Art-Sci: artist

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Performance Artist, or Just Another Weirdo?

Defining performance art, and attempting to fathom the deep, obscure meaning behind a few bizarre performance art pieces.

Wikipedia’s definition of performance art is: “Performance art can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the performer’s body, and a relationship between performer and audience.”
Okay, so according to Wiki; anyone, anywhere, in a body, interacting with other people is performance art. Hey, good for us! We’re all performance artists!

But if this is such a common art form, why has it caused such a stir? Is it the artistic nature of the act that attracts people to stop and watch a performance artist, or the same morbid fascination that people feel when they slow down when driving past the site of an accident?

Breath?

Here we have a picture of a performance art piece in progress. It must be going well, as this performer has quite a crowd watching him. But have they stopped to admire the creative nature of the project, or do they pity the naked guy because it’s cold?

Let’s try to understand the piece, us viewers who haven’t been told what the objective of the work is. We have a naked guy, on a cold rainy day, sitting in a public place, sealed in a plastic bubble. But what does it mean?

He’s trying to show the world how cruel and heartless people are that they would stand and watch a naked man shivering without doing anything to help him.
He’s re-enacting his experience in the womb, and expressing that he has a chilly relationship with his mother.
He ran out of his meds.

Paula Kerstens

Being a performance artist must be pretty cool. They get to wear black and walk around with plastic bags over their heads.

Shall we embark upon the quest of meaning?

She’s the modern embodiment of the Mona Lisa, with strict views on littering. How original.
The girl in the photo is auditioning for a new movie, “Dude, where’s my bag?”
Her psychiatrist wasn’t available for her session on the day this photo was taken.

Quinn Dukes

This performance seems pretty bizarre, but it’s quite simple, actually. The gigantic tomato is giving birth to woman with a fluffy head. See? It’s easy to understand art if you don’t look below the surface. Or, wait, maybe the normal sized tomato is giving birth to a tiny half-human half-animal creature.

Oh, I don’t know anymore… Could it mean that;
The artist has a sloshing fetish (Using food items for sexual gratification)
If we’re not careful with genetically modified food, one day tomatoes will start procreating and siring fully dressed, mature adult human beings.
This woman confused the large hand-sewn tomato with her strait-jacket.

Ye Fu

Ye Fu and another artist lived in a glass house for a month as part of a performance art piece. They exposed their daily home lives to the world, yet separated themselves from the outside world.

Were they trying to:

Prove that we are all in fact transparent as human beings, and have nothing to hide?
Show that everyone has barriers (The glass walls), no matter how much of ourselves we reveal?
Make money by doing nothing but mooch around the house all day.

Striptease to Save the Trees

Yes, there are some performance art works that actually have a point. Even for us non-believers, the meaning of this act is clear. The artist intends to distract the driver of the truck with her keen fashion sense and by waving her megaphone at him, all done in an attempt to save the trees.

This act certainly contains the four elements of Performance art; time, space, the performer’s body and a relationship between the performer and the audience. And to flesh out the fullness of the artwork, this artist has solicited a reaction from her target audience – the driver has stopped the truck.

Peeta Sculptural Graffiti

These stunning artworks by the artist Peeta are made from a variety of materials. Some are made from polyurethane and then spray-painted. Other materials that the artist uses include cardboard, wood, fabrics, graphite and cellulose actetate.

"Poly" 2005 by Peeta. Even in the 2-dimensional medium of photography, this graffiti art work has a distinct 3-D effect. This is created by the presence of highlights and shadows in the sculpture.

"Untitled" 2008 by Peeta. Some 3D graffiti pieces use cardboard as the basic structure for the design, with colorful fabrics stitched over the framework. The abstract appearance of graffiti tagging alphabets convert well into 3D art installations.

"S" 2003 by Peeta. This piece was created using hand-made cellulose acetate which lends the sculpture a slick, shiny feel.

"Rock" 2005 by Peeta

Traditional graffiti artists often gambled with unlikely and unusual perspectives. These pieces are based on the visual depth created by graffiti artists, bringing the perspective of classic graffiti art to life in beautiful twisting sculptures. Check out Peeta’s site

German Artist DAIM 3-D Graffiti

DAIM, a German artist, dabbles in many forms of art, but has received global recognition for his 3-Dimensional graffiti art style. Using a well-known graffiti look, DAIM takes his art one step further, pushing a traditionally 2-Dimensional art form into the third dimension. This artist has been producing graffiti works since 1989, expressing his graffiti talents in many mediums, including etching, spray-painting and 3D sculptural graffiti. His urban artworks appear in built-up areas across Germany and in art galleries. Visit DAIM Gallery for more info on DAIM.

Truth 3D Cubist Graffiti

Using colored Polystyrene blocks, artist Krystian "truth" Czaplicki creates 3-Dimensional artworks that are inspired by the cubist movement. Standing in stark contrast to the building, these pieces create an attractive and colorful diversion from the dull brickwork of modern architecture. Visit Truth’s website.

Delta Sculptural Graffiti

Considered one of the pioneers of the European graffiti art movement, Delta creates complex 3D graffiti pieces that hang suspended above the viewer on wires, or which fit snugly against a wall. See more of Delta’s work here

3D Graffiti as a New Artistic Style

Art based on the classic graffiti style is growing in popularity and graffiti style innovations are appearing with more regularity. As pioneers for a new dimension of graffiti, these artists are often commissioned to create 3D sculptural pieces for business and shop owners. Graffiti needn’t be an illegal art form anymore, and it is refreshing to see these talented artists making money from their work.

Read More on Art-Sci:
10 Where's Waldo Puzzles

Amazing Digital Speed Painting

Calvin and Hobbes Fan Art: Tattoos

Meow! Cats with Tattoos or Tattoos of Cats?

Photoshop Humanoids

Steampunking Modern Devices & Gadgets with Victorian Vogue

10 Paintings by Adolf Hitler

Hitler is known for being one of the most evil and murderous men in Jewish history. Yet few people know that he also produced a large amount of paintings, focusing on flowers, landscapes and cathedrals.

Adolf Hitler, Dictator of the Holocaust
Adolf Hitler, failed dictator of Germany during World War II, produced a variety of oil and watercolor paintings. In addition to being responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, including the genocide of six million Jews, Hitler was an artist who used cathedrals and flowers as subject matter for many of his paintings.

"Dianthus", a fine art painting by Adolf Hitler. This painting is surprising to many, as the feminine, gentle flowers don't reveal the cruelty of the man who painted them. Many of Adolf Hitler's paintings were like this; weak in composition and lacking in any vibrant visual appeal.

This painting by Adolf Hitler is called simply, "Roses". Although Hitler was not a great artist, his paintings are not terrible either. However, there is a level of insecurity and immaturity in this painting. Hitler has forgotten to add a shadow beneath the pot, which is a commonly a child's mistake. While the flowers seem finished, the pot seems to have been hurriedly plonked into the scene without any finishing touches such as shows, highlights and reflections. A more careful and skilled painter would not have made these mistakes.

Adolf Hitler's Failed Art Career

Before becoming involved in politics, Hitler applied several times to The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, hoping to further his artistic career. He was turned down each time, and was forced to live on the streets, selling paintings to tourists and exchanging them in restaurants for meals.

Hitler called this painting, "Cathedral in Vienna". Hitler's paintings of architecture sometimes had more detail and contrast between light areas and shadows than his still life paintings.

"Mother Mary with the Holy Child Jesus Christ". Hitler's paintings of Mary and Jesus has caused a lot of controversy among Christians. Hitler himself was a Christian, yet he was the creator of much misery and despair during the Second World War. He has been held responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews, gypsies and people from other social sects that Hitler didn't deem worthy of being included in his future Germany.

Many of HItler's paintings portrays the scenery that he encountered during his military campaigns around Europe. When Adolf Hitler opened his own art museum, he very sternly rejected modern art, favoring classical styles over the more adventurous and sometimes brutish modern art styles, yet in the painting above, the style is more akin to the Impressionists; a modern art movement that rebels against classical art styles.

Not only are these paintings unique because of their infamous painter, they also give us a view into the past; showing us buildings and fashions from Hitler's time.

Before becoming involved in politics, Adolf Hitler used to paint pastoral scenes which he sold to tourists. Many of these paintings included churches, farm buildings and farmland; the kind of scenes that people might want to look at in their living room.

Adolf Hitler was known for using a variety of different paints, so he didn't just stick to oil painting or watercolor painting. This makes his art works even more difficult to authenticate. It is believed by many art professionals that some of Hitler's paintings that have previously been sold for a lot of money may in fact be fakes.

Note the difference in styles between each of Hitler's paintings. It is possible that this painting, or any one of the others, is a fake because Hitler didn't have a distinctive, recognisable style.

It's crazy to think that the man who painted this peaceful, gentle landscape was responsible for so much pain, horror and death during WWII.

Fake Hitler Paintings

The authenticity of Hitler’s paintings is often hard to prove, as he seldom mentioned the paintings by name or description in his correspondence and diaries. His friend, Reinhold Hanisch, sold fake Hitler paintings during the fuehrer’s reign over Germany, an act that Hitler did not approve of. During Hitler’s youth, Hanisch pushed him to create a painting per day, a grueling pace which otherwise managed to feed them each evening.

Adolf Hitler's signature appears to have changed as he matured, and so it is possible that some painting that are believed to be the work of Adolf Hitler, were actually forgeries or fakes.

This is Hitler's signature on an authentic, verified sketch by Adolf Hitler

This is the signature that Adolf Hitler used on official documents, which is completely different from the signature that he used on his art works.

It's possible that Adolf Hitler was simply trying to sign his name in an impressionist style to match the painting, but this signature is considered by many to be fake, and paintings that bear this signature are often suspected to be forgeries.

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