LISA KELLNER

"It’s mind blowing to see what artist Lisa Kellner is able to do with silk organza, thread, and various pigments. Her immense sculptures take the shape of varicolored cell structures and organ-like forms . . . and look almost as if they are floating weightlessly in fluid or underwater. "











(via I Need A Guide)

This installation began months ago with the daily recitation of the poem, “The Garden of Proserpine” by Algernon Charles Swinburne.  When I was asked to make a work for Space Invaders, curated by Karin Bravin, it was this poem that began to infuse itself into the very fabric of the piece. 

I relish taking a raw space, planning a work that will inhabit that space, and then watching the piece shift and change once I am actually in the space.  Though I make drawings and try to do much of the assembling before hand, there is always more required on site.  This is necessitated by the immersion of the work within its new environment.

I've tried to find information on the method she uses but her manipulation of these fabrics and dyes seems impossible to reproduce. These works seem  like underwater organisms that have floated to the surface. Really interesting and ethereal work.

(via artists website)

RUNE GUNERIUSSEN

"Norwegian artist Rune Guneriussen‘s installations are straight out of a magical fairytale. Can you imagine stumbling upon a trail of glowing lamps in the middle of the night? "










(via My Modern Met)

The combination of natural landscapes with artificial light sources is a really compelling element in these installation. Again, very simple materials and ideas that create a hugely atmospheric work.

Final Project - Artist #7

"Jen Mills, "offering", (2005). An installation exploring time and memory. Over the course of 40 days, a room is filled with 40 bowls. Each day a new bowl filled with salt and water is placed next to the one before. Over time, the older bowls become encrusted with salt, the younger bowls just beginning. Slowly salt water filters through the bowls, creating patterns on the floor, covering the entire room."( from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/435934438902415294/)

Think this is a really beautifully exhibited and thought through piece. It has an air of solemnity and peace about it which is enhanced by this seemingly natural process. I think this shows how simplicity(which I often struggle with) can produce beautiful and evocative works.

Final Project - Artist #6

"What will you have with your rice today?" That's how people in Thai artist Nino Sarabutra's home village greet each other, a question she says gets closer to the heart of assessing your neighbor's happiness and well-being than a simple, and often empty, "How are you?"
That traditional exchange, and the meaning behind it, inspired Sarabutra to try and create a larger "good life index," interviewing people both in person and through an online survey that asks questions about regular monthly spending as well as respondents' "last bought luxury," what they "can't live without," and what would make them more happy.
Money, Health, Family, Love
Answers to the latter question range from the practical -- more money, more time with family; to the humorous -- "when my neighbor [turns the] volume down [on] his radio," one woman writes; to the poignant -- good health for aging parents, "everybody's happiness."

For her project "To Live or To Live a Good Life Yes No," Sarabutra created 365 handmade porcelain bowls, to represent the simple pleasures of the food we eat each day -- and the multiple roles food, and sharing it with other people, plays in our lives. Each bowl is engraved with her thoughts on food, people, life, and happiness, such as "Too much or too little," "Marinated with love," and "Money can't buy you happiness. Neither can poverty."
The installation, shown both in Bangkok and at the recent SurVivArt show in Berlin, combines the bowls, hung from the ceiling by thin threads, with pictures and facts about the people surveyed projected on the wall.
Different People, Different Stories
"What makes people happy differs depending on their aims in life, their jobs, financial status, family, lifestyle, priorities... Every answer tells different stories," the artist told TreeHugger in an email. "I interviewed many people in the village where they don't use Internet. They don't have much but they don't need much either... Some people have everything but they wish for world peace or better justice [for] humanity."
"One thing I know is it makes people think about themselves," she added. Take the survey yourself and see how happy you feel." ( from http://www.treehugger.com/culture/thai-artist-looks-happiness-bowl-rice.html)

 I initially was interested in this artist as the concept of hanging bowls was one that I had not previously considered for my final installation. the frailty of the bowls juxtaposed with the height and tenuous attachment of string results in an uneasy feeling, as though the bowls could fall and break at any moment.
The backstory and in-depth surveying behind the works adds a really well resolved layer to the work and makes it have a poignant effect. Without this knowledge I think her work can be appreciated on an aesthetic level, but the added information makes you appreciate it that much more.

Kristina Lewis

This artists work isn't entirely relevant to my final project, but her handmade principles and captivating forms really appeal to me.



Cultivated Zipzippers, thread, chain, metal hardware, rubber, adhesive
88” x 6” x 1”
2008
 





It Leaves a Shining Wake (at Johansson Projects, Oakland)
zippers, thread, cotton piping, black paint
size variable, approx. 7’ long
2010

Her work is known for its use of unorthodox materials such as in some of the example where zippers are her primary material.





Her work which most interests me is her series called Tape Systems where she creates natural looking organisms from completely artificial products

Tape System No. 3 (at Johansson Projects, Oakland)
embossing tape, drinking straws, vinyl resin, acrylic dowels, adhesive
4.5’ x 3.5’ x 1.5”
2008

Boundaryplastic boundary tape, plastic and vinyl tubing, cardboard, vinyl resin
11” x 6” x 3”
2009
 





Cautionplastic tape, plastic and rubber tubing, cardboard, rubber, wood, paint, adhesive
10” x 12.5” x 2.5”
2008
 

Nursemasking tape, stir straws, cardboard, wood, paint, vinyl resin, adhesive
24” x 15” x 2.5”
2008



embossing tape, drinking straws, vinyl resin, acrylic dowels, adhesive
4.5’ x 3.5’ x 1.5”
2008

 







The simplicity of her materials that result in intricate and delicate designs is really beautiful to me as you can sense the handmade and lengthy process that would have been involved.

Final Project - Artist #5

Marie Watt

Blanket Stories: Objects

We are received in blankets, and we leave in blankets. The work in these rooms is inspired by the stories of those beginnings and endings, and the life in between. I am interested in human stories and rituals implicit in everyday objects. Currently I am exploring the history of wool blankets. I find myself attracted to the blanket’s two- and three-dimensional qualities: On a wall, a blanket functions as a tapestry, but on a body it functions as a robe and living art object. Blankets also serve a utilitarian function. As I fold and stack blankets, they begin to form columns that have references to linen closets, architectural braces, memorials (The Trajan Column), sculpture (Brancusi, for one), the great totem poles of the Northwest and the conifer trees around which I grew up. In Native American communities, blankets are given away to honor people for being witnesses to important life events – births and comings-of-age, graduations and marriages, namings and honorings. For this reason, it is considered as great a privilege to give a blanket away as it is to receive one.

Blankets hang around in our lives and families – they gain meaning through use. My work is about social and cultural histories imbedded in commonplace objects. I consciously draw from indigenous design principles, oral traditions, and personal experience to shape the inner logic of the work I make. These wool blankets come from family, friends, acquaintances and secondhand stores (I’ll buy anything under $5). As friends come over and witness my blanket project in progress, I am struck by how the blankets function as markers for their memories and stories. (artists website)

 

 

I've included this artists work Blanket Stories as I feel it shows both option a and option b from my last post. These works are all stacked in a mass but also show a sagging and precariously stacked structure as well as well lit - showroom like exhibiting.

 

Blanket Stories: Three Sisters, Cousin Rose, Four Pelts, and Sky Woman 2005

 

Again the success of these works is heavily reliant on the large number of collected objects, which may be difficult for me to replicate as each bowl, depending on size can take up to 6-8 hours to make.
I think the use of different heights for the plinths is an interesting concept as I have been thinking of using physical and intact magazines between the bowls to increase mass but also to highlight what the bowls have been made of. I think this is a practical solution but also adds a differentiating factor as it could add variety to the stacked towers.

 

Final Project - Artist #4

I've been having a bit of trouble figuring out how I will position and set-up my final installation. Because my initial space has been taken, and my idea was fairly fixed in it I have to try and find another way to express what I need to. I could either
a) Line them up in a very orderly way - looking almost like a shop display- this would add to the notion of consumerism and excessive buying of material goods from large stores.
b) Precariously and messily stacked on one another so as to point to ideas of instability and an unsuccessful system.
I've included the next artist MATEJ KREN as she uses the second option, albeit in a different way, to create a stacked mass of books

"The Prague Municipal Library is now home to a spiraling tower of hundreds of carefully stacked books assembled by Slovakian born artist Matej Kren. Dubbed Idiom, the staggering installation reaches up to the ceiling, and Kren installed a mirror inside the funnel to create the illusion of a magical, unending spire of books.
Matej Kren’s ‘Idiom’ book tower originally appeared in Sao Paulo’s International Biennial in 1995. It consists of hundreds and hundreds of books stacked in a cylindrical pattern with the overlapping style of a Jenga game. A narrow tear-shaped opening creates a ten-foot hole in the side of the tower. The colorful spines of the various books create a rainbow pattern on the outside, while on the inside the well-worn, yellow-tinged pages of the books cast a warm glow.
Patrons of the Prague Municipal Library can peer their heads and shoulders into the tower’s interior. A mirror has been placed on the tower’s floor, replicating the experience of looking down into the waters of a wishing well. Another mirror caps the ceiling, creating an infinity effect. The stacks of books seem to climb and descend endlessly in both directions around the reflection of the visitor themselves.
Matej Kren often uses books to connect viewers with the feeling of infinity, exploring their structural use as well their application as tools of knowledge. Upon the close of many of his installations, the books used in the sculptural cells and structures are returned to their original purpose – the function of being read. The books work together to create these massive structures, and individually to spread the knowledge within their pages." (from http://inhabitat.com/matej-krens-idiom-is-a-spellbinding-tower-made-from-hundreds-of-books/#ixzz33Aw4jzx5)

I think the sheer amount of books is what underpins this works success. Given my time constraints, I am concerned that I will not be able to create such an overwhelming mass. Also, when stacked the bowls that I have made may lose height, thus meaning that the long time which their construction took will remain unseen.