John Baldessari was a key figure in the Conceptual art movement that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, emphasizing ideas, language, and performative actions over the formal preoccupations of painting.

. In his black and white video, I am Making Art, made in 1971, Baldessari takes a humorous and ironic look at the extremes of such a position. This work is an example of post-modernism art, this movement was coined in the mid to late 1900’s, it is a reaction against modernism; a movement that was based on idealism and achieving a Utopian vision, modernist artists wanted to reflect the real world through what they create. Post-modernism denied the idea that there is any single way or definition of what art should be, viewers have their own interpretation of the art due to their own unique experiences. Another aspect of post-modernism is that it takes pieces of different past styles. I am Making Art is post-modern in the way that Baldesarri has created something that everyone interprets differently and especially in the way that he is aware of this

In 1970, Baldessari and some friends burnt all of the paintings he had created between 1953 and 1966 as part of a new piece, titled The Cremation Project. The ashes from these paintings were baked into cookies resulting in an art installation consisting of a bronze plaque with the destroyed paintings’ birth and death dates, as well as the recipe for making the cookies. Through this project, Baldessari draws a connection between artistic practice and the human life cycle. For me this project brings to life his quote of ‘no more bboring art’, as the idea does sound very boring at first as it it an active that you seen being done every way, but I do think that the images are actually very interesting to look at.

Contact Sheet

This shoot was as a response to John Baldessari and the way in which he tries to make his art fun and “not boring”. As a class we were set a variety of photography games resulting in a fun activity which then led to some interesting photos. The first game was ‘photography boxing’ where the allocated model has to try and dodge the camera and the cameraman has to try and photograph them whilst they’re dodging. The second game was a simple one where your partner through a ball and you had to try and photograph it in mid air. Following on from this, we then had to try and capture a line of three tennis balls in the air inspired by a shoot that Baldessari had completed.

My Edits

I like the abstract nature of the images with the balls and the obscure nature that they create. Although tennis balls and bouncy balls are not that uncommon, it is rather uncommon for them to be photographed in isolation. Thus creating a new but interesting subject matter for the audience. I was much more satisfied with how the ‘dodging’ game resulted in unique portraits than the ball ones. When editing, i chose to put all of the images in black and white as I believe it was somewhat distracting. Also, with the white wall, this effect complimented it. It is often hard to get a model to pose for you within a portrait shoot, however this game made it significantly easier to achieve successful portraits in my opinion. This is because there is no awkwardness within the model as they were more focused on the dodging than posing for the camera.

John Baldessari: “I will not make anymore boring art”

John Anthony Baldessari is an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lives and works in Santa Monica and Venice in California. Initially a painter, Baldessari began to incorporate texts and photography into his canvases in the mid-1960s. In 1970 he began working in printmaking, film, video, installation, sculpture and photography.

In 1970, Baldessari and some friends burnt all of the paintings he had created between 1953 and 1966 as part of a new piece, titled The Cremation Project. The ashes from these paintings were baked into cookies resulting in an art installation consisting of a bronze plaque with the destroyed paintings’ birth and death dates, as well as the recipe for making the cookies. Through this project, Baldessari draws a connection between artistic practice and the human life cycle. This project highlights as he quotes ‘no more boring art’ which i believe is very interesting. I like the way in which he incorporates a social event in the creation of this art which appears to have been fun and exciting. This comes under the theme of ‘play’ in the way they’re playing with the existing art to create a new piece. He has many other ‘playful’ projects however this one stood out to me because of the extent he went to and also the meaning it has being it too.

In this video, Baldessari makes many arm movements, reciting the phrase, “I am making art,” after each gesture. Baldessari has always been conscious of the power of choice in artistic practice. Here, he carefully associates the choice of arm movements with the artistic choices that an artist may make, concluding that choice is a form of art in itself. Another way in which this piece can be interpreted is a reaction to artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s that explored the use of their own bodies and gestures as an art medium.

Based on my initial ideas and research of artists. I have decided that I will visit Jersey Zoo (Durrel) in order to photograph some of the animals and plants with the intention of having imagery of natural pattern, colour and form which I can use when creating photomontages. Also I would like to have the new butterfly enclosure as the main focus of my photo shoot since this would be a definite source of natural pattern, colour and form as I suggested as a focus; also when doing my initial research I noticed that butterflies were frequently used as part of the work I was looking at and worked really nicely in a chaotic aesthetic.

How will I approach this shoot?

Brief: photograph natural primary source imagery to work with in my photomontages

Camera settings: average to low exposure 400-200 ISO etc…

Location: Jersey zoo (Durrel)

Subjects: Animals (Particularly butterflies and birds) and Plantlife

Lighting: Natural lighting outdoors, camera flash in more shaded/enclosed areas

I’ve decided, moving forward in terms of conceptual ideas and how I can form a successful narrative book from my concept of beauty , I would further research into not just seeing beauty within the world, but the minds philosophy. The way beauty relates to visceral and opulence. It is known for my last project I focused on The sublime, And I believe my knowledge on this topic will too benefit this project. The sublime is something which is beautiful yet also painful, it takes control over any emotion competence to show the powerful emotions someone has within themselves. To be visceral is the relation you yourself have to a deep inward feeling, rather than to just be intelligent. What this means is, being moved by your emotions, in a heartfelt motion, without knowing a reason as to why, with lack of thought involved. Opulence is similar within the fact it is a sense of wealth, greatness and luxuriousness. It gives the of feeling visceral but for the love of richness and Grande. I believe it wold be fascinating If I was to only look at objects and scenarios which I do not known why they are so powerful, but to create a set of images, that combine diamonds and lights in order to recreate these colours of fine art influenced work.

I have spoken previously about combining an emotional response to what I belive is beautiful in my daily life, But perhaps I could not only further this response to what I find visceral, by what items I believe are important to myself in my life, that create opulence for myself. This now is not only a vulnerable exposure of my emotions and my appearance but it is too a look inside as what I value as a person for appearance of myself an others, and material wise. Similarly to the sublime, opulence and visceral are two things which too are very subjective. Because of this there abstract thoughts and personal narrative is very much dependant on my own thinking and resemblance I feel to a object. Not only focusing this project on myself, I could further ask others what they belive is the most beautiful and opulent thing they have ever seen, I could expand on their response by taking a picture of them, and then a side by side comparison of what they believe to be perfection.This not only highlight the subjectivity of our minds, but also the difference of the mind in which people view the world separately. An artist who experimented with this is Sophie Calle – where she makes a portrait of a blind person and ask them to describe beauty. She exhibits the text too and then makes a photograph based on that description. These opposing concept of beauty and imperfections is not only something we see within ourselves, but what others see in themselves too. Not only could this project be about seeing their beauty in the world, an exposure of our own insecurities and emotions, and lastly showing objects which become abstract et beautiful within their luminance. They all have the common denominator of showing how all of these imperfections are still beautiful and part of everyones daily lives.

Once again, this project is dependent on the subjectivity of every piece. The emotion of what someone values or sees as beautiful is very different to that of so one else. The independent initiative, explores ways which different people see love, others and themselves. I believe it would be an interesting experiment to ask others what and who the deem as beautiful, take a portrait of them and display next to them what they value within their life, or even what they value about themselves. Many artists have interpreted hat they fine to be beautiful such as Laura El Tantawy etc. Living on Jersey, An island known for being beautiful through its seascapes and landscapes and artistic fluidity of farms and brightens, many people would say everything over here could be art. I could focus much of my project about peoples favourite placed in jersey, or capturing the natural beauty within jersey. However, I have decided in order to show more abstract themes, I want to use items such as CD’s , discs and mirrors in order to create not only an over-exaggeration of beauty, but also to allow a more abstract colour and luminance to the images. All of these objects when moulded with light create rainbows and more varied coloured explorations, which could be tied to the narrative of finding the beautiful and wonderful within the would. The variation of the capabilities of science and performance. Sir, has also pointed out a past students work who made a fantastic project, focusing on an element called ‘Wabi Sab’ developing films and prints as a response to Kawauchi. This work was a philosophy created to show how simplicity and beauty can be down to the small beauties constantly surrounding us.

I was too shown film in order to show a cinematic experience, it is a film by Terrence Malick: Tree of Life. The film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man’s childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the known universe and the inception of life on Earth.As you can see evidently from the trailer linked below, there is such a strong concentration of finding the light and beauty within everyones life, when growing up and the world surrounding themselves. There is a clear fascination with the natural elements of the world used throughout, And I believe My aim for my film should be inspired by this trailer. My film should be a short film where i respond to beauty. Another inspiration could be Rina Abramovich , who creates artistic music and does so in order to form the beautiful.
performance art/ video

I think you should consider also what beauty means to you and maybe also do some peer research and ask friends the same question.

I would also like to research and think about beauty much deeper within philosophy and aesthetic theory. Due to already having an understanding of the Sublime which is a kind of beauty that is also terrifying, it already allows a basis to this project. Beauty within this project is so far about expressing the physicality’s of how everything around all of us is beautiful. Doing so I am capturing everything which is beautiful using different concepts of light and colour. However, I was wondering If it were possible to show the beauty within someone from the outside. I want to try and express and emotional state of happiness and love form the outter side of someone, almost a more direct observational portraiture, to relate to a feeling and not just a being of happiness and beauty. I will start off by doing some market research as what it is considered to make people most happy and what people think is most beautiful about themselves, And ways in which i could evoke these emotions and objects through my own work. I will do so by asking many people where I live and my friends, and possibly too looking into past research across the globe, and if what we see as beautiful is dependent on our culture and how much money and wealth we grew up with. This could also be 5 questions in relation to beauty and happiness. These questions will be, How would you describe beauty? What or who is the most beautiful person of thing you have ever seen? What brings you happiness? Where is the one place across the world that brings you the most joy and why? what are you most grateful for? This is not only an insight to the subjectivity once again of the fine art of beauty, but the imagination of each individual mind.

For my second photo shoot I when to the sand dunes to further develop my work inspired by Cody William Smith. These are my best photos from the shoot. I like the idea of using bigger mirrors and incorporating more elements of people into the images. An artist I could use to help develop these ideas is Guillaume Amat.

This is the work I was trying to recreate from Cody William Smith.

An example of Guillaume Amat’s work.

Postmodernism was a movement in cultural theory and practice in response of modernism theory and practice, this took place in the mid to late twentieth century. The reaction was against the ideas and values of modernism (Modernism being a style or movement in the arts that aims to depart significantly from classical and traditional forms.) Movements that have come within postmodernism art include: Conceptual art, installation art, digital art, performance art, Intermedia and Multi-media art.

Here are some examples of photographic, sculptural, installation and design work from the postmodernism movement…

John Baldessari, born on the 17th of June 1931 in California, is a photographer, artist and teacher of the arts. Since the 1950’s he has been creating artwork by using techniques from various subjects such as painting, photography, montaging and text to create his own meaning behind his art.

As he was born in National City, California, he has a key artist within the west coast, as he himself and his style was completely different from other uprising artists from the same area as him.

Baldessari’s main goal was to challenge the standard ideas of art, by using imagery from films and advertisements, and using in your face contrasting shapes or textures, and covering photos, with shapes in appropriate places to fragment the photos.

This shoot was inspired by both Baldessaris video of what is art, and then subsequently a response to throwing and lining up balls in the air. Although I believed I have mimicked the same or similar composition, and a real raw reflection of motion and a sense of reality within the images themselves. I have edited the images above to be in black and white, much like the video itself, I believe this also brings more of a directed narrative to the central character of the girl herself, and her emotional expressions of her own artistic voice. I believe I could further these images of the girl, with small aspects of coloured dots, possibly on her, to enforce more of his more pop culture concerned themes. I wanted too to capture images showing movement of her running, as this shows a more realistic approach of herself. My favourite image is the one on the bottom right, when she is running yet has direct eye contact at her camera, This demonstrates a breaking of the third dimension and relationship to which she is addressing and almost questioning the viewer on her actions.

Analysis: For this shoot it is evident that I was inspired by the artists own work of capturing ‘ a line of three tennis balls’, however, evidently I decided to focus on one larger ball, and have not successfully achieved a line of all three. Although, I belive using just one ball too creates an interesting more centered composition to the piece itself. I could however, edit the image and create an illusion of three balls, despite The fact that I could, I do not think this is the approach Baldessari would use. I believe if I was to repeat the shoot with a larger multitude of time and shots, much like the artists himself, the odds would be much greater.