Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger-(link to website) is a Graphic designer that layers found photographs that are typically recognisable with black bold letters against a red background with text that has aggressive meanings, which makes viewers question ideas about consumerism, feminism, classism and desire to want. She is protesting against magazines that advertise the things she is aggressing against. However her work has appeared in museums, galleries, billboards, posters etc and a campaign for Selfridges. Either she's doing it because it is the perfect setting for her work and Selfridges want a different approach on advertising. it's almost like Selfridges is having a joke at customers expense by advertising these anti-consumersim slogans and yet people still shop mindlessly and probably not too sure of the meaning of these slogans and just don't care. 

Slinkachu

Slinkachu

Slinkachu - (Link To Website) Is an art installation photographer who works with his project "The Little People Project" which involves him remodelling train set characters and placing them around the city in different scenarios. He does this because he wants to send a message to people living in a big city to be more aware of their surroundings, reflecting the loneliness of living in a city feeling lost and alone. He also projects some humour into his work which makes it more relatable to the audience. I like how original his work is and it has an honest reflection of how life can be living in a big city feeling overwhelmed and lost. He wants people to take more notice of their surroundings, it is a simple effective way of portraying this message to city dwellers. All his scenarios are very creatively made using rubbish you find scattered around the city and transforming it into a clever everyday scenario. 

Miss Van

Miss Van

Miss Van - (Link to Website) is a french graffiti artist who uses acrylic in her work instead of spray cans because she prefers working in that medium. She publishes her work this way because she thought that her work would be more accessible to the public this way. She also found working on the street  more exciting because it's forbidden and keeps a sense of freedom in her work of her sultry female dolls. Miss Van's work is very unique and original because there are not very many female graffiti artists who work in this style and is not a typical technique of graffiti which makes her unique. She represents herself through her dolls they are like self portraits of the artist. As she started moving into gallery work her dolls became more sexually alluring and often very provocative because she wants them to disturb people and entice fantasies and generally create some reaction to her work.

Modernism
By
Peter Childs

Modernism

I took out this book from the library to help me out with understanding modernism which I have come to understand a bit easier after reading some of the book. However it is mainly talking about modernist writing and literature but was helpful in defining modernism and postmodernism. Modernism is art that Harold Rosenberg calls "The art of the new" so it is very experimental, complex and shows a lot of freedom that artist has from realism, materialism and traditional art techniques, artists such as Picasso. 

Ione RucQuoi

  Ione Rucquoi

Ione Rucquoi's -(link to website) work exposes the lost innocence and primal instincts of the human nature. She explores the dark side of human emotions by exposing them physically through the photographs. Her main focus is the existence of humans Birth, Life, Death and the beast we all have within. She wants people viewing her work to have their own personal response to the images as they are a reflection of her own experiences and how she feels is right to portray those emotions. She is exploring a very complex idea of human existence and how experiences no matter what, we have to go through and how it changes our perspective on things.
At first glance of this artist her work comes across as very dark and disturbing, however they project certain emotions that the viewer can relate to once you understand her work and the deeper messages behind the photos. She transforms the human figures to project the beast within or some form of experience. 

Julia Fullerton-Batten

Julia Fullerton-Batten

Julia Fullerton-Batten-(link to website)

is a fine art photographer that has a very unique style on one of my favourite projects "Teenage Stories" which explores the transition of young girls into womanhood. She explores this idea with the girls miniaturising their surroundings becoming the main focus of the photo. This shows the girls losing their innocence and becoming away of adult life leaving childhood behind and becoming a women. in the photos the girls show no real emotion almost like their in a dream like they are not really there just existing in their confusing transition from child to adult girl to woman. I particularly like this photographer because she deliberately avoids models and chooses random girls, this creates a more unique style because it exposes the slight awkwardness they have with the camera which makes the photos more believable and real. They also make it easier to relate with how the girls are feeling because it's not so posed its very natural.She has done many other projects but this one is my favourite because it is a very unique way of exploring transitions we all go through form child to adult. 

Anthony Micallef

Anthony Micallef 

Anthony Micallef - (link to website) is one of my favourite artists. His work is based on our relationship with consumerism and how it effects us and social society. He creates his pieces using paint working often with bright, childlike colours, although they are exposing the darker side of consumerism and how it's effecting society. His work exposes how we are branding ourselves with these companies and letting ourselves be seduced by these big multi national companies.  

I find this artist has a real honest message in his works because he is exposing how we've become ruled by brands and letting them define who we are as people and a society. we are losing our individuality to these companies and letting the media control how we should dress, eat and think by reading magazines and watching t.v that are telling you what's in to wear and what's not. The media has a very heavy and almost unavoidable influence that effects how we want to look to how we should look according to the media. He explores these ideas and creates some really beautiful paintings with very dark messages behind them.