Week 2: Breaking the rules: 5 Artists who Broke the Rules

1. Megumi Igarashi

   Megumi Igarashi is a Japanese sculpture and manga artist. She is known for her works of the female genitalia. Her reason for doing this is to demystify the female genitals in Japan as she considers it to be "overly-hidden" in comparison to phallic imagery. She further explained that she had never seen other women's genitalia growing up and thought her vulva looked abnormal. After receiving numerous criticism and backlash on her mold of her vulva, she decided that she should promote healthy body image amongst women. 

   Among many of her works, including comics, a chandelier and necklaces all based on the female vulva, her most controversial work would be the kayak in the picture above. What makes this kayak so controversial is that it is based on a 3D scan of her vulva and she shared the 3D data of the kayak to donors who contributed over ¥3,000, these donations are the funds she used to pay for this project. The story behind why she made this kayak was because she wanted to make something larger that would be hard for the authorities to take after her recent police raid, which resulted in many of her works to be confiscated.

   Megumi Igarashi broke the rules as she did not follow the norm and managed to challenge Japan's societal views.

2. Marcel Duchamp

   Marcel Duchamp is a painter, sculptor, chess player and writer whose work is associated with cubism, conceptual art and Dada.

Fountain, 1917

    His work, Fountain, consisted of a standard urinal created a huge controversy. He bought a urinal from a sanitary ware supplier and submitted it later as an artwork by ‘R. Mutt’ to the newly established Society of Independent Artists. However, it was rejected by the committee despite rules stating that all works of members would be accepted. 

   Marcel Duchamp broke the rules as art works submitted are typically made by the artist but he decided to think out side the box and challenge society by submitting something that he bought from an everyday supply shop.

3.  Robert Rauschenberg

White Painting, 1951

   Robert Rauschenberg was an American painter and graphic artist.

   "White Paintings" consists of a different number of modular panels—there are one-, two-, three-, four-, and seven-panel iterations, which are completely painted white. Robert Rauschenberg explained that this work was made to create purity, as though as it simply came to the world in this form, untouched by human's hands.

   Typically, paintings have a main object in it, however Robert Rauschenberg broke this rule and created this famous piece which has no object whatsoever and is completely blank.

4. Banksy

Cardinal Sin

   Banksy is an England-based graffiti artist who's identity is unknown. Banksy is also a political activist and film director

  Cardinal Sin is a bust with its face sawn off and replaced by blank tiles, mimicking the pixelated censoring of faces of suspected criminals one would see on screen or in a newspaper photograph. Banksy takes a jab at the catholic church, namely at priests involved in child abuse scandals.

"The statue? I guess you could call it a Christmas present. At this time of year it's easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity - the lies, the corruption, the abuse." -Banksy 

Banksy broke the rules by merging an old traditional bust with a modern style of work, which grabs hold of people's attention and captivates them. Banksy's work is also very controversial and is a loud mouth in the quietest way possible.

5. Frida Kahlo

Few Small Nips, 1935

    Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter. She suffered lifelong health problems, many of which were caused by a traffic accident she survived as a teenager. Recovering from her injuries isolated her from other people, and this isolation influenced her works, many of which are self-portraits.

   "Few Small Nips" was made for Frida Kahlo to project her pain of sorrow and anger from being broken-hearted by her husband's affair with her sister. As her pain was too great for her to depict, she projected it on to another woman's misfortune. The violent deed makes symbolic reference to Frida's own mental state and her own emotional injuries. Kahlo confided in a friend that she sympathised with the dead woman since she herself felt "murdered by life".

    Frida Kahlo's ideology in her works were very controversial during her time as her art deals with conception, pregnancy, abortion and gender roles in an unusually frank and open manner, making them political statements and women have not generally felt free to address such personal subjects so publicly. Her works also have surrealism qualities in them, making them different and breaking the rules in art during her time.