Brian Gillis' began his presentation by asking the class what a multiple is. He stated a really interested quote about what a multiple was and called it an "editioned original". I thought the concept of an "editioned original" was a really interesting way of describing a multiple. He named three different types of historical multiples: pop art, ancients, and Duchamp. One example of multiples I found the most interesting was the work from Marcel Duchamp. His work consisted of readymades, assisted readymades, and rectified readymades. I thought his piece called "Fountain" was very interesting and kind of odd even. The "Fountain" was a Urinal taken off from the wall, flipped over, and given its own Duchamp touch. I mean how funny is it that a Urinal can become art with the right idea behind it. In addition to Duchamp, Jeff Koon's "Balloon Animal" multiple series caught my attention. The photos of it just looked so delicate and it is just crazy how Brian mentioned at first they were for sale for thousands & now they are for sale for much, much more. I connected to the "Balloon Animal" piece because it reminded me of a piece we were shown in class a few weeks earlier. We were shown overwhelmingly large balloon animals place in the middle of public places. The object was so large that you could stand under it and still feel extremely small. This connection made me interested to see more of his work. Similar to Koon's "Balloon Animal" series, he also had the idea of creating an extremely large dog. And similarly to the overwhelmingly large balloon animals in public places, he also placed an overwhelmingly large dog object in the middle of a public place abroad. From that idea of the large dog, he decided to make multiples of small porcelain dogs. It was an edition of 3000. I love that idea of having one giant object as the center of making many multiples. I find that so great that if someone sees the giant object and loves it they can have a smaller version of it. Although, I think I liked the giant dog that was placed in a public area rather than the porcelain multiples because it was covered from head to toe in colorful flowers instead of the multiples that were plain white. Nonetheless, that was one of my favorite pieces we were shown. Another part of the presentation I really enjoyed were the pop art examples. Brian showed us a photograph of "The American Supermarket" located in the Bianchini Gallery in New York City in 1964. Artists Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Wesseimann's work were all featured in the show. The artists were to create pieces of art that corresponded with thing that would be found in a supermarket. One piece of art I immediately recognized was Andy Warhol's image of the Campbells can of soup. His version of the can of soup is such an iconic piece of art. When I was in the fifth grade we did an art project and learned about Andy Warhol and were given the assignment to recreate his Campbells soup can piece of artwork. I had no idea back then though that the piece was considered pop art so that was interesting to learn in the presentation. Furthermore, I thought the whole concept of the supermarket was so cool, I would just love to see it in person.
In addition to the presentation on multiples from Brian Gillis, we were to read about artists Gabriel Orozco and Justin Novak. Gabriel Orozco is an interesting conceptual artist to look at. He not only uses clay to create great pieces of art but he also has playfulness to him when creating other pieces of art. I think the piece of art most people found interesting and playful in class was the "Ping Pond Table". The ping pond table is the ping pong tables connected and where the net is supposed to be there is an open space with a pond in it. As we discussed in class, this piece of art first and foremost just seems like it would be one thing: so much fun to play with. In all seriousness though, it is so crazy to me how some artists can really come up with something so new and original that most other people would not think about. Orozco has said that his art creates "thinking with clay" and that he provokes the space, where his art is made, for thinking. I love that. Another artist we looked at was Justin Novak. He has focused a lot of ceramics as his concentration. He has created a lot of porcelain figures that were really beautiful but then on the hands of them it looked as though they were bleeding. To be honest, that kind of disturbed me. He also created the "21 century Bunny" which was a series of bunnies that had logo elements all over the bunny. I wasn't to interested in the bunnies or Justin Novak as an artist but regardless of my feelings he is a great artist and clearly very talented.
I was able to see quite a few connections between Brian's presentation on multiples and the artists we were to read about. The first connection I was able to see was in general the idea of multiples. Both the presentation and Orozco and Novak create multiples all the time from one idea. Also, another connection I was able to make was the connection between "The American Supermarket" and Orozco's trip to the supermarket. When Orozco went to the supermarket for a project he decided to create a setting that one wasn't exactly used to. For example, he put cat food on top of watermelons in the fruit section or potatoes on top of notebooks in the school supply section. In class said, "I dont know if thats art, but its playful". In response to that statement, I dont really believe that is art. Especially when being compared to the art in "The American Supermarket" and artists like Andy Warhol. However, I think the idea of Orozco going to the supermarket and doing what he did, does in fact create ideas for his art to stem from. Plus, playfulness is key to not turn crazy in my opinion.
I wouldn't say week ten was my absolute favorite week to explore but I did enjoy much of what I saw. I also enjoyed learning about multiples and examples of multiples. My favorite part was seeing Andy Warhol's work incorporated into this weeks lesson. As a whole I had fun exploring though! It was a great class overall this term. Thank you!
multiples from one idea
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