LAST POST!!!!!

So this is happening right in the nick of time, unless of course this assignment was due last night at midnight...In which case all of my procrastination really really bit me in the ass.  I'm not sure if I should attempt to do something special for this last entry, with only 40 minutes to go I might just hurry.

Ummm, holy crap I just found the perfect ending to a semester long project.  Chemically mutated guinea pigs anyone?!?!

Laurie Hogin, Pharmaceutical Guinea Pigs: Boost Your Metabolism (#5), 2011Oil on panel 6 × 6 in 15.2 × 15.2 cm

 

 

 Laurie Hogin, Love Daisies, 2008 Oil on Panel 22 x 22 in

Pharmaceutical Guinea Pigs: Boost Your Metabolism (#3), 2011 Oil on panel 6 × 6 in

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Diorama with Rozerem and Black Alligators), 2008

Oil on canvas
60 × 84 in

Okay, what can I say, I love this.  Laurie Hogin has successfully (at least for me) painted, yes, painted wildlife art that is exciting, funny, and is considered by the powers that be, to be Fine Art.  The colors Laurie uses are bright, sickly neons, that seem to vibrate against one another right off the canvas.  the effect is an unnatural, but beautiful, other worldly landscape, where the fauna have mutated into monsters.  Their faces have been grotesquely anthropomorphized to varying degrees and convey emotions such as anger, insanity, pain, anxiety, and disgust.  These animals don't belong on a trapper  keeper.


Laurie's themes and concepts are right up my alley.  I have been wondering about the possibilities of incorporating environmental and conservation messages into art work.  I think Hogin finds a nice balance between a really smart slightly esoteric message, a striking image, and a narrative that sticks with the viewer.  Her work raises issues of consumerism, environmental degradation, and human cruelty to animals.  Her hyper realist style is well suited to the subject as it calls to mind the science and discovery that marked the 17th century.  I think of animal specimens being collected from the jungles and rainforest of exotic lands and cataloged meticulously in the name of science.

Cal Lane

Shovel, 2012

Metal shovel
56 ^1/2 × 8 in
143.5 × 20.3 cm

 

 

Gutter Snipes I, 2011

Aluminum coated steel sewer pipe
72 × 240 × 58 in
182.9 × 609.6 × 147.3 cm

 

 

Pantie Can , 2012

Laser cut Metal Oil Canaster
10 × 8 × 5 in
25.4 × 20.3 × 12.7 cm

 

 

Land Mine, 2011

Steel ammunition box
43 × 72 × 6 in
109.2 × 182.9 × 15.2 cm

 

This Canadian born, one time hair dresser, always found herself thinking in opposites.  She was a tomboy who could hold a welding tool as easily as a pair of hair shears.  Cal Lane's work is a beautiful example of found object art.  She uses found objects that are made of steel, and then carves delicate and lacy patterns into the steel drum, shovel, pipe, dumpster, i-beam, whatever.   Her work is often times about the transformation from a masculine, utilitarian object to something ornate and feminine.

 Despite being turned into lacy, complex, beautiful carvings, there is still something hard, cold, and dangerous about Cal's work.  I know you are not supposed to touch art in a gallery or museum usually, but her work has a unique deterrent-- tetanus!  

My favorite piece of the ones I posted is Gutter Snipes.  I'm a sucker for the large scale piece or the teeny tiny.  this piece has a really unique shape.  I like that she kept the arc of the pipe.  It is a really unusual form.  The detail and craftsmanship that went into the work is insane because of the great size.  Who sees a sewer pipe and thinks of fairies?  Is the gutter snipe a real mythological creature like the Lockness monster or Sasquatch? 

Okay turns out I was a little off...  I thought guttersnipes were fairies, turns out its much more Dickensian than that.

guttersnipe [ˈgʌtəˌsnaɪp]

n

1. a child who spends most of his time in the streets, esp in a slum area

2. a person regarded as having the behaviour, morals, etc., of one brought up in squalor

[originally a name applied to the common snipe (the bird), then to a person who gathered refuse from gutters in city streets]

guttersnipish  adj

Judith Schaechter: Crazy, weird, awesome!

This is pretty cool, creepy...but cool.  I love stained glass as a medium!

Lockdown, 2010

Stained glass lightbox

20 ^1/2 × 31 × 6 in

52.1 × 78.7 × 15.2 cm

You Are Here, 2008

Stained glass lightbox

36 ^1/2 × 25 × 6 in

92.7 × 63.5 × 15.2 cm

The piece above is particularly striking to me.  It is especially the blue of the sky and the celestial bodies that seem to revolve in it that gives the piece a certain magic and attraction.   The piece is representation, stained glass, and depicts a female figure prone on her back gazing up into the top half of the picture plane.  The bottom half of the picture plane appears to be grass or wheat, while the top half is a night sky dotted with stars and planets.  Bold black lines trace the paths of the planets as they possibly turn slowly above the head of the enamored female.   Unlike some of the other pieces this image seems peaceful and happy, rather than lonely or cold and scary.  It makes me think of female curiosity, and the power of female imagination and mind, within the context of the medieval ages its a pretty powerful idea.

 

The Sin Eater, 2009

Stained glass lightbox

25 × 46 ^1/2 × 6 in

63.5 × 118.1 × 15.2 cm

The Minotaur, 2010

Stained glass lightbox

37 × 25 × 6 in

94 × 63.5 × 15.2 cm

Judith's work has a certain medieval aesthetic, but a modern subject matter. As far as her concept or meanings within the work, Judith claims that each piece is formulated as she goes and evolves organically without much preconception.  She no doubt does eventually arrive at a personal meaning for each piece, but ultimately wants the viewer to interpret each piece freely saying, "My interpretations have no more importance than yours.” It sounds as if her process is extremely involved.  Her work is comprise of hundreds of tiny glass times that she individually carves, paints and engraves before compiling them altogether in a mosaic that can be several layers deep.  She then presents the work within a light box, to fully display the detail of paint and carving.  

Judith Joy Ross

I couldn't resist Judith's series taken in Chalfont Pennsylvania.  I guess every now and then you come across a work of art, or works of art that just seem to be made for your personal pleasure.  They speak so much to your life or  past experiences that they make you feel special, or nostalgic, or peaceful, or all three! I felt a little jolt of excitement when I came across this series of photographs.  Like "Hey, that's me!  I've lived that! That's a special experience that I know about!"

Children in Neshaminy Creek, Wildlife Camp, The Aark Foundation Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center, Chalfont, Pennsylvania, 2011 Archival pigment print mounted to board 32 × 39 ^3/4 in

Iliana and Claire, Wildlife Camp, The Aark Foundation Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center, Chalfont, Pennsylvania, 2011 Archival pigment print 30 × 24 in

Corey with Bunny Wildlife Camp, The Aark Foundation Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center, Chalfont, Pennsylvania, 2011 Archival pigment print. 24 x 19 in

No, I have never been to this particular wildlife camp, but as a child I spent a lot of my summers back East in Pennsylvania, or in the "God's country" that is southern Illinois.  I have spent quite a few hours exploring Pennsylvania creek beds.  I know that flat, shaley rock, and I know the little, black, squirming salamanders that those kids are finding.  I know the small town girls who spend their summers barefoot in bathing suits migrating from one swimming pool or pond to the next.  Put a squirming, feral barnyard kitten in place of that bunny, and it might as well be my little cousin on the farm twelve years ago. Oh, how it makes me long for the goodness of childhood, small towns, and deep hardwood forests!  Good on ya Judith Ross for capturing a childhood, a small-town-America ideal, a memory that is slipping, a reality that can never be again.

Ross, Born in Hazletown Pennsylvania in 1946, is known mostly as a portrait photographer.  Her work is appreciated for its emotional acuteness, and it ability to convey the humanity and vulnerability of the subject(s).   Ross is also known for her use of an antiquated 8 x 10 in camera that produces 8 x 10 paper prints. Her resulting work is reminiscent of 20th century photographers.  She has been described as "an exemplar of classic photographic portraiture"  

Haroshi

Here is some interesting assemblage work, from an artist who has mastery craftsmanship.  His material is used skateboards.  I'm not sure if the conceptualization is super strong, but visually they are quite fun!

Moose, 2010

used skateboards

54 ^3/10 × 57 ^1/10 × 43 ^3/10 in

138 × 145 × 110 cm

Screaming Foot, 2010

used skateboards

16 ^7/10 × 4 ^1/2 × 9 ^4/5 in

42.5 × 11.5 × 25 cm

Foot With Invisible Shoe 6, 2012

Used skateboards

23 ^1/2 × 12 × 28 in

59.7 × 30.5 × 71.1 cm

Sk8 Cross Mario

used skateboards

18 ^3/4 × 14 × 3/4 in

47.6 × 35.6 × 1.9 cm

It comes as no surprise that Haroshi is a skate boarder besides being a self taught wood worker.  He hand selects, stacks, paints, and carves each piece of skate board.  His pieces have a striped or layer effect because the skateboards themselves are comprised of fused wood sheets.   My favorite part of his process is that within each 3D sculpture he places a "raw" piece of broken skate board to act as the "soul" of the work.  This practice is inspired by Unkei, a 12th century Buddhist sculptor who would place a crystal within each of his sculptures of Buddha.

Okay, I just watched and read a couple of interviews with Hiroshi, I my first instincts about him were not super far from the truth (although the interview I watched was so informal, I'm not sure it wasn't a Joke).  He is pretty young, Id say late twenties early thirties.  He has that young at heart forever, refuses to take anyone or anything to seriously (even his art concepts ---though there is nothing silly about his execution---adult skateboarder style that we all know so well.  

The conceptualizations behind his work went something like this: "Deluxe is one of the best skateboard companies in the world, why wouldn't I do something with Deluxe.  Pete Ramondetta is one of the best skateboarders on the world.  And If I'm going to do an arm and the middle finger of a guy it only makes sense to do it of someone whose awesome, and I even put his tattoos on the arm. Tommy Guerrero plays guitar, so I made a guitar for Tommy Guerrero."  Okay, so this was said with a translator speaking after Haroshi, so I still don't know if it is a joke, but I don't think it is.  We are talking about a completely unschooled, self-taught artist, so I doubt he has much experience composing artist statements :)    

Günther Uecker

We have looked at a few pieces this past semester that incorporated the use of nails into the art work.  For the most part I liked all of them....I do remember that student's bear however that was pretty awkward.  I think nails are one of those objects that carry a lot of baggage culturally.  The generally denote, pain, torture, etc..  The semiotics of the nail probably derive from the crucifixion of  Christ, but the symbolism of the nail has been perpetuated by horror films, and groups such as Nine Inch Nails; screws, pins, and needles were used in all three of the Quay Brothers films I watched.

Gunther Uecker is know for his use of the nail in Fine Art beginning in the 1950's, and they became his signature medium.  He is well known for undulating reliefs of nails that seem to shimmer across painted canvases like wheat in a field or living polyps on coral.  Rather that giving off a feeling of discomfort or an urge to recoil, I find myself wanting to reach out and touch his nail reliefs and perhaps send a shiver of movement through the collective.

Schrei (Scream), 2012 Nails, white paint with glue on canvas on wood 78 ^3/4 × 63 in

Doppelspirale (Double Spiral), 2012 Nails, white paint with glue,canvas, wood 78 ^3/4 × 59 ^1/8 in

Phantom Weiss I (White Phantom I), 2012 Nails, white paint with glue, canvas, wood 78 ^3/4 × 59 ^1/8 in

Chair II, 1963. Nails on wood, 34-1/4 x 18-1/2 x 17-3/4 inches

Nails on a chair should look like a straight up torture devise, but Gunther's nails look biological and organismal .  I seen a mold, a lichen or a moss creeping down the leg of this chair.  His nail placement resembles a community of organisms.  Still some of his sculptures are very geometric in form.

    

Schild (Shield), 2012 Nails, white paint with glue on canvas with wood 43 ^1/4 × 17 ^3/4 in

Despite my own feelings on the work.  It is probably quite clear that the nails that Uecker uses in is work are not meant to represent life, but probably death, torture, and mans propensity to violence.  Uecker was born in east Germany in 1930, and was witness to acts of extreme violence during WWII and the division between East and West Germany.  The violence present in his past influenced his subject matter greatly.  He even created a show comprised of "Devises", as in torture devices, that was titled "Man's Inhumanity".

  

Oh yeah, photography! and Mikhael Subotzky

So, I kinda forgot about photography.  I tend to do that, despite the fact that it seems like it is everyone else's favorite of all the visual arts.  I came across Mikhael's work and immediately appreciated his talents as a photojournalist-style photographer. These images could be right out of National Geographic.  Aside from being visually striking photographs, Subotzky's work tells a pointed story.  His images are filled with the sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes heart warming realism of the human condition.

Oddly enough I don't feel pity for the people in the images (maybe I should). I think it is the way the Mikael takes the images. They are full of truth, undeniable visual complexity and beauty, and humanism.  I think it has something to do with the fact that Mikhael himself tries as best as he can to immerse himself into the environments he chooses to photograph.  Maybe I should be seeing these people lives as something to rectify, but part of me just wants to learn more about what it is to be human, how humans live, can live, what we can endure, what makes us different, what makes us completely the same.  Still I don't know what all I feel when I look at images like this... I feel suddenly very white, very guilty, kinda ashamed of myself....


The Mallies Household, Rustdene Township, Beaufort West 2006. Chromogenic color print, 32 1/4 x 39 3/8" (81.9 x 100 cm). 


In this image, a young female stands half framed in a doorway as older adults flank her on either side.  The focal point of the image is the female in the center of the picture plane.  The light of the sun shines through an unseen window and hits her on the right side of her body, she stands as the tallest human figure in the room.   Smoke from her own, and an unseen person's cigarette drifts through the air catching the sunlight.  The colors in this photograph are deep and gem-like. Green walls contrast beautifully with the orange of the door frame.  On either side of the door frame pictures hang high on the walls.  One is of Jesus and The Sacred Heart. All the surfaces in the room are textured and blotched and peeling with decay and wear. Bottles and ask trays and glasses litter the surfaces in the foreground and background.  It gives the image a depth, and busyness, and anxiety that adds to the narrative of an uncertain, tumultuous life in West Africa.

Residents, Vaalkoppies 2006. Chromogenic color print, 41 9/16 x 50 11/16" (105.6 x 128.7 cm). 

Beaufort West Police Station. 2006. Lightjet C print 126x147cm 

Interesting how he wears his hat.  That style is identical to style that certain youth in America wear their hats. I'm sure it stands for the same confident, swagger that it does here.