Anya Contreras

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art. He is associated with environmental art and land art movements. From a young age, Goldsworthy worked on farms as a laborer and has likened the repetitive quality of farm tasks to the routine making of his sculptures: “A lot of my work is like picking potatoes; you have to get into the rhythm of it.”

Andy Goldsworthy uses exclusively natural materials, saying, “My remit is to work with nature as a whole.” He works with resources such as ice, snow, leaves, bark, petals, stones, feathers, and twigs to understand the energy running through landscapes that he also recognizes within himself. Holes are a common element in his works because he finds holes to be a literal method in getting beneath the surface of natural materials in order to explore their intrinsic energetic properties. His greatest inspiration is the flow in nature; specifically of water. Flowing water, in the form of either rivers or oceans, serves as a natural force that informs the elements of repetition and concepts of cycles and time in his work. He is famous for interpreting the subtle shifts of place and time through his work. He understands that nature is constantly in a state of change, and this change is the key to understanding. The transience in his works is what he observes in nature. For his ephemeral works, Goldsworthy often uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials, even finding gloves to reduce his sensitivity to his process. Some of his more permanent sculptures, such as “Roof”, “Stone River” and “Three Cairns” employed the use of some machine tools. Observation and intimate interaction are inseparable from Goldsworthy’s work. When he interacts with nature as a material, it transcends surface and form into an exploration of the processes of life within and around it. When these pieces are left alone, these processes continue to work upon them.

Photography plays a crucial role in Goldsworthy’s art due to its ephemeral and transient state. According to Goldsworthy, “Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit.”

Jessica Martinez

Artist Response

Los Carpinteros

The Carpenters

Los Carpinteros are a group of artists who decided to renounce the notion of authorship by banding together in an attempt to work as past guilds of artists had. However, their group name is also a form of authorship, there seems to be no way of escaping the concept. Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes, Dagoberto Rodríguez Sanchez, and Alexandre Arrechea make up Los Carpinteros, although Arrechea left the group in 2003 to continue his career as a solo artist, maybe he enjoyed the idea of authorship.

All three artists were born around 1970 in Cuba, where they live and work. However, showing in Cuba in recent years has become infrequent, not just for Los Carpinteros but for other Cuban artists as well. As art continues to become more conceptually driven, people in Cuba are having a harder time understanding the art, because they lack the context necessary to engage with the work. The group travels frequently and describes it as necessary part of their process. Moving from place to place requires reinventing and adjusting to that place. So the work they create does respond to the city they’re in, but the themes are internationally applied.

The group deals with society and its relationship to the physical word, that being spatially and in terms of objects. They create seemingly functional objects that are then deemed “fake” or not functional, and in there lies a humorous quality that exists in their body of work or ouve. They have a self directed standard of production in order to ensure their productivity. Thier creative process begins with drawings, that serves as models for the sculptures as well as two dimensional art work. from these models discussions take place on how the sculpture will be made and how effectively their ideas are portrayed. the decision is then made to materialize the object or not.

Los Carpinteros had a desire to produce everything they made and to interact with the work while it was in production. So, when their studio was based in Cuba,  parts had to be manufactured in Madrid, Spain, they felt disconnected with their work, which resulted in moving their studio practice to Spain. This motivation to be in contact with their work comes from their interests in domestic objects, because they are traces of the human hand.

Objects are produced by people, because there is a need or demand for them. Domestic objects, like furniture, and living spaces are all items created with a specific function in mind. Los Carpinteros motivation is to then make that object impractical as part of their creative process and exploration.    

 

Los Carpinteros, Escalera, 2001,

Powder-coated steel, 36.75 × 30 x 54 inches.

TD I also want to ask you about Marcel Duchamp.  (Interviewer)

AA We love Marcel Duchamp. But Marcel doesn’t love us. He is dead—he can’t.

Artist Response:

Los Carpinteros

            “Los Carpinteros" is a Cuban artist collective created in 1992 including Marco Castillo, Dagoberto Rodríguez, and Alexandro Arrechea (who left the group in 2003). Marco and Dagoberto both work in Havana, Cuba and in Madrid, Spain.

            The artists were born and raised in Cuba, a country crippled by communist and socialist struggles. As many art supplies were hard to come by, the three often used wood from abandoned buildings as a medium, which is why they called themselves Los Carpinteros or “The Carpenters.” This name, coined in 2004, also signified the group’s choice to forfeit individual ownership of their works.

            Much of their work is influenced_­­ by Cuban culture, and seeks to address the problems facing Cuba (and the world) today. The artists also draw inspiration from architecture and everyday objects. Large gouache and watercolor realist drawings of objects are at the core of their work and often foreshadow their sculptural works.

            Los Carpinteros combine elements of design, architecture, and sculpture to create their humorous and uncanny installations. Their work undermines the practicality and usefulness of objects and ideas in order to criticize historical  and cultural ideals of utopianism.

Cody Graber

Doris Salcedo

Born and raised in Colombia, Doris Salcedo grew up as a victim to the corruption that the Colombian government would impose on their citizens, the intense presence of Colombian mafias, and the widespread poverty that affected the majority of Colombia’s inhabitants. Witnessing the aftereffects of these vices since she was conceived in 1958, eventually took its toll on her by throwing her into a spiraling depression. In order to cope with her emotions and shine light on the inhuman circumstances that her people are faced with every day, Salcedo began directing the energy generated from her frustration with Colombia on her sculptures. By collecting remains, such as worn-out shoes and decrepit clothes, from the casualties caused by the mafia, and combining them with antique furniture, plants, and/or cement, Salcedo mourns the anonymous yet unforgotten deaths and disappearances of her people. Still relevant amongst the art community, Salcedo is producing the most astonishingly effective pieces that accurately depict the unbearable trauma experienced by a several Colombian families, while simultaneously highlighting a social issue that is decades away from resolution. Therefore, Salcedo is one of the most controversial artists in modern day society, right up there with Ai Weiwei.   

NICK VAN WOERT

Born in 1979 in Reno, Nevada.  This american artist is currently residing and working in brooklyn, new york. He studied architecture (BArch) at the University of Oregon and Fine Arts (MFA) at Parsons the New School for Design in New York.
Majorly influenced by Vitruvius, early Roman architect who drew in inspiration from nature.
Woert rummages through convenience stores, factories, and dumpsters in Brooklyn to source materials for his sculptures to then re-presents into mature works.

Woert’s artwork is all about informed absence and the lack of values we have today.
Woert takes interest in materials we use to manufacture faux fortune. His work talks about how the world we develop and how it can only be as good as the materials and values we have to make it, which discusses modern societys' ways to replace (from stone to styrofoam and all the fibers in our daily lives). He continues to question “what this material shift is, and why it’s happening.”

In a lot of Woerts work uses mass manufactured, artificial neoclassical statues; by hallowing insides with chemicals and gunshots, or bathing them in colored resin he opens the discussion of these “gods” representing the vacuity of our values, our willingness to keep the past alive visually but not materially.

He’s stated before, “Stone sculptures represented a very monolithic understanding of the human body, in spirit and material. You could go a thousand ways with that idea ~ one god, one way of living ~ it’s one material, solid, permanent. Now we make them hollow, with a chemical concoction that mimics that way of looking at the body, and it’s a superficial understanding… That’s just who we are now. We’re not interested in anything else.”

‘reappear', red fiberglass statue, polyurethane, steel 86 x 47 x 16 inches


related artists
Adam Eckstrom and Lauren Was,matthew day jackson


    The work I develop revolves around the different views and effects of self image. I take         interest in societal influences on the perception of one's abilities, appearance, and         personality.
    I agree with his views on the way of looking at the body, and society’s superficial             understanding of it. Our two very different ideas relate with the view they share when         people leaving a mark on todays world and the effects there are by it.

I believe people should be informed of Nick Van Woerts art and of this “material shift” that no one seems to be realizing, we expect so much of our future but with what regards do we give on how to get there?




cite sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_van_Woert
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/02/t-magazine/moran-bondaroff-nick-van-woert.html?_r=0
http://www.theglamourai.com/2014/03/nick-van-woert.html
https://www.artsy.net/artist/nick-van-woert

Stephanie Oyuela Artist response 2015

Ana Mendieta was born on November 18, 1948 in Havana, Cuba and fell to her death from her 34th floor apartment window on September 8, 1985 in New York. As a young cuban artist, her work focused on forms of gender, culture and tended to be autobiographical. Mendieta was not afraid to do what was needed to in order make her art. She used landscape and the female form through out her work, this mainly resulted out of her being removed from her homeland and her search to reestablish a sort of connection with the world around her. Best known for her earth-body sculptures, early performance pieces and permanent sculptures. Through out her works she uses nature as a canvas and a medium, some of her pieces feature influences from santeria.

Gabriela Zegarra Artist Response 2015

Rachel Harrison:

            Born in New York in 1966, she moved around a lot until she finally settled down again in New York, where she has a studio now. She is a contemporary artist that is well known for her sculptures and installation work. Although most of her work has an “unpleasing” aesthetic to it, art critics embrace it for its lack of digestibility and boldness. She makes work that is influenced by ready made art and assemblage art. As a young woman, she was greatly inspired by artists like Chris Burden and Adrian Piper. Her interest with performance artists that created artwork to propel a response from their audience has influenced the look of her sculptures, that look “ugly” to the viewer, yet draw them in. Because she was forced to be a religious person as a little girl, as a teenager she made it a big deal to go against religion as an adult, and be part of the counter-culture.

Her artwork makes a commentary on modern culture, and her work is also influenced by artists such as Bruce Nauman and Ed Ruscha, who weren’t concerned with other people’s rules, only their own. That helped Rachel produce pieces that were bold and not catered to specific audiences. Her artwork is generally described as sculptures or installations that combine abstract forms with ready made objects. Her humor is evident through her work, in pieces such as Nose, where she has a large abnormal red figure that sits on a cardboard plinth, with an exaggeratedly long nose attached to it. She uses her humor to make people feel uncomfortable and also embraces the fact that everyone reads her sculptures differently. By combining such odd shapes with the rigidness of the manufactured objects, Harrison is able to convey a satirical opinion of modern culture. In Glamour Wig, the placement of objects creates an abstract interpretation of a rock star or a famous individual, and comments on the artificiality of their image.

Harrison uses found objects and ready-mades, such as canned goods, bicycles, stools, pictures of celebrities, trash bags, and books to juxtapose them with these organic shapes that she creates in order to portray people in today’s world. She works at a studio in Brooklyn, where she is constantly thinking of ways to make comments on beauty standards for women and commercialism. As she said herself, she wants her work to be viewed as “a push and pull between the image and the object”. And she wants the audience to get the complete 360-degree experience. As a little girl, she saw student protests during the 70’s, which impacted her art practice. As an experimental person, her artwork doesn’t want to limit the viewer to one concept or one perspective, and it stands alone, like an odd, funky idea in the middle of a monotone environment

 Alessandra Fernandez Artist Response Richard Serra 2015

Richard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist mainly known for his work with large-scale musters of sheet metal.

He was born in San Francisco and stayed in the west coast to attend the University of California at Berkeley in 1961and later graduated from Yale University with both a BFA and an MFA in 1964. He currently lives in New York and Nova Scotia.

In his early years Serra’s work mainly involved and was centralized on the industrial materials from his youth. These materials came from steel mills and shipyards: steel and lead. The shipyards specifically were a key place were many of Serra’s ideas came from. The mobility of the boats and their structure influenced his approach for his future pieces.

What concerns him when approaching his work is the relationship and interactions of the materials as well as the ability to manipulate the material. He also deals with the concepts of space and engagement. He approaches his sculptures by creating models instead of drawing and works from inside out. Each cast is created through the impact of the lead hitting the walls, there emphasis on the process: raw aggression and physicality.

 Among his most famous sculptures is the breathtaking the sixty-foot-tall "Charlie Brown".  Which is composed of gigantic plates of towering steel, bent and curved, as it elevates

Yinka Shonibare Artist Response Lisette del Pino 2015

Yinka Shonibare, a British-Nigerian artist, creates work playing with post- colonial structures and aesthetics. Born in England but being raised in Lagos, he developed a strong visual understanding of the relationship between a post colonized Africa and England. He lived in Nigeria from the time he was three up until he was seventeen. He moved back to London to attend art school at seventeen and when he was eighteen he contracted a virus which paralyzed half his body, he dropped out of art school to relearn how to live on his own and then went right back.
Shonibare’s work lives in a fabricated reality. He combines saturated, vibrant wax fabrics in order to create visual puns and criticize the past colonizers of Africa.
Because of his disability, his role as an artist working with concept is redefined. He plans his pieces, much like an architect would plan a large building, and has a team of professional costumers and artists assistants help him execute the work.
His work spans many mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography, and film. The work takes from classic books of Western literature and works of Rococo art, a hyper-adorned 19th century art movement. 
Really, Yinka seems to be entranced by complexity and fictitious culture. Belonging to two distinct but interrelated cultures like the cultures of Lagos and London confirms for him the fiction in culture; seeing the behaviors of people in both these cities and recognizing common and idiosyncratic beliefs in their inhabitants has led him to belief that culture is just the result of a long and complicated story of violence and indulgence. His art reflects these ideas, and in that way we understand how his history, as well as ours, can be represented by a collision of inter cultural and historical imagery. 
With his art, Shonibare adresses what it means to belong to two distinct but interrelated cultures, what it means to be black and making work labeled as "African Art" in London and in the art world, and how to work in the conceptual art industry as a disabled artist. Shonibare's work overlaps images from classical western literarure and imagery from African clothing to produce art that defines him distinctly as a Nigerian-English artist. His practice of actualizing his work through assistants rather than by his personal hand adds a new layer to the term "conceptual art" when applied to him. It is even more "conceptual", and allows disabled but extremely talented artists to participate and reach fame in the contemporary art industry.
I enjoyed Shonibare's art, it invokes scenes from fiction and real life alike, further perpetuating Shonibare's assertion that culture is a fiction, and that invisible cultural and racial boundaries can be surpassed. He never stops ridiculing the thought process of a 17th, 18th, and 19th century Western Europe which colonized Africa, but he entertains the idea of cultural exchange going both ways.  The African wax fabrics were originally made by the Dutch and sold to Africans in Dutch colonies, so their presence in his art hints at a two way extraction of culture.
I am also obsessed with the overlapping and connection of imagery from separate cultures which show a seemingly fantastical but true connection between the two. Since I am interested in tracing history and finding reasons for the way culture in a certain region functions, I was fascinated by Shonibare's creative and historical problem solving skills.