tweenbots 14 April 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Installations.add a comment
I’ve always been fascinated by artistic ideas that engage viewers, as in require participation by the viewer. Kacie Kinzer’s tweenbots are just such a project.
From the website:
Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.
Armstong/Ward installations 19 January 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Drawing, Installations, Mixed media, Sculpture.add a comment
Saturday I traveled to Tulsa with friends to view two collaborative installations, Failing Hearts and On the Line. The shows are up in the Ligget Studio and Living Arts Space on Kenosha Avenue.
Failing hearts (above) is “a collaborative installation by two artists dealing with issues of the heart — one, an emotional and poignant set of unopened letters that are filled with words that speak of a failing relationship, while the other deals strictly with the presence and form of the heart itself.” Joel Armstrong hung a myriad of his wire drawings, intermingled with wire words taken from the aforementioned letters. The letters were written by his late mother, and gallery goers were encouraged to take additional words from his parents’ dresser — part of the installation — and pin them to the walls.
Neil Ward contributed the cast calf hearts, sitting on the small shelves in the photo above. Each heart is cast using a different mixture of materials; every one unique in form.
Two doors down hung a show by the same artists titled On the Line. Armstrong is seen in the photograph above pointing out some of the clothing on the line, again drawn in wire. It is a beautifully arranged work, best viewed after dark. Ward’s cast eyeballs line the walls, “perhaps here the understood tendencies of voyeur and nosy neighbor.”
Both installations employ sound and are meant to draw the viewer in not just visually and emotionally, but experientially. The shows are up until the 29th of January.
Have problems? Pay for an art mentor. 17 November 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Business of art, Installations, Performance.3 comments
A real quick note via the Art Deadlines List. A recent post asks “Need an agent to get your work out? Need expert advice? Then look to someone who has actually sold work, exhibited in The Whitney Biennial, and is a dealer and agent who also helps artists with their careers through coaching.”
The noted someone is Brainard Carey, part of the artistic duo Praxis. Praxis will pray for you. They believe in the power of prayer, but are not “believers” in their own words. The prayer is a form of telepathic performance art according to their website. They don’t have too much actual art for sale, although if you want you can purchase a 70 pound leather bound Book of Job for $50,000.
But I digress; this post is really about the wording on Carey’s coaching website. The brief explanation of services offered includes this sentence: “I will help you to identify and overcome your specific problems, so that you can reach the next level in your career.” Apparently he’s pretty good too, at least according to the numerous testimonials on the same page. However, as a marketer, I have to wonder why he took the negative route here. It seems to me the better choice of words would be something like, “I will help you identify and build on your specific talents, so that you can reach the next level in your career.” Certainly, part of an art mentor’s job would be to address weaknesses (also a better word than “problems”), but you shouldn’t emphasize this when trying to sell your services if you don’t have to — especially when it pertains to an individual.
The following is a Good Morning America spot on a Praxis installation.
Friday Fare: Instant art grants, installations 10 October 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Artist profile, Business of art, Fiber, Found objects, Installations, Modern culture, Photography, Sculpture.add a comment
ThinkChristian points out a post at the Urban Prankster which elaborates on The Federation of Students and Nominally or Unemployed Artists’ instant art grants of $10-$60. From the Federation’s website:
The FSNUA aims to re-inspire creative thinking and action in everyday people by removing a small barrier and providing encouragement. We give small, unsecured grants in the form of $10-$60 for creative projects thought up on the spot by everyday people. In the past this has included a merchant marine, two 10 year old girls, a US soldier on leave from Iraq, an accordion player from Alaska, and around 40 others. We funded their new paintings, drawings, knitting, and photojournalism projects, and the repair of one accordion. Projects that may not have happened had they not come across 10 people in the park to support and inspire the thought.
Beyond the small amount of money, the project encourages people to see themselves as something other than workers or consumers even if it just for the length of time required to apply for the FSNUA grant. We also hope to re-inspire dormant desires to create while presenting an example of generosity without an ulterior motive.
I’m pretty fond of the idea, especially the last paragraph’s hope that they are encouraging people to “see themselves as something other than workers or consumers.” Here-here!
A friend forwarded me a link to photographer Magdalena Bors’ website. As much as a photographer she appears to be an installation artist, turning common household objects into miniature landscapes. The following image from her photo-installations is for my knitting wife.
She was born in Antwerp and has a photography degree from Melbourne, but there isn’t much other information about the artist on the website.
Genius Grants 2008: Weaving straws and grass 24 September 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Art vs Craft, Artist as genius, Craft, Fiber, Found objects, Installations, Sculpture.add a comment
I suppose I should mention this year’s genius grants, awarded this week, since this blog contains a category called Artist-as-genius. Regular readers know that I hold a certain disdain for the term. I haven’t entirely fleshed that disdain out properly, but a very good example of where it came from can be seen in the somewhat raunchy film Art School Confidential.
Looking at the list of winners yesterday afternoon I was a bit surprised. They’re all over the place. The stage-lighting designer, music critic and architectural preservationist were pleasant surprises.
Two artists will be taking home the $500,000 purse, a sculptor and a fiber artist.
The fiber artist is another surprise. Mary Jackson is a basket weaver. How wonderful that such a traditional and humble craft is included in this list, a list that might commonly include the rocket scientists we so like to mock.
In contrast to that is Tara Donovan. I mentioned Donovan with some skepticism in this January post. Donovan’s work is sometimes mass-produced and makes use of common household objects.
I like the above work by Donovan, titled Haze. It’s made from drinking straws. I wonder what Mary Jackson could do with drinking straws. Weave them, I imagine, as she does with grass. An interesting connection between two very different artisans.
Artist Profile: Guy Kemper 4 June 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Art and faith, Installations.add a comment
Ran across this glass artist today via EnvisionChurch. He does some very unique installations as windows, on a large scale. Envision picked my favorite from his gallery to include in their June Newsletter:
This work is titled “Rise,” and is located at the Catholic Memorial at Ground Zero, St. Joseph’s Chapel. The installation is 24 by 10 feet.
I really liked this following paragraph from Envision’s article:
What glass as a material does best is to act as a vehicle to the sublime. Though abstract, my work is rooted in recognizable symbolism and natural phenomena. I feel refracted light may inspire a greater degree of illumination than literal narration. I don’t explain everything; I merely crack open a door to the Mystery.
I can personally relate to the statement, “Though abstract, my work is rooted in recognizable symbolism and natural phenomena.” This is basically my own artistic philosophy as well. It’s interesting and pleasantly surprising to read things like this, where others are able to concisely state what you haven’t been able to put in such specific terms as of yet. I also appreciate his attention to the sublime, even I don’t still understand that concept as well as I’d like to. And — while I’m at it I may as well compliment every part of the quote — the mention of Mystery (I’m wondering why the word is capitalized in the excerpt; I’m assuming it’s intentional) is something the arts are commended for regularly, and rightfully.
I feel the need to add that Kemper’s website appears to be very out of date. The last update apparently occurred in May of 2006.
Marketing stunt or genuine attempt at “art?” 28 April 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Business of art, Installations, Modern culture.2 comments
Costa Rican artist Guillermo Vargas Habacuc recently used a dog in a gallery exhibit. The internet is aflurry with protests. I noticed in Facebook today some friends joined a group encouraging people to sign a petition against such future exhibits, which is where I learned of the artist in the first place.
I did a little digging — namely following link to link from the Facebook group page — and was quickly confused. Information just isn’t matching up here. For starters, some people are saying the dog, reportedly a stray from the streets of Managua, Nicaragua, was starved to death as part of the original exhibition (which is what the Facebook group in question purports). A number of other resources, including the gallery owner, claim the dog was only on display for three hours and was fed regularly by the artist himself when not part of the exhibit. Further, the Wikipedia page on the artist says that he was born in 1975. Another link I found — a dubious URL at http://GuillermoHabacucVargas.blogspot.com — complained about the artist changing his statements, the most recent of which quoted him saying “I am 50 years old.”
At this point I decided the chance of finding any really reliable information was unlikely (Although I do put a lot of faith, personally, in Wikipedia, and believe this is probably the most accurate representation of the circumstances that I read.), and had become more interested in how a story could spread so quickly and inaccurately via the Web. I fear people become too emotionally involved. When presented with a certain kind of story or anecdote, they believe the first thing they hear.
I don’t know what happened in that gallery, but at this point (sadly) it doesn’t matter. If the artist was after publicity, he got it. If he was trying in earnest to make a point, it’s been lost in the impassioned pleas of dog lovers who don’t seem to be remotely concerned with factual inconsistencies surrounding the event.
I really like the internet, particularly email, Facebook, blogging and live radar on Wunderground.com. But above all I love the internet’s ability to bring people together. The aforementioned group is bringing people together, more than 500,000 so far. Unfortunately, the cause isn’t verifiable. People may be putting a lot of energy into a whole lot of nothing.
In a world where information is more and more prevalent, it’s more and more difficult — regardless of the source — to determine what is the best kind of information. One week eggs are bad for you, the next they’re not. Atkins diet this month, South Beach the next. You get the picture; you’re probably living it. Trying to make sense of the massive amount of information presented to us on a daily basis is a real talent.
Yale student’s miscarriage installation/performance 25 April 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Art education, Installations, Modern culture, Performance.add a comment
This is the second article I’ve read this week about Yale student Aliza Svhart’s senior project, er, performance. Reportedly, she artificially inseminated herself using voluntary donors while ovulating, and would later induce a miscarriage using an herbal method. The result of this performance will be a hanging installation making use of cellophane and video of the miscarriages.
The aforementioned Wall Street Journal article says it well, “Immaturity, self-importance and a certain confused earnestness will always loom large in student art work. But they will usually grow out of it. What of the schools that teach them?” The thrust of the Journal’s article seems to revolve around the educational aspect of art colleges. It suggests that most programs will begin by running students through basic drawing courses before channeling them into emphasis such sculpture or printmaking. Courses should, writer Michael J. Lewis contends, become increasingly challenging. This was my own experience, and also that of my brother who is a painter. I can’t imagine any reputable program diverging much from such a model without very good reason.
Another important point offered by Lewis notes the importance of two professorial archetypes key to the education of an artist: “It is often said that great achievement requires in one’s formative years two teachers: a stern taskmaster who teaches the rules and an inspirational guru who teaches one to break the rules. But they must come in that order.” I don’t think many aspiring artists realize the importance of rules, which are key to respectable craft and discipline. The young painter or sculptor’s ideas often outpace their ability to actually create a successful work of art. Further, the romantic notions surrounding working as a successful artist aren’t normally realistic. Professional artists need discipline, organization and so on.
Aliza Shvarts. Disarticulation. 12 in. x 12 in. x 24 in. Plaster, vaseline, towels, rubber bands, latex gloves. Photo from the Yale website.
Basically, Lewis lays out a proven model for the education of artists, and asks what happened with Miss Shvart and Yale? He doesn’t jump to any sort of dire conclusions, but the question is worth asking. There is a general feeling about art and artists getting away with basically anything and everything, as blatantly alluded to in the recent film Art School Confidential. “Given the choice of this arduous training or the chance to proceed immediately to the making of art free of all traditional constraints,” Lewis says, “one can understand why all but a few students would take the latter. But it is not a choice that an undergraduate should be given.” All of us need to pushed in order to become better. Just as the mind of a typical art student needs discipline, most business students will need some form of creativity in order to be the better graduate.
There is, of course, all kinds of press surrounding this story. I saw one link from the Yale Daily News suggesting the administration is not going to allow the exhibit to take place. We’ll see.
Clarification: The image included in this post is not the work in question, which has yet to be installed and photographed as far as I know.
Artist Profile: Rashida Ferdinand 19 April 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Artist profile, Ceramics, Installations, Mixed media, Mosaic, Sculpture.add a comment
One of the few television programs I try and catch regularly is This Old House. I’m watching, as I write this, the last in their present series where they’ve renovated a shotgun single in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. While it’s been one of the less interesting series for the show in my opinion, I kept watching because the house was owned by a ceramic artist named Rashida Ua Bakari Ferdinand. A blurb from her vessel gallery about her process is worth reading:
I create my ceramic earthenware vessels using an Ipetumodu Nigerian coiling technique. I then apply terra sigillata, a fine particled slip to my forms to achieve a soft, colored sheen on their surface. After bisque firing, I reduce my pots with oxides, salt, and combustibles, to result in a dark, smokey pattern from the carbon reduction. My spirit vessels are metaphorical representations of bodies as objects of physical, as well as spiritual containment. The emerging and introspective faces on the vessels evoke serenity and bring spiritual peace to my work.
It’s exciting to find someone who hand-builds and uses terra sigs. This isn’t as common as ceramic artists throwing and finishing with glaze or raku firing. These kinds of finishes seem to prevail in most craft fairs and galleries lining the streets of places like Eureka Springs or Hot Springs, Arkansas. I like her sculpture, although I’m not really following her comment about “spiritual peace.” The following piece is called Beholden Vessel.
The work is 10 x 10 x 10 inches, from 2008 and made of fired earthenware clay. She also has a page on her website, Currents of Clay, detailing some of her mixed media installations. She writes this about her installations:
I work in installation to transform spaces into living environments. As extensions of my clay vessel forms, my installation works are continuances of spaces which reflect the possibilities of our inner power as human beings. My multimedia installations pay homage to my ancestors, as I seek out deeper understandings of my existence. They are my attempts to share my belief in the interconnections of all life forms and the power of God’s presence in our world.
The following installation, March of the Tapetum Lucidum, stood out among her mixed media works. It’s from 2006 and uses clay, glass mosaic and wire.
She also has galleries on the website with examples of her “tree totems” and masks. In my opinion, her vessels are the strongest works. The mixed media mixed into the tree totems seems a bit awkward, and the masks lack the visual complexity and interest of her other pieces. The vessels are very nice overall. The shapes and finishes are wonderful, and the metaphor — combining containers and faces — is strong and intriguing.
Temporary architecture 14 April 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Architecture, Art, Installations.2 comments
Another brief post with some nice links as I catch up from being in Indiana last week. I have two-and-a-half weeks home, during which I need to start and finish the building of a bed with matching side tables, before another week up north for brother’s wedding and sister’s graduation.
I saw via ArtsJournal this morning an L.A. Times article on temporary architecture. This article was in part prompted by an internet rumor of a temporary mushroom-like observation deck that was to be added to the top of the Eiffel Tower. From the article (beginning with a reference to the aforementioned mushroom):
If nothing else, the timing was perfect. Architecture has entered another of its periodic bouts of fascination with impermanence. Maybe it’s the anxiety produced by doomsday predictions about the state of the environment and, lately, the economy. Maybe it’s the quicksilver quality of digital culture, closer in character to sand or water than bricks and mortar. Whatever the source, architects are playing up the idea of temporariness, and even finding solace in it, to a degree not seen since the 1960s and ’70s, when several experimental design teams explored what Peter Cook, a member of London’s Archigram, called “expendability” and “throwaway architecture.”
I’m not sure I like where Peter Cook’s comment in the paragraph quoted above could be going, though I don’t really know the context of his words. “Expendable” or “throwaway” architecture, even the phrase “temporary architecture,” doesn’t resonate well with me. This is, simply, on account of my distaste for the cheaply built environment we put up with on a daily basis in so much of the United States. Regular readers will know I encourage better designed and more well-built structures than most of what gets thrown up along American streets these days.
However, on closer examination these structures are more like installations, more like sculptures than buildings. Installations are something I’ve long been interested in, but they don’t get much talk time on The Aesthetic Elevator since they are more difficult to pull off. They take more time, space and money to create and display. Not many artists seem to go this route. Off the top of my head I can only think of three: Sandy Skogland, Dale Chihuly and Christo. OK, so that’s more than I thought I’d be able to list off the top of my head, but the challenges in creating and marketing installations remain.
Architecture is inherently sculptural, three-dimensional, so for architects to be thinking in this way makes sense to me — as long as quality of construction in the more permanent built environment continues to improve.
