Francis Alys - I thought this man was ingenious

Stills from the movie Paradox of Praxis 1 where the artist pushes a block of ice through the streets of Mexico city until it melts. A way of marking out the existence of the passing of time. I think this is an ingenious way to represent such a thing.




"Alÿs’s work starts with a simple action, either by him or others, which is then documented in a range of media. " (Tate Modern Online, 2010)


Alÿs responds to fleeting and contingent circumstances from the viewpoint of a passerby who is both involved and separate.





When Faith Moves Mountains,2000-2002

Francis Alÿs in collaboration with Cuauhtemoc Medina and Rafael Ortega.

Five hundred volunteers walk over a huge sand dune in Lima, Peru, digging with spades and shifting the dune a few centimetres as they go.They moved a 1600 ft sand dune over 4 inches from its original location.

The Green Line 2004,

Alÿs walked along the 1948 armistice line between Israel and Palestine, trailing a line of green paint behind him, and provoking commentaries on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Other pieces of his art include releasing a fox into the National Portrait Gallery at Night and capturing its wonderings on CCTV, (Nightwatch)

This a video i found on You Tube about some of the artist's creations. It is about 4 minutes and definitely worth a look. The ideas are so varying but make total sense in my eyes to be justified as art. They are things I have never heard of before.





An Exhibition of his work will be shown at Tate Modern from the 15th June 10pounds pp. I think i will definitely be going for a look.

In the of Bruner (1979) this would be considered to be creative.

"Creativity is inventing something so unique that it is astonishing to the viwer or user and produces 'effective surprise'" (Bruner, 1979, p54)

References

Bruner (1979) in Koster (2009) Growing Artists. 4th Edition. Teaching the arts to Young Children.Cengage learning. Delmar.

Participatory Art

I never thought about my art in a participatory way, until I was with Jaz, photographing it around uni and I began to ask people if they would like to interact with my art.No one said no, which i was really surprised about. I think maybe the reason I never asked people before was I was kind of skeptical about their enthusiasm to participate.

Here are the pictures, Some require explanation, some speak purely on their own...

Mr Macho (2010)
"Excuse me, You look like you are strong, can you hold my ball please"?
"Yeah sure, Shall I pose?"



I have no idea who this member of staff is, I know she had an Aussie accent but she was one of the first people who approached me about my snowball with curiosity. She in fact showed a desire and willingness to interact with it, without me instigating it. Here are her chosen ways of interaction.I have named them.

The touch.(2010)
The Lounge.(2010)
The slouch.(2010)




Jaz, my lovely friend, I was so grateful for him on this day, it went a lot like,
"Jaz can you stand there?"
Jaz can you sit here?"
Jaz can you pose there?"]
So i could experiment with compositions.
Thank you Jaz :)

Perch.(2010)

Pondering(2010)
Hung (2010)



This boy was sitting outside the library working away, so I kindly asked him if i could use him in my art. He obliged.

Untitled (2010)





Some of my fellow art class were passing through, so naturally I asked them to participate. I think they were quite surprised how heavy the ball seemed, as it was thrown at them. Can you see them laughing?






ooooppsss :S
We tried strategically to balance the ball on the chapel steps, It began to roll away, jst as this picture was taken.The body is that of Jaz, running after it.

Action Shot...

I asked John Bayley to be creative with the snowball. He sat on it and was laughing about the fact he would struggle to get off it. The interesting thing for me, was that when asked to interact with the ball, however they wished to, with almost all the people asked, they instantaneously chose to sit on the construction.Therefore would this be considered a creative act?



Here are a selection of thoughts to ponder in regards to creativity;

Cropley (2001)
"Creativity is a medium for beautifying the environment, a form of self expression and communication or a way of understanding, opening up or coping with the previously unknown" (Cropley, 2001, p40)

Fisher and Williams (2004)
" The world, as it is presented to us, is not the only possible world. Through our imagination we can use it as a model for other possible worlds." (Fisher and Williams, 2004, p11)




These selection of photographs were taken as people were passing through.I placed my snowball in a place and waited or I rolled it into a place and waited for it to stop. I then took photographs of people responding or not to the installation.

Unaware (2010)






I thoroughly enjoyed this day. I was overwhelmed by people's interest in my project. I enjoyed venturing around with Jaz and inserting my ball into compositions. I am fully engaged in it now. I actually walk around and think, my ball would look great there, and have to find a day to make it happen. It's a shame it is not portable and I can't carry it with me everywhere. I like the way the snowball is portrayed in a photograph. It looks so white and snowy and i think you cvan definitely tell what it is meant to be.



It has created within me a desire to get my art out there, I think I am going to take it somewhere urban and record how people respond to it. Which leads to the question... if people respond to it in a way I don't like.. eg they vandalise it, steal it. Then what do i do? Is that not there response to my art? Not sure how it would go done assessment wise. hmmmm. Sarah?
Well a dog has already urinated on it, (don't worry, people who have touched it, I sorted it)and i can't say that was my ideal response. Maybe I need to cast off preconceived responses and interactions and just let go. After all that is part of the process. (Mcniff 1999)

References
Cropley, A, J. (2001) Creativity in Education and Learning - A Guide for Teachers and Educators. Kogan Page Limited. London.

Fisher, R. Williams, M. (2004) Unlocking Creativity, Teaching across the curriculum. David Fulton Publishers. Oxon.

Mcniff, S (2001) Trust the process, An artists guide to letting go. Shambhala Publications Inc