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Writing Assignment Guidelines
ART 308 / Sculpture Studio Guidelines for Research, Analysis,
and Intention Statement Writing Assignments What follows are 3 examples of source-to-self essays. Note
their basic content including: á
An initial short description that
states who this artist is (not in terms of biography as much as in terms of
ideas and goals) á
A characterization of the central
conceptual issues engaged by the comparison artistÕs works (particularly
those relevant to the comparison at hand) á
Concise explanations of how these concepts
are specifically manifested in individual artworks. á
Comparative comments that might
include shared or contrasting goals, shared or contrasting approaches. The more you push yourself to ÔprocessÕ
your research (not just regurgitating the ideas of others), phrase it in your
own terms, and understand both the intentions and the and specific means of
accomplishing those goals, the more this exercise will prepare you for
writing an artist statement and performing the type of visual analysis (cause
and effect) that your lecture will require. Source-to-Self
Example #1 On Gordon Matta-Clark
Gordon
Matta-Clark was an avant-garde artist of the 1970s who is best known for his
building cuts and ideas on Òanarchitecture.Ó However, this is only the
surface of a multi-layered attack on traditional values in Western society.
Intent on the creation and preservation of community, Matta-Clark was
instrumental in the creation of a haven for artists in SoHo that fulfilled
their necessary creative and physical support. He lived his life to dismember
the old hegemony and erect a new system in every way he could. As
Matta-ClarkÕs building cuts are the most well known of his works, they seem
the best place to exhibit his ideas. These were basically sculptural
transformations of abandoned buildings, often slated for demolition and
worked on secretly (McGuirk 1). The end products were meditations on the gaps
and in-between spaces, the interplay of light and line (Lee II 1). Gordon was not that interested in the
objects themselves, but focused on the whole and the movement through space
(Morris 37). These art objects were not works of art in the traditional
Western sense, as they were neither finished, whole, rational nor
self-contained (Lee I xiii-xiv), asserting that a work of art is never really
a finished thing. They were more of a topic, the beginning of a conversation,
an offer for a continued dissection and destruction not of the particular
building, but of architecture and society in general (Walker 132). The building
cuts would only achieve their full capacity through visitorsÕ actions and
interactions (Lee II 1). Working at a time when idea was emphasized over
object and the art object as such was nearly eliminated (Lee I xiv),
Matta-Clark took on the most real and tactile materials and methods he could
think of. Wielding a chainsaw and hacking through the physical and liminal
boundaries of walls and floors, Gordon confronted the viewer with a real and
tangible experience that they could not ignore or think their way out of. The
building cuts demand a sort of Òoperative viewing,Ó bringing into question
architectureÕs usual claims to a whole object or snapshot viewing paradigm
(Walker 131). This was non-architecture, a process of dismantling and
reclaiming space, not an alternative architecture (Morris 40-41). The complex nature of GordonÕs building
cuts reveals him as someone who has unlearned architecture. As Derrida
argues, in order to totally disregard a principle in a sustained challenge,
one must have been well versed in it (Walker 129). The great care taken to,
in Splitting for instance, cut a
house directly in half with a one inch gap, cut a wedge out of the
foundation, and tilt half of the house back five degrees (Walker 131), shows
a great deal of technical skill and architectural knowledge. While the
dismantling of buildings was definitely work in its most literal sense,
Matta-Clark also argued that his art was more of a play than artwork: a game
of unbuilding where every work was a practice or experiment (Lee I xiii).
These were serious games, however, about the reclamation of things
approaching social exhaustion, about the peopleÕs right to the city and an
alienation from capitalism and the state (Lee I xiv). At a time when the
politics of property rights was changing drastically in New York City (Lee I
xviii), GordonÕs cuts were a criticism of developersÕ idea of buildings as
urban currency (McGuirk 1). The
building cuts were based in a Òsacrificial economy, same sort of ideas that
made up BatailleÕs Ògeneral economy.Ó The general idea is that of expending
energy that cannot be harnessed for growth in the development of culture.
Productivity is lost to some degree by neutralizing a spaceÕs potential and
leaving it as a space that does not serve an economic function (Lee I xv). In
our society, architecture has one purpose; function is sacrificed for
stability and permanence. In a system where accumulation is sacred, sacrifice
becomes about minimizing loss instead of celebrating it (Walker 135-136).
Gordon reverses our usual idea of progress and history as cumualtive, stating
that Òonly our garbage heaps are soaring as they fill up with historyÓ (Lee I
xvi). He presents an alternative to the collective imperative to waste
– a non-productive use of energy that preserves objecthood but wastes
energy (Lee I xv). Matta-ClarkÕs
other major projects were centered around the network of artists in SoHo who
established a cooperative community network based around the restaurant
ÒFood,Ó the magazine ÒAvalanche,Ó the exhibition and performance space Ò112
Greene St,Ó and the artistsÕ think tank ÒAnarchitecture.Ó Food and
Anarchitecture were the brainchildren of Matta-Clark. These were
community-based businesses and projects with the goal of supporting and
sustaining the art community (Morris 12). Though none of these groups
sustained themselves beyond the 1970s, they were successful because in
operating outside of the accepted system they managed to change that system
(Morris 21). Food, beyond its immediate function as a restaurant, was a
political, economic, and artistic project, a spatial and temporal experiment
operating in RauschenbergÕs idea of a space between art and life (Morris 21).
Food was a collaborative work created and maintained by a group of five
friends, giving artists a place to work that they could leave when they had a
show coming up and be guaranteed a job when they had a chance to work again.
By the end of its life, Food had supported three hundred people (Morris 28).
This was an experiment in levels of community: the creation of a small cell
aided in the support of the larger body of artists by providing a service to
the greater community. Food gave people a venue to show off their cooking
skills as well as do food-based performances and find inspiration and a
climate conducive to generating ideas (Morris 28). Matta-ClarkÕs obsession
with food existed for the same reasons as his fascination with architecture.
Food was a basis for hospitality and sustenance, but it was also a living and
mutating medium based in superimposition, envelopment, consumption, and
digestion. These were also ways of transforming space to fit oneÕs needs
(Morris 17). Gordon
Matta-ClarkÕs work appeals to me because of its community base and desire to
create alternatives to contemporary society. His ideas on liminality and
space vs. place intrigue me, as they are concepts that I have been
considering myself. The disregard of rules and social mores created an
atmosphere conducive to growth away from the current system. I have also
found inspiration in GordonÕs communityÕs goals of creating a self-sustaining
community. The idea of Òwe need something, so letÕs make it happenÓ has
always appealed to me, and seems to blend well with art practices since art
is all about creating things that you want to exist. Additionally, I am
interested in the levels of a community and the way that those levels can
interact. Matta-ClarkÕs organizational strategies are based on anarchist
logic of small cells acting as independent parts of a larger communal group,
which then interacts with other groups and the outside world. This structure
makes sense to me, as it puts the power in the small group and allows
peopleÕs interests to be better met. The
artwork of Gordon Matta-Clark existed in the liminal spaces between life and
art, making his life an artwork and his artwork more important to life than
most is. He understood that in order to create the life he advocated, he must
both live it and work at it. Sources Crawford, Jane.
ÒA 1977 Story.Ó Abstract of Personal Letter. IVAM. Valencia, 1992. Accessed
17 October 2005. Online http://www.postmedia.net/02/mattaclark.htm. Lee, Pamela M.
Object to Be Destroyed. MIT Press. Cambridge, 2000. Lee, Pamela M.
Exhibition 127: Gordon Matta-Clark – In the Belly of the Anarchitect.
Portikus, 2004. Accessed 17 October 2005. Online http://www.portikus.de/ArchiveA0127.html. Morris,
Catherine, curator. Food. Exhibition Catalogue. October 3 1999 –
February 13 2000. Landschatsverband Westfalen-Lippe. White Columns, NY, 1999. McGuirk,
Justin. ÒGordon Matta-Clark.Ó Icon. Marcus Fairs, ed. June 2003. Walker,
Stephen. ÒGordon Matta-ClarkÕs Building Dissections.Ó Architectures:
Modernism and After. pp.118-141. Blackwell. Oxford, 2004. LisaÕs comments: This very good example includes
extensive research, an excellent characterization of Matta-ClarkÕs
overarching issues, and enough specific examples to address how some of these
larger issues played out in specific works. But IÕd make a few
recommendations-- First, note how there is a tendency to rely on stringing
together quotes from research rather than synthesizing and processing the
ideas cited. In other words, I wish this student had done more to distill and
connect the essential ideas contained within all the various quotes, and then
state these relationships in their own words (not that quoting is out of the
question). Second, IÕm not sure some of the ideas focused on are as relevant
to this studentÕs own work as others. But maybe this weakness comes from the
fact that she doesnÕt go far enough, and get specific enough when it comes to
comparing Matta-ClarkÕs work to her own work. She does do an excellent job
naming shared goals but it is the specific comparisons that are lacking.
Maybe leaving the comparison part till the end is one of the problems (see
other examples that do not). Source-to-Self
Example #2 On
Kendall Buster Kendall
Buster is a member of science and art communities. As an undergraduate at University of Alabama she studied
microbiology. Her science
background certainly still influences her artistic works today. A Washington D.C. artist, Kendall
Buster is a faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University and is
represented by the D.C. gallery, FUSEBOX. Her work explores biological modules in relation to
architectural structure. In her
work, Kendall Buster feels compelled to demonstrate that Òthe structure is a
dynamic system – reflecting not only a defined structure with an
accessible interior, but also a kind of animation.Ó (1) BusterÕs work reflects an interest in ambiguity and
contrast. She balances opposites
to create an appealing whole. Several
of the contradictions Kendall Buster is interested in are promise of
protection versus entrapment, biological versus architectural, nature versus
machine, open versus closed, and object versus environment. Some of BusterÕs works also have
erotic undertones from the connection of these Ôbiological modules.Õ I am interested in Kendall BusterÕs
work for these contradictions, as I feel they give the work a sense of
ambiguity that I also wish to achieve.
ÒBuster creates shapes that can be appreciated as purely abstract
forms, but that also possess a Ôstrong associative principle,Õ calling to
mind a variety of other subjects.Ó (2)
BusterÕs work also interests me for its balance between object versus
environment. For example, Double Chalice: Joined and Separated,
Òappears light enough to blow in a breeze, but it has the toughness of a jet
engine.Ó These works of welded,
bent steel are a balance between strong architectural structure and delicate
form. (3) The viewer can see each artwork as either a beautiful, grand art
object, or as an architectural environment to be experienced. One
of the strongest feelings I feel a viewer would experience from Kendall
BusterÕs work is a sense of ambiguity.
Buster herself states the ambiguity and contradiction offered in Parabiosis; ÒÕ[Upon] first encounter,
itÕs not necessarily aggressive – yet it is aggressive in a way. You get a sense of enormous scale
with chambers that are not so enormous.Ó (4) Kendall BusterÕs audience is an involved one: they are
forced to curiously explore Parabiosis
(image 7) because of its large scale in a small space. The term ÔparabiosisÕ refers to Òthe
artificial or natural joining of two individuals.Ó In Parabiosis,
Buster generates an architectural complex that suggests a combing together of
two independent organisms. (5)
This form creates ambiguities from its obviously planned construction
played against its dynamic form.
The work takes the definition of parabiosis Òbeyond the literal
joining of forms, extending it to include a structural conjunction of the
architectural and the biological and a fusion between space and object.Ó
(6) Kendall BusterÕs
architectural language is of science and structure. This language of science and
structure is one main element that attracts me so much to BusterÕs work. The ambiguity she creates is
something I attempt in my work.
I want the viewer to be unsure whether what I am thinking about is
large or small. This ambiguity,
I feel, becomes a metaphor for the ideas in science and faith. Ambiguity between micro and macro
also encourages thinking on various levels of scale: cellular, organism,
environmental, global, and religious.
Since differences are already apparent, I feel ambiguity also makes
the viewer search for correlations instead of dichotomies. Another
contrast that Buster presents is that between object and environment. While one might automatically think
of these enormous metal sculptures as environments simply for their sheer
size, they exist not only as environments but also as objects. Kendall BusterÕs sculptures fall into
both object and environment categories.
They seem as if they could be delicately placed forms, but they also
encourage the viewer to interact and enter into them. Even smaller sculptures, such as Cells, (image 7 ) which may seem more
like objects, becomes an environment because the air filled white cells are
dependent on the movement of the viewer to create their motion and floatiness
that is so unique. (8) A
viewer of Kendall BusterÕs work feels like both a spectator and a
participator. In my work, I hope
viewers can be both as well. By
creating forms in the medium between smaller and larger than human beings, I
am encouraging the urge to enter the sculpture. However, the presence of another form inside the sculpture
which is not visible at first glance will force the viewer back into the role
of spectator. This balance is
important to achieving a sense of preciosity. Kendall Buster uses ambiguity and contrast to create a
sense of the biological, the mechanical, and the erotic in architectural
form. The unique contrast and
balance of parts is what creates the ambiguity for both myself and Buster. Footnotes 1.
Buster, Kendall,
ÒArtist Statement (Fusebox),Ó Fusebox
Gallery 2003, <
http://www.fuseboxdc.com/>
(11 Oct 2005). 2.
Cateforis, David,
ÒKendall Buster: Sitelines and Suitors,Ó Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art October 1999,
<http://www.kemperart.org/exhibits/
CatalogEssays/busterkendall.asp#>
(3 October 2005). 3.
Weil, Rex, ÒKendall
Buster: Baumgartner, Washington D.C.Ó ArtNews 95 (1996): 140. 4.
Franke-Ruta, Garance,
ÒArtifacts: Breathing Room,Ó The Washington City Paper 29 March 2002,
48. 5.
Buster, Kendall,
ÒParabiosis (Fusebox),Ó Fusebox Gallery 2002,
<http://www.fuseboxdc.com/> (11 October 2005). 6.
Moyer, Twylene, ÒKendall
Buster at Fusebox, Washington, D.C.,Ó Sculpture 22, no.3 (2003). 7.
Sculpture and Extended
Media, Kendall Buster, Oct. 3, 2005,
Virginia Commonwealth University, <http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/
sculpture/portfolio.asp?galNameID=96> (3 October 2005). 8. Shannon, Joe, ÒKendall Buster at the Kreeger Museum,
Washington D.C.,Ó Art in America 92, no.3 (2004): 134-35. Lisa Comments: Very little to add to this excellent
example. What is not included here is the next step-- taking these ideas and
being able to apply them to specific visual examples. She has begun to do
that for BusterÕs work, but not for her own. It isnÕt as simple as just
putting up slides and reading research text. It means illustrating an idea in
real time. For instance, this student states ÒI
want the viewer to be unsure whether what I am thinking about is large or
small.Ó So her slide lecture should include her pointing out an aspect of a
specific work of hers and explaining just how this ambiguity of scale occurs.
Is it the same way Buster creates scale ambiguity? or are the intentions the
same but the means different (as is often the case)? Source-to-Self
Example #3 On Gregory
Crewdson Gregory
Crewdson is a photographer who operates in a narrative style. His photos
resemble stills from a science fiction film- Close Encounters of the Third Kind is often referenced as an
inspiration for his aesthetic and content, especially concerning ÒTwilightÓ,
his latest series done in collaboration with the citizens of Lee,
Massachusetts. All of his narratives are staged in suburban America and
Òconcentrate on a tension between domesticity and natureÓ[1].
His series
ÒNatural WonderÓ focuses on the backyard space, ÒHoverÓ with street scenes
viewed from above, and ÒTwilightÓ with garages, bedrooms, and other personal
spaces. Done in color and made to mimic reality to a fault, CrewdsonÕs
photographs are concerned with hypothesis and possibility, with portents and
threats, with psychological undercurrents and unnamable fears. Gregory
CrewdsonÕs photographs depict worlds that resemble our own but are entirely
of his own creation. Exploring the verisimilitude of the photographic medium
and the filmic narrative, he Òcreates a seductive visual science fiction,
gleefully calling into question our notions of truth and reality.Ó[1]
Just as he molds source material from the world around him to fit his
particular vision and message, I combine elements to fit mine. However,
verisimilitude is not my goal. If it were, I would use actual objects and not
things I have handmade or photographed to represent them. Crewdson uses
taxidermy, but I sew forms from my own patterns. In
terms of process, Crewdson builds a set that serves as a microcosm of a
larger environment created to fit the photographic frame. States Crewdson in
an interview with Antonio Lopez, ÒI think one of the things we can get from
photography is this establishment of a world.Ó[1]
This is similar to my process of creating a small reef that represents an
entire civilization acquiesced to ruin and overrun by nature. CrewdsonÕs
tableaux are, like SkoglundÕs, based in human space, such as backyards,
neighborhood cul-de-sacs, and garages, while mine is an ex-human space, or
even a completely non-human space, if it has been submerged under water. The
scale of CrewdsonÕs work varies. In his earlier series ÒNatural WonderÓ, he
constructed sets that would fit in his studio, and for the later ÒHoverÓ, he
chose to work on a filmic scale, in order to take birds-eye view images of
the action he choreographed. Still later, in his ÒTwilightÓ series, Crewdson
shrank his scale back down to fit the rooms of houses in Lee, Massachusetts.
The scale of my work falls somewhere between ÒDream of LifeÓ and ÒTwilightÓ,
as my work is not environmental in scale but also not made specifically to
fit a photographic frame. CrewdsonÕs
work, like mine, deals with a lack of human control. In Òdream of LifeÓ his
backyards were teeming with strange animal ritual, decomposing limbs, and
insect orgies. This is a savage world that exists on the edge of our
perception, but constantly threatens to cross the threshold into our everyday
experience. My piece echoes this liminal feeling of the recognizable becoming
exotic, foreign, and threatening. CrewdsonÕs later work incorporates human
models that interact with the unsettling imagery, such as a woman standing in
her garage, dazed as she gazes upon an enormous mound of flowers. These
models Òact subconsciously, as if under the spell of a foreign entity. Their
unusual actions suggest a mysterious narrative involving supernatural
contact.Ó[1] While I want
to evoke the same dreamlike, surreal state that Crewdson so often employs,
the environment I have constructed is post-human and therefore if I were to
photograph it I would have no need for human models. However, I wish for
human viewers to interact with the space to behave much like the subjects of
CrewdsonÕs photographs, as if in a trance, much like people behave while
walking through a battleground, or the Vietnam Memorial, or the Holocaust
Museum- solemn awed, disbelieving, abject. Crewdson
enhances the mood of his photographs through use of brilliant color. Quotes
A.M. Homes, Òcolor and light key the story to a pitch the human eye only
registers in states of distress- the high hysterical hues of shock, horror,
and ecstasy.Ó[1] These vivid
palettes also evoke a sort of threatening toxicity that Òhave less to do with
mutation itself than with the creepy evocation of a specific generational
mood in ecological consciousness- a 60Õs moment when, after Rachel CarsonÕs Silent Spring, bright and wholesome
suburbia looked terminally corrupt.Ó[1]
The use of over-the-top color is a tool that I also employ in order to create
a kind of stressful hyperrealism. The colors used to make the coral forms
appear to not occur in nature, when in fact they exist far below the surface
of the ocean. When all together the colors radiate against each other with a
sort of tense energy that I want to affect the viewer in the same ways that
CrewdsonÕs flora and fauna do. 1.
Homes, A.M. ÒDream of Life:
Gregory Crewdson.Ó Artforum International April 1993: 70-73. 2.
Green, Charles. ÒDigital Gardens.Ó
Artforum International May 1997: 114. 3.
Schmerler, Sarah. ÒGregory
Crewdson: Twilight. Luhring Augustine, NewYork.Ó Art on Paper
July/August 2000 4. Sheets, Hilarie M. ÒStudio: The Burbs and the Bees: Gregory Crewdson.Ó Art News October
1994: 97-98. Lisa Comments: Another excellent example. Again,
these broader findings need to become ÔappliedÕ in the context a visual
analysis of specific artworks. But broad characterizations are the right
place to start. I like the way she sometimes uses contrasts as an effective
way of making a comparison. But I wonder if this student could have gotten
more from this exercise by using the opportunity to formulate a more complete
characterization of her own intentions. As it is, she does a great job doing
a point-to-point comparison (his work
aims for x as mine does, yet he does this whereas I do that etc.) And it is true, of all the 3
examples, she probably comes the closest to this goal with statements such
as ÒThe use of over-the-top
color is a tool that I also employ in order to create a kind of stressful
hyperrealism.Ó Think about how
useful this will be when she writes her artist statement:) |