underachiever
11-24-2005, 10:25 AM
Now the school term's over and school assigned work's out of the way, I'm becoming more and more aware of how lost I am as a sculptor. What is sculpture to me? Why do I do sculpture? What kind of sculpture do I intend to make? When I had just entered art school, I had views on the kind of art I wanted to make. It had to mean something, point out the social ills of the world and champion the rights of god knows who and god knows where. General disdain and fingerpointing. So I spent most of my first year on ready mades and concept heavy works that screamed at people. Nothing tasteless, but I wasn't exactly the happy fairy for a while.
As time passed, I began to lose interest in screaming through my art and became more interested in sculpture as sculpture. Things like form and space seemed infinitely more important then the tendency to compare human beings to pigs or drugs to pacifiers. The more I studied, the more into form and technique I go to. I still occassionally touch on social issues every now and then, but I tend to be a little laid back now, still looking for something that I would really want to work with. And with that, the awareness of how pathetically behind I was at techniques and finishing, so much so I was considering redoing my second year. Of course, the fact that I was rapidly aging was also extremely worrying.
Sculpture. All I really think about it, is that it has to be fun. Enjoyable to look at, touch, experience. I want to make sculpture that everyone can enjoy by simply being in the same room with it, but not at the expense of my own enjoyment. I want, in a way, to make emotive forms, but that's it. Nothing more. Granted, not all sculpture is enjoyable. Some of it is breathtaking, making me feel useless in my awe, others are completely and totally useless, which is fairly disappointing at times. Though more often these days I find young artists around me either attempting to force their concepts on abstract forms insisting that this curve means that and that line means this or trying to shock the viewer into submission with some grosquete and repulsive thing that coerces one into thinking "It must be art." simply by virtue of being what no sane person would place in display.
But I don't want to make things like that. It cheapens the works and makes a little part of me somewhere whine.
So what do I say when someone actually asks me "Dude, what's your art about?' or "Explain your concept/intention." I'm dumbstruck. "I want to make fun 3D shapes" doesn't seem to cut it, and even then is that really all I'm about? I mean, I like art theory. I like gabbing about these things. It's just that my art doesn't seem to really need much gabbing about.
So I decided to post my thoughts online and see if I got anything back that I could think on. It's like fishing, really, only most times, the fish climbs onto your boat and beats you up and makes disparaging remarks about your decor.
As time passed, I began to lose interest in screaming through my art and became more interested in sculpture as sculpture. Things like form and space seemed infinitely more important then the tendency to compare human beings to pigs or drugs to pacifiers. The more I studied, the more into form and technique I go to. I still occassionally touch on social issues every now and then, but I tend to be a little laid back now, still looking for something that I would really want to work with. And with that, the awareness of how pathetically behind I was at techniques and finishing, so much so I was considering redoing my second year. Of course, the fact that I was rapidly aging was also extremely worrying.
Sculpture. All I really think about it, is that it has to be fun. Enjoyable to look at, touch, experience. I want to make sculpture that everyone can enjoy by simply being in the same room with it, but not at the expense of my own enjoyment. I want, in a way, to make emotive forms, but that's it. Nothing more. Granted, not all sculpture is enjoyable. Some of it is breathtaking, making me feel useless in my awe, others are completely and totally useless, which is fairly disappointing at times. Though more often these days I find young artists around me either attempting to force their concepts on abstract forms insisting that this curve means that and that line means this or trying to shock the viewer into submission with some grosquete and repulsive thing that coerces one into thinking "It must be art." simply by virtue of being what no sane person would place in display.
But I don't want to make things like that. It cheapens the works and makes a little part of me somewhere whine.
So what do I say when someone actually asks me "Dude, what's your art about?' or "Explain your concept/intention." I'm dumbstruck. "I want to make fun 3D shapes" doesn't seem to cut it, and even then is that really all I'm about? I mean, I like art theory. I like gabbing about these things. It's just that my art doesn't seem to really need much gabbing about.
So I decided to post my thoughts online and see if I got anything back that I could think on. It's like fishing, really, only most times, the fish climbs onto your boat and beats you up and makes disparaging remarks about your decor.