What is instruction based art?
Instruction based art was formed in the mid to late 1960s and following this, the "do it" project was created in a Cafe in Paris in the year 1993 by Christian Boltanski, Bertrand Lavier and Hans Ulrich Obrist. The "do it" project takes many forms: an exhibition, archives, online videos and a travelling event that goes across contients. Some the earliest members of this art form were: Richard Hamilton, David Lynch, Elaine Sturenant and Sarah Lucas. Instruction based art is an interactive art form about the Vision of an artist, that the artist has an idea of what he/she wants to do and instructions and are then released, given to participants, it is then up to the participants to interpret what the artist meant by these instructions. This idea could be many things such as disabling CCTV cameras using spray paint. Due to the varying instructions, the art becomes intricate in that everyone has other ideas than another however at the same time each person understands the instructions enough to create the right amount of tension in the art. It is possible that in this art that the instruction itself could be the art form therefore the participants would have very specific set of instruction which they would have to follow said instructions word for word. Furthermore it is possible that instruction based art is not a specific art based event therefore can be anything that is an idea that a person/artist may have that could include a group of people. Tino Sehgal a well known German artist creates instruction based art, however It is said that in his work a person never truly understands whether they are just a witness or a participant of the event, creating a strange, tense atmosphere. This type of art, like many other art forms I believe can be used to question hard questions and political debates making it a quite dangerous art.
How is it recorded? it could be by taking photos of the event, videos could be used but it could also just be written down in a book/ piece of paper, because of this it makes the art unique as no other art has multiple ways of being recorded, such as paintings or portrait photography.
How is it recorded? it could be by taking photos of the event, videos could be used but it could also just be written down in a book/ piece of paper, because of this it makes the art unique as no other art has multiple ways of being recorded, such as paintings or portrait photography.
An example of a "do it" project:
Here we have the instruction of the project in the left most picture and at the right of that is the response of the people who participated in the event. The instructions read to cut out question marks from news papers or magazines and stick them on to public text.
The responses from the participants were very varied with each photo, in some of them it is clear that question mark was not from a magazine but hand drawn. which either means that they interpreted the instructions in a strange way or they just did not wish to follow the instructions in the way that the artist intended it. |
Who is John Baldessari:
An artist, a photographer a bored man, John Baldessari - An American artist - was born on the 17th of June 193. He mostly creates very abstract works to do with concept that matter to him. In his video John Baldessari describes the way he takes photos as creating scenes and taking pictures until he got what his vision right, In this pursuit of trying to make his vision the way he saw it, led him to do some extreme things, this included: burning all his work in his studio and using the ashes to cook cookies, these were placed in an urn (The Cremation Project) - He states in the video that he did this to firstly "escape boredom" and secondly to explain the human life cycle in an artistic way . In many of his works he states that he wishes to portray social status in population and not the faces of the people hence when you see his works the faces are all coloured out so you cant see what the people look like and can only make assumptions of social status, John Baldessari states that the reason for this is that when people went to see him, they were all high status people and he had enough of that.
He then later in his video begins talking about how he makes his collages, that when making them that he requires the pictures to have the right amount of tension to them. He would try moving the pictures around until he liked what he saw, in order to fit his criteria he the photos had to be similar enough to make sense for them to be together however they have to be different so that tension is made by the collage, in a sentence he describes it as almost dream like. |
An example of john Baldessari's work
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John Baldessari-photo task 10
Second attempt of Baldessari task 10
John Baldessari created this task for his his student to complete, deeming it task 10. In the task description he commands his students to "photograph the back of things, underneath of things, extreme foreshortenings, uncharacteristic views. or trace them", this task is what i attempted to complete. I do believe that i have made some interesting photos as i took photos from low angles to extreme foreshorten the photos, also I took many photos from underneath or the back in order to create a strange view of the object/person.
To begin I was extremely confused on how I would take interesting photos at different angles however as I continued to take photos i began to understand what John Baldessari wanted his students to do, that in order to make a good photo I had to firstly follow the instructions and then decide on the angle and frame of the photo, will i centre the image? will the image have no clear subject? these are the type of questions that needed to be answered as i took the photos. Thereby I do believe that i can say that i did enjoy this project.
To begin I was extremely confused on how I would take interesting photos at different angles however as I continued to take photos i began to understand what John Baldessari wanted his students to do, that in order to make a good photo I had to firstly follow the instructions and then decide on the angle and frame of the photo, will i centre the image? will the image have no clear subject? these are the type of questions that needed to be answered as i took the photos. Thereby I do believe that i can say that i did enjoy this project.
My successful images:
A new view of water:I believe this to be my most successful and interesting picture, this is due to me taking a picture of a tap that was taken at an odd angle which is usually not seen in normal day life. This picture makes the tap seem totally different from what it actually is, it becomes uncharacteristic in this manner and therefore confuses the viewer, however, also interest the viewer that is why i believe that it was one of my most interesting photos.
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Prohibited:This is my second photo that i believe was successful in the task as this photo was taken at a time where i was desperate, so the task pushed me to take photos i would not usually take.
This photo displays an underneath of a display board where i found gum left by a student, although disgusting made the photo even more unusual then it was if the photo didn't have it. Due to the photo being taken from underneath, it becomes something that wouldn't make sense to see on usual day therefore i believe that this photo is successful in following the instructions left to us by john Baldessari. |
Clinging to the shelf:This was a photo that i believe to have met the criteria of the instructions left to us by John Baldessari. The photo is of books on shelves however this can only been seen after looking at the photo a few times.
The photo technique i used was extreme foreshortening in order to make the books seem bigger than what it actually is, therefore i believe that it was a successful photo taken that follows the criteria of the instructions. |
Over the tables:This was a successful photo as it was a photo underneath 2 tables, from first viewing it, it appears to be a strange stair case however on further inspection it becomes apparent that it is indeed under 2 connected tables.
I do believe that this follows the criteria as it shows a normal object however the photo being taken at new angles makes it appear as something totally uncharacteristic of tables. |
Handle:
This photo was successful as firstly it was interesting in that it provides a new view of an object that is usually seen from a different angle, therefore although obvious that it is indeed a door handle it is now seen from a new view.
The second time doing this project, it was just as difficult as the first ,this however was not due to a lack of understanding but was to do with the fact i was incapable to think of new photo ideas. |
One step away:
From first glance you may be thinking this is a upside-down photo of a flight of stairs however this is in fact an air vent, I believe this to be successful as it morphs a feature of a building into something that may resemble a Garage door or stairs.
I have taken risk in this photo as i took the photo at a birds eye view making an extreme foreshortening of a outside vent. This is an image that no one would normally take unless pushed into the corner by instructions left by John Baldessari. |
A paper cut out:
This was a successful image as the viewer in unable to determine what the photo is of at first, It is a photo of a hole left into a table taken at bird eye view looking downwards. This is successful as it is uncharacteristic of a table and it is not a photo that i would usually take when thinking about making an item look pretty.
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Paul strand photoshoot:
This task required me to create 8 images that are themed after the way that Paul Strand photographed, using the rules of how a photo is formed. By over exposing some photos I attempted to make the surface of the subject appear flat even though in reality it is the opposite, in other photos repetition and the use of lines is important, such as that of the eighth photo in the display below.