Aquatic Life in Art: From Historical Perspectives to Modern Conservation

Human problems are faced faced by Indonesian contemporary visual artists. However, the most typical are the problems faced by contemporary women visual artists, including those faced by Balinese contemporary women visual artists. Other than social problems, their personal problems also arise as women visual artists amidst patriarchal cultural construction. Balinese contemporary women visual artists, like Indonesian contemporary visual artists, are facing social problems and their personal problems as women. But, Balinese contemporary women visual artists also face very strong patriarchal (purusa) cultural ideology. This study aimed at revealing and describing the form of the subject matter of woman’s body as an expression of opposition in the works of visual art of the Balinese contemporary women visual artists; revealing and describing ideologies that operate behind the sexual representation of the Balinese contemporary women visual artists and revealing and describing the contestation of meaning in the ideological sexual representation of Balinese contemporary women visual artists. This study using interpretive qualitative method produced, first, works of Balinese contemporary women artists which have traditional visual elements comprising contour, repetition, rythm, dialect.
 The works of Balinese contemporary women visual artists also have modern visual elements comprising spatial awareness,distortion, stylization, material character, unity, and personal identity. In addition, the works of Balinese contemporary women artists also have post-modern visual elements of trans-aesthetics, dialogism, and disorder. Secondly, the ideologies that operate behind the works of Balinese contemporary visual artists can be classified into three ideologies based on the forms and contents of the works of art. The ideologies are patriarchal ideology that is related to the theme of superiority,phallus symbol, and weak group; feminism ideology that is related to the theme of subordination, equality, and subjectivity construction, and aesthetical ideology concerning with style, which is related to the classification of styles based on time, place, form, technique, and subjject matter. Third, meanings which can be developed from Balinese contemporary women visual artists are the meaning of domestic body and the meaning of open body in the sexual representation of Balinese contemporary women artists. The meaning of domestic body is found in the works of Cok Mas Asiti, Ni Nyoman Sani, and Sutrisni. Sani while the meaning of open body in the works of IGK Murniasih and Nia Kurniati Andika.

Cultural representation in contemporary art is becoming increasingly important in a diverse and interconnected society. This research explores how artists represent and negotiate their cultural identity through works of art. By using a qualitative approach, including content analysis, in-depth interviews, participant observation, and literature study, this research reveals the strategies, challenges, and impacts of cultural representation practices in contemporary art. The findings show that artists use various strategies such as symbol appropriation, personal narratives, as well as cultural criticism and intervention in their works. However, issues such as authenticity, cultural appropriation, stereotypes, and commodification are often challenges faced. On the other hand, cultural representation in art has positive impacts, such as building cross-cultural dialogue, empowering marginalized voices, and enriching the artistic landscape as a whole. This research highlights the role of contemporary art as a vehicle for negotiating cultural identity, exploring diversity, and advancing understanding and appreciation of cultural differences in global society.

This study is aimed at describing three main matters, namely: 1) the representation forms of tradition and local culture dimensions in Yogyakarta contemporary fine arts work representations; 2) the way tradition and local culture dimensions in Yogyakarta contemporary fine art work represented; and 3) factors influencing the strength of tradition and local culture dimensions in the Yogyakarta contemporary fine art work representations as mentioned. This study is a qualitative one with the use of heurmeneutic approach as the main approach underlying the study. The main instrument is the researcher himself, accompanied by the use documentation procedure. The data are in the forms of painting work documentations taken from various exhibition catalogues. The data are analyzed by using the descriptive qualitative technique, containing four steps, namely: data reduction, display, data anlysis, and conclusion making. The results of the study can be described as the following. 1) There is one dominant matter related to the representations of Yogyakarta contemporary fine art representation of the 90s era, that is, the presentation of tradition and Javanese local culture; 2) the deconstructive approach is used to represent the dimensions of tradition and local culture in Yogyakarta contemporary fine arts of the 90s. This approach ends in the use of art representation forms that tend to be critical, metaphorical, and parodical; 3) Factors influencing the strength of these dimensions in Yogyakarta contemporary art representations of the 90s also appear in the 2000s era, that can be divided into two, namely: first, its contact with the international art discourse influences, and second, the Postmodernism paradigm supports that has been widely developing and becoming the current topic in the culture of Indonesian society. Keywords: dimension of tradition, contemporary art, Yogyakarta

The significant ideological and cultural role of public museums in shaping national identity is widely acknowledged. This paper focuses on the roles of Taiwan’s public art museums in generating nationalist narratives that privilege notions of cultural distinctiveness and authenticity in the visual representation of art from Taiwan. Two exhibitions of contemporary Indigenous art provide a platform for critical analysis of the impact of identity politics on the selection, display, and promotion of Taiwanese Indigenous art. Questions of artistic agency are also explored in this paper, demonstrating how Indigenous artists in Taiwan are increasingly interrogating and contesting systems of museological representation which seek to locate or “frame” Indigenous art within an Austronesian nationalist identity narrative. These exhibitions and the artists’ works and observations offer an insight into the complex and shifting interrelationship between national identity politics and the museological representation of art in Taiwan.

Routine experiences of nature in cities can increase personal commitment toward biodiversity conservation

Desdobrando-se sobre a compreensão de que as concepções de ambiente são construídas a partir das experiências de movimento (motricidade), o presente artigo foca na ecomotricidade, compreendida como a inter-ação lúdica e ecológica com a natureza. Dessa forma, o objetivo do artigo é conceituar e contextualizar horizontes da natureza apreendidos a partir de experiências lúdicas (significadas pela alegria/prazer) na natureza, especialmente na medida em que se evidenciam processos de incorporação (naturalização) de preceitos ecosomaestéticos-ambientalmente éticos-ecopolíticos no habitus de movimento. As inferências sobre o tema são contextualizadas a partir de dados coletados em um projeto de pesquisa sobre a ecomotricidade no estado de Sergipe (2014-2017), no qual diferentes métodos (entrevistas; observações diretas em etnografias em movimento; narrativas diversificadas; análise de perfis sociais; análises linguísticas) foram utilizados para compreender as intencionalidades de inter-ação com o meio de indivíduos com vivências lúdicas regulares na natureza, assim como as relações e visões de mundo são (re)construídas a partir dessas vivências. A partir dessa perspectiva analítica, a discussão foca a ecomotricidade na apreensão da natureza, perspectiva específica no âmbito mais amplo das discussões sobre relações ser humano (sociedade)-natureza (mundo), pela qual vislumbra-se considerações do movimento imanente de humanos-e-não-humanos-sendo-com-a-natureza, em oposição a uma visão antropocêntrica de “conexão à natureza”. Entre os principais resultados da pesquisa apresentada, discute-se como os elementos “tempo” e “imersão” se destacam na macroanálise sobre a apreensão de horizontes da natureza a partir da ecomotricidade, sendo também apresentada uma síntese crítica como princípios possivelmente transferíveis (não generalizáveis) da ecomotricidade, vislumbrando contribuir para o debate sobre possibilidades e limitações da incorporação de preceitos ecológicos no habitus de movimento de indivíduos a partir de experiências lúdicas na natureza.

This article analyses the image of the waste picker in contemporary visual art in order to test the extent to which urban modernity can be viewed as a unified critical concept. Focusing on works by Surasi Kusolwong and Santiago Sierra, it examines confrontations between ‘modern’ and ‘non-modern’ sociological, economic and artistic practices within the urban environment. The analysis is located in the context of Bernard Yack’s The Fetishism of Modernities, in which the author teases apart different sociological, political, philosophical and aesthetic developments that are typically homogenised to support a globally coherent vision of modernity. Linking depictions of waste pickers to representations of the chiffonnier in 19th-century painting and literature, the article shows how Kusolwong and Sierra prompt reflection on the relationships between urban dwelling, cleanliness and global economic justice, while undermining a critical tradition that posits the 19th-century western metropolis as the embodiment of a unified concept of modernity.

This chapter builds on Chapters 9 about fashion and Chapter 10 on design, deals with contemporary art and traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, and critically analyses the civilian construction exploitation methods in Brazil, which urgently need to be changed, approaching a mindset on CE and SSE practices. Contemporary art often reflects on the impacts of the take-make-use-dispose-pollute system intertwined with the construction business, which is in sharp contrast with the nature-integrated construction system used by the indigenous peoples in Brazil. Therefore, when contemporary artists are set to analyse the construction works of indigenous communities, they are also considering alternative ways of life and alternative ways to consider the environment than the mainstream Western view. Hence, this chapter will consider the cosmovisions of indigenous communities and the integrated way of indigenous construction and its representation in contemporary Brazilian art, and by doing so, this allows us to reflect on how the indigenous technological knowledge may facilitate SSE and CE practices.

The article deals with verbal-visual representations in the actual practices of Russian artists at the beginning of the 21st century – Pavel Arseniev, Mitya Bezideiny, Semyon Motolyants, Valery Chtak. The author focuses on the favorite motifs of contemporary artists which integrate verbal and visual elements in art. Inspired by images of urban environment and the sphere of everyday life, the followers of conceptualists actively use iso-verbal techniques. The transemiotic zone of the intersection of two languages – verbal and visual – allows the creation of two-level constructions in which verbal and visual languages merge, forming a synthetic text of culture. To understand the specificity of verbal (implicit and explicit) component in contemporary art, as well as the principles of its existence, the author conducts research, revealing the relationship between the creative practice of Russian contemporary art in 2010–2021 and the rhetoric of the era and the different spheres of spiritual culture. The article analyzes the reasons of unexpected appearance of artistic images, motifs, and ideas in verbal and visual representations of contemporary Russian artists, the aspects of intercultural and interdisciplinary interaction between artworks – classical in contemporary, contemporary in classical. Using semiotics, poststructuralism, morphology, iconographic, and historical-comparative approaches the author considers the topos of the city (synthesis of the real and ideal), attributes of scholarship and knowledge (dialogues beyond time), technical utensils and everyday objects in the context of everyday culture and comes to the conclusion that the specificity of verbal-visual representation in contemporary Russian art is determined by the macrocontext of culture, not only domestic but also European as a whole. A study of visual rhetoric in the current practices of Russian artists, 2010–2021, might be an important step in the history of art in the general situation of lack of theoretical understanding of Russian art. The present study reveals new points of view in the analysis of verbal and visual representations of contemporary Russian artists, as well as actual cultural policy, which may serve as a basis for further theoretical developments in this area. The positions, conclusions, and materials of the article can be used for contemporary interpretation of Russian art, in the development of lecture and training programs, and in the creation of exhibition projects.

There is empirical evidence suggesting a positive link between direct experiences in nature and people’s environmental attitudes (EA) and behaviors (EB). This has led researchers to encourage more frequent contact with nature, especially during childhood, as a way of increasing pro-environmentalism (i.e., pro-EA and pro-EB). However, the association between experiences in nature and EA/EB is complex, and specific guidelines for people’s everyday contact with nature cannot be provided. This article offers an overview of the research conducted until know about the relation between experiences in nature and pro-environmentalism, and opens up new inquiries for future research. We begin with an introduction to people’s current tendency toward an alienation from the natural world and set out the objectives of the article. It is followed by three main sections. The first one reports on what experiences in nature refer to, how and where they occur. The second section describes the different approaches used to investigate and interpret the experiences in nature-EA and EB relation. The last section provides suggestions for future research. We close by making some final remarks about the importance of (re)stablishing a greater interaction with nature for people’s pro-EA and EB.

SummaryBy analysing the careers of internationally recognized artists from Lithuania and the relationship between Lithuanian contemporary artists and art galleries and museums, the author explores the challenges faced by today’s artists and hypothetically underlines the principles that could be useful for them in seeking to enter into the global art scene.The essay analyses the lack of cooperation between artists and galleries, and the representation of artists in Lithuanian museums, which is considered to be the base of a contemporary artist’s career. The essay assesses the influence of the main participants in the art market upon artists’ careers, by investigating the Lithuanian art market’s position after the restoration of independence in 1990. Twenty Lithuanian artists, major galleries or representatives of museums (such as the National Art Gallery and the MO Museum, formerly known as the Modern Art Centre) were interviewed for the purposes of this study.This examination of the Lithuanian art market reveals the peculiarities that artists have encountered, and could help international art market players to better understand the problems that the Lithuanian art market is facing. The author seeks to identify the main factors helping artists to navigate the global art scene and the global art market.

Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) have inhabited coastal areas, the seas, and remote islands for millennia, and developed place-based traditional ancestral knowledge and diversified livelihoods associated with the biocultural use of marine and coastal ecosystems. Through their cultural traditions, customary wise practices, and holistic approaches to observe, monitor, understand, and appreciate the Natural World, IPLCs have been preserving, managing, and sustainably using seascapes and coastal landscapes, which has been essential for biodiversity conservation. The international community has more than ever recognized the central role of IPLCs in the conservation of biodiversity-rich ecosystems, in particular, for the achievement of the Global Biodiversity Targets determined by the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to tackle biodiversity loss. However, much remains to be done to fully recognize and protect at national levels IPLCs’ Traditional Biodiversity Knowledge (TBK), ways of life, and their internationally recognized rights to inhabit, own, manage and govern traditional lands, territories, and waters, which are increasingly threatened. At the 2018 4th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity held in Montréal, Canada, eight themed working groups critically discussed progress to date and barriers that have prevented the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets agreed for the period 2011–2020, and priority actions for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Discussions in the “Application of Biodiversity Knowledge” working group focused on Targets 11 and 18 and the equal valuation of diverse Biodiversity Knowledge Systems (BKS). This Perspective Paper summarizes the 10 Priority Actions identified for a holistic biodiversity conservation, gender equality and human rights-based approach that strengthens the role of IPLCs as biodiversity conservation decision-makers and managers at national and international levels. Furthermore, the Perspective proposes a measurable Target 18 post-2020 and discusses actions to advance the recognition of community-based alternative conservation schemes and TBK to ensure the long-lasting conservation, customary biocultural use, and sustainable multi-functional management of nature around the globe.

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we argue that the concept of ‘species’ should not be the main focus of research and policies in biodiversity conservation. Diversity is important at all levels of life: within species as well as among them and within and among ecosystems. First, we give a brief overview of the debate about the necessity to find a unified concept of ‘species’. In this, we side with Charles Darwin, who insisted that no strict definition could be given to this term, which is ultimately a matter of arbitrary and pragmatic human language. This did not worry Darwin, and neither should it concern biologists or ecologists today. Darwin's great discovery relied on a recognition of the many differences within species, not on their similarities. Next, we argue that the focus on species and the neglect of other diversity measures in the conservation discourse have led to problems in public perception of—and policies on—conservation and biodiversity. In areas with few species, intraspecific diversity is often of utmost importance to ecosystem processes and functions, and such regions may provide the environmental conditions that enable and promote the diversification of specialised subgroups in the absence (or reduction) of interspecific competition. We give some examples of these processes based on research in marine and freshwater ecosystems, focusing on Iceland and the subarctic region. Finally, we refer to alternative, emerging methodologies of assessing ecosystem health which go beyond the quantitative method of counting species and subspecies and instead emphasise more complex phenomena such as relations, interactions and processes. These approaches, we suggest, are consistent with the philosophical tradition called ‘process ontology’, and we argue that both ecological research and conservation policy can benefit from a process philosophical perspective. Finally, we briefly discuss our motivations for finding this topic to be of importance.

Reviewed by: Xu Bing and Contemporary Chinese Art: Cultural and Philosophical Reflections ed. by Hsingyuan Tsao and Roger T. Ames Peggy Wang Xu Bing and Contemporary Chinese Art: Cultural and Philosophical Reflections. Edited by Hsingyuan Tsao and Roger T. Ames. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011. Pp. xxiv + 237. Paper $24.95, ISBN 9781438437903. Xu Bing ranks among the most recognized contemporary Chinese artists in the world today. His lifelong interest in word and image paired with his experiences as part of the Chinese diaspora have made him the subject of numerous publications dedicated to exploring culture and communication. With Xu Bing and Contemporary Chinese Art, editors Hsingyuan Tsao and Roger T. Ames bring a welcome addition to this corpus. Compiling seven essays from scholars of art history and philosophy, this volume [End Page 446] in the SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture offers a remarkable range of approaches for thinking about not only Xu Bing's work but also contemporary art and culture at large. In their introduction, the editors foreground the question "How Chinese is contemporary Chinese art?" Reminiscent of 1990s debates over hierarchies in the global art world, this raising of East-West power dynamics initially prompts knee-jerk reactions against the polemic of cultural purity. However, with its refreshing breadth of methodologies, the volume offers a range of productive modes for thinking about differences within uneven global power relations. Leading with Hsingyuan Tsao's essay, the book frames the question of Chineseness within two larger problems: how contemporary Chinese art has been received globally and how signs of traditional Chinese culture have been interpreted within these works. Tsao traces the differences in Xu Bing's adoption of Western art ideas before and after his move to New York in 1989. While she sees his latter work as intercultural, she argues that Xu, like other celebrated diaspora artists, has "been accepted in the West as a part of difference, not as a part of influence" (p. 28). The possibility of countering this imbalance takes a regional turn with Kazuko KamedaMadar's essay, in which she maps out the historical transmission of Chinese scripts and Confucian and Daoist cosmologies into Korea and Japan. By tracing the shared parent language in Xu's 2000 interactive installation Shen Wai Shen, she argues that this emphasis could be the basis for a "sociopolitical reconciliation" for an East Asian alliance, which could be drafted to counter Euro-American power. The final essay by Jerome Silbergeld offers an interesting counterpoint to these assertions of place-based classifications as he reads Xu Bing's works as "neither East nor West" and instead locates the artist alongside painters and filmmakers who produce work that "creates and operates in a world of its own" (p. 195). Seen all together, the authors' distinct positions interrogate and model the challenges of defining cultural identity. Positioning Richard Vinograd's essay alongside Hsingyuan Tsao's, for example, allows for instructive approaches to context and category. While Vinograd also considers Chinese artists' strategies for "re-engagement with the international art world" (p. 97), he focuses on the artistic preoccupation with language and the natural world. Mining "nature" for its numerous associations, from land art to bio-art and strategies of camouflage, Vinograd examines how language is often denied legibility and familiarity in these seemingly "natural" mediums and contexts. Even while he acknowledges the deep cultural practices that run through diaspora artists' works, the author studies Xu Bing alongside artists working inside China with similar tactics, such as Qiu Zhijie, Huang Yan, and Song Dong. His exploration of the various facets of nature offers a fruitful theme for thinking through Xu's work that doesn't rely on such an explicit inside/outside approach. While noting the problems of contemporary interpretations of Xu Bing's work, each author also grapples with an even more fundamental question when approaching text and image: where does meaning come from? Roger T. Ames, for example, expounds on distinctions between Anglo-European and Chinese concepts of creation [End Page 447] that continue to hold over to today, which in turn may account for differences in how audiences...

Reviewed by: Biographical Index of Artists in Canada Anna Hudson (bio) Evelyn de Rostaing McMann. Biographical Index of Artists in Canada University of Toronto Press. xviii, 452. $85.00 A random search for the names of Canadian artists - historical and contemporary, well known and obscure - quickly confirms that Evelyn McMann's Biographical Index of Artists in Canada is comprehensive. The index (published posthumously) is a quick and cursory guide to artists with whom a researcher is otherwise unfamiliar. McMann's Biographical Index of Artists in Canada is the fourth in a series of indices she produced since the early 1980s. All but one of these publications, Canadian Who's Who. Index 1898-1984: Incorporating Canadian Men and Women of the Time, provides historical records of the fine arts in Canada. McMann's Royal Canadian Academy of Arts: Exhibitions and Members, 1880-1979 (reprinted in 1997) and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Formerly Art Association of Montreal: Spring Exhibition, 1880-1970 are staples in the Canadian curatorial world. The author's tailoring of the books to Canadian collectors, dealers, gallery staff, and - arguably less so - to art [End Page 349] historians is effective. Both volumes provide a handy compilation of the titles of exhibited works with each artist's name. McMann positions the two volumes as a comprehensive record of 'the entire field of the visual arts [as] is represented in the Membership and the exhibitions; painters, sculptors, architects, engravers, etchers, graphic artists, industrial, stained glass and theatrical designers, tapestry weavers, photographers and film makers.' Painters, nevertheless, are best represented. The volumes reconfirm the canon - the history of painting that still defines the history of art in Canada. McMann extended her representation of artists in Canada with the Biographical Index. The question is: How far? A search for the names of a random handful of artists might be the best way to demonstrate the parameters of McMann's Biographical Index. Zacharias Kunuk, Jeff Thomas, Norman McLaren, James Hill, George Lonn, H.N. McEvoy, James Hoch, Robert Clow Todd, Paraskeva Clark, and Kosso Eloul are among the artists whose work I happen to be researching. The first two artists - Kunuk and Thomas - are of Aboriginal ancestry. Kunuk, the director of the feature-length film Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) and an internationally recognized contemporary Inuit artist, does not appear in the book. Some of his predecessors do, like Kenojuak Ashevak. The names of a few well-known Inuit artists born prior to the 1950s are sparsely listed through the index with their 'E' (disc) numbers and alternate names. As such, McMann provides a compromised view of Inuit art, which she under-supports by a grossly inadequate 'Works Cited.' Standard specialized sources for information on Inuit artists (including the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Inuit Artist indices) are not included. A search for Jeff Thomas, a First Nations artist who is increasingly active in the Canadian museum world, reveals a similar problem. Thomas is not listed, but his more famous predecessor Norval Morrisseau is - if only because his name (like the Inuit artists listed by McMann) happens to have been published previously in mainstream biographical sources. The index is conspicuously skewed to non-Aboriginal artists in general and, as a result, to non-Aboriginal readers. If McMann's cultural focus is symptomatic of her dependence on a narrow range of published sources, then her Biographical Index might also limit the representation of artists working in varied media. Ostensibly, her fine arts lens (capturing painting, sculpture, and drawing) played into her selective representation of Aboriginal artists. Do Canada's non-Aboriginal filmmakers and commercial artists suffer the same fate? McMann includes the National Film Board's Norman McLaren as an animator, painter, printmaker, and sculptor. She also lists James Hill, whose commercial work ruled women's magazines of the late 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s. He is described only as a painter, however, as is George Lonn, whose portraits illustrated newspapers, magazines, and books during the same decades. [End Page 350] McMann's publication skirts the strength of these artists' contribution to Canadian visual culture. A couple of further searches for fine artists whose contributions sit squarely within the Canadian art canon show...