Our current objective in art is to research and learn about subversion in art using methods like thumbnail sketches.
One of our objectives is to take notes from the the following website:
The shortest I can make it is that art is supposed to subvert, it is supposed to challenge humanity and cause anger. It said you don't want to create art that everybody will just accept because that isn't art it's just entertainment.
Another task was to take a few of Tracey Tawhiao's art works and create thumbnail sketches of them:
Within Tracey's work the act of subversion is shown in the process of painting over a newspaper written in English. Tracey is a Maori artist so by doing this it is almost as if she is trying to cover up the English part of New Zealand. She doesn't make make much of an attempt to hide the fact that she is doing it over something being that sometimes she'll let things like words show through. When she paints she uses Maori patterns as if to say that the country should belong to the Maori more than the British.
For our final task we are to completely describe one of her works:
Within this piece you can see that she used Maori patterns, she used bright colors to make it stand out even more. Ones like the fish draw your eye due to the complexity and the dark green Maori pattern stands out because it's hard to see. Six words were intentionally left uncovered as if to say the whole story isn't important just a small part. Growth eclipses hold lessons for life, it could also be interpreted as, to grow things need to block out the obvious parts of life.
I'd guess that's all if not whoops.
Thanks Thomas This is a good start to your research into Tracey Tawhiao. Subversion means to overthrow or undermine something. In Tracey's art this means to undermine or overthrow colonial attitudes towards Māori culture. This would help to promote more equality within New Zealand. Other artists are subversive in terms of their style, methods, materials and so on...I like that you point out the directional qualities of Tawhiao's kowhaiwhai patterns and fish. Do you think Tawhiao has chosen her green colour palette to symbolize something?
ReplyDeleteHello Mr. Collins,
Deletethank you for your comment but in reply to the question I do think the green may symbolize something. The varied green may show a difference between the water and the land around it, maybe gesturing toward a river.