Ceramics, Multiples, Justin Novak, and Gabriel Orozco

Tea Pot I made for my mom

This week Brian Gillis spoke to us about ceramics and the concept of multiples. I have always had an obsession with ceramics because I think it is such a beautiful medium to work with, and it is very hands on. It a medium that is very interactive because you do use tools, but it all has to deal with how you shape with your hands to mold the clay. An aspect of ceramics that I never really thought about is the concept of multiples. Gillis told us that a multiple is a three-dimensional work that is intended not to be a unique work of art but an editioned original. I interpreted this to mean that although the original is made, it isn’t made to be unique because it is going to be made over and over again. Because it is going to be multiplied it loses its purpose to be unique, but it gets a new purpose to be an edition of what was original. He also spoke to us about concepts of being a multiple. For instance Marcel Duchamp and his ready-made art. The idea behind ready-made art is to take an object that was already produced and turn it into your own art. For example Duchamp took a urinal off of the wall signed his name on it and put it in a gallery setting. It isn’t the object that is more important it is the idea behind the object. He also spoke to us about how the industrial process used to make something makes it a multiple. I find this to be very interesting because the object doesn’t necessarily have to have copies to be to a multiple. Just the fact that the process used to make it has the potential to make more copies makes it a multiple.  This connects to the first artist I am going to talk about, Justin Novak.

Justin was a student at the university of Oregon. He is an artist in that mainly works with ceramics. When asked why he likes ceramics so much he said, “ I love ceramics because there is the possibility to make more. There is a certainty of one but the possibility of making more.” I find this very interesting because it has to do with what Gillis talked to us about the industrial process. I think that it is a very profound statement because you wouldn’t think that to be a reason to love ceramics, or any medium of art for that matter. When I hear that it makes me think of the potential that any art has, and the potential that anyone can make art. That’s what makes art so beautiful, the potential that it has. An idea that Justin Novak plays with in his art is the idea of bringing tragedy into beauty. He makes typical and traditional porcelain ideas but then adds something really strange to it. For example his beautiful sculpture of a woman cutting her skin with scissors. He explores sad ideas and adds them into something beautiful. Another aspect of ceramics that Justin Novak explores in his work is the element of interaction. Ceramics is a type of medium that you can hold and touch, and something that you can play with. Another artist that explores this idea is Gabriel Orozco.

            

 Gabriel Orozco is considered a contemporary artist but he goes against the typical serious mindset of most contemporary artists because he is very playful. He likes to provoke space for thinking and he does this playfully in his Ping Pond Table where makes a four sides ping pong table with a pond in the middle of it instead of a net. The piece of artwork makes you want to touch it and play with it, just like ceramics. Its like when you see little figurines in your grandmothers house of little cats, or women or shoes. You don’t just look at it, you want to touch it and hold it, and interact with it. He makes things that you want to play with, such as his art in the super market. For instance he took cat food cans and placed them on the extremely organized pile of watermelons. He felt that the super market is a perfectly organized place and when you move something you can feel that something is wrong. He wants to interact with the world and ask questions, and this is what contemporary artists do.

            Understanding contemporary media is something that someone can never fully do. No one has the answer to all of the questions, because everyone has there own questions. I feel that we start to understand it when we understand why artists choose their medium, and how mediums can cross over. Through out this class I have learned just because you claim yourself to be an artist in a certain medium, you can actually be a jack-of-all-trades. Contemporary media to me is making art in the medium of your choice to make work that can inspire people, can be interpreted in many ways, and a piece of artwork that provokes thought and questions.

Sculpture, Louis Bourgeois, Richard Serra and "Just Looking"

Sculpture at the University of Oregon in front of Straub Hall

This week we talked about sculpture, and professor Amanda Wojick spoke to us about women in sculpture throughout the last century. She discussed with us about the two tracks that sculpture takes and that it's on a spectrum. The spectrum is between. Abstraction and representation. Abstract is based off of somethin real and a representation is an exact replica. The difference betwee. Sculpture and other mediums is that there are infinite amounts of ways to approach the art and many materials available to use. There is also a giant spectrum that these pieces of art can fall on and I think this is truly unique to this medium. How the sculpture is made and what it is made out of changes the meaning of the work and how the work of art is perceived. This medium can also help abstract the work the work of art. Even an exact replica of something is abstracted because of the materials that are used. When're something is abstract or representative is also based on the view point of the audience. There is going to be a difference between the viewpoints of someone who passively looks at the work and someone who actually takes the time to look at it. The differences between how people look at piece of artwork changes where each person sees where on the spectrum of abstraction and representation the artwork belongs.

An artist that Amanda Wojick spoke to us about is Louis Bourgeois. She is a sculptor that highly bases her artwork on her childhood. At first she would carve her works in wood but "she began to execute her work in rubber, bronze, and stone and the pieces themselves became larger, more referential to what has become the dominant theme of her work- her childhood" (art21.com). Many of her works "are charged with sexuality and innocence and the interplay between the two" (art21.com). Although her artwork reflects her childhood I feel that it is very dark. For instance her giant spiders. I do find it interesting the size of her artwork. Although I cannot truly experience the artwork, because I cannot experience the size and he space, I try to understand it and grasp it. This goes back to how people see it. It's different to experience just a photo and to experience the actual piece. You can't really form your opinion on the abstraction or representation of a piece unless you are physically there, or else you don't truly see it. This also goes for Richard Serra's artwork. He is also a profound sculptor. "Serra's work has become famous for physicality, one that is compounded by the breathtaking size and the weight that the pieces have acquired" (art21.com). A lot of his works are placed in public areas which changes the way that his pieces are received. There would be a difference between his artwork being in a gallery and in an open populated area. It's just like how different materials are going to send a different message because it us truly a different experience. When we his pieces of art in the places that he puts them we can compare it to the buildings around it a truly grasp it's size, but it still depends on how people look at it.

In "Just Looking" by James Elkins we explore what people do when they are looking. Through out the reading be takes a closer and closer look at what looking is. His main point is that when an observer looks at an object, they aren't just looking, you can't just solely see. Looking is more like hunting because you are looking for something that catches your eye but you are subconsciously sifting through everything you see. Even though you may be passively looking at something, your brain is still processing it, you still think about it. When you are looking at something there is always more than just looking involved and the object always looks back. This doesn't necessarily mean the it's actually looking at you with eyes, but same with physical looking, there is always something more deep than what is on the surface. When and object looks back it is sending it's message. To everyone this message is different because to everyone abstraction and representation of a piece is completely different because people have different perspectives. Sculpture is a Uniates medium because a lot of different factors determine how a piece or work it perceived. It's a combination of the space the work is in, the size of the piece, the materials used and how people view the work. Sculpture is a fascinating medium because of it's open potential to be analyzed and perceived.