Before I forget.
http://www.billviola.com/ - Bill Viola is well known for his incredibly large scale video installations. Some that I have seen have multiple videos projected on all walls of the room, such that they seem to connect and create a narrative as a whole rather than in each video individually. You can sit and watch them one at a time, but not without hearing and peripherally interacting with all of the other parts as well. He has also used sculptural elements in his displays.
Wolfgang Laib is the artist who uses pollen who Fereshteh was referring to in class.
Robert Irwin is another "California light and space" artist (who was once good friends with James Turrell but had some kind of mysterious falling out with him).
Walter De Maria of "Dirt Room" fame has another well known piece entitled "Lightning Field" : http://www.lightningfield.org/
... and there's so much more...
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The Mattress Factory
I was lucky to have grown up a short fifteen minute bus ride away from The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh - it's a great resource for anyone learning about contemporary art and installations.
"The Mattress Factory is a museum of contemporary art
that exhibits room-sized works called installations. Created
on site by artists from across the country and around the
world, the unique exhibitions feature a variety of media that
engage all of the senses!"
See their website for more details, including lots of examples of work... great brainstorming material here.
"The Mattress Factory is a museum of contemporary art
that exhibits room-sized works called installations. Created
on site by artists from across the country and around the
world, the unique exhibitions feature a variety of media that
engage all of the senses!"
See their website for more details, including lots of examples of work... great brainstorming material here.
Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson is a sculpture/installation artist who makes a variety of work, ranging from mirrored crystalline forms to light works similar in mind to James Turrell's.
His "The Weather Project", above, was a project for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall (which has hosted a lot of large scale installations from artists - check their website for more). Eliasson mirrored the ceiling of the huge hall and created a half-circle of lights, which were reflected to make the whole sun shape you see here.
He has also dyed rivers green and made water flow uphill, among other modern artistic marvels.
Regarding Matt's comments in class on production vs the unique and handmade qualities of some art: Eliasson recently (last year) was commissioned by Louis Vuitton for window displays. Wiki sez: "Eye See You will form the centerpiece of the Christmas windows in all Louis Vuitton stores, of which there are more than 350 worldwide. In addition, a new work by the artist, entitled You See Me, will go on permanent display at Louis Vuitton Fifth Avenue." Hmm. Installation or no?
I have seen one of these pieces in person (I think in San Francisco, although it may have been New York) - it is an optical/light based work which takes on the shape of both an eye's pupil and a diamond as you move around it. (It also seems that Eliasson did a related edition of small lamps which were sold to through LV stores to raise money for a charity group.) We could say a lot of things about art and charity, or about the art historical trend of artists working as window display designers (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Rauschenburg and Johns, to name just a few)....
His "The Weather Project", above, was a project for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall (which has hosted a lot of large scale installations from artists - check their website for more). Eliasson mirrored the ceiling of the huge hall and created a half-circle of lights, which were reflected to make the whole sun shape you see here.He has also dyed rivers green and made water flow uphill, among other modern artistic marvels.
Regarding Matt's comments in class on production vs the unique and handmade qualities of some art: Eliasson recently (last year) was commissioned by Louis Vuitton for window displays. Wiki sez: "Eye See You will form the centerpiece of the Christmas windows in all Louis Vuitton stores, of which there are more than 350 worldwide. In addition, a new work by the artist, entitled You See Me, will go on permanent display at Louis Vuitton Fifth Avenue." Hmm. Installation or no?
I have seen one of these pieces in person (I think in San Francisco, although it may have been New York) - it is an optical/light based work which takes on the shape of both an eye's pupil and a diamond as you move around it. (It also seems that Eliasson did a related edition of small lamps which were sold to through LV stores to raise money for a charity group.) We could say a lot of things about art and charity, or about the art historical trend of artists working as window display designers (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Rauschenburg and Johns, to name just a few)....
Monday, February 19, 2007
Brancusi for Joe
The piece is actually called "The Newborn", by Constantin Brancusi. What I particularly like is that he used the egg for both form/shape and symbolism.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Don't forget about Joseph Cornell!
I hate to just default to Google without any commentary, but this Image Search for Joseph Cornell should give you a pretty good idea of what he is all about. Lots of boxes with found objects and collage too. Different from a lot of other work I've shown because Cornell's boxes are meant to be held in your hands - most are less than 12" x 12" and have moving parts.
Yet even more Box Art by Jackie Winsor
Jackie Winsor is an artist who made a variety of boxes in the late 60s and early 70s. (Maybe even now - I admittedly haven't kept up) This was a time when other artists were also working with ideas of the GRID and BOX spaces (Sol LeWitt and more).
I like her work because of the variety of form and ideas expressed, although she worked almost exclusively with the box form. In addition to Fence Piece, above, and Four Corners, below, in which she took a wooden frame and wrapped each corner with hemp cord until the form became exaggerated, Jackie also did pieces where she built boxes and ignited explosives inside of them, displaying the burnt out remains in the gallery, and boxes that were unfolded to resemble a cross shape.
Another Classic Box to Love or Hate
Box with the Sound of its Own Making, 1961 by Robert Morris.Very simply, this is a 9 inch square wooden cube that plays a 3.5 hour recording of Morris in a woodshop, making the box. Quite loudly, I should add.
Donald Judd
Truthfully, I don't know a lot about Donald Judd... but as a minimalist sculptor who seems to have specialized in making boxes, I feel that his presence on my 308 blog now is unavoidable.
When I worked as a security guard at the Baltimore Museum of Art, they had a Judd box on display in the contemporary galleries. It was about three feet high, made of AC grade plywood, and a constant source of annoyance. It was situated in the center of a small room with large paintings on all four walls, so several times a day, we would have to step forward and say "Please do not touch the sculpture" to museum goers who were absorbed in the paintings, and who were completely unaware that they were leaning on anything resembling art. (It was around the time that this piece was made that painter Ad Reinhardt said "Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting") We would literally stand in front of it when young school groups came through, because to a child just barely taller than the box, it was impossible for them to resist walking right up to it, grabbing the edge and pulling themselves up - the irresistable urge to see what was inside.
Inside the box was nothing much, just another panel of plywood. When the galleries were empty, I liked to stare at it and try and figure out all the angles... it must have drove Judd's carpenter up a wall. The panel was situated inside the box, like a lid that had collapsed or fallen inward, except that the surface touched all four corners, meaning that it wasn't a square or rectangle but a kind of distorted, stretched shape. What puzzled me most was that each corner was at a different height - one touching at one quarter height, one each at one half and three quarters, and the fourth touching just so the top edge.
I hated it.
For a long time, anyway. It was the only thing in the whole museum that I really had a hard time with. I spent a lot of time staring at it and writing about it when the galleries were empty, which was most of the time. Minimalism can be hard to access at first, but (like most things, really) what it takes most is time.
What eventually struck me about the piece was how it could appear both empty and full, depending on which direction you approached it from. From the entrance, walking towards it and fixing my eyes on the corner, it was almost a surprise to see there was something inside, even if it was just more plywood. Walking all the way around it, the plane inside the box seemed to shift like a wave, revealing all its odd angles, and then seeming to disappear completely. The other guards thought I was crazy, circling and staring at the Box, which was universally disliked by the security staff. For such an inelegant and possibly even ugly thing, this stupid plywood box, it suddenly seemed to mean a lot.
To make a long story short, Judd eventually went a little crazy with people installing his works incorrectly and letting other people casually lean against them while they looked at painting instead. He moved to the middle of nowhere in Texas, got his hands on some 340 acres, and set up his own museum. The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX is the result.
At the center of the Chinati are Judd's 100 untitled works in mill aluminum, as seen in the photo above. "Each of the 100 works has the same outer dimensions (41 x 51 x 72 inches), although the interior is unique in every piece."
A long post, I know. And inconclusive... I'll leave it at that. Just something to think about.
When I worked as a security guard at the Baltimore Museum of Art, they had a Judd box on display in the contemporary galleries. It was about three feet high, made of AC grade plywood, and a constant source of annoyance. It was situated in the center of a small room with large paintings on all four walls, so several times a day, we would have to step forward and say "Please do not touch the sculpture" to museum goers who were absorbed in the paintings, and who were completely unaware that they were leaning on anything resembling art. (It was around the time that this piece was made that painter Ad Reinhardt said "Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting") We would literally stand in front of it when young school groups came through, because to a child just barely taller than the box, it was impossible for them to resist walking right up to it, grabbing the edge and pulling themselves up - the irresistable urge to see what was inside.
Inside the box was nothing much, just another panel of plywood. When the galleries were empty, I liked to stare at it and try and figure out all the angles... it must have drove Judd's carpenter up a wall. The panel was situated inside the box, like a lid that had collapsed or fallen inward, except that the surface touched all four corners, meaning that it wasn't a square or rectangle but a kind of distorted, stretched shape. What puzzled me most was that each corner was at a different height - one touching at one quarter height, one each at one half and three quarters, and the fourth touching just so the top edge.
I hated it.
For a long time, anyway. It was the only thing in the whole museum that I really had a hard time with. I spent a lot of time staring at it and writing about it when the galleries were empty, which was most of the time. Minimalism can be hard to access at first, but (like most things, really) what it takes most is time.
What eventually struck me about the piece was how it could appear both empty and full, depending on which direction you approached it from. From the entrance, walking towards it and fixing my eyes on the corner, it was almost a surprise to see there was something inside, even if it was just more plywood. Walking all the way around it, the plane inside the box seemed to shift like a wave, revealing all its odd angles, and then seeming to disappear completely. The other guards thought I was crazy, circling and staring at the Box, which was universally disliked by the security staff. For such an inelegant and possibly even ugly thing, this stupid plywood box, it suddenly seemed to mean a lot.
To make a long story short, Judd eventually went a little crazy with people installing his works incorrectly and letting other people casually lean against them while they looked at painting instead. He moved to the middle of nowhere in Texas, got his hands on some 340 acres, and set up his own museum. The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX is the result.At the center of the Chinati are Judd's 100 untitled works in mill aluminum, as seen in the photo above. "Each of the 100 works has the same outer dimensions (41 x 51 x 72 inches), although the interior is unique in every piece."
A long post, I know. And inconclusive... I'll leave it at that. Just something to think about.
Safety Speakers
SSPS-1 speakers clip onto your clothing to keep your ears free to hear "potential attackers, traffic noise, animals and other serious threats." ... but they aren't as cool looking as Iain's.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Love meets tech meets art
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009325.php
"The nature of male and female is changing, roles are changing, behaviors are changing and in this fluid and complicated society how and by what means will we adapt? How might emerging technologies be appropriated to elicit subtle forms of control and how might these changes affect out current societal norms?"
"The nature of male and female is changing, roles are changing, behaviors are changing and in this fluid and complicated society how and by what means will we adapt? How might emerging technologies be appropriated to elicit subtle forms of control and how might these changes affect out current societal norms?"
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Escape Headphones
The Escape Headphones by Chris Woebken : "The proximity-sensing headphone is an experimental sonic device that allows small spaces feel much larger than they are. While most portable listening devices usually mask your environment with a soundtrack, this device aims to create a playful sonic experience."
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Hugs are Bluetooth enabled
The Hug Shirt : "When touching the red areas on your Hug Shirt your mobile phone receives the sensors data via Bluetooth (hug pressure, skin temperature, heartbeat rate, time you are hugging for, etc) and then delivers it to the other person."
Design of Restraint Systems
Design of Restraint Systems from the website of Temple Grandin, author of "Animals in Translation." Lance mentioned this during Kelly's critique, but I think it is also relevant to Clare's hug systems - the idea of the squeezebox, that restraint is in some way comforting. Lots of interesting information on this site. And strange slaughterhouse diagrams.
Mirrored contacts
"To Turn Upside Down Your Own Eyes", 1970, by Italian arte-povera artist Giuseppe Penone (image attributed to Paolo Pellion).This interacts with both an internal and external space: although the public was probably greatly suprised to see themselves reflected in Giuseppe's eyes, he himself could not see through the mirrored lenses. If there was a public at all -- without one, how does the idea shift?
For those of us working with trees
Still document of "Living with a Log" by artist Hugh Pocock, in which a 42-foot, 2-ton log was placed inside a private residence. More images at http://hughpocock.net under "Projects". Not technically a body extension, yes, but certainly an interesting clash of human scale and tree scale.
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