Front
Erwin Wurm
Striking would be the initial word I would associate with Wurm?s work. This is because the compositions in his work are quite out of the ordinary. Evidently Wurm is a very talented photographer as the images below are examples of his one minute sculptures which amazingly give the illusion that he has spent hours planning and thinking through the composition of each of his photographs. Wurm?s work generally revolves around a human subject in a socially unaccepted/unexpected position. In addition to this it can also be said that Wurm?s work has the capacity to make the audience feel rather uncomfortable, which links back to the socially unaccepted nature of his photos. E.g:
Austrian Artist Erwin Wurm was born in Bruck an der Mur, Styria, Austria, however is currently living and working in Vienna and Limburg, Austria. In Wurm?s lifetime he has been well known for 3 series however in particular his One Minute Sculptures which can be seen above.
What?s interesting about Wurm?s artwork is that alongside observing, through drawings or brief written descriptions, the viewers are often encouraged to become an artwork themselves.
With Wurm?s work I find it hard to pinpoint my favourite image because they are all so absurd I will however highlight my favourite three below.
The image with the chair balanced on the man?s eye really strikes me initially because eyes re one of the most sensitive and protected parts of the body, in terms of cleanliness hence the reason why we have an eyelid over each of them that reacts very quickly to anything that could cause damage or discomfort. I feel like the image has the ability to resonate with the viewer as they can put themselves in the models shoes and almost feel the pain that the leg of the chair is potentially causing the man. This is due to the fact that all humans have the natural ability to relate to pain.
The image below with the man?s hand through the other man?s undone zip would probably the most socially and culturally unacceptably out of all of the images as it touches on a range of issues. The first being that in modern day culture touching your private bits in public is already seen as highly inappropriate, so for another person to do so would be considered as even worse. Secondly an aspect of homosexuality is inferred through the actions of the man on his knees. This would most probably be the leading reason for why a person unaccepting of homosexuality would be drawn to the image. Finally looking at the image from a sexual angle; oral sex is usually performed by a person who its kneeling down on their knee, and for the position to demonstrate in public would have drawn a lot attention to the models at the time that the photo was taken.
Similarly the image of the lady balanced on the stick-looking item can also be seen from a sexual angle as the woman appears to be balancing against the wall with the help of a stick near her vaginal area; which mirrors the positioning of a penis during sex. In addition to this the lady?s legs are wide open which is firstly considered ?un-lady-like? according to society and modern culture, and secondly rather inviting.
Thought process
Today Harriet and I sat in a tutorial of two other pairs and listened to them present their idea to our tutor and receive feedback. They were each given a quote each to develop initial ideas for a Graphic Communication Design piece to be constructed and delivered to the class on Thursday. Proceeding this Harriet and I were given our own quote:
'Life is a horizontal fall' - Jean Cocteau
We had an abundance of ideas and thoughts regarding this quote and we plotted them all onto two mind maps. The first mind map is a representation of our interpretations and word associations of the key words individually. While the second was our attempt at translating the whole quote in as many ways as we possibly could; what we found most interesting about the quote was that 'falling horizontally' is a physically impossible concept. This is because the act of falling is mainly vertical and always in a declining direction while the definition of horizontal is something that is 'parallel to the plane of the horizon; at right angles to the vertical'. All in all anything horizontal will always be at right angles to the vertical meaning the vertical and horizontal will never meet, only cross. Therefore a horizontal fall is physically impossible. Or is it?..
After much thought Harriet and I came up with the idea that a 'horizontal fall could be translated as: Whether you have fallen emotionally, physically, spiritually, socially or psychologically there will be a time when you have to pick yourself up and continue to live your life horizontally. Moreover all lives have to come to an end at some point which marks the ultimate 'fall' aspect of the 'horizontal fall'. Life can also rightfully be described as a horizontal fall; this is because if our heartbeats were to be recorded on a heart monitor for the whole of our lives it would look like this (and eventually end in a flat line):
And only when we die would the flatline be introduced marking the point and eternalness of death. Or is it Eternal? Some people have the believe that after we die we reincarnate into a living thing and our soul lives on. This is similar to the Physicians idea that Energy cannot be created nor destroyed; and is therefore always existent. Does this mean that all things indestructible can be compared to a horizontal line? because if you were to draw a horizontal line around the earth (the equator for example) the two end of the line would eventually meet right...
Life IS a horizontal fall
Crit Feedback 3rd Nov
Everyone seemed very engaged in our presentation despite us being the last group to present. Our main feedback was that we could consider overlaying our lines on top of each other, this way everyones days can be seen communally and further emphasise the idea of life being a horizontal fall. The Group also said that we should consider using a wider target audience (mixed in age/ethnicity/occupation etc.)
Richard Serra
Richard Serra known best for his large-scale sculptures was born and raised in San Francisco. He went on to study English Literature at the University of Carolina before Serra studied painting in the M.F.A. program at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture between 1961 and 1964.
Serra's primary sculptures were made of of non-traditional materials such as fiberglass and rubber. He soon moved on to more minimalist constructions made from large rolls and sheets of metal, What's interesting is that most of his pieces are self-supporting so they emphasize the weight and nature of the materials. Additionally rolls of lead are designed to sag over time, meaning that the shapes of Serra's sculptures are not permanent. One visitor of Serra's exhibition claim that "The feeling of being around the sculptures is utterly overwhelming even though it feels like the sculptures were going to collapse on me".
Serra's work is an example of how artwork which relies on the interaction of the viewer/audience to communicate his message.
In 1967 and 1968 Serra compiled a list of infinitives that served as catalysts for subsequent work: ?to hurl?. He used this list of infinitives to inspire the shapes he would sculpt from his large sheets of steel.
Serra was also fond of drawing, yet again in large scale, however this time his outcomes were more abstract and process-based. Using molten lead hurled in large splashes against the wall of a studio or exhibition space was his most common tendency. Below is an example of Serra's lead drawings. Whats most fascinating about this piece is the 3d effect that he has created. The effect is interesting because he has smudged the sides of his 3d shapes adding creating a darker tone as opposed to shading them. Also because Serra hasn't drawn all 4 sides of the 3d shape fully as the viewer we are obliged to imagine and mentally create the remainder of the image. This intrigues us to looking at the drawing for longer because i think its fair to say that completion is a natural desire most humans. Much of Serra's work including the pieces below and above are quite random but it he never fails to produce large scale making him a very distinct photographer and artist.
Serra's work relies on the interaction of the general public because without them actively taking part by walking through these huge sculptures they cannot feel how small they are in comparision to the c=sculptures. The claustrophobic feeling cannot be experienced in its entirety by looking at the sculptures.
Serra's work is thus more memorable because it incorporated the feeling of being claustrophobic and feelings are far more memorable than just looking at installations.
Reflection 1st Nov
Harriet and I successfully analysed and created the basis of our Interactive piece today. We had 2 initial ideas, which we narrowed down to one. Both can briefly be seen below:
How Did you decide between both Initial Ideas?
Initial idea 1 was a visual representation of the quote because the line drawn was physically a set of horizontal falls. By using the inclinations and declinations of the line to symbolise life events the whole quote was represented by the visual the participant would draw. Printing out cards with a blank space below the title 'How has your live been?' is the first way we have though of executing this idea but we will see if we can think of any ways too.
Initial idea 2 however was a more statistical way of representing the quote (participants would be asked to place a counter in the numbered cylinder that best represented their life).
We chose to use quote cards because the participants get to take many things home from them. Primarily the actual card itself as a reminder of the interation they experienced but also the reminder that 'Life is ahorizontal fall'. By incorporating the quote on the card the viewer would also continue to interact with our piece even after they have left. This is unique because usually after interacting with a piece you are only left with the memory or a photograph if you were cheeky enough to take one. Considering we plan to accordingly hand draw the line graphs for each participant in front of them, our interaction with them will become more personalised. Our piece will positively impact each participant because they will be able to effectively unload their day to us and see it represented in a visual way. This is benificial because the participant will be able to see a rational overview of their day and maybe even have realisations that they wouldnt have had otherwise. For example they may realise that their day wasn't all bad and more good things happend than they thought. Talking therapy has been proven to have positive effects if you have: depressing, anxiety, an eating disorder, a phobia or an addiction.
Are there any practicality concerns you may encounter when presenting your final piece?
Perhaps that we may not get as many responses as we want because of the nature of the general public and how business driven London is.
How affordable and realistic is your final piece?
Cheap as the only cost involved is the printing (and time)
What was the most successful part of your piece?
Think our final piece was effective because a number of participants went away feeling "less stressed". Furthermore our interaction with participants continued long after they left because they were able to take the card home with them.
Crit Feedback 1st Nov
Originally it was our plan to draw the life of our participants in the form of a line graph, however when we tried to do it on each other it proved difficult. During our crit with Tim we discussed this issue and realised that drawing their day was A easier to remember and less intrusive. We were also going to get the participants themselves to draw their life on the card , but Tim rightfully suggested that the participants are not the creatives and should therefore not be expected to draw, we should.
The Day 2nd Nov
It was on this day that Harriet and i went to Kings Cross and surrounding locations to demonstrate our final piece. We stood around and asked people walking by whether they would mind participating. Most people around the CSM were quite responsive and took part, this this is probably because our target population were generally students who can relate to needing public participation. We did find however when we were less near to the uni and we were surrounde by non students the participation percentage was a lot lower. We didn't' let this discourage us though, instead we greeted everyone with a smile and told them to have a productive day! In this sense even when we continued to demonstrate interactions even with those who chose not to take part.
As for the actual drawing aspect of our cards the first few we did were a bit wonky, but with practice we both became more confident. Below are so photos from today.