Visual Influence Wallinger and Warhol
Visual Influence in art is the power that a particular image or object, in fact any aesthetic stimulus has to affect an individual artist: affecting indirectly and going unnoticed but playing an important part in the infrastructure of a work of art. Mark Wallinger had been type cased as the quintessential British artist, a witty ingenious satirist of late twentieth century Britishness, with works of art such as Royal Ascot [1994] (A video installation for four monitors) and ¡¥A Real Work Of Art¡¦ [1994] which got him nominated for the [1995] turner prize: Wallinger also represented his country at the British Pavilion. ... What inspired Mark Wallinger to create this visually powerful and almost disturbing installation that includes sculpture, photography and video. When I first viewed the work (in projected video form, not the entire installation) at the Tate Modern, London, I couldn¡¦t help but associate the electric chair imagery with Andy Warhol¡¦s ¡§Electric Chair¡¨ painting, [1963] first seen by the public in Paris alongside the ¡§Dogs of Birmingham¡¨ paintings, car wrecks and suicide paintings; All part of his Death in America Exhibition, [1963]. Warhol grew up in America where the electric chair was frequently used in certain states for execution. ... Warhol liked the idea of mass production and I think he tried his best to imitate its qualities in his work. ... In such bright reds and intense dark blues, hardly sympathetic to the subject but extremely appealing ¡V a far cry from Wallinger¡¦s nearly monochromatic and almost sterile installation. ... This has been made to Wallinger¡¦s vitruvian dimensions. ... A figure in a white shirt, black tie and bare feet is ¡§ Blind Faith¡¨ a persona Wallinger first used in ¡§Angel¡¨ video installation [1997]. ... The footage was shot in one take like most of Wallinger¡¦s work. ... Both Wallinger¡¦s and Warhol¡¦s works are for me somewhere between concept and mere object.