Artist Spotlight: Cornelia Parker

C  o  r  n  e  l  i  a  P  a  r  k  e  r

Thirty Pieces of Silver

Cornelia Parker is a fascinating artist. Her theme throughout her work is visual and verbal allusions which helps transform regular objects into something extraordinary and fascinating. 

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View
Blown up shed, reassembled

Parker uses a lot of suspension in her pieces. The two works above are of transformed objects that's she arranged and hung from the ceiling. The first one, Thirty Pieces of Silver, contains an arrangement of silver objects that have been flattened by a steam roller, then arranged into 30 coin shapes that seem to hover above the floor. This story of the silver is seen in the bible, when Judas accepts thirty pieces of silver as payment to betray Jesus.


In the second piece, Cold Dark Matter, Parker blows up a shed and reassembles it in the air. The effect is very dramatic, and even beautiful at the shadows cast a scary scene of a once solid shed. Now, its chaos, its even more interesting than it was before. 

Breathless

In the piece above, Parker continues to use the concept of transformation. These brass musical instruments are, in fact, flattened by the notorious steam roller. The circular pattern is then suspended higher up, so it can be viewed from above, and below. 

Cornelia Parker

Project #2: Transformation

Transformation

For this project the assignment was to use an everyday object and turn it into something different, something that wouldn't be normally expected. I was very excited about this project, and I had A LOT of ideas to choose from. But after some trial and error, I decided on the piece below entitled, "Need a Hand?". I love puns, and I've always wanted to incorporate that into an art project. 


Supplies: 
7 pairs of gloves (x2=14 gloves total)
Hot glue + gun 
Scissors 
Clothesline (for the ties)  
                                                                 Need a hand?

This is the bottom half, glued together. I used a 5, 4, 4, 3 pyramid pattern.

After I glued all the pieces together

And voila! It took about 4 hours to complete. Since it was a last minute design, I wasn't able to work on it in my lab. But thankfully I was able to get it done in time. 

A very handy design, no?

Kitsch Art: Jeff Koons

Elephant

What is kitsch?

Kitsch: Re-define, or re-claim the tacky as good rather than of bad taste. 

The artist, Jeff Koons, is a perfect example of kitcsch art. His pieces range from bright, coloful, tacky, and downright outrageous. 

Rabbit

 It's hard to say if it's tacky, or genius. For myself, kitsch is ridiculous. Though I do enjoy a few works here and there. But a majority of them are crap, even pointless, and a special few deserve a blind audience. 

Amore

Popples

 There are MANY different examples of kitsch art out on the market.  Whatever there purpose in the art world. They definitely get the attention they deserve, whether positive or not.

http://www.jeffkoons.com/site/index.html 

Artist Spotlight: Damien Hirst

DAMIEN HIRST

Damien Hirst is one of the most famous contemporary artists in the world. His art is highly controversial, because of his work with dead animals. Hirst's most well-known pieces are the giant formaldehyde-filled tanks with dead animals inside. He also has a few other works, that don't directly involve death, his crystal skull (above) is famous as well. 

The shark, was the first work I have ever seen of his. It was for my class on transformation, which, I guess this would be a good example of. Taking an object (or animal body) and putting it in an unfamiliar area. Shark don't really belong in a museum, in a tank. So in that respect, this is transformation art at its finest. 

Art 108: Project #1: My Line Sculpture

Line Sculpture

The whole idea behind this structure is using the element of line with a transparent "skin". We had to create a 3-D sculpture with a material that was see-through in order to see the lines beneath it. It was an interesting project, I definitely played with a few different ideas. However, the one I chose I think worked well. Below are the steps I went through in creating my sculpture. 

Method Behind the Madness

The wire "body"

I used 3 different kinds of copper wire for the body.

Second step, was to spray paint it one color. I chose silver, which my dad said looked like a satellite....

Adding the skin was a pain, but I used dryer sheets, and LOTS of rubber cement. I chose a simple design with lots of great lines. Unfortunately, my skin didn't play out very well. But I think I got the idea across enough. :)

Art 108: Project #1 (Sketches)

My Sketches: Finding inspiration 

                                   

                                           Sketches #1

Sketches #2

Artist Spotlight: Yoko Ono

YoKo OnO

Yoko Ono is an artist whose work spans a whole range of media from music, film and writing to performance, painting, installation and sculpture. 

Much of Ono's work reveals a playful, experimental approach to art making. Many of her pieces have everyday items in them, the one above has nails and a hammer attached to a chain. The first thing I would want to do is pound the nails in further. Her pieces have movement, and lots of involvement from the viewers and the space around it.

Viewers had to climb up a white ladder in the center of the room, from where a magnifying glass hanging from the ceiling allowed them to view the word "YES" written in tiny letters on a framed piece of paper affixed to the ceiling.

Artist Spotlight: Andy Goldsworthy

A n d y  G o l d s w o r t h y

Goldworthy's work is derived from nature, where he uses organic, readily available materials to create his works. Most of his works are created outside, exposed to the elements of nature itself. He like to take advantage of whatever is available, whatever nature has to offer. 

For "egg" (above) Goldsworthy used natural stone found in the surrounding area. Painstakingly stacking into piece into a geometric egg form. It's the ultimate test of balance and symmetry. Many of his pieces include geometric, and organic shapes.

It's hard to believe that his materials are found in nature. The piece above, is made from different colored stones which are placed by color to create a dramatic fading effect of light to dark.

"I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole." -Andy Goldsworthy

Line Sculpture

                                                                    Line Sculptures 

           

Andy Goldsworthy

Here, a simple line is created through a set of rocks. Yet this simple line is anything but simple to achieve. 

Stephen Doyle

Doyle's use of line is created using paper as his medium. This complex design in simple enough with its geometric form. It also appears weightless and extremely fragile. 

Thomas Hill

Hill uses the wire to show form and texture, and also to evoke character in his pieces. This crow looks like it's hungry, or even acting defensive. I think he works well in conveying that there is emotion in the raven, and that its not just a tangle of wire.

Gavin Worth

His pieces are meant to change with different changes in light, or movement in the room. This sculpture engages its viewers by engaging them in the subtle changes that take place when light, or movement transform the piece. He mentions that when people walk past, the sculpture tends to sway, giving it a kinetic form as well.