ART INSIGHTS: ART THAT REMEMBERS

Once read a quote by Edmund Burke on the sentiments of tragedy which says, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." A prominent event that echo this very ethos is that of the holocaust. Centuries has passed and we are often caught in the threat of forgetting. But forget we shall not as there's just too much pain to be forgotten, and with the efforts of many to make sure we remember, through art, books, memorial museums and even the internet, we do remember and must remember.

Likened to these many efforts, this pivotal body of work by Oscar Munoz on 'The Disappeared' project, we see art playing its role in questioning the very essence of our humanity with relation to non-action with a different horror. "In the 1970's, those considered threats to their country were kidnapped, tortured, and killed by their own military, especially in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. The tragedy arises to the sad fact that the cause of their disappearance was never known. They merely disappeared. Art in this work is seen to fight the amnesia of forgetting what was once known as horror in the lives of many who had been taken at birth from those who opposed the government and adopted into military families in Latin America." - North Dakota Museum of Art.











Munoz would paint the portraits of these disappeared lives unto a cemented pavement and as time progresses, air would dry up the water and these portraits would disappear. Simple, yet powerful. Do take a look at the video below too and may we be challenged to never forget regardless. In the context of our nation of Malaysia, do wish that there was something like this done with our May 1969 event. Much to reconcile, much to remember.

ART INSIGHTS: ONCE UPON A SCHOOL

Following our week's stint of introducing to you various art insights, today we'd like to bring to you an eye-opening dream of Dave Eggers, (TED Prize winner 2008) which has much relevance to CAIS in both purpose and call.

Once Upon A School is a community initiative by Dave Eggers, determined to bring about positive change and communal support to public schools through programs catered specifically for each school's individual needs. The strength of this initiative is not in the programs itself but rather in the very act of a community coming together and working towards contributing back into the lives of its students. What started off as an after school tutoring program (826 Valencia) with professionals in the field contributing personal hours into tutoring students soon became a well received and appraised phenomenon. Quoting from the site, "The students come to 826 because it’s fun, it’s warm, it’s full of people who care — but who don’t HAVE to care. That is, the average students knows his teacher has to help with his schoolwork, and he knows his parents have to help. But there’s something very new and transformative about meeting a member of the community — a professional journalist, a radio disc jockey, a graduate student, an advertising copywriter, a software developer, a retired lawyer — and have that person give them 2-3 hours of undivided attention. Almost without exception, student achievement and understanding leaps when they are given this concentrated one-on-one attention. Teachers and parents love the help, and the students get to ask a hundred questions until they truly understand a concept."

Take a look at this talk by Dave Eggers, challenging the public to personally and creatively engage with local public schools. With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world to do likewise.





We are truly excited with this movement that has started as CAIS Project with Stella Maris seeks to be a reflection of a similar cause. By initiating an alternative space that brings artist (click to view artist's list) who are professionals in their fields to come in closer contact with the students of a particular community and engage deeply with them, we hope to grant an opportunity for students to be exposed to contemporary art through the experiential learning of close interaction with artists.The significance of CAIS is valued in the method in which the next generation is reached, informed and educated about the importance of contemporary art.

In addition to this interaction, the project also introduces an exhibition unlike any other. By installing site specific works of local and foreign contemporary artist works at Stella Maris, the project sets an atmosphere and experience unlike that of a traditional gallery, but rather, a location where students get to ‘coexist ‘ with the artworks daily, allowing them to simply engage with the artworks on a regular basis in a familiar environment.

Do take some time with us as we journey to discover more and more of this community art's project's potential, one of which we truly believe has much calling for. At the meantime, do take a browse at this awesome community platform just mentioned above and find more insights on the direction we're heading. As we journey, it becomes more and more evident of how much a band of brothers we are across nations. Multiple ideas, similar cause.

Have a good read!

ART INSIGHTS: MAKING ART WITH ALMOST ANYTHING

Art is very often associated with the application of creativity regardless of medium. Here we have an interesting talk from Vik Muniz explaining his artworks created using wire, threads, sugar and chocolate. He makes art from pretty much anything, be it shredded paper, wire, clouds or diamonds. Here he describes the thinking behind his work and takes us on a tour of his incredible images.




For more on his interesting works, do check out his personal site.

ART INSIGHTS: WHAT IS ART?

A really interesting take on art. Take a look.

ART INSIGHTS: XU BING IN CONVERSATION

In alignment with our desire to inform and bring about a heightened understanding and interest of contemporary art to students and their community, we will constantly feature a series of articles, videos, podcasts, profiles+works of various local and international contemporary artists that are on the cutting edge of the field. So do keep a look out for our Art Insights periodically.

As a first, here's a feature on Xu Bing, a Chinese artist who has lived and work in New York since 1990. "Xu’s art stems from an alienated relationship to language. His breakthrough installation, “A Book from the Sky” (1987), featured hundreds of beautifully bound books and giant scrolls that arched across ceilings and down walls. The documents contained 4000 unreadable characters -– a new language that Xu had created. The installation puzzled Chinese and international viewers alike. The Chinese approached the texts expecting to find legible writing, while non-Chinese viewers viewed the work as a comment on the artist’s ruptured culture. Xu insists that the project, like all his text-based installations, was not about his personal history at all. Instead, these works express his doubt about cultural authority on the larger level. In the gap that exists between the serious execution and presentation of the books -- which seem like authentic classical volumes -- and the underlying absurdity of the project, the artist points out the disconnection between official and private uses of language." |ArtandCulture|















































Interestingly, how Xu Bing got about to this level of expression in his art owes it back to his childhood. The son of a professor and a librarian, he spent his early years surrounded by books that he could not read. His school years coincided with the Cultural Revolution, when he and other children were sent off to camps to learn Mao’s new official language, which was regularly changed to meet official doctrine. He returned home to his parents only to meet yet another language, now strange to him, and a new culture of control –- to instill discipline, his father made him copy classical Chinese characters every day. For Xu, these characters came to represent the forces of authority rather than a vital link to his ancient culture. As we believe that discipline precedes blessings, its evident that this stringent copying of Chinese characters brought about interesting observations for Xu and to present, a very deep understanding of its propriety to culture and art.

Do check this video out. Its a discussion of Xu Bing with Curator Wu Hong on the topic of his works.