Mike Kelley

It's no coincidence, I think, that Kelley started out in a band, a punk band before there was such a thing. He was a founder of the legendary Detroit group Destroy All Monsters, a group that everyone heard about but few people actually heard. Just as that band pushed music across borders into strange new territory, his art has cut a wide swath through the formally and sometimes preciously defined precincts of art. He is an intellectual who operates from gut instinct, a thinker who's not afraid of stupidity.

Borrowing from pop culture and things that resonate from his childhood such as stuffed animals, and comic books as his materials I feel a close connectin to Mike Kelley’s work. In relation to making work that references comic books, Kandor 13, (2007) Is a sculpture based off of a city in the Superman comic. When asked about the details of this piece Mike Kelley states that: The story has been changed over time by the publishers of the comic to make it appeal to different generations of readers-but, yes, initially the city was stolen by Brainiac and shrunken. I don't remember why. To tell you the truth, I'm not interested in the story; I'm not a fan of Superman comics. I just like the idea of being burdened with one's past.

This helped me understand some of the feedback I’ve received on current works where I borrowed from media that I did in fact “like” but that’s not good enough there has to be something else beyond that surface.

Concidering responses to work, everyone reads what they want into the work we make but Mike Kelley’s response is one that I am learning to adopt. Doing research into the things that you did not intend to portray in a piece you can expand yourself intellectually and be better prepaired for the questions that arise when people look at your work. Kelly says, “From the response I was getting to my works with stuffed animals and craft materials-people went on about how the work was about child abuse. What was my problem? Why was I playing with these toys? Had I been abused? Was I a pedophile? I didn't understand what they were talking about. But when I did a bit of research, I discovered how culturally omnipresent this infatuation with child abuse was. Since everybody seemed to be so interested in my personal biography, I thought I should make some overtly biographical work-pseudo-biographical work. That's when I decided to build the Educational Complex-the model of every school I had ever attended. I was thinking of it specifically in relation to the McMartin Preschool child-abuse scandal. I would leave out all of the parts of the schools that I could not remember and then these areas would be filled in with recovered "repressed" memories-which would simply be personal fantasies.

Lopez, Ruth. "Mike Kelley Goes Home Again." Http://www.theartnewspaper.com. The Art Newspaper, 11 Oct. 2010. Web.

O'Brien, Glenn. "Mike Kelley - Page 4." Interview Magazine. Web. 08 May 2011. .

Welchman, John C., Isabelle Graw, Anthony Vidler, and Mike Kelley. Mike Kelley. London: Phaidon, 2002. Print.

Paul Pfeiffer

Pfeiffer appropriates still and moving imagery from popular culture—including movies and televised sporting events—and digitally manipulates them. Through this process, he creates seemingly endless moments that direct the viewer’s attention to singular details rather than the original contexts of the images. Unlike many of his predecessors working in film and video, Pfeiffer is not trying to create, or provide for the viewer, a cinematic experience. Instead, he builds on historical precedents by selecting and manipulating archival images to create innovative new works, or what he calls “video sculptures.” These works challenge us to decipher narratives based on both our recognition of the preexisting imagery and the modifications that Pfeiffer has made.

In his interview with Chrissie Iles in, A Decade of Conversation, he explains, “I started experimenting with video at the moment when it became possible to work with video on the computer, and I found my material in this virtual, digital space.”

There is a lot of honesty in interviews with Pfeiffer and you can learn a great deal about artistic practice when listening to how he deals with his problems. The sates that he dealt with the problem of “how to display this stuff and make it physical.”

Acknowledging the body of the viewer in the space was a kind of playing with spaces within spaces and activating a sense of shifting space within the viewer’s perception. This became a way to continue thinking about how to work with video in some ways a sculpture in some ways architectural without in the end having to put an object in the space.

Paul Pfeiffer has mastered certain post-production digital editing techniques to accomplish his sophisticated examinations of identity and social structures. In JOHN 3:16 (2000), the artist digitized more than five thousand individual frames of a basketball shot and repositioned them to highlight the fetishization of the ball among black males, thus rendering a sort of elegy for the black male sports player.

This piece like the piece Live from Neverland, 2006 touches on issues of race but Pfeiffer has something interesting to say about this, in his interview with Brian Curtin he says that “As far as art-making goes, race, like religion, or like Jackson himself, is a way into people’s psyches. Race itself is not so interesting. Sure it’s part of the picture, but it’s just one dimension. Ideally, I want my work to oscillate between different readings.” I appreciate this reply. In continually thinking about my interest in editing footage of cartoons from my childhood I have thought of delving into the history of cartoons such as the Smurfs, which has many theories on racism and politically incorrectness. It is good to have further perspective on works that deals with these issues.

Curtin, Brian. "Accessing Other Dimensions Paul Pfeiffer." ArtAsiaPacific Magazine July-Aug. 2009. ArtAsiaPacific Magazine. July-Aug. 2009. Web.

A Decade in Conversation. New Haven [u.a.: Yale UP [u.a., 2010. Print.

Rush, Michael. New Media in Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 2005. Print.

"Paul Pfeiffer: In The Zone Current Exhibitions Exhibitions." Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Web. 08 May 2011. .

Atau Tanaka

Mostly known for his collaborative piece with artist Kasper Topelitz, Global String, 2000, Atau Tanaka is bridges the fields of media art, experimental music, and research. Atau creates sensor-based musical instruments for performance, and is known for his work with biosignal interfaces. He seeks to harness collective musical creativity in mobile environments, seeking out the continued place of the artist in democratized digital forms.

Global String, is a networked music installation which I comprised of two sites, each with a steel cable 15 meters long that stretches diagonally from floor to ceiling through the installation space. The cables are connected to a real-time sound-synthesis server sending data to the internet. Conceived as a worldwide musical communication piece, it allows participants form different locations to collaborate by plucking or pulling strings. Sound data is then streamed to each site and video projections provide a visual connection among the users. This piece opens my mind into the realm of collaboration once more and is an amazing example of how collaboration can happen digitally as well as in a physical space.

I am most interested in Tanaka’s piece Bondage; the piece was conducted using a software that has immense depth in its capabilities the program is called metasynth and I have been dabbling with it off and on for the better part of a year now. It is nice to see a piece that uses this technology for its physicality and Tanaka’s piece shows me opportunity for creating sculptural works with the material created within the space of Metasynth. Bondage, is a piece about enigma drawing on mystery and fantasy. It is digital in nature, but analog on the surface. The artist uses wood and paper as a vehicle for digital image and sound projecting a Japanese woman in a kimono onto a sliding paper shoji screen. The sounds are sine-waves, but not in a typical ultra-clean design space. The viewer’s presence completes the loop, uncovering parts of Nobuyoshi Araki’s original photograph, scanned left to right in frequency bands producing sound. The quadraphonic sound system is oriented vertically in the plane of the paper screen. The fibers of the paper give an organic surface for the digital pixels. The result is a total environment, a concentrated space where sound meets image, but where interaction is not pushed to the fore. Instead, he attempts to create a magical space, drawing upon the voyeuristic fantasies of the viewer.

Atau Tanaka. Web. 08 May 2011. .

Wands, Bruce. Art of the Digital Age. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2006. Print.

Stephen Vitiello

As is the learning curve with many mediums, I have been learning how to edit/produce and record sound. Though I have not created a ‘sound’ piece so to speak, I feel it is inevitable that I will do so. I have always had an interest for working with sound and now that I am learning tools to manipulate/create it, It will only be a matter of time that develop a solid concept for creating sound art. One sound artist that I have been looking to for inspiration is Stephen Vitiello. Born in New York in 1964, Vitiello played in punk and noise bands in the 1980s, before collaborating on projects with the multimedia artist Tony Oursler. In the late 90s, he began to operate as a solo artist and composer of site-specific work. He is most known for his work with the World Trade Center Recordings: Winds after Hurricane Floyd of 1999.

Part of the Vitello's skill is finding the unnoticed - just as the film director zooms in on the eye at the keyhole, or mesmerizes with a slow-motion dripping tap, Vitiello sets his recording equipment to capture the overlooked. In Night Chatter (2006), this piece is composed of an analog synth track that rumbles under natural sounds recorded in the James River State Park and Cypress Bridge Forest, both in Virginia. The artist states, “When I’m out in the field at night recording, there is a feeling of chatter, insect and animal voices that are communicating outside of my translation skills.” The artist was interested in connecting this experience to the concept of "chatter," a term which, since 9-11, often refers to communications picked up by U.S. government surveillance to track potential terrorist threats.

It is said that in some ways Vitiello is also a sculptor - caught up in recording or presenting within three-dimensional spaces. The gallery promises that we will be caught by surprise by a voice or a bird singing. It's probably even more truthful to say he considers four dimensions, as time is another factor.

Another appeal to the work of Stephen Vitiello is the collaborative aspect of his work; he often performs and collaborates constructively on sound pieces with various artists. Having only collaborated once in an improvisational sound installation, I was immediately hooked and hope to create more projects that involve the collaboration of others.

"THE COLLABORATIVE (RECENT) HISTORY OF STEPHEN VITIELLO." Interview by Alex Gibson. Fluid Radio. 10 Apr. 2011. Web. .

Johnston, Lorna. "Stephen Vitiello: The Birds." Time Out Sydney. 11 Aug. 2010. Web.

Scott, Andrea K. "Chime After Chime." The New Yorker 16 Aug. 2010: 1. The New Yorker. Web.

Wands, Bruce. Art of the Digital Age. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2006. Print.

Jennifer and Kevin McCoy

I currently completed a piece that I have mentioned briefly before, that involved pulling cartoons from my personal childhood form my memory and subjecting myself to them as an adult. While engaging in this act and eating a bowl of Trix cereal (Trix are for Kids) I was trying to reference the moments of bliss experienced as a child when engaged in such activities. Some of the context of these cartoons were darker and though they probably taught me life lessons in ways that I have not completely deciphered yet, I feel the response I got for the work is a result of my in ability to talk about the piece, or have give the piece the time and research it deserved. Though excited about the completion on the piece, I am now excited to revisit it in some new way socially and politically to bring something to the viewer. Looking at the work of Every Anvil (2001) by artist couple Jennifer and Kevin McCoy I feel there approach to commentary on cartoons is a good example of directions that such research could move toward for me.

Every Anvil (2001) is a video database of shots from over one hundred episodes of Looney Toons cartoons from the 1940s and 1950s. Each shot is indexed according to categories of violence and physical extremism such as ‘Every Explosion,’ ‘Every Flattened Character,’ and ‘Every Scream.’ The McCoys devised an interactive installation in which visitors (or participants) choose which disks to play according to the ‘action’ or ‘emotion’ they want to see.

Similarly, Every Shot, Every Episode (2001) contains literally that: every shot of every episode of the 1970s television show, Starsky and Hutch, which viewers can watch according to their own tastes for the content of certain scenes. The computer now rearranges the dramatic content for prime emotional impact according to the desires of the viewer.

An interesting aspect of the McCoy’s work is that they write their own programs -- and along the way arguably turn the tedious task of writing code into an art form.

"There isn't a shortage of visual and sonic effects offered in commercial programs. But when we want to combine different processes to achieve a certain aesthetic or per formative effect, we often can't," said Jennifer McCoy. "If we make a software tool ourselves, we can customize it easily. Plus we instantly know how to use it, of course."

I am not necessarily interest in the programming aspect of their work, however their work is a lesson in content and what it is you want to say to your viewer or participant about that content and what is the best rout for the content to be experienced. This is not to say that I couldn’t see myself learning programming in the coming years to integrate into my work, but right now I am very excited about the idea of editing imagery in simple ways to convey messages, whether that be programs as simple as photoshop, or by editing clips in Final Cut.

Jana, Reena. "Real Artists Paint by Numbers." WIRED. 6 Sept. 2001. Web.

Rush, Michael. Video Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

Ken Feingold

In looking for media artists that have worked with their childhood as inspiration I found artist Ken Feingold. Growing up in a significantly different time and situation, Ken’s search for his childhood is much different than my own, but the concepts and ideas, as well as approach is something to be learned from, in trying to better articulate the concepts behind my work.

At the center of Feingold’s work, Childhood/Hot & Cold Wars (The Appearance of Nature), he writes: I have undertaken a search for my childhood TV memories, a kind of archaeology of those images and sounds that I remember, or see now, as having been formative in my understanding of what was going on in the world. I grew up watching television programs I saw in my first years. The thoughts of my childhood emerged amid constant references to world war, the atom bomb…and promises of endless progress in a fantastic technological future in which I would be visiting other worlds.

I spent my childhood visiting worlds of my own via cartoons and I think this is an opportunity to look deeper at what these cartoons informed me of. What were the social and political situations of the time and how were they represented in these cartoons, how can I express this to my viewer?

Another source of inspiration for a piece that I have been contemplating via the appropriation of two robotic dolls known as the Teddy Ruxpin, is Feingold’s pieces that consist of heads of his creation that question their own existence. In his work If/Then, allows identical heads in a cardboard box that talk to each other in an attempt to determine who and what they are: “I wanted them to look like replacement parts being shipped form the factory that had suddenly gotten up and begun a kind of existential dialogue right there on the assembly line.”

Collins, Judith. Sculpture Today. London: Phaidon, 2007. Print.

Druckrey, Timothy, and Charles Stainback. Iterations: the New Image. New York City: International Center of Photography, 1993. Print.

Rush, Michael. Video Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

Jim Campbell

One thing that I have kept in mind when reading about the works of Alan Rath was the human interaction that is crucial to his practice. In searching for other artists whom work in a similar vein, I found artist Jim Campbell. With a lower-tech approach Jim Campbell is interested in looking for intuitive ways for viewers to interact with systems.

In attempting to create systems that respond and progress in recognizably non-random, but un-predictable ways, he has tried to create works that have a destiny of their own. His most recent work, inspired by artificial intelligence, investigates people’s connections with the information age.

In Library (2003), all but the faintest evidence of surveillance is erased. People entering and exiting the New York Public Library are filmed by the artist and then rendered indistinct by Campbell’s technological manipulations. The result is a haunting testimony to the fleeting nature of life itself and, becomes a memorial to all those anonymous people who have been photographed, passed through information systems, and then abandoned as useless data.

Druckrey, Timothy, and Charles Stainback. Iterations: the New Image. New York City: International Center of Photography, 1993. Print.

Rush, Michael. Video Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

Alan Rath

Alan Rath’s work aesthetically is as appealing to me as say the work of Tony Oursler, I think more than anything what draws me in the is the human nature that exists within the technology of such artists works. I was directly influence by Alan Rath’s pieces such as When is Now, 2001. I like the idea of eyes being portrayed through a monitor and giving the cold nature of technology a life of sorts. For Rath he says “I was interested in the tradition of people looking at art, and art being a passive object that people go visit.” “This is the first time that art can actually look back at you, It would be interesting if objects being observed could recognize you, the way people remember a piece.”

To interact with a Rath Sculpture is to be suddenly confronted with an awareness of our own behaviors, warts, social programming, and all. We are being mocked up and gently mocked by Rath’s robots, an experience resulting in both sheepish grins of self-recognition and existential wonderment at the oddity of our own attitudes. I this way it is said that Rath’s work is slapstick, commenting on our every day clumsiness i.e. wondering around attached to our ipods looking up occasionally at our own trajectory.

Much of Rath’s appreciation for his work comes after the objects have been created and are placed in the gallery for human interaction. Commenting on this interaction he says “I’m surprised when I notice people being intimidated by machinery,” “They took a machine to get to the museum, and they’re wearing machines. I like people who can accept the playful quality of it, and jus appreciate the experience.”

I am careful when looking at work such as that of Alan Rath to not be consumed by the allusion that such work could be within my grasp technically in a small time frame. It is not necessarily my intention to want to crate robots, and or kinetic sculptures, for me I think it is more the relationship he is able to set up through the imagery alone, it is this component that I think is most interesting. Much like my interest in the projections of Oursler’s work. It takes an insane amount of skill to produce works such as Rath’s. He is an artist that studied physics and electrical engineering a the Massachusetts institute of Technology. Co-Chair of the Science Board at the Santa Fe Institute, Murray Gell-Mann, writes: Rath is able to design and build his computerized sculptures all by himself, and they appeal to he scientist in me as well as the art lover. One can think of these creations as robots, but that word seems to imply that they serve us in some banal capacity. Instead they serve to entertain us, stimulate our thoughts, play on our feelings, and excite our imaginations.

Bing, Alison. "Meta Mechanics." Sculpture Sept. 2006: 35-39. Print.

Rath, Alan. Alan Rath: Robotics. Santa Fe, NM: SITE Santa Fe, 1999. Print.

Druckrey, Timothy, and Charles Stainback. Iterations: the New Image. New York City: International Center of Photography, 1993. Print.

Mary Lucier

I took a specific interest in the video work of Mary Lucier via her piece titled Forge (2000). The piece features the raging flames of a forge where hardened materials were being shaped into industrial goods, steel shelves perhaps. Exposing both the usefulness and the devastation of heat, Lucier uses the forge as the place to examine the complex relationship between human and the natural elements. Of course with my love for casting metal Lucier’s piece allows me to see opportunities for using video to portray the ideas that hold my interest in casting metal. The life of the metal is a concept that I had been trying to portray through several failed attempts at exposing small cast figures just after being poured in the mold. Though these pieces became more of experiments and less of finished pieces the things I learned from the experience combined with seeing other similar works has given me new ideas for work such a this. Wanting to pull away from the figure and work more with video Lucier’s piece is inspiring.

Exposing both the usefulness and the devastation of heat, Lucier uses the forge as the place to examine the complex relationship between humans and the natural elements. Using a digital technique called ‘nesting,’ in which one image is placed inside another, Lucier intensifies the flaming activity inside the forge by multiplying it in front of the viewer’s eyes.

There are similar parallels with Lucier’s work and that of Fabrizio Plessi, in terms of the natural and the technological; ideas that I am constantly juggling myself. She began as a still photographer as well as Performance artist. She also incorporated technological interventions in her work, as in her 1975 Air Writing and Fire Writing. Multiple video monitors, lasers, prerecorded audio texts and other elements contributed to energetic ‘techno-performances’ that reflected her profound and, as it turns out, enduring interest in air, fire, and earth.

"INCONVERSATION Mary Lucier with Phong Bui." Interview by Phong Bui. The Brookly Rail. Mar. 2007. Web.

Rush, Michael. Video Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

Michael Pinsky

I studied the works of Michael Pinsky in order to get yet another perspective on the use of technology within nature. Although all of Pinsky’s works do not necessarily always follow these themes, he has completed a few works that set up interesting conversation on the subject. One such piece is that of Weather Cluster. This piece was a response to Earth’s increasingly violent weather. This digital “chandelier” of 30 flat screen monitors hanging in UK’s Clacton High School’s Auditorium in the main atrium, depicts weather conditions that are transmitted by students taking photos and recording data form around the world that is transmitted to a living cpu.

With this work Pinsky hints at the tenuos frailty of technology, remarking that in a work such as this, “the software and the hardware, have to be incredibly robust.” The thing that intrigues me about Weather Cluster is that is trusted by Pinsky that the upcoming generation will appreciate the extent to which their personal and political decisions will impact the global climate and human health.” This intrigues me in terms of the collaboration aspect of the piece and the need for a team of people to keep the piece alive and running well. I find working in a large scale collaboratively, especially among students, is an excellent avenue for artists to work in.

I appreciate Pinsky’s ability to make large works that are not just privately commissioned works, but performative large scale works. Such is that of Symposium, 2001, where Pinsky cut a car in half and mounted one half on the edge of the Wilmington Swing Bridge, and the other on a nearby bank. The two halves were reunited to one when the bridge swung shut. Not only do the two car halves come back together, but they trigger the car alarm. I will be the first to admit that it is difficult for me to think in such a large manner, however I respect and will continue to discover artists that are working in such a way, as to gain more knowledge.

Dillon, Laura. "Commissions." Sculpture Dec. 2006: 20. Print.

Watt, Janet. "Charting a Course." AN Magazine July 2003: 28. AN Magazine. Web.

Tony Cragg

It is not necessarily his work, or even his material that draws me in to Tony Cragg. It is his words of honesty about his practice that I appreciate and have learned from. He believes that we should not leave the shape of the future to politicians and businessmen–there should be some other activity, even if it is only a very small activity, such as sculpture, to find new forms, alternative shapes that would help to produce better imaginations, better dreams, better fantasies, because we would have a better, stronger visual language.

This is a voice for the language that I am engaged in with my own work. I want to create work that evokes the imagination and fantasy. Living in this space is healthy for growth. Finding out how to use our hands and our minds together in such a way to get out of what Cragg calls “this dull reality.”

For Cragg, historically, Sculpture has just begun, just now, and he says, “I think that it has the possibility of becoming something completely new and very important.” “It is an investigative medium in a direct sense.” Following this statement it was exciting for me to learn that Cragg experiments often as he moves along and has changed both his objects and materials several times in his career. This helps me put perspective on the mere three years of graduate studies and though it seems entirely overwhelming at times with all the material and conceptual choices at hand, this investigation is on the beginning of my journey, something I need to allow myself to be constantly reminded of.

Collins, Judith. Sculpture Today. London: Phaidon, 2007. Print.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. Conversations on Sculpture. Hamilton, N. J.: Isc, 2007. Print.

Fabrizio Plessi

Fabrizio Plessi for me is one of those artists that when you see his work for the first time you say to yourself “I want to make work like that.” Of course that would not be the reaction for every on looker of his work, my opinions are biased in that he works with materials and concepts that I have worked with all along in making my are and though I would not want to incorporate my work in an exactness to that of Fabrizio Plessi, he has combined technology and nature in a beautiful harmony. His works are excellent in both execution and concept and I feel that I will be looking to his work quite a bit more If I so choose to work with nature again in the near future.

I have a parallel of history with Plessi, and I have no allusions of grandeur that I am only in my 20’s and feel that I have only begun to scrape the surface of what my art means to me, let a lone what I want it to say to others, all of my research is an attempt to get a better grasp on all of these issues. I sincerely feel that Plessi has it figured out. As a video artist with traditional art school training, his work balances primal elements (air, water, fire) and materials (stone and wood) with new technology to arouse irrational, elemental emotions.

Reading about Plessi’s work helps me to further my investigation as to why I currently have had such an affinity with the monitor as a choice of material. Plessi treats the video monitor as inner space. He makes it clear that the image of water Art (1990), exists inside the video monitor. The video monitor seems to generate it from its own inner space. That is, the rigid box contains the video tube the way the body contains the psyche that creates fluid art.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. Conversations on Sculpture. Hamilton, N. J.: Isc, 2007. Print.

Kuspit, Donald. "The Water Of Life." Artnet Magazine. 4 Apr. 2008. Web.

Richard Wentworth

Looking at Richar Wentworth’s work for me was similar to looking at the work of Liliana Porter, in that, I wanted to gain a better understanding of what it means to use the ‘ready made’ Wentworth attempts to draw objects out, uncovering their various selves and rerouting what and how they signify. His activities go beyond producing discrete objects or installations…He resists the temptation to pump up the size of his work or to substitute permanent materials for challengingly conceptual ones.

I’ll admit I cannot fully understand all that Wentworth has to say regarding his use of every day objects that he in some way manipulates and photographs. I think is work takes a certain type of contemplation, a space in which you have to let go of certain presumptions. Everything is so methodically planned out. In a BBC Interview he speaks of a piece with the use of a ping pong table and dinner plates, his observations on how we react to such situations as broken plates placed back together and stacked on the table, ready to be re-used for their original purpose, is outstanding. He says that “’as a general rule we’re anxious about eating off something that’s been mended, but then there are other things in our lives that we mend because we’d hate to lose them.” “The fact that they’re on a ping pong table, I’ve had dinner off ping pong tables, there’s nothing odd about that if you’ve got enough people coming to dinner why not!” “But it makes it a little bit tense because you have that feeling of opposition…”

In feeling a bit overwhelmed in trying to break down Wentworth’s observations, he even states himself that he is continually investigating the miracle of selecting what we look at–ideas about prior knowledge and how drenched we are in it and how un-innocent.” I think investigating Wentworth’s work for me personally was trying to identify with it in some way, it seemed like such a different use of the ready made and upon investigating the work and reading his interviews I find it even a bit more confusing, but this is not a bad thing, I learned that objects are not to be taken for granted, we as walkers and lookers about analyze everything, whether we realize it or not, what Wentworth does is further examines the moments of contemplation on an object that the average individual would only speak of inside the subconscious. He pulls that out and manipulates it further, pushes it to its limit and places out for the world to see.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. Conversations on Sculpture. Hamilton, N. J.: Isc, 2007. Print.

"Richard Wentworth @ Potteries Museum." Interview by Lisa Dawson. Richard Wentworth @ Potteries Museum. BBC. Stoke and Staffordshire, UK, Apr. 2006. Radio.

Liliana Porter

Untitled with Lamp, 2000, is my first encounter with the work of Liliana Porter, upon further investigation I found myself being engaged with her material choice and was instantly reminded of Nicolas Bouriaud’s The Radicant. Immediately there was a connection of her choice in materials stemming from what Bouriaud would call the “flea market-aesthetic.” He states that the lifespan of objects is becoming shorter and shorter, their turnover in the marketplace ceaselessly accelerated, their obsolescence carefully planned. It is this obsolescence that Porter thrives own, she takes home these objects and employs them. She comments saying they “already exist…already come with a history,” and by isolating them or situation them with unusual companions she gives them entirely new realities and interpretations. The power lies not in the individual toys, but in the relationship and the space she creates between them. Currently wanting to appropriate objects from the “flea marke aesthetic” myself and appropriate them for pieces of my own, looking at works like that of Liliana Porter is helpful in thinking about how things like placement will set up a certain relationship between objects. I can see a lot of opportunity to make works in this manner. Having obtained objects that both hold a personal history and a history of their own ex. Teddy Ruxpin or R2D2 for example symbols of my childhood, I can give them new meaning by placing them in certain situations/environments.

I think a large difference between Liliana Porter and most artists is her ability to alter her work. She in fact creates with this in mind. In an interview with Pablo Baler she says: “I place my work in a neutral space, I do stage it in such a way as to not even allow the possibility of seeing it without re-creating it, without transforming it…I’m mostly interested in realizing and showing that almost everything lies inside that region where you are the one who endows things with a particular meaning.” I also find Porters arrival of her material as interesting as her portrayal. She says that she “got here not form the Pop side; it was more from the fact that toys are things of the past, and at the same time, they are metaphors, receptacles of meaning It is exactly the same with art.

In thinking of the appropriation of certain toys that I have collected and held on to with then intentions of using them as my art I feel that now that I have some insight from Liliana Porter’s point of view as the “toy” as a material, that I must investigate what the material is trying to say to me in terms of objects from the past that can be seen as metaphors.

Baker, Kenneth. "Waltz of the Figurines, Now on a Screen near You." San Francisco Chronicle. 26 Apr. 2008. Web.

Bourriaud, Nicolas. The Radicant. New York: Lukas & Sternberg, 2009. Print.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. Conversations on Sculpture. Hamilton, N. J.: Isc, 2007. Print.

Tintori, Valentina. "Liliana Porter/Interview." Latina Art Journal (2011): 1. Latina Art Journal. 27 Mar. 2011. Web.

Miroslaw Balka

Often using his own body and his studio as a template or first point of reference, Balka’s work deals with both personal and collective memories, especially as they relate to his Catholic upbringing and the collective experience of Poland's fractured history. The majority of my experience with Miroslaw Balka’s work comes from conversations about his exhibition at London’s White Cube gallery. Titled “Karma,” Balka’s show featured sculptural installations expressing timelessness, repetitive cycles, continuity, and progress/lack of progress. I must admit my interest in Balka initially was more of a response to his aesthetic. Often using ordinary objects and simple materials to create his work, he has described his work in terms of releasing the energy contained in simple materials.

Feedback that I have received over the past few years in graduate school has stemmed conversations about the lack of seeing “me” in my work. With the exception of just a few works, I have yet to be able to convey myself in a light that can be understood by the viewers of my work. This is something I want to continue to explore. Exploring this in nearly all of his work, I would like to comment on Balka’s mentioning’s of his body in relation to his piece 354 x 58 x 79, 2004. In an interview with Robert Preece, Balka states that: “The medicine balls are related to my body in terms of the activity of my body–the imperfection. Everything in my work is about my body, but few aspect of the work relate to my body in that way. Instead, I aim to create the presence of my body.”

Perhaps not so much a comment on art practice but life, which in affect improves the ability to create, Balka makes a good point in saying that “I’m more skeptical of the world now that I was 20 years ago. I see my position within it better. I see the mechanisms of life better. I think my work is a shadow of this observation. It is not a direct reflection.” I think this poses an interesting discussion that I have to have with others and myself. Do I want to make work that is a direct relation to my life or a reflection?

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. Conversations on Sculpture. Hamilton, N. J.: Isc, 2007. Print.

Preece, Robert. "The Shadow of Life's Mechanisms." Sculpture Nov. 2004: 37-41. Web.

"White Cube — Miroslaw Balka." White Cube. Web. 09 May 2011. .

Tony Oursler

I once did a drawing in my sketchbook (I say drawing but I’m not very good at it); the drawing depicted figures that had combined the elements of my use of bamboo as a strong material existing as the limbs of a figure that exists in a fragile nature, as well as an amorphous figure cast as a hollow plastic body and containing a head that is a video screen. The screen would depict a confused human-like expression, questioning its existence and contemplating its place in the world. Whether the figure would be placed within its own narrative, or if it was a commentary on my fabricated idea that we as a culture would one day try to combine nature and technology and fail at it, resulting in a confusing race of amorphous forms. I had nearly forgot this drawing and at the time that I drew it I had no concept of how such a piece would be made. All thoughts came flooding back as I looked at the work of Tony Oursler, whom aesthetically and conceptually has increasingly become one of my favorite contemporary artists working today.

Oursler has remained interested in how technology makes individuals feel uneasy despite its commonplaceness and its penetrating impact on global society. He embraces technology as an artist tool not because it was hip or trendy, but because he saw it as a means of probing the inner self…This hits it spot on for me, I’ve often felt that my new interest in technology as a tool could easily be misguided and misunderstood, but I do feel like Oursler that it should be embraced as a tool to explore the inner self and our relationship with technology.

Oursler’s constructions cut across multiple media – sculpture, painting, photography, video drawing, video/digital projection, space, and CD-ROM. This is where I want to be and the goals that I strive to achieve dwell within a similar multifaceted practice. As I move forward and explore the work that I want to make, I want to be able to pick up whatever tool necessary to explore my ideas and I feel Oursler is an excellent source for inspiration.

It is good for me to see Oursler’s work in the sense that it can help me learn to break out of the boundaries of a flat surface and explore other ways to involve media in works. In May 2003 he introduced a new brand of mutants. Stepping inside, viewers could imagine that the toons from Roger Rabbit had taken up residence in the gallery. I like the layers that his creations contain and I think this is something that I have not put enough thought into my own work. Of course the viewers are always going to have their own interpretations of your work, but it is the careful choices you make when conducting a work that can help guide the viewer toward your intention. His poignantly fictitious inventions highlight states of loneliness, isolation, and miscommunication–despite the frequently comical look of the toon-like fabrications.

Oursler also introduces sound to his humanoid creations. They say phrases such as ‘No! No! No!’ or ‘Do it!’ He gives voice to the mortified, the lonely, the abandoned. Continually I become more and more increasingly interested in audio as a medium and Oursler’s use of audio is smart in that there is human interaction that occurs between the viewer and the work, giving a character that would be over looked the power to be contemplated.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. A Sculpture Reader: Contemporary Sculpture since 1980. Hamilton, NJ: ISC, 2006. Print.

Rebecchi, Llaria. ""Open Obscura": Tony Oursler's Exhibition in Milan." King's Road Magazine. 23 Mar. 2011. Web.

Rush, Michael. Video Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

Nils-Udo

Through out my blog I have discussed my interest in many different mediums and subject matter. This is an attempt to better understand these materials and subjects and acquire some concrete evidence of contemporary artists using similar repertoire in their works. I found a close connection to the work of Nils-Udo when thinking of my love for nature. Nils-Udo works much like that of artist such as Andy Goldsworthy, in that the works are made in nature with the materials at hand and are a typically site-specific. Nils-Udo has also employed the use of bamboo for several of his works and I was visually interested in his use of that material, although I am not currently using bamboo in my own work , I am interested in new ways of manipulating it as a material in the knowledge that it is likely I will return to that material.

Nils-Udo’s nature constructions, plantings, and arrangements of found elements evidence a need to seize the tactile environmental reality and to build a language out of it–but nature remains an equal player. Nils-Udo states that turning nature into art does not interest him. He says that what counts for him is that his actions, Utopia-like, fuse life and art into each other. He says that Art does not interest him. His reaction to events that shape his existence is what interests him. Immediately, this through me for a loop at first read, but Nils-Udo’s further explanation of this way of working is quite informative and a new approach to my ears. He says for example, “We do not call a beaver’s hut art or architecture, yet the logs are tooth-carved and the hut is a built construction.” “The divide between humanity and nature has become so clearly delineated a conception that nature has become a foil used to describe artificiality.” “The billboard or screen image of a leaf or a caterpillar, for instance, is now used to sell product.” In Nils-Udo’s work however, he reminds us of the fragile balance between human activity and nature.

I would like to end this post by citing a comment by Nils-Udo on his use of nature as material that reeds like poetry and I feel is very touching.

Sketching with flowers. Painting with clouds. Writing with water. Tracing the May wind, the path of falling leaf. Working for a thunderstorm. Awaiting a glacier. The May-green call of the cuckoo and the invisible trace of its flight. Space…

–N.–U.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. A Sculpture Reader: Contemporary Sculpture since 1980. Hamilton, NJ: ISC, 2006. Print.

Rocca, Alessandro. Natural Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2007. Print.