FUNCTION OF THE AUTHOR
Celia Lury, “Contemplating a self-portrait as a pharmacist, a trade mark style of doing art and science”, Theory culture and society 2005
Celia Lury works in the department of sociology at the University of London. She regularly writes articles and has written a number of books.
“Becoming a brand name is an important part of life. It’s the world we live in.” This is the quote by Damien Hirst that introduces the essay by Celia Lury. She discusses how the, function of the author has changed today. Where is the author?
“Death of the author”, the author no longer has authority over the work. Intervention no longer matters. In other words, the creator has no control over how the work is read. This is a “response to the world we live in (94)”, says Hirst.
The author function has been replaced by the brand as in the case of Damien Hirst. A brand name now helps our understanding of art, “creativity invention and discovery” (106).
Damien Hirst is a self branding exercise.
The author now sits outside of his work. Hirst's spot paintings are made by assistants. The dots are all the same size, so are the gaps. The paint is the same. He is not concerned with originality; he is concerned with the use of his name as a brand or trademark. He is a director, a scientist, “a pharmacist” (100).
Although it could be said that nothing is new, we still strive for originality. Art seems to now be original in its placement (conceptually), not so much in its form. An artist now is creating a new way of looking at an old idea. Similarities here can be drawn with the pharmaceutical industry. When marketing a new heartburn medicine, Gaviscon, the market was saturated. The solution was by “inventing a new problem and offering a new solution (100)”.
“In physics, you know, if they can’t find the answer they want, they change the question. As long as you’re prepared to do that … there’s nothing you can’t do.’ (107)
Author function is being replaced by brand loyalty as Lury points out regarding the practice of Damien Hirst. This is an interesting point and one that we as artists should take note of. “Consumption of creative goods, like all goods, depends on ‘tastes’”1, and in the twenty first century those tastes are influenced by brand loyalty.

1. Elizabeth Currid, ‘The economics of a good party: social mechanics and the legitimization of art/culture, journal of economics and finance.vol 31.no 3 fall 2007

ART PRACTISE IN AOTEAROA
Tze Ming Mok, ‘Race You There’ Landfall 208, Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2004 (November)

Tze Ming Mok is a New Zealand political writer of Chinese decent. Her articles and blogs provide thought provoking comment on minority cultures and racial attitudes of mainstream middle New Zealand. In this article written for Landfall in 2004 she draws on personal experience of being an Asian non-Maori in Aotearoa. Mok provides personal anecdotes, relates experiences and incidents that resonated with her. Racial Marches, marriages of convince for politicians, Hikois, National Front protests are used as background. Where are you from? She’s asked time and time again.
Does the bystander effect highlight group prejudice or is it generalising the actions of a few individuals. A National Front member attacks Chi Pung in a violent race motivated attack. Bystanders ignored the Christchurch student for twenty minutes.
An anti-race march is organised as a result. Chi Pung “boycotted the very march she took the fall for (23)”. Pung believed that the root of white aggression was the failure for white s to see themselves as migrants. It seems “anti-racism is not as black and white (23)” as one might expect. “Fake visas are being sold by the leader of a Maori sovereignty group. What do they entitle? The ability to stay in New Zealand because of tribal affiliations. It’s a rip off of course, but the idea is not new. “The key for asserting migrant rights to belong in New Zealand is for all newcomers to see their presence as an entry by treaty”(23). This is why Pung boycotted the march; it seems “Pung had placed her finger on the trigger point (23)”.
New Zealand is ever changing. Whether acknowledged or not these changing elements work to inform the practice in which an artist engages, shaping their concerns in a direct or indirect manner. Mok writes with a certain biased, but she is able to expose larger under laying questions and issues. We are still working within a colonial mindset within middle New Zealand. But as Mok points out this is changing as the country responds to time and place. When something will “rise from the ashes of majorities and minorities (18)” and there will no longer be a dominant white population.