Artist Research: Christo

Christo Vladimirov Javacheff

Upon searching for Christo's name on google, I came across many results that didn't really relate to this man. But there were the beautiful works of art on google and came to the conclusion that this must be the man that I was looking for.

Digging, I came across "Christo and Jeanne-Claude" a couple who travelled and created amazing artwork together.

He was born in Bulgaria in 1935 on the same day as his wife Jeanne-Claude but they didn't meet until 1958 in Paris where they started creating art work together and fell in love. Credit was given to Christo only until 1994 when the outdoor works and large indoor installations were now credited to "Christo and Jeanne-Claude". They came to the decision to have only Christo's name on the finished products because of the prejudice against female artists in the art world.

• They created art that not many people understood because they couldn't really find a deeper meaning of it or analyse it but they revealed that their art wasn't there for any other reason than aesthetics and to be looked it. It had no meaning behind it, it was simply there so that people could see familiar landscapes in a different way.
• Some of their most popular works include; 

The wrapaping of the Reichstag in Berlin

The Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris

The Running Fence in Sonoma

David Bourdon (art critic) has described Christo's wrappings as a "revelation through concealment."
To this he responds to his critics by saying

"I am an artist, and I have to have the courage...Do you know that I don't have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they're finished. Only the preparatory drawings, and collages are left, giving my works an almost legendary character. I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that will remain."

In 1972 on all their projects they worked exclusively with photographer Wolfgang Volz and at least five of their major projects were subjects of documentary films by Albert and David Maysles.

The thing I like the most about their work is how temporary the actual installation was but the photographs and the preliminary drawings of them last a lifetime. I also liked how beautiful the buildings and sculptures looked all wrapped up; you could see the the shape of the sculpture but the fabric just emphasised the details and proportions of some of them.

This relates to the 'Maps and Networks' theme because in the literal sense of maps, I think about travel straight away. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's art was created all around the world and many people got to experience it. With maps and travel many people wish to leave a mark at the places they have visited as a little memoir so I instantly make this connection to the theme. A 'network' can be seen as a structure or things coming together to create something bigger. In this case, the things that they wrapped up existed and beauty existed in them before they were wrapped. What Christo and Jeanne-Claude did was allow us to see them differently. Still beautiful but I feel like the beauty was now simplified.

Artist Research: Rafael Lazano-Hemmer

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967. He didn't start off his life doing art, he actually received a BSc in Physical Chemistry at the university of Concordia Montreal, Canada before starting out his career as an artist. In the begging of his career, he worked in a molecular recognition lab in Montreal because he was so drawn science. Although he loved and was fascinated by science he couldn't help but join in on the creative activities that his friends were getting involved in. Therefore he did not pursue his career in the sciences but his knowledge and experience influenced his art work in many ways. They provided conceptual inspiration and helped him take practical approaches to create his work.

• He is known as an electronic artist who develops interactive installations that are at the intersection of architecture and performance. It uses both large and small scales, indoor and outdoor setting and also some audiovisual technologies.
• He is best known for creating these interactive installation across Europe, Asia and America using robotics, real-time computer graphics, film projections, positional sound, internet links, cell phone interfaces, video and ultrasonic sensors, LED screen and other devices.
• His smaller scale installations explore themes of perception, deception and surveillance.

Exploring the theme of Maps and Networks, I looked into his "Third Person" and "Subtitled Public" installations because I found them to be very intriguing. The idea of using a collection of verbs to recreate the shadow of the person interacting with the installation fascinated me because the person doesn't get to choose which words they are associated with. It uses a computerised tracking system and reveals the viewers shadow using verbs that are in third person. They can choose to display the words in English, Spanish, French or a combination of all three. It connects well with the theme because the words are sort of like a network coming together to create this silhouette of who ever is standing in front of the tracker at the time. 

The "Subtitled Public" installation involves an empty room where viewers are then tracked by a computerised surveillance system. As soon as the person walks into the room, a random verb from the dictionary is chosen and then projected onto them. This projection stays on them for the duration of the time they're in the room unless they touch another person which will then cause an exchange of their subtitles. This installation also highlights the fact that with surveillance you can never really escape because you're constantly being tracked; you cannot escape it. 

"Third Person" (2006) By Rafael Lozano-Hemmer from bitforms gallery on Vimeo.


"Subtitled Public" - Mexico City (2005) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer from bitforms gallery on Vimeo.