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uhlrik — Shrine Revisited 1
Published: 2006-06-12 16:15:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 284; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 10
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There's no subcategory for installation, so in scultpure>Miscellaneous it goes.Last year (2005) I produced Shrine, an installation work. I just recently recieved the portfolio-grade photos that my instructor Erik Geschke took of the piece for me. The shots I took of Shrine with my own camera begin with [link]
The space is activated via the arrangement of the objects and their manner of presentation (light, pinning, orientation, etc etc etc), and the audio element. Unfortunately, I can't make the auditory aspect of this piece available here, as it's every bit as important as the visual and spatial.
It's easy to say this is simply a sculpture of found objects (particularly from photographs), but the piece is the entire gallery space and the atmosphere of the room, not just the mannequins. Speaking of the mannequins, I very much appreciate the loan of these objects by the department store Robinsons-May in Beverly Hills (this is not an endorsement or a plug, just a thank you on my part... the Rob-May in Beverly Hills closed earlier this year anyhow). The clothing is a mix of old old things from the house and thrift store finds (there's a little reference to myself in one of the clothing items, btw).
I don't do a lot of installation work, primarily focussing on actually making things, but I learned a lot from doing this piece. It incorporated my first-ever original audio compositions, for example, and also helped reinforce my ideas that every factor of presentation from lighting to the exact number of inches in a specific gap of space, etc etc must be considered.
Many thanks to Erik Geschke for his input and support, and for actually taking the time and effort to bring in his lights, reflectors and all that gear to shoot every single project anybody did for him.
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Comments: 8
so is there anything conceptual about it? Like what is the point... you said that it is not just found objects but then didnt really expand beyond that. Is it just about space and aesthetics and white cube defiance etc? If you had some kick arse reasoning that would be really awesome.
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Oh, there absolutely is. I didn't initially provide that because I really hate to go off on longwinded conceptual expositions for a number of reasons. I'm happy to at least provide a little bit on request, however. The reasons I usually don't include a desire to avoid pretensious art-wank explanation and a parallel desire to let the viewer find their own meaning for the piece rather than just nailing it down to my own intentions.
Really, this installation came from an observation on my part that retail space, art-display space and religious space are all designed with a similar intention in mind: to alter the consciousness and state of mind of anybody that enters. It's emotional influence via use of space and aesthetics. The exact state they're looking for varies (greed/desire to consume versus seeking communion with the divine is quite a contrast), but they're both designed to change mood, to urge the individual to extend their stay and to think differently than they did before they entered. I'm poking at the similarities and differences between the retail consumer culture, religion and the fine art world. I do that here in a number of ways by mixing my signals.
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I would not have been able to get that by looking at it. I do not think I would have looked long enough to understand, in no offense at all, perhaps a little more detail in the clothes might have worked it. But I know that hardly meanings are put across with viewer in thought, I myself could not give a shit about them. I like the idea. Retail and religious, definately, but my understanding of art display space here is very anti-clutter and space obsessed whereas retail and religious, at least the old stages of the cross works seem to be obsessed with filling every little space. A fear to make use of every little space. I suppose that is why the more expensive the store, the less it has in it. It is amazing the amount of pointless psychology that goes into designing a store.
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Oh, the psychology's not pointless at all. It's intended to make you buy their stuff. :-D
Different religions have different aesthetics (and indeed the same can be different from place to place and time to time). As for getting the meaning I put into it... that's fine with me. Having somebody know what I am saying in a piece is optional. I'm more interested in letting folks find their own interpretation than in having them "get" what I'm doing. That's art, as far as I'm concerned. And as for not being that interested... that's fine too. As I said, this pic doesn't do the piece itself justice.
One of the oft-repeated positive critiques of this piece was that the viewers wanted to stay in there with it for an extended period of time. I think the audio element had a lot to do with that.
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ahh yes I forgot the audio, audio definately intrigues as for me, I dont like to miss something. Maybe you could figure out how to make a flash of it, just with the photo and the audio. I dont know how to, but I'm sure you or somebody does.
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I have no experience with making flash objects... and even with the sound, it still doesn't get the being there in a 3-dimensional space thing, which is very important in installation pieces. If I ever do learn flash though, I just may do something with this.
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you use words as though you always feel as though you are teaching someone something, even if in the most subtle sense. I dont think I like to wonder what to make of it.
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Fair enough. My objectives in art are apparently different from your expectations. You're pretty much right on my approach though: to me, art is a didactic tool, and the most effective teaching (in my opinion) is encouraging someone to teach themselves and help them reach their own conclusions rather than just handing them rote answers. I'd rather supply questions than answers. I guess it comes partially from the fact that I've been a teacher in one way or another for well over a decade now. My approach isn't for everyone, and I totally respect that.
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