Portfolio: Sculpture Studio

Rachael Lashof

Project 1- Process
ANALYSIS:

Define and explore te critical issues of the assigned focus. Write on the possible implicatons of process oriented artwork. How does process emphasizing art function differently from non-process works? Brainstorm different ways process can enter into an artwork.

Unlike nearly all other work, process art, as its title implies, focuses on the process of making art instead of the final product. At first, the idea of the steps of making something being more important than the actual thing is hard to grasp. And, with a few artists, I still find the concept difficult. However my research into a couple unique process artists has opened my creative mind to the potential of process artwork.

The first of those artists was Andy Goldsworthy. His artworks, entirely made of natural elements reminds viewers of the process of nature and that nature is ephemeral. To me, Goldsworthy and other process artists ask the question, is my artwork intended to be an icon that lasts forever? Or is it something that will decay and disappear with time? Certainly the answer to this question is something that varies artist to artist, artwork to artwork.

The second artist I looked at was Eduardo Kac. Kac’s artwork falls into a category he calls “transgenic art.” By manipulating biological organisms, Kac reminds viewers of the power that man has over nature. But more importantly, I think Kac really asks the question, what is art? Is his “GFP Bunny” a science project or is it art? Is Alba, the bunny, just a biological organism with the unique ability to fluoresce green when illuminated with a blue light, or is he an art object resulting from a unique process? Eduardo Kac narrowed the line between what is science and what is art, and in the process invited criticism from professionals as well as the public.

Beyond the work of Andy Goldsworthy and Eduardo Kac, I think process art can include a lot more. It can be as simple as showing tool marks in a stone sculpture - evidence that an artist labored. It can be mundane objects arranged ordinarily on the floor of a gallery – suggesting a physical interaction. It can be photographs of the artist working or steps along the way, but with no final product – archival evidence of the artist’s work. Process art is an outline of the intentional, conscious decisions that artists make. It is an artistic statement and an experiment into thought, fabrication, and creation which can have broad implications.