Sculpture II
Projects 1 and 2
For your semester long investigation into sculpture, you will focus on 2 areas- substance and space. As you investigate theses areas, you will make 2 works, one traditional in-the-round sculpture, and one installation work. Each work can be developed using what I call “Conceptual Strategy.”
Each student will select 1 contemporary artist (approved by the instructor) to research for the object and installation areas of the project (so 2 artists total!) The artist you choose must modern or contemporary. Looking in books, magazines and the web start (here,) you must investigate that artist’s work, selecting a piece or group of pieces to “decode”, or define that artists’ conceptual strategy. After you have somewhat of an understanding of the artist’s work, you will design a piece utilizing that strategy. You must take that strategy or process and make it your own, but there should be a clear understanding of how your work is related to the selected artist.
Some Rules:
Materials and scale are up to you. We will talk in class about materials and meaning, and other material issues. The size of your work is up to you, PROVIDED that storage is not a problem for your classmates or the other classes that use the room.
Research Materials:
https://publish.obsidian.md/atimidmule/Artists/%3EArtists
https://publish.obsidian.md/atimidmule/Modality/Installation
https://publish.obsidian.md/atimidmule/Modality/Object
Books: in the library
Magazines: Art in America
Art Forum
Sculpture
For this project, it is REQUIRED that you use the library in addition to the internet.
When you pick an artist, there must be some written information on that artists work. An article, story, chapter or whole book would be preferable. You can not do this based on one picture of one piece, such as an ad for a gallery or a picture of a room in a design magazine. In addition, pick up some biographical information on the artist; you will need it for your statement.
What is a conceptual strategy?
In a nutshell, a conceptual strategy is a loose “formula” for how ideas are constructed in visual form. The “formula” could be an action, a process, a type of juxtaposition or exaggeration, or a specific way of dealing with space and materials. As you look at your chosen artist’s work, it is your job to define the strategy, you are not necessarily lookin geo the artist’s explanation (and artists don’t usually speak in terms of strategy!)
Some works are easy to deconstruct in terms of conceptual strategy, some, not so much. You should pick works that lend themselves to this type of analysis.
When defining your strategy, make it “meaning agnostic.” A conceptual strategy is not meaning, it is how meaning is made.
From a PDF by Julia Marshall (I have linked some images from works that I think fit that strategy well):
Creative Conceptual Strategies
Transformative Strategies
1. Scale Change: Make an object or image larger or smaller
2. Re-interpretation: Changing style
3. Unusual Materials: Constructing an object out of surprising materials
Combinatory Strategies
1. Hybridization: Combining elements of multiple things
Juxtaposition Strategies
1. De-contextualization: Changing context of an object/image
2. Collage: Juxtaposing imagery to develop/reveal a concept that unites them
3. Assemblage: Juxtaposing objects to develop/reveal a concept that unites them
4. Layering: Juxtaposing meanings through layering an idea or image onto another—making an image in the mode of something else
5. Appropriation: Using an existing image or style to draw upon its meaning
6. Reformatting: Using a format from outside art
7. Mimicking: Using the methods of a non-art discipline
Extension Strategies
1. Projection: Taking things/ideas to logical or absurd conclusions, fiction and fantasy
2. Amplifying/magnifying: Exaggerating a phenomenon; making it larger than life
3. Elaboration: Spinning further meaning
Distillation Strategies
1. Metonymy: Using a part to stand for the whole
2. Mapping: Organizing ideas and things/imagery graphically
Associative Strategies
1. Visual Analogy: Simple one on one comparison
2. Metaphor: Casting one thing as another
3. Metaphor of materials: Constructing an object or image out of materials that have meaning in themselves
—-Julia Marshall, Professor of Art Education, San Francisco State University
I would add another category:
Functional Strategies
1. Make an object (or action or situation) perform its function in a different way
2. Literalize a function in construction of a form.
3. Invert or negate a function or quality
