Third ear for art

I agree with Dave's statement that this third ear project is a waste of medical time and costs that could be going to someone who actually needed it. I also did not understand the artists exact purpose for doin this. The article mentioned he wanted to have a micrphone implanted to allow others to listen to what his extra ear picks up. How is that any different from what a normal ear would pick up? If his point is about listening then why not be concerating on listening to sounds invloving a regular ear, more people would probably relate to or understand it. A woman who was born without an ear claimed the work shows a lack of understanding. I can see why she feels this way. She has been living with one ear her whole life and clearly knows the physical and emotoinal stresses it brings. Then someone who was lucky enough to have both ears grafts a third onto his arm. It seems to be making light of her personal situation. Perhaps if the artist had some medical connection himself to this idea i would feel differently about it. While the science of it is fascinating to me, i just see this particular use of it as a waste.

Do you hear me?

The extra era reminds me to think of my past students. Some of them have nice and complete appearances of ears but they are deaf or have problems in hearing. The way they tried to understand me is focusing on my mouth and body language to "see" what I talked about in class. Stlarc made a very vivid ear, a sculpture with perfect quality, which is composed by some very high technique but the small ear has no function. Comparing to 2D ear drawn on one forearm, this 1/4 scale 3D ear seems more strong and attractive. I don't understand why Stelarc hopes to have a microphone implanted to allow others to listen to what his extra ear picks up. It is unnecessary to duplicate one ear just for hearing what it picks by a microphone. He just need to set a microphone on his forearm. But I think there is one thing good that is the artist sets the third ear on his body instead of other animals.

The third ear

I really believe this sort of thing to be absolutely ridiculous. A doctor's time and the amount of money spent on a project like this could go towards so many more important and helpful medical procedures for people that really need them. Perhaps I feel this way because of my overwhelming disgust for plastic surgery addicts and plastic surgery in general. In my opinion this type of procedure should not take place unless it is medically necessary/if it improves the overall quality of your life. While some of the research involved with Stelarc's project may be quite interesting and even valuable I do not deem the ear implanted under the skin of his arm as a necessary component. Sometimes money allows us to take things too far. You don't need an ear on your arm in order to capture/record what others say. My verdict: no clinical need= no surgery.

The Extra Ear

I think that the extra ear is more of a social experiment then an art project. It is a very interesting idea that makes you think about body modification, and it is comparable to people that have metal beads implanted under the skin to make designs show up on there skin. The ear that was made is a piece of art that was grown and attached to his arm. But what he is planning on doing with the ear is a sociological experiment into the body and the way you hear and interact with your environment. It is hard for me to fully embrace the ear on his arm as art and not as a strange body modification. It is also a little cruel to people that are deformed with extra toes and excreta with the adding and additional body part.

Carolyn Lambert

I found Carolyn Lambert's presentation a few weeks ago to be interesting. What i noticed most about her lecture was the medium she has been working in . Well, perhaps medium is the wrong word, but that my point here. I am not very familiar with performance art or documentation. It intrigues me that we can catatgorize this as part of "studio art" courses. I would veiw this as something fit more for the perfomance or thater arts department. I don't think it's bad or wrong that Carolyn's work is being classified in to the studio arts academically. It just makes me think about how we feel the need to catagorize everything. I think that this diversity of art is one of the things i love most about being an artist. We have many outlets and directions our work can take. Someone in sudio art courses has the opportunity to incorporate everything from dance, video and music in to their work, what other areas of study have that much openness and opportunity?

Art star(world)& Top 100

These articles remind me to think about the billboard of art stars in my mind. I found that the art stars in my list are actually long-lived, like Marcel Duchamp and Louise Bourgeois. In their long life-spans, one of them kept on working in art world; the other turned to pursue other careers. Duchamp finally left from the art world to become an chess player since 1920s until the rest of his life. Bourgeois became famous in 70s, then people started to notice the "female artist". They focused on working with their interests, regardless whatever it is. What they want to do is simply to have fun with their careers.There are always lots of elements affect whether you can become a noted artist or not, usually not only depending on your talent in art. Maybe you need to find a good mentor, look for a good dealer and smell what will be the next most popular issue.... But I think if you want to be an artist the most important to keep your art career longer is to keep your passion and have fun with your works. It is really easy to feel frustrated when there is no viewer appreciating your work. By the way, another important thing is to keep healthy and live as long as possible or you will have no chance to celebrate your accomplishment.

Art Stars/ Top 100

There are millions of artists in the world. Many of which make their careers by making little cash and calling themselves artists. Some make their careers by becoming professors at an institution. Plenty of them make some money in galleries.
Why not? It’s life do what you want, in life you can do anything that the mind can imagine. Why limit yourself to being labeled as an artist. An artist in the modern day is becoming ever closer to being nothing than a corporation. Become a business man or a farmer if that’s what you want to do. Have tons of money and influence. Essentially that’s what this top one hundred artist thing is saying the top one hundred artists good at. Not necessarily their art. Like Aasta said its all dependent on what galleries you are in and how much money your work makes.
But time and time again through history we have seen artist come out of the woodwork and not even be alive any more. That’s part of the beauty of the art world. It has the power to immortalize a person. Even when the person is dead. Dealing with the modern capitalist industry and gaining fame in this life time is one way of dealing with becoming a successful artist. But it doesn’t mean that you have to do it to become famous. Or even make the best art. The top one hundred artists probably aren't even known. They are probably so far ahead in their thinking that people would not even understand a thing they create. These kinds of artists are untouched and pure. Their creativity is out of the world and unknown. These kinds of artists achieve an understanding of the world beyond what the New York and London galleries can even begin to imagine. Beyond what the Artstars can set precedent for. The actual top one hundred artists might be content with creating within their own minds exclusively. Not ever making a single work in the real world.
The life of an artist in the modern society is fleeting. up and down as Dave said. What’s the point? You can make money doing anything you want. Or make it selling art. But what’s the point in becoming one of the top one hundred artists. Just to gain power. That’s just what every other person in the world wants. Artists should be different, progressive and out of this world. Not concerned so much with achieving a world class status as a prominent gallery showman for some capitalist PIG!!!
-Aaron Treher

Pittsburgh Gallery Crawl

Hi all,
The next Gallery crawl is on Friday the 19th from 5:30 to 9 in downtown Pittsburgh. It's a good time to see art - up to 20 galleries and other venues open at the same time, with free admission and often snacks, music etc.

You can see a list of venues here: http://www.pgharts.org/education/gallerycrawl.aspx

Next Critique Thursday, Nov. 1

Hi all,
The next critique in Sculpture will be Thursday, November 1. This has been moved back one class period from the original calendar from the beginning of class.

Guest Artist Adam Welch

Hi folks,
On Thursday, October 25, IUP sculpture graduate Adam Welch will be a guest artist in class. Since graduation, Adam has been exhibiting his work in the Pittsburgh region and was recently selected as the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts Emerging Artist of the Year for 2008. Adam will be doing a lecture as well as studio visits, so look for a sign-up sheet on my door.

Adam also has work in a show opening this Saturday night Oct 20 at Fe Gallery from 7 to 9 at 4102 Butler St., Pittsburgh (Lawrenceville), PA 15201.

Art Stars/ Top 100

The dual articles about Art Stars and also the newly posted top 100 really drive home the cause and effect in play here. If you notice on the top 100 list, there are actually very few artists- mainly it is collectors, curators and museum board members. The power lies not with the individual talent of an artist, but instead with who decides the said artist has talent in the first place. And to suppose that talent is the foremost decider is probably wrong too. It's about what is new or fresh- ie: what will make the gallery or dealer the most money. If you look at where most big name artists got their start it is usually behind a big name collector or gallery. A majority of the YBA (Young British Artists) got MFA's from Goldsmiths sold their first big piece to Charles Saatchi and had their first solo show at the Tate- it's not coincidence.
The Guerrilla Girls put out a great guide "The Art Museum Activity Book", which outlines the nepotism and hand-holding in the art world. In it they outline how most shows are actually from the private collections of board members and by giving the work press they increase it's value so they can send it to auction and make a tidy profit. Again, looking at the Top 100 list. Richard Serra went from #73 last year to #19 this year- which just happens to coincide with his huge Retrospective that was at MoMA this year. It also just so happens that over half the works were lent by private collectors. My guess is their investment just increased substantially with that jump. As long as we all just realize that it has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with economics we can all relax. There are thousands of artists in this world that 99% of the people haven't heard about but still have successful and fruitful careers. Personally, i would rather have consistency than a momentary flash.

art(star) world

Big name or "star" artists have always come and gone, sometimes reemerging. These artists are "popular" and it seems as though anything popular in our fast paced society is subject to a potentially short life span. I am not surprised at the varying levels of involvement in the art world by the artists originally depicted as stars in Robbins' piece.
When I think about career longevity I don't think so much about my position in the art world as a whole. I think more about what job I might hold and what I would need to do in order to make sure I can retain it for a number of years. At some point in my life I wish to become a professor, even if it is not at anything more than a small private college. I would consider my career successful if I was able to live comfortably off of a modest teaching salary while continuing to create work that I love.
The longevity of an artist that lives in the public eye is highly dependent upon that artist's popularity with the public and perhaps more importantly the art critics. It is my opinion that the artist has very little control over their own success(popularity).

Food is Art

Attention undergrads,

As you are working on your Bodily Reality projects, I thought I would share a link I just found, called Food Is Art. This is someone who makes "food art" for corporate events, parties, etc. Weird stuff, but it could generate some ideas and it gets more interesting if you start to approach some of the projects conceptually - what does it mean when someone makes a food portrait of you and arrays a bunch of sausages around your head?? Be sure to click on the Food Sculptures link on the site to see some strange portraits of football players....

http://www.foodisart.co.uk/foodisart.html

Art Review Power 100

Hi gang,
Related to this week's reading (posted below) I happened upon Art Review magazine's 2007 Power 100 list. It lists who they think are the 100 most powerful people in the art world this year. One interesting thing to note is that in addition to this year's ranking, they note where the person ranked last year, so you can see how far people have slipped or come up in the rankings. On this list, there are folks new to the list who have debuted at #29 (!!!)

Also, for those of you planning to take over the art world, the print version of the mag gives you the "12 essential steps to power." I'll keep my eyes out for the magazine....

http://www.art-review.com/power100_2007.htm

bottle houses

I was reading the news online this morning and found this link. It relates to the last project, but i thought some of you might still be interested in it. If you go to Yahoo news today there is a good video of it, the site would'nt allow me to link it but this article gives the basic story.
http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/creative-bolivians-build-eco-homes-with-recycled-plastic-bottles

Weekly Reading, October 16: Keeping Score

Hi folks,
This week's reading, titled "Keeping score in the art(star) world" can be found here: http://www.artworldsalon.com/blog/2007/08/23/keeping-score-in-the-artstarworld/ Be sure to read the associated comments, also, there are some interesting viewpoints and considerations brought up there.

Is career longevity something that you think about? What does a successful career mean to you - living off of sales of your work, exhibiting internationally, or something different? What factors might affect the longevity of an artist's career - and are these factors that the artist has control over?

Response to Carolyn Lambert's Presentation

This was a particularly interesting presentation for me because I tend to stay away from documentation, video, performance and other similar media in my work. So it was a learning experience for me to see an artist that uses them so intelligently and in such new ways. I was especially interested in the Ohio River Lifeboat Project because I have done similar things with a tree house my father and I had built. However, I did it for the enjoyment of living in a tree house all summer. I never imagined it could be art. It is really helpful to have experiences like this to expand my boundaries a little, whether or not I ever use new media like this in my work. I just enjoying being more open to it when viewing it.

Thoughts on Carolyn Lambert's lecture

I like the project Looking for the fourth river/as I remember the title. It's the first project which Lamber intriduced to us. We can sense the humor of the work, even the personality of the artist. I think any issue about history is tough to make the viewer to have nice experience but Lamber make such serious issue very accessible and easy. As a viewer, I think it is really a good work with humor. I think the best way to present the Ohio Lifeboat project is make it as a doucumentory film. After editing, I believe it will be a very impressive work to the viewer and the audience can follow the film to understand the whole progess and what's the artist's idea.

Lambert

The most interesting of Lambert's work, for me, was the Ohio river lifeboat project. The interactions and conversations with the various people that Carolyn and her crew met along the way enriched the work and gave it a human quality that endures through Lambert's documentation. My concern lies with her purpose(s) for the project. When reading her description of the work it seems as though her motives are both broad and specific at the same time. In my opinion the conversations and experiences with the people overpower all else. After listening to her presentation of the work it seemed as though her work was ALL about the people, only after reading more of her website did I realize that it dealt with ecological concerns, sustainability, etc., etc. In terms of presentation strategy, I would like to see the use of large scale photography in conjunction with her audio clips. If I were surrounded by images that recreated the same environment (as she was in during the project) I feel as though I could relate to/experience it much more directly. note: By large scale I mean wall sized photos.

Hands ON

I believe thought has always been involved in the artistic process, artists have always been thinkers as well as makers. While there has obviously been a shift away from object making by the majority of today's artists, there are still a large number of them that persist. Deskilling is a crisis in the sense that many of today's young artists are never formally trained in traditional art media. In my opinion that creates a problem; it falls under the category of not being able to break the rules unless you have practiced and understood the rules. How can deskilling be an artistic process by which an artist practices, if the said artist never possessed the skills in the first place? In addition, an artist must contain some skill in order to present their thoughts in a visual context. If we are to boil artistic creativity down to thoughts then are not all of us artists? For me there has to be some form of execution or creation on behalf of the artist and I would like to see it executed with some skill.

Show Opportunity - Lightwell Gallery

Hi everyone,
I saw a call for submissions that is open to students so I thought I would pass it along. The Lightwell Gallery at the University of Oklahoma invites applications for the show "From On High." The website says "Submitted works should utilize or specifically address the idea of being viewed from above or engage the aspects of height/elevation. From On High is open to ALL media including video, sound, kinetic works and digital media."

Deadline for entries is November 7, 2007. Fee for student entries id $20. The prospectus with more info is available at http://www.ou.edu/lightwellgallery/home.html

Thoughts on Carolyn Lambert's Lecture

This week, let's hear everyone's thoughts on Carolyn Lambert's lecture. What works were you most interested in, and why? Once a project like the Ohio Lifeboat project is complete, what is the most effective way for the project to live on, and to be presented to other audiences?

Hands Off

Since when did intellectual creativity cease to be a "skill". In so much talk about the "deskilling" of art people have forgotten the skill of thinking. Machines can make just about anything now, we no longer have a need for the sculptor to make a perfect, realistic bust of someone because we can just as easily take a picture. So for all intents and purposes making art as a form of mimicry is a dead skill. But yet we still have artists. I think the shift has been made to artists as thinkers and less as makers. Does it make Matthew Barney's Cremaster cycle any less important once you know he had a crew of hundreds doing all the work?
So for people who want to wander aimlessly through a gallery using the artwork as a form of visual vicodin- then yes, there is a great crisis of deskilling. This also plays into audience. Who is your audience and what do you want them to get out of it?
Maybe if people took more than 2.3 seconds to look at a work it wouldn't matter if the piece came out of a kiln or out of a WalMart.

Guest Artist Carolyn Lamert - Tuesday Oct 7

Hi Everyone,
As I mentioned in class on Thursday, Carolyn Lambert will be a guest artist in sculpture class on Tuesday. She will be doing a presentation on her work and then doing studio visits. A sign up sheet for studio visits will be on my door.

You can check out the site for Carolyn's Ohio River Lifeboat Project here: http://www.ohioriverlifeboatproject.org/about.php

Ugh,Venice; wow

Maybe biennales are becoming decrepit forms of disseminating art. Who cares? Just because the art world is becoming one huge click doesn’t mean that it should stop others from experiencing the art. I mean ok. If you are some guy from New York City that goes every year to every biennale then sure, you’re going to be tired of seeing the same art by the same people. The same curators searching out the same fresh artist. That doesn’t mean it takes any of the magic away from those of the people in the world that have not ever seen such presentations of art. I think that they are good ways for people to view contemporary art. This is something not many people do. Just because the art click does it too much doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing or it needs to end. It just means that person needs to get a life and start doing other things. Maybe buy a model and put it together. i don’t know. They just seem a little bored with life if you ask me. So goes the saying if you keep doin what your doin, you’re gonna keep gettin what you’re gettin... this guy needs to stop in his tracks. Hitch hike across the usa, take a walk on the wild side. Step out of his stupid white walled New York City high rise flat and do something with his life that is not centered on the art world. For the rest of us... let’s enjoy art as long as it is enjoyable. Forget the clicks and social groups and just look at the art that’s what its there for.

King memorial

After reading this text I can understand one thing. People like to be connected superficially by race. They like to think still, the color of your skin dictates what experiences you can have in life. I strongly disagree with that kind of thinking. Who’s to say that the sculptor they choose has not had the same experiences in china as dr. martin Luther king has had in America. It just seems like it’s not dependent on your biological makeup as a person to determine how well you understand what hardships someone undergoes. Granted being African American will certainly give you the best perspective of what it is like to be an African American, but it’s not the only way to experience those same kinds of hardships. The only other real hard argument against the sculptor was that he does not know the form of an African American as well as an African American does. That’s just absurd. If you are a sculptor of that level you should be able to sculpt anyone regardless of your previous encounters with that person. Point being, people are too caught up still in connecting one another as a race. We are all humans... we can all share the same experiences given the right circumstances and understanding of the world.

King memorial

When viewers look at one sculpture or portrait of particular person, actually they are reading how the artist analyzes and describes the person.I agreed that "the idea of who is making the person come back to life is very important." Without the idea, I don't know how artists can make works, whatever it is statuary, portrait or any other forms. To me, the concpet is produced before the action, and the idea leads me to make the work. One may concern that picking the "right" artist to work on the sculpture or portrait of particular person is important. But how to pick a "correct" artist to make a sculpture or portrait of particular person is a complex process. The reason of the final result sometimes is very specific and it is really difficult to make everyone to approve.

We shouldn't be serious ALL the time...

We all need to poke fun at ourselves a little bit-this site has a "mad-lib" type artist statement producer. Funny, but fairly convincing...
http://www.playdamage.org/market-o-matic/

King Memorial

My first feeling on this article was that there was something inherently wrong with choosing a Chinese artist to create the MLK memorial, but it has taken me a while to formulate why. While I think that the sense of "world unity" is hopeful in this situation- it is also unrealistic. The sad fact of the matter is that minority artists are still greatly underrepresented in public art contracts. This is a widespread issue- last year alone MOMA's exhibitions were made up of 60% white males, 17.5% white females, 17.5% minority females and 5% minority males. If you only look at large solo shows the figures are worse- 80% WM, 13% WF, 7% MF and 0% MM! By not choosing an artist of African-American decent and hiding behind "reverse-discrimination" they are chipping away at the work that Martin Luther King strived to achieve. He wanted equality for everyone but lets be honest- that started with equal rights and equal access for African Americans. A memorial is more than just a statue or a piece of architecture. It is representative of that historical movement or person or place and I think that actual physical depiction is only half of what goes into a good piece- there has to be emotion there- emotion that one can only get from a shared history or experience.

King memorial

So far, most of you have taken the stance that race of the artist creating the memorial is unimportant. How do respond to the idea put forth in the article by Paul Williams when he said, "Memorials are explicitly about symbolism. A sculpture of one particular person is a very literal, realist version coming back to life, and the idea of who is making the person come back to life is very important."

King memorial

The King memorial debate is creating racism out of a piece of art that is supposed to be in commemoration of someone who spent his life trying to end racism. I feel that as long as the best possible job is done with the piece it shoudl'nt matter who the sculptor is. However, this does raise interesting points such as can someone who is not of the same race as Dr. king really decpict his impact on society? I can understand how some people may have issues with this, but i just see it as an opportunity for cultures to appriciate or contribute to one another. I tend to focus on the artwork itself, not who made it, but with a political and culture influenced work such as this i think the artist creating it is an important factor. I personally can't say one way or the other if Lei Yixin is the right or wrong sculptor for the job, but this is an issue that warrants consideration.

King Memorial

I think that the Martin Luther King National Memorial is a great idea. The committee did a search and found a sculptor that is qualified to do the work and who cares were he comes from its about the work that he does. Lei Yixin is a sculptor that does monumental sculpture and he is from china. I think that the problem is that the artiest on the committee really wanted the job, and got upset when another artist was found to do the job. So now the artiest on the committee is complaining because of where he is from, and not listing to Dr. King and accepting him and not judging him by the color of his skin.