Sculpture Studio Spring 2012

Project 2: Kinetics and Interactivity
ARTIST RESEARCH

Mel Chin

Mel Chin, though a classically trained artist, tends to work outside of the studio space when creating his art. He is known for collaborative art, working with the small community of a town, to that of a national size. Through his community art, Chin redefines the concept of author; that art is created by the individual and viewed by the masses.  Chin questions the necessity of the object as the focus of a sculpture. We no longer restrict art to the confines of a showcase space, to be created by one set of hands, or even limit the functionality of a piece.  Chin’s work has a direct sense of benefit—his art is functional in a grader, sociopolitical scale.    
    
Fundred, an art campaign whose intention is to capture Washington’s attention concerning the lead-contaminated cities in the United States, most notably New Orleans, was initiated by Chin.  Chin works with student, teachers, and community members to draw attention to the desolate soil conditions they lived with.  The way the project works is, each individual receives a Fundred Dollar Bill, a mock one hundred dollar bill, and the student, teacher, or whoever, draws whatever he or she likes on that paper.  They are all then collected and driven to Washington in an armored truck.  Each bill designed by someone represents money New Orleans is campaigning for. Chin is noted as stating he felt “hopeless and inadequate” (art 21) as an artist trying to lend a helping hand in New Orleans.  He felt the most powerful voice would be that of the children and the community. Through the creative expression of these groups of people, Fundred is now nationally recognized and supported.  Although Chin was at the forefront for developing the concept, the artists of this project are spread across the country. 

Another one of Chin’s projects in which he acts as the driving conceptual force, but is not the actual power creating the art is seen in Revival Field.  With the help of scientist Dr. Chaney, Chin created the concept for a garden that would remove pollutants and heavy metals from ground soil.  Aesthetic concerns were present in the planting stage of the project—the garden is symmetrical and well contained.  But this is not Chin’s idea of the artistic presence in the piece.  Chin calls on the traditional form of reduction art: carving, or otherwise creating images through eliminating lines and sections of material from mediums such as wood and stone, in his conception of the art process that takes place at Revival Field.  Instead of using traditional materials and tools, Chin uses plants as his tools and the base medium is the polluted soil.  The plants remove the toxins, as a chisel would carve wood. 

Revival Field involves hundreds of scientists, lawyers, community activists, and waste management officials, but only one career artist.  Chin claims that the process of filing for permits and dealing with the red tape surrounding the project was an art in itself.  The function behind Revival Field, just as that of Fundred, focuses on the big picture.  Chin exhausts himself working with individuals, groups, communities, event legislators, to create art that will benefit both those involved, and those outside of the projects.  Chin is an active artist in the sense that he not only spends his energy beautifying the world he shares with the rest of us, but invites us to collaborate with him.

Sources

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mel-chin

http://www.fundred.org/

http://www.art21.org/texts/mel-chin/interview-mel-chin-revival-field

http://artsconnected.org/resource/85880/revival-field-projection-procedure 

http://greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Issues/chin.php

http://www.haussite.net/haus.0/gh/iview.html

Mowry Baden

It would be unlikely for artist Mowry Baden to hold an exhibition of his work in which viewers simply walk around and observe his art; where viewers do not break the fourth wall concerning his art.  Baden’s art focuses on the viewer as the doer.  Although Baden constructs the technology—the structures and equipment presented to the audience, this object is not where his art ends.  The viewer must initiate a relationship with the technology for his art to function. 

The focus on visitors’ sensory perception can be understood by the set up of Baden’s pieces.  Their placemen, as well as their functions, call on visitors to engage in physical activity other than simply walking around a gallery.  Visitors must crawl; lift; maneuver, around, though, etc Baden’s pieces.  Andre Jodoin coins the term, “task-oriented” in respect to Baden’s work.  The individual transforms from visitor to participant, to artist in much of Baden’s art. The viewer’s experience shifts from the outsider perspective to the creator.  When the art itself is not the object, but the experience, the audience in integral. 

In Baden’s piece, “Phantom Limb,” two shells form a negative space in which a body can fit.  The head is separated from the rest of the body by the structure, creating visual restraints.  When one walks through this piece, one’s senses experience a gap in communication.  Vision is limited to directly ahead, while the sense of touch is engaged on the smooth surface of the belly of the piece.  “Phantom Limb” separates one from oneself—there is perceptual misfiring. Baden claims that it is not simply the immediate physical reaction that creates his art, but that there is a three-step process to involving others in the art making process.  First, the visitors must breakdown what they see in front of them and guess what it would be like to experience that piece.  Then they need to participate in the piece and reflect on how their experience differed from what they expected.  But the last step is key; the art, the experience, must leave a lingering sensation with the visitor, a “ghost” of the experience; a “body print” (mercerunion).

Baden’s piece, “Seat Belt With Block” is another example of the viewer’s immediate relationship with the creation of art.  A safety belt of about eight feet in length is attached to the floor.  The visitor straps him or herself into the belt and walks in a circle, quickly understanding that due to the constraint, he or she can lean away from the secured spot on the floor and remain elevated.  In the middle of the visitor’s path is a stone block the size of an exercise block.  This block reminds the visitor that he or she cannot defy gravity—more than one foot on it means falling to the ground.  Baden creates a dialogue between the visitors’ perception of security and amusement.  The safety belt secures them into the creation of the piece, and playing around with its tension is fun, until you reach the stone block, and you entertainment is momentarily impeded. This piece provides the visitor insight into the perceptual illusion of the art; seeing someone else perform would not allow someone to experience this piece in the same fashion. Observing, studying others interact with the art can be a science of a sorts—“Seriously taken, Baden’s work can be seen as an aesthetic branch of behavioral psychology” (LA Times).

Baden’s art both calls attention to the audience as the conductor, and prompts the audience to create new understanding of the space they inhabit. In his two pieces “Hudson Street Tomato” and “Freckled Gyres,” both concepts are present.  In both pieces the visitor, or in the case of “Hudson Street Tomato,” the pedestrian, creates the art through his or her actions, and through doing this, redefines the space the art is placed. “Hudson Street Tomato” provides a new perspective on New York City street life.  Usually correlated with rushed men and women in pantsuits, this piece slows the pedestrian down, has him or her exercise, and in doing so, helps sustain organic life; the street becomes a greenhouse.

“Freckled Gyres” similarly establishes the visitor as the creator of a new space.  In a dark gallery space, one sits down in a chair.  The chair spins in many directions when force is exerted.  When the chair rotates, small lights shine from a box that is attached to the structure.  Wherever the visitor faces, these small light beams illuminate the wall in front of him or her.   How we perceive the space we are in is directly correlated to the actions we take while seated—which directed we turn, how quickly we turn, how often we turn, etc.  The structure Baden constructed is not the art on exhibit; the space created, built, by each individual is the art on exhibit. 

http://www.mowrybaden.com/about.php

http://www.mercerunion.org/archive95/248.html

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/feb/25/entertainment/ca-22636

http://www.canadianart.ca/art/features/2004/06/08/219/