Project 3

Container/vessel with interior and exterior connotation 

Inspiration:  In 1961 Robert Morris constructed a wooden “box.” While making this box he recorded the sound of the tools transforming the wood into an object and enshrined the sound inside of it. The title of this piece is a “Box with the Sound of its own Making.”

 This piece conveyed the idea that art making was a record of a performance by the artist.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/robert-morris-bodyspacemotionthings

“In a broad sense art has always been an object, static and final, even though structurally it may have been a depiction or existed as a fragment. What is being attacked, however, is something more than art as an icon. Under attack is the rationalistic notion that art is a form of work that results in a finished product. Duchamp, of course, attacked the Marxist notion that labor was an index of value, but the Ready-mades are traditionally iconic art-objects. What art now has in its hand is mutable stuff which need not arrive at the point of being finalized with respect to either time or space. The notion that work is an irreversible process ending in a static icon-object no longer has much relevance.”

“The attention given to both matter and its inseparableness from the process of change is not an emphasis on the phenomenon of means. What is revealed is that art itself is an activity of change, of disorientation and shift, of violent discontinuity and mutability, of the willingness for confusion even in the service of discovering new perceptual modes.”

(Quotes from the “Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects” Exhibition, 1970. The New York Cultural Center, New York.)

Theme

The theme of this project is to explore and express inherit duality of modern art; object vs. process, concept vs. material, form vs. space . . .. This project explores the contrast between physical and nonphysical aspects of art,  its visual and conceptual elements, form and function, interior and exterior.

Create sculptural work exploring these opposing forces; point and draw attention to their mutual relationship. 

 Structure

Your objective is to explore and express duality between form and its function, process and the final product, materiality and non-materiality. In this project you will create a wooden "vessel",  which interior and exterior are equally significant and explore these dual relationships in art. 

To express non material aspects of art create object and present it in ritual performance symbolizing (embodying) this relationship of opposing forces in the work.  Through the design, connection system and the performance you will reveal and bring the inside to the outside.  Construct unique (non prefabricated) connection system to open and reveal what is on the inside. In other words you will also have to create joints that will keep the object together and allow to reveal what is on the inside during the performance.  You can not use pre-made, commercial metal hinges. In creating your structure you can use nails or screws in the final piece. Also pay close attention to the surface. All surfaces have to be finished/treated and there is no restriction on the type of treatment you can use.

Every aspect, element and side of this project will be equally important - what you don’t see in your piece will be as important, if not more, then what you see. 

Class Critique - Performance 

For the class critique you will stage short performance to reveal the object’s concept. The way you open and close the object and reveal what’s inside should communicate to the audience something about the piece and its significance. You can use any help to create the performative element you like. You can work with a partner on the performance or you may ask anyone to help you perform the ritual with you during the critique. If the environment you show the piece in is important you can record a video of your performance in the proper conditions and play it during the class critique.

Specs

Dimensions are open but no smaller then 24x24x24. The basic structure has to be made from solid wood (not ply wood MDF or particle board). You can use different kind of of solid wood such as pine, ash, redwood, oak, walnut, cherry . Use of other materials in the work  (fabric, ceramics, metal, leather, paper...)  or media (sound, video, photo,......) is strongly encouraged. You may use screws, nails or other fasteners to connect and construct your project. 

Resources:

click on the link to download class presentation. Project 3 performative objects.pdf