Saturday, December 11
Sunday, December 5
Snow Cave
Here it is: my completed piece for Object, No Object: Sculpture of Ideas.
It's already gone, by the way- reduced to modular parts in a 19" x 42" storage box, plus a few odds and ends. Of course, it lives on in a virtual "afterburn," as Martin put it. Take a look at my website- I'll have a slew of big jpgs up (let's say, by Tuesday).
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| Snow Cave. 8' high x 12' wide x 5' max deep. Steel wire, laminate tiles, latex paint, wall perforations, cast shadows. |
It's already gone, by the way- reduced to modular parts in a 19" x 42" storage box, plus a few odds and ends. Of course, it lives on in a virtual "afterburn," as Martin put it. Take a look at my website- I'll have a slew of big jpgs up (let's say, by Tuesday).
Saturday, December 4
Our Exhibits Debut at the FCMOCA
On Friday December 3rd we debuted both our exhibits; a onsite invitational including work by local artists and an online international juried exhibit including both photo stills and video. This blog will be continue over be updated over the next few weeks with pictures of each of the installations... So stay tuned, there is still more to come.
As you can see, the children in attendance loved being part of the experience so you know the adults did too.Both our online and local communities are to thank for our big success! We sincerely appreciate all your encouragement & support.
See more pictures of the event on our Facebook page.
Monday, November 29
Where does it end?
My contribution to this show is a site-specific installation I've titled Snow Cave. In keeping with the ideas of the show it is both literally and metaphorically an ephemeral piece: a delicate "shelter" built out of wire, dotted lines and shadows. As with my previous installations this past year, it will exist only for the duration of the show, a particularly short lifespan in this case. In common with previous works too, the piece takes its shape in response to the conditions and constraints of the exhibition space. This space, a classroom in the basement of FCMOCA, has some eccentricities (i.e., the corner I'm using butts up against a kitchen counter)- but I like eccentricities. Encountering awkward arrangements forces problem solving, and this spurs novel approaches in my art making. There's some give-and-take: I'll take the cabinetry hardware off to make the structure more neutral, but I find myself delighting in the way the cast shadows from my piece wrap around the face of the kitchen cabinets.
Although it's always a factor, I think this piece in particular foregrounds the dependence of my work upon found spaces. Of my several installation spaces, it's the least like a conventional exhibit space. I think it raises hitherto neglected questions about where my piece ends and where the architecture of the exhibition space starts. In this instance, I like the boxy shape of the cabinets and the rectangular niche where a window used to be- and I've utilized (or appropriated?) both. If I had to recreate the piece, I would want to recreate those elements.
Where does the work of art end and the rest of the world begin? The curators of Object/ No Object raise the question implicitly by crafting and creatively orchestrating an exhibition that has it's own virtual existence, and which can grow by accruing participation. In a very real sense the exhibition is the work of art, and its borders are yet undefined. Around the time I initially became involved in this project, I was just finishing reading Arthur Danto's The Transfiguration of the Commonplace. There's an anecdote the author tells about a bronze cat statue, which I think is terrific (and applicable):
There is at Columbia University's Arden House Conference Center a statue of a cat in bronze. It stands on a floor at the head of a stairway that leads into a common room at a lower level. Presumably it is of some value, or believed to be... inasmuch as the managers have chained it to the railing- to forestall theft, I suppose, as if it were a television set in a squalid motel. Such might be the obvious interpretation. But I am open to the suggestion that it is not a chained sculpture of a cat but a sculpture of a chained cat, one end of which is wittily attached to a piece of reality.... Of course what we take to be a bit of reality can in fact be part of the work, which is now a sculpture of a cat-chained-to-an-iron-railing, though the moment we allow it to be a part of the work, where does or can the work end? It becomes a kind of metaphysical sandpit, swallowing the universe down into itself.
Although it's always a factor, I think this piece in particular foregrounds the dependence of my work upon found spaces. Of my several installation spaces, it's the least like a conventional exhibit space. I think it raises hitherto neglected questions about where my piece ends and where the architecture of the exhibition space starts. In this instance, I like the boxy shape of the cabinets and the rectangular niche where a window used to be- and I've utilized (or appropriated?) both. If I had to recreate the piece, I would want to recreate those elements.
Where does the work of art end and the rest of the world begin? The curators of Object/ No Object raise the question implicitly by crafting and creatively orchestrating an exhibition that has it's own virtual existence, and which can grow by accruing participation. In a very real sense the exhibition is the work of art, and its borders are yet undefined. Around the time I initially became involved in this project, I was just finishing reading Arthur Danto's The Transfiguration of the Commonplace. There's an anecdote the author tells about a bronze cat statue, which I think is terrific (and applicable):
There is at Columbia University's Arden House Conference Center a statue of a cat in bronze. It stands on a floor at the head of a stairway that leads into a common room at a lower level. Presumably it is of some value, or believed to be... inasmuch as the managers have chained it to the railing- to forestall theft, I suppose, as if it were a television set in a squalid motel. Such might be the obvious interpretation. But I am open to the suggestion that it is not a chained sculpture of a cat but a sculpture of a chained cat, one end of which is wittily attached to a piece of reality.... Of course what we take to be a bit of reality can in fact be part of the work, which is now a sculpture of a cat-chained-to-an-iron-railing, though the moment we allow it to be a part of the work, where does or can the work end? It becomes a kind of metaphysical sandpit, swallowing the universe down into itself.
Monday, November 15
Prepping the Space:
On Friday November 12th the participants in FRCC's Museum & Gallery Studies program began prepped the area in which we've been meeting; this same space will become our exhibition gallery at the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art on December 3, 2010.
Today artist Sarah Vaeth began her installation and we invite our audience to visit our Facebook page to see how this work progresses over the next few weeks.
Sarah Vaeth Begins:
Today artist Sarah Vaeth began her installation and we invite our audience to visit our Facebook page to see how this work progresses over the next few weeks.
Sarah Vaeth Begins:
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| Gridding Off The Wall |
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| Mapping Out the Design |
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| Materials |
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