SIMON STARLING, The Mahogany Pavilion (2004)
Simon Starling, The Mahogany Pavilion (Mobile Architecture nº 1), 2004. Photo: Eduardo Eckenfels [online] At https://www.inhotim.org.br/en/item-do-acervo/the-mahogany-pavilion-mobile-architecture-no-1/ (Accessed 02.12.2022)
“Exhibited for the first time in the 26th São Paulo Bienal (2004), this work reveals an important element of Simon Starling’s work: the boat. Here, the mahogany piece is placed upside down and suspended by its own mast. Placed in the middle of the tropical garden, right next to a mahogany species, the work suggests a tree as much as a shelter. In it, the wood used in the Scotland-made sailboat comes back to its place of origin: Latin America.
By approaching the flow of exportation of natural resources (from America to Europe), the artist proposes another inversion, this time of geopolitical nature.” The Mahogany Pavilion (Mobile Architecture nº 1) 2004 Upside-down Loch Long sailboat, built in 1963 by Boags Boat Yard in Largs (this being #73), Scotland, using South American mahogany [online] At: https://www.inhotim.org.br/en/item-do-acervo/the-mahogany-pavilion-mobile-architecture-no-1/ (Accessed 02.12.2022)
The artist uses context as the main element of his conceptual art.
The Long Ton (2009) Simon Starling, Metamorphology, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago June 7 – November 2, 2014 Images courtesy of the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago [online] At: https://www.contemporaryartlibrary.org/project/simon-starling-at-museum-of-contemporary-art-chicago-chicago-8663/1 (Accessed 02.12.2022)
As in the work of the Long Ton, one must understand the origin of the material. If the viewer does not receive this additional information, then part of the meaning of the work will be lost. But there is a provocation by the method of presenting these works. A contradiction - the boat is not on the water and upside down in the jungle, and pieces of marble are hanging in the air. There is no evidence of crafts in the works. It is a pure and glossy transfer of an object from one reality to another. A bit like Duchamp with the urinal, but in Starling's work, he incorporates a significant meaning of material economics. The artist is changing the everyday use and representation of the ready object, connecting the different natures of things and processes.
Technologies such as mobile phones, aeroplanes and the Internet have accelerated the process of manufacturing, selling and buying goods around the world. This rapid exchange of information is called globalization. In a world where countries work closer to each other, on the one hand, the cost of goods and production is becoming averaged, and on the other, such curiosities appear that are favourably shown up by artists' works.
For example, wood grown in Latin America and used in Scotland, and put on display again in America. Or marble mined in Italy and China. These works are a subtle play of questions - why transport a tree in order to do something with it? Transportation pollutes the environment and deprives the local population of jobs. How is it that the cost of the same marble is so large in size?
Only for me, the question arises here - people visiting exhibitions and those who are able to read this context anyway understand these problems, for example, supply and production or pollution. But how do these artworks really involve those who are involved in the process? Ordinary workers hauling timber or signing a contract to build boats? Do they visit such galleries at all and are they interested in this? I think not. But I hope that those who are engaged in education or people who influence the work of society see this and can notice the problems identified by the artist.
JENS HAANING, Bródno (2012)
Jens Haaning, Bródno (2012), bricks, mortar, rebars, reinforced concrete foundations, 323,5 x 1591,5 x 51 cm, Bródno Sculpture Park Warsaw. [online] At: https://artmuseum.pl/en/wydarzenia/jens-haaning-park-rzezby-na-brodnie-rozdzial-iv (Accessed 05.12.2022)
“It’s important to me that the sculpture in Bródno is made of bricks, this comes from my, perhaps naive, perspective on social democracy, from which I see Poland in relation to a celebration of collective work and effort.” Jelegons Haaning. Fields of Imagination and Interaction: The Bródno Sculpture Park [online] At: https://sculpture-network.org/en/magazine/Brodno-Sculpture-Park-Warsaw-Poland (Accessed 05.12.2022)
The first association at the sight of this work arises with the famous inscription HOLLYWOOD in Los Angeles, California.
The Hollywood Sign in the Hollywood Hills, often regarded as the symbol of the American film industry [online] At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_United_States#/media/File:Hollywood_Sign_(Zuschnitt).jpg (Accessed 05.12.2022)
BRODNO work, made of red brick, begins to contrast with the world-famous white inscription. Heavy, powerful and monumental, this material contrasts sharply with white and light as plywood lettering in America. The difference in culture, in approach - heaviness and lightness, light and blood, the world's biggest film industry and what is this district in Warsaw famous for? It is almost satirical to compare these two areas of large cities. There are more than 200 thousand people in Hollywood, but at the same time, compared to Brodno, where there are about 100 thousand people, this part of the city is not so famous in the world. Erecting such a monument what the artist wants to say - could not? not popular? heavy?
The artist made the work according to a sketch made from Lego parts. (p.37, Wielocha 2015). The Danish artist Haaning, so to speak, used his «local» material Lego - which appeared in Denmark in 1949, which brings the national element of the artist. It also creates an opposition to the monumental building material - brick and the material of our time - plastic for the game.
KARA WALKER, The Means to an End (1995)
Kara Walker, The Means to an End...A Shadow Drama in Five Acts, 1995 4-3/4 x 115-5/8 inches installed, MEDIUM: etching, aquatint on paper T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 1996 [online] At: https://walkerart.org/collections/artworks/the-means-to-an-end-dot-dot-dot-a-shadow-drama-in-five-acts (Accessed 06.12.2022)
“Through the years, her work has continued to elicit conversations on racism and raise awareness among viewers of racist histories and imagery. She intends her work to be shocking, and through this method, gain traction with audiences.” Fall 2020 Faculty Curriculum: Activism through Art Kara Elizabeth Walker, The Means to an End...A Shadow Drama in Five Acts, 1995 [online] At: https://chazen.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Walker-dossier.pdf (Accessed 06.12.2022)
The method of cutting silhouettes was mastered by Walker during her studies at the institute and perfected to the filigree accuracy of the composition. Paper silhouette cutting originated around the 17th century and gained popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was an easy and cheap way to reproduce portraits. In addition, physiognomy (determining a person's personality by external data), which has gained new popularity, has promoted this method of working with silhouettes.
In The Means to an End…A Shadow Drama in Five Act, the artist elaborates on five composite panels. Here shown are black slaves with white children and one adult white "master" holding a black child by the throat. One can interpret this work as the beginning - a black woman nurses a white child with her milk, and the end - this child becomes an adult slave owner who oppresses her own children. This is a very direct narrative where there are good and bad. And as far as we know, life is much more complicated. But on the other hand, what else needs to be complicated here when evil really - oppresses and enslaves? A person cannot be humiliated based on the colour of their skin. Thus, such a direct narrative in Walker's images confirms a fact from history, which is partly still relevant today.
But doesn't this create a constant feeling of guilt among the white population, which leads to the introduction of norms that do not always work in support of professionalism and qualifications? For example, if you choose from two applicants where one is white and the other is black, then the decision can be made not for reasons of professional qualities, but to show - that all races work in the company.
And also, does not such a negative and direct reproduction of history provoke even more aggression? One might think, wow! See how badly you treated us! Now we will do something to you in revenge!
FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES, Death by Gun (1990)
«Listed on each sheet are the names of 460 individuals killed by gun in the United States during the week of May 1–7, 1989, cited by name, age, city, and state, with a brief description of the circumstances of their deaths and, in most cases, a photograph of the deceased. These images and words, appropriated from Time magazine, where they first appeared, are reprinted without commentary.» MoMA, Felix Gonzalez-Torres "Untitled" (Death by Gun) 1990 [online] At: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/61825 (Accessed 07.12.2022)
Felix Gonzalez-Torres "Untitled" (Death by Gun) 1990 [online] At: https://marksladen.com/post/69476777568/paper-stacks-by-felix-gonzalez-torres (Accessed 07.12.2022)
Converting one unit of measure to another. And here the artist works with the translation of the time period and the murders of people, demonstrating this amount on one sheet of paper.
Gonzalez-Torres conceived this artwork as a recurring process, where a staff of the exhibit place must print and add sheets of paper to the stack that it is always 9 inches high. The viewer takes one sheet, and later these sheets are newly returned. The artist clearly saw the problem that the killings would continue. And such an addition of sheets with names, so to say repetition symbolizes the actuality of the work and its continuity in time.
ILYA KABAKOV, The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment (1984)
The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment, Ilya Kabakov, Original Title: Человек, Улетевший В Космос Из Своей Комнаты online At: https://www.wikiart.org/en/ilya-kabakov/the-man-who-flew-into-space-from-his-apartment-1984 (Accessed 07.12.2022)
“ARTIST’S COMMENTS
Always, for as long as I can remember and even when I don’t remember (my mother told of this about me as a three-year old), there has been a desire to run, to get away from that place where you are now; to run without looking back, so as never to return; to run so far away that they can’t bring you back from there; to run so fast that you can’t be caught; to run so suddenly and unexpectedly that no one could anticipate it and interfere; to jump out at the most unexpected moment when no one is expecting it; to jump through the window which is always closed, through the door which is most likely locked…” THE MAN WHO FLEW INTO SPACE FROM HIS APARTMENT 1985 First realized 1985 in the Moscow studio. Collection Musée National d’Art Moderne- Centre de création industrielle, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, since August 1989. [online] At: http://www.kabakov.net/installations/2019/9/15/the-man-who-flew-into-space-from-his-apartment (Accessed 07.12.2022)
Oh, how painful and how much I understand now this work. The surrealism of everything that is happening now in my country just makes everyone run both physically and mentally. The work of Kabakov, made almost 40 years ago, is more relevant today than ever. And this is shocking. During this time, it would seem that a lot has changed in Russia both in the field of human rights protection, and in the social support of the population and in cultural terms, but since 2022, Russia has seemed to be thrown back. And that the worst such backward movement happened in the minds of the population.
In Kabakov's original idea, access to this installation was blocked and it was possible to get to it only through the fence. Such a restriction refers to the Soviet era, probably incomprehensible to the European viewer when everything had to be reached the hard way. You had to stand in hour-long lines for food, you had to find connections to get a good education or treatment, and so on. But when you see that a simple person from his apartment flew into space, then you begin to believe in a miracle.
Summarizing the study, we can conclude that the presented works raise the political and economic problems of society. In most cases, this is not a direct indication of the problem, but a designation or a hint of it. I would even say that there is a certain craving for the absurd, bringing the chosen problem to the limit and turning it towards self-irony. At the same time, the selected materials and places of exposure are an essential part of the context of the artwork.
How could I use such findings in my work? What materials and methods should be used to indicate the current problems of society?
Bibliography and references
1. A museum collection in a public space. Agnieszka Wielocha 2015[online] At: https://www.academia.edu/35160834/Museum_Collection_in_a_Public_Space (Accessed 05.12.2022)
2. Creative worlds Ilya Kabakov. Kirill Svetlyakov. [online] At: https://magisteria.ru/avant-garde/ilya-kabakov (Accessed 07.12.2022)
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