Friday 11 May 2007

MAKING


http://www.askart.com/AskART/photos/PHL11132001/101.jpg

Janine Antoni: Chocolate Gnaw

This chocolate sculpture was made by the artist using her teeth to gnaw (explicit in the title).

Using her body as the tool to make the sculpture is a concept. It takes the making of sculpture and the physical interaction to a whole new delicious realm.





http://www.renownedart.com//42.2.jpg

Janine Antoni: Loving Care 1992

In this image the artist is using her body to create a sculpture - her body has become the tool. In this case the artist's interaction has become part of the art - it's a performance.

This is an example of the physical interaction of making taken to the extreme where the artist seems to have immersed her whole being.




http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/uploaded_images/HopeBakingCakeDSCF1014-776387.jpg

This image depicts a small child making a cake. I put this image on because I think the urge to make is innate within all of us from a very young age. I was at my friends house a couple of years ago, when her son George was aged about 3. Like all 3 year olds George was usually very lively. I remember on this particular occasion being stopped in my tracks when I saw him propped up on a high stall chopping the ingredients for supper - I had never seen him so SILENT and focused - he was completely immersed and loving it!!

Wednesday 9 May 2007

FANTASY


http://images.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/tasimg/jul1999/normal/AUTAS001125881789.jpg

Title: Eileen and Henry Allport [in fancy dress] 1901
Studio tableaux of Eileen and Henry dressed as a jester and courtier
Creator(s): Harcourt McGuffie & Co

Fancy Dress is a form of fantasy where you can masquerade as somebody or something else. While you're in fancy dress you can let go of your inhibitions (especially if you've got a mask on - no one knows who you are) and behave as you wouldn't normally.
You could you use your imagination to create your own fancy dress - you can take a flight of fancy - or fantasy!?! You can run around pretending to be something or someone else - stepping outside your normal persona and into a fantasy world.
Creating something that has no basis in reality.

FEELING


http://www.subwayknitter.com/images/OneBlueBootie.jpg


http://yarnstorm.blogs.com/knitblog/images/dscf1431_edited.jpg

What feelings do these two images evoke? They evoke in me an emotional and physical response. This is mainly because they are made from wool. I immediately want to touch them and feel them and hold them - I want to physically experience them. Emotionally I think I associate wool with warmth, snugness, cosy, gentle - something I want to wrap up in - my own snug cacoon.

With these particular objects, i.e. the sock, and the person (- woops sorry it's not a person is it? It's a hot water bottle), other feelings/emotions are evoked. The sock is so tiny it must be for a toddler - for a tiny person - small and sweet.
The water bottle is just hysterical and funny and looks like an absurd person to me.

And then I start thinking materials for sculpture.........but hold on - maybe these to me are already sculptures??





http://www.repubblica.it/2006/08/gallerie/spettacoliecultura/lo-scivolo-nel-museo/afp90048740910132737_big.jpg

Carsten Holler's Test Site 2007

All sorts of feelings are provoked by Test Site. The psychological feelings of the mind created by the anticipation of what the experience of riding it might be; these feelings intensify whilst queuing as your turn gets closer. My personal experience whilst queuing to ride it was a mixture of terror and excitement (but I have to admit the emphasis was on terror). Then of course the physical feelings of moving at speed, along with the loss of control over your physical being, varied depending on which level slide you were on. For example my experience of the level 3 slide was of a very fast physical experience mixed with feelings of terror i.e. I screamed all the way down, but for some absurd reason when I reached the bottom I broke out into uncontrollable laughhter - I think I was relieved that I'd made it down alive. I noticed other people were responding in the same way.

My experience of the level 5 slide was completely different. I was even more scared with anticipation assuming that because it's higher that it would be even more terrifying than level 3. But the experience wasn't terrifying at all. I felt that I was moving more slowly and kind of pleasantly gliding down - I had a feeling of well being or pleasure (it's hard to describe). I even had time to think and look out through the plastic tube at what was going on around me. This was definitely not what I'd been anticipating, but I thoroughly ennjoyed it!

MATERIALS


http://www.czgrips.us/images/screws.jpg

http://engr.oregonstate.edu/news/annual_report2001/images/photos/inset-ball-of-string.jpg


http://chappysmom.typepad.com/bookworm/images/dscn0543.JPG


http://dump.wuffle.com/images/computer/box.jpg

Everyday materials can be given new meaning when put into a new context. A new space for these materials can be created when used to make a sculpture - the mundane materials are given new life they become a new and unique entity. Suddenly an old box or a screw has prescence and becomes interesting - thought provoking, as opposed to mundane. Seeing something familiar (that we don't normally take much notice of), but in a brand new way - this is exciting. Contrasting materials that are not usually seen together, thus creating a new context / narrative creates tension and interest.



http://www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery/art_images/art_sculpt05.jpg

Bill Woodrow: Twin Tub with Beaver (1981)

In this image a Twin Tub washing machine has been used to create a sculpture. So the material here is domestic washing machine - a functional object. In this sculpture the machine is still being used as a washing machine, but some kind of narrative has been set up - a story. What's going on? What is that Beaver doing?
What's the story? Again, what appeals to me in this sculpture, is that a domestic appliance has been used as a material for sculpture. I like the way it's been used in conjunction with the beaver. It's still being used as a washing machine but it's been given new meaning because in my mind it's become part of narrative - something is happening with the Beaver and the washing machine. And of course I like this image because to me it has a playful element to it, if not bizarre.

Friday 20 April 2007

DISCORDANCE



http://www.masdearte.com/imagenes/fotos/R_Arco06_Wurm.jpg

Another Erwin Wurm sculpture.

This image is harmonious in most ways i.e. someone sitting outside having lunch and a glass of wine, all things we accept as the norm. The interest and tension is created by the plate of food being placed in the man's mouth - it is this discordance that creates the interest.

I find this image hysterically funny. Can you imagine walking down the road and seeing this?

HARMONY



http://www.contempart.org.uk/giveandtake/recentpurchases/fineart/images/thumbnails/parkerthumb.jpg

Cornelia Parker : Embryo Firearms, 1995
This sculpture is depicting the the beginnings of two guns, but they are not fully formed and are still just two shaped lumps of metal. Cornelia Parker is interested in how the viewer reads this sculpture i.e. the powerful metaphor that two shaped pieces of metal can convey. So the viewer is looking at shaped metal; but the symbolism is strong.

The two objects sit together harmoniously as one sculpture i.e. they are identical and symmetrical - there is no discordance in the object itself. However, the metaphor of what they are, and are capable of, for me resounds a huge discordance.

Tuesday 10 April 2007

FORM




I walk 10 paces straight ahead and I turn right

1. Re-enactment of text to create a form on paper
2. A Performance on paper

This is a demonstration of how text can work as instruction, and when followed, as if litterally walking with the text and turning right, a form/shape can be created. So the words/text become more than a vehicle for communication alone; the words become active in their own right. The words become objects in their own right and when placed in position by following the instructions create an even bigger object i.e. the words in position seen as a whole create a larger object the form itself. The words litterally take on their own entity as building blocks. The words become objects that create a larger object/form.




http://www.hasselblad.com/media/fcd213db-b33d-4a38-a1a4-cfa54cdda00c-Lois_Greenfield_2_460.jpg

Photograph by Lois Greenfield

I like this image because four humans have been used to create one form, with movement and rythm, suspended in air. Here the rythm is created by the human bodies being linked together, the variation in the way the bodies are suspended i.e. one touching the ground and the others at different heights and they way in which the bodies are posed (limbs etc.) to create varying shapes and angles also add to the sense of rythm and movement as the eye follows the form as a whole.