Rachel Whiteread
“My drawings are very much part of my thinking process. They are not necessarily studies. I use them as a way of worrying through a particular aspect of something that I’m working on.
There is a vitrine, which will display objects that I collect whenever I go travelling, or from junk shops and off the street. … They’re as much drawings, for me, as the drawings themselves, and they’re related to casting and they’re sometimes related to domesticity – they’re a little bit of everything.” TATE ETC 1 SEPTEMBER 2010, ‘The Process of Drawing is like Writing a Diary: It's a Nice Way of Thinking About Time Passing’, Rachel Whiteread, BICE CURIGER [online] At: https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-20-autumn-2010/process-drawing-writing-diary-its-nice-way-thinking-about-time-passing (Accessed 22.11.2023)
When I come to the issue of my work objects, here it is discussed as an archive, I highlight the main criterion: I don’t like unnecessary things and unnecessary trash. And in general, the most valuable thing is cleanliness and order. I have previously written in previous courses about why and how I choose my materials. I have my own internal aesthetics. Quoting myself:
“Leftovers of previous works exist in my studio, but these "out-of-species objects" also appear in my studio by very detailed selection.
Material selection for the studio
I noticed that not all materials for recycling suit my aesthetic taste.
The best place to choose working materials is a hardware store. The smell of wood fascinates me. Cleanliness and tidiness of choice. Working with pieces of wood implies a lot of active actions with the body. Saw, chop, plan, grind, drill. It must be "flesh and blood" to make a new body out of it. It's like giving birth to a child that I can't have. This is my opportunity to bring to this world something that has not been here before - this is pure pleasure in my work. This is a "large" activity that is opposed to the sitting image of pencil drawing for example. The whole physical being is involved in the activity.
Potential objects
Second, a good place to collect material for work is metalwork workshops and construction warehouses for processing.
Collecting and making: https://youtube.com/shorts/G8QdQHrwurI
There are objects with history, the legs of an old chair, a cleaned, but old grating with elements of concrete remnants, and so on. These are "potential objects". They can be remade into new ones, become integral elements of the new. They have the potential to continue transmitting the information. Their history, inscribed in their qualities, is unique and can be read in the future. At the same time, old plastic materials for insulation, non-natural elements of ventilation systems and other unpleasant objects begin to be found in such places. Rarely can a plastic be endowed with an individual unique story. Even after 20 years in the ocean, a plastic bag will still be a plastic bag. And if you compare a 20-year-old piece of wood in salty water - it can be exciting.
Here, perhaps, Allure, described by me above,
[As far as I understand this idea, objects, including humans, are simply suitable for each other. Some external attractiveness of an object attracts another. “There are countless examples of allure. In instances of beauty, an object is not the sum total of beautiful colors and proportions on its surface, but a kind of soul animating the features from within, leading to vertigo or even hypnosis in the witness.” COLLAPSE II On Vicarious Causation, Graham Harman [online] At: https://community.stjohnscollege.edu/file/chapter/chapter-readings/harmanvicarious-causation.pdf (Accessed 28.02.2023)]
intervenes in the choice of subjects. Perhaps this is exactly what I feel when choosing my studio objects. This is a kind of euphoria, the purity of the essence of the subject, which I see. But on the other hand, maybe I am guided precisely by the potential of this object...
What are unpleasant objects? Objects cleanliness, which I doubt. This is what disgusts me and makes it unthinkable for me to work with such material. This subjective feeling is exactly what, perhaps, distinguishes my art so much. It turns out such a very thin border of selection from attractive objects and not.
And the third place, where I would rather not find anything, but sometimes it happens, is a place of reconstruction. All objects here seem to be dead, meaningless. They served for something up to a certain point, and then they lost their meaning. These are very different objects than "potential objects". Such objects are not endowed with features. They are devoid of individuality and cannot bring value to future new combinations of objects.» Marina WitteMann blog [online] At: https://www.marinawittemann.com/post/project-2-body-of-work-aesthetic-choice (Accessed 23.11.2023)
I think it was Louise Nevelson who said, “I don’t have that much patience” to prepare clay or sew, so she worked with ready-made objects.
Louise Nevelson, A Mrs N’s Palace, 1964-1977, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. [online] At: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/louise-nevelsons-sculptures/ (Accessed 23.11.2023)
And here I absolutely agree; I don’t have the patience to sit quietly and draw with a pencil or prepare plaster for sculpture. Even when I just started working with oil paints, I immediately needed to walk and move around the work, my whole body had to be involved. We are naturally given a body capable of walking, working with our hands and a million other variations, so why do we need to sit in one position at a table in order to make minimal movements with our hands to paint with watercolours?! My idea of life and artwork is complete physical and spiritual involvement in the process. Additionally, I think this is my character - I feel the smallest details, but I also clearly see the whole picture, but I cannot determine what is more important... Therefore, I probably look for details and sensibility from ready-made objects - an old piece of wood, and a rusty metal rod, and then I bring them into the overall picture.
When I see dollhouses on display in a museum, the first thing I think is, oh my god, how much money was spent on these houses that could be food or medicine for someone.
Rachel Whiteread, Place (Village) 2006–8, Installation view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2008–9, Courtesy MADRE Museo d'Arte Donnaregina, Naples © Rachel Whiteread [online] At: https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-20-autumn-2010/process-drawing-writing-diary-its-nice-way-thinking-about-time-passing (Accessed 23.11.2023)
I just have a complete aversion to unnecessary trinkets, so this is not my approach at all. And yet, as an open and tolerant person, I see a connection between these objects and the monumental works of Rachel Withered. Perhaps seeing the house in miniature, her thoughts go into the space of perceiving a huge house as a small object that can be captured in cement or plaster.
Claes Oldenburg Manhattan House Museum
The starting point for further work is the initial task of the objects that were collected by the artist Claes Oldenburg and subsequently displayed in the museum.
This collection is like a souvenir shop from China, which served as the beginning of a large and important work.
Each artist's path to inspiration is different, and it's incredibly exciting to see the connection between a five-centimetre ceramic burger made in China and a huge soft sculpture.
Claes Oldenburg. Floor Burger. 1962 [online] At: https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/270/3504 (Accessed 23.11.2023)
At the same time, the material, shape, size and colour can transform and change, in the initial “souvenir” it is hard, and in the final sculpture it is soft, small and large, and so on.
Thinking about my “archive” - it’s better without an archive!
And yet, so: This usually happens when I go to bed and in the interval between sleep and non-sleep, I usually see bright images and shapes. If I wake up at this moment, I do a quick sketch (I always have a pencil and paper next to my bed), if not, then I just hope that if it was a worthwhile idea, it will come back to me. It's much the same as the artist Agnes Martin, I wait for my brain to show me the idea of the next work.
Next, what will I make this idea out of? Since these are always three-dimensional and volumetric works, the materials must be suitable.
I really like wooden sticks. They are simply designed for something creative - it's like a construction set without instructions. They can be easily connected and pulled apart if you need to change something, and the paint is absolutely amazing on them. It is especially beautiful when these are untreated boards; when painted, the texture becomes rich and saturated. But where can I get this? Buy it in a store? I don’t have the opportunity to pay 40 euros for one, the most beautiful board. And again, my pragmatic question is - if there is a lumberyard nearby that gives tons of such wood for burning, why should I buy it in the store? Here the logic has not yet been cancelled, so everything is very simple, I take what I can and like from local furniture manufacturing companies, additionally, I might find something on the street, and finally, I buy the rest at a hardware store. It's the same as if you bought paint at an art supply store - do you need to give it a date of purchase and an accession number?
And in general, if I die tomorrow, all these materials will be thrown into the trash, and there will be no trace of me left. Just as my parents threw me out of their lives because I was against the war, and while working on an essay, I realized that Russian society was raised on fascist principles.
It is possible that some of my works will be also destroyed, so the value is not in the work items or the final object, but in the process of work, in what I can learn or in what I can understand through them. And if, after all, someone likes what I did during my lifetime, it will be a bonus for me. Therefore, I am not looking for expensive materials for work or a complicated work process; it seems to me that sometimes the answers lie on the surface, and for the most part the answers lie within ourselves. It’s just that sometimes you need to formulate the right question and find yourself in the right situation/moment, and I create these situations from the means at hand.
There is no point in collecting things, you were born naked, and you will die naked. That's why I collect knowledge, emotions and questions. Knowledge, because I am a snob and the most pleasant companion is Google, emotions are what connect me with the outside world and give me hope, and questions because I am a Virgo and by nature, I am interested in understanding how things work.
Eduardo Paolozzi
«Eduardo Paolozzi was born on March 7, 1924, in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. From childhood he collected ephemera—science-fiction magazines, discarded toys, and other objets trouvés—which became the basis for a lifelong fascination with repurposing found objects and images in his art.» Eduardo Paolozzi, B. 1924, LEITH, SCOTLAND; D. 2005, LONDON [online] At: https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/270/3504 (Accessed 23.11.2023)
Eduardo Paolozzi, Chinese Dog [online] At: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5076 (Accessed 23.11.2023)
Eduardo Paolozzi´s studio, rbenn250 (atlas obscura user) [online] At: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-paolozzis-studio (Accessed 23.11.2023)
This innovative use of found items took Paolozzi's collecting instincts (first seen in his collages) in a new direction. The artist once claimed of works like this, "I use a collage technique in a plastic medium." Eduardo Paolozzi, [online] At: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/paolozzi-eduardo/ (Accessed 23.11.2023)
The artist, who collected magazines from an early age, began to use them in his collages, and the same technique later developed into sculpture. Cutting, taking out of context and making something new.
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