Artist Statement

While working on this intention statement I thought a lot about all the work i've done, as well as my current work. Though, since I know an artist should write a new statement for each new work, this piece is primarily focused on my current project/final independent study project.

My artwork captures the physical evidence of social issues about homelessness in rural environments by transforming found objects and photographs into sculptural instillations that evoke the presence of abandoned homes.

          My process involves photographing an object or space in an abandoned area that has a lot of destruction and/or chaos to it, in my current community of southern Maryland. I then take these photographs and combine them with found objects, which are usually assumed to be trash or waste. The items include chairs, wallpaper, dirt, personal documents, desks and other household items.

         The act of collecting these objects and integrating them with photographs of the areas they were found in allows me to force the viewer into having a physicalized experience that makes them question their own location and space, and how or if they should respond. From these elements I can create a large-scale instillation of multiple layered objects and photographs that embody the voyeuristic denial that allows most of us to turn away from the social issues that inhabit this county.

         By combining found objects with photographs of abandoned homes and areas into full scale instillations I can express my personal struggle towards the carless disregard of the homeless community.

Robert Rauschenberg- More Artist Inspiration!

(Rauschenberg with a chicken!)


(Robert Rauschenberg, Canyon, 1959, mixed media)


Robert Rauschenberg
Born in Port Arthur, Texas on October 22, 1925, Rauschenberg passed away from heart failure at the age of 82 on May 12, 2008. The American artist was most famous for his works in abstract expressionism and pop art during the 1950’s. A lot of his work usually consists of sculpture, performance, printmaking, photography and painting. Although, a lot of this work isn’t the traditional take on the mediums used. For Rauschenberg his paintings included not only using a paintbrush but also using collages, silk-screening, transferring and imprinting through the use of various materials, from canvas board to sheet metal, Plexiglas, plaster and paper. He was even once quoted as saying that he wanted to work “in the gap between art and life,” which shows his questioning and interest in using everyday objects from life with art objects. Primarily, Rauschenberg works with themes of using the observer to create the art’s meaning as well as using found objects that could be used in his silk-screening process. Towards the early 60’s, a lot of his paintings started to incorporate found objects and even photographs, but also while still incorporating themes of painting and drawing. I really enjoy Raushchenberg’s work more for the formal aspect of it, and not so much the theme or meaning. A lof of the techniques used, such as using streaks of paint and plastering up found objects to walls and other areas, are techniques that I hope to one day explore with instillation pieces. Although I won’t have the opportunity to plaster or glue anything up onto the walls of Anne Arundel, I still enjoy the process and creativity of Rauschenberg’s work.



(Rauschenberg in front of several of his paintings of Kennedy)



(Robert Rauschenberg,Persimmon, 1984, oil, silkscreen ink on canvas)

http://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/index.php
Rauschenberg Foundation Site

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rauschenberg
Wikipedia site


Other links for more info:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/robert-rauschenberg/about-the-artist/49/

Edward Kienholz-Artist Inspiration

(Sollie, 1979-80, front outer entrance)


(State Hostpital, exterior, 1966, mixed media)


Edward Kienholz


(Portrait of Kienholz, 1958)

Kienholz is an American sculpture and instillation artist, born in Fairfield, Washington on October 23, 1927. His work, encompasses themes of modern life, abstract expressionism, modernism, religion, and primarily, the everyday life around him, while forcing the viewer to question their own moral standards. During most of his career he worked alongside his wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz who helped him construct most of his art pieces. Although he died on June 10, 1994, Kienholz’s work still stands strong today.
A lot of Edward Kienholz work focuses on America’s social climate, with instillations made out of pieces of materials and found objects that hes found in alleyways and junk yards. His first instillation work was actually a piece in 1961 entitled “Edward Kienholz: 11+11 Tableaux” which was actually a series of works that included “Roxys” (1961-2), “The illegal Operation” (1962), and a piece that I particularly like entitled “While Visions of Sugar Plums Danced In Their Heads,” (1964.) I really like this piece because it’s really about a sad, dysfunctional couple, a man and woman, who are situated in a very disarrayed bedroom. The sculpture is situated in a messy bedroom with huge sugar plums situated as their heads, showing the vast amount of dejection in their state. When the viewer looks through the two small peepholes situated in their disgusting heads, they see the “sex fantasies of the man and women as miniature tableaux peopled with nude Ken and Barbie dolls” (Kienholz Retrospective) There is also a section of the work over a bureau that holds an image of the male and female models, but they appear as reflections from inside the room. Although this is some of Kienholz earlier work, one of my favorite pieces that he has done is entitled “Sollie 17,” (1979-80) which focuses on the themes of inmate confinement. In this particular piece Kienholz takes the confinement space of a small, anonymous hotel room and places an old man in his “urban cave” (p. 184, Kienholz Retrospective.) The same figure of the old man is seen in three different stages of movement around the room, the first which shows the man with his hands down his underwear reading A Handful of Men by Robert Wilder, the next of the man sitting on the edge of his bed, head facing down, completely isolated by his loneliness, and last, a view of the man looking out of the bedroom window at the vast city scape that holds the life he longs to hold. Time is a very important part of this piece as well, showing every piece as it’s almost melted or weighed down. The piece ultimately shows the old mans fantasy to escape the physical confines of his life, of old age and loneliness. Also, the repetitive action of the three figures shows the repetition of the mans everyday activities, and the lonliness that surrounds them. The outside of the exhibit shows the outer wall and frame of the room, with only a small section visible to the actual viewer. The viewer has to look through a small opening in the doorway that is blocked by clear plexi-glass.

(Sollie, 1979, mixed media, notepad detail)

Notes and numbers line the walls alongside an old chair and telephone, as well as an exit sign and fallout shelter sign. What I enjoy about Kienholz work is that he’s literally taken another space from one area to the next. Taking this older hotel room and re-constructing it to look as if it’s been taken up and literally moved to the museum gallery and combining it with actual physical items that may have been in this hotel, Kienholz is able to establish an emotional connection between the viewer and the old man inside the hotel room. The viewer feels bad about the old man, knowing that he has once lived inside these walls but really didn’t “live” at all. The stark and lonely atmosphere that is created also allows for the viewers to enjoy a sensory experience that may push them to learn more about this specific hotel or possibly the man himself. Although it’s all a re-creation out of Kienholz and his wife’s minds, the instillation really reminds me of what Tina and me wanted to accomplish with our instillation piece and re-creation of an abandoned home inside of the college building. We wanted to establish a sense of awareness that abandoned and homeless states of living are occurring in our area, and that these specific areas exist all over southern Maryland. I see a lot of connection between our work and Kienholz work with the idea that we want to stand up for a social change, specifically about the homeless community and what it may feel like to be in their shoes. I really felt like I was in the old mans position when I stepped into the small opening of his room in Kienholz instillation. With each part of the figures head constructed out of an actual framed black and white photo, attached to the paper mache body, I really felt as though I had stepped into the old mans life, and I felt bad for him. This is what I think Tina and me would like to accomplish with our specific instillation as well, with a reconstruction of a full abandoned home we can take viewers who normally wouldn’t step into this kind of space and almost force them with the reality of it’s establishment. A quote from beatmuseum.org states exactly how Kienholz forces his audience to step into realities that they wouldn’t normally step into, which forces them to question their own morals about social change. “Cecile Whiting, UCLA associate professor of art history, touched on one aspect of the Kienholz's work that makes it uncomfortable for the audience. "Voyeurism is a theme that runs throughout the Kienholzes' work." The audience is put into the position of "peering in on scenes that you would otherwise not have access to, whether its Back Seat Dodge or the State Hospital. . . While you're a voyeur you're also implicated in the piece.” "Placing the audience into that role was, Nancy said, "very intentional."”
Other works of interest:
“The state Hospital”



(Sollie, 1979-80, front entrance)

(Sollie, 1979-80, detail)


(Study of Sollie, 1979-80)


(While Visions of Sugar Plums Danced in Their Heads, 1964, mixed media, desk detail)

(While Visions of Sugar Plums Danced in Their Heads, 1964, mixed media)


(While Visions of Sugar Plums Danced in Their Heads, 1964, mixed media, exhibit detail)


(Sollie, 1979-80, beds, found objects, hotels, mixed media, windows, television receivers)

Wikipedia Site: wikipedia site for Kienholz
http://www.beatmuseum.org/kienholz/edkienholz.html

artstor.org

good site with lot's of photos!

More photos for project

Project 3-Abandoned house instillation

Here are some preview images of what our final piece will look like. Me and Tina are going to take found objects from these specific sites and re-create an abandoned house inside of Anne Arundel hall on St. Mary's campus. Our final piece will include video projections, a photography book with color and black and white photos, audio clips playing throughout the instillation and various scaled photographs placed throughout the building. I don't want to give too much away but the photos below are a small preview of more to come!

Transformation of the public space and Distracted Reception readings

"Coffee houses-became the center of literacy after they were built to suit the upper class with hot chocolate and coffee"(p.32.) I really like this quote at the very beginning of the chapter reading, primarily because I think that it still applies to today. There are numerous buildings that house literature, arts and even conversation, but also produce this by relying on the sales of hot chocolate and coffee. I even work at a coffee shop and I know firsthand the connections it brings among different genres of topics. I found it interesting though that only men were admitted, which strikes me as odd since men aren't as talkative as women are, and it would seem as though women would be the main sources of conversation and even the sale of beverages.
The distracted reception reading focused on the distraction of artwork and how it changed from cinema to television. Points such as "the cult of distraction" interested me primarily because they focused on things like 16mm film and how they are now being revived by "backward looking avant garde, in search of more artistic materials" (p.67.) It's almost like, just because 16mm film honestly, "looked cool," thats the only reason why it's being brought back into the art world. Though it makes me wonder if things like 16mm film are looked at by us now, then what kind of objects, ideas and materials will our future try to revive from our current past. I think that a lot of things now are focused on the digital side, especially with artwork, and therefore things like old computer models or systems, as well as other older models of digital construction and means will be looked at as "the cool" way of making artwork. Though I also think that in our current era we look at older methods of painting, photographing, and even drawing that just seem more interesting than our current methods. As a society I think we'll always look at artwork in that sense and that's what makes focuses our attraction. Based on distraction, I'm not sure I understand how distraction is a side-effect of attempts to produce attentiveness, and how attention is a norm produced by the fear of distraction. The only thing that comes to mind when I think of this is how side-tracked someone can get while trying to focus so hard on their own work, as if trying to produce a perfect piece of art can just lead to constantly trying to find different ways to accomplish that, which is distraction in itself.