Studio x
For
Centuries famous artists have always managed to fascinate the public by
creating art works in secrecy behind the closed doors of their studios. This
instigates a myth about artists and what it is that gives them this ability to
create things that capture our attention and imagination. For the ordinary person
on the street this myth is what elevates artists and what they do in the mind
of the public. This mythical and magical creative power is actually granted to
the Artist by the public, and this is the subject matter and focus of the
exhibition.
According to
psycho analyst Freud the artist is urged on by instinctual needs, he longs to
attain to honor, power, riches, fame and the love of women, but he lacks the
means of achieving these gratifications. So, like any other with an unsatisfied
longing. He turns away from reality and transfers all his interest, and his
libido, on the creation of his wishes in the life of fantasy, from which the
way might readily lead to neurosis. The artist avoids neurosis by elaborating
fantasies or day-dreams and provides a general source of pleasure for other
people as well.
Sculptural and
collage works are accompanied by this series of photographs. Within these photographs
Arnold visualizes his fantasies of being a successful and famous artist. The
photographs express with humor the artist’s elaborate fantasies, ideal studio
and career. These photos are posted on to social media such as Facebook under
“Arnoldus Kennedy Fine Art” thus creating a social experiment. This also allows
him to create the myth of being an Artist as well as revealing insights into
what the thoughts and motivations behind these works are. 
"When The World Was Young"
There was a time when the Modern referred to all things
new and the future was a promised Utopia. That which was modern once, has aged
and is now outdated, it was naïve to feel so invincible.
Generations have
already passed, striving for the future ideal, leaving deep seated
psychological and environmental burdens. To continue dreaming of a future
utopia is pointless, preserving what time we have left has become a far greater
concern."Someone Else Somewhere Else"
"Cybernation"
The “Cybernation” series are video art works that are about updating and preserving a sense of local traditional visual culture against the absorbing force of the Mass Media. The effects of the Mass Media dematerialised the physical world and led us into the hallucination of a media world. The effects of this on culture are shattering, but I am of the opinion art is about establishing the driving force of culture. With Mass Media being the dominant, ever absorbing force, artists can and have mounted this force. By establishing one‘s own culture with mass media, one could rejuvenate a traditional culture. By identifying and exposing the effects that the mass media has had on culture could reduce the impact. By creating electronic art works such as video art works based on local visual cultures, a local culture that reinforces that of the local group identity can be disseminated through the mass media and in time, contribute to the preservation of the cultural identity.
“Myth” is made from found video footage from a popular 80‘s TV series about the life of the Zulu King, Shaka titled ―Shaka Zulu‖, and is edited together with John Boorman‘s 1980‘s film “Excalibur”. The feedback from both these movies makes it seem that they are fitting together in a continuous effect. This movie comments on the myth of Shaka Zulu and that of King Arthur. A myth or legend is shaped in the forming of culture, Shaka contributed to our understanding of Zulu identity which all South Africans today recognise as part of their visual vocabulary. King Arthur sent knights on a quest for the Holy Grail. In a similar way these myths are rejuvenated through Video. Intertextuality occurs when the video versions of the myths are compared. The sound track is a mix of the two together playing in harmony. Both these soundtracks were very popular and should be recognisable, the harmony is to indicate the absorbing of local cultures into a wider global culture. This remix of sound is also an indication of our hybrid culture and the effect of instant replay. Today it is possible to copy anything from any time period and to paste it together to form something new.
“Tribe‟ deals with the pace at which old fashioned ideas have been left behind. The title of “Tribe‟ refers to the notion that white Afrikaans people have a tribal heritage. The old nationalist reasoning of white Afrikaans people belonging in South Africa was based on sentiments drawn from a history of domination and warfare against the native tribes and the British Empire. Video material was found on Youtube, and consists of a montage made up of images of old South African money and colonial images found on them as well as documentaries on wars that involved white Afrikaans people. The montage scrolls from right to left over the screen into a modernist abstraction of spirals. This is similar to the effect of the blurring of a landscape seen from a speeding car. This represents the abstraction of a traditional Afrikaans identity.
“Video Flag”‘ is constructed from video images that best assign their colour and significance to the way South Africa is perceived in the media, from news to movies and sport. The colours of the flag hold no official assigned meaning and are therefore open to interpretation. The flag and national anthem are cultural symbols of what the new South Africa stands for. The lines and colors of the South African Flag are part of a bigger pattern. When deconstructed, the flag is the source point of this pattern, it is broken down to six colour fields. If anything is altered in these fields it alters the bigger pattern. The pattern is established by mirroring the flag and repeating the image.
The repetition of video clips is used to make up the different colour fields, this relates to Andy Warhol‘s use of repetition. The cutting up of videos to fit together in the shape of the flag relates to the postmodern theories of deconstruction.
“Icon” is a movie clip that has been mirrored vertically and then horizontally to form a tile image. This is a technique commonly found in textile design. Postcolonial theory and deconstructivism is addressed in this video. Found footage also from the Shaka Zulu series .This TV series has created an iconic image of King Shaka. It depicts a popular notion of what traditional Zulu Identity is, an identity that no longer, or never did, exist. Today Zulus are part of the modern world and share in global culture. Postcolonial issues such as representation of traditional identities and are addressed in that we today realize that this is an old understanding of what a Zulu is. This is deconstructed in repeating the movie clip and then rearranging the parts back together symmetrically. The symmetry has a kaleidoscope effect. This effect renders the old segment of this series into a greater spectacle. The purpose of this spectacle is to mesmerize the viewer with South African visual culture. The deconstruction of this image is to force the viewer to reassess the notions that the media has created of traditional identities.
“Fashion Shoot” has employed the double projected image which is the influence of Andy Warhol. On the left are images of fashion models and the right, images of soldiers. This is commentary on the fracturing of society, the difference of gender identities are made evident. The intention is to invite the viewer into making their own comparisons and analysis that would create awareness about the socialising influence that the media possess.
"Cyclical Forecast"
"Cyclical Forecast" is the title of a series consisting of four works completed at the end of 2008. All these works are a combination of Plaster of Paris casts with found objects. The first of these Works which is the title piece “Cyclical Forecast” is assembled by a car tyre on top of a truck tyre with cast toy cars arranged tightly on the rims of the tyres. All pointing in a clock wise direction on the bottom tire and anti-clock wise on the top, the work acts as a metaphor for the “rat race” through the pointlessness of moving in circles with no beginning or without end.
The second art work is made up of Plaster of Paris disks in Plastic tubs. The disks have toy soldiers, toy cars and dinosaurs cast in them, as if sinking in a tar pit, crashed or fallen. The plastic tubs are what fast foods are sold in. Contrasts are made using a traditional art medium, Plaster of Paris with modern found objects such as plastic tubs or rubber tires. Comparisons are pointed out about what society values today in relation to the past. These tubs are the solution for the fast pace of the modern world and is meant to have on the go as “art take ways”.
“Endurance of a Reptilian Enterprise” is the third work which is a stop frame animation of the Plaster of Paris disks. Different toy casts of dinosaurs, soldiers, sculls and cars surface and sink while the sounds of home appliances such as kettles boiling, motor cars driving quietly and scanners screaming can be heard. The concept of this animation is hinted at in the title, the idea comes full circle in that prehistoric life became fossilized, and that today our industrial world is run on fossil fuels.
“The Final Egg Dance” is also sculptural and turned into a stop frame animation. Black and white eggs were cast and placed in carton trays of thirty eggs per try as can be bought from a super market. The eggs jump and change position to become different images which suggest that their relation to each other as a whole makes up the larger image. Viewing the images the eggs make up as transitional icons, the work also reflects the persistent visual nature of the media. In particular its shaping of a collective consciousness. Post-Colonial theory is addressed via the issues of identity, otherness, hybridity and the power struggles of our mediated times.
