Cedric Tai's Blog

I just submitted this with a DVD of my work just from this semester.

Table of Contents:

• Experimental Film Class – “Viewing Distance” – Feedback loop video with “An Inconvinient Truth” superimposed into the screen, the folder contains a 2-minute long mockup.



• Interim Show

• “The Speed of Learning” Counter, hand-made book – 5 photographs and two movies, one shows the process of making the work.
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• “Today” 365 pages, metal – 5 photographs of the work while it was in the show, 5 specific dates in JPG form, the actual PDF itself and some photographs of the process of making the work.













• April 5^th – An example of one of the subversive philosophical statements
• August 5^th – An example of one of the reflections talking about something profound that happens on an ‘everyday’ level
• December 5^th – An example of one of the entries that was inspired by the trip to Morocco, this particular quote written in Arabic by one of my hosts reads along the lines “The secret is not the house, but the owner of the house” which is a statement about speaking with confidence.
• January 5^th – Embedded on this date is another artwork which is an ironic take on the published book “What We Want is Free” which was scanned, uploaded onto the internet and made into a link to be downloaded for free illegally. Title of the work “What We Want is Free”, link to a download of the book “What We Want is Free.”
• May 5^th – An example of one of the statements meant to trigger an action, in this case, that date is my birthday.
  
• Other



• Art inspired by Morocco – Photos of experiments that may be resolved into future artworks, including a remaking of the ceramic tiles found in our hosts’ home in Morocco to be re-made out of cement and installed either in my own home or outdoors. Photo Number 27 is one of many sand sculpture photographs that I found to be very captivating.
• Artwork I helped photograph - Self-explanatory
• Experimenting with composers from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland – I have been in talks with Thom Norman about collaborating to create a new language for both of us to work with, possibly in conjunction with an Opera that he and his friends are working on. I would be providing a visual component. The video included is an experiment where people from the audience would be allowed to grab chips and beers from a shopping cart which is rigged to a mouse that when it moves conducts the musicians that are playing the work. The digital videos are possible programs that will be used for the purpose of triggering a certain way that the musicians will be led.
• Quick Quink Experiments - experiments on Plexiglas, paper, with tape, with cardboard, testing different color and densities with different materials.
  
• Shape and Form Experiments – Some works out of cardboard that I used to try out some ideas I had about different forms that interested me.
• Video for BRIEF – “Silence” is a video of the word drawing being written with water on a metal sieve that disappears when I blow on it, it was created for the assignment that month which was to create a work using a medium we are unfamiliar with under the theme “Calm”, I made this ephemeral work which was then shown in Gabriel Lueng’s one day video exhibition.
  
• Paintings and Prints
• 50 – “Telephone” ink, spraypaint, silkscreen and acrylic paint on acrylic plastic
• 66 – “Nature’s Paranoia” ink, spraypaint, silkscreen and acrylic paint on acrylic plastic
• 67 – “The Upside of Irrationality” Lithograph print, Ink
• 68 – “Who Belongs to Glasgow” Lithograph print, Ink
• 70 – “Predictably Irrational” Lithograph print, Ink
• Paintings as thank you gifts
• 28 - Hassan Filke – Marrakesh
• 53 – Huda Murabit - Tangier
• 54 – Shema – Fez
  
• Proposal for Show at Studio 41 – Self explanatory
  
• Solo Show – Concept Structure Torture Survival Title
• “Drawing Machine inspired by Ross Byers with troubleshooting by Alan Keane” bike tire, cardboard, wood, paper cones, wood dust, vibrating toothbrushes (included are mockups, still images and video documentation) This is a kinetic work that was a metaphor for an art practice that always comes back to itself, I was surprised that the piece even functioned! Also Karla Black stole my sawdust.
• “January 15^th, 2012” 10 minute video. This work was to comment on the positive aspect of ‘community’ within an artist’s practice that involves working with other people and helping each other out. This is actually two works screened side by side. The other video “Night Bus” is taken from the inside of a darkened First bus as I was its only passenger as it went from nearby Glasgow School of Art to where I lived. The countdown is meant to make the viewer believe that the ‘art’ will start soon, when actually it is a piece itself, a journey, this video is 10 minutes long.
• “Prepared for the Moment” 10 minute presentation, re-staged for recording purposes. I recount a past printmaking project and talk about if I thought the project worked or if it didn’t. In the end the fact that I used the prints as fliers for the show worked well and creating a performance out of a miniature artist talk was meant to comment on how artists talk about their work and present it to an audience, ironically, although it is very informational, I am mostly talking about happiness which is coldly referenced but not felt.
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• “The Art Prize” Settlers of Catan, customized board, chairs, players, money. This was done in the spirit of Fluxus games meeting a sociological experiment. I invited two artists, one a past MFA grad and the other a musician that I am collaborating with, as well as two people from the couchsurfing community in Glasgow. I asked two of the players (Alex who hosted Rachel and I in our first week in Glasgow and Jason Mathis) to teach the other two players (Thom Norman and a stranger who I invited through the couchsurfing website) how to play the game. There was a practice round and I used a computer program to fairly distribute the odds across the board. In the final game, money would be given to the winner (in four equal amounts hidden in four envelopes to suggest that they could either share the winnings or keep it all for themselves) however they would be able to decide on any rules. When they started Jason suggested that it wouldn’t be necessary to use the computer program and they ‘randomized’ the board themselves. I catered to whenever they needed food or drink until the game ended. At one point during the game everyone thought that something may be going on since the winnings were divided up and everyone except for Jason said that they would probably split the winnings. Jason ended up winning and kept the money, but he gave the other players a choice. He said that they could either take the envelope themselves or take one of his comics that he had just finished printing (this was definitely not planned as part of my art piece, but I found it fascinating that not only did he keep the money, but he advertised his own artwork as well). Everyone happily took his artwork (which was valued less than the 5 pounds that was in the envelope) and later talked with each other about the cultural capital that art has and how it swayed their decision not to take the money. My initial intent was to see if the players would internalize the competitive spirit of the game, much I find is similar to how artists are trained to think of the profession as a competitive one as well, even though this is a cultural construction. In the end, the results of this interactive work went far better than I expected.
  
• “Today” 365 pages, plastic holder – Read its description in the ‘Description of Works’ section of the DVD, there are subtle differences between this piece and what I submitted to the Interim show. For one, an entire month was replaced since I had referenced Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies for an entire month. Also I updated it to reflect my travels to Oban as well as Morocco. Also this piece may have worked the best in this environment as it was overlooked easily as it was on display in a domestic space. Each day the calendar was updated by ripping off the past days’ page so that the calendar would function as a real calendar.

Works Cited

Albus, Anita. The art of arts: rediscovering painting. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Print.

Ariely, Dan. Predictably irrational: the hidden forces that shape our decisions. New York, NY: Harper, 2008. Print.

Bishop, Claire. Participation. London: Whitechapel ;, 2006. Print.

Bourdieu, Pierre, and Hans Haacke. Free exchange. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1995. Print.

Bruce, Katie, and Victoria Hollows. Towards an engaged gallery: contemporary art and human rights : GoMA's social justice programmes. Glasgow: Culture & Sport Glasgow (Museums), 2007. Print.

BuÃàchler, Pavel. Decadent: public art : contentious term and contested practice. Glasgow: Foulis Press, 1997. Print.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow. S.l.: Harpercollins, 1991. Print.

Deller, Jeremy. Folk archive: contemporary popular art from the UK. London: Book Works, 2005. Print.

Edward, Mary. Who belongs to Glasgow?. Glasgow: Glasgow City Libraries, 1993. Print.

Fletcher, Harrell, Miranda July, Julia Wilson, Laura Lark, and Jacinda Russell. Learning to love you more. Munich: Prestel, 2007. Print.

Gray, Alasdair. Lanark: a life in four books. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2007. Print.

Hooks, Bell. Teaching community: a pedagogy of hope. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.

How To Draw a Bunny. Dir. John Walter. Perf. Ray Johnson, Christo, Jeanne-Claude, Chuck Close, Frances Beatty, . Palm Pictures LLC, 2002. DVD.

Johnson, Steven. Where good ideas come from: the natural history of innovation. New York: Riverhead Books, 2010. Print.

Mauss, Marcel. The gift: forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies. New York: Norton, 1967. Print.

Merewether, Charles. The archive. London: Whitechapel ;, 2006. Print.

Purves, Ted. What we want is free: generosity and exchange in recent art. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005. Print.

Radical Culture Research Collective. "A Very Short Critique of Relational Aesthetics." Transform.eipcp.net 1 (2007): n. pag. Correspondence. Web. 29 Nov. 2007.

Ryan, David. Talking painting: dialogues with twelve contemporary abstract painters. London: Routledge, 2002. Print.

Chappell, Duncan. "The Book as Object." Core Research Skills for Postgraduates: Archives and Historical Resources. Glasgow School of Art. Glasgow School of Art Library, Glasgow. 19 Oct. 2011. Lecture.

Davis, Glyn. "The Politics of the Archive." Core Research Skills for Postgraduates: Archives and Historical Resources. Glasgow School of Art. PG Studies Department Offices, Glasgow. 12 Oct. 2011. Lecture.

Tierney, John. "A New Gauge to See What’s Beyond Happiness." New York Times 17 May 2011, New York Edition ed., sec. Findings: D2. Print.