ART 21
1) Ursula von Rydingsvard
-Ursula is a sculptor from Deensen, Germany who uses
mostly cedar as her primary medium. Ursula’s work was incredibly inspiring to
me; not only was it very ambitious, but she even notes the importance of hard
work in order to achieve success. Her use of organic materials/nature to create
work in natural spaces is very effective I think—I think that I would respond
more to a work displayed in nature rather than a museum. This is obvious when
she notes how at least 12 marriages took place at the site of one of her
sculptures—you also see young children playing and interacting with the piece.
If one were in a museum, there would be a very limited interaction between the
viewer and the piece—you would feel like you can’t touch it, that it’s simply a
sculpture and nothing more.
-Although her drawings are personal, I almost like
the one she showed more than her main work-maybe it’s just because I’m more of
a 2D artist, but the one she showed was so organic and delicate, and had kind
of an unkempt, sporadic look to them, which I love. My favorite sculpture of
hers was probably the one where she hollowed out the middle and she mentioned
that it was about introversion and I totally got it. As a kid, I loved hiding
in confined spaces, and I like caves and nooks and hiding spaces, so I could
100% relate to this piece—I feel like if I saw it in real life, I would be
totally drawn to crawling and hiding inside of it.
-One thing that made me question her work was the
fact that she has sooo many helpers-- So much that her work would almost be
impossible without them. And then I began to question if it could even be
considered “her” work. It seems as though she just draws the lines to be cut,
and her team cuts the wood, lifts the wood, glues the wood, nails it together.
Why does she get all of the notoriety and the helpers receive hardly any
credit?
2) MARK DION
-Mark Dion is an
artist from New Bedford, Massachusetts who makes installations of “things.”
Right off the bat, I was stoked to see his work, because I’m utterly obsessed
with collections of oddities and having a lot of “stuff.” An avid hoarder, I
love things and surround myself with junk to make me feel comfortable. Mark
visits flea markets and yard sales, surrounding himself with things that are
inspirational. He also mentions how he is constantly searching for the oldest museum/looking
to the past. I loved his cabinets full of collections of things-- accumulation
of things is so fun to look at, your eye never stops moving. My room is very
much like this kind of work-newcomers to my room spend a while just taking it
all in, looking around, exploring—people like to look at things-it keeps them
engaged and interested and intrigued. He seems obsessive, which I like and
completely relate to.
-His tar/rat work was
incredibly disturbing, but he mentioned how he was trying to “hold a mirror to
present”. So, he is kind of reflecting on how society does not care for our planet,
we pollute, we kill earth’s creatures for our own superficial benefit, etc. He
also mentions art’s relationship to science—the main focus of our culture is
solely math and science; art is kind of overlooked or is seen as inferior or
trivial compared to those realms (especially in education)—so the demand from
artists is to combat that or complement it or make a statement about it, which
is what Mark does with his work. He notes that he uses nature as a resource for
his art, which can be seen clearly when he takes the fallen tree in the forest,
and creates an elaborate greenhouse to keep it alive. He places a natural being
in an unnatural environment, which requires a ton of science and technology
just to keep it alive.
