Once I was discussing the issue of contemporary art with an old friend, an artist from Russia. I gave examples of the work of Richard Wentworth.
Domino, 1984 Richard Wentworth. granite with 28 lb block-bottomed brown paper bag. Artwork size 53.3 x 61.0 x 33.0 (cm) [Sculpture] At: https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artwork/26582/Richard-Wentworth-Domino (Accessed 09.03.2021)
And my friend said - it's all clear, there is an interaction of material and form, but this is not art. All these items are in my yard, and they do not contain beauty. Here it is obvious that we could not continue the conversation because it turned out that we have a different understanding of beauty and its combination with art.
Artists' desks are perhaps the very heart of their work.
Uri Aran “Here, Here And Here”, Kunsthalle Zürich, 2013 [Objects] At: http://kunsthallezurich.ch/en/uri-aran (Accessed 09.03.2021)
‘Once my work is advancing or else stalled, my work-table becomes cluttered with objects that have sometimes accumulated there purely by chance (secateurs, folding rule) or else by some temporary necessity (coffee cup). Some will remain for a few minutes, others for a few days, others, which seem to have got there in a somewhat contingent fashion, will take up permanent residence.’ (Georges Perec from ‘In Its Place, Decoding Uri Aran’s mysterious worktables)
For me, it is the same - some things will be on my desk for a long time and affect my thoughts and work, and some of them will disappear in an instant. They will create invisible and realistic connections and probably appear in my works.
Moreover, if we present these objects as an independent work of art, everyone will see only what he can see.
For example, on Working Tables of Gabriel Orozco, someone can see the deep meaning or intricate connections of such a presentation of the leftovers from the artist's studio. Or another artist, for example, might even finish another artist's "leftover".
Gabriel Orozco. Gabriel Orozco. Working Tables, 2000-2005. 2005. 2005 [Objects] At: https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/240/3094 (Accessed 09.03.2021)
These are possibilities - seeing great connections between objects from the Artist desk or letting someone else finish their idea.
But for me, the approach of Elizabeth Bishop is closer.
gooseneck lamp - But here the moon seems to hang motionless in the sky. It gives very little light; it could be dead.
typewriter - the elaborate terracing of its southern glacis gleams faintly in the dim light, like fish scales. What endless labor those small, peculiarly shaped terraces represent!
typed sheet - the discovery of a large rectangular ‘field’, hitherto unknown to us, obviously man-made.
ink-bottle - contain, some powerful and terrifying “secret weapon”.
typewriter eraser - He appears to be—rather, to have been—a unicyclist-courier, who may have met his end by falling from the height of the escarpment because of the deceptive illumination. Alive, he would have been small, but undoubtedly proud and erect, with the thick, bristling black hair typical of the indigenes.
ashtray - a sort of dugout, possibly a shell crater, a “nest” of soldiers. They lie heaped together, wearing the camouflage “battle dress” intended for “winter warfare”. They are in hideously contorted position, all dead. We can make out at least eight bodies. These uniforms were designed to be used in guerilla warfare on the country's one snow-covered mountain peak.
The New Yorker, March 24, 1973 P. 37 At: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1973/03/24/12-oclock-news (Accessed 15.03.2021)
These connections are more than ordinary shadows or mixed colours. Here, the interactions between objects transferred to the category of a fictional world, which reveals their essence through a different context.
I see connections between objects in my altar in a similar way. Or even this is all methods described above (contextual connections, leftovers and the fictional world) and another option for interpreting objects on a working table of the artist - the altar.
The art altar is the place of religion. It is a place of pilgrimage. It is what keeps me in battle. It motivates me and always gives me answers. It is my religion and my gods to worship. These are women who teach me to play life (Matryoshkas) and believe ... appreciate what I have. Do not forget that I can see all possible colours and even more (St. Matrona of Moscow was blind from birth).
These are noble colour combinations between the objects on my Altar, simple and intricate forms, new possibilities of actions with materials (my copy of "Serra's Verb List"), rhetorical and metaphysical interpretations, the passage of time through a living candle, possibilities of being in another digital world, I even can make the activation of the positive energy (Google it – BaZi).
Bibliography and references
1. Article ‘In Its Place, Decoding Uri Aran’s mysterious work-tables’ At: https://www.frieze.com/article/its-place (Accessed 09.03.2021)
2. Georges Perec, ‘Notes Concerning the Objects that are on my Work-table’, (1999) Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, London: Penguin p.144-147.
3. Elizabeth Bishop, ‘12 o’clock news’
4. Gabriel Orozco talking about the ‘Working Table’ pieces At: https://www.moma.org/multimedia/audio/174/1933 (Accessed 09.03.2021)
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