Artist References from Session 1
http://aesthletics.org/
Tom Russotti is the director of the Institute for Aesthletics. The Institute for Aesthletics is dedicated to playing sports as an artistic practice. Aesthletics acknowledges sport, especially contemporary spectator sport, as a mixture of physical activity, social interaction, movement, performance, and ritual.
The idea of playing sports and calling it art may seem absurd. But it is the focusing of attention towards different aspects of the game - looking at what is important other than the rules of the game, or winning and losing - that raises new questions. The Dodgeball Tournament could be classed as a performance; there was an audience, and members all cohered to a set of actions determined by our understanding of competition.
Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney is a contemporary American artist who has been making work since the mid 80's. Barney works across a wide variety of styles and media, which often feature himself in some form conflicting with the processes of making art. Having previously been an American football player before retiring, Barney makes works that reference his past on the sport field and will use gym training equipment as a restraint when making a drawing for example.
Barney would attempt to make a drawing whilst tied up by bungee cords and complicated contraptions. The end result would be a series of abstract marks, much like the marks made by the Dodgeball tournament. The marks made are not controlled by the artist, but are rather determined by chance. The process of how these marks are made is just as important as the finished product.
Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. The most famous works of his practice are the 'drip paintings', where he would dip a stick into different coloured tubs of paint, and allow the paint to drip off onto the canvas. Whilst mostly uncontrolled, Pollock would determine the way the painting could look by working faster or more aggressively, making more violent marks. The colours Pollock would choose for each painting also has a great impact on the way the painting makes us 'feel'.
This style of working is what makes Jackson Pollock an important artist, as he challenged the idea of what a painting could be. The way in which the abstract marks are made is similar to the marks made by the Dodgeball tournament. You can observe the differences between the marks made by the ball, depending on the force at which it hit the wall, what direction it was sent from and the amount of powder on its surface.
