Saturday 17 May 2008
Saturday 3 May 2008
Fine Art Statement 2008
Industrial machinery has an obvious mechanical function that can overshadow their machine aesthetic. The mill machines flaunt a functional, yet artistic production, revealing the design to be based on more than mathematical and scientific principles, taking on architectural considerations of space, volume, texture, materials, light and so forth. However I do not present my work as a mechanical form to represent the machine’s functional or intrinsic meaning and the work shies away from any social commentary on the industrial decline, particularly in the North. Furthermore it is not an addition to the critique on modern optimism in technological progress. The found objects and clay-work serves to address and contemplate the increasing variety of non-traditional forms found within today’s art world.
The clay-work has been primitively built and is devoid of any utilitarian purpose. Consequently performing an Aristotelian function, as the art audience is cathartically released from the pressures of an increasingly sophisticated and technological age. This psychological value is created through the work’s denunciation of technology and rejection of contemporary provocative art themes. The work’s ephemeral and unfinished quality, created through the use of unfired mud clay, wood and obsolete mill parts, creates an essential humanist quality that demystifies the artwork and helps incorporate the piece into an understandable and immediate language.
The cracks that appear after the clay has dried ruminates Duchamp’s belief in the importance of the ‘role of the accident’ in an artwork’s creation. Whilst the medium’s ductile pliability also acknowledges the artist’s personal style, their patte (‘paw’), which references traditional notions of authenticity and originality. However the work’s obvious compositional association to industrial machinery somewhat abstractly attaches the work’s ‘aura’ to the idea of reproducible forms.
The location of the exhibition in Armley Mills furthered the work, as I then wanted to create a completely disparate mechanical idiom, an ‘a-mechanical’ sculpture. The abandonment of the factory parts for clay and the final decision to not paint a black matte finish gives the installation of these artworks within an old industrial environment even more impact. The anti-functional aesthetic of the work emphasises the appropriation of the wheel, handle and cog forms. The strong symbolism between the work and the mechanical machines outside the gallery space almost allow the clay to have a sense of movement and to seemingly possess a mechanical function.
The clay-work has been primitively built and is devoid of any utilitarian purpose. Consequently performing an Aristotelian function, as the art audience is cathartically released from the pressures of an increasingly sophisticated and technological age. This psychological value is created through the work’s denunciation of technology and rejection of contemporary provocative art themes. The work’s ephemeral and unfinished quality, created through the use of unfired mud clay, wood and obsolete mill parts, creates an essential humanist quality that demystifies the artwork and helps incorporate the piece into an understandable and immediate language.
The cracks that appear after the clay has dried ruminates Duchamp’s belief in the importance of the ‘role of the accident’ in an artwork’s creation. Whilst the medium’s ductile pliability also acknowledges the artist’s personal style, their patte (‘paw’), which references traditional notions of authenticity and originality. However the work’s obvious compositional association to industrial machinery somewhat abstractly attaches the work’s ‘aura’ to the idea of reproducible forms.
The location of the exhibition in Armley Mills furthered the work, as I then wanted to create a completely disparate mechanical idiom, an ‘a-mechanical’ sculpture. The abandonment of the factory parts for clay and the final decision to not paint a black matte finish gives the installation of these artworks within an old industrial environment even more impact. The anti-functional aesthetic of the work emphasises the appropriation of the wheel, handle and cog forms. The strong symbolism between the work and the mechanical machines outside the gallery space almost allow the clay to have a sense of movement and to seemingly possess a mechanical function.
Thursday 17 April 2008
Sunday 6 April 2008
InDesign Course
InDesign Course, 31st March-4th April
Over the Easter holidays I took an InDesign course at the London College of Communication, as I have volunteered to create and design my exhibition group's catalogue. We are getting a special discount from the printing company because Catherine dates the boss' son but that is the limit of the help. This is the information for the layout:
Size- 148.5 x 105 mm. (A6) Portrait. Use Indesign if possible (though said if problem can use another) All images cmyk, 300 DPI (300 DPI- he said if possible- nearest) Colours- all spot colours to convert to cmyk Font- all font converted to outlines (so like an image not text). CS2 not CS3 version of indesign 3mm bleed is fine.
Notes from the course:
- White arrow highlights the content
- Black arrow highlights the box
- To make text flow- shift then click
- Text formatting: to change the layout of the master copy -> Layout -> Layout Adjustments -> Enable Margins and Columns (this skill is useful for 'boring' designs)
- Grid- makes boxes though the user has to make the text flow
- Select all= Apple key and A
- Colour and stroke icons
- Wrap around bounding box- makes the text jump, opp. is text wrap
- Object -> Text Frame Options -> Adjust text layout in a box- space between the border of the box for text inside
- To personalise bullets -> Glyphs and Tabs
... Notes follow in Sketchbook 2
Over the Easter holidays I took an InDesign course at the London College of Communication, as I have volunteered to create and design my exhibition group's catalogue. We are getting a special discount from the printing company because Catherine dates the boss' son but that is the limit of the help. This is the information for the layout:
Size- 148.5 x 105 mm. (A6) Portrait. Use Indesign if possible (though said if problem can use another) All images cmyk, 300 DPI (300 DPI- he said if possible- nearest) Colours- all spot colours to convert to cmyk Font- all font converted to outlines (so like an image not text). CS2 not CS3 version of indesign 3mm bleed is fine.
Notes from the course:
- White arrow highlights the content
- Black arrow highlights the box
- To make text flow- shift then click
- Text formatting: to change the layout of the master copy -> Layout -> Layout Adjustments -> Enable Margins and Columns (this skill is useful for 'boring' designs)
- Grid- makes boxes though the user has to make the text flow
- Select all= Apple key and A
- Colour and stroke icons
- Wrap around bounding box- makes the text jump, opp. is text wrap
- Object -> Text Frame Options -> Adjust text layout in a box- space between the border of the box for text inside
- To personalise bullets -> Glyphs and Tabs
... Notes follow in Sketchbook 2
Monday 17 March 2008
Idea: Felt Making
I could use all the wool collected to make felt. Then perhaps I could print some images onto the material... I supervised a Felt Making Class at the gallery I used to work for, Dulwich Picture Gallery, and it was relatively straightforward.
A step by step to felt making felt
You will need a flat surface to work on, where it doesn't matter if it gets wet. (outside, floor, counter-top or large table) Place a large table onto the flat surface, and cover it with a piece of plastic.
Pull the clean wool into short sections.
Place these wool pieces evenly across the plastic. Lay them all in one direction,(vertically) overlapping each piece slightly, until you have a square about 35cm long. Repeat horizontally.
Repeat the layers of wool again. Make sure each layer alternates in direction, vertically/horizontally.
The top layer can be decretive, using different coloured wools.
Fold the remaining length of plastic over the wool.
Place the into the bathtub and roll the mat back and forth, working your hands evenly across the mat.
Keep the mat rolling in the hot water for x-about 3 - 4 minutes. It is friction that causes the wool to felt.
Remove the mat from the bathtub and place it on the towel. Carefully unroll the mat, and turn the felt 1/4 turn. The felt is quite fragile at this point, so be gentle.
Reroll the mat and put it back into the bathtub. If the water has cooled, drain the tub and add more hot water. Roll the mat again for x-about 3 - 4 minutes.
Turn the felt another 3 times, and reroll for x-about 5 minutes between each turn.
Test the felt by rubbing it with your finger. The fibres shouldn't move and the felt should be quite thick. If it is still soft, turn it again and keep rolling it in the hot water.
Remove the felt from the beach mat and rinse in cool water.
Roll the felt in a towel, place it on the floor and stomp on it, to remove the excess water. Lay flat to dry.
A step by step to felt making felt
You will need a flat surface to work on, where it doesn't matter if it gets wet. (outside, floor, counter-top or large table) Place a large table onto the flat surface, and cover it with a piece of plastic.
Pull the clean wool into short sections.
Place these wool pieces evenly across the plastic. Lay them all in one direction,(vertically) overlapping each piece slightly, until you have a square about 35cm long. Repeat horizontally.
Repeat the layers of wool again. Make sure each layer alternates in direction, vertically/horizontally.
The top layer can be decretive, using different coloured wools.
Fold the remaining length of plastic over the wool.
Place the into the bathtub and roll the mat back and forth, working your hands evenly across the mat.
Keep the mat rolling in the hot water for x-about 3 - 4 minutes. It is friction that causes the wool to felt.
Remove the mat from the bathtub and place it on the towel. Carefully unroll the mat, and turn the felt 1/4 turn. The felt is quite fragile at this point, so be gentle.
Reroll the mat and put it back into the bathtub. If the water has cooled, drain the tub and add more hot water. Roll the mat again for x-about 3 - 4 minutes.
Turn the felt another 3 times, and reroll for x-about 5 minutes between each turn.
Test the felt by rubbing it with your finger. The fibres shouldn't move and the felt should be quite thick. If it is still soft, turn it again and keep rolling it in the hot water.
Remove the felt from the beach mat and rinse in cool water.
Roll the felt in a towel, place it on the floor and stomp on it, to remove the excess water. Lay flat to dry.
Saturday 15 March 2008
Photos of Bradford Industrial Mill's Storage Area
Following several emails and follow-ups with a councillor from Bradford, I managed to get hold of various industrial parts that were surplus, broken or unwanted. When I went to collect the pieces I was lead into this treasure trove of machine parts. It was so surreal to be walking through a narrow path created in the midst of these heavy-duty machines and piles of industrial parts.
Friday 14 March 2008
Research Notes on Jean Tinguely
Jean Tinguely at the Tate Gallery
8th September – 28th November 1982
Alan Bowness and Richard Calvocoressi
- Neo-Dadaist who rejoices in paradox and ambiguity
- Kinetic artist who mocks the kinetic sculptures that place faith in new materials and up-to-date technology
- Belief that the only certain, stable thing in the world is movement, perpetual motion, change
- Interest in the immaterial/ breaking down the traditional stability of the work of art/ dematerialising static image or form into a continuous flow of movement and sound
- Sculptural works: scrap iron, old or obsolete mechanical parts, discarded household products, various familiar objects
- Often primitively built- unpredictable in action and devoid of a utilitarian purpose
- Some sculptures have digested and disgorged footballs, sprayed water, crushed bottles, smashed plates, painted abstract pictures, emitted agreeable or threatening noises, emanated smells or even destroyed themselves
- Real function of his work is irony- a parody of mechanical and human behaviour, a satire on production, consumption and waste
- His work performs an important psychological service by offering a release from the pressures of an increasingly sophisticated tenchonological age
- The object at rest in transformed into the mobile, the living work of art, by switching on an electric current
- Requires the viewer to participate- press the switch- establishing a relationship with the machine
- Terms his work, ‘meta-mechanical’- describes the irrational, imaginative, a-mechanical ends to which his machines are put
- Socially liberating aspect of this new contract between artist, machine and spectator
- Early machine work was based on a system of asynchronous gears that moved the various parts- bars, circles, rectangles- each part moved at a different speed, so it could be months or even years before the same configuration repeated itself
- Shifting relationships and infinite variations of chance in action- alluded to the fragmentary sensations and conflicting rhythms of modern life
- Tinguely’s interest in the potential of a rotating or spinning motion to challenge and alter formal appearance is central to his work
- His early work relied for its optical or kinetic effect on the spectator as motor rather than on built-in mechanical movement
- His work is indebted to Duchamp’s- his first open-wire constructions, which were operated by handles, recalls Duchamp’s preoccupation with the wheel and mechanical rotation
- His ‘Prayer Mills’ also bears a slight resemblance to Duchamp’s tiny but influential painting ‘Coffee Mill’ of 1912
- Duchamp’s optical machines, such as ‘Rotary Demisphere’, 1925, also caused Tinguely to research illusion and dematerialisation
- Also was intrigued by Duchamp’s questioning, ironical attitude to the value of art in the age of technology and mass communication
- Heavily influenced by Duchamp’s elevation of the role of accident in artistic creation and his almost existential belief in the significance of gesture.
- Felt art should have a direct contact with urban and industrial culture, its by-products and side effects: mass production, waste, advertising, violence
- By reintroducing reality into art, the intervention of the artist would often by reduced to a minimum
- Demystify art- simple, immediate language
- Tinguely disliked the schematic and finished look of Abstract Expressionist work- symbolised a misguided wish to immobilise time- by using unfired clay my work also lacks a finished, immortal quality
- Searched for an ideal environmental art, a fusion of sensory and motor experience within a unifying structure, in which spectator involvement assumes a crucial place
- Expendable or auto-destructive works of 1960-62- when large and often intricately assembled collections of disused machinery and scrap sprang into action and, after a frantic life of half an hour or so, exploded or set fire to themselves- almost nihilistic
- Reflected the Happenings- introduced movement and change, engaged most or all of the senses and demanded active cooperation, whether physical, emotional or intellectual
- Belief that scenes of violence or destruction would have a positive, therapeutic benefit for the spectator
- Mounting anxiety about the threat of nuclear warfare/ significant advances in computer technology as well as attempts at manned space travel
- Auto-destructive- a work of art which is ephemeral and which therefore has little or no commercial value
- Impressed by the junk sculptures of Richard Stankiewicz
- Stated that his work became more disgusting, when the museums became whiter
- Late 1960s- began to openly display the belts, pulleys and wheels which assisted the moving elements in his work
- Shone bright spotlights on his machines, throwing strong linear shadows onto the walls and creating a strange, spectral impression
- Had a romantic fascination for mean, worthless materials
- Deliberately used cheap, worn-out motors and gears which added to the chance effect- exploited the machine- demonstrated properties not usually associated with it, such as random movement, irregularity, disorder
- Almost nostalgic art- disregarded electronics and advanced technology
- Sculptures often moved erratically, often shaking themselves into paroxysms of cacophonous activity- air of improvisation
- After 1963, Tinguely began to paint his sculptural works a uniform matt black- depriving them of their character as an assemblage of recognisable objects rescued from the rubbish tips and attics of urban life- emphasised their formal, plastic qualities
- Matt black- work began to resemble pieces of nineteenth century industrial machinery
- Allowed the grotesque- a groaning/ grinding/ clanking progress- endlessly frustrated in the intent- metaphor for imprisonment as the work is weighed down by lengths of heavy chains which it is forced to carry
- Changed the speed of rotation so all sorts of visual and sonic patterns would emerge
- Early 70s, the work became more colossal, heavyweight and industrial
- Essential underlying humanism of his work, the range of emotions and sensations it embraces, from soft to loud, gentle to brutal, restrained to exuberant, reassuring to disturbing
8th September – 28th November 1982
Alan Bowness and Richard Calvocoressi
- Neo-Dadaist who rejoices in paradox and ambiguity
- Kinetic artist who mocks the kinetic sculptures that place faith in new materials and up-to-date technology
- Belief that the only certain, stable thing in the world is movement, perpetual motion, change
- Interest in the immaterial/ breaking down the traditional stability of the work of art/ dematerialising static image or form into a continuous flow of movement and sound
- Sculptural works: scrap iron, old or obsolete mechanical parts, discarded household products, various familiar objects
- Often primitively built- unpredictable in action and devoid of a utilitarian purpose
- Some sculptures have digested and disgorged footballs, sprayed water, crushed bottles, smashed plates, painted abstract pictures, emitted agreeable or threatening noises, emanated smells or even destroyed themselves
- Real function of his work is irony- a parody of mechanical and human behaviour, a satire on production, consumption and waste
- His work performs an important psychological service by offering a release from the pressures of an increasingly sophisticated tenchonological age
- The object at rest in transformed into the mobile, the living work of art, by switching on an electric current
- Requires the viewer to participate- press the switch- establishing a relationship with the machine
- Terms his work, ‘meta-mechanical’- describes the irrational, imaginative, a-mechanical ends to which his machines are put
- Socially liberating aspect of this new contract between artist, machine and spectator
- Early machine work was based on a system of asynchronous gears that moved the various parts- bars, circles, rectangles- each part moved at a different speed, so it could be months or even years before the same configuration repeated itself
- Shifting relationships and infinite variations of chance in action- alluded to the fragmentary sensations and conflicting rhythms of modern life
- Tinguely’s interest in the potential of a rotating or spinning motion to challenge and alter formal appearance is central to his work
- His early work relied for its optical or kinetic effect on the spectator as motor rather than on built-in mechanical movement
- His work is indebted to Duchamp’s- his first open-wire constructions, which were operated by handles, recalls Duchamp’s preoccupation with the wheel and mechanical rotation
- His ‘Prayer Mills’ also bears a slight resemblance to Duchamp’s tiny but influential painting ‘Coffee Mill’ of 1912
- Duchamp’s optical machines, such as ‘Rotary Demisphere’, 1925, also caused Tinguely to research illusion and dematerialisation
- Also was intrigued by Duchamp’s questioning, ironical attitude to the value of art in the age of technology and mass communication
- Heavily influenced by Duchamp’s elevation of the role of accident in artistic creation and his almost existential belief in the significance of gesture.
- Felt art should have a direct contact with urban and industrial culture, its by-products and side effects: mass production, waste, advertising, violence
- By reintroducing reality into art, the intervention of the artist would often by reduced to a minimum
- Demystify art- simple, immediate language
- Tinguely disliked the schematic and finished look of Abstract Expressionist work- symbolised a misguided wish to immobilise time- by using unfired clay my work also lacks a finished, immortal quality
- Searched for an ideal environmental art, a fusion of sensory and motor experience within a unifying structure, in which spectator involvement assumes a crucial place
- Expendable or auto-destructive works of 1960-62- when large and often intricately assembled collections of disused machinery and scrap sprang into action and, after a frantic life of half an hour or so, exploded or set fire to themselves- almost nihilistic
- Reflected the Happenings- introduced movement and change, engaged most or all of the senses and demanded active cooperation, whether physical, emotional or intellectual
- Belief that scenes of violence or destruction would have a positive, therapeutic benefit for the spectator
- Mounting anxiety about the threat of nuclear warfare/ significant advances in computer technology as well as attempts at manned space travel
- Auto-destructive- a work of art which is ephemeral and which therefore has little or no commercial value
- Impressed by the junk sculptures of Richard Stankiewicz
- Stated that his work became more disgusting, when the museums became whiter
- Late 1960s- began to openly display the belts, pulleys and wheels which assisted the moving elements in his work
- Shone bright spotlights on his machines, throwing strong linear shadows onto the walls and creating a strange, spectral impression
- Had a romantic fascination for mean, worthless materials
- Deliberately used cheap, worn-out motors and gears which added to the chance effect- exploited the machine- demonstrated properties not usually associated with it, such as random movement, irregularity, disorder
- Almost nostalgic art- disregarded electronics and advanced technology
- Sculptures often moved erratically, often shaking themselves into paroxysms of cacophonous activity- air of improvisation
- After 1963, Tinguely began to paint his sculptural works a uniform matt black- depriving them of their character as an assemblage of recognisable objects rescued from the rubbish tips and attics of urban life- emphasised their formal, plastic qualities
- Matt black- work began to resemble pieces of nineteenth century industrial machinery
- Allowed the grotesque- a groaning/ grinding/ clanking progress- endlessly frustrated in the intent- metaphor for imprisonment as the work is weighed down by lengths of heavy chains which it is forced to carry
- Changed the speed of rotation so all sorts of visual and sonic patterns would emerge
- Early 70s, the work became more colossal, heavyweight and industrial
- Essential underlying humanism of his work, the range of emotions and sensations it embraces, from soft to loud, gentle to brutal, restrained to exuberant, reassuring to disturbing
Monday 10 March 2008
CFA Contemporary Fine Arts
'Die Wahren Orte' Exhibition (No.1 exhibition in the Berlin Biennale!)
Alexander Ochs curated this exhibition based on the idea of 'true places' and whether they should be discussed in the past or present tense. As can 'true places exist in a world of constant flux under a globalised market'? It is interesting to note that Ochs spends half his year in Berlin and the other half in Beijing, so he must do a lot of wandering between these two very different worlds. I found this exhibition quite exciting as all of the eight artists seemed to be dealing with existence and superficiality in their own individual quest for a 'true place', whether in culture, art, time, location etc., though the resulting work was incredibly varied.
I really liked Yang Maoyuan's response as he had created a line-up of Buddha heads, which were reminiscent of the heads of the Buddha-figures that are everywhere in Asia. Therefore the series seemed to comment on the use of serial technical fabrication, thought the mock-antique patina and a fragmented condition alluded to actual archaeological finds. By weathering the marble to such an extent, the sculptures were also deprived of any trace of individuality, which made the act of falsifying an imitation even more prominent.
However my favourite piece was a room length installation by Yin Xiuzhen. The piece, 'Collective Unconscious', not only had a strong visual presence but it also had an audible quality, as she had a Chinese pop-song, which apparently praised the city of Berlin, playing within the vehicle. The artist had utilised a mini-van, an old Chinese 'shared taxi', which she had cut into halves. The 'shared taxi' was used in the 80s and 90s, as an affordable means of transportation within the rapidly growing metropolis. However due to its cheap design and bad quality, the Chinese government withdrew it from circulation during the 90s. Therefore by extending the vehicle, using a long, rhythmical caterpillar like insertion made of clothes, the vehicle looses any pretence of stability and sturdiness. What I really enjoyed about this piece was how the viewer was allowed to climb into the work and sit on any of the multitude of seats inside. The clothes were also used to hint at the low cost but bad quality produce of China.
Andy, James and myself in the back of the mini van
Alexander Ochs curated this exhibition based on the idea of 'true places' and whether they should be discussed in the past or present tense. As can 'true places exist in a world of constant flux under a globalised market'? It is interesting to note that Ochs spends half his year in Berlin and the other half in Beijing, so he must do a lot of wandering between these two very different worlds. I found this exhibition quite exciting as all of the eight artists seemed to be dealing with existence and superficiality in their own individual quest for a 'true place', whether in culture, art, time, location etc., though the resulting work was incredibly varied.
I really liked Yang Maoyuan's response as he had created a line-up of Buddha heads, which were reminiscent of the heads of the Buddha-figures that are everywhere in Asia. Therefore the series seemed to comment on the use of serial technical fabrication, thought the mock-antique patina and a fragmented condition alluded to actual archaeological finds. By weathering the marble to such an extent, the sculptures were also deprived of any trace of individuality, which made the act of falsifying an imitation even more prominent.
However my favourite piece was a room length installation by Yin Xiuzhen. The piece, 'Collective Unconscious', not only had a strong visual presence but it also had an audible quality, as she had a Chinese pop-song, which apparently praised the city of Berlin, playing within the vehicle. The artist had utilised a mini-van, an old Chinese 'shared taxi', which she had cut into halves. The 'shared taxi' was used in the 80s and 90s, as an affordable means of transportation within the rapidly growing metropolis. However due to its cheap design and bad quality, the Chinese government withdrew it from circulation during the 90s. Therefore by extending the vehicle, using a long, rhythmical caterpillar like insertion made of clothes, the vehicle looses any pretence of stability and sturdiness. What I really enjoyed about this piece was how the viewer was allowed to climb into the work and sit on any of the multitude of seats inside. The clothes were also used to hint at the low cost but bad quality produce of China.
Andy, James and myself in the back of the mini van
Sunday 9 March 2008
Saturday 8 March 2008
Trip to Berlin, March 3rd-7th
We stayed in Mitte, very close to Alexandra Place, near Rosa Luxemborg station. During the three days, we went to a ridiculous number of museums and art galleries, averaging around four or five. I have a pile of phamplets, exhibition magazines, sheets of info etc. James has brought a folder for all the collected memorabilia but to be honest mine will probably be left to gather dust on my book shelf, so I thought it was best to write a few reviews of my favourite pieces/ exhibitions, so some evidence will exist!
We went to the 'Alte Nationalgalerie' (the National Gallery). It was astonishingly similar to our National Gallery in the decor and layout. I enjoyed the French Impressionists work on Level 2 and the Realism on Level 1. I was also impressed with the Neo-Baroque sculpture and the Auguste Rodin sculpture 'The Age of Bronze', 1875-76. Apart from that, I can not recall anything else worthy of note but I am sure hundreds would disagree!
We also visited the Institute for Contemporary Art, which was exhibiting '...5 Minutes Later', curated by Susanne Pfeffer. The work is this exhibition varied considerably in my opinion. In the large entrance area, the furthest wall simply read; 'VISITORS CAN CONTEMPLATE FOR 5 MINUTES THE INVISIBLE ASPECTS OF THE VISUAL ART IN THE EXHIBITION'. This immediately made me doubtful... It wasn't until I reached the third floor and began watching the video installations that I thought the exhibition had been worth the trek. With particular reference to Lutz Mommartz's video art pieces, 'As if it was from Beckett', 1975, and 'Way to the Neighbour', 1968.
'Way to the Neighbour', Lutz Mommartz, 1968.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaCkR0q_TVE
Various Holiday Snaps:
We went to the 'Alte Nationalgalerie' (the National Gallery). It was astonishingly similar to our National Gallery in the decor and layout. I enjoyed the French Impressionists work on Level 2 and the Realism on Level 1. I was also impressed with the Neo-Baroque sculpture and the Auguste Rodin sculpture 'The Age of Bronze', 1875-76. Apart from that, I can not recall anything else worthy of note but I am sure hundreds would disagree!
We also visited the Institute for Contemporary Art, which was exhibiting '...5 Minutes Later', curated by Susanne Pfeffer. The work is this exhibition varied considerably in my opinion. In the large entrance area, the furthest wall simply read; 'VISITORS CAN CONTEMPLATE FOR 5 MINUTES THE INVISIBLE ASPECTS OF THE VISUAL ART IN THE EXHIBITION'. This immediately made me doubtful... It wasn't until I reached the third floor and began watching the video installations that I thought the exhibition had been worth the trek. With particular reference to Lutz Mommartz's video art pieces, 'As if it was from Beckett', 1975, and 'Way to the Neighbour', 1968.
'Way to the Neighbour', Lutz Mommartz, 1968.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaCkR0q_TVE
Various Holiday Snaps:
Sunday 2 March 2008
Armley Exhibition Proposal
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Sarah Baumann
Materials: Clay, resin, varnished wood, polyester, found objects
My art practice focuses on mechanical and industrial forms drawing inspiration from outside a traditional fine art context. By expressing the hand of the artist and eliminating mechanical geometry, the sculptural work is drawn into speculations about authenticity and reproducibility. Therefore the work is thrown into the language of craftsmanship and art though not entirely disrupting its potential for being recognised as a mechanical expression.
Piece 1:
I plan to create a relatively large sculptural piece, with a base of 120cm x 45cm, which will combine clay elements alongside abandoned and disused mill machine parts. The clay will serve to minimalise the mechanical-technological nature of the work by making the viewer closely observe the handcrafted machine parts. The assemblage will also emphasise the spatial relationships between various parts in the piece, hinting at the relationship between the actual gallery setting and the artwork. Consequently allowing the viewer to question and consider the tripartite division of science, craft and art.
Piece 2:
90cm x 90cm.
A formal sculptural work with three iron- oxide resin casts of rollers used in a make-shift conveyor belt system. The belt, created with stretch polyester fabric, has industrial images printed on the fabric so to create a more literal link to the initial inspiration.
Materials: Clay, resin, varnished wood, polyester, found objects
My art practice focuses on mechanical and industrial forms drawing inspiration from outside a traditional fine art context. By expressing the hand of the artist and eliminating mechanical geometry, the sculptural work is drawn into speculations about authenticity and reproducibility. Therefore the work is thrown into the language of craftsmanship and art though not entirely disrupting its potential for being recognised as a mechanical expression.
Piece 1:
I plan to create a relatively large sculptural piece, with a base of 120cm x 45cm, which will combine clay elements alongside abandoned and disused mill machine parts. The clay will serve to minimalise the mechanical-technological nature of the work by making the viewer closely observe the handcrafted machine parts. The assemblage will also emphasise the spatial relationships between various parts in the piece, hinting at the relationship between the actual gallery setting and the artwork. Consequently allowing the viewer to question and consider the tripartite division of science, craft and art.
Piece 2:
90cm x 90cm.
A formal sculptural work with three iron- oxide resin casts of rollers used in a make-shift conveyor belt system. The belt, created with stretch polyester fabric, has industrial images printed on the fabric so to create a more literal link to the initial inspiration.
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernest: The Bride Shared
Notes from 'Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernest: The Bride Shared', David Hopkins
(London: Clarendon Press, 1998)
Marcel Duchamp, 'Etant donnés', 1946-66.Cite ‘technical matters’ as the genesis of his work, not ideas
The ‘sliding scale’ of meanings along the vocational line of artist-artisan-engineer
Industrial aesthetics debate in German- early 1910s.
‘Looking’ in the aesthetic sense, then, meant looking with assistance from literary associations, looking for purely visual pleasure. The addition of ‘the book’, words, text and the process of consulting took the artwork even farther from the beaux-arts realm of the merely ‘retinal’ which Duchamp was in the midst of abandoning
Modern debate concerning the overlapping functions of artist, craftsman and engineer
Conception of his great ‘work’ with its many ‘new technical problems’
In French there is an old expression, la patte, meaning the artist’s touch, his personal style, his ‘paw’.- Calvin Tomkins, ‘The Bride and the Bachelors: Five Masters of the Avant Garde (NY: Penguin Books, 1976) pp. 24
Duchamp equated the artist’s ‘hand’ with the sensual appeal of richly applied paint; and that, in turn, was related to the animal side of human nature and opposed to the artist’s intellectual capacities
Not sought out the mechanical or industrial forms for their intrinsic (i.e. functional) meaning, nor as social commentary on industrialisation, but, rather, for their ruptual value as non-traditional forms within a fine arts context
Incorporated the mechanical into the anthropomorphic for precisely that disruptive (i.e., avant-garde purpose)
Demonstrate the ‘free hand’ or the ‘paw’ of the painter, which Duchamp so abhorred, and the mechanical aspects did not suffice to cover it up- the ‘visceral’ aspect of the bride
Continue to inset machine into flesh at the level of pictorial narrative- ‘mechanically’ painted
‘very precise technique’ of mechanical drawing as ‘a renunciation of all aesthetics’
Art is an outlet towards regions which are not ruled by time and space
Mechanical drawing […- up[held] no taste, since it is outside all pictorial convention
Expressed ‘the most sublime notions of artists- a means of communication and a practical instrument used by the worker-artist and the artisan
Drawing that limited the appearance of things to the naked eye and drawing that revealed the truth of things behind the surfaces of appearance; that is to say, there was perspective drawing and mechanical drawing. Each kept a relation to the object.
The blueprint for production, the working drawing for the commodity. The language base was hardly neutral; it cheerfully ratified the means and ends of industrial production
Striving towards accuracy and precision, no more handwork
Distinct from the mechanical idiom preferred by the avant-garde- new method of mechanical expression
Back to a completely dry drawing, a dry conception of art
The prioritisation of function over appearance- a preference for the language of industry, work and craftsmanship to that of the fine arts
Thus new ‘works’ appeared- all involved with ideas of craftsmanship, new materials, new techniques, new art forms
Moved farther along the line from art to craft
Sewing thread was stitched onto the canvas and a leather label printed with gold letters- ‘Broyeuse de chocolate, 1914’ was glued to the surface
Additions and the matte finish of the paint coupled with the simple design to suggest an object of hand-crafted leather which has somehow been flattened onto the two-dimensional picture place
Several kinds of artisanal endeavours are referenced, particularly those that incorporate sewing and leather working, for example, shoe-making, upholstering and bookbinding.
Sewing thread, paint, canvas, leather labels and gold letters
Chance and measurement became the tools with which the fine artist/craftsman proposed to repair the flawed system of high art
‘cast […] a pataphysical doubt on the concept of a straight line as being the shortest route from one point to another’
Measurement of the boundaries of ‘art’ had as its standard a curved ‘ruler’; one metre was changed from a straight line to a curved line without losing its identity
Alter the fundamental geometry of its definition without entirely disrupting its potential for being recognised as art
Simultaneously were and were not fine art
Materials which had been associated with a modern, industrial aesthetic since the middle of the nineteenth century
Time element- eight years- devoting an extended period to the execution of a work of art, was another technique for shifting the focus away from fine arts towards craft
Large Glass- incorporated most of the handicraft techniques
Painstakingly handcrafted nature and the length of time- on its conception and construction
After Duchamp ‘incompleted’ it
Psychology of the relationships between the viewer, object and environment was paralleled in Duchamp’s interest in exhibition design, window display and the complex viewer/object/environment relationships of Etant Donnes
Frederick Kiesler, ‘Contemporary art applied to the store and its display’ (NY: Bretano’s, 1930) pp. 67-8.- ‘He concerns himself no longer, as did the potter, the goldsmith, the weaver, with the materialisation of his drawing; the machine has freed him from this task and does it more exactly, quickly, cheaply, and as beautifully
-union is far from subversive- Kiesler envisions the artist/ craftsman happily benefiting from machine production
Its technique, its materiality and structural foundation
‘Incompleted’ the Large Glass work- stage set for Capek’s R.U.R, produced in Berlin in 1923- designed a huge montage, compiled from the most diverse apparatuses and machine parts (megaphone, seismograph, tanager device, iris diaphragm, light bulb)- some real, some painted.- could produce light and sound as well as project film and create optical illusions with mirrors
Presented technology as a threat culminating in the ultimately sinister discovery of robots
Representation of the mechanical world was full of admiration for a technology that functioned with precision, fully in agreement with the technical aesthetic subscribed to by almost all avant-garde artists of the twenties
Negative look at the industrial age, particularly at that intersection of the mechanical and the human
Duchamp’s Bride and her Bachelors are gasoline-driven, fully-lubricated, piston-fired motors, but they also are erotically charged, love-torn, questing beings- desires are eternally unfulfilled, that all their sparks and gases and rods and cylinders never ignite a roaring engine is one of the most effective statements of an anti-Positivist, anti-functionalist, anti-machine aesthetic ever conceived.
The anthromorphic and the mechanical merge in ways that hardly provide pictorial reassurance about the future of an industrialised society
Smoothly painted, hard surfaces and tightly-coiled springs suggest mechanical models- shapes and predominantly biomorphic and the allusions noticeable sexual
Unquestioningly the assignment of positive cultural values to mechanical forms and processes
Shun of optimistic faith in modern technological progress […] and their belief that through their purified language they were offering a kind of blueprint for the designed utopia of the future
Primitivist myth (freedom, spontaneity, instinctiveness and ritualistic fantasy) and a sense of responsibility to its own time
Elderfield- Duchamp’s machine work exemplified ‘clothing primitivist obsessions in modern dress’
Centuries-old handicrafts as well as the most modern machine technologies
Relevance for commerce and industry
Not its determination to fuse art and industry- makes the gap more stark
Denunciation of many of the techniques, materials and themes ordinarily associated with ‘fine’ arts constituted an outrageous and powerful gesture of defiance
If Duchamp had wanted to put art ‘once again at the service of the mind’ he also wanted to ‘discredit science’
Deny the value of industrial progress than to depict pure sexuality and passion in mechanical forms that are not capable of consummating their desires
Deconstruction of the modernist myth of the artist as specialist through the enactment of the role of bricoleur
Duchamp forced to admit that he had been an artist all along, felt obliged to paint and sculpt it ‘back into the world’- and into art.
Symbolism persists but in a sense the movement has been from the world of veiled allusions and ‘imaginary solutions’ to a realm that relates, albeit at several removes, to the world of Surrealism
Retains its mystery, perhaps because the symbolism is so blatant that in a sense it cancels itself out
Vestigial yet obsessive presence, half phallus, half machine.
Obviously abstracted and symbolised to a high degree
The bride has been brought down to earth with a band, but the Bachelors have been reduced or compressed into a gas lamp, now truly fired with the bridal gas, symbol of desire and tumescent excitement. The liquid, the water, appears to have symbolic attributes that are both male and female; the pond is deep and still, the waterfall restless and incessantly active in its downward thrust- intense physicality
The strong linear element which results in a greater fluidity of form, the feeling of transparency and the austerity of the colour harmonies in what is basically a range of earth colours, browns and sienas
Saturday 23 February 2008
Art in Context: Marcel Duchamp
'Art in Context: - The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even and Etant Donnes'
John Golding (London: Penguin Press, 1973)
Duchamp carefully created The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, working on the piece from 1915 to 1923. He executed the work on two panes of glass with materials such as lead foil, fuse wire, and dust. It combines chance procedures, plotted perspective studies, and laborious craftsmanship.
Does not flaunt its mechanical-technological nature
Large Glass revealed its mechanical associations, Etant Donnes conceals its own- ever ‘an orchid in the land of technology’
Close connection with the materials and processes normally associated with handicrafts
Observe painstaking and minute adjustments in Duchamp’s production of his last piece- as demonstrated in the Approximation Demontable.
There is also the manual, handmade quality of Etant Donnes- executed every step of the construction, placed every nut and bolt, brick and piece of wood
Emphasis on spatial relationships within the assemblage also suggests a continuation of Duchamp’s interest in (quasi-) scientific investigations of the fourth dimension
Art, machine, craft, science- Etant Donnes is all four, ironically incorporation their differences as well as their similarities, hinting provocatively at historical relationships while flaunting its own uniqueness within Duchamp’s oeuvre and the history of art, raising endless speculations about authenticity vs. reproducibility and the artist as specialist vs. the artist as bricoleur.
The questioning of traditional values associated with the artist’s ‘hand’, i.e. notions of authenticity and originality, seems to be reversed by Etant Donnes.
Apparent non-reproducibility, its observance of the established forms of originality and ritual constitute what Walter Benjamin called the ‘aura’ of the authentic work of art.
Utilised a compositional technique with strong mechanical and geometrical associations, which he termed ‘elementary parallelism’ and described as ‘linear elements following each other like parallels and distorting the object’.
Newfound interest in the mechanical, attached even more intimately to human aspects
An element of conflict
Earlier works had represented single figures or figures clearly not in conflict
Bride and her Bachelors in a drawing entitled, La Mariee mis a nu par ces celebrataires’- clearly three entities and the threat of conflict is unmistakeable; the Bride stands in the centre menaced by a Bachelor on each side armed with sharp, knife-like weapons.
Hostility he felt towards the artists he had trusted to understand and value his aesthetic risk-taking
Verbal images of abandonment, exhaustion and divorce
Duchamp was not just abandoning his association with Cubism but painting itself
Large-size work- all sorts of new technical problems to be worked out
Notions of ‘occupation’ and ‘technical problems’ were clearly associated- shifting his orientation from that of artist toward that of craftsman.
Tripartite division of sciences, arts and crafts dating back to the sixteenth century
Toward a particularly non-French construction of the artisanal function- pose as a bricoleur rather than a specialist
Deliberate reorientation of his work from painting to craft
Enormous industrial expositions- artistic milieu in Germany was divided by the artisan/engineer question
The collective e semantics that functionalism found in the immanent aesthetics of the machine. Artisans became intellectualised, and for them this was a social elevation: they became conceivers more than makes, equals of engineers more than of workers. But this elevation took place to the detriment of the ‘human’ and individualist values that had been part of their production before division of labour had set in. In moving closer to the engineer, the artisan moved away from the artist. [….] In moving away from the artist the artist at the level of making, of craftsmanship, the artisan moved closer to the artist at the level of creation, of authorship’ –Pictorial Nominalism, pg. 56, de Duve
Marcel Duchamp: Etant Donnes and The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even
Notes from 'Art in Context', edited by John Fleming and Hugh Honour
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, EvenDuchamp carefully created The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, working on the piece from 1915 to 1923. He executed the work on two panes of glass with materials such as lead foil, fuse wire, and dust. It combines chance procedures, plotted perspective studies, and laborious craftsmanship.
Does not flaunt its mechanical-technological nature
Large Glass revealed its mechanical associations, Etant Donnes conceals its own- ever ‘an orchid in the land of technology’
Close connection with the materials and processes normally associated with handicrafts
Observe painstaking and minute adjustments in Duchamp’s production of his last piece- as demonstrated in the Approximation Demontable.
There is also the manual, handmade quality of Etant Donnes- executed every step of the construction, placed every nut and bolt, brick and piece of wood
Emphasis on spatial relationships within the assemblage also suggests a continuation of Duchamp’s interest in (quasi-) scientific investigations of the fourth dimension
Art, machine, craft, science- Etant Donnes is all four, ironically incorporation their differences as well as their similarities, hinting provocatively at historical relationships while flaunting its own uniqueness within Duchamp’s oeuvre and the history of art, raising endless speculations about authenticity vs. reproducibility and the artist as specialist vs. the artist as bricoleur.
The questioning of traditional values associated with the artist’s ‘hand’, i.e. notions of authenticity and originality, seems to be reversed by Etant Donnes.
Apparent non-reproducibility, its observance of the established forms of originality and ritual constitute what Walter Benjamin called the ‘aura’ of the authentic work of art.
Utilised a compositional technique with strong mechanical and geometrical associations, which he termed ‘elementary parallelism’ and described as ‘linear elements following each other like parallels and distorting the object’.
Newfound interest in the mechanical, attached even more intimately to human aspects
An element of conflict
Earlier works had represented single figures or figures clearly not in conflict
Bride and her Bachelors in a drawing entitled, La Mariee mis a nu par ces celebrataires’- clearly three entities and the threat of conflict is unmistakeable; the Bride stands in the centre menaced by a Bachelor on each side armed with sharp, knife-like weapons.
Hostility he felt towards the artists he had trusted to understand and value his aesthetic risk-taking
Verbal images of abandonment, exhaustion and divorce
Duchamp was not just abandoning his association with Cubism but painting itself
Large-size work- all sorts of new technical problems to be worked out
Notions of ‘occupation’ and ‘technical problems’ were clearly associated- shifting his orientation from that of artist toward that of craftsman.
Tripartite division of sciences, arts and crafts dating back to the sixteenth century
Toward a particularly non-French construction of the artisanal function- pose as a bricoleur rather than a specialist
Large Glass revealed its mechanical associations, Etant Donnes conceals its own- ever ‘an orchid in the land of technology’
Close connection with the materials and processes normally associated with handicrafts
Observe painstaking and minute adjustments in Duchamp’s production of his last piece- as demonstrated in the Approximation Demontable.
There is also the manual, handmade quality of Etant Donnes- executed every step of the construction, placed every nut and bolt, brick and piece of wood
Emphasis on spatial relationships within the assemblage also suggests a continuation of Duchamp’s interest in (quasi-) scientific investigations of the fourth dimension
Art, machine, craft, science- Etant Donnes is all four, ironically incorporation their differences as well as their similarities, hinting provocatively at historical relationships while flaunting its own uniqueness within Duchamp’s oeuvre and the history of art, raising endless speculations about authenticity vs. reproducibility and the artist as specialist vs. the artist as bricoleur.
The questioning of traditional values associated with the artist’s ‘hand’, i.e. notions of authenticity and originality, seems to be reversed by Etant Donnes.
Apparent non-reproducibility, its observance of the established forms of originality and ritual constitute what Walter Benjamin called the ‘aura’ of the authentic work of art.
Utilised a compositional technique with strong mechanical and geometrical associations, which he termed ‘elementary parallelism’ and described as ‘linear elements following each other like parallels and distorting the object’.
Newfound interest in the mechanical, attached even more intimately to human aspects
An element of conflict
Earlier works had represented single figures or figures clearly not in conflict
Bride and her Bachelors in a drawing entitled, La Mariee mis a nu par ces celebrataires’- clearly three entities and the threat of conflict is unmistakeable; the Bride stands in the centre menaced by a Bachelor on each side armed with sharp, knife-like weapons.
Hostility he felt towards the artists he had trusted to understand and value his aesthetic risk-taking
Verbal images of abandonment, exhaustion and divorce
Duchamp was not just abandoning his association with Cubism but painting itself
Large-size work- all sorts of new technical problems to be worked out
Notions of ‘occupation’ and ‘technical problems’ were clearly associated- shifting his orientation from that of artist toward that of craftsman.
Tripartite division of sciences, arts and crafts dating back to the sixteenth century
Toward a particularly non-French construction of the artisanal function- pose as a bricoleur rather than a specialist
Deliberate reorientation of his work from painting to craft
Enormous industrial expositions- artistic milieu in Germany was divided by the artisan/engineer question
Enormous industrial expositions- artistic milieu in Germany was divided by the artisan/engineer question
The collective e semantics that functionalism found in the immanent aesthetics of the machine. Artisans became intellectualised, and for them this was a social elevation: they became conceivers more than makes, equals of engineers more than of workers. But this elevation took place to the detriment of the ‘human’ and individualist values that had been part of their production before division of labour had set in. In moving closer to the engineer, the artisan moved away from the artist. [….] In moving away from the artist the artist at the level of making, of craftsmanship, the artisan moved closer to the artist at the level of creation, of authorship’ –Pictorial Nominalism, pg. 56, de Duve
Friday 22 February 2008
Notes on Constructivism and Marcel Duchamp
'Critiquing Absolutism: Marcel Duchamp's 'Etant Donnes' and the psychology of Perception' by Linda Louise (Michigan: Yale University, 1995) pp. 1-173.
Overtly sexual theme- did so by resorting to mechanical analogues
The spectators themselves must ‘decipher and interpret’ a work of art, ultimately contributing as much to its meaning as the artist
Manifests a mechanical function as well as an elaborate demonstration of the material and technical skills practiced by many different types of craftsmen and engineers
Electrical systems design and wiring, bricklaying, metalworking and carpentry, as well as more traditional artistic functions such as photography, painting and sculpting and architectural design
Machine aesthetic and craft techniques
Initiated a remarkable strategy to distance himself from the traditional function of ‘fine’ artist, which involved posing ambiguously as artist, craftsman and engineer
Particular set of ideas circulating around the Deutsche Werkbund Movement in Munich 1912
Defy classification as a work of art: is it a painting, sculpture, photography- comprised of characteristic elements of all of these- blur to the point of meaninglessness and add considerably to the viewer’s disorientation and discomfort
Use of scientific and quasi-scientific jargon, concepts and methodology reconciled with his pervasive scepticism
In terms of complexity, size and length of execution
Determination to address the notion of the social construction of gender
In ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, Walter Benjamin observed that in the modern era ‘what one is entitled to ask from a work of art’ is ‘an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment’- ‘the sight of immediate reality has become an orchid in the land of technology’[1]
Careful orchestration of spatial relationships and attention to every detail in the design and construction
Motor driven apparatus (motor, circular-metal disc with punched holes, fluorescent lamp cook’s box, frosted Scotch tape, various wooden supports and metal attachments) provides the illusion of a moving waterfall.
An example of mechanical-technological art? It ‘functions’ through the power of electricity. The motor turns the metal disk which creates the waterfall effect, the electric lights contribute enormously to the viewer’s perceptions of space and mass
There is even a ‘switch’ to turn the whole apparatus on and off: namely, the viewer, who activates the electrical power by stepping on the mat outside the door
There are clean analogies with the cinema at work here: the spectator peering through the dark space at a bright illusionary scene, the spectator’s view controlled through a lens (peepholes) and, even the light projected through film to produce the waterfall effect.
Italian Futurists’ devotion to ‘man multiplied by the machine… [a] new mechanical sense, a fusion of instinct with the efficiency of motors and conquered forces’, and, particularly, of Boccioni’s sculpture manifesto, which advised the artist:
‘Refuse to accept the exclusive nature of a single material in the construction of a sculptural whole insist that even twenty different types of materials can be used in a single work of art in order to achieve plastic movement. To mention a few examples: glass, wood, cardboard, iron, cement, hair, leather, cloth, mirrors, electric lights etc.’ Umberta Boccioni, ‘Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture’ (1912), in Appollonio, Futurist Manifestos. Pp. 65
Russian Constructivists’ also raised the issue of the use of mechanical and technological materials and processes for the creation of art. For example, Tatlin wrote, ‘the task… is to find a single form, simultaneously architectonic, plastic, and painterly, which would have the possibility of synthesising the separate forms of these or other technical apparatuses.
[1] Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, ‘Illuminations’, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schcken Books, 1969), pp. 233-234.
Overtly sexual theme- did so by resorting to mechanical analogues
The spectators themselves must ‘decipher and interpret’ a work of art, ultimately contributing as much to its meaning as the artist
Manifests a mechanical function as well as an elaborate demonstration of the material and technical skills practiced by many different types of craftsmen and engineers
Electrical systems design and wiring, bricklaying, metalworking and carpentry, as well as more traditional artistic functions such as photography, painting and sculpting and architectural design
Machine aesthetic and craft techniques
Initiated a remarkable strategy to distance himself from the traditional function of ‘fine’ artist, which involved posing ambiguously as artist, craftsman and engineer
Particular set of ideas circulating around the Deutsche Werkbund Movement in Munich 1912
Defy classification as a work of art: is it a painting, sculpture, photography- comprised of characteristic elements of all of these- blur to the point of meaninglessness and add considerably to the viewer’s disorientation and discomfort
Use of scientific and quasi-scientific jargon, concepts and methodology reconciled with his pervasive scepticism
In terms of complexity, size and length of execution
Determination to address the notion of the social construction of gender
In ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, Walter Benjamin observed that in the modern era ‘what one is entitled to ask from a work of art’ is ‘an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment’- ‘the sight of immediate reality has become an orchid in the land of technology’[1]
Careful orchestration of spatial relationships and attention to every detail in the design and construction
Motor driven apparatus (motor, circular-metal disc with punched holes, fluorescent lamp cook’s box, frosted Scotch tape, various wooden supports and metal attachments) provides the illusion of a moving waterfall.
An example of mechanical-technological art? It ‘functions’ through the power of electricity. The motor turns the metal disk which creates the waterfall effect, the electric lights contribute enormously to the viewer’s perceptions of space and mass
There is even a ‘switch’ to turn the whole apparatus on and off: namely, the viewer, who activates the electrical power by stepping on the mat outside the door
There are clean analogies with the cinema at work here: the spectator peering through the dark space at a bright illusionary scene, the spectator’s view controlled through a lens (peepholes) and, even the light projected through film to produce the waterfall effect.
Italian Futurists’ devotion to ‘man multiplied by the machine… [a] new mechanical sense, a fusion of instinct with the efficiency of motors and conquered forces’, and, particularly, of Boccioni’s sculpture manifesto, which advised the artist:
‘Refuse to accept the exclusive nature of a single material in the construction of a sculptural whole insist that even twenty different types of materials can be used in a single work of art in order to achieve plastic movement. To mention a few examples: glass, wood, cardboard, iron, cement, hair, leather, cloth, mirrors, electric lights etc.’ Umberta Boccioni, ‘Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture’ (1912), in Appollonio, Futurist Manifestos. Pp. 65
Russian Constructivists’ also raised the issue of the use of mechanical and technological materials and processes for the creation of art. For example, Tatlin wrote, ‘the task… is to find a single form, simultaneously architectonic, plastic, and painterly, which would have the possibility of synthesising the separate forms of these or other technical apparatuses.
[1] Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, ‘Illuminations’, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schcken Books, 1969), pp. 233-234.
Monday 18 February 2008
Choice from America: Modern American Ceramics
'Choice from America: Modern American Ceramics' by Arthur C. Danto and Janet Koplos
- C21st ceramics- enlargement or extreme minimisation, multiplying or else reducing- rendering the work banal or sublimating
- Clay- early 1980s- art was battered/ stabbed/ smashed/ distorted
- Craft refers to pre-industrial methods of producing objects of use and of embellishment
- In identifying oneself as a crafts person one implicitly took a stand against the culture of the Machine- declaring an allegiance to earlier and less alienating forms of life
- The hand-loomed, the hand-wrought, the hand-woven, the hand-made, the hand-blown, the home- spun
- Same domestic functions as their mass produced counterparts
- Craft- partly moral and partly aesthetic
- Critically dismissive term, like 'decorative' or 'literary' or 'illustrational'
- In the 'Critique of Judgement', Kant distinguished between free and independent art- the latter 'is ascribed to objects which come under the concept of a particular purpose'
- Dissociates free art from the category of purpose- Kant characterises beauty as 'purposive without any specific purpose'
- Hegel, in his 'Lectures on Aesthetics', claims craftwork can be art but never at its 'highest vocation'- only in its freedom alone can fine art truly be art
- However it is not only art historians that take this narrow-minded view. Richard Serra famously said that 'as soon as art is forced or persuaded to serve alien values, it ceases to serve its own needs'- Therefore claiming that to take away art's uselessness was to make it other than art
- Therefore modern ceramists seem to be attempting to challenge this time-held viewpoint, atleast to a certain extent, by mirroring the movements of modern art. For example when the American Abstract Expressionists began to gesturally handle their paint, ceramists began to leave overt hand marks in their clay.
- C21st ceramics- enlargement or extreme minimisation, multiplying or else reducing- rendering the work banal or sublimating
- Clay- early 1980s- art was battered/ stabbed/ smashed/ distorted
- Craft refers to pre-industrial methods of producing objects of use and of embellishment
- In identifying oneself as a crafts person one implicitly took a stand against the culture of the Machine- declaring an allegiance to earlier and less alienating forms of life
- The hand-loomed, the hand-wrought, the hand-woven, the hand-made, the hand-blown, the home- spun
- Same domestic functions as their mass produced counterparts
- Craft- partly moral and partly aesthetic
- Critically dismissive term, like 'decorative' or 'literary' or 'illustrational'
- In the 'Critique of Judgement', Kant distinguished between free and independent art- the latter 'is ascribed to objects which come under the concept of a particular purpose'
- Dissociates free art from the category of purpose- Kant characterises beauty as 'purposive without any specific purpose'
- Hegel, in his 'Lectures on Aesthetics', claims craftwork can be art but never at its 'highest vocation'- only in its freedom alone can fine art truly be art
- However it is not only art historians that take this narrow-minded view. Richard Serra famously said that 'as soon as art is forced or persuaded to serve alien values, it ceases to serve its own needs'- Therefore claiming that to take away art's uselessness was to make it other than art
- Therefore modern ceramists seem to be attempting to challenge this time-held viewpoint, atleast to a certain extent, by mirroring the movements of modern art. For example when the American Abstract Expressionists began to gesturally handle their paint, ceramists began to leave overt hand marks in their clay.
Friday 15 February 2008
LoVid
- LoVid are based in NY and started up in 2001
- Their work is semi-narrative- documentary/ electronic music
- Circuit bending- take electronic device and bend wires- touch differents parts of the circuit- make things do something they weren't originally planned for
- Often uses archaic devices- old mixers/ drawing machines- to create experimental video
- New media- not traditional- web-based work/ concepts and themes that relate to technology
- 'Video Wear' 2003- patching different commercial devices- feeding them back and forth onto 14 different LCD screens embedded in protective sports wear to add a seemingly dangerous look to their work
- Breaking signal/ using glitchy signals- static equipment is always breaking down so play on its own nature
- Interested in how electricity if regulated- set of constraints- physical nature of the electrical signal
- Narrative- parralel universe- media is a tangible thing- play on the idea of 'wireless' technology so to create 'wirefull' works
- Not smaller but larger technological equipment- they use a lot of fabric and 100sft wire (working electrical veins)- used in live video feeds
- Dematerialised into a video world- textile, wearable thing- series of photographs- body and electronics interacting
- Collages and drawings- play with organic and technological world
- Body as an extension of technology
- 3D prints are also used as part of the process
- Aggressive vs tender/ Hardware vs software
- Romance and spirituality- they use technology as the metaphor
- 'Experimental TV Centre (2003)- used an old analog video system- continuous yet fragile electronic signal
- A whole room was turned into an instrument
- A patch was connected to the electrical equipment- very reminiscent of video art in the 60s and 70s when one would make their own instruments and not use internal editing
- Analogy- political/ nostalgic
- Also heavily anti- Consumerist- decided to not play with new 'toys' - created personal restrictions and restraints
- Have to enforce very tight manifestos nowadays to make your work seem personal
- The couple commissioned a 3m wide, 1/2m tall table, the length of the room, so to build their own electronic models into it
- Also added suface etchings onto the table's surface around the modular sncyronisers
- Kept 'wirefull' idea by exposing the wires by using clear acrylic around the equipment
- By creating your own electrical equipment- they believed you were able to know the sounds and colours produced by the instruments on a deeper level
- Their work is semi-narrative- documentary/ electronic music
- Circuit bending- take electronic device and bend wires- touch differents parts of the circuit- make things do something they weren't originally planned for
- Often uses archaic devices- old mixers/ drawing machines- to create experimental video
- New media- not traditional- web-based work/ concepts and themes that relate to technology
- 'Video Wear' 2003- patching different commercial devices- feeding them back and forth onto 14 different LCD screens embedded in protective sports wear to add a seemingly dangerous look to their work
- Breaking signal/ using glitchy signals- static equipment is always breaking down so play on its own nature
- Interested in how electricity if regulated- set of constraints- physical nature of the electrical signal
- Narrative- parralel universe- media is a tangible thing- play on the idea of 'wireless' technology so to create 'wirefull' works
- Not smaller but larger technological equipment- they use a lot of fabric and 100sft wire (working electrical veins)- used in live video feeds
- Dematerialised into a video world- textile, wearable thing- series of photographs- body and electronics interacting
- Collages and drawings- play with organic and technological world
- Body as an extension of technology
- 3D prints are also used as part of the process
- Aggressive vs tender/ Hardware vs software
- Romance and spirituality- they use technology as the metaphor
- 'Experimental TV Centre (2003)- used an old analog video system- continuous yet fragile electronic signal
- A whole room was turned into an instrument
- A patch was connected to the electrical equipment- very reminiscent of video art in the 60s and 70s when one would make their own instruments and not use internal editing
- Analogy- political/ nostalgic
- Also heavily anti- Consumerist- decided to not play with new 'toys' - created personal restrictions and restraints
- Have to enforce very tight manifestos nowadays to make your work seem personal
- The couple commissioned a 3m wide, 1/2m tall table, the length of the room, so to build their own electronic models into it
- Also added suface etchings onto the table's surface around the modular sncyronisers
- Kept 'wirefull' idea by exposing the wires by using clear acrylic around the equipment
- By creating your own electrical equipment- they believed you were able to know the sounds and colours produced by the instruments on a deeper level
Saturday 9 February 2008
Pavilion Photography Competition
Dear Mr. Duncan,
I would like to submit my work to the editors of Source and to Pavilion for their review, as I would love the opportunity to have my images published. Please see below a description of my work and attached six images.
I look forward to hopefully being able to tell you more about my work on the 23 February.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Baumann
'At the core of my practice as a visual artist is an ongoing fascination with the remnants of history, the signs of decay and erosion, and the intricacies of colour and fragility in aged structures, which reveal the process of gradual deterioration. I utilise Leeds’ industrial heritage by appropriating salvaged and reclaimed materials using contemporary, photographic compositions to capture and reinvent the physical traces of the city’s historical past from institutionalised places. This has instigated a sustained engagement with the textural qualities of industrial artifacts, be it the multi-layered fabrics created during the worsted process, or the mechanical surfaces of the machines, or even the subtle renderings of transience on abandoned constructions.
The chosen images are characterised by their ability to harbour a memory of the structure’s transcended usage before being absolved. The multi-sensory experience is greatened by the camera’s subtle explorations of the surface and patina, which detach and abstract the subject from its original context, allowing access to a more metaphorical pictorial language of abandonment, loss, transience or impermanence.'
I would like to submit my work to the editors of Source and to Pavilion for their review, as I would love the opportunity to have my images published. Please see below a description of my work and attached six images.
I look forward to hopefully being able to tell you more about my work on the 23 February.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Baumann
'At the core of my practice as a visual artist is an ongoing fascination with the remnants of history, the signs of decay and erosion, and the intricacies of colour and fragility in aged structures, which reveal the process of gradual deterioration. I utilise Leeds’ industrial heritage by appropriating salvaged and reclaimed materials using contemporary, photographic compositions to capture and reinvent the physical traces of the city’s historical past from institutionalised places. This has instigated a sustained engagement with the textural qualities of industrial artifacts, be it the multi-layered fabrics created during the worsted process, or the mechanical surfaces of the machines, or even the subtle renderings of transience on abandoned constructions.
The chosen images are characterised by their ability to harbour a memory of the structure’s transcended usage before being absolved. The multi-sensory experience is greatened by the camera’s subtle explorations of the surface and patina, which detach and abstract the subject from its original context, allowing access to a more metaphorical pictorial language of abandonment, loss, transience or impermanence.'
'The Craft and Art of Clay- A complete potter's handbook'
The Craft and Art of Clay- A Complete Potter's Handbook (London: Calmann and King Limited, 1995)
- Craft means skill- deliberate sense of hand- adds individualism/ show the original softness of the material- textured surfaces
- Engobe- Engobes used on the raw clay and fired on in bisque- firing will be visible in some measure under almost all glazes
- Decorative effects can be obtained by wedging powdered metallic colouring oxides or liquid coloured clays called engobes into plastic clay
- Mid-60s- pottery became the voice of social and political conscience- emergence of the message pot/ uniformity of romantic ideals blunted by a contemporary recognition of artistic multiplicity
- Medium's versatility and challenges- also very accessible
Jerry Rothman, b. 1933 in New York:
- Made Constructivist sculptures till 1961
- Sensual, excessive Postmodern style with the inherent tension of the Classical style
- Penchant for debunking accepted attitudes- typical of his work- embodies him as the ceramic artist as social commentator
- Uses a technique in which pigments surface after firing through the top layer of clay to create shapes of muted colour
- Blurs the distinction between sculpture and vessel
'Sky Pot', 1961, stoneware, unglazed.
'Covered Jar', 1981, Thrown and Constructed Vessel.
Wednesday 6 February 2008
Against Nature: The Hybrid Forms of Modern Sculpture'
I went to the opening of 'By Leafy Ways: Early Works by Ivor Abrahams' and 'Against Nature: The Hybrid Forms of Modern Sculpture' tonight. The exhibition had so many good artists; Louise Bourgeois, Jacob Epstein, Julio Gonzalez, Max Ernst, Hans Arp etc. but somehow it didn't seem to make much of an impression with me.
Tuesday 5 February 2008
Exhibition Proposal
Exhibition Proposal:
We came together as a group because all our work plays and negotiates with issues of texture and form. Many of our pieces also engage with the surrounding space, by utilizing the walls and floors of our studio, which is why we decided to exhibit our work in the archetypal white gallery as our work would then be in command of the space.
We all use a wide variety of materials to propose various concepts within our work so a site specific space would hinder and obscure the individual reasoning, whereas a Modernist gallery would allow our work to transform the space, not visa versa.
The neutral colouring and smooth linear surfaces of the space will also emphasise the materiality of our work, which is the uniting motif of our exhibition.
We hope to present a collection of mixed media work with some pieces even edging towards craft. By choosing to present our work within such a traditional twentieth century setting, we hope to assist in helping craft and mixed media artworks get the recognition and reputation they deserve.
By forcing craft and mixed media artworks to be exhibited within the art world's most accredited environment perhaps we may challenge the notion of what is to be expected when visiting a small, independent gallery. Furthermore we believe all art forms should have a chance to be displayed in this sanctimonious, fake atmosphere.
We all use a wide variety of materials to propose various concepts within our work so a site specific space would hinder and obscure the individual reasoning, whereas a Modernist gallery would allow our work to transform the space, not visa versa.
The neutral colouring and smooth linear surfaces of the space will also emphasise the materiality of our work, which is the uniting motif of our exhibition.
We hope to present a collection of mixed media work with some pieces even edging towards craft. By choosing to present our work within such a traditional twentieth century setting, we hope to assist in helping craft and mixed media artworks get the recognition and reputation they deserve.
By forcing craft and mixed media artworks to be exhibited within the art world's most accredited environment perhaps we may challenge the notion of what is to be expected when visiting a small, independent gallery. Furthermore we believe all art forms should have a chance to be displayed in this sanctimonious, fake atmosphere.
Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space
Brian O'Doherty
The white cube, un-shadowed, white, clean, artificial, an evenly lighted ‘cell’, was crucial in making Modernist art appear to be art.
The increased value of certain artworks can be charted alongside the evolution of that artistic space.
A lasting trait of Modernism is that the space is now seen before the art.
The white, ideal gallery subtracts from the artwork all cues that interfere with the fact that it is 'art‘- perfect for craft and mixed media work!
Work is isolated from anything that would detract from its own evaluation of itself
- Connotations of the white: sanctity of the church/ formality of a courtroom/ the mystique of the experimental laboratory- all seem foreign to the definition of craft and mixed media
- The object is placed as the medium through which these ideas are manifested and proffered for discussion
- Post-Modernism- context becomes content- so the reasoning behind the exhibition space is of vital importance
- The object introduced into the gallery 'frames' the gallery
- Art is free 'to take its own life‘- mounted/ hung/ scattered for study
Places the audience in a limbolike status- presence of your own body seems superfluous, an intrusion- craft and mixed media work is very approachable and familiar therefore it will add a greater distance
Constantine Brancusi
Muse 1912.
Brancusi took a neutral plinth and sculpted it to relate to the sculpture. The Plinth becomes as much part of the piece as the sculpture itself. Brancusi draws attention to the connotations which a plinth holds.
Roselyn Crousse refers to sculpture as being ‘intrinsically monumental’ and self contained. However during the 19th century site specific artwork emerged which relates to its space.
Institution Versus Own Gallery
Institution
The white cube, un-shadowed, white, clean, artificial, an evenly lighted ‘cell’, was crucial in making Modernist art appear to be art.
The increased value of certain artworks can be charted alongside the evolution of that artistic space.
A lasting trait of Modernism is that the space is now seen before the art.
The white, ideal gallery subtracts from the artwork all cues that interfere with the fact that it is 'art‘- perfect for craft and mixed media work!
Work is isolated from anything that would detract from its own evaluation of itself
- Connotations of the white: sanctity of the church/ formality of a courtroom/ the mystique of the experimental laboratory- all seem foreign to the definition of craft and mixed media
- The object is placed as the medium through which these ideas are manifested and proffered for discussion
- Post-Modernism- context becomes content- so the reasoning behind the exhibition space is of vital importance
- The object introduced into the gallery 'frames' the gallery
- Art is free 'to take its own life‘- mounted/ hung/ scattered for study
Places the audience in a limbolike status- presence of your own body seems superfluous, an intrusion- craft and mixed media work is very approachable and familiar therefore it will add a greater distance
Constantine Brancusi
Muse 1912.
Brancusi took a neutral plinth and sculpted it to relate to the sculpture. The Plinth becomes as much part of the piece as the sculpture itself. Brancusi draws attention to the connotations which a plinth holds.
Roselyn Crousse refers to sculpture as being ‘intrinsically monumental’ and self contained. However during the 19th century site specific artwork emerged which relates to its space.
Institution Versus Own Gallery
Institution
Positives:
The institution has an already established reputation.Assistance with promotion, invitations, curation.Ready made gallery space.Little cost?Professional help.Other establishments/ people already aware of the gallery.
Negatives:
Lack of flexibility regarding dates.High costs of exhibiting?Specific themes imposed- not suitable.Restriction imposed on the space.Competition from other artists.Work has to be deemed good enough.
Own Gallery
Own Gallery
Positives:
Total control on the space chosen. Control over costs.Flexibility on exhibition dates.No restrictions on the quality of work.No rental costs to the institution.Control over how curated.No competition from other artists.
Negatives:
High costs in renting/ buying a building.A lot of work needed to make space suitable- costs and time.Lack of professional help.Lack reputation.Need to do own promotion/ invitations/ curation.Lack of connections.
Why we would like to exhibit in a small gallery space:
-A small gallery space will reflect the intricacy of our work.
-Small galleries can also give the impression of being less successful than larger galleries, with less visitors and less money- an exact reflection of mixed media and craft art work in the industry.
-Some smaller galleries can also create a more unique and individual atmosphere within the space, which can help the exhibition to be more memorable.
-Smaller galleries also do not carry the same quantity of ideological baggage
Monday 4 February 2008
Proposal for Thursday
Jenni- Plinthes and site specificity
Sarah- Ideology of the white gallery
Alex- Gallery size- implications
Amanda- Transforming environments of space
Helen- Multi-media and found in the gallery space
Catherine- Institution vs. Individual gallery
Sarah- Ideology of the white gallery
Alex- Gallery size- implications
Amanda- Transforming environments of space
Helen- Multi-media and found in the gallery space
Catherine- Institution vs. Individual gallery
Saturday 2 February 2008
Visit to Leeds City Gallery
I went to the Leeds City Gallery today to see if I could gain more inspiration for my project, as I feel so far this term my work does not seem to have the same impetus and steady direction. I was really pleased with my afternoon as I came across three works which really caught my attention.
Edward Wadsworth's 'Composition on a Red Ground', 1931, made of tempera on wood is also mechanistic nature. The still life seems to be a play on mechanical drawing, which I also share an interest in. The description of the work in the gallery states that he was an avid subscriber to 'L'Espirit Nouveau', which was a magazine which promoted machinery and design. The influence of this in his work is pretty blatent.
'Dazzle Ship in Drydock' by Edward Wadsworth, 1919:
Susan Hiller's (b. 1931) 'Monument 1980-1: Colonial Version', mixed media, was also really interesting and emotive. The work was concerned with the fragmentation of contemporary culture. Hiller seemed to be attempting to return forgotten or lost remnants of history to mainstream attention, which parallels my idea. However she seems to take on an archaeologist role much more than I do. This is revealed in her belief that art should 'reveal, hidden, undisclosed and unarticulated codes within a culture', which is a viewpoint I have a lot of respect for but I do find it rather limited. The work was a massive series of photographs showing plaques that commemorated forgotten hereos of the last century who gave their own lives to save others. I found the work pretty impressive and I felt almost ashamed admitting to myself that had this work not been in a gallery environment, I may have walked on past it.
I was also really impressed with the gallery's bronze and copper & brass sculptures because they managed to look mechanic even when the artist's hand had obviously dented the surface. I like how the artwork combined a rusty metallic, machine-like appearance alongside a human touch.
The first one was Naum Gabo's 'Construction in Space: Soaring', 1929-30, which was made out of brass, plexiglass and wood. This sculpture was part of his ongoing attempt to promote a utopian vision of the world which opposed the Surrealist outlook. His clear, metal and plastic sculptures have architectural overtones, which look like they could be pioneering buildings. Gabo belonged to the Soviet Constructivists and this work clearly displays their fascination with airports and flight, as both were archetypal symbols of modernity.
Edward Wadsworth's 'Composition on a Red Ground', 1931, made of tempera on wood is also mechanistic nature. The still life seems to be a play on mechanical drawing, which I also share an interest in. The description of the work in the gallery states that he was an avid subscriber to 'L'Espirit Nouveau', which was a magazine which promoted machinery and design. The influence of this in his work is pretty blatent.'Dazzle Ship in Drydock' by Edward Wadsworth, 1919:
Susan Hiller's (b. 1931) 'Monument 1980-1: Colonial Version', mixed media, was also really interesting and emotive. The work was concerned with the fragmentation of contemporary culture. Hiller seemed to be attempting to return forgotten or lost remnants of history to mainstream attention, which parallels my idea. However she seems to take on an archaeologist role much more than I do. This is revealed in her belief that art should 'reveal, hidden, undisclosed and unarticulated codes within a culture', which is a viewpoint I have a lot of respect for but I do find it rather limited. The work was a massive series of photographs showing plaques that commemorated forgotten hereos of the last century who gave their own lives to save others. I found the work pretty impressive and I felt almost ashamed admitting to myself that had this work not been in a gallery environment, I may have walked on past it.I was also really impressed with the gallery's bronze and copper & brass sculptures because they managed to look mechanic even when the artist's hand had obviously dented the surface. I like how the artwork combined a rusty metallic, machine-like appearance alongside a human touch. Descartes' Dualism
I find Descartes extremely interesting. Cognito ergo sum. I think therefore I am. I remember that from school. Caecilius es in horto scribet. The other extent of my Latin knowledge- if only Caecilius is writing in the garden cropped up more often...
My recent work, handmade machine parts from clay, brought Descartes' Dualism theory to my mind. I began creating machine parts in clay, as I did not like the inflexibility of wood and having to try and find metal parts that may suggest a part of a textile machine. However I am finding it impossible to create seemingly hard-edged, machine- casted parts and then it occurred to me... why would I want to? Craft and the hand-made are returning to the forefront of design and the art world, so by producing parts with an obvious individual quality, I am merely commenting on the art industry. The V&A's craft exhibition, Out of the Ordinary, is a perfect example of this Post Modern trend and the rising price of individual designs is also a clear indication.
The making of machine parts has a peculiar paradox to Descartes' Dualism, as his theory suggested that the body works like a machine, that it has the material properties of extension and motion, and that it follows the laws of physics. Therefore by making the body create machine parts, you are constructing another physical form of yourself. The imagination, the mind, is then the nonmaterial entity that controls the body, though according to Descartes the irrational can be controlled by the body, as is the case when someone acts out of passion. Previous to this theory, most accounts of the relationship between mind and body had been uni-directional. I think this theory is really interesting as humans are so fascinated by technical advancements, especially robots. Perhaps we are merely trying to recreate ourselves. This explanation surely fits the work of Stelarc and Orlan...
My recent work, handmade machine parts from clay, brought Descartes' Dualism theory to my mind. I began creating machine parts in clay, as I did not like the inflexibility of wood and having to try and find metal parts that may suggest a part of a textile machine. However I am finding it impossible to create seemingly hard-edged, machine- casted parts and then it occurred to me... why would I want to? Craft and the hand-made are returning to the forefront of design and the art world, so by producing parts with an obvious individual quality, I am merely commenting on the art industry. The V&A's craft exhibition, Out of the Ordinary, is a perfect example of this Post Modern trend and the rising price of individual designs is also a clear indication.
The making of machine parts has a peculiar paradox to Descartes' Dualism, as his theory suggested that the body works like a machine, that it has the material properties of extension and motion, and that it follows the laws of physics. Therefore by making the body create machine parts, you are constructing another physical form of yourself. The imagination, the mind, is then the nonmaterial entity that controls the body, though according to Descartes the irrational can be controlled by the body, as is the case when someone acts out of passion. Previous to this theory, most accounts of the relationship between mind and body had been uni-directional. I think this theory is really interesting as humans are so fascinated by technical advancements, especially robots. Perhaps we are merely trying to recreate ourselves. This explanation surely fits the work of Stelarc and Orlan...
Developing our Exhibition Proposal for Thursday
Following our seminar with Richard Bell, when he suggested our group wanted to exhibit in the Tate Modern, I sent this email to the John Martin Gallery. The email slightly bends the truth but hopefully they will send us some images of the gallery space and the outside, to show in our presentation for Thursday! This gallery is our ideal; great location in the heart of the West End, one large ground storey, large front windows to attract passers-by, an amazing PR team to design and create promotional material for the exhibition. None of us wanted the Tate Modern, may be in the future you will see our work there, but for now we want intimacy.
To the John Martin employees,
I used to work for Citco, a Hedge Fund Company, along Albemarle Street before changing careers. I am now involved in promoting American art, especially artists who are based in the southern states, and this is where hopefully you can be of some assistance!
Would it be possible for you to send some images of the outside of your gallery space and a few of the inside, as I am proposing to curate an exhibition in London? After visiting your gallery many times during my lunch hour, I now envision the John Martin Gallery when discussing the idea of whether to present in the West End. I would be eternally grateful if you could send a few images of the gallery and its context as it is relatively difficult to communicate a space without visual aids.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Baumann
Fingers crossed!!! Lying is bad...
To the John Martin employees,
I used to work for Citco, a Hedge Fund Company, along Albemarle Street before changing careers. I am now involved in promoting American art, especially artists who are based in the southern states, and this is where hopefully you can be of some assistance!
Would it be possible for you to send some images of the outside of your gallery space and a few of the inside, as I am proposing to curate an exhibition in London? After visiting your gallery many times during my lunch hour, I now envision the John Martin Gallery when discussing the idea of whether to present in the West End. I would be eternally grateful if you could send a few images of the gallery and its context as it is relatively difficult to communicate a space without visual aids.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Baumann
Fingers crossed!!! Lying is bad...
Wednesday 30 January 2008
Office of Subversive Architecture
Office of Subversive Architecture- All eight of the architects work for OSA on a part-time basis, as they all have other jobs, mainly teaching or working for another architectural agency
- Met each other at university and wanted to realise projects as a team and negotiate the costs and procedures themselves- less weakening of the original concept
'The Accumulator'- Leeds, Feb-March 2008:
- Were given a brief to design the space in the international swimming pool area inbetween when the pool was to be drained and when it was to be knocked down
- OSA liked the idea of giving the public space back to the public one last time- allow the users a chance to say goodbye
- The architects decided to do something abstract as they liked the idea of an empty big basin- chose to design a funnel-like installation, so it appears water would be collected through the ceiling
- Therefore working with the existing structure and character of the space to help transform the area with a minimal effort
'Intact'- Shoreditch, London- 2003:
- When walking through the East End of London- two of the OSA architects stumbled upon a disused signal box, which had had the bottom level taken away to prevent squatters using the premises
- Contacted Network Rail to ask permission- the company was interested but not committed to their suggestions for improvement as the signal box was situated in an area of controversy
- Climbed over before dawn, dressed as council workers (so to not attract attention) and did it anyway
- Before converting a space there are two main questions: what level of sensitivity is needed and shall we try to retain the initial structure?
- Re-painted the signal box, planted geraniums and a little front garden and installed a light, motor battery
- Idea was to draw attention and refurbish a derelict space- create a dream-like image in a decrepid area of London
- Also the OSA has to consider whether to change the public or urban area temporarily or permanently
- This 'subversion' was labelled Guerilla Architecture- though guerilla architecture usually refers to destruction rather than construction
'Hoegarden'- Liverpool Street, London- 2005:
- Used for advertising purposes, though all OSA had to do was incorporate a few logos
- Decided to really contrast the space with its urban surroundings- covered the area with blankets of grass and painted an architectural plan of the area onto the lawn
- Natural idea with a comic side; 'Please Keep On The Grass'
- Also displayed in Manchester between derelict buildings- OSA thought this venue was actually more fitting for the concept
'Launch'- Kassel, Germany- 2007
- 100year old casino- change the space into a lounge temporarily
- The room had a lot of windows so the area was easy to neutralise
- Brought cheap IKEA sofas, projected an video of a sitting cat, Julia, which looped every five minutes
- One half of each drink's table was reflected onto the other side using a variety of lights
'Kunstulle'- Liverpool Biennial- 2006
- Asked to create a new dynamic for the roof of these three art warehouses so it was clear that this was a venue during the Biennial
- To create a beacon and help draw people to this region- revitalise the area- 'Soho-isation'
- Focus on the character and the potential of the space- design was to follow the interesting roofline- minimal intervention as it was a temporary intervention
- Decided to not use doors or windows for the outside roof space- instead the OSA team hung drapes of translucent and red PVC from a metal scaffolding
- Depending on the sky's light- the colour in the room changed- very atmospheric- cosy and intimate.
- Met each other at university and wanted to realise projects as a team and negotiate the costs and procedures themselves- less weakening of the original concept
'The Accumulator'- Leeds, Feb-March 2008:
- Were given a brief to design the space in the international swimming pool area inbetween when the pool was to be drained and when it was to be knocked down
- OSA liked the idea of giving the public space back to the public one last time- allow the users a chance to say goodbye
- The architects decided to do something abstract as they liked the idea of an empty big basin- chose to design a funnel-like installation, so it appears water would be collected through the ceiling
- Therefore working with the existing structure and character of the space to help transform the area with a minimal effort
'Intact'- Shoreditch, London- 2003:
- When walking through the East End of London- two of the OSA architects stumbled upon a disused signal box, which had had the bottom level taken away to prevent squatters using the premises
- Contacted Network Rail to ask permission- the company was interested but not committed to their suggestions for improvement as the signal box was situated in an area of controversy
- Climbed over before dawn, dressed as council workers (so to not attract attention) and did it anyway
- Before converting a space there are two main questions: what level of sensitivity is needed and shall we try to retain the initial structure?
- Re-painted the signal box, planted geraniums and a little front garden and installed a light, motor battery
- Idea was to draw attention and refurbish a derelict space- create a dream-like image in a decrepid area of London
- Also the OSA has to consider whether to change the public or urban area temporarily or permanently
- This 'subversion' was labelled Guerilla Architecture- though guerilla architecture usually refers to destruction rather than construction
'Hoegarden'- Liverpool Street, London- 2005:
- Used for advertising purposes, though all OSA had to do was incorporate a few logos
- Decided to really contrast the space with its urban surroundings- covered the area with blankets of grass and painted an architectural plan of the area onto the lawn
- Natural idea with a comic side; 'Please Keep On The Grass'
- Also displayed in Manchester between derelict buildings- OSA thought this venue was actually more fitting for the concept
'Launch'- Kassel, Germany- 2007
- 100year old casino- change the space into a lounge temporarily
- The room had a lot of windows so the area was easy to neutralise
- Brought cheap IKEA sofas, projected an video of a sitting cat, Julia, which looped every five minutes
- One half of each drink's table was reflected onto the other side using a variety of lights
'Kunstulle'- Liverpool Biennial- 2006
- Asked to create a new dynamic for the roof of these three art warehouses so it was clear that this was a venue during the Biennial
- To create a beacon and help draw people to this region- revitalise the area- 'Soho-isation'
- Focus on the character and the potential of the space- design was to follow the interesting roofline- minimal intervention as it was a temporary intervention
- Decided to not use doors or windows for the outside roof space- instead the OSA team hung drapes of translucent and red PVC from a metal scaffolding
- Depending on the sky's light- the colour in the room changed- very atmospheric- cosy and intimate.
Friday 25 January 2008
Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space
Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space, by Brian O'DohertyIndeed tradition itself, as the spacecraft withdraws, looks like another piece of bric-a-brac on the coffee-table- no more than a kinetic assemblage glued together with reproductions, powered by little mythic motors and sporting tiny models of museums. And in its midst, one notices an evenly lighted "cell" that appears crucial to making the thing work: the gallery space.
The history of modernism is intimately framed by that space. Or rather the history of modern art can be correlated with changes in that space and in the way we see it. We have now reached a point where we see not the art but the space first. (A cIiche of the age is to ejaculate over the space on entering a gallery.)An image comes to mind of a white, ideal space that, more than any single picture, may be the archetypal image of 20th-century art. And it clarifies itself through a process of historical inevitability usually attached to the art it contains.
Notes from my reading:
- An evenly lighted cell
- History of Modernism is intimately framed by that space
- History of Modern art- correlated with changes in that space
- Reached a point where we can see the space first before the art
- White, ideal space displaying the archetypal image of twentieth century art
- Ideal gallery subtracts from the artwork all cues that interfere with the fact that it is 'art'
- Work is isolated from anything that would detract from its own evaluation of itself
- Connotations of the white: sanctity of the church/ formality of a courtroom/ the mystique of the experimental laboratory- all joining chic design to create a unique chamber
- The object to be the medium through which these ideas are manifested and proffered for discussion
- Post-Modernism- context becomes content
- Peculiar reversal- object introduced into the gallery 'frames' the gallery
- Modernist- wooden polished floor, painted white walls and evenly light ceiling, as the main light source
- Art is free 'to take its own life'
- Unshadowed, white, clean, artificial
- Works- mounted/ hung/ scattered for study
- Limbolike status- presence of your own body seems superfluous, an intrusion
My group and I seem pretty adamant that we would like to display our work within this Modernist white cube... it begs the question as to why. Amanda's favourite exhibition was an exhibition she saw in Edinburgh showing only craft work. I absolutely loved the V&A's craft exhibition. Perhaps the reason why we are so determined to keep our work within this twentieth century tradition is because mixed media and craft never really had a chance to be displayed in this sanctimonious, fake atmosphere. By forcing our work to be accepted within the art world's most accredited environment may be we will help craft and mixed media gain the recognition it deserves...
Wednesday 23 January 2008
'Clay Today: Contemporary Ceramists and Their Work'
'Clay Today: Contemporary Ceramists and Their Work':
- Conceptual art exists largely as an idea and largely in the moment
- Clay handled conceptually- not shaped or glazed or fired- against the traditional ceramic vocab
- Exhibitions devoted to unfired clay art
- Conceptual artists have worked with the ephemeral dust or dissolved wet mud
- Much claywork is a 'happening' but even happenings can be- must be- controlled
- The definition of Michelangelo- 'sculpture bisects, or in some way changes, space'
Glazing:
- Glazing adds another dimension of colour and yields a hard, dense, smooth surface that is easy to clean
- Fired glazes run the gamut from clear transparent, translucent or opaque glossy surfaces to stony, dull- surfaced matts- matt glazes tend to stay in one place whilst melting in the kiln
- Poured/ dipped/ brushed/ sponged/ sprayed- each application technique leaves its own mark- brush marks/ pour marks/ sponge marks etc.
Normal consistency:
- Run off fingernails as a long droll
- Some skin should be visible through the glaze coating on your hand
- Even coating of glaze best achieved by pouring and dipping
- Brush in several alternating coats- will blend more evenly
- Spraying= even coat
- Air bubbles can develop
- Metal oxides and stains can be mixed with water and applied by any means under or over unfired glaze resulting in underglaze and overglaze (majolica) decoration
- Clay is an art material that changes- never stays the same until after the final firing- not reveal itself until the final cooling
- Clay sculpture- stable/ mobile/ unfired/ fired
- Adjectives to attain- exciting/ dramatic/powerful
- 3D form- movement/ repetition/ contrast/ variety/ proportion
- Perceptions to communicate- soft/ hard/ light/ heavy/ fragile/ strong
- Might use clay as it does what other materials can not
- Maybe develop a patina- usually associated with wood firing
- Black/ dark brown matt glaze might get the effect I am after...
- Conceptual art exists largely as an idea and largely in the moment
- Clay handled conceptually- not shaped or glazed or fired- against the traditional ceramic vocab
- Exhibitions devoted to unfired clay art
- Conceptual artists have worked with the ephemeral dust or dissolved wet mud
- Much claywork is a 'happening' but even happenings can be- must be- controlled
- The definition of Michelangelo- 'sculpture bisects, or in some way changes, space'
Glazing:
- Glazing adds another dimension of colour and yields a hard, dense, smooth surface that is easy to clean
- Fired glazes run the gamut from clear transparent, translucent or opaque glossy surfaces to stony, dull- surfaced matts- matt glazes tend to stay in one place whilst melting in the kiln
- Poured/ dipped/ brushed/ sponged/ sprayed- each application technique leaves its own mark- brush marks/ pour marks/ sponge marks etc.
Normal consistency:
- Run off fingernails as a long droll
- Some skin should be visible through the glaze coating on your hand
- Even coating of glaze best achieved by pouring and dipping
- Brush in several alternating coats- will blend more evenly
- Spraying= even coat
- Air bubbles can develop
- Metal oxides and stains can be mixed with water and applied by any means under or over unfired glaze resulting in underglaze and overglaze (majolica) decoration
- Clay is an art material that changes- never stays the same until after the final firing- not reveal itself until the final cooling
- Clay sculpture- stable/ mobile/ unfired/ fired
- Adjectives to attain- exciting/ dramatic/powerful
- 3D form- movement/ repetition/ contrast/ variety/ proportion
- Perceptions to communicate- soft/ hard/ light/ heavy/ fragile/ strong
- Might use clay as it does what other materials can not
- Maybe develop a patina- usually associated with wood firing
- Black/ dark brown matt glaze might get the effect I am after...
Subtle Mechanisms by Harvey Blume
'Subtle Mechanisms' by Harvey Blume, Critical Eye, August 13, 1998- An Article on Arthur Ganson
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/criticaleye/ce980813.htm
Arthur Ganson works, as very few artists do, with machines. He builds subtle mechanisms that magnify and reflect on aspects of existence. Given his medium it's at first tempting to think of his work as a throwback to the eighteenth century, with its belief in a clockwork universe activated at the beginning of time by a divine being -- a clockmaker -- then left to run in accordance with the laws of Newtonian mechanics. It was an age with a passion for automatons -- Jacques de Vaucanson's duck, for example, which was rigged to swim, swallow, and produce excrement. According to one contemporary account, this duck "performed all the quick motions of the head and throat which are peculiar to the living animal, and ... also the sound of quacking." In the eighteenth century, quacking and crapping mechanical ducks were in philosophical earnest, intended, as the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard put it in Simulations (1983), to be the "analogy of man and ... his interlocutor." Ducks and other automatons pushed the clockwork metaphor to its limit, embodying viewers' questions about the real difference, if any, between mechanism and organism. Might the latter be merely a highly refined version of the former? Were living things God's finest clocks, built for swallowing, defecating, and, in the case of humans, talking, too?
Previously in Critical Eye:"Truth and Consequences" (May 1998)The films of Luis Buñuel, argues Lee Siegel, reveal a vision of human violence that is complicated, unsentimental, and always honest."Posing for Egon Schiele" (February 1998)Lee Siegel on the artist, the critics, and the importance of being jaded.Discuss this column in the Arts & Literature forum of Post & Riposte.
Ganson's work isn't ruled by a clockwork philosophy; it is open to whatever truths about life and motion his wires, motors, oil, and chains will lend themselves to. His pieces are not, like de Vaucanson's duck, scrupulous mechanical copies of living things, but are instead suggestive -- or, as Ganson puts it, "gestural," frequently grounded in biological and bodily processes but never limited to them. And Ganson proves just as resistant to today's dominant metaphor machine, the computer, as he is indifferent to the Newtonian metaphor of the clock. This summer represented Ganson's breakthrough into the New York art world; an exhibit of his work, on view from May 30 to July 18 at the Ricco/Maresca Gallery, was praised by The New Yorker as including "miraculous whirligig sculptures." I met up with the forty-three-year-old artist at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, where his work remains on display, and where I first encountered it. The MIT Museum specializes in exhibits about science and its history -- as in a current installation on the history of the slide rule -- and devotes a room to MIT students' most memorable hacks. (How did they get that car to the roof the administration building overnight, anyway?) To go from such displays into a gallery of Ganson's work is to experience a sudden shift from documentation, however informative or amusing, to the more complex claims and rewards of art.
Cory's ChairIn "Cory's Chair," a small yellow plastic chair is torn apart by four mechanical arms, which then reverse the motion and reassemble it. The violent action of the mechanism reminded me of a spider's mouth fastening on prey. Ganson's initial thought, though, pertained to time. "The exploding chair is like the current moment," he told me. "It's around long enough for you to see what it is, and suddenly it's gone." The idea of the exploding moment led Ganson to considerations of the Big Bang, which joins the Big Contraction among the multiple meanings arising from this piece. For Ganson it's crucial that it be a chair endlessly torn apart and put back together rather than, say, an anonymous car part or lawn-mower gizmo. An exploding gizmo might say something about factory work and the assembly line, but an exploding chair sets off a broader range of feelings, according to Ganson. "It's a well-understood object in a strange situation. We fill in the blanks. Why is it doing that?" "Cory's Chair" points both to the instant and eternity, and Ganson toys with the dimension of time in many of his works, which often repeat themselves at fixed intervals -- though in the case of "Machine with Concrete" you'll just have to take the artist's word for it: the sculpture features fast gears acting on a system of slower gears that will drive a steel bit into a waiting concrete slab some 2.191 trillion years from now. (One has to assume this machine has never been adequately tested.) Ganson's time play is usually on a more human scale, and surrounds his work with an implicit music, a sense of dance. The dance is made explicit in a piece like "Machine with African Porcupine Quills," whose arms do a high-speed flamenco with sword-like objects. The mobile nature of Ganson's work appeals to children, who are not yet inculcated with the belief that art and motion can't be combined. Ganson is one of the few contemporary artists whose work charms almost immediately rather than luring viewers into a series of staring contests with ominous objects. And some of the pieces are interactive, driven by human beings rather than electricity. "Brownian Motion," when pulled along, communicates the motion of its wheels to a tray of rice pellets that swarm over themselves like larvae, or, from a distance, appear to undulate like a single wave-like living thing.
Ganson's accessibility does not come at the expense of complexity or depth. "Requiem for a Lost Uncle" consists of twenty-three small scraps of paper positioned at the end of rods that lift and fold them so that they appear to be birds flying off in a serene token of a soul's release. "Machine with Ball Chain" evokes an opposite sense: of weight, density, gravity, effort -- of forced labor, perhaps, or peristalsis (enter the bowels of de Vaucanson's duck). As the chain is tugged slowly down through an opening, it defies Ganson's usual repetitive motions, huddling into different patterns of resistance every time. Ganson's work can be compared to that of Rebecca Horn, the German artist who also employs motion but who buries her apparatus in feathers and cloth and subsumes it in symbolism pertaining to sex or violence and, in many cases, both. Ganson's works are lighter and more forthcoming about their own composition; the mechanism is always a good part of the message. When I alluded to the fragility and delicacy of some of his wire constructs, he responded, "Those are all human qualities. Fragility, sadness, joy, fear, and also wonderment -- those are the feelings that caused me to make them in the first place." Ganson has been fascinated with motion since devoting his sixth-grade doodles to studies of a race car ramming into a rock. When I asked why he hasn't used computers to carry out simulations of the motions and collisions that intrigue him, he said, "In the digital realm, you can do anything, draw anything. You don't have to obey the laws of physics. So when you see something digital, it's less surprising than when you see a physical object doing it; there's less mystery." Ganson isn't ready to abandon atoms for the easy malleability of bits. "Part of the reason for me spending my time, my limited time on earth, in this pursuit," he says, "is to work with the physical world and see what I can say with it."
Given Ganson's respect for the expressive possibilities of matter in motion, one piece in particular seemed to serve as his self-portrait. In "Child Watching Ball," a doll's face swivels in perfect accord with a ball's gyrations. No matter how fast the ball moves -- the speed is determined by how fast you turn a handle -- the doll's eyes refuse to break contact, as though permanently hypnotized. Ganson disagreed with me that "Child Watching Ball" says any more about him than his other pieces; he regards them all as telling part of his story. Not surprisingly, Ganson did warm to a statement the novelist Umberto Eco made about his own work -- namely that its focus was "to transform machines into narrative, to show how much narrative power they have inside them, how they can tell stories." For Ganson, as for Eco, motion and meaning are close to inseparable.Ganson's work is at home in a place like the MIT Museum because his small machines are so exquisitely engineered, and in a New York gallery because they are created to accomplish nothing else than art. For Ganson, the clockwork universe, with its strictly mimetic mechanical forms, has long since run down, and the digital universe, the world of virtual reality, where anything goes, has not yet been booted up. It's in that space -- where objects have real weight, real motion, and real implications -- that Ganson as an artist thrives.
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/criticaleye/ce980813.htm
For Arthur Ganson, an artist whose ingenious contraptions tell stories, meaning and motion are all but inseparable.
Arthur Ganson works, as very few artists do, with machines. He builds subtle mechanisms that magnify and reflect on aspects of existence. Given his medium it's at first tempting to think of his work as a throwback to the eighteenth century, with its belief in a clockwork universe activated at the beginning of time by a divine being -- a clockmaker -- then left to run in accordance with the laws of Newtonian mechanics. It was an age with a passion for automatons -- Jacques de Vaucanson's duck, for example, which was rigged to swim, swallow, and produce excrement. According to one contemporary account, this duck "performed all the quick motions of the head and throat which are peculiar to the living animal, and ... also the sound of quacking." In the eighteenth century, quacking and crapping mechanical ducks were in philosophical earnest, intended, as the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard put it in Simulations (1983), to be the "analogy of man and ... his interlocutor." Ducks and other automatons pushed the clockwork metaphor to its limit, embodying viewers' questions about the real difference, if any, between mechanism and organism. Might the latter be merely a highly refined version of the former? Were living things God's finest clocks, built for swallowing, defecating, and, in the case of humans, talking, too?
Previously in Critical Eye:"Truth and Consequences" (May 1998)The films of Luis Buñuel, argues Lee Siegel, reveal a vision of human violence that is complicated, unsentimental, and always honest."Posing for Egon Schiele" (February 1998)Lee Siegel on the artist, the critics, and the importance of being jaded.Discuss this column in the Arts & Literature forum of Post & Riposte.
Ganson's work isn't ruled by a clockwork philosophy; it is open to whatever truths about life and motion his wires, motors, oil, and chains will lend themselves to. His pieces are not, like de Vaucanson's duck, scrupulous mechanical copies of living things, but are instead suggestive -- or, as Ganson puts it, "gestural," frequently grounded in biological and bodily processes but never limited to them. And Ganson proves just as resistant to today's dominant metaphor machine, the computer, as he is indifferent to the Newtonian metaphor of the clock. This summer represented Ganson's breakthrough into the New York art world; an exhibit of his work, on view from May 30 to July 18 at the Ricco/Maresca Gallery, was praised by The New Yorker as including "miraculous whirligig sculptures." I met up with the forty-three-year-old artist at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, where his work remains on display, and where I first encountered it. The MIT Museum specializes in exhibits about science and its history -- as in a current installation on the history of the slide rule -- and devotes a room to MIT students' most memorable hacks. (How did they get that car to the roof the administration building overnight, anyway?) To go from such displays into a gallery of Ganson's work is to experience a sudden shift from documentation, however informative or amusing, to the more complex claims and rewards of art.
Cory's ChairIn "Cory's Chair," a small yellow plastic chair is torn apart by four mechanical arms, which then reverse the motion and reassemble it. The violent action of the mechanism reminded me of a spider's mouth fastening on prey. Ganson's initial thought, though, pertained to time. "The exploding chair is like the current moment," he told me. "It's around long enough for you to see what it is, and suddenly it's gone." The idea of the exploding moment led Ganson to considerations of the Big Bang, which joins the Big Contraction among the multiple meanings arising from this piece. For Ganson it's crucial that it be a chair endlessly torn apart and put back together rather than, say, an anonymous car part or lawn-mower gizmo. An exploding gizmo might say something about factory work and the assembly line, but an exploding chair sets off a broader range of feelings, according to Ganson. "It's a well-understood object in a strange situation. We fill in the blanks. Why is it doing that?" "Cory's Chair" points both to the instant and eternity, and Ganson toys with the dimension of time in many of his works, which often repeat themselves at fixed intervals -- though in the case of "Machine with Concrete" you'll just have to take the artist's word for it: the sculpture features fast gears acting on a system of slower gears that will drive a steel bit into a waiting concrete slab some 2.191 trillion years from now. (One has to assume this machine has never been adequately tested.) Ganson's time play is usually on a more human scale, and surrounds his work with an implicit music, a sense of dance. The dance is made explicit in a piece like "Machine with African Porcupine Quills," whose arms do a high-speed flamenco with sword-like objects. The mobile nature of Ganson's work appeals to children, who are not yet inculcated with the belief that art and motion can't be combined. Ganson is one of the few contemporary artists whose work charms almost immediately rather than luring viewers into a series of staring contests with ominous objects. And some of the pieces are interactive, driven by human beings rather than electricity. "Brownian Motion," when pulled along, communicates the motion of its wheels to a tray of rice pellets that swarm over themselves like larvae, or, from a distance, appear to undulate like a single wave-like living thing.
Ganson's accessibility does not come at the expense of complexity or depth. "Requiem for a Lost Uncle" consists of twenty-three small scraps of paper positioned at the end of rods that lift and fold them so that they appear to be birds flying off in a serene token of a soul's release. "Machine with Ball Chain" evokes an opposite sense: of weight, density, gravity, effort -- of forced labor, perhaps, or peristalsis (enter the bowels of de Vaucanson's duck). As the chain is tugged slowly down through an opening, it defies Ganson's usual repetitive motions, huddling into different patterns of resistance every time. Ganson's work can be compared to that of Rebecca Horn, the German artist who also employs motion but who buries her apparatus in feathers and cloth and subsumes it in symbolism pertaining to sex or violence and, in many cases, both. Ganson's works are lighter and more forthcoming about their own composition; the mechanism is always a good part of the message. When I alluded to the fragility and delicacy of some of his wire constructs, he responded, "Those are all human qualities. Fragility, sadness, joy, fear, and also wonderment -- those are the feelings that caused me to make them in the first place." Ganson has been fascinated with motion since devoting his sixth-grade doodles to studies of a race car ramming into a rock. When I asked why he hasn't used computers to carry out simulations of the motions and collisions that intrigue him, he said, "In the digital realm, you can do anything, draw anything. You don't have to obey the laws of physics. So when you see something digital, it's less surprising than when you see a physical object doing it; there's less mystery." Ganson isn't ready to abandon atoms for the easy malleability of bits. "Part of the reason for me spending my time, my limited time on earth, in this pursuit," he says, "is to work with the physical world and see what I can say with it."
Given Ganson's respect for the expressive possibilities of matter in motion, one piece in particular seemed to serve as his self-portrait. In "Child Watching Ball," a doll's face swivels in perfect accord with a ball's gyrations. No matter how fast the ball moves -- the speed is determined by how fast you turn a handle -- the doll's eyes refuse to break contact, as though permanently hypnotized. Ganson disagreed with me that "Child Watching Ball" says any more about him than his other pieces; he regards them all as telling part of his story. Not surprisingly, Ganson did warm to a statement the novelist Umberto Eco made about his own work -- namely that its focus was "to transform machines into narrative, to show how much narrative power they have inside them, how they can tell stories." For Ganson, as for Eco, motion and meaning are close to inseparable.Ganson's work is at home in a place like the MIT Museum because his small machines are so exquisitely engineered, and in a New York gallery because they are created to accomplish nothing else than art. For Ganson, the clockwork universe, with its strictly mimetic mechanical forms, has long since run down, and the digital universe, the world of virtual reality, where anything goes, has not yet been booted up. It's in that space -- where objects have real weight, real motion, and real implications -- that Ganson as an artist thrives.
Arthur Ganson's Machines
Arthur Ganson is an American sculptor, inventor and award-winning toy designer. His exhibition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum presented sculpture works embodying clattering contraptions of wires, gears and pulleys. However Ganson's machines are a lot more than just clever gadgets. The art part comes in the way his mechanical gestures so intuitively and eloquently convey human feelings. Wriggling inchworms, mincing feather dusters, Kabuki-dancing miniature plastic swords. Ganson's work celebrates life with a sense of wonderment and humour that's rare in mechanical scultpure. His 'Machine with Oil' spurts grease on itself at four minute intervals adding an erotic and suggestive dimension to his work. Nicholas Capasso, the curator of Ganson's first one-person museum show in 1993 at the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park in Lincoln, stated that he was 'astounded that someone could make a machine with such nuanced and complex emotional resonances. Anyone can make a machine that waves, but only Arthur can make a machine that waves good-bye. There's a big difference.'
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