UNIT 2 STUDIO ARTS - POWER TO THE PEOPLE – ACCA
OUTCOME 2 – IDEAS AND STYLES IN ARTWORKS
Analyse and discuss the ways in which artists from different times and cultures have created
aesthetic qualities in artworks, communicated ideas and developed styles.
Complete the following seven tasks and submit them for assessment:
1. Visit the exhibition and complete the homework questions.
2. Find and place images of Yves Klein’s A Leap Into The Void and one work of your choice
from Power to the People and annotate each image with the artist’s name, the title of the
work, the materials used to create the work and the year the work was made.
3. identify and discuss art elements and, where appropriate, other principles in Yves Klein’s
A Leap Into The Void and one work of your choice from Power to the People;
4. identify and discuss signs, symbols and/or images used in Yves Klein’s A Leap Into The
Void and one work of your choice from Power to the People for their implied meaning;
5. compare and contrast ways in which art elements and, where appropriate, other
principles have been used to produce aesthetic qualities, communicate ideas and develop
skills in Yves Klein’s A Leap Into The Void and one work of your choice from Power to the
People; Refer to information sheet about conceptual art.
6. evaluate the use of art elements and signs, symbols and/or images to create aesthetic
qualities, communicate ideas and develop styles in Yves Klein’s A Leap Into The Void and
one work of your choice from Power to the People; Refer to information sheet about
conceptual art to discuss style.
7. use appropriate art terminology and research a range of references;
8. develop and present a discussion that uses appropriate art language and references of
visual material.
BACKGROUND TO THE EXHIBITION
The late 1960s saw the rise of 'people power'. This movement to community involvement and selfdetermination had its political and social motivations shaped by events like the Vietnam war and
the popular up-risings in Paris and elsewhere. Art responded by breaking down established
hierarchies. Actions, happenings and interactive audience projects replaced the precious and
discrete art object to create dynamic situations and installations.
Now contemporary artists are revisiting, revising and revitalising these strategies in new art that
seeks a reconsideration of the object and an active, participatory audience. Through the
presentation of works from over 17 Australian and international artists, Power to the People:
Contemporary Conceptualism and the Object in Art, focuses on contemporary practices that
demonstrate a move away from the art ‘object’ into more performative, documentative, research
and participatory modes of art making.
Curated by Hannah Mathews, the exhibition celebrates the role of the audience within this
expanded field of art making. In reconsidering the potentials for art outside the autonomous object,
the exhibiting artists open up the conventional object/subject relationship to make room for the
viewer to play a more performative role in the exhibition. This political shift, from precious object to
engagement, implicates the audience more strongly in the work itself: art that continues to be
fuelled by the power of the people.
Exhibiting artists:
Peter Friedl, Dora García, Mario Garcia Torres, Goldin+Senneby, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Lucas Ihlein & Ian
Milliss, Natasha Johns-Messenger, Fiona Macdonald, Ján Mančuška, Jonathan Monk, Olaf Nicolai, Roman
Ondák, Kirsten Pieroth, Seth Price, Stuart Ringholt, Matthew Shannon, Derek Sullivan and the Post project