The link to the recording:

Criterion A: 6

Looking back at the recording, I think I was generally able to extract different ideas, express them logically and in relevance to the thesis I had stated in the beginning. However, as I have noticed even before the IO, my ideas are essentially more related to the global issue of identity and culture rather than art. A lot of my ideas are linked with Hoch representation of female identity and how she challenges society of the concept of binary gender stereotypes and in that sense, not so much of art. However again, I guess the point is that this is all communicated through the means of art, which I guess I kind of emphasized towards the end, but not really.

Criterion B: 5

Like I have stated before, most of my ideas are essentially linked more with identity and culture, thus I feel like I deserve fewer marks on this. That being said, in relation to identity and culture global issue, I think I extracted relevant information and represented logical analysis of the choices Hoch made to present her ideas. Again, lots of regrets, in the sense that I didn’t really get to say all of the ideas I wanted to say given time pressure and as well as the lack of rehearsal. Nonetheless, I thought my analysis was quite alright and perhaps insightful at times.

Criterion C: 6

For this section, I don’t really have much to say other than the fact that I think I structured my ideas logically and kept the focus on the task. I was also building onto my ideas, connecting the micro-analyses I made to one another to create macro ideas. However, at times, I think I repeated quite often and in that aspect, I can work on reducing the time spent on the same ideas and instead work on adding in more unique/insightful ideas.

Criterion D: 6

I think I was able to keep the acceptable/formal language through the practice IO and I also don’t really think I used wrong vocabulary. I also think I was able to use more technical terms that I normally use to help build my analysis( though I also felt like my vocabulary may have been repetitive ).

Total Marks: 23

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j8J-fxzSkN0esa526Xmc7DaTrbhDCH7BILtfZukm9Ng/edit#heading=h.uomlndvoup9m

How can the concepts of creativity and transformation be applied to Nash’s work?

‘The Menin Road’ is one of the most iconic Landscape pieces painted during WW1 by Paul Nash. Nash is a former landscape artist who was enlisted as a soldier and later appointed as an official propaganda artist by the British government. Enlisted as a war artist, Nash’s art goes through abrupt change as he experiences the despair wrought by war, transforming his art from illustrating beauties of nature, to creatively expressing his anger and revealing the horrific nature of war. Nash achieves this through using modernism and irony in his art whilst further creating paradoxical imagery to ultimately portray the dangerously close reality of war to the surrealistic art he paints.  Thus, despite his given role, his art comes far from depicting heroic visions of war as he depicts in “The Menin Road”, the desolation of the battle-ravaged earth.

 

One of the most salient elements of Nash’s work comes from the modernist style in which he creatively transforms his landscapes to create paradoxes. The seemingly surrealistic art becomes rather recognizable through nature symbolic objects; such as the trees and the clouds. These trees serve another crucial purpose to the art as Nash uses them to creatively depict the perception of depth as they are sized differently. With this, Nash is able to illustrate the scale of destruction caused by war, which is interestingly further emphasised through the infinitely stretching horizon. This creates a paradoxical imagery as the horizon symbolises the potential to escape from war whilst it being ironically unreachable. Another paradoxical element Nash creates to emphasise the destruction of war is the perception of the seemingly emptiness of land. Despite the desolation and almost “flat” nature of its land, in reality, its contents are filled with the mass byproducts of war. The desolate field even ends up blending well with the subtly foregrounded pairs of soldiers which may not only suggest the lesser significance of these soldiers but also to foreshadow their inevitable demise. However, the most disturbing imagery is perhaps the two shining beams of divine lights through the clouds; this is symbolic of hope, heaven or the presence of god. These lights are completely misplaced as they shine down onto the void of land, which perhaps works to subtly subvert the British government’s orders of creating an art that illustrates heroic sacrifices.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j8J-fxzSkN0esa526Xmc7DaTrbhDCH7BILtfZukm9Ng/edit#

Global Issues: Culture & Identity

The photomontage titled “Abduction of a virgin” by Hannah Hoch presumably works to satirize white western culture and their hypocrisies, whilst yet building an equivalence in the idea of inferiority of females in both cultures. The title placed by the German’s “abduction” initially suggests the critical and judgemental attitude they have towards the original art. Thus, there is a sense of decontextualization as the art was stolen and interpreted completely from a foreigner – as it was placed in an ethnographic museum. The wooden sculpture consists of four figures riding a large animal, the inner figures being females given their exaggerated pointy breasts and the other being males, suggesting a power dynamic between what looks like two guards and two captives. Hoch interestingly replaces one of the female’s head with a white woman’s face – perhaps part of the New Woman movement given the time period -, which is oddly twisted backwards. This evokes a certain absurdity to the piece, which perhaps Hoch intended to mock white western culture by adding what can be rather seen as symbolic of white culture and hybridizing it to an African object, something they have pictured as uncivilized, primitive and weak. This matches the style and more importantly, the purpose of the Dada movement as the photomontage works to ultimately criticize the hypocrisy of white western culture as they themselves have performed such form of “abduction” for hundreds of years during colonization. However, Hoch also seemingly builds an equivalence in the idea of females being objectified and inferior in nature. The fact that, presumably a New Woman(considering the time) has been placed in an environment of control between two men, perhaps reflects the idea of German New women being forced back into their place of culture by men despite the empowering movement.