Disgust, Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Surprise

Disgust, Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Surprise places emphasis on art abstracted to its essential form and exhibits the creative disconnect associated with the seemingly empty shelves. At the core of this piece is Paul Ekman's research of the six basic human emotions from which all other emotions are derived. Inspired by Sol Lewitt's machine-like method of planning and decision-making and Eva Hesse's use of mindless repetition, the replication of shelves suggests assembly lines and factories in which there is no room for emotions. The six intangible emotions are impossible to assess when not represented by anything except space. In addition, this piece resembles methods of psychotherapy in conjunction with minimalism, in which repetition and instruction are provided as means of control.

sol lewitt and other inspiration from the textbook

I took inspiration from Sol Lewitt's work in the Contingent Object of Contemporary Art's chapter Authorship and Authority.
I like the idea of minimalism as the ideal form/reduced to the essential elements. The cubic shapes are no-nonsense and pure.
In minimalism, the artist becomes disconnected from the work once it's complete. The connection is severed and is then given to the viewer.

Sol Lewitt said "When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes the machine that makes the art." By following a set of instructions, the installation becomes another form of creative disconnect.

This correlates with the training and expectation of emotional reactions to art. 

art and fear

Revisited Art and Fear when trying to invent new meanings to the shelves without the cubes, particularly of finishing art that doesn't appear to be finished.
Making art ABOUT making art is pretty ambitious but I think is similar to my poetry class in which a few people wrote their weekly poems about not having ideas for poems. Making art is such an emotional thing for me, so by inserting emotions into art I'm facing fears about them. I wanted to persevere in the face of defeat, and without the cubes this piece still needed to make sense.

Leave

Inspired by Sally Mann's strong connection to home and Andy Goldsworthy's ephemeral earthworks, Leave is presented as a photographic document of a sculptural work featuring leaves transferred across states. The artist's home and current residence are represented in equal-sized photographs of piles of leaves on ground. In Louisiana, the green and freshly-picked leaves are symbolic of growth and life, while the Wisconsin leaves scraped from the unfrozen ground are symbolic of decay and death. When paired, this juxtaposition is intended to create an artistic paradox within the viewer. Viewers may find that the changes of the seasons connect to distinct aspects of their own searches for home.

emotions as minimalism

That emotions are such complex subjective experiences is why I wanted to pair them with minimalism. A lot of my art lately has been about trying to regain control over things that are lost. By not having any representation of emotion present in the artwork, it's saying two distinctly different things: that you can see through emotions, and that you can't see emotions at all. I've been doing a lot of reading about areas of the brain associated with different emotions and found that the neurocircuitry is pretty chemically regulated for a species with extreme highs and lows. The physical energy is discharged by neurochemicals dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin to allow us to emotionally react as expected.
The experience of emotions can't be seen between/among social groups unless we choose to share them, however they can share the same physiological responses through social cognition which generally develops in adolescence.
The emotions' presence on the shelves is showcasing them as something organizable and displayable, which also works in psychotherapy through categorizing and regulating. Also the instruction typically given in minimalist art is comparable to instruction given in psychological assessment.

Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman's work is very far removed from my own but I've been looking at her photographs so frequently that they accidentally seeped into the creative part of my mind, especially during my research of human emotions.

I read a fairly gratuitous article about how Francesca Woodman is "the Sylvia Plath of Photography", comparing their young suicides and artistic legacies and how in retrospect you can see death among their art.

I think in terms of forcing emotion into art, Woodman is the greatest example I know. I see ghosts when I look at these. She uses her body as a material which is really interesting to me in terms of the chemical makeup of bodies. How are we different from paint and turpentine? How are our minds different from materials if our organs are just matter after all? To me Woodman's photographs are physical renderings of human emotions and souls.

Sally Mann

Sally Mann's landscapes. Strong connection to place/ huge inspiration in my life right now.

Watched a documentary before finishing this project about Sally Mann. She says "It never occurred to me to leave home to make art." and "The things that are close to you are the things you can photograph the best." I knew I needed to make art about home and my sense of home is very shaken lately. By transferring parts of places to other places, I was able to answer questions about home. Tying leaves to trees was the first time I felt like connecting something in art really made sense.

Andy Goldsworthy

For my leaf transfer project I was inspired by Andy Goldsworthy's ephemeral sculptures. He too uses photographs to document his work. Their connection to place is as important as the art itself.
Goldsworthy works with nature as a state of constant change which is incredibly important to my Louisiana/Wisconsin project. Not only does that change make up the subject matter, but it also allows the art to be sensitive to weather and season changes. Bringing leaves to their unnatural environment forces a state of change that wouldn't ordinarily occur.

Eva Hesse- Sans II

Eva Hesse's Sans II was one of the original inspirations for my work. I was interested in the minimalist aspects as well as repetitive forms. The techinique of replication was important in my concept, as if it inhabits a constant and mindless creation.
Hesse uses assistants but I'm using technology in place of the artist's hand.

I also wasn't sure of the medium of this piece when I first saw it but found out it's discolored resin. I also like that the pieces are separated and displayed in different locations, only sometimes coming together to make a whole.

Floating Shelves

These are the instructions for building floating shelves I used with a few manipulations by Tom.

The minimalism-inspired shelves are white (same color as the wall) to not call attention to them as art forms, when in fact they are the base for the "assembled form".

Emotion/Pain Charts

 

Range of expressions for emotions. The only way we can measure them??

 

If emotion/pain detectors rely solely on facial expression, what happens when that facial expression is absent?
It's our way of making something abstract into a concrete thing we can see and analyze. Without asking someone how they "feel", their faces often give it away.
Additionally, this pain chart indicates that something as intangible as pain is easier to assess when paired with different degrees of frowns.

Wisconsin Leaves/Louisiana Leaves

Wisconsin Leaves/Louisiana Leaves

Disgust, Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Surprise

Disgust, happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and surprise are six emotions considered universal across cultures. All other emotions can be classified as products of combinations of these six.
I've researched Paul Ekman's tests for studying emotions in terms of facial expressions, and our general association of a smiling person as a happy person, a frowning person as an angry person, etc.

Using muscles in brows and mouths, we are able to express an atlas of emotions.
Right now I'm interested in the loss of facial expressions in communication online and through cellphones. (with the exception of emojis indicative of those muscles used).

sketch of ideas

Transporting plants from Louisiana to Wisconsin

Guide to shipping plants

Duchamp's Fountain

One channels Marcel Duchamp by continually viewing the everyday object as art simply by titling it and placing it in a gallery. Since that fateful day in 1917, use of the urinal in art is now inevitably considered an homage to Duchamp. By titling this artwork Duchamp’s Fountain and putting my own name on it, I’m providing a new definition to the term Duchamp himself made so popular: readymade. We all know the story- Duchamp’s entering and rejection of a sideways urinal into an exhibition caused (and still causes) an uproar in the art community. How can this object be art? The term readymade implies that the artist had nothing to do with the construction process, and that it was already made. Taking it one step further, Duchamp already made this into art, and now it’s being made into art again.

Sherry Levine challenges predetermined rules for authorship by unapologetically copying famous works and calling it feminism. Her use of photography creates questions such as: What exactly is the work of art, the subject of the photograph or the photograph itself? Is the photograph simply used for documentation of the experience? How can photography be art if one is photographing something that was already made?

A female’s name attached to a photograph of a urinal, presumably in a men’s restroom, conjures up ideas of gender identity and equality. Indicating a place where most of us agree the female doesn’t belong also speaks to the role of feminism in contemporary art.

Andy Warhol’s borrowing of ideas and skills for his own art was well established by his Factory Studio. By taking inspiration from Warhol, an artist can establish connections that allow her to attach her name to a piece of art that she didn’t complete alone. Not only am I using another artist’s idea entirely, but I’m not technically creating the artwork at all. By asking a man (let’s call him my assistant) to photograph a urinal in an empty restroom and giving no other direction, I as a female unallowed into that space am letting go of complete control of the piece, yet still signing my name on it. 

The use of a cell-phone camera instead of the readily available DSLR camera again blurs the line between fine art and vernacular art but speaks heavily to the current norm of cell-phone photography. The final photograph emulates what a growing number of us stare at for hours a day. By displaying it only on a blog, I'm utilizing contemporary technology to make my audience potentially infinite. 

Finally, combining all three of these artists’ styles into one artwork is the ultimate question of authorship in contemporary art. Who did I copy most?

Toppings

Toppings addresses themes of growth, birth, nourishment, and desire by combining traditional ice cream toppings such as chocolate syrup, sprinkles, and whipped cream with white chocolate casts of women’s breasts. During the development of Toppings, I found inspiration in Jessica Stoller’s clever use of the feminine and grotesque body. Specifically in her Spoil exhibition, Stoller provides careful consideration to the formal qualities of the delicate and the crass. Her portrayal of the female body in conjunction with that of a gluttonous feast forces viewers to find distinction between ideals of femininity and the female form. Additionally, I took inspiration from Libby Rowe’s attitude towards feminism in art, Janine Antoni’s combined use of food and the female body, and Lauren Kalman’s juxtaposition of beautiful and ugly.

In the construction process, skin-safe alginate was molded around a variety of breasts. These alginate molds were then filled with plaster, which became casts for silicone molds. Finally, melted white chocolate was poured into the silicone molds and hardened into the original shape of the breasts. They were then placed on stainless steel trays reminiscent of both medical and culinary settings. The breasts displayed on trays allow us examine the objectification of women’s bodies. In addition, the variety of sizes and shapes of the breasts simulates the selection process in an ice cream shop. 

The choice of topping these breasts with those ingredients fit for a sundae bring to mind childhood and innocence, while simultaneously commenting on consumption and sexual desire in adulthood. This binary is reiterated in the transformation that occurs when working with the ephemerality of edible ingredients. Over time, Toppings will drip, melt, and change shape, paralleling our developing attitudes towards female bodies and indulgent food. 

Toppings

Breasts

Lastly I did some research on breasts in determining how many forms to present in the final piece. I learned that there are 15-20 lobes per breast, which essentially separates the female chest from the male's. I also read about their sexual characteristics and milk produ ction. I accidentally found a correlation between the ice cream toppings (a dairy product) and lactation.

Gabor Fulop

Gabor Fulop created this ladybug sculpture of a female body using 20,000 tiny handmade ladybugs. In addition to the striking visual qualities, this piece represents our loathings of insects in a really beautiful way. What is it about ladybugs that make them okay to touch and hold?
The hand position of the form is either taking or offering which brings to mind female body portrayal.

Lauren Kalman

Lauren Kalman stretches the limits of the human form in her works seen here.

The gold leaf, pearls, and other materials merge with flesh to create challenging juxtapositions. She combines beauty and adornment with the abject. Also interested in the photographs as documents, since some of these works are performative.

Yoan Capote

so interested in the way Yoan Capote reinvents the human body.

Kate Gilmore

Kate Gilmore's Body of Work exhibition features this piece Love 'em, Leave 'em.

I took inspiration from her combination of concept and technique when struggling with incorporating "assembled form" into my ideas. The staircase structure provides a frame and support for the piece without overwhelming or distracting from the present concept.

Chocolate molds

In experimenting with chocolate in alganate molds I encountered issues with consistency, color, and texture. The alganate appeared to retain moisture during the hardening process. In order to create a more smooth chocolate boob, I researched chocolate melting/baking websites. The use of silicone molds should solve most of the problems, and chocolate prepared specifically for casting should improve the consistency.

Tentative list of ice cream toppings

Hot fudge
Marshmallow
Caramel
Butterscotch
Peanut butter shell
Sprinkles
Whipped cream

Silicone Mold quick link access

http://www.smooth-on.com/Silicone-Rubber-an/c2_1115_1132/index.html

How to Build a Raised Garden Bed

http://www.sunset.com/garden/perfect-raised-bed-00400000039550/

refreezing ice cream

Upon researching techniques for refreezing ice cream, I discovered that the air created by agitating the ice cream before the initial freezing is lost in the melting process. This causes ice crystals to form in the ice cream which considerably changes the consistency. In my experience, the chocolate chip ice cream I used formed noticeable layers of ingredients. It may or may not be "safe" to eat refrozen ice cream (depending on the temperature of the melted dairy) but I'm not intending to eat the artwork anyway.

Jessica Stoller's Spoil

from Jessica Stoller's Spoil show. Still Life, 2013. porcelain, china paint, and luster.

Jessica Stoller's work appears at first glance to be a tea party table oozing with feminine details such as flowers, frills, and pearls, but the sinister details add a tinge of the abject to these otherwise proper pieces. (the snails crawling on apples and claw-like hand atop the cake)

I was initially drawn to the combination of food and female body parts. Although this isn't the medium I'll be working in, I still take inspiration from the combination of feminine and grotesque and familiar concepts and ideas pushed in a different direction. I'm specifically interested in the forms they take and the site specificity of the buffet table.

Notes on The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art

• outlines the difficulties surrounding authorship, categorizing, temporal discontinuity, transcience, and other criteria assessments
• what power does the artist have after the work of art has left his/her possession? and what rights does the new owner now have? especially considering the piece was manufactured by a third party
• what must make a work of art suitable for a replica?
• the emphasis on idea or concept makes explicit the possibility that the work of art will be synonymous with an object. Judd made it clear that he didn't want this in his work- his work was only an idea and that idea could theoretically be conveyed in an infinite amount of ways
• Antoni's Gnaw depends on repetition in the form of the cast copy for its continued existence.
• authorship is based on unity and stylistic consistency. presentation under an artist's name ensures that not only a range of different forms of expression will be read as works, but that heterogeneity within that series of works will be read as a decision that itself carries meaning as a play on the very idea of authorship as a form of unity or internal consistency.
• consider most museums as chronologically oriented and the possibility that one could walk through them backwards.
• decision-making in art involves each format, medium, context, content, appearance, and duration as a conscious choice.

Project Inspiration

maybe Commes des Garcons?

medical drawing of a wound

Robert and Shana Parke Harrison

The Body/Embodiment:

the physical structure and material substance of an animal, living or dead. Crosses over with themes of identity and performativity. The relationship of body and mind has been explored through feats of physical endurance and the ability of the mind to suffer pain. In the 1960s women focusing on bodily themes brought to attention the physicality of the female body through exploration of sexuality. Artists use the body as a site for social discourse, as a tool or medium (could be just part of the body), and to question or define beauty. To embody is to give a concrete form to an idea or spirit.

Joel Peter Witkin

Witkin's photographs deal with themes of death, corpses, and deformed people. The photographs themselves are physically altered to parallel the physical state of the bodies. His work with corpses has earned him the nickname Modern Day Dr. Frankenstein. These grotesque bodies are marked by life events; in these works we are viewing bodies as separate from our own.

Marina Abramovic

Abramovic subjects herself to extreme physical and mental stress. In the 1970s, she started using her body as the medium for her work. In The House with the Ocean View, she lived in a gallery installation for 12 days. Viewers were invited to watch her go about her daily existence. With her partner Ulay, she challenges the limits of the physical body in pieces such as Breathing In, Breathing Out and Relation in Time. 

Janine Antoni

Antoni creates work that explores the unattainable standards of youth, beauty, and proportion. Like Abramovic, her primary tool is her own body. In Lick and Lather, Antoni creates self portrait busts of chocolate and soap. The use of these art objects removes her identity associated with the reproduction of her facial features. In Loving Care, she mopped the floor with her hair drenched in hair dye. Chocolate Gnaw, Lard Gnaw shows the artist's teeth marks in the blocks of materials. This provides visual evidence of the means, the duration, and the intensity of her sculpting process.

John Coplans

Coplans challenges ideals of healthy and beauty with the inclusion of aging bodies into his contemporary photographs. With black and white self portraits, he asks viewers to engage with bodies that aren't typically portrayed in the media. The fact that he never photographs his face allows his images to not focus on a specific identity.

Maureen Connor

Maureen Connor is the only artist I chose who represents the body without actually using the body. In Little Lambs Eat Ivy, she uses clothing and fabric to suggest femininity and control. Thinner Than You, a stainless steel and cloth sculpture, represents the female body as a changing container.