Jenny Holzer
Truism
"Men Don't Protect You Anymore"
Jenny Holzer, an American conceptual artist who makes artworks out of words. In the December of 2018, I visited Tate Modern where the show of Jenny Holzer was held. There were texts on marble benches, flickering electronic sign and plaques to be observed, given that language takes parts in my practice as well, the modalities that Jenny Holzer adopts to create work could offer me different aspects in tackling the language as the material.
The content of texts is the truth that Jenny Holzer wants to provoke, it's not specified in particular area, but mostly relatable to the public, she composed it in a narrative way, strong and straightforward. The material she utilizes to carry her words spans a wide range, the only common is that they play a competent role to disclosure the texts to the public, in which clarifies the body of her work, that is the text itself, while the tangible parts involve nothing with the texts but to convey the ideas.
But there's one piece of work made in a way that differs from above - Truism - condoms with "Men Don't Protect You Anymore" printed. Condoms, the carrier intervene the body of her work by linking with three words: men, protect and you. This bonding between the text and its carrier strengthens provocativity and agitates interactions; however, it could be inflammatory or over-narrative that looses the resilience.
In my practice, materials always respond to the text, and I experiment on the interaction between materials and texts at all degrees. This piece of Jenny Holzer is a reference for the intense binding. In this case, the carrier not only effects on the idea, but also changes its positioning; a sheer text carrier itself functions as a venue or a even a gallery for the artwork - TEXT, but with the binding, the carrier becomes a part of the artwork which drastically changes the way it's installed.
Gavin Turk
PILE
Edition of 6, 2004
Gavin Turk, a British artist, his work is rich in diversity and concepts, covers a wide range from installation minimal painting to refined sculpture, it seems to him that the material and the form of are mere the plate to display his playful mind. “Pile”(2004), an exquisitely detailed sculpture made in black bin bag shape, it is almost impossible to tell that underneath the black coating is an intact chunk of bronze, and successfully tricks audiences into the confusion of identity.
In this piece, two characters were given in one sculpture by the material and the appearance, and alternatives are given to the audiences to define the artwork. By this modality, the sculpture becomes interactive in the dimension of thought, and it leaves space for further exploration.
My practice utilizes this two-character mechanism very often, "Carpet" for example combines bubble wrap and carpet; and I took a further step to use language as one of the characters. In one of my recent works, "Postcard", I made toilet paper into printed postcards; the spirits of postcard and toilet paper contrast with each other just as bronze conflicts with bin bag in "Pile", and they both work as a detonator to confuse the existing cognition toward normality.
However, using language as one of the character is essentially different from appearance. In Gavin Turk's "Pile", people get to know it's bronze underneath the coating by reading the medium, thus there's a period before realizing the truth; somehow language is more like a transparent package on the object, audience recognize what the work is from the very beginning.
Ceal Floyer, a conceptual artist based in UK, her work gives senses of transparency and weightlessness, without personal affection or opinion, being materialism and human simultaneously. In "Monochrome Till Receipt" (White), Ceal Floyer purchased 49 white items in Morrisons, and had this receipt as the evidence and the body of the artwork. In spite of the idea to take this action as the art itself, there seems no further knowledge or theory could be acquired from her work. I was confused and meanwhile obsessed with the simplicity that the art could be.
The occasion that I found interest in her work, is when I was looking for the medium for my subject matter: consumption behavior. This receipt piece opened up a new direction in which evidences or traces are used to cast or to reproduce the action. By presenting only the evidence, the body of the artwork gets to be concise and minimal meanwhile concludes the movement from beginning to the end. In my experimental work "Alibi", I made an straight extension on the idea of evidence, in which uses the definition of alibi to demonstrate the deeds and the absence of the consumed object at the same time. From an intact sheet to the teared wreck, the consumption behavior conducted by human and how it inflicts on the object is revealed, in which there's a subtle entropy between the reduction of the material and the intangible on-going human action.
The more you try to decipher the mysterious charisma in Ceal Floyer's work, the more you find yourself facing a blatant being of things-in-itself.
Ceal Floyer
Monochrome Till Receipt (White) 1999
Most of my practices essentially relate to Francis Alÿs's early works. In "Making Something Leads to Nothing" (1997), Francis Alÿs pushed a rectangular ice on and around the street till it fully melted. The whole 9 mins and 54 seconds performance seems end up nothing but in vain, and in "When Faith Moves Mountains" (2002), five hundred volunteers with shovels moved the dune by several inches yet no one could tell the difference after the move is done. These two works seem to me the modern adaptations of Greek tragedy, they speak to the repetitive suffering and smallness of being human, and most of all, they question the intention of doing something or being somebody while knowing the end at the beginning. And This is where I developed my interest in consumption behavior. Human beings start consuming things from birth toward death, and do those consumed objects stand for one's intention and its value?
In my practice "Postcard", anything written on it and the toilet-paper-made postcard itself seem impossible to be delivered, but what if it does eventually? If it doesn't, what's the matter of doing it? In this way, it resonates with Francis Alÿs's "Making Something Leads to Nothing", we are like primitives clashing fire stones with bear hands, try to make sparkles, stubbornly and bluntly.
By keeping questioning, I get to realize "consume" and its result that I've been focusing on, represent only the unilateral view as the consumer. There's a reallocation of substances and movements can be observed, which I would call it "travel of everything" and drill deeper in the future to see how human beings state their-selves by inflicting on objects.
A stack of printed paper intended to be collected by the viewers, this untitled work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres makes an compact orchestration of material, language and interaction. Though there are many other interpretations on this piece, I personally think the best way to put the printed pattern is the symbol of infinity. The paper as the material gives the idea of flyer that people take for granted; the pattern of infinite copes with the paper always replenished; and the interaction of people taking the paper to share from the infinity; I appreciate how these three layers together present multiple aspects of infinite through this minimal installation. This untitled piece of Felix Gonzalez-Torres inspired me with its perfect trinity mechanism between the three elements.
Furthermore, I pursue interaction with viewers in my practice as well, and I think my artworks will only be completed with the interaction comprised. Given that, it's crucial how I trigger the viewers to take action that I expected, though many of interactive artworks exhibit with a note to invite viewers or invigilators guiding them what to do, adding things that not belong to the work is what I want to avoid. To make the interaction more nature and contextualized, I decided to exhibit my artwork in places that are out of viewers expectation. For example, "Postcard" made of toilet paper to be put on the sink in campus toilets, "Alibi" provided in the ad form to be paste on the wall of the corridor, and "Ticket" made of kitchen paper to be provided in the canteen, viewers feel no burden and won't need to be told to act on the installation.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
“Untitled” (Double Portrait) 1991
Tehching Hsieh ”
One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece)
Tehching Hsieh, a Taiwanese performance artist, his work” One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece)” resonated with me while I was implementing the “10:10” project. In this piece, Tehching Hsieh argued that life is linear, it goes in one direction. The more pain imagined by audiences, the greater smallness of being alive they felt in this massive time stream. But I saw something different from these perspectives. Undoubtedly it was painful to live up to this timetable, and this repetition seemed meaningless. That was not all about it, since I went through my clock project, underwent the feeling of liberty being deprived, I pondered to myself, and contemplated the meaning of doing this, and in the end I could not stop myself doing this, even the pain was reverted into happiness. What was involved in not just time and the artist, but also the action of clocking and taking photograph of it; with the action, this whole thing became a sort of game, as artist achieved clocking every hour, it offered the reward and satisfaction to Hsieh, and the photographs were his trophy. In this case, the artist treated himself as a single function being, so that life form became extremely simple and one-direction. For me, to be able to focus on just one thing is an ecstasy, because that is the best way to spend time.
Another thing I learned from this piece is that time scale matters a lot to this kind of art work. The units for mankind to count time vary obscurely in their sensations, unless we unfold a year to 12 months, and 12 months to 375 days. This phenomenon also intrigues me, and makes me want to plan a project dwelling deeper in it.
Urs Fischer —“Dasha (2018)”
This piece of wax candle made in a woman shape is Urs Fischer’s most recent work—“Dasha”. Before seeing this piece, my mind was hovered by the works of Francis Alÿs, such as “Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing” and ” When Faith Moves Mountains”, these pieces enlightened me, and fascinated with the idea that art doesn’t need to be preserved, or it can be too small to be observed that can only be sensed by mind. This inspiration helped me inspect and appreciate “Dasha” more. Since I would like to make a project aiming to make audiences experience a process, and in the end I want the auxiliary substances to be destroyed or discarded, the process of how materials are processed became the only thing that matters. It happened to me to pass by “Dasha” on 25th Sep, this piece would be burned out during the exhibition, and the work changed every second that made me felt the moment I met her was so unique and precious among the whole burning process. I have seen works of woman statues made in candles before, but none of them associated with me well like “Dasha” did, because they were too ambitious, added concepts of motherhood and love into their works, which made me feel like affection bait. So I realized how important simplicity is, since mankind is easy to be distracted. It also clarified my purpose in the work “Carpet”, which was to offer the chance to experience an often-seen process but in an amplified scale, to make them fully feel it, rather than overwhelming my audiences with those abused titles.
Carl Andre:
Things in Their Elements
When I decided to create installation works, I looked into many masters’ works of minimalism, such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin. I used to try to make installations as well organized as their works, sometimes it worked out well, but most of time I got irritated by the way I set it. Thus I read into more books and articles about minimalism, and then I saw the picture of “Copper Ribbon” by Carl Andre. This piece captured my eyes even before I read its brilliant naming. It was literally a line laid on the floor (seemed casually), somehow, in this way, the material revealed its nature without any manipulation from the artist. I became curious about how can an artist be so confident in this way of display, therefore I came to research on Carl Andre’s works and the evolution. Carl Andre started his sculptures with cut wood; he cut the wood in extremely simple shape, rearranged its display in reasonable order and named it. Thus there were three artificial moves involved. For me that was too much and I wasn’t that impressed by his previous works. But his works kept transforming, it became more and more on-site depending, which means he was letting go of his power over the work, and letting it interact freely with the space. “I realized the wood was better before I cut it, than after” said Carl Andre. The humidity that Carl Andre showed toward his material brought him the confidence, and in return, materials revealed all its elements, truly, sincerely. After read though the book, I decided to confront the fact that the organization of me added no value to the process which I wanted viewers to experience, and to minimalize the man-made part in the practice. What I should do, is just to let it happen.