Week 4 - Kehinde Wiley

3. Kehinde Wiley Count Potocki, 2008 oil on canvas, 274.3 x 274.3cm

4. Kehinde Wiley Support Army and Look after People, 2007 oil on canvas, 258.4 x 227.3cm

Kahinde Wiley is a Gay American based painter born in Los Angeles, who has an international reputation. Wiley lives and practices between Beijing and Brooklyn.


This weeks ALVC class focuses on the Postmodern theme "INTERTEXTUALITY", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 39 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley. 

1. Find a clear definition of Intertextuality and quote it accurately on your blog using the APA referencing system. Use your own words to explain the definition more thoroughly.
A:"The concept of intertextuality reminds us taht each text exists in relation to others. In fact, texts owe more to other texts than to their own makers."

In my opinion, intertextuality means the work can be found a similar one in the history, which could be a photo a shape or a sculpture. Such as Jake and Dinos Chapman's Great Deeds Against the Dead, which used to be a painting by Goya in 1810. As a result, I think intertextuality could equal to "remade", or add some new ideas based on the original work.

           Great Deeds Against the dead 1810 

                Goya

 Great Deeds Against the Dead 1994

Jake and Dinos Chapman

2. Research Wiley's work and write a paragraph that analyzes how we might make sense of his work. Identify intertextuality in Wiley's work.

                                        Prince Tomosso Francesco of Savoy carignano

St. John the Baptist 

                                                             Count Potocki

A:  As the photos show, the similaritys are easy to see, a part of his work are about intertextuality. He uses the same name as the original pieces, and also the shapes are similar. The way he did is completely what I understand about interrextuality. If say Wiley copied the original work, but not, the works are brand new, the color the details and the decorate are totally different from the original pieces. His works I think are great examples for meaning or defination of intertextuality.

3. Wiley's work relates to next weeks Postmodern theme "PLURALISM" . Read page 46 and discuss how the work relates to this theme.

A: To answer this question, we have to know what is pluralism.

First, pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity.
Second, pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference.
Third, pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments.
Fourth, pluralism is based on dialogue. (Diana L. Eck, 1997)

As my understanding, the reason his work relates to pluralism is he mix the different culture together. Such as, the background of each painting (the shape and the figure) looks like the style from Middle east. And the person in his painting is black, but he used culture from western countries. Also the clothes the people are wearing, which must be after 20 centry. However, he use the old culture and the original painting as the background, and remade them as a new work, but use totally different figures. That's why his work relates to pluralism

4. Comment on how Wiley's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview. 

A:
The person in his painting are all black, and a number of his work used old culture as the background. I think this is about colonisation. Maybe he thought western people could get high social class, black people could also do.

A 'cultural hierarchy' defines a framework describing social ranking. Broadly expressed as 'having' or 'not having', or 'upper' or 'lower' 'class'. From Centre Orchestra seats at the Theatre to bogside at a Tractor Pull, a cultural hierarchy tries to define why any given person is more comfortable in some situations than in others.(What is cultural hierarchy?)

The development of a bacterial infection on an individual, as demonstrated by a positive culture. The infected person may have no signs or symptoms of infection while still having the potential to infect others.(The free dictionary)

Globalization is the tendency of businesses, technologies, or philosophies to spread throughout the world, or the process of making this happen. (Globalization)

Stereotypes are generalizations about a group of people whereby we attribute a defined set of characteristics to this group. (Stereotypes)

As the answer of question 3, he mix shapes(which from different parts of the worlds), figures and culture background, and those relates to globalisation.

5. Add some reflective comments of your own, which may add more information that
you have read during your research.

A: After I researched most of his paintings, I found that maybe he is using those paintings to against racial discrimination. Also, he change the clothes from formal to informal, maybe he wants to against the tradition. Most figures of backgrounds look like Middle east.

http://www.cretique.com/archives/4012

http://www.deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=11

Reference List:

1. Chandler D. (2003) Semiotics for Beginners

2. Diana L. Eck (1997) What is Pluralism? The pluralism project.
                http://pluralism.org/pages/pluralism/what_is_pluralism

3. What is cultural hierarchy?
                http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_cultural_hierarchy#ixzz1WPxTAzuf

4. The Free Dictrionary
               http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/colonisation

5. Globalization
               http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/globalization

6. Stereotypes
               http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/stereotypes.htm