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.