Abject Artist's

Class Date: Monday 2/14

In today's class we discussed several artists in the genre of abject art. The first artist we discussed was Mike Kelley. His pieces of art express the concept of negative aesthetics, or imaging that you would not generally perceive as being aesthetically pleasing. An example would be one piece in which Kelley combined ancient artifacts with a legendary figure such as Santa Clause. The meaning of these peices is shrowd in mystery, allowing every viewer to forumulate a unique perspective of the work.

Another abject artists we discussed in class today was Dash Snow. He can best be described as the artist of New York downtown party scene. His work entailed polaroid pictures of naked drunk party goers in New York City, that have obviously had a few too many drinks. It is the controversial nature of Dash Snow's art that makes it so great. Critiques from all over are attracted to the work of art due to controversial nature, and then formulate an opinion.

The last artist we discussed in class was Gillian Wearing. Similar to Dash Snow, her artwork was also surrounded by much controversy. Her works were "Mass Observation," a form of voyerism in which she would record the interactions between certain groups of people, usually groups that are typically cast out by society. In her most famous work Gillian taped alcoholics of a variety of backgrounds interact among each other. This detatched voyerism was very cotnroversial because it calls into question the concept of privacy and confidentiality.