At Te tuhi The one peice of Art that stood out to me was this installation exhibit by the Iris Fisher scholarship recipient ANTHONY CRIBB.
PersonallyI think the context of this piece could possibly be about Mans impact nature and this is why
-On the ground you have man made paving stones BUT underneath that you have soil ( Anthony has lifted 3 paving slabs to expose the soil)
- Anthony cleverly reverses these layers by placing the olive tree in a plastic bag of soil and now the soil is on top of the Paving slabs
- Next you have an olive tree (nature) in the middle being pulled three ways by (man made) polyester strapps connecting to man made steel posts
- This exhibit is a site responsive durational installation which Anthony can adjust
- Lastly I observed that the polyester strapping around the tree looked machine stitched with quite a snug fit effectively limiting the room for growth something which humans do to nature every day.
I found this installation unassumingly inspiring the mingling of natural and man made Materials
with the combination of divergent and convergent lines coming to and from the olive tree make this subtle installation the high point of my day.
3 comments:
Your perspectives on Anthony Cribb's work are really interesting ie:'man's impact on nature'. I especially liked your comment about the olive tree growth being limited by manmade structures - a definate analogy on what is happening in the environment today due to man's consumption. ( contemporary context)
In thinking about the interaction between the ' manmade' and nature, I started thinking about Angkor Wat ( the temple complex in Cambodia that was created for King Suryavarman II in the 12th Century) and one of the last state temples to be built called ‘Bayon’. As well as man impacting on nature by creating these structures, the most noticable thing is that ‘Nature is taking over these manmade temples'. I visited Cambodia a couple of years ago and was amazed at how these majestic crumbling temples were being overtaken by tree roots & the forces of nature .
There was a definate sense of religion, history & culture within this complex, and these were the contexts that this temple complex sprung out of.
http://www.bezoekthailand.nl/images/data/angkor-wat-reis-cambodja.jpg
There is an artist named Sharon Tait and she is interested in how manmade forms are overtaken by nature, although it is also clear in her work that manmade forms overtook nature at some point. Tait takes photos of derelict buildings in Wales and in a sense documents the strength of nature. http://sharontait.org.uk/artworkwales.htm.
I love the idea that it all started with nature and ends with nature too. In her work it is clear that there is a real contrast between the structured, unflexible surfaces of manmade structures compared to the free-flowing, unstructured forms that nature takes on. Some of the contexts that Sharon is working within include geographical, historical and time.
The last artist I would like to mention is Christine Lee. When I went to the states last year I visited the Museum of Craft and Design and she was crafting a wall installation out of pieces wood. She was using a natural material to create art within a manmade structure ( the museum) for an exhibition called foursite. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyHgV9G00-8
Thanks Maha,
This is a great response! Sorry it took me a while to get to it and I didn't have any feedback for you when you asked in class, but I think you are definitely on the right track. I like the way you combined close viewing, and description of the way the piece is actually constructed, with a contextual commentary, venturing a well-educated guess on what kind of concepts the artist might be talking about.
Keep up the good work!
Tessa X
Leah,
wow your response goes way over and above the "call of duty" for a comment. Great if it is because you got on a roll and were really excited about what you were writing, which is what I assume has happened. (Not so good if you are writing heaps cause you are unsure, which doesn't seem to be the case.) Keep up the good work and have fun with it,
cheers Hobbs
Post a Comment