So today was about as fun as watching paint dry because that is literally what I ended up doing for about half of class. I spray painted another layer on my black board and had to wait for that to dry before I could really do anything which was slightly frustrating because today was our last official class day to work on our sculptures. However, towards the end of class I was able to make some progress by cutting the lengths of fishing line and attaching them to my scribbles.
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Today, I spray painted my board black but because it was raining when I did it, there are a few raindrops that created some texture so I may need to go back, sand a few places down, and then re-paint it. While that was drying, I made a few sketches to get a clearer picture of where I want to go with my sculpture. I have mainly decided on doing the sketch on the bottom row, second from the right because once I have added the scribbles and the lights, I can kind of get a better idea of if I wanted to add mirror bits or not. I hope I can work more on my sculpture/physically start putting the pieces together on Monday so I don't get too far behind in the process but right now, I think I'm not too terribly off track.
So today I was mainly stuck trying to figure out how I wanted to configure my lil scribbles but due to their wiry edges and the yarn, they kept on being snagged and tangled up with each other. Because of this, I stuck them in plastic bags, kinda giving off the appearance of balls of trash. Aside from this, I was able to figure out the lengths I wanted and the placement of the spheres, giving me places to drill on the wooden platform. I'm still not 100% sure where I am going with this process which is slightly problematic. I think I've officially ruled out using lights because I didn't realize how short the actual cords for the string lights are and so they would not be able to go as far down as the sculpture would require.
Who is this unknown art genius? and why they haven't been found... The mystery and intrigue behind the Philadelphia Wireman stems from the legend of an unknown figure in the art world, impacting the forms of self-taught and cultural art. The reason I chose to investigate this mystery man is not only because of the personal curiosity I hold in this renowned yet completely unknown figure, but mainly because of how their work relates to the sculpture I am currently working on. We both use a thicker gauge wire to create forms by wrapping it around and around in a circular fashion to create our own individual styles and works. Mine, however, while intentionally was made to have a light source go in the center of it, it is now visually holding nothing, making it appear light and airy-ish, while the Wireman used their wire to quite physically wrap small bits and bobs into a singular, typically compact, sculpture. I think that this comparison can help me with my sculpture process because it takes the concept of wrapping things to convey some sort of content and that allows for the viewer to freely interpret what each of the items means to them. I like how ambiguous this allows the meaning to be for each person and doesn't make the meaning super clear/defined. Of course, this doesn't mean I don't have a specific meaning to my art, but it's only my interpretation of what I have made. And with the Wireman, they obviously can't specifically say what their meaning is, so this leaves the viewer to have their own interpretation. The backstory to the Philadelphia Wireman is that an art student found the sculptures in a pile left out as garbage outside of a building undergoing renovations. He then took them home, and after spending a few years giving them out to friends as gifts, he finally took them to a gallery where they were purchased and put on display. At first, the public was critical, but they are now seen to be symbols of cultural significance and power and marked a turning point in found object art. Unfortunately, the original artist was never found. Thought to be a man due to the physical labor to bend and manipulate the wire, the Philadelphia Wireman was likely a homeless person living in the then abandoned building who has passed away, never to be publicly recognized. read: This is an article on how the public grew to know the wireman's work (please hit the "read more" button) www.allanstoneprojects.com/artists/philadelphia-wire-man watch: Watch the video from 1:42 to 3:07 to glean more info about the public perception of the Philadelphia Wireman more info (not needed for questions):
See more sculptures done by the Philadelphia Wireman: americanart.si.edu/artist/philadelphia-wireman-5877 Read this to (kinda) see how the Wireman's work is being incorporated with other artists and exhibitions: www.artnews.com/2014/11/11/here-is-the-2015-outsider-art-fair-exhibitor-list/ questions: 1. What did the public initially think of the wireman's sculptures? What do you think about them? 2. What is speculated that the sculptures are commentary on? Does this add to your interest in the pieces? 3. Do you think that the mystic and unknown past of the sculptures' creator add to the interest of the pieces themselves? Or do you think that an artist would have been able to gain this much notoriety, or more, if they had just gone to galleries and been a "normal" artist? bibliography: adamsandollman.com/Philadelphia-Wireman americanart.si.edu/artist/philadelphia-wireman-5877 Yeah so at this point I'm basically just stalling until I figure out where I want to go with this, so I have created a larger version of the other wire scribbles just to give myself a few more options. However, I picked a different wire spool than the one I had been using, giving me more of a crinkled vibe rather than the long, smooth lines created by the wire on the other spool, which had been re-wrapped. I don't particularly love it just because it doesn't really align with the other three scribbles and so I am going to try and straighten them out a lil.
Ahhh so now I'm very confused. Going into the actual construction and building of the sculpture, I thought I knew exactly what I was going to do, and had everything all planned out and the whole thing was gonna be all nice and neat. Well that plan lasted for a whole three days. Today, I was given some valuable advice from both Mrs. Mosley and Coach Hall, both who made some really eye-opening points to guide me through this process. Mrs. Mosley was helping to guide me for light choices, as shown below, where I was trying to decide whether or not to contain my lights within a clear boundary, or just let them be bunched up and hang, when Coach brought up the point that by adding lights to the center of my lil creations, I was turning my sculptural element into more of a decorative one, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but not something that I was really going for. This realization is now what is really stumping me as far as the thought process and where I want to go from here. I'm now kinda questioning my idea from the beginning and am now potentially considering just making my lil wire creations in various sizes, and having them hang independently of each other on the ceiling or on like a very loooong and semi wideish structure/piece of wood so that they could become a pathway but be staggered and not just like in a straight line. The process has become much, MUCH more complicated than I thought it would be and I have gained insight into the struggles that artist go through to create their works and content. Hopefully, I will have a more structured idea of where I want to go with this soon so I can just feel more reassured that I know how far away I am from the finish line to better pace myself.
So I'm close to, if not already, finished with my weird lil sphere thingies and am fairly content with how they look. I'm still kinda figuring out what I want to do with the light situation but after discussing it with Mrs. Mosley, I'm pretty sure I'm going with fairly/string lights in a clear container of sorts to be put in the center of my sphere. I still have a little ways to go because I have to attach the lights to the container and then to the wooden circle above and add the mirror bits around them but I feel that overall I'm in a fairly good place!
I honestly inspire to be the these people: to be rich enough to have enough art for my own personal art gallery of only the things that I like. I was wowed by the art included in the collection and absolutely loved the backstory behind the name of the gallery, based on the building's history as a bottling facility for Try-Me Soda. I was also very appreciative that the collectors, Pam and Bill Royall, were more interested in contemporary art and were interested in art that was empowering minorities and women, an agenda which I wholeheartedly support.
Right when we walked in, I was ecstatic to see multiple pieces by Kehinde Wiley, an artist which I have come to appreciate more and more for his content and style. After being instantly captured by the vivid colors and patterns of his work, I was able to actually look around the area, glimpsing the work of Mariko Mori shown in the middle picture. In the light of the store, they were almost glowing and the reflections, or should I say refraction, of light shifted as you moved around the piece, giving the very heavy, very large blacks of acrylic a lightness and fluidity. Towards the end of the tour, we learned about the Philadelphia Wireman and his work, which I found incredibly interesting. I could almost picture this mystery man fiddling with wire and random objects in a corner of the abandoned building and making these pieces, a rather sad image as the world would never discover who he was. Anyway, his art really inspired me and I love how compact the little sculptures are but how complex they are too. They may not have had any intended content to the person making them, only to keep their hands and mind busy, but they have made a significant impact in the art world. I really love how they aren't particularly beautiful or aesthetic, but the sculptures have their own little style and funk that make them so intriguing to the viewer. I really had a great experience at the Try-Me Gallery because of how all of the pieces all seemed to have a flow from one to the other, creating an energy within the gallery that only made the art more interesting. I loved the art that had been collected because I find the more contemporary and slightly more unusual works more interesting than the tediously painted or drawn ones done by more traditional painters because these seem to be like mental puzzles to be unlocked. I really hope to return to the gallery to have a little more time to look at the pieces and learn more about the artists but this trip was a really fun peak into the collection. |
AuthorNatalie Kim is a senior at MLWGS who likes to do art, take pics, and pet puppers. Archives
May 2020
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