Finally Done!

[steponmebbbboom]

Well it’s been about four years now that Ive been bouncing around this TV idea, but Ive finally figured out how to do it and I got my first rough draft finished in time for the open house. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there to see how it was received but it felt great to finally get it finished. I cut it horizontally, starting at the middle of the screen and sloping up about thirty degrees toward the back, so you can kind of peer into the picture tube as you look down at it. We stare at the TV screen more than any other object in our history really, and I kind of like the idea of cutting it open and returning it to an aesthetic object rather than a tool of propaganda and advertising. I find the irony in cutting it in half irresistible. It’ll never broadcast another TV program again, but it still has the power to deliver a message and elicit a response, preferably an unintended and self deprecating one. There’s room for improvement, the cuts aren’t totally smooth and my emery wheel doesn’t polish the glass smooth enough, but I can get another good three or four pieces out of this theme I think. Ive got a big 32” TV for my next piece, and I plan on cutting it at two angles, cutting the two upper front corners off at a compound angle so that the rest of the screen is just this big jagged point coming straight up. What’s next? Well Ive gotten all the rope I need over there, and Jeremy seems to like what Im doing, so the only limiting factor for me is money and materials right now. Ive got this idea floating around in the back of my head right now with copper water pipe, basically assembling lengths of pipe and fittings into a huge ball of tangled mess. Maybe even lighting it from inside with string lighting. I think it could work out great from an aesthetic standpoint, especially if I mess around with patination, but I really want to work a socio-political angle with that too, so it’s strictly in the R+D stage for now. Maybe handwriting some poetry, word salad, sound bytes along the pieces? A big tangled ball of rusty copper piping and fittings with miles of disconnected words written everywhere? I need a thesaurus. Got a thesaurus?

[fritchie]

I'm not sure of the ethics of talking about somebody else's piece and sort of giving away their idea, but at a community art show about 2 - 3 years ago, a grad student entered a silver-painted Macintosh computer with a silver hand protruding from the center of the screen, and it won a purchase award.

The piece was quite well-done technically, though simple. I think there also was a silvered keyboard. Both TV sets and computers are part of our everyday world and have been for quite awhile. I don’t really follow all the art magazines, but Nam June Paik has been doing TV sets for many years. I’m not really aware of anyone else; maybe they’re concerned with being followers.

Sounds to me like you have a good concept going. Keep us up to date.

[steponmebbbboom]

Sorry for the delay but I finally have a couple pictures of the first TV in this series, Decapitated Medium #1:





The second, still not finished, is bisected at a straight vertical axis behind the screen, and is meant to hang vertically with the inside facing out. I still have to finish cutting the VHF/UHF channel selectors flush. I abandoned this project last March in favor of my blacksmithing but may just finish off the second piece.

[steponmebbbboom]

decapitated medium #2, four years later

this piece is meant to hang in a window with the inside facing the viewer

the phosphorescent coating has been removed from the screen to make it transparent.

[steponmebbbboom]

this shows it better

[StevenW]

Originally Posted by steponmebbbboom

We stare at the TV screen more than any other object in our history really, and I kind of like the idea of cutting it open and returning it to an aesthetic object rather than a tool of propaganda and advertising. I find the irony in cutting it in half irresistible.

If there ever was an opiate for the masses it is T.V. The first one reminds me of the silence of the lambs, 2 maybe? Where old Hannibal was sauteing the guys brain and feeding it to him. Grisly and funny all at once.