Suffering Body in the Artwork of L. Bourgeois and F. Bacon - Essay Example

Running Head: Louise Bourgeois and Francis Bacon The suffering body: by compare the work 2 artist - Louise Bourgeois and Francis Bacon in different and similar approach under the theme of -Suffering Body through their vision towards art variation and heir artwork [Name of the writer] [Name of the institution] Louise Bourgeois and Francis Bacon Throughout its existence, the artwork has gone through several evolutions and modifications to its physicality as well as with its relations to the world and the audience. Beginning with such simplistic intentions as cave paintings for communicative purposes, to pieces f work made only for aesthetic and decorative purposes, to entire productions involving the audience, the environment and the time into the artwork. The practices f Installation and Performance art have been the fundamental starting point for these changes. Artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Francis Bacon (listed in their fields respectively) recognize and accept these changes and interpret them in their artworks. Art began around 15 000 BC, often favouring drawing over colour in forms such as cave paintings. There have been changes from emphasis on geometrical shapes such as mosaics and arches, religious and gothic-based, in which art evolved from it's two dimensions and was practised in sculpture format, the Victorian and art Nouveau-influenced craft movements in which art became decoration through to Dada in which the art was taken off the canvas - new materials and exhibiting practises were used to encourage stronger responses from the audience. Subject matter had changed from communicative, to aesthetic, to political, social and emotional. Dada was the jump-off point for performance art. The origin is said to be found in 1917 in Zurich, where several notable Dadaists, spoke nonsensical words to complement nonsense acts to protest the Great War and the importance f art in general: "...No more cute art in frames, no more static art that only makes the Philistines richer." An integral part f the ritual f performance art is it's ephemerality - it is not static like most artworks. After it is finished nothing will be the same again and nothing is left. Performance art is described as unprecedented and because f its originality, it is difficult to censor. It is very relevant to its time because f the short period f time needed between the process f conception and performance and political, social and philosophical views can be explored in-depth such as in the 1970's and in the 1980's in which "Queer Theatre" was founded in which homosexual issues were dealt with. It occupies an environment with specific objects and actions for a specific amount f time and because f the brevity and intent f the artwork, everything present has a meaning. Performance art also brings another change to the world f the artwork - the role f the audience. It is made to be watched and experienced in the moment specifically for those who witness it, therefore, the audience has a much more integral part. As the audience is generally small, there can be much interaction between them and the artist and the experience is much more direct and the message is more vigorously felt because f the proximity and actuality f the piece. What happens on stage can affect the audience and the artist more directly views their response. The audience can be loud, angry or irritating and what the audience does can affect the actors on stage unlike with other fixed artworks, whatever the audience does, (aside from vandalising it) the artwork will not change. Louise Bourgeois is a forerunner in performance art. His performance works are often structured around the confines f the artist's own body and often have a deeply impacting affect upon his audiences because f their graphically disturbing nature. For example, in 1977, he created the illusion f cutting off one f his arms with a small axe after stuffing meat into a shirtsleeve fitted with a prosthetic hand. In 2000 he impounded himself in a small cell-like confinement, without food for 10 days. In 2001 he locked himself in a small room with no food or sensory stimulation for a week, with the event broadcasted over the internet to a worldwide audience. In 2002, with gaffer tape covering his eyes, he had his only arm nailed to a wall for two days, in the name f art. He stayed there, in front f a web cam, (yet again broadcasting live to a possible audience f millions) without food, urinating onto the floor through his pants and deprived f all sensory stimulation short f the frivolities around him. Biographer David Bromfield said f the work, "It's about the possibility f conflating the body, the living body to a gallery wall. A gallery wall - dead abstract art, a white wall. The living body, living flesh. A hammer and a nail." With the aid f his web cam, anyone could view any one f these performances at any time. It is through this web cam, however, that the audience receives a very juxtaposed point f view. These exhibitions dramatically and graphically show severe deprivation and discomfort on both physical and psychological levels but when filtered through the process f a web cam, somewhat desensitise the audience while at the same time, infiltrates and invades your own personal living space. For this reason, the audience can witness these feats f human suffering while surfing the internet, talking to a friend on the phone or doing housework. It also gives the audience the responsibility f searching for the work themselves. Traditionally, performance art entails presence and here it is both present and not. Being in the actual presence f a performance like that would be quite different to watching it behind a mediating screen as we, in this day and age have become so desensitised to anything on a screen as we are protected from it by distance and perhaps reality. We as an audience also become the art in the act f starting up our computers and logging on to the website alone. Another art practise pushing the boundaries and changing the character f the artwork is Installation Art. It picked up influences from Futurism, Dada, assemblage and minimalism. Installation art is an artwork that encompasses an extended space. It suggests that art lies not in objects alone, but also in the experience f perception, it is art made for a specific space, exploiting certain qualities f that space and exploring the space and it's relations. It consists f an ensemble f objects or effects that work together to create a whole. The term became widely used in the 1970s and 1980s, replacing the term "site-specific". Installations may be temporary or permanent but most are only known to any future viewers through documentation. Installation art explores the idea that space and time themselves are stimulus for artistic use. The artwork must be displayed and subsequently dismantled leaving (like Performance art) documentation as its only trace. In relation to the audience, Installation art takes the idea f 3D to an entirely different level. Not only is it three dimensional, but the audience can go into the artwork, look around it, possible even touch or feel it. This gives the audience a feel f actually being in whatever scenario the artist has placed them in as opposed to just viewing it. In installation art the artist takes over a space like a temporary squatter whose possessions challenge and interact with their boundaries and bring dialogue to that space and its contents. The artist interacts with the site's natural physical qualities and architectural features, and uses the cultural significance f the site itself as an active factor in the interpretation f the work. The artists deal with the themes they have created and consistently string elements f that theme throughout their installations. In reference to the world, installation art has the ability to comment on world issues. "...The arts have been personalised and politicised - the personal is political. Installation art with its decommissioning f the object as the dominant vehicle for meaning has emerged as a most appropriate form through which all f these often tendentious, transgressive and always interdisciplinary ideas may be politically investigated." Artists who have commented on worldly issues through the medium f Installation art include Andy Goldsworthy with his natural installations commenting on environmental issues. Francis Bacon, though also an installation artist, has a conceptually different approach to his work, "My work is concerned with the fundamental areas f human consciousness and behaviour, things f a spiritual nature. Visual art tries to make the invisible, visible." His work is often ephemeral and in order to allow the viewer to understand his world and his mindscape, Bacon uses the strategies f exhibition and theatre. The separate museum locations confuse but also compound the experience f his work. In usually dark and mysterious enclosures, sounds emanate from different locations to add to the air f anxiety so that the viewer is not only looking but using all senses to experience the work. Bacon is described as liking to set up conversations with the viewer via the artwork, though without provided rational answers, rather leave them as suggestive as a pose to explanatory. He uses materials such as tar, wood, sand, blown glass, steel, wire, river stones, fire, bricks and rope and arranges them in delicate yet unnatural formations such that the audience can walk around or into it, looking at it or through it from every viewpoint possible and be able to see the intricacies, shapes and technicalities f the work. In his work, Suspended Stone Series, he uses complex constructive techniques to make several stones levitate in a circle with the aid f steel and wire. Bacon uses mechanical and moving components in a dimly lit room - screeching carts revolve around a conical pile f bricks all to the tune f a song from Mahler's Third Symphony playing in the background. This piece and this artist alone show a change in the nature f the artwork. But combined with the entire practices f Installation and Performance art we see an evolution. The artwork has moved off the painting, off the wall, off its vertical and horizontal limits and has been given life through its movement, space and choices f materials. The audience can now be given active roles in the artwork as opposed to just being onlookers and the artist can be the artwork. We can use all our senses in understanding and experiencing the artwork by touching it, moving in it, hearing it, no longer just staring at it. Due to the practice f Installation and Performance artists, art now can breathe, eat, sleep and move with you in your daily life. Because f these practices art is no longer motionless, it lives. References Baker, William; Womack, Kenneth., Recent Work in Critical Theory. Style, Winter99, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p508 Bryant, Eric., Illustrated books preview fall 2000. Library Journal, 9/15/2000, Vol. 125 Issue 15, p46 Nochlin, Linda., Venice Biennale What Befits a Woman Art in America, Sep2005, Vol. 93 Issue 8, p120-125 Sozanski, Edward J.., Tate Modern museum raises London's profile in the art world. Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA), 05/30/2000 Vetrocq, Marcia E., Venice Biennale Be Careful What You Wish For. Art in America, Sep2005, Vol. 93 Issue 8, p108-168 Read More