphy.
Each canvas can be potentially seen as one block, phrase, sentence, or idea, as well as an assembly of these parts. Only once the viewer has experienced the work as whole, does the eye begin to discern details and individual elements.

The presence of words in Athier’s paintings is not immediately apparent; the embedded script becomes pronounced to the viewer only after the context is taken in. This use of visual language as subtext adds dimension to his work, and allows the preconception of imagery and meaning that the powerful Arabic language conveys to become at once distinct from, yet an integral part of, the work as a whole. The viewer is thus drawn into the work in a non-traditional manner in which the significance of the letter-forms is made apparent only by the context, as if reading a text.
Athier’s words and letters are truncated by line, color and aesthetic distortion. The result is neither the stylized script of traditional scribes nor the entwined graffiti-like productions of contemporary masters, rather a technique that is novel in its visual appeal.



Sunday, November 27, 2011

Limited Editions Prints and Rare Signed Posters from FEREYDOUN AVE Collection at Total Arts Gallery, Dubai

Cy Towmbly


Andy Warhol


November 13th to December 10th 2011


Total Arts at the Courtyard


Timing: 9:00 am- 1:00 pm and 2:00 - 6:00 pm, Saturday – Thursday




Artists through the centuries have been drawn to printmaking as a valid artistic media of expression (etchings, wood block printing, engraving and lithography), notable examples being Rembrandt, Goya and the Impressionists. With the 20th century and the high prices of art, printmaking became a viable way of having multiple images and making art available to more people at reasonable prices.


With the Pop Art movement silkscreen + offset printing became intentionally used as popular commercial techniques adapted and adopted for artistic expression. The artists in this exhibition are all 20 and 21st century artists who have chosen to work in these medias because they feel these are the best techniques to express their artistic concepts.


The signed posters exhibition was first presented by Fereydoun Ave at 13 Vanak St in Tehran in the 80's when it was impossible to get original art into or out of Iran. Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns were asked to sign their posters to make the show happen.



Richard Serra



Total Arts at the Courtyard


www.courtyard-uae.com | totalart@courtyard-uae.com

Location: Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Qouz Industrial Area 1,
Street 4b (between Times Square and Al Tayer Motors

or Street 6, Courtyard Building,

Tel: +971 4 347 5050 P O Box 14214, Dubai, UAE


Andy Warhol




Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Dream Stream and Reality by Tina Salo-Devries


Paintings and mixed-media works by Finnish artist Tina Salo-Devries
are currently being exhibited at Corp Executive Hotel, Al-Barsha, Dubai,

click here for location map

Friday, October 28, 2011

CROSSING THE LINE at Tashkeel

has the pleasure to invite you to the opening reception of

CROSSING THE LINE

Opening reception 7 pm, Tuesday 1st of November 2011

At Tashkeel, Nad Al Sheba

Exhibition runs from 1st to 23rd November 2011

To complement Crossing the Line: Drawing in the Middle East conference

being held at the American University in Dubai

From 1st to 3 November 2011


يتشرف تشكيل بدعوتكم إلى افتتاح معرض

ما وراء الخط


مراسم الافتتاح يوم الثلاثاء ١ نوفمبر ٢٠١١ في الساعة السابعة مساء

في تشكيل، ند الشبا


يستمر المعرض من تاريخ ١ حتى ٢٣ نوفمبر ٢٠١١

بالتزامن مع "ما وراء الخط: مؤتمر الرسم في الشرق الأوسط يقام في الجامعة الأمريكية في دبي"

من ١ الى ٣ نوفمبر ٢٠١١



click map to enlarge

Tashkeel Location: Intersection street 5 and street 20, Nad Al Sheba 1, Dubai

المكان: تقاطع شارع 20، شارع 5 ندالشبا 1، دبي

CROSSING THE LINE

Opening reception 7 pm, Tuesday 1st of November 2011 At Tashkeel, Nad Al Sheba

Tue, 1 November, 7pm – 10pm GMT+04:00

Tashkeel - Nad AL Sheba



Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Crossing The Line Conference at AUD

design by Luis Castaneda


CROSSING THE LINE: HAND & TECHNOLOGY IN A CHANGING WORLD

01 AISAN KIANMEHR, VERITAS ARCHITECTS, KUALA LUMPUR CROSSING THE LINE BY DRAWING THE LINE OUT OF THE SPHERE OF IMAGINATION

02 ARASH SALEK URBAN IDENTITY OF MIDDLE EASTERN CITIES POST-STRUCTURAL CONCEPTS IN A TRADITIONAL REGION

03 BRIAN DOUGAN, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH, COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, ART & DESIGN BEYOND VISUAL DRAWING AS A TRANSDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE

04 MAZDAK MOJDEHI, KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, SUSTAINED INSTABILITY

05 AUREL VON RICHTHOFEN, GERMAN UNIVERSITY OF TECH. IN OMAN THE “WAVE-BREAKER”– A NOVEL APPROACH TO COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (CAD) REPRESENTATION

06 AZADEH MALEKI A STUDY OF THE SYMBOLISM IN IRANIAN PAINTINGS WITH AN ORIENTATION OF PROPHET’S ASCENSION

07 DR. AMI J. ABOU-BAKR, KING’S COLLEGE LONDON THE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF MAP ‘DRAWINGS’ ON THE MIDDLE EAST

08 KELLY CHORPENING, CAMBERWELL COLLEGE OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, LONDON, BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

09 MARYCLARE FOA SOUNDING WAVES: DRAWING INTO THE MIND’S EYE.
DRAWING AS AN INTERSECTION

10 MARIAM MOJDEHI GRAFFITI & PUBLIC SPACE–3 CONTEMPORARY CASE STUDIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
DRAWING: A PORTRAIT AND LANDSCAPE, NOTATIONS OF OUR TIME

11 SUTAPA BISWAS, CHELSEA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN, UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, LONDON DRAWING SUBJECTIVE PERSPECTIVES – TIME IN THE CONTEXT OF VISUAL BEING.

12 JULIA TOWNSEND, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN DUBAI EASTERN AND WESTERN PARADIGMS IN DRAWING: KORANIC ILLUMINATION VERSUS THE PICTURE PLANE

13 BRIAN DOUGAN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH BEYOND VISUAL

14 CHRISTOS HADJICHRISTOS UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS LAYERING IS NOT

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

PROFESSOR STEPHEN FARTHING UNIVERITY OF THE ARTS LONDON
NJA MAHDOUAI TUNISIA
DR MARCELO GUIMARAES LIMA AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN DUBAI
DR IRENE BARBERIS RMIT UNIVERSITY MELBOURNE


CO - CHAIRS

INTERNATIONAL CHAIR : DR IRENE BARBERIS
MIDDLE EASTERN CHAIR/S : DR MARCELO LIMA, PROFESSOR JULIA TOWNSEND


Crossing The Line Conference
is a collaboration between

The American University in Dubai, UAE
and
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

with the participation of
Tashkeel, Dubai


Timings:

Begins daily at 9:30 (click schedule below for further details)

Location:

C Buildng: Conference Room C227, 1st floor, Student Center,
American
University in Dubai, Exit 32, Sheik Zayed Road

Free Registration:

Please confirm your attendance to



Sunday, October 2, 2011

Crossing The Line: Interview with Stephen Farthing


Stephen Farthing RA, Rootstein Hopkins Professor of Drawing at the University of the Arts London, will be one of the keynote speakers at the Crossing The Line Conference in Dubai, UAE, at the American University in Dubai, in early November, 2011. The Conference is a joint project of AUD and RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. In this brief interview, the artist gives us some initial thoughts on drawing and on his participation in Crossing The Line: Drawing in the Middle East - intersections of transdisciplinary practice and understanding

What is the role of drawing in your own art practice?

Stephen Farthing - I imagine while I’m actually drawing that I use drawing in two quite different ways, first to record, then to unravel problems, plan and strategize. When I sit back and think about my own art practice drawing probably has only one use – to help me see more clearly.

How do you see the role of drawing in your experience as an educator?

Stephen Farthing - In western culture the drawing class has I suspect been considered by most of its users part church, part gymnasium. During the latter half of the twentieth century most progressive western art schools replaced drawing with two new subjects , one was Art Theory and the other a craft related subject based on familiarizing students with the use of Lens/Scanner Based Technologies. Over time this shift in direction within the curriculum lead to a substantial decline in interest in things hand-made and personal, and it seems a surge in interest in Technological Interfaces and what I can best describe as Detached Randomness’s.


Today, driven less by a sense of disappointment with the new than a sense of physical and emotional loss we appear to be mid way through a process of re-acquaintance with both the strengths and weaknesses of our own hands and the strengths and weaknesses of new technology.


We have, it seems prioritized within drawing ways of making the past and the present, the digital and the manual work more effectively together . Today we teach drawing with a view towards improving our students ability to see, plan, remember, choose and communicate, just as we did in the past.


Stephen Farthing, Moko Map, 2007, water colour on paper, 29 x 42 cms



How do you see the future of drawing in the digital era?

Stephen Farthing - I see drawing as a lead subject in encouraging creativity and a seamless interaction between the digital and lens driven technology and the hand made.

What will be the subject of your presentation at the Crossing The Line Conference?

Stephen Farthing - An explanation of the bigger picture of drawing as a taxonomy.


What are you expectations about the conference?


Stephen Farthing - To confront new people and their ideas


links:

Stephen Farthing


Crossing The Line Conference