Week 8 - Industrialisation

Industrialisation and Cao Fei's RMB City

Dynamism of a dog on a Leash (1912) Giacomo Balla

Industrialisation in the late 1800s, and today.

RMB City (2007-9)  Cao Fei

The artists of the late 1800's and early 1900's, in Europe, were influenced by the Industrial revolution.

1. What and when was the Industrial Revolution?

Both paintings featured on this blog, that are from the early 1900s were painted by Modernist painters from the group called 'Futurists'. The Futurists celebrated the machine, and objects in motion. Their primary objective was to depict movement, which they saw as symbolic of their commitment to the dynamic forward thrust of the 20th century.

 

The Industrial Revolution was a period in which fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies and the social structure in England. This period is appropriately labeled revolution, for it thoroughly destroyed the old manner of doing things; yet the term is simultaneously inappropriate, for it connotes abrupt change. The changes that occurred during this period (1760-1850), in fact, occurred gradually. The year 1760 is generally accepted as the eve of the Industrial Revolution. In reality, this eve began more than two centuries before this date.

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html

2. Research both Modernist paintings in order to comment on the subject matter, form and style used to celebrate the machine and motion in each painting. Answer the question in 2 parts for each painting.

Cao Fei's RMB City (2007-9) refers to China's recent rapid industialisation and urbanization.
(www.artspace.org.nz/exhibitions/2009/cafeintopia.asp)

RMB City is constantly nourished by new and innovative projects, and supported by leading international art institutions and networks. As a model of avant-garde urban planning, it traverses the boundaries between past and future, real and virtual to link China and the cosmopolitan contemporary world.

In Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending A Staircase from 1912, the person is painted as if there were multiple depictions of the same person going down the stairs; the viewer can see each step being taken. In Giacomo Balla's Dynamism Of A Dog On Leash, also from 1912, one can almost feel the frantic energy of the little dog, it's feet shuffling quickly, it's tail wagging excitedly, and the hurried footsteps of the person trying to keep up.

 http://www.artsology.com/motion_in_art.php

 

3. Research Cao Fei's RMB City (2007-9)  in order to comment on this work in more depth.
i.e describe the images that has she used in her digital collage that refer to China's present and history, and explain why has she used these images.

RMB City is a condensed incarnation of contemporary Chinese cities and accordingly displays most of their characteristics; that is to say, a series of new Chinese fantasy realms that are highly self-contradictory, full of irony and suspicion.These imagined scenes occupy the boundaries between past and future, real and virtual and link China to the cosmopolitan contemporary world. In this environment, Cao Fei, or China Tracy as she is known in Second Life, has cultivated different spectators and participants of RMB City. She organizes events in this city, such as interviews, mayor’s speeches, and Naked Idol – a nude avatar contest. Within this context, she invites other artists to produce and show their work. As a result, avatars both participate in the events in RMB City, and visit as an audience, while other avatars become spectators by coincidence. 

http://interventionsjournal.net/2012/01/26/rmb-city-spectatorship-on-the-boundaries-of-the-virtual-and-the-real/

4. RMB City is described as a utopia/dystopia. Comment on what these terms mean, and how they can be applied to the work. 

RMB City is not a real exist city. It has been created by Cao fei's avatar China Tracy as an experimental utopian world for the 3D online virtual community of Second Life. Institutions and investors have been invited to buy buildings in RMB City and program events and activities within them where other Second Life users can participate. Thousands of young people in Asia and around the world are embracing Second Life as a “parallel universe” on the Internet.

 

RMB City will be the condensed incarnation of contemporary Chinese cities with most of their characteristics; a series of new Chinese fantasy realms that are highly self-contradictory, inter-permeative, laden with irony and suspicion, and extremely entertaining and pan-political. China’s current obsession with land development in all its intensity will be extended to Second Life. A rough hybrid of communism, socialism and capitalism, RMB City will be realized in a globalized digital sphere combining overabundant symbols of Chinese reality with cursory imaginings of the country’s future.

 

 

 

5. Although the Modernist paintings and the contemporary digital work have emerged from different contexts, there are also many similarities. Comment on the similarities that you can see in the work. Look at the moving digital image at vimeo.com/4272260, if you have not already researched it.

 

There are many similarities that I can see in Cao fei's work.  Apparently the Modernist paintings and the contemporary digital work have emerged from contexts and both of them linked the culture significances are revealed deeply. Also expressing own in center feeling with different materials, pursuit new ideas and display mechanical beauty.    

 

 

6. Comment on other student's blogs.

www.artspace.org.nz/exhibitions/2009/cafeintopia.asp
www.artchive.com/artchive/B/boccioni/boccioni_city.jpg.html
www.artchive.com/artchive/B/balla.html 
vimeo.com/4272260