Australian Artists: Julie Rrap, Brett Whiteley and Bill Henson - Assignment Example

Australian Artists: Julie Rrap, Brett Whiteley and Bill Henson Name Institution Question 2: Artists have engaged from a wide range of perspectives with issues around the body, sexuality and gender throughout Australian history - Norman Lindsay, Donald Friend, Julie Rrap, Jill Orr, Brett Whiteley and Bill Henson - to name a few. Select three artists and discuss key works from their oeuvre. How was their work influenced by the social and cultural norms of the day. What was the response of critics? Introduction Historically, artists have engaged a variety of perspectives on issues surrounding the sexuality, gender and body. In Australia, among the artists who have engaged divergent perspectives include Julie Rrap, Brett Whiteley and Bill Henson. This paper discusses the oeuvres of the three artists. Focus is placed on how social and cultural norms of the day influenced their works and the responses of critics. Julie Rrap Born in 1950s, Julie Rrap is an Australian contemporary artist. Her artistic were mainly in the human form, as well as how it was represented in media and the wider society, specifically the gendered female body in Western world1. She relied on art to ridicule the stereotypical representation of women, by transforming her characters into active change agents. She used her body, depictions of her body, as well as representations of the female body to construct her works. Julie Rrap’s attachment to body art and performance during the mid-1970s in Australia continually influenced her practice. In turn, she expanded her works to painting, photography, video, and sculpture, in projects that focused on representations of the body. While living and working in Belgium and France from 1986 to 1994, she had opportunities to exhibit extensively. As a result, she expanded her horizon to projects with international contexts and further exhibited to Holland, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. In 1994, she returned to Australia2. Julie Rrap’s works, during the 1980s, essentially marked a change in art practice that expressed the female body. Cultural feminism’s experimental nature was often criticised for adhering to conventional stereotypes. During the 1970s, cultural feminist dominated as a feminist critical approach. At the end of the 1970s, the manner in which the issue of gender identity was built within a patriarchal culture was largely reassessed using Marxist structuralist semiotics. In turn, it influenced the emergence of photo-text and photomontage work. These works were largely influenced by a change in Marxist philosophy that emanated from the United Kingdom. The shift in Marxism influenced the scholarship and arts of the time and created new ways of thinking that shifted focus to culture. Accordingly, Julie Rrap’s works emerged during a feminist era, which was undergoing radical change internationally. In Australia, feminist art theory, during the early 1980s, was undergoing a shift from the 1970s cultural feminism brands that emphasised the significance of equal gender opportunities and rights. Art, at this time, attempted to discover women’s neglected histories, and analysed the “male gaze.” Julie Rrap’s works, such as “Disclosures” (1982) and “Persona and Shadow” (1984) consist of her analysis of ‘the gaze.’ They also framed the female body in ways that attempted to discover women’s neglected histories, as well as encouraged feminist thinking. The “Disclosures” is widely acknowledged by critics for representing a departure from cultural feminism. It attempted to challenge the established feminist position as it put the female nude back as the subject matter, given that the woman pictured was actually the artist herself. During the 1970s, the feminist critics of representations of the female body appeared to oppose Rrap’s emphasis of the female body as the dominant subject matter in the world of art. This made it tricky to represent the female body given that the male gaze dominated and became aggressive. However, the feminist criticism appeared to relax during the late 1980s. As a result, women began representing bodies in the world of art as the subject matter3. Figure 1: Julie Rrap's artworks4 For instance, in Julie Rrap’s works, such as “Push Pull,” she appeared to play with the feminist critic’s dismal response to the female body. She embedded human hair in a transparent ballet bar that lined part of the gallery. While it was tempting to the audience to touch the ballet bar, the audience could be impulse by the human hair inside. In which case, some form of psychological fear could make the audience to recoil from the object’s materiality. A sequence of large photographs with magnified sections of human flesh was exhibited at the bar. The juxtaposition represented the human skin as a surface that contained fleshy and, which was uncontrollable inside5. On the other hand, human hair that was extracted from the body represented an abject and deathlike quality. Figure 2: Julie Rrap's "Rise and Fall" Julie Rrap also converged several media in her works called the “Rise and Fall” (1994), where she used video, sculpture, as well as performance to represent the female body. In her video footage, a man’s feet is showed, where a man stands in tiptoes attempting to maintain a pirouette pose. The image shows apparent signs of physical strain in a man’s muscles as he seeks to keep the pose. A sequence of uniquely designed metal boxes surrounds the rotating video monitor. It has pink ballet shoes. While the male figure attempts to maintain the pose, the shoes seem to stand up to turn around, yet fall down during each successive revolution. This creates a loud bang. Eventually, they rise again to repeat the sequence of performances. Overall, the feminine shoes, which are attempt, bring about an ironical feeling as they stand and fall. In turn, Julie Rrap seems as intending to frustrate the male gaze. On the other hand, by converging several media, her works seems to bring together the different issues that surround the gendered female body and identity6. Overall, Julie Rrap’s have been recognised for framing the female body in ways that attempted to discover women’s neglected histories while simultaneously encouraging feminist thinking. She was also criticised for putting the female nude back as the subject matter in her bid to promote feminism or ridicule men7. Bill Henson Born in 1955, Bill Henson is an Australian contemporary artist. His photography has been exhibited globally, including in New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Australia, and Paris. Henson commonly uses chiaroscuro in his works, by using underexposure and adjusting printing8. Henson’s photographs utilise bokeh, which is supposed to provide the images with a paint-like impression. The concept of duality also recurs as a theme in his works and in most cases combines adolescent subjects. Henson also mostly uses a flattened perspective by using telephoto lenses. In most of his works, the faces of subjects appear to be blurred or partially shadowed. In addition, the subjects do not face the viewer directly9. Henson, as he has firmly claimed, is not interested in sociological or political subject issues. Although this may be the case, it could still be argued that his works have been influenced by different sociological trends. For instance, Henson grew up in Melbourne suburb called Glen Waverley. During the 1950s and into the 1970s, the suburban’s population grew due to the apparent affordability of the area and convenience and comfort of car travel. As a result, several self-serve petrol stations emerged at many intersections. The stations had vibrantly coloured signage that added their glow to the suburban landscape. This may have contributed to Henson’s fascination with adolescent’s images that appear to be blurred or partially shadowed. Additionally, an expansion of the American suburban area in Australia persisted with Glen Waverley gradually were transformed to host the first McDonalds fast-food chain in Victoria in 1971. Additionally, the 1980s witnessed an expansion of huge international chains at roadsides with their large signage that added their corporate to the suburban’s landscape. Many children and young people, therefore, thronged the fast-food joints at Glen Waverley. It is based on the changing landscape that Henson’s vision becomes founded. The reason for this is that Glen Waverley became a location where youth came to pass their time until evenings, when their images disappeared into the evening shadows. As a result, Henson’s images appear as preoccupied with recapturing these moments of his youth. However, some critics have also argued that Henson’s works attempt to recapture the changing suburban landscape that was gradually influenced by urbane youth international trends, an example is his works “Untitled 1985-1986,” which shows Billabong Family Bistro. Others have argued that he took advantage of the vulnerabilities of adolescents and the youth and even questioned his sexuality10. Generally, his black-and-white photographs have uneven surfaces, which are generated from a wet-printing process. In turn, they provide the photographs a rather mysterious, and nearly a mysterious quality. The darkness of the images is intended to appeal to Henson’s romantic sensibility. His intention is to let shadows hide visual detail to allow for some kind of mysterious feeling. The audience are, therefore, drawn into mysterious shadows and reflective darkness11. Figure 3: Henson's works12 As can be established from Henson’s works, he appeared to be more interested in documenting landscape and the individuals in a landscape. While Henson used photography as a contemporary art form, his works are not necessarily documentary in style. This is in contrast to the common belief that people tend to regard photography as intended to provide some form of authoritative evidence of something13. Additionally, the time of the day he took the images, the locations he selected, as well as the poses his models assumed and the design of printed images, all indicate that he was largely in control of his works, and directed and constructed his scenes. He mostly used low-key lighting to increase contrasts in his scenes, using one or two light sources to generate regions of bright illumination, which contrast with regions with deep shadow14. Some critics have also described Henson’s works as intent on capturing the transition from adolescence to adulthood15. He also sought to depict the theme of youth and decay16. Henson explored and attempted to capture the transition in his images. As seen in a majority of Henson’s photographs, it appears as if the youth emerge from or attempt to disappear into the shadows, entwined on the areas of light and dark. For instance, at the age of 22, Henson photographed his works called “Untitled 1977,” which consists of a sequence of black-and-white photographs that reveal a naked adolescent male, who seems to be lost in thought. Shadows appear to surround the image’s contours while the highlights soften the details, which in turn provide the youth with a ghostly or mysterious quality. In viewing the image, one is certainly prompted to accustom the eyes to the darkness. This implies that the viewer would find himself attempting to get closer to the images before he finally manages to distinguish any detail. Further complicity is thus unavoidable. Brett Whiteley Brett Whiteley (1939 –1992) was an Australian avant-garde painter, sculptor, and writer. He was preoccupied with testing the ability of art to change the society for the better. Some critics have commented that Whiteley even envied the influence of pop musicians on societies, and aspired to see his artworks, like the “Alchemy,” touch a mass audience like lyrics of pop musicians17. During the initial exhibition of “Alchemy” in 1973 at the Bonython Gallery, the painting came with a set of images and phrases from his notebooks. Some critics have commented that the sets of images and phrases failed to make jointly much sense regarding sexuality, gender or body. Indeed, Whiteley at one time commented that “Alchemy” is more concerned with viewing what does not exist18. Figure 4: Whiteley's Alchemy19 In the early 1970s when he created the “Alchemy,” America was in a state of changing from old values, which were confronted by new edifices of political ideology and power that were in turn destabilized by assassinations and protests. At the same time, artists and poets encouraged an alternative lifestyle of the beat generation. On the other hand, the Vietnam War was at its peak and the Americans had drawn lines of battle among themselves. With these in mind, Whiteley initially reacted to America by viewing it as a huge living sculpture, stabbed by flashes of yellow20. Whiteley conceived the colour yellow as denoting madness and optimism. However, Whiteley hated America’s indifference to cultures external to its boundaries and as he struggled to fit into America’s cultural pattern that had made him feel uncomfortable, he intended to send consistent moral messages mixed with some form of irony. He combined different materials like oil paint, barbed wire, fibreglass, steel, photography, and rice as collages to construct his works. This inspired his works 'The American Dream."21 Whiteley started working on “Alchemy” after returning from New York, because of exercising his imagination towards conceiving the masterpiece. He completed it between 1992 and 1993. The “Alchemy” was essentially a summary of a combination of influences and sources. It echoed the “American dream,” which he had realised in New York before he returned in 1969, although it lacked political outrage22. In brief, “Alchemy” represented his journal into a nearly unattainable ambition. Some critics have also commented that the “Alchemy” may be interpreted as Whiteley’s vision of birth-to-death. It consists of passages of earthly existence, fornication, youth-life, and the climactic scene of a white sun that is set against a gold background23. Some critics have also attempted to link his artworks to his life and concluded that Whiteley was insanely interested in the dynamics of fame and even imitated other artists’ works, such as William Dobell’s works. It is based on this reason that he was frequently criticised negatively24. He had often planned his exhibitions while hoping to significantly have an impact on the society, which in turn eclipsed his real achievement, because beyond all the media fuss, he was a hard-working painter who was committed to art. Indeed, in his later years, he attempted to make his paintings more vulgar and drawing flashier yet still made sure that his works was consistent with the traditions of painting and drawings that he had learnt at the start of his career25. Whitely went to Italy on a scholarship in 1960, where he picked artistic inspiration from churches, galleries, and museums. He was also inspired by images of the cruel death of Christ, death on the cross of crucifixion26. While in London, UK, he made a set of abstractions that he relied on to get to the world stage. Among these paintings included Untitled red painting 1961, which glowed with the colours of Australian earth while simultaneously reflected his respect for the British painter William Scott. Scott’s abstract compositions developed from table-top still life, strengthened Whiteley’s passion for edges, shapes, and proportion on the picture plane. Through the addition of erotic overtones that he derived from Arshile Gorky, he added basic features of the pictorial agenda to his works. His styles and techniques were centred on his love for landscapes, of travel, and birds. However, some critics have criticised his fascination for erotic overtones. He had travelled to Paris, London, New York, Japan and Morocco, and sought to adapt the landscapes and birds of these cities to his works. An example is “The 15 great dog pisses of Paris 1989,’ which reflected Rue de Tournon landscape in Paris. Figure 5: Whiteley's 'The 15 great dog pisses of Paris27 Conclusion Julie Rrap’s have been recognised for framing the female body in ways that seek to rediscover women’s neglected histories while simultaneously encouraging feminist thinking. She was, however, criticised for putting the female nude back as the subject matter in her bid to promote feminism or ridicule men. Henson’s works, on the other hand, attempts to recapture the changing suburban landscape that was gradually influenced by urbane youth and international trends. However, he had been criticised of taking advantage of the sexual vulnerabilities of adolescents and the youth. Others have also described Henson’s works as intent on capturing the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Conversely, Whiteley’s works consist of passages of earthly existence, fornication, youth-life, and the climactic scene of a white sun that is set against a gold background. However, because of the addition of erotic overtones, he had been criticised of his fascination for erotic overtones. Bibliography Alomes, Stephen. When London Calls: The Expatriation of Australian Creative Artists to Britain (Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1999)84 Art Gallery of New South Wales, "Brett Whiteley Alchemy," http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/downloads/files/Brett_Whiteley_notes.pdf (accessed 3 June 2016) Barrett, Jennifer and Jacqueline Millner, Australian Artists in the Contemporary Museum (London: Ashgate Publishing, 2014)87 Faulkner, Joanne "Vulnerability and the passing of childhood in Bill Henson: Innocence in the age of mechanical reproduction," Parrhesia, 11.1 (2011): 44-55 Jane Hylton and William Dobell, William Dobell: Portraits in Context (Wakefield Press, 2003)10-11 Joanne Faulkner, "Vulnerability and the passing of childhood in Bill Henson: Innocence in the age of mechanical reproduction," Parrhesia, 11.1 (2011): 44-55 Malyon, Craig. Excel Revise HSC Visual Arts in a Month (Gleve: Pascal Press, 2002)60 Marien, Mary. Photography: A Cultural History (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2006) 496 Marsh, Anne. Stepping In (A Feminist Context)" CVA+C Broadsheet, (2008): 248-251 Monash Gallery of Art, "Bill Henson: early work from the MGA collection," https://www.mga.org.au/library/HENSON_MGAedukit2.pdf (accessed 3 June 2016) Public Programs Department, Brett Whiteley: 9 Shades Of Whiteley (Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000) Seasoltz, Kevin. A Sense of the Sacred: Theological Foundations of Christian Architecture and Art (New York: A&C Black, 2005)327 Szulakowska, Urszula. Alchemy in Contemporary Art (London: Ashgate Publishing, 2011) 113 Toffoletti, Kim. Baudrillard Reframed: Interpreting Key Thinkers for the Arts (London: I.B.Tauris, 2011) Read More

Born in 1955, Bill Henson is an Australian contemporary artist. His photography has been exhibited globally, including in New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Australia, and Paris. Henson commonly uses chiaroscuro in his works, by using underexposure and adjusting printing. Henson’s photographs utilize bokeh, which is supposed to provide the images with a paint-like impression. The concept of duality also recurs as a theme in his works and most cases combine adolescent subjects. Henson also mostly uses a flattened perspective by using telephoto lenses.

In most of his works, the faces of subjects appear to be blurred or partially shadowed. Besides, the subjects do not face the viewer directly.Henson, as he has firmly claimed, is not interested in sociological or political subject issues. Although this may be the case, it could still be argued that his works have been influenced by different sociological trends. For instance, Henson grew up in a Melbourne suburb called Glen Waverley. During the 1950s and into the 1970s, the suburban population grew due to the apparent affordability of the area and the convenience and comfort of car travel.

As a result, several self-serve petrol stations emerged at many intersections. The stations had vibrantly colored signage that added their glow to the suburban landscape. This may have contributed to Henson’s fascination with adolescent images that appear to be blurred or partially shadowed. Additionally, an expansion of the American suburban area in Australia persisted with Glen Waverley gradually were transformed to host the first McDonald fast-food chain in Victoria in 1971. Additionally, the 1980s witnessed an expansion of huge international chains at roadsides with their large signage that added their corporate to the suburban landscape.

Many children and young people, therefore, thronged the fast-food joints at Glen Waverley. It is based on the changing landscape that Henson’s vision becomes founded. The reason for this is that Glen Waverley became a location where youth came to pass their time until evenings when their images disappeared into the evening shadows. As a result, Henson’s images appear as preoccupied with recapturing these moments of his youth. However, some critics have also argued that Henson’s works attempt to recapture the changing suburban landscape that was gradually influenced by urbane youth international trends, an example is his works “Untitled 1985-1986,” which shows Billabong Family Bistro.

Others have argued that he took advantage of the vulnerabilities of adolescents and the youth and even questioned his sexuality.Generally, his black-and-white photographs have uneven surfaces, which are generated from a wet-printing process. In turn, they provide the photographs a rather mysterious, and nearly a mysterious quality. The darkness of the images is intended to appeal to Henson’s romantic sensibility. He intends to let shadows hide visual detail to allow for some kind of mysterious feeling.

The audience is, therefore, drawn into mysterious shadows and reflective darkness.As can be established from Henson’s works, he appeared to be more interested in documenting the landscape and the individuals in a landscape. While Henson used photography as a contemporary art form, his works are not necessarily documentary in style. This is in contrast to the common belief that people tend to regard photography as intended to provide some form of authoritative evidence of something.Additionally, the time of the day he took the images, the locations he selected, as well as the poses his models assumed, and the design of printed images, all indicate that he was largely in control of his works, and directed and constructed his scenes.

He mostly used low-key lighting to increase contrasts in his scenes, using one or two light sources to generate regions of bright illumination, which contrast with regions with deep shadow.

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