| Paul Thek
Paul Thek is widely known for his “Technological
Reliquaries”, which deal with issues of presentation and display.
By encasing the ambiguously visceral pieces of wax in plexiglass, Thek
references scientific display cases much like Damien Hirst. The presentation
of an object as a “specimen” to be examined causes the viewer
to bring an objectivity to their understanding of it, based on the way
items in museums and classrooms are approached. Such a didactic method
of presentation suits political art in that museum objects are educational
tools- one can learn more about the world by observing them, so one approaches
the object with the propensity to absorb the information it contains.
It is as if placing a display case around an object literally detaches
it from its environment holds it up as something specifically specific,
as if a frame were drawn around it.
This is a quality that I would very much like to bring to my piece. By
taking objects that are incredibly contextualized within our culture,
removing them from their context and presenting them next to each other
as worthy of scrutiny, I want the viewer to see these objects with new
eyes, and understand their role better now that an alternative has been
presented. Also, by choosing objects specifically are singled out to be
“framed” by a display case, I put myself in the role of historian
and critic so that the viewer will turn this same scrutinizing eye of
the culture that produced these objects.
A theme that runs through both Thek’s “Technological Reliquaries”
and his later installation work is a marked distrust in and suspicion
of technology and technological progress, what visiting mathematician
Stewart Dickinson defined as a postmodern outlook. Quotes Holland Cotter
in Art in America, “he saw…the danger posed by an ideology
based upon technology” and “implored ‘progress’
to redefine itself' (Cotter 195). This is a philosophy that I adhere to
in my artistic pursuit and I would like that to show through in this piece
as well. For every invention that exhibits human ingenuity in making the
world a better place, there are hundreds that exhibit human ingenuity
in wastefulness, laziness, and uselessness. It is mainly, if not solely,
this last category that I wish to draw from as my subject matter for this
work, in order to analyze human progress and achievement by its lowest
common denominator rather than its highest pinnacle of achievement, though
it can be argues that one can only be judged by the other.
Thek’s later installations, including such works as “Missiles
and Bunnies (1984)” and his installation for the Sao Paulo Bienal
(1985), are also a source of inspiration for me in their use of found
objects, upon which Thek relied heavily. By choosing very specific objects
and choreographing their relationships to one another, Thek continued
the trend of making art with a political bent. In the Art News review
of a 1985 show at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Lee Fleming
states “by juxtaposing symbols of ambition, greed, and power to
artifacts and art that recall innocent pleasures, Thek points to the dangerously
simplistic and naïve sensibility that informs present political policies”
(Fleming 89). The objects thart Thek chose for “Missiles and Bunnies”,
which was an “environmental assemblage” that was recreated
several times and in several different locations, included “stuffed
animals, books, paper plates, a birthday cake and a baby carriage”,
all items readily located because of their ubiquitous presence in American
material culture (Cotter 142). Found objects manipulate the viewer’s
perspective through semiotics, in that each object has attached to it
an entire set of facts, assumptions, and associations which the viewer
automatically references. By juxtaposing benign objects with objects that
referenced violence and warfare, Thek created a “playful, ironic
piece, preoccupied with turning scavenged trivia into spectacle.”
Another aspect of Thek’s work that I would like to incorporate into
my own work is its apocalyptic quality, which is achieved by Thek’s
combination of symbols of technological advancement and primitive elements,
such as missiles and oil drums with candles and straw. All of these materials
were used in Thek’s piece for the Sao Paulo Bienal, which was called
“horrendously apocalyptic” by Donald Kuspit in the Art in
America review of the show (Kuspit 35). Also present in this piece was
a structure that referenced Noah’s Ark, the tale of which is one
of the first pieces of apocalyptic literature in human history. Like other
apocalyptic literature that followed it, it is an inherently political,
moral exercise- the end of the world is brought about by human mistakes
and lack of morality, which become so great that the only remedy is to
completely start again. By referencing the world now as a dead world in
my piece, I hope to tap into this political statement, making clear my
opinion on where human civilization is headed.
Bibliography
Cotter, Holland. "Thek's Social Reliquaries.
Art in America June 1990: 132-43+.
Fleming, Lee. "Issues are the Issue".
Art News January 1985: 84-9.
Kuspit, Donald. "Report from Sao Paulo: a new Brazil,
a new Bienal". Art in America March 1986: 31-5.
Armstrong, Elizabeth. "Paul Thek: Witte De With Rotterdam".
Artforum International Novembeer 1995, 86-7
Sue Johnson
Sue Johnson’s combined media installation “The
Alternate Encyclopedia” is a collection of Johnson’s prints
and paintings along with found objects that she has either altered or
left to stand alone. Together these objects take the form of an early
museum or cabinet of curiosities. Begun a decade ago, the piece is a comment
on natural world, the ethics and issues surrounding genetic research,
and the museum itself.
The similarities between “The Alternate Encyclopedia” and
my piece “The New World Natural History Museum” are multiple.
Foremost, both pieces choose a presentation style that is imitative of
another presentation style, and through that imitation, deconstruct it.
Johnson’s presentation style is anachronistic: it references museums
that existed in the private homes of wealthy collectors or were funded
by philanthropists such as Charles Willson Peale. In fact, Peale is referenced
by Andrea Pollan in her essay “Fragments from the Alternate Encyclopedia”.
Pollan quotes: “Upon entering Johnson’s fictitious museum
space, the viewer encounters the founder’s Self-Portrait as an artist-naturalist
(Loplop’s sister). The painting is not unlike the famous self-portrait
by Charles Willson-Peale in which he dramatically lifts up a curtain to
reveal the secrets and wonders of his museum” (Pollan 1). Because
Johnson so carefully takes on the pretense of an educational institution,
the viewer is already positioned to be educated. However, when this same
viewer encounters organisms and objects such as the “John Doree
Fish with savory baconstrip tail” they are forced to accept the
tension between what is presented as truth and what is actual truth. It
becomes clear to the viewer that she has classified and labeled material
according to her own agenda, which in turn calls into question the agenda
of others who classify and label, and what informs that agenda.
“The New World Natural History Museum” also deals with the
imitation of a museum vernacular and appearance; however, it differs from
“The Alternate Encyclopedia” in that it imitates a modern,
public, Smithsonian-like institution, funded by both the public and the
government. This also deconstructs the museum system by exposing how easily
it can be constructed. Also, “The New World Natural History Museum”
deals with the issue of classification, and how it reflects more of the
classifier than the actual object or organism.
Although “The Alternate Encyclopedia” deals primarily with
the natural world, there are elements that analyze human civilization
and culture by examining it through new eyes. Robin Bates quotes: “As
part of the ‘New Ark Preservation Project’, the artist turns
archeologist, attempting to understand civilization by collecting things
that people have thrown away. In plastic ziplock bags one sees dryer lint,
a Barbie doll (identified as ‘an ideal woman’, complete with
a ‘hair sample’), and Pez dispensers" (Bates 6). Just
as Johnson preserves garbage as a tool for gaining insight into the human
race, so too “The New World Natural History Museum” is a collection
of junk (a broken lava lamp, dead batteries, Mardi Gras beads, etc.) literally
put on a pedestal. Because this invisible classifier saw fit to find these
objects significant, the viewer must also reconsider their significance,
and come to terms with the fact that the sum of human endeavor might be
judged entirely by junk and novelty rather than great achievement in art
or philosophical thought. This forced adjustment also occurs in Johnson’s
Specimen Collections, which contain images of the German “wurst”
sausage, “and ennobles its status to an iconic cultural specimen.
In so doing, she shifts our awareness to the fact that all naturalist-explorers
operated under their own cultural biases” (Pollan 5).
Another major similarity between “The Alternate Encyclopedia”
and “The New World Natural History Museum” is the way that
they position the viewer. When observing animal and plant life, humans
inherently bring their bias as higher life forms to the reading of images
and specimens. In history we have tended to also bring this bias to our
view of other cultures, specifically ones indigenous to a region that
has been or is in the process of being colonized. “The Alternate
Encyclopedia” deals with the ways in which humans respond to nature.
“For instance”, quotes Bates, “when we look at the animal
world, we see mammals, birds, insects, etc. What we think of as ‘facts’
are just classifications that have become invisible over time” (Bates
6). In this same vein, “The Dead World Natural History Museum”
deals with the classification of manmade objects, and shows the subjectivity
of these classifications by using completely different parameters than
what the viewer is accustomed to. By inventing a fictitious species that
considers itself more highly evolved than the extinct human race, I was
able to make assumptions about objects from our everyday lives simply
by fitting it into this species’ frame of reference. An example
of how that is done in real life is the “Woman of Willendorf”,
one of the earliest examples of manmade sculpture, which is often referred
to as the “Venus of Willendorf”, even though Venus was not
a part of that culture. By placing that very specific referent on the
object, scholars and viewers alike make assumptions as to the piece’s
purpose and classification, based solely on the universalization of their
experiences.
Bibliography
Pollan, Andrea. "Hidden Worlds, Other
Views". Fragements from The Alternate Encyclopedia.
http://www.mcleanart.org/exhibs/suejnson/sjpage1.html
Polansli, G. Jurek. ""Sue Johnson:Pages
from the Alternate Encyclopedia". www.artscope.net
Pomeroy, Jordana. "The Science of Nature
and the Nature of Science". Fragments from The Alternate Encyclopedia.
Bates, Robin. "Genetic Engineering for
Art Majors: No One Sees Nature Like Sue Johnson". River Gazette
June July August 2004: 1, 6.
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