UWM - Mixed Media
White Cube
33.2 cm by 33.2 cm by 33.2 cm Found Objects January 2018 Exhibition Text"White Cube" is a found object piece comprised of bathroom floor tiles and hot glue. It deals with an artists ability to individually express and display their artwork to others. Floor tiles were used because they are meant to be sturdy and blend in, not to be frailly raised. How art is assessed will always be a heavily heated subject, and this explores it. This piece is heavily inspired by Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" and the London art gallery White Cube.
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Inspirational Research
My inspirational research focused primarily on found and acquired object mixed media pieces. I was inspired by Duchamp's "Fountain" to appreciate acquired object's aesthetics from different angles, however I did not know what objects to use or what angles to present them at. When it comes to presentation I looked closely at various works by Haim Steinbach. Steinbach focuses heavily on order and neat design aspects such as straight edges and balanced color palettes. "Fountain" by Duchamp inspired my desire to use found objects in my work, additionally his ability to remove an object from it's environment and then flip its perspective as to show a new purpose one not of function but aesthetic and maybe meaning. His work inspired me to adapt the idea that art needs to have a interpretation based meaning, meanings are more impactful and personal when they do not explicitly state themselves. I began searching for objects that I could remove from their environment, objects that were clean and had straight edges but also had interesting character. The urinal used in Duchamp's piece has holes and curves that bring on character. The tiles I found have unique textures and patterns printed on them to make them fit into a larger surface without standing out. The next portion of my inspiration did not come from an artwork but an art gallery named White Cube. White Cube is based out of London, England and was established in 2011. They have an exhibition room that 9 x 9 x 9 feet in size and is given to a single artist to fill with their work. I wanted my piece to have added focus on the purpose and ability of artists to communicate a meaning without spelling it out and how galleries give a voice art works.
Planning
This first page of planning deals with my inspirational sources, specifically Marcel Duchamp and White Cube. For White Cube I attempted breaking down the key concepts I wanted to draw from when looking into their background. In my opinion the gallery itself is a work of art, it even has a clear meaning that is empowerment and freedom. You may put whatever you like within the room and I wanted my art to share a similar concept or idea. Duchamp used extremely clean materials and found objects to defy the definition of art. His objects are pure but still altered, removed from context when they are typically only seen within context. This was extremely important to my process and planning.
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The first of these three drawings is a wall made of horizontal tiles that from above would like a pseudo lightening bolt. The walls would pull away leaving a distorted series of lines. I could not find any clear conceptual connection with this sketch and my inspirations. My next sketch represents a single tile plate comprised of 36, 2" tiles. This would appeal to the clean and concise works of Duchamp but I could not logically connect this single object to any of my ideas for purpose and meaning. The final sketch is of a cube, initially I did not know whether or not it was an optical illusion or an actual cube, but as I continued to formulate my concepts around the project I decided to design an optical illusion cube that is only a cube cross section. This allowed me to create multiple tiers within my work and place focuses on different aspects of the piece, with individual tiles surrounding wholes.
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Process
To begin constructing "White Room" I first had to gather my materials. The materials used for this project are two types of floor tiling and hot glue, however these materials are very heavy and thus do not stand vertically easily. I attempted to initially hold the tile meshes up with string that ran into hooks on my ceiling but this did not work because the mesh still sagged in the corners and just about everywhere that did not have string connecting it. To solve this problem I began looking for brace materials that still fit into the aesthetic of the piece and appeared to visually be a part of the piece as a whole if viewed from a different angle. I ended up finding whole tile slates that were not subdivided into meshes that were the exact same size as the tile meshes currently in use. After cleaning all of the tiles off to make them shiny, I heated up my hot glue gun and began connecting the backs of the tile meshes to the backs of the tile slates. This allowed the meshes to be stood up vertically without sagging. However this created an extremely off balance wall that could not support it's own weight. Each of the walls of the piece are held up by balance and glue in between the seems of walls. Next I found 9 x 9 white slate tiles that would represent my White Cube gallery element of the piece. These were formed into the cube shape in the manner as the first. For the final cube in the center of the white cube, I found a broken mesh and removed three mini tiles to build into the cube. The process was fairly tedious requiring much gluing and re-gluing to ensure the balance was correct.
Experimentation
The photos below represent potential ideas for the Mixed Media project, however after speaking briefly with the project coordinator I came to realize the projects inability to reach the concrete connections I was attempting to make. The following is the process for this project. The first part of my Mixed Media process was planning out my materials that I planned incorporating and the concept of the work. The concept had to fit in some way into my art theme of abstraction but also meet the requirements and guidelines from UWM. Based off of these requirements I decided to do an assemblage, initially I was going to do children's toys or technology but after looking at my works I came to the conclusion that neither of these designs would work. The first part of the process was figuring out the mounting of all the materials collected, I decided upon using a mesh filled with small tiles used in my house from the later 90's as a "plate". Next I attempted to create a flow to the piece, this was the most difficult part of the process, I wanted everything to be seen in the first glance someone took at the piece. I did this by using the shiny CD as an eye grabber and then used the slinky to connect over to the black camera but colorful notebook and VHS tape. These were proximate to the whale hat which would lead over the bland colored center objects such as the watch and wallet. The next step in the process is going to be figuring out how to mount each object onto the plate without any visible connections and then decide the angle at which the piece will be displayed. The current plan is to have the piece displayed at an angle so that one corner is pointed at the ground and the other pointed towards the ceiling.
Reflection
What is art? Following the realization that my assemblage approach to the UWM Mixed Media project was not going to cut the need for depth and connection to inspiration I began thinking about what made art. To go about this I accepted the most broad definition of art being something that is aesthetically pleasing for some reason or another. My goal became to form an aesthetically pleasing sculpture while closely following the styles of other artists. My initial assemblage was more personal and experimental and I really liked the connections it had to my past, however my idea was looked down upon for not looking like my inspirations work. I was frustrated but ready to move on. I am very satisfied with my final product, it is aesthetically appealing, but more importantly it's meaning is not explicit. The connection to inspiration I believe is fairly easy to see but the feeling is unique for every viewer and my connections not made apparent. The idea of a gallery surrounded by artists all waiting to show their work in a place that matters is very important to me as an artist. If you display your work in a gallery such as White Cube the art work will become a bit more valuable than it was before and more importantly it will express itself differently than it previously did, especially with all of the new attention it is given.
UWM Post Critique Reflection:
Following the UWM Mixed Media Critique I learned a bit about my style in comparison to my inspirational artists. Specifically I was assessed on the formal qualities of my piece with straight edges and flat walls and general symmetrical form as compared to Marcel Duchamp and his informal wavy and abstract forms in his works. Besides this they applauded my ability to convey explicit meaning that is relevant to the viewer through my subjective meaning and interpret-able style. They suggested I present my work as a photo with controlled lighting and perspective to control the scale of piece making it as large or small as I wanted to. The professors complemented my choice in color variation between the clean white tile and the brown mixed tiles. The next step in my project will be researching Donald Judd and visiting the art galleries of Keith Nelson. I may also interview Keith to gain further knowledge about materials and process.
UWM Post Critique Reflection:
Following the UWM Mixed Media Critique I learned a bit about my style in comparison to my inspirational artists. Specifically I was assessed on the formal qualities of my piece with straight edges and flat walls and general symmetrical form as compared to Marcel Duchamp and his informal wavy and abstract forms in his works. Besides this they applauded my ability to convey explicit meaning that is relevant to the viewer through my subjective meaning and interpret-able style. They suggested I present my work as a photo with controlled lighting and perspective to control the scale of piece making it as large or small as I wanted to. The professors complemented my choice in color variation between the clean white tile and the brown mixed tiles. The next step in my project will be researching Donald Judd and visiting the art galleries of Keith Nelson. I may also interview Keith to gain further knowledge about materials and process.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Marcel Duchamp caused my work to contain found objects taken out of context, however the gallery White Cube was more influential to the pieces meaning than Duchamp's was. Meaning has become abstracted and form has become concrete.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research approached Duchamp with extreme prestige, especially seeing as he transformed the art world and the definitions of art. The author approached the topic with a tone of freedom.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that art has classically had a purpose and that popular art in our modern society tends to have less meaning and more aesthetic appeal. Many generalizations were made about art without meaning in my research. It was concluded that Duchamp has created a world in which anything can be art if it has a signature on it.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my research was abstracted meaning and out of context objects. Objects typically found out of their element gain a new background.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I heavily inferred that the pieces I researched did not have meaning other than that of the viewers perspective. I also inferred that an art gallery is itself an artwork with a complex meaning.
Marcel Duchamp caused my work to contain found objects taken out of context, however the gallery White Cube was more influential to the pieces meaning than Duchamp's was. Meaning has become abstracted and form has become concrete.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research approached Duchamp with extreme prestige, especially seeing as he transformed the art world and the definitions of art. The author approached the topic with a tone of freedom.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that art has classically had a purpose and that popular art in our modern society tends to have less meaning and more aesthetic appeal. Many generalizations were made about art without meaning in my research. It was concluded that Duchamp has created a world in which anything can be art if it has a signature on it.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my research was abstracted meaning and out of context objects. Objects typically found out of their element gain a new background.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I heavily inferred that the pieces I researched did not have meaning other than that of the viewers perspective. I also inferred that an art gallery is itself an artwork with a complex meaning.
Bibliography
- “Zübeyde Meryem.” Pinterest, 16 Dec. 2016, www.pinterest.com/pin/835206693364551763/.
- “Joseph Cornell Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-cornell-joseph.htm.
- “Haim Steinbach – Charm of tradition, 1985.” THE REVOLUTION WILL BE SPONSORED, 5 Sept. 2015, larevolucionserapatrocinada.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/haim-steinbach-supremely-black-1985/.
- Cube, W. (n.d.). Current. Retrieved January 24, 2018, from http://whitecube.com/exhibitions/jac_leirner_masons_yard_2016/