Project 2: Kinetics and Interactivity
ARTIST RESEARCH

Artist Number 1: MOWRY BADEN

Mowry Baden is an American born sculptor who has been quite instumental in contemporary sculpture, in that it is influenced by a combination of psychology, architecture, and performance. He is probably best known for both his public sculptures as well as his 'kinaesthetic' sculptures which have a strong emphasis on motion. What is unique about these sculptures though is that they require a strong element of interaction from the viewer in order to complete the work as a whole. Baden's commitment to viewer participation can be seen in all of his works, in which the viewer must perform any number of activities. In some, like 'Phantom Limb' (1967), 'K Walk' (1969), 'Layritz Field' (1977), and 'Kinhin' (1979), the viewer must walk in or on the sculpture. The viewer must sit on 'Delivery Suite' (1965) and 'Claude Scratch' (1985); pedal 'Hudson Street Tomato' and 'Hudoson Street Beet' (1984); perform with 'Seat Belt with Block' (1969) and 'Dromedary Mezzamme' (1991); lay on 'I Can See the Whole Room I' (1994), 'I Can See the Whole Room II (1997), and 'Prone Gyres' (2000); and crawl under 'Stop Gap' (1968).

In an article about Mowry Baden, Andre Jodoin writes that "he is primarily concerned about gaps in perception: Disjunctions between what we see and what we sense tactily and kinesthetically are apparent only when we are alert to them as they occur over time."I find this to be very intruiguing because Baden's sculptures exists by themselves in space or in public or in a gallery as a object, but they don't really begin to take any meaning until the moment in which the viewer's body is in motion and interacting with it. Before the viewer interacts with the object, it is remains that, an object, but it is not until during the viewer's ineraction with it that it becomes in its own true essence, a sculpture. The emphasis of the works are not so much on the aesthetics of the objects, but of the kinaesthetics of the viewer, and the experience within, around, and on the sculptures. Baden's sculpture are definitely 'task-oriented' and one might even go so far as to call them technological. But what is important to remember is that they offer the viewer an opportunity to experience the sculpture in a much different and tactile way than just from a visual perception.

One of my personal favorites of Baden's works is 'Hudson Street Tomato' (1984). This sculpture consists of a bicycle and a tomato plant which is inside of a plastic bag. The viewer must interact with the sculpture by pedaling the bicyle, which not only brings the sculpture to life as an artwork, but it also keeps the plant alive. A sort of symbiotic relationship is created between the viewer and the tomato plant. Riding a bike can both be a form of excercise or leisure, so from the action of pedaling the bicylcle, the viewer can get a workout and/or enjoy themselves. The tomato plant depends on the action of the pedaling to survive, to be able to produce tomatos. The sculpture almost pokes fun at how humans used to have to physically work for their food, whereas now, it is as simple as driving to the nearest grocery store or Wall-Mart, pushing a cart to the food section, and simply throwing what you want into your cart.

Another one of Baden's works that also seems to have a circular or centripetal theme of movement occuring in it is 'Seat Belt with Block' (1969). The viewer connects themselves to a seatbelt that is connected to the floor. The viewer then can walk around the point at which the seatbelt in connected to the floor, until they come to the block which is so inconveniently placed as to cause the person to stumble over it. This sculpture challenges the viewer's notions of security and pleasure and in its in this disruption that gives the viewer a new understanding to how the sculpture exceeds its expectations in the space that it occupies when the viewer interacts with it.

'Seat Belt With Block' (1984)

'Hudson Street Tomato' (1984)

References

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

http://www.mowrybaden.com/

http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggavma/2006/kc127864804784221385.htm

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

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

Artist Number 2: Rebecca Horn

Rebecca Horn is a German-born installation and performance artist. She is known mainly for her sculptures, her early ones seeming to be extensions of her own body, and her more current ones, in which kinetic sculptures replaces the human body and seem to have lives of their own.

Horn's work is grounded in a background of trauma. In her 20's, Horn was hospitalized for a very long time, and during this time she suffered much isolation as well as the death of both of her parents. When she finally became healthy enough to resume her life, she began creating works that extended from her own body, reaching out to the world that she was for so long isolated from. "When you are very isolated or alone, you have this tremendous longing for communication, and also this strong desire to communicate through the body." Horn attempted to quash her "loneliness by communicating through bodily forms." Examples of these body-extension artworks are 'White Body Fan' (1972), 'Finger Gloves' (1972), 'Unicorn' (1970-1972), 'Cornucpoia, Seance for Two Breasts' (1970), and 'Pencil Mask' (1972). What is relevant throughout all of Horn's work is the ever-present connection to the body.

Horn's sculptures and installations have evolved much over the years. In her early performances, the audience and the performer were the same person, and the event occurred in an isolated space where the person had a very distinct dialogue with the sculpture that seemed to be an extension of the person themselves. Over the years, the perspective of Horn's work has enlarged greatly, and her sculptures now are not only no longer isolated, but they are involved in dialogues with each other that is also influenced by the presence of viewers. Her newer work is also bound together in a very connected way. "Each new work appears to develop stringently from the preceding one." In these installations, she uses all sorts of objects, like funnels, suitcases, ladders, batons, hammers, metronomes, water basins, and drawing machines.

'Unicorn' (1970-1972) is probably one of Horn's best known performance pieces. In this peice, there is a woman who is wearing a horn that extends from the very top of her head. This woman walks for twelve hours with this horn on her head through the countryside. Horn demonstrates her interest in the sculptural aspect of the body extension in this work by showing its intense relationship and connection to the woman who is wearing the horn. The body is treated both as a departure point and as a reference point for the sculpture.

Another very famous work of hers is 'Pencil Mask' (1972). This sculpture also shows Horn's preoccupation with extending her body out into space, but the unique thing about this sculpture is that it leaves a mark, a trail of graphite left over from where her body has moved through space. Each pencil is five centimeters long and collectively create a spatially-extended likeness of her profile. "When I move my head rhythmically back and forth before a white wall, the pencils draw the course of the movement on the wall in lines that grow denser and denser." From one perspective, one could consider the drawings created with this sculpture as a self-portrait of the wearer that is continuously changing with the movements of the wearer. This sculpture also exhibits the relationship and connection of the sculpture to the body.

Unicorn (1970-1972)

Pencil Mask (1972)

References

http://www.rebecca-horn.de/pages/biography.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Horn

http://www.skny.com/artists/rebecca-horn/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979201,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2005/may/23/art

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/artist/horn/biography/

http://www.db-artmag.de/2004/8/e/2/284.php