UNIT 7
"Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette" by Vincent van Gogh
'This undated painting, which currently lives at the Van Gogh Museum in Antwerp, renders a macabre vision of a smoking skeleton in a muted, monochromatic palette. It remains somewhat ambiguous whether the artist van Gogh was making a serious commentary on the brevity of life, or a sardonic jab at the seriousness of morbid art. The museum website explains: "It was probably executed in the winter of 1885–86, during Van Gogh’s stay in Antwerp. This skull with a cigarette was likely meant as a kind of joke, and probably also as a comment on conservative academic practice."- Priscilla Frank, The Huffington Post
This is quite a morbid but comical response to death and grief. Although it is quite clearly related to death, I don't think Van Gogh is created this artwork based on his own experiences of grief, otherwise I think the piece would be a lot more serious.
I want to look into grief as a theme because I have recently had my first experiences of grief as an adult and it has been very different to what I expected grief to be like. I am interested to look into how other artists have responded to grief and get some inspiration on how to express my own feelings about grief using art, almost like art therapy for myself.
"Poupées" by Michel Nedjar
Nedjar, who was born 1947 in a village near Paris, grew up amidst stories about the horrors of the Holocaust, where many members of his family had lost their lives. "I identified with the corpses. I felt the violence," he said after watching "Night and Fog" on television. He channeled his dark visions into disturbing dolls that appear to be part cocoon, part fetus, part alien, part decaying roadkill, part nightmare. "This is not the decay of a fruit or a rose, as in the vanitas still lifes of the Dutch 17th century," Katherine Lieber wrote of the works. "This is not even the decay of an animal, like a gull found dead on the shore. The poupées reflect the dereliction that underlies human existence: the fragility of the body of that which is intelligent, thinking and self-aware, and the fact that it will decompose and rot quickly, once the spirit has fled." - Priscilla Frank, The Huffington Post
I found this piece really interesting because I have been thinking about exploring grief by using sculpture. Nedjar's sculptures are quite disturbing and very dark, they look like rotting bodies. This negative imagery reflects the horrors that Nedjar experienced and portrays grief as a very negative and scary thing, which is how most people view grief, especially in such awful circumstances. However, my views on grief are quite different to this, which is mostly due to the circumstances being so different, but also because I think grief is a good experience. For me, it has shaped me as a person and made me stronger, and in a way it brought my family even closer together as we spoke about things that we usually wouldn't talk about and looked through old family photos together, sharing our memories. So it is interesting to me how differently people's experiences with grief can be.
"Natura Morta" by Maria Ionova-Gribina
"I found these dead animals during bicycle rides to the sea in the summer. I wanted to find a way to save them for world of art. They were so unprotected… One or two days more and they would be eaten by worms.
I remembered my childhood. When I with my brother found a dead mole, bird or bug we buried them on the border of a forest. And we decorated the grave with flowers and stones. Why we did it that way? Probably it was a children’s curiosity, our first studies of mortality.
In this project I work with my childhood memories and with the subject of life and death. All animals died naturally or after accidents with cars. The flowers were gathered near dead animals and in my garden."- Maria Ionova-Gribina
"Mental Metal" by Lindsay Seers
'Seers’ work ‘Mental Metal' considers, through Simon Forman's writings, how elements of contemporary life have passed beyond causal, materialist/mechanistic Newtonian concepts to quantum speculations that have a hint of the supernatural about them. Although calling down spirits and distilling alchemical potions has the semblance of pure superstition, the complex metaphysical philosophy of Neoplatonism, which was part of Forman's milieu, used a notion of affinities and correspondences that pass beyond simple causal relations–the implications of which are not without import
and whose underlying desire was towards a unified and tolerant system of knowledge. The search for unity and the relationship of one to the whole pervades this work as it did in Forman's astral cosmology.'
Leading on from my video piece in Unit 6, I would like to experiment with projection alongside the sculptures that I am planning. I find Lindsay Seers projections very interesting, instead of sticking with projecting in the traditional rectangular shape, she projects in the shape of a circle. This has encouraged me to think about what I want to project, where I want to project it, how it will change the way that the sculptures are viewed and the shape that I want to project.
Sculpture at The British Museum
French Polynesia, late 1700s-1800s. This heavy wooden figure is from Mangareva, one of the
Richard Payne Knight's 'Progress of Art' - Athena, Roman, 2nd century AD, which Knight believed to be early Greek.
Paper sculpture by Michael Rakowitz, 2009. He used disposable materials to replicate objects from the Iraq Museum, damaged or lost in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion. They emphasise the fragility of cultural heritage.
Etruscan-Campansian terracotta architectural decoration (6th century BC) and Etruscan (pre-Roman), Roman and Greek bronzes, representing Herakles and animals, some from the Knight, Hamilton and Hollis collection.
Hawaiian Islands, 1700s. Used to serve 'awa, an intoxicating drink, this bowl is decorated with pearl shell, and sections of boars' tusk. A Hawaiian chief presented it to Captain Charles Clerke during Cook's third Pacific Voyage. Clerke bequeathed it to Sir Joseph Banks, who gave it to the Museum in 1780.
Gambier Islands in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. It is thought to represent Rongo, the god of agriculture, bringer of rain and plentiful breadfruit cops. Few such figures survived the destruction that marked the island's conversion to Christianity in the 1830s.
Foundation Figurine, Reign of Ur-Nammu, 2112-2095 BC. From the temple of Inanna, Uruk.
Foundation pegs and figurines. Early examples of the tradition of placing pegs or nails in temple foundations date to the Early Dynastic III period, 2600-2300 BC.
Votive statue. Early Dynastic III, 2600-2300 BC.The Sumerians dedicated stone statues of themselves in temples, demonstrating their devotion to their gods.
Two female figurines. Decorated to show jewellery, or tattoos. One feeds a child. From Ur.
Figurines and rattle from Lachish. Iron Age II, 9th-7th century BC. Often representing the goddess Astarte, figurines of this type clearly show that many Judaeans continued to respect traditional Canaanite deities. Not all figurines were religious. The pottery cow was probably a toy or a feeding bottle. Rattles were as popular in the Iron Age as they are today.
Bronze mask. LBII-III, 1400-1150 BC. Masks of this sort were also produced in pottery. They were possibly used as insets for large statues made of wood. This example had 2 holes at the top on either side and it is possible that these held 2 horns, the resulting face representing that of a Sherdan warrior. The Sherden were one of the groups of the Sea Peoples who are depicted on the Midinet Hadu reliefs as having horned helmets.
Pottery figurines from the Euphrates. EBIV, 2400-2000 BC. During the late third millennium, the area of the Middle Euphrates developed a distinctive regional culture. Between 1963 and 1973 and international rescue mission excavated a large number of sites in this region which were threatened by flooding as a result of the construction of the Tabqa dam. One such site was Tell es-Sweyhat. Excavations by T. A. Holland on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, revealed extensive Early and Middle Bronze Age occupation. Finds included these figurines.
Copper alloy male figure. MBIIA, 2000-1750 BC from Gezzine, Lebanon. From the mountain region. Found in a hoard with four other similar figures.
Four copper alloy warrior figures, MBIIA, 2000-1750 BC. The figure with the pointed cap carries a duck-bill axe.
Three human figurines. These figures are made of unfired clay. Although very crude, two of them certainly represent males. The third is either female or has lost a small piece of clay. Proto-Urban Period, 3300-3100 BC. From Bab edh-Dhra.
Fired clay figurine. Stylised human figures were common in the Neolithic cultures of eastern Europe. This seated figure is modelled in one piece and has incised decoration to indicate clothing and body ornaments. The hole in the ears, neck and shoulders could have held other decorative materials. It may have been a cult object, possibly a household deity. Late Neolithic, about 4500-4000 BC. Vinca, Serbia.
Painted wooden shabti box of the priest of Amun Amenhotep containing faience shabtis. 21st Dynasty, about 1070-945 BC. From Thebes.
Medieval chess pieces made from walrus ivory. Chess was used to sharpen the tactical abilities of knights.
Bone dolls. Egypt, 600-1200. Many carved bone dolls, some with hair, clothing and jewellery intact, have been excavated in Egypt, possibly used for rituals.
Saatchi Gallery: 'Full Circle - The Beauty Of Inevitability' by Georgll Uvs
'Beauty is the torch that you hold up in the belief that it will lead you to the truth in the end' - Sir Michael Atiyah
'This exhibition is an articulate synthesis of science and art depicting four interlinking groups - Mesozonic, Genesis, Code and Wings and each group represents a journey through the cycles of nature and life. The uniqueness of Georgll Uvs' work can be seen in his use of a personally developed painting technique that is governed by paint desnity, with the inclusion of UV light pigments and a rich consistency of colours. Pouring these full-bodied paints onto the surface - never directly touching or intervening - and without using a brush, he manipulates the material from underneath the canvas. The outcome radically alters our perception of the painting and its relationship with the surrounding space.
This idiosyncratic style of painting stems from Uvs' idea that no artist can alter nature better than nature itself and that intervention by the artist must be minimal.His aim is to communicate the beauty and perfection of nature through form of spontaneous conflict where the artist remains the creator, but the creation , through self-determination, materialises via intense relationship between mind, hand, material and environment.
The absence of surface intervention allows Uvs' paintings to develop and independent existence during the process of their creation, a process that he can only partially control. Some of the paintings take up to three years to dry.
Full circle seeks to evoke the beauty of the unstoppable force of nature, and the consequential transformation of the inevitability of change into The Beauty of Inevitability.'
Curated and produced by Eva McGaw and Tatiana Palinkasev
As the colour of the UV light changes, it completely transforms the colours in the paintings which is surreal and mesmerising.
Saatchi Gallery: 'Black Mirror - Art As Social Satire'
Des Hughes
Endless Endless
2010
Polyester resin, iron powder, fibreglass, plastic, wood
235 x 167 x 75cm
Alejandra Prieto
Coal Mirror
2011
Coal
300 x 185 x 15cm
Valerie Hegarty
Niagara Falls
2007
Foam core, paper, paint, gel medium, glue
150 x 300 x 65cm
Scott King
'In this exhibition I explore the beauty of everyday life, the spatial manifestation of colours, the play of light, and human presence. I appropriate these elements and let myself imagine stories about what's happening in each image. In this way I satisfy my constant curiosity about the world that surrounds me, and I experience the difficult ways of life that coexist in the overcrowded city I live in. Through this, I can re-evaluate my own definition of 'everydayness' and connect with the present moment.'
Roman Stanczak
Couch
2015
Wood, fabric, paint, straw, strings
196 x 82 x 100cm
Roman Stanczak
From 2nd To 3rd
2015
Wooden cupboard, wooden chips
57.8 x 96.5 x 99.7cm
Bedwyr Williams
Walk A Mile In My Shoes
2006
Installation with size 13 shoes, written notes, poster, shelving and foot-rests
Dimensions variable
Jade Townsend
Cash Cow
2012
Mixed Media
236.2 x 177.8 x 45.7cm
David Herbert
VHS
2005
Styrofoam, plexiglass and latex paint
244 x 127 x 30.5 cm
Michael Cline
Police Line
2007
Oil on Linen
162.5 x 116.8cm
Michael Cline
That's That
2008
Oil on Linen
241.3 x 190.5cm
What Happens When You Die?
While looking into death a grief, I think it is important for me to understanding what actually happens when someone died, both mentally and physically. I am interested in what goes o inside the body when someone dies. What happens to their cells, their organs, their tissue as the body shuts down.
'Few people know what to expect as the end nears. But death, just like life, is a process, scientists say. If a person has a long-term illness, it is common for the person to withdrawal socially in the months before death. This means that the person may be less interested in certain activities, such as work or social gatherings. people tend to have less energy toward the end of their lives. This fatigue prompts them to sleep more, often for most of the day. There are multiple causes for this fatigue. If the person has cancer, the cancer cells can consume a lot of the person's energy. Also, irregular breathing can cause a person to have lower levels of oxygen and higher levels of carbon monoxide in their blood, which can lead to fatigue. In addition, the person is likely eating and drinking less, which means they aren't getting enough calories to be active. Dehydration can also lead to fatigue. A person's appetite might dip for various reasons. Their body might be producing more catecholamine, a chemical in the blood that suppresses appetite. Increased catecholamine is common among people toward the end of life, especially in those with cancer. What's more, people might eat less because their intestines aren't working as well, meaning they have trouble processing the food they eat. It might sit in their stomach or make them feel nauseous. Furthermore, taste and smell are usually the first senses to go, so food and drink might not taste as good as they used to.
People with advanced Alzheimer's disease often have physical difficulty swallowing, and they may forget how to chew and swallow. Sometimes, they aren't physically able to eat.
It can be upsetting for friends and family when a dying person eats less. In our culture, we take care of people we love by feeding them. When people are sick, we make them soup and we push Gatorade.
However, loss of appetite and weight loss are natural parts of dying from many long-term illnesses.
Diminished energy can cause a person to slow down. For example, they may move, talk and think more slowly than usual, and they may also need more time to process conversations. Medications the person is taking, such as certain painkillers, may also slow them down, as can having out-of-balance electrolytes.
The physical fatigue and weakness [of people near the end] is profound. Simple things, like getting up out of bed and into a chair could be exhausting, that could be all of someone's energy for a day.
Because they have less energy, the person's body may have difficulty regulating temperature, meaning that they may be hotter or colder than usual.
In the last days or hours before death, people's breathing can become unusually shallow or deep. It can also be irregular, with pauses lasting from seconds to a minute or two, and that can be scary for their family members who are watching. But all of it comes from the process of the body slowing and shutting down.
Despite moving slowly, hearing is one of the last senses to go. As people are drifting in and out of consciousness, we know they can hear voices, especially familiar voices. We give loved ones the advice to keep talking, even if it seems like the person is sleeping.
When a person dies, physicians usually check for cardiac death (when the heart stops beating) or brain death (when there is no more electrical activity in the brain. If someone is a 'vegetable' that means there is no more brain activity, and that life support is keeping the organs functioning. At that point, legally, the life support is turned off because they have died.'
By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer at Live Science.
Cells - Death as a Biological Process
While dealing with death and grieving, I think it is important to remember that death is just a natural, biological process. For me, looking at death scientifically helped me deal with the subject of death. One thing I have been fascinated with is cells. The way that cells look and the way they move.
Cell Death
Caspase Cascade
By Yosef Kaplan and Eli Arama, Weizmann Institute of Science
In addition to their role as executioners, caspases also participate in a variety of non-apoptotic processes, such as cellular remodeling. For instance, during the production of Drosophila sperm, cytoplasmic content must be removed to complete differentiation. To prevent excessive activation and unwanted death of the sperm precursors, caspases (red) are not activated uniformly but rather in a gradient descending from the cell's nucleus to the end of its tail. This unique activation pattern is determined by an inverse gradient of Soti (green), an inhibitor of a ubiquitin ligase complex required for caspase activation.
Mighty Mitophagy
By M. Zaninello and L. Scorrano, Dulbecco-Telethon Institute, Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine
ATP production in mitochondria (purple) can lead to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that damage mitochondria. When an organelle is beyond repair, the cellular recycling system (green) kicks-in and targets them for mitophagy, a specialized form of mitochondrial degradation.
Death Most Beautiful
By Thomas Deerinck and Mark Ellisman, NCMIR, UCSD
Programmed cell death ensures that our bodies contain just the right number of cells. This tightly regulated process removes damaged cells, shapes our organs and digits, and refines our immune systems. Here, multiphoton fluorescence imaging reveals an apoptotic HeLa cell (middle) amongst non-dying neighbors.
Cytoskeleton Gives Up the Ghost
By Alexei Degterev, Tufts University, and Junying Yuan, Harvard Medical School
Necroptosis is a recently characterized form of regulated necrotic cell death, which is triggered by TNF-α. However, why and how it occurs in vivo is still under intense scrutiny. During necroptosis, the actin cytoskeleton is one of the first casualties, collapsing inwards to allow the cell to round up and fragment
Cell Cannibals
By Tsun-Kai Chang and Eric H. Baehrecke, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Autophagy, or "self-eating," is critical for keeping cells healthy by recycling damaged material. A double membrane engulfs portions of the cytosol, including proteins and organelles. This autophagosome then fuses with lysosomes to break apart contents for recycling. Autophagy can also be employed by cells as a precursor to cell death. Autophagy can occur in response to nutrient limitations, but it is also important for shaping tissues during development.
Blebbing Bodies
By Thomas Deerinck and Mark Ellisman, NCMIR, UCSD
When cells apoptose, they appear to collapse, forming small blebs and vesicles called apoptotic bodies. Here, an apoptotic HeLa cell (center) sits among its healthy and dividing counterparts, revealing a striking collection of blebs on its surface. Although HeLa cells are the workhorse of many in vitro cell biological experiments, they are far from normal. They are propagated from a cervical tumor and contain an aberrant genome with multiple copies of several human chromosomes, some of which also carry papilloma viral genes.
Cancer
Blocking DNA Methylation
By Margaret Oechsli, Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare, Kentucky
Many chemotherapeutic agents act by masquerading as normal DNA bases. For instance, the compound azacititine resembles a "C" nucleoside, except that it can't get methylated. When azacititine is incorporated into the DNA, it reversibly inhibits DNA methyltransferase. This may activate tumor suppressor genes silenced by hypermethylation. Azacititine is used to treat myelodysplastic syndrom and is in clinical trials for relapsed AML.
Topo Inhibitors
By Margaret Oechsli, Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare, Kentucky
During replication, DNA becomes "overwound" ahead of the replication fork. The topological tension must be relieved for DNA replication to succeed. This is the job of topoisomerases. The enzyme binds to "tense" DNA and cleaves the phosphate backbone; the DNA unwinds and, then topoisomerase reseals the break.
Neoangiogenesis
By Stephanie Alexander and Peter Friedl, The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center
To grow beyond the size of rice grain, tumors (yellow and red) must induce the growth of blood vessels (green-yellow). They secrete growth factors, such as VEGF, and they stop producing the anti-VEGF enzyme cGMP-dependent kinase (PKG). The construction of blood vessels is such an important step in tumorigenesis that numerous VEGF inhibitors have been approved as cancer treatments. However, whether these treatments have a long-term benefit for patients is still under debate.
The Next Challenge
By Kairbaan Hodivala-Dilke and M. Stone, University of London
A major barrier to converting cancer therapies into cures is drug resistance. Cancer cells often develop resistance to even the most effective therapies. For instance, anti-VEGF therapies dramatically reduce tumor size initially, but some studies find that this response is only transient and tumors resume growth and progression after long-term treatment. Basic cell biology is critically needed to characterize these resistance pathways and uncover tools for monitoring the emergence of resistance pathways.
Invasion
By Bettina Weigelin and Peter Friedl, UMC St Radboud Nijmegen
Cancer invasion and metastasis transform a locally growing tumor into a systemic and live-threatening disease. But how tumor cells (green) migrate between organs is still largely a black box. Friedl and colleagues have developed a tool to watch cancer cells as they move through the skin of live mice. From these experiments, they've found that tumor migration is remarkably "plastic;" cells adapt their transportation styles for various tissue conditions and even remodel the tissue itself to facilitate mobility.
Knudson Hypothesis
By Yoichiro Tamori and Wu-Min Deng, Florida State University
In 1971, Alfred Knudson proposed that "two hits" to DNA were necessary to cause cancer: activation of an oncogene and the deactivation of tumor suppressor genes. Recently, Peter Campbell and colleagues found that, for ~2%–3% of cancers, numerous mutations could occur simultaneously in a "chromosome shattering event."
Here the "two-hit" hypothesis of cancer is demonstrated with genetically engineered fruit flies. With only a single mutation in the tumor suppressor gene lethal giant larvae, mutant cells (green) are eliminated by cell competition (right). But with another mutation in oncogenic Ras, the mutant cells expand into an aggressive tumor (left).
Image: Drosophila epithelial tissue (wing, haltere, and leg disc) imaged with a Zeiss LSM 510 Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope. Mutant cells express GFP (green); nuclei countered stained with DAPI (red).
The Science Museum: Superbugs
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Can be found in our throat, mouth nose and ears. It most frequently causes ear infections, but can also result in serious illnesses such as meningitis if it gets past the protective membranes that line the brain.
Enterobacter cloacae
Part of the community of bacteria that live in our gut. It can cause damage if it infects the lungs or gets into our blood. The resistant type of these bacteria has caused serious outbreaks of disease in hospitals.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
When this grows in human genitals it can cause skin growths and pain. Until the 1970s it was easily treated with penicillin, but now many superbug strains are resistant to several antibiotics.
Acinetobacter baumannii
A species of bacteria that can be found in soil and water. It can infect wounds and was dubbed 'Iraqibacter' because of the severe complications it caused in wounded soldiers during the conflicts in Iraq.
Tate Modern: Franz West
Franz West
Gruppe mit Kabinett
2001
Papier-mâché, paint and wood
Franz West
Passstuck
1983
Polyester
Franz West
Passstuck
1983
Wood, paint, cardboard, adhesive, fabric, plaster and metal
Franz West
Kollega
1988
Papier-mâché, paint and wood
Passstucke
From 1973, West began to work on a group of sculptures made of papier-mâché and plaster in various shapes and sizes. Many incorporated everday objects such as such as paint brushes or even a radio. Viewers could handle them in anyway they chose. People's interaction with them was both playful and awkward.
Franz West
Passstuck
1983-2007
Wood, paint, gauze and plaster
For West, these works could function like extensions of the human body. He felt that the way people used them gave external form to their neuroses and desires. In 1980 when they were exhibited for the first time in Vienna, poet Reinhard Priessnitz called them Passstucke. West himself later found an English equivalent for this work, calling them Adaptives and suggesting that they adapt to viewers as viewers adapt to them.
West's Adaptives became a significant component of the history of sculpture and performance. Friends and other artists were photographed and filmed using them, sometimes to classical music or jazz compositions by Franz Kogelmann. West incorporated many of these images in his collages and posters.
Franz West
Kollega
1988
Papier-mâché, paint and wood
Franz West
Kollega
1988
Papier-mâché, paint and wood
Franz West
Untitled
1988
Papier-mâché, paint and wood
Legitimate Sculptures
In 1986 West first exhibited what he called 'Legitimate Sculptures'. He used this title because the viewer could no longer handle these objects. But the relationship to the work was still active, since the forms provoked imaginative reactions. Some sculptures resembled fragments of classical sculpture, others strange faces.
The main material for these works was papier-mâché. West incorporated objects from daily life - a broom, bottles of alcohol he had consumed, or his childhood bed.
West worked with writers to create texts accompanying these works , in the tradition of experimental Viennese literature. Instead of explaining the sculptures with traditional captions, they supplemeny them with often obscure references and ideas.
Most radical sculptors of the 1960s and 70s had ceased using pedestals and stands. When West began to use them, he took a playful approach.
Combinations
Redundanz was West's most ambitious sculpture of the 1980s, an early example of combining parts into a single piece. Objects were coated with papier-mâché and painted. Some are recognisable, like the stack of hats; others not.
In 1979, West showed collages in Frankfurt with German artist Jurgen Wegner and sold them to him afterwards. Returning to Frankfurt in 1988, he bought back the works. He developed an environment in which old and new pieces could be combined. Wegner Raume 2/6-5/6 combines four spaces, and in each, collages, objects, furniture come together with pedestals, labels and screen-like walls.
Collaborations
Early on, West was unsure about how to use colour with sculpture. He sometimes handed over objects to painter-friends to paint. But the result was considered his alone.
In the late 1980s West began a series of proper collaborations, co-authored and shown in jointly credited exhibitions. He collaborated with three younger Viennese artists also associated with the Galeriie Peter Pakesch: Herbert Brandl, Otto Zitko and Heimo Zobernig.
West and Brandl made shows together in Vienna, Turin and Frankfurt. The surfaces of some of the works resemble Brandl's own atmospheric and expressive paintings.
Collaboration enabled West to think through how an artwork could bring together contradictory ideas. In the mid-80s, while many critics were still arguing for a single line of art history, and a succession of distinct approaches to sculpture, West's collaborations incorporated difference.
Franz West
Wegner Raume 2/6-5/6
1988
Mixed Media
Franz West
Wegner Raume 2/6-5/6
1988
Mixed Media
Franz West
Schlieren
2010
Laquered epoxy resin
Franz West
Untitled
2007
Papier-mache, extruded polystyrene, epoxy resin, synthetic enamel paint, metal
Franz West 1947-2012
Herbert Brandl born 1959
Otto Zitko born 1959
Heimo Zobernig born 1958
Untitled
1988
Wood, papier-mache, paint
Franz West
Lemurenkopfe
1992
Plaster, gauze, cardboard, iron, acrylic, foam and rubber
Franz West
Epiphanie an Stühlen
2011
Steel, extruded polystyrene, gauze, paint and wood, sculpture
Sculpting With Clay
After being inspired by the huge selection of sculptures at the British Museum and the many different styles of sculpture at the Franz West exhibition at Tate Modern, I decided to start experimenting with some clay.
I had an idea that I wanted to create a large amount of small figures that could eventually be projected onto. Instead of portraying death and grief as a sad thing, I want to express the positives that can come from experiencing these things such as the end of someone's suffering and how grieving can bring people together. I want to portray death as peaceful and as a normal biological process.
Initially I planned to paint these figures using bright colours to show the positive things that can be gained by going through grief. However, after painting one of the figures a blue colour I came to the conclusion that the white colour of the clay represented grief in a better way than if the sculptures were painted, as the colours made the figures look quite childish and too playful for the theme of grief. I have experienced a problem whilst sculpting these figures so far which is getting them to balance because they are quite odd shapes, so I have to make sure that they are sturdy as well as being the shape that I want them to be.
Royal Academy of Arts: Bill Viola/Michelangelo: Life Death Rebirth
Bill Viola
The Messenger
1986
Colour video projection
Bill Viola
Nantes Triptych
1992
Three colour video projections, four channels of amplified sound
'Here St. John brandishes a bird towards the recoiling Christ - probably a goldfinch, whose patch of red plumage was said to come from the blood of Christ on the Cross. His action makes Christ's destiny explicit.' - RAA
To me, this piece depicts death as something to be afraid of. Christ is pulling away from the goldfinch in fear.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
The Virgin Child with the Infant St John the Baptist
1504-5
Marble Sculpture
Bill Viola
The Reflecting Pool
1977-79
Colour video projection
Bill Viola
Slowly Turning Narrative
1992
One black and white, one colour video projection onto mirror and vinyl rotating screen; six channels of amplified sound
Bill Viola
The Veiling
1995
Two colour video projections onto nine scrims; two channels of amplified sound
Bill Viola
Man Searching for Immortality/Woman Searching for Eternity
2013
Two colour video projections onto two slabs of black granite
'This exhibition bring together two artists working 500 years apart and in radically different media, yet whose work shares a deep preoccupation with the nature of the human soul and the passage of life.' - Royal Academy of Arts
Bill Viola concentrates on 'humanity's universal concern with the cycle of life and death - the tumult of existence, the passing of the material body and the possibility of rebirth.' - RAA
The underlying subject of Michelangelo's artwork is 'the nature and fate of the soul, and their intended effect is as much emotional as intellectual. Although Michelangelo's paintings and sculpture are awe-inspiring in their grandeur, his personal vision is expressed most clearly in his drawings.' - RAA
'I have learned so much from my work with video and sound., ad it goes far beyond simply what I need to apply within my profession. The real investigation is that of life and being itself; the medium is just a tool in this investigation.' - Bill Viola
Nantes Triptych consists of three projections: on the left is birth, in the middle is a body floating in water and on the right is death.
'The birth was inspired by the birth of Viola’s first son in 1988 and was filmed at a natural childbirth clinic in California. The floating body in the central panel was filmed in a swimming pool for an earlier work, The Passing(1987–88). Viola filmed his mother as she lay dying in a coma in 1991 as a means of confronting her death artistically. The three passages are accompanied by a soundtrack of crying, water movement and breathing in a 30-minute loop. In this compacted space, birth and death eclipse the dreamy suspension which represents, in the central panel, the thinking, active human life. Here it is not life’s journey which is important, but its beginning and end.' - Tate
I personally found this piece to be very moving. The contrast between the 'miracle of life' and the sadness of death reminds you that life is a journey, and that every journey has to come to an end. Death is only natural. For every person who dies, a new life begins and a new journey begins. Watching this piece gave me an uneasy feeling and brought tears of sadness but also tears of joy.
'Here the body of Christ held in the Virgin's lap is an echo of her cradling her infant son: she seems to be receiving back into herself the body to which she had once given birth, both Christ's womb and his tomb.' - RAA
In a similar way to Viola's 'Nantes Triptych', Michelangelo makes a comparison between birth and death, reminding the viewer of Christ's journey.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
1540
Black Chalk
The Reflecting Pool introduces 'Viola’s lifelong preoccupation with water and its metaphoric icons of reflection, rebirth, and the eternal. Viola has recounted how his near-drowning experience as a child was an epiphany: how the experience of being underwater seemed peaceful, otherworldly, mystical. In the work, while the frame of Viola’s leap above the pool is frozen, the water continues to move, and time passes—contrasting human mortality with nature’s constancy. Using himself as the subject, Viola exploits the editing capabilities of the video medium to challenge the notion of linear time and the transient nature of life.'
- National Portrait Gallery
For me, this piece spoke about self reflection, self image and individuality. It made me think about the soul, the way I see myself and who I really am.
This piece shows a large rotating screen in the middle of the room. On one side is a mirror and the other side is a blank surface which is projected onto with 2 projectors. This means that every time the screen rotates, the viewer will see themselves in the reflection of the mirror. The projections show a man's face close-up and the other shows various colourful images such as fireworks.
The man in the projection repeats "The one who uses. The one who controls. The one who believes. The one who observes. The one who sleeps". These words accompanied by the projections and the reflection of the viewer brings a variety of emotions: sadness, happiness, confusion. There is no one feeling that you get from this piece. For me this piece felt very surreal and dream-like. Seeing yourself in the mirror makes you think about yourself and where you stand in this art piece and how you relate to it. It also allows you to see other people's reactions through the reflection.
Bill Viola explains that this piece "concerns the enclosing nature of self-image and the external circulation of potentially infinite (and therefore unattainable) states of being all revolving around the still point of the central self… The entire space becomes an interior for the revelations of a constantly turning mind absorbed with itself."
Bill Viola
The Dreamers
2013
Seven channels of colour video on flat panel displays: four channels of stereo sound
Victoria and Albert Museum: Sculptures
Henrietta Finch
Lady Elizabeth Finch
1741
Marble Sculpture
Pietro Francavilla
Zephyr
1576
Marble Sculpture
Sir Francis Chantrey
Bust of William Stuart
1828
Marble Sculpture
In the last few tutorials that I've had, both 1 to 1 and group tutorials, the topic of museums, marble bust sculptures and superiority have come up. I can see where viewers may get this idea as the sculptures that I have made are white and mainly concentrate on the head and bust rather than the lower half of he body which just looks like a rock that the bust is balanced on. I am very interested in the idea that my sculptures look like they belong in a museum or look like they should be catalogued or ordered in some way. I'd like to further explore the theme of order and things being organised, but also the theme of individuality as although my sculptures look very similar to each other, they are all completely different.
Rachel Kneebone
399 Days
2014
Porcelain Sculpture
'Kneebone's intensely modelled figurative scenarios unfold into coral-like eruptions of limbs and organic forms.' 'Here the body, multiplied beyond imagination, reaches a visceral intensity beyond the boundaries conventionally ascribed to it.' - V&A
I see some similarities between my sculptures and 399 days, such as the theme of repetition, a mass of bodies and the colour white. However, compared to my sculptures, this piece is very chaotic and the figures in this piece are much more detailed. I have also noticed that the bodies are all similar shapes and don't appear to have any indivdual features whereas I am now focusing on creating clear differences between my sculptures.
Kew Gardens: Chihuly: Reflections on Nature
Dale Chihuly
Neodymium Reeds and Turquoise Marlins
2019
Blown Glass
Dale Chihuly
Temperate House Persians
2018
Blown Glass
Dale Chihuly
Cattails and Copper Birch Reeds
2015
Blown Glass
I have been thinking a lot about sculptures, how artists choose to display them and how this changes what the sculptures mean. Dale Chihuly decided to display a collection of sculptures in Kew Gardens so they were surrounded by plants and nature. Because of where they are placed, it is clear that these glass sculptures are based on different plants and flowers, but without being displayed amongst all of this greenery, I personally would think that they were just abstract sculptures, exploring shape and colour.
This showed me how important the way that you display an artwork is, because where it is placed can have a huge impact on how it is received and what it could mean.
I no longer get any feelings about death and grief from looking at my sculptures, mainly because of the way I have been making them. I am creating something new and in a way, creating the lives of these little sculptures. Every single one has been made by only using clay and my hands. I purposely chose against using any tools to sculpt them because it felt very personal that they were made using only my hands and fingers, some even have my fingerprints left on them. I decided how they would look and how tall each one would be, how wide it would be, what the shape of each sculpture's body would be. In a way, it's a bit like playing God. Each one has something that makes it unique to the others and it reminds me of the way that we are. No matter how hard we try to look different or be like somebody else, we're all unique.
Terence Koh
“Terence’s work is sometimes covered in fingerprints, contains dirt and spiderwebs, and it’s often broken or already developing mold when you buy it,” - Nicolai Frahm
"Terence Koh is a contemporary Chinese-born Canadian artist whose practice spans a number of disciplines in its examination of identity, sexuality, and politics." - artnet.com
The pieces 'Crackhead' and 'Untitled (Vitrines 5) at first show organisation. Each object is neatly placed in a glass box that all fit together. These pieces definitely have a 'museum' feel to them, like they are historical artifacts that have been logged into a catalogue and are ordered well, exactly where they should be. However, if you image that the cases are not there, the piece becomes very chaotic. Looking past the boxes, there is not structure or order to the way that these sculptures have been placed. They are floating around as if they have been thrown into the air and are suspended there.
Terence Koh
Crackhead
2006
Mixed Media Sculpture
Terence Koh
Untitled (Vitrines 5 - Secret Secrets)
2006
Mixed Media Sculpture
Terence Koh seems to completely avoid using colour in his artwork. To me, this gives it a very clinical and scientific feel, especially in 'Untitled (Vitrines 5)' which is completely white.
"i doo knot like color. if they invented glasses that could take away color i would poot them on as goggles all the time. that iz a good idea. i shood invent those myself. everyting best iz invented yourself. so if yoo invent no color yoo are no color." (Spelling courtesy of Terence)
- Terence Koh interviewed by Adam Bryce
It looks so clean and sanitised like a doctor's office or a science lab which is very different to how museums look and feel. When I think of a museum I think of wooden cabinets and dust. They have a very distinct smell.
I see some similarities between this artwork and the sculpture that I am currently working on. Both of our pieces include white sculptures that look like they could be in a museum, except the lack of colour makes the sculptures look new, so they don't really fit anywhere.
I am planning on showing my pieces on shelves, so they look like they have been organised in a certain way, but I want them to look like they could be historical objects but also brand new.
Henry Moore
Henry Moore
Recumbent Figure
1938
Green Hornton Stone Sculpture
There is something about Henry Moore's figure sculptures that remind me of the mini sculptures that I have been creating. Both mine and Henry's sculptures include a fairly detailed head and bust, the viewer can easily identify that the sculptures are human figures due to this. Then, from the bust down, the body is unrecognisable. Moore's sculptures turn into completely different shapes from the bust down and my sculptures turn into a block that look stones or rocks. We have both seemed to identify that the head and bust are the most important feature in order to recognise these sculptures as people no matter what the rest of the body looks like:
"Henry Moore's head has been simplified so there are no obvious features and the head and shoulders melt into a single organic form." - Tate
Another similarity is that our sculptures both look like they could be a historical artifact but also look very modern:
'If you look closely you can see tiny fossils on its surface which help to give the sculpture its rich, rough texture. Its undulating shape makes it look a bit like a landscape. Although it was made in 1938 and is a work of modern art, Its simple, powerful form suggests an ancient object.' - Tate
Henry Moore
Two Piece Reclining Figure No.3
1961
Bronze Sculpture
Tate
Henry Moore – Meet 500 Years of British Art
2013
Online Video
Annie Morris
Annie Morris
Stack 9 Turquoise
2018
Plaster, Polystyrene, Jesmonite, Pigment and Concrete
Annie Morris
Stack 7 Ultramarine Blue
2018
Foam Core, Pigment, Plaster, Sand, Concrete, Steel
Annie Morris
Stack 9 Viridian Green
2017
Plaster, Polystyrene, Jesmonite, Pigment and Concrete
'Made from foam, plaster, sand and raw pigment, some soar almost to the height of the vaulted glass ceiling. These vibrant totems, with their sense of joyfulness, were initially a means for Annie to process grief as, a few years ago, she and Idris had a stillborn baby: ‘I became obsessed with the ball shape – it came from my drawings that related to my pregnancy.’ Her boulder-like sculptures are celebratory and defiant.' - House & Garden
Although I am moving away from the theme of grief in this project, there is still a sense of it there when I am creating my sculptures. I find the making of them to be very therapeutic and calming, whilst also having something to focus my mind on. There is a definite similarity between Annie Morris's stack sculptures and mine, and that is the act of balancing objects on top of each other. I find it interesting that each ball in her sculptures plays an important part of supporting the others to balance. I find this is similar to my work in the way that each piece fits perfectly into the other and that's where is belongs. Not every base is the right shape to hold the bust of the other sculptures, they all have a special place where they belong, otherwise the whole sculpture will not work.
Sean Edwards
Arts Wales
Wales in Venice 2019 - Sean Edwards
2019
Online Video
'Known for his sculptural approach to the everyday, Edwards often begins with seemingly unrelated elements linked by autobiographical and cultural connections. These range from the 1970s shopping centre near the housing estate where he grew up to Springsteen’s album Nebraska, a Welsh quilting group, snooker, tabloid newspapers, and various found materials. Through investigative processes including time spent in local archives, museums and libraries, he gathers together images, stories, quotes, and clips. It is in the teasing out of these things in the studio, in isolating, abstracting, and bringing them together, that their political and formal resonance comes into play.' - Arts Wales
I see some similarities between the way Sean Edwards and myself work. The one that stands out most to me is repetition. Sean uses the repetition of people's everyday life, but also uses repeating patterns (such as the quilts), whereas I have been repeatedly making these small sculptures that look very similar to one another.
Sean Edwards
Drawn In Cursive (Part 3)
2014
Installation
With Drawn In Cursive "I am taking a slightly different approach and will be making a larger structure that supports the objects on display in a more conceptual way - a shelf that goes round the entire gallery space or a bookshelf that goes down the centre of the gallery space." - Sean Edwards in BBC Blogs
I find the way that Sean Edwards has used shelving to display objects in this installation. Rather than reminding me of a museum collection, they remind me of a warehouse or stock room where the objects have been organised into certain groups, but the shelves are almost completely empty.
Sean Edwards
\||//\||//||//\||//||\\||// (A Two Bar Relationship)
2017
Sculpture Installation
Tony Cragg
Tate
Tony Cragg - 'Be There, See It, Respond to It'
2018
Online Video
'One meaning of the title, Cumulus, is an accumulation, a word which aptly describes much of Cragg's sculptural practice. It also, of course, alludes to the cloud formation frequently seen in summer skies. The curving volumes of the milky-white vessels recall the cotton-wool puffiness of cumulus clouds.'
David Batchelor commented on the recurring motif of 'the vessel': "it carries with it both a sense of historicity and of modernity. It is culturally weighty: archaeology, tradition and bearer of basic sustenance; and in its contemporaneity it is all contingency and transience: mass production and its necessary counterpart, mass disposal." - Tate
I find it very interesting the way that some of Tony Cragg's sculptures (such as Versus) are in between looking like they have been dug up from the ground like a fossil and something that is very modern and smooth. Unlike my sculptures, a lot of Cragg's artwork is abstract and is often inspired by landscapes, rock faces and fossils.
Tony Cragg
Versus
2012
Bronze Sculpture
Tony Cragg
Cumulus
1998
Glass Sculpture
Tony Cragg
Stack
1975
Wood, Concrete, Brick, Metal, Plastic, Textile, Cardboard and Paper
Louise Nevelson
Louise Nevelson
An American Tribute to the British People
1965
Painted Wood Sculpture
“Sometimes it’s the material that takes over; sometimes it’s me that takes over. I permit them to play, like a seesaw. I use action and counteraction, like in music, all the time. Action and counteraction. It was always a relationship—my speaking to the wood and the wood speaking back to me.” - Louise Nevelson
'In the late 1950s, Nevelson began to make reliefs by stacking wooden boxes and crates, each of which would contain an arrangement of found objects that she collected as she walked around the streets of New York City. Black Wall is an early example of this approach, filled with pieces of scrap timber, such as joinery offcuts and fragments of furniture. The disparate elements are unified by being painted black, a colour which Nevelson suggested will make any material look more distinguished.' - Tate
Louise Nevelson's artwork includes a lot of organisation such as neatly staked items, items on shelves and items in cupboards. I am currently interested in organising and displaying my sculptures using shelves, as if they have been catalogued in some way, like scientific or historical artifacts. Nevelson mainly uses white or gold in her sculptures: “Gold has been the staple of the world for ages; it is universal.”
Louise Nevelson
Black Wall
1959
Painted Wood Sculpture
Louise Nevelson
Royal Tide 1
1960
Painted Wood Sculpture
Louise Bourgeois
Tate
Louise Bourgeois - 'I Transform Hate Into Love'
2016
Online Video
'The many mirrors create a profusion of reflections and altered perspectives which disrupt any sense of direct perception the eyes would seem to propose. Enclosed within the cage-like structure, the eyes are themselves trapped in a space which offers them for viewing by other eyes – those of the viewer. Bourgeois has stated:
"The subject of pain is the business I am in. To give meaning and shape to
frustration and suffering ... The Cells represent different types of pain: the
physical, the emotional and psychological, and the mental and intellectual. When
does the emotional become physical? When does the physical become emotional:
It’s a circle going around and around. Pain can begin at any point and turn in any
direction."
(Quoted in The Secret of the Cells, p.81.)'
Louise Bourgeois
Cell (Eyes and Mirrors)
1989
Steel, Limestone and Glass Sculpture
Louise Bourgeois
Cell XIV (Portrait)
2000
Steel, Glass, Wood, Metal and Red Fabric Sculpture
Final Piece
After feedback in 1 to 1 tutorials and group tutorials, experimenting with the presentation of the sculptures and how they are organised, and contemplating what it is exactly that I am trying to say with this piece, I came to a conclusion.
The main topic that I aim to address with this piece is society. I started off with exploring how these sculptures are all completely unique and have different physical qualities. Some of them are tall with a broader bust, some are small with a long and narrow bust. In a way, I felt as if I was playing God when deciding what each of these sculptures would look like, it was all up to me and there is something very human about these sculptures, even though the only human features they really have is a head and bust.
I originally planned on presenting these sculptures neatly lined up in rows on each shelf, as I was becoming interested in the way that things are organised and catalogued, as if they are tins of beans on a shelf in a supermarket. But, after showing the sculptures neatly lined up on shelves in a group tutorial, I realised that what I was showing wasn't reflecting my views on society. We're not all treated equally.
After this realisation and feedback I began to see the shelves are more of a worldwide wealth distribution pyramid:
'The world’s richest 1 percent, those with more than $1 million, own 45 percent of the world’s wealth. Adults with less than $10,000 in wealth make up 64 percent of the world’s population but hold less than 2 percent of global wealth. The world’s wealthiest individuals, those owning over $100,000 in assets, total less than 10 percent of the global population but own 84 percent of global wealth.' - inequality.org
To show this, I placed 3 sculptures on the top shelf who are standing upright, looking very proud of themselves. These represent the wealthiest of society.
The second shelf has 7 sculptures. 5 of them are standing upright, 2 of them have fallen and are broken in half. These represent the middle class, those who are not at the top but are much better off than most people. Although they are very well-off, they still have some struggles, shown by the 2 who have fallen.
The third shelf has 10 sculptures. 6 are upright and 4 have fallen. These represent the more fortunate of the working class, the people who have stable jobs that pay them enough to get by, those who live paycheck to paycheck, a situation that can easily throw you off-balance, hence why 4 of them have fallen.
The fourth and bottom shelf has 30 sculptures. All 30 of these sculptures have fallen and are presented in a pile. These represent the worst-off in society. The people who aren't even scraping by and working multiple jobs in an effort to just put food on the table, the homeless, the starving.. the list goes on. These are the bottom of the pyramid and they make up more than the 3 other shelves. The numbers on each sculpture represent how we are all just seen as statistics, but behind every number there is a person. The cage symbolises how as a society we are trapped in this unfair system and how easy it is to fall, some may say that the fall from the top is the hardest as you have everything to lose.