Construction, or assemblage , uses found, manufactured or altered objects to build form. Artists weld, glue, bolt and wire individual pieces together to create a new and unique form. Duchamp’s Readymades are the historical predecessors for this type of work, as are Rauschenberg’s Combines from the 1950’s. Contemporary artists bring not only form but theory to their work in this technique. Our example here is Jessica Stockholder.
This Mayan Woman and Child were modeled from clay and then fired to create a ceramic figure. It may have been polychromed (painted with 2 or more colors).
Modeling is a method that can be both additive and subtractive. The artist uses modeling to build up form with clay, plaster or other soft material that can be pushed, pulled, pinched, carved or poured into place. The material then hardens into the finished work. Larger sculptures created with this method make use of an armature , an underlying structure of wire that sets the physical shape of the work. Although modeling is primarily an additive process, artists often do remove material in the process. Modeling a form is often a preliminary step in the casting method. In 2010, Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti’s Walking Man (c. 1955), a bronze sculpture first modeled in clay, set a record for the highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction. Here you see another version of that sculpture belonging to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Giacometti was known for his elongated abstract figures. One of his inspirations was Etruscan art which we will look at in a later section.
More contemporary bronze cast sculptures reflect their subjects through different cultural perspectives. The statue of rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix is set on the ground, his figure cast as if performing on stage. He’s on both of his knees, head thrown back, eyes shut and mouth open in mid wail. His bell-bottom pants, frilly shirt unbuttoned halfway, necklace and headband give us a snapshot of 1960’s rock culture but also engage us with the subject at our level.
The additive method of casting has been in use for over five thousand years. It’s a manufacturing process by which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. One traditional method of bronze casting frequently used today is the lost wax process . Modern casting materials are usually metals but can be various cold setting materials that cure after mixing two or more components together; examples are epoxy , concrete , plaster , and clay . Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be otherwise difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods. It’s a labor-intensive process that today allows for the creation of multiples from an original object (similar to the medium of printmaking), each of which is extremely durable and exactly like its predecessor. In the ancient world the mold would of necessity be destroyed once the sculpture had been cast. Today molds are made from materials that can be reused, but a mold is usually destroyed after the desired number of castings has been made. Traditionally, bronze statues were placed atop pedestals to signify the importance of the figure depicted. A statue of William Seward (below), the U. S. Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and who negotiated the purchase of the Alaska territories, is set nearly eight feet high so viewers must look up at him. Standing next to the globe, he holds a roll of plans in his left hand. We generally refer to these kinds of commemorative likenesses as “statues” while figures in other contexts are usually called “sculpture.”
Low relief, too, is most often seen on architecture. In low, or bas as in the French term, relief, few very dark shadows are seen.
High relief sculpture is characterized by figures or elements that are significantly raised off the surface from which they are carved, but still remain attached. You can see very dark shadows around the figures in high relief – note the black shadows around the urn on the bottom of the sculpture above.
We think of carved sculpture as falling into three basic types: in-the-round , high relief , and low (bas) relief . Michelangelo’s David above is an example of sculpture in-the-round. This is fairly easy to spot as one can actually walk all around the sculpture and it is finished on all sides. High relief sculpture is usually a decorative addition to another object, often architecture.
Michelangelo’s masterpiece, David, from 1501 is carved from a single block of marble, finished and polished to embody an idealized form which was a testament to human aesthetic brilliance.
It’s extraordinary for masks to personify a natural event. This and other mythic figure masks are used in ritual and ceremony dances. The broad areas of paint give a heightened sense of character to this mask.
In another example, you can see the high degree of relief carved from an original wood block in this mask from the Pacific Northwest Coast Kwakwaka’ wakw culture. The mask was used in winter ceremonies where animals were said to take human form.
The Moai massive stone sculptures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. These figures were positioned to face inland and are thought to have represented the guardian ancestors/deities that watched over the island and its people. The process of carving such large figures and transporting and placing them was a feat for these early peoples not unlike the creation of Stonehenge in England or the Olmec heads of ancient Mexico.
Carving uses the subtractive process to cut away areas from a larger mass, and is the oldest method used for three-dimensional work. Traditionally stone and wood were the most common materials because they were readily available and extremely durable. Contemporary materials include foam, plastics and glass. Using chisels and other sharp tools, artists carve away material until the ultimate form of the work is achieved.
Drawing and painting both fall into the category of two-dimensional art; sculpture is three-dimensional in that it has height, width, and depth. It has mass , one of the elements of art. We include in the sculptural section other types of art that may not obviously belong to either category – installation art is one of those. Artists sometimes create entire environments in a museum or gallery – or elsewhere – that the viewer is intended to experience corporally (with their bodies) and sometimes with all of the senses. Another group of artists create work out of nature itself. Land artists like Robert Smithson made both the material of the natural world like water, soil and rocks their medium, but also made ideas and concepts like entropy the subject of the work. We will look at examples of three-dimensional artwork in this section.
Stockholder is originally from Seattle; her pieces are created from objects that individually might be overlooked, or seen only as utilitarian. Stockholder is drawn to the potential in these objects through color and form. She also relates her structures to the physical human body and our own interaction with objects in space. We have discussed the emotional implications of color in the viewers’ reaction to art. Stockholder has written that this is one of her concerns as well: “Color evokes feeling; I am not sure why, but I do know that it does. I work with color, form and composition exploring the links between emotive and thoughtful response. My works provide an opportunity to reify internal mind/feeling space. For a moment the abstract insubstantial nature of feeling/thoughts can be experienced as external and embodied by material.” From the artist’s website: https://jessicastockholder.info/about/
Both playful and ironic, Stockholder’s pieces are accessible and visually stimulating; they are an excellent example of the art of assemblage.
Sculptor Debra Butterfield transforms throw away objects into abstract sculptures of horses with scrap metal, wood and other found objects. Sometimes she also casts these constructions in bronze, but the original form made of various materials is assembled. Frequently she uses reclaimed materials to create the sculpture. Riot, a work from 1990 is made of pieces of found metal assembled into the final shape.
Louise Nevelson is another American artist who used cut and shaped pieces of wood, gluing and nailing them together to form fantastic, complex compositions. Painted a single tone, (usually black or white), her sculptures are graphic, textural facades of shapes, patterns and shadow.
Traditional African masks often combine different materials. The elaborate Kanaga Mask from Mali uses wood, fibers, animal hide and pigment to construct an other worldly visage that changes from human to animal and back again. You can see the example from the Met in New York at this url: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/315061
Some modern and contemporary sculptures incorporate movement, light and sound. Kinetic sculptures use ambient air currents or motors allowing them to move, changing in form as the viewer stands in place. The artist Alexander Calder is famous for his mobiles, whimsical, abstract works that are intricately balanced to move at the slightest wisp of air, while the sculptures of Jean Tinguely are contraption-like and, similar to Nevelson’s and Butterfield’s works, constructed of scraps often found in garbage dumps. His motorized works exhibit a mechanical aesthetic as they whir, rock and generate noises. Tinguely’s most famous work, ‘Homage to New York‘, ran in the sculpture garden at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1960 as part of a performance by the artist. After several minutes, the work exploded and caught fire, as it was supposed to do. The New York City fire department, however, was not amused.
The idea of generating sound as part of three-dimensional works has been utilized for hundreds of years, traditionally in musical instruments that carry a spiritual reference. Contemporary artists use sound to heighten the effect of sculpture or to direct recorded narratives. The cast bronze fountain by George Tsutakawa (below) uses water flow to produce a soft rushing sound. In this instance the sculpture also attracts the viewer by the motion of the water: a clear, fluid addition to an otherwise hard abstract surface.
Doug Hollis’s A Sound Garden from 1982 creates sounds from hollow metal tubes atop grid like structures rising above the ground. In weather vane fashion, the tubes swing into the wind and resonate to specific pitch. The sound extends the aesthetic value of the work to include the sense of hearing and, together with the metal construction, creates a mechanical and psychological basis for the work. There is a video of the work here:
Dan Flavin is one of the first artists to explore the possibilities of light as a sculptural medium. Since the 1960s his work has incorporated fluorescent bulbs of different colors and in various arrangements. Moreover, he takes advantage of the wall space the light is projected onto, literally blurring the line between traditional sculpture and the more complex medium of installation.
Installation art utilizes multiple objects, often from various mediums, and takes up entire spaces. It uses a space and everything in it as the work of art, and is experienced by your entire body. It can be generic or site specific. Because of their relative complexity, installations can address aesthetic and narrative ideas on a larger scale than traditional sculpture. Its genesis can be traced to the Dada movement, ascendant after World War I and which predicated a new aesthetic by its unconventional nature and ridicule of established tastes and styles. Sculpture came off the pedestal and began to transform entire rooms into works or art. Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau, begun in 1923, transforms his apartment into an abstract, claustrophobic space that is at once part sculpture and architecture. With installation art the viewer is surrounded by and can become part of the work itself.
Here is a video on Vimeo of the reconstruction of the Merzbau at the Berkeley Art Museum in 2011:
British artist Rachel Whiteread’s installation Embankment from 2005 fills an entire exhibition hall with casts made from various sized boxes. At first appearance a snowy mountain landscape navigated by the viewer is actually a gigantic nod to the idea of boxes as receptacles of memory towering above and stacked around them, squeezing them towards the center of the room. Whiteread uses epoxy and other polymers to cast her sculpture. This installation would qualify as both cast sculpture and installation art. Whiteread’s work often deals with memory and loss.
Ilya Kabakov mixes together a narrative of political propaganda, humor and mundane existence in his installation The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment from 1984. What we see is the remains of a small apartment plastered with Soviet era posters, a small bed and the makeshift slingshot a man uses to escape the drudgery of his life within the system. A gaping hole in the roof and his shoes on the floor are evidence enough that he made it into space. See a slide presentation of this work at: https://www.wikiart.org/en/ilya-kabakov/the-man-who-flew-into-space-from-his-apartment-1984
Performance art goes a step further, involving the artist as part of the work itself. Some performance artworks are interactive, involving the viewer too. The nature of the medium is in its ability to use live performance in the same context as static works of art: to enhance our understanding of artistic experience. Similar to installation works, performance art had its first manifestations during the Dada art movement, when live performances included poetry, visual art and music, often going on at the same time.
The German artist Joseph Beuys was instrumental in introducing performance art as a legitimate medium in the post World War II artistic milieu. I Like America and America Likes Me from 1974 finds Beuys co-existing with a coyote for a week in the Rene Block Gallery in New York City. The artist is protected from the animal by a felt blanket and a shepherd’s staff. Performance art, like installation, challenges the viewer to reexamine the artistic experience from a new level.
In the 1960’s Allen Kaprow’s Happenings invited viewers to be the participants. These events, sometimes rehearsed and other times improvised begin to erase the line between the artist and the audience. Yoko Ono’s ‘Cut Piece‘ from 1965 specifically invites members of the audience to interact with her on stage. You can watch the Maysle brothers’ video of a portion of this event on Youtube:
This same idea – using the artist’s body as subject, is evident in the performance art of Marina Abramovic. In The Artist is Present she sits quietly as individual visitors sit across the table from her, exchanging silent glances and stares.
Today we see a new form of performance art happen unexpectedly around us in the form of Flash Mobs: groups of people who gather in public spaces to collaborate in short, seemingly spontaneous events that entertain and surprise passersby. Many flash mobs are arranged in advance through the use of social media. Many examples of flash mob performance are uploaded to Youtube and other video sharing sites.
Craft requires the specific skilled use of tools in creating works or art. These tools can take many forms: words, construction tools, a camera, a paintbrush or even a voice. Traditional studio crafts include ceramics, metal and woodworking, weaving and the glass arts. Crafts are distinguished by a high degree of workmanship and finish. Traditional crafts have their roots in utilitarian purposes: furniture, utensils and other everyday accoutrements that are designed for specific uses, and reflect the adage that “form follows function”. But human creativity goes beyond simple function to include the aesthetic realm, entered through the doors of embellishment, decoration and an intuitive sense of design. Artists use all of the elements and principles found in other artforms in the objects we see below.
In the first example below, the smooth simple lines of a ‘Tulip Chair‘ were designed by Eero Saarinen as an exercise in clarifying form. When it was made its futuristic use of curved lines and artificial materials were seen as emblematic of the “space age.” In another example, a staircase crafted in the Shaker style takes on an elegant form that mirrors the organic spiral shape representing the ‘golden ratio.’
Utility is not the sole purpose of craft. Persian carpets and European tapestries were also utilitarian objects, but the craftsmanship shown in the pattern and design gives them a separate aesthetic value. The decorative element is visually stimulating, as if the artisan uses the objectas simply a vehicle for his or her own creative imagination. Other textile arts like quilting have become recognized as aesthetic objects in their own right. It might be noted that many of the objects that have been dismissed as merely “craft” were traditionally made by women. It’s only with the feminist movement that those objects have been recognized as art.
Even a small tobacco bag from the Native American Sioux culture (below) becomes a work of art with its intricate beaded patterns and floral designs.
The craftsmanship in glass making is one of the most demanding. Working with an extremely fragile medium presents unique challenges. Challenges aside, the delicate nature of glass gives it exceptional visual presence. A blown glass urn dated to first century Rome is an example. The fact that it has survived the ages intact is testament to its ultimate strength and beauty.
Louis Comfort Tiffany introduced many styles of decorative glass between the late 19th and first part of the 20th centuries. His stained glass window ‘The Holy City‘ in Baltimore Maryland has intricate details in illustrations influenced by the Art Nouveau style popular at the turn of the 19th century.
The artist Dale Chihuly has redefined the traditional craft of glass making over the last forty years, moving it towards the mainstream of fine art with single objects and large scale installations involving hundreds of individual pieces.
The dictum “form follows function” represents an organic approach to three-dimensional design. The products and devices we use everyday continue to serve the same functions but change in styles. This constant realignment in basic form reflects modern aesthetic considerations and, on a larger scale, become artifacts of the popular culture of a given time period.
The two examples below illustrate this idea. Like Tiffany glass, the chair designed by Henry van de Velde in 1895 reflects the Art Nouveau style in its wood construction with organic, stylized lines and curvilinear form. In comparison, the ‘Ant Chair‘ from 1952 retains the basic functional form with more modern design using a triangular leg configuration of tubular steel and a single piece of laminated wood veneer, the cut out shape suggesting the form of a black ant.
The human figure has been the most often reproduced in art. Even modern art with its abstracted forms used the human form most often as its material. There are a few conventions over time that you should be aware of in the depiction of human beings which have varied widely from period to period and from country to country.
Earlier civilizations like the Egyptians developed a schematic representation of the human form. It never varied for thousands of years (with one exception we will examine in our study of the period) and this was because it was considered to be the most appropriate and necessary form. The figures were rigid and idealized – note the kneecap on Menkaure – but the single foot forward is thought to have been meant to represent life.
In 1866 an excavation on the Greek Acropolis unearthed a sculpture that would be profoundly influential in the history of art. Kritios Boy, so-called, is most likely the image of a young hero created around 480 BCE. Found in pieces and reassembled, this sculpture exhibits the stance of an actual human being which has come to be called contrapposto, or counterbalance.
A contrapposto stance is characterized by a standing figure with the weight on one leg, one hip elevated, and the other bent. More exaggerated contrapposto can involve straight and bent arms and a counterbalance of hips and shoulders. There is usually a pronounced “S” curve down the central axis of a figure in extreme contrapposto.
Michelangelo’s sculpture, originally meant for the tomb of Pope Julius II, exhibits the kind of exaggerated contrapposto that suggests sleep, death or languor.
There are many objects that fit into the category of sculpture, and others – although not strictly sculpture – that are three-dimensional and valued as aesthetic objects. Sometimes it is useful to think about the objects that surround us and look for similar aesthetic qualities in them. We will see how the same impulses to create can be seen in most of the things humans make and even humble objects can be satisfying if the elements and principles are taken into consideration in their making.
Installation art is a relatively new genre for the millennium defined as large-scale constructions, usually mixed media, and installed for a specified period. The artwork usually fills the space, and viewers must walk through the exhibit, often becoming part of the installation. However, some installations might be fragile or installed along a wall. A sculpture is generally one piece of art displayed in separate or individual spaces. An installation is a more unified experience, engaging the viewer in most of the environment. Technology has also contributed to the ability of artists to create large installations involving LEDs, computerized movement, unusual formations, and even environmentally supported projects. One attribute of installation art is its immersive properties, how the art appears depending on the viewer's position. The works are also large in scale and site-specific, made to fit into the gallery and museum. or outdoor space. Generally, they are placed in unique surroundings to compliment the artwork.
Ai Weiwei (1957-) was born in China, his father a poet. The family was sentenced to a labor camp when Ai was one, then sixteen years in exile in far northern China. After Mao Zedong's death, the Cultural Revolution ended, and the family moved back to Beijing, where Ai studied animation. He moved to the United States for twelve years to learn English and art. He returned to China when his father's health failed in 1993 and set up his studio. Ai began to openly criticize the Chinese government's human rights issues, corruption, and lack of democracy. Most of his work follows his political beliefs and feelings about the social problems in China, leading to harassment by the government and occasional house arrest. In 2011, Ai was jailed for three months; however, the government kept his passport when he was released, and he could not travel. When his passport was returned in 2015, he moved to Europe. Ai Weiwei uses his art as dissident art, protesting human abuses in China by the government. His work is international and brings his messages to the world. He uses simple or everyday objects or materials to create his installation as he believed they were meaningful to people.
Sunflower Seeds (8.2.1) is composed of 100 million small seeds stacked evenly on the floor. Each seed appears the same; however, every seed is unique. The life-sized seeds are made by hand from porcelain, sculpted, and painted. The seeds were produced in small workshops in the city of Jingdezhen, known for their production of porcelain since 1004 CE, and originally produced the Imperial porcelain for the royal palaces. Revolutionary types of kilns and access to deposits of petuntse, the clay needed for porcelain were part of the cities success to become the major Chinese porcelain site, even today. Ai Weiwei used the concept of porcelain sunflower seeds to examine the idea of 'Made in China' and its position in the global economy. He created each seed piled in the installation to represent the relationship between an individual and the masses. He posed the questions: "What does it mean to be an individual in today's society? Are we insignificant or powerless unless we act together? What do our increasing desires, materialism, and number mean for society, the environment, and the future?"[1]
Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Sunflower Seeds (2010, porcelain, size varies) CC BY-SA 3.0Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Sunflower Seeds closeup by Marcel Oosterwijk, CC BY-SA 2.0
Ai Weiwei's installations reflect his commentary on society, politics, and economics in contemporary China, and he uses irony to create his installation. World Map (8.2.3) is an example of simple, basic objects to make a simple visual expression.
Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): World Map (2006-09, cotton and wooden base, 120 x 800 x 400 cm) by Vilseskogen, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0The map comprises thousands of layers of very fine, thin cotton cloth (8.2.4). Making, cutting, stacking, and installing the cloth was exceptionally time-consuming and laborious. The map demonstrates China's position in the world as a place of cheap labor, especially in the clothing industry. Ai stated, "China is blindly producing for the demands of the market… My work very much relates to this blind production of things. I'm part of it, which is a bit of a nonsense."[2] He also uses other materials to make maps of China in protest, including 1,800 milk tins to protest China's tainted milk, making infants sick.
Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): World Map closeup by Vilseskogen, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0In the installation, Moon Chest (8.2.5), Ai made 81 chests of wood, each with four circles cut in the upper and lower panels on both sides. The openings vary on each chest, and when the chests are carefully aligned, the moon's phases are visible. He wanted to create an installation of simplistic materials and construction while having a sense of functionality. The chests were made from Huali wood, a common material for Chinese furniture, and were constructed without any joining materials, the methods used for ancient furniture. The exhibition was one of the few of Ai's installations without a direct political message, emphasizing artistic beauty.
Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Moon Chest (2008, Huanghuali wood, 320 x 160 x 80 cm) by maurizio.mwg, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Ai Weiwei created different bicycle installations to acknowledge China's past reliance on bicycles, the mass-produced transportation now becoming obsolete to the car culture. Forever (8.2.6) is one of the installations. Bicycles can be installed in multiple configurations representing the universal use of the bicycles and the beauty found in the object. However, the chain and pedal have been removed from each unit, now obsolete and unusable. However, the bicycles are arranged in a circle giving the feeling of motion—the "forever" of the title belying the actuality.
Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): Forever (2003, forty-two bicycles) by maurizio.mwg, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Ai Wei Wei's accumulations and use of single objects are used again in installations with stools. Both installations (8.2.7, 8.2.8) demonstrate how he combined small and large sets of stools. The three-legged wooden stool was typical in China, now an antiquated object in today's Chinese society. Previously, the stools were carefully carved and passed down through the generations, an expression of centuries-old aesthetics. Today stools are plastic or aluminum in China, a modern and mass-produced object, disposable in today's society. A common symbol of the importance of and creativity of the individual as opposed to the massive state.
Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\): Stool installation 1, by FaceMePLS, CC BY 2.0Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\): Stool installation 2, by micmol, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Yayoi Kusama (1929-) was born in Japan, where her parents owned a nursery for plants and seeds. Kusama started drawing pumpkins from the time she was a child. She said she drew from hallucinations she observed, a concept followed throughout her life. Kusama's childhood was traumatic; her mother did not support her art and was abusive. Her father had continual extramarital affairs, which her mother made Kusama follow him and spy, reporting back. By the time Kusama was ten, her hallucinations had included flashing lights and fields of dots she believed engulfed her. She studied traditional Japanese Nihonga style, finding it unsatisfactory, and studied Western avant-garde. After success in Japan, at twenty-seven, she went to the United States from 1957 to 1972, believing Japan was too disparaging of women and too feudalistic.
In the United States, Kusama developed her reflective mirror rooms, complex installations with mirrors, colored balls, and lights. She worked successfully with other artists in New York City, however financial success eluded her. During this period, Kusama became heavily involved with the anti-Viet Nam war protesters, often doing unusual things to draw attention to her demonstrations, including painting polka dots on nude protesters. When Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, mentally ill and suicidal, she checked herself into a hospital. Since that period, she has resided in the psychiatric hospital, creating her art in a nearby studio.
Dots have become Kusama's obsession on all her artwork and installations, dots covering everything in repetitive patterns. Kusama said, "A polka-dot has the form of the sun which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and the form of the moon which is calm. Round soft, colourful, senseless and unknowing. Polka-dots can't stay alone; like the communicative life of people, two or three and more polka-dots become movement. ...Polka-dots are a way to infinity."[3] Most of her work is based on the repetitive use of dots, beloved pumpkins, and mirrors in her installations. Dots Obsession (8.2.9) is like Kusama's hallucinations in childhood, believing her space was covered in patterns. In this installation, she used red for the base color and the highly contrasting white dots. The room was enclosed with mirrors, multiple lights, and large balloon-like structures, giving the viewers an immersive involvement.
Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\): Dots Obsession (2011, red paint, white dots, giant balloons, mirrors) by hmboo Electrician and Adventurer, CC BY-ND 2.0Repetitive Vision (8.2.10) creates a startling strange, and disorienting environment. The black mirrored walls and ceiling reflect the mannequins covered in red dots. The mirrors present views of the front, back, and sides of the mannequins confusing the viewer, impossible to know the limits of the room or numbers of mannequins. The red dots on the floor, mannequins, and reflections add to the confusion of the room's boundaries. Kusama said, "A mirror is a device which obliterates everything, including myself and others in the light of another world or a gallant apparatus which creates nothingness."[4]
Figure \(\PageIndex{10}\): Repetitive Vision (1996, adhesive dots, formica, mirrors, mannequins) by watz, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0Late in her career, Kusama's infinity rooms expanded and included her trademark dots and pumpkins. The mirrored and lighted ceiling and walls infinitely reflect the dotted pumpkins in All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (8.2.11). The illusion of the installation stretched the concept of ad infinitum. Kusama has placed rows of yellow pumpkins painted with strips of black dots, making the room's depth impossible to judge. The space reflects Kusama's obsessive-compulsive disorder for the repetition of polka dots enclosing the person in the room, the pattern wrapping around and surrounding the viewer.
Figure \(\PageIndex{11}\): All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016, wood, mirror, plastic, acrylic, LED) by Infomastern, CC BY-SA 2.0In Japan, pumpkins are known as kabocha; an image Kusama spent hours drawing as a child. Pumpkins represented stability and comfort and were attractive in color and shape. By the late 1970s, she started to include pumpkins in some of her work, covering them with dots and incorporating them into the themes of her mirrored rooms. Pumpkins became major subjects by the new millennium, and Kusama made enormous sculptures. The Red Pumpkin (8.2.12) and the Orange Pumpkin (8.2.13) were made from fiberglass for installation on Naoshima Island in Japan. The oversized red pumpkin sits on the edge of a protected inlet. The sculpture is hollow inside, made from fiberglass, and covered with large black dots. The orange pumpkin with a different set of black vertical dots was installed on the end of a pier adjacent to the water. The pumpkin was dislodged when a typhoon swept the island in 2021, and waves took it into the sea. The sculpture cracked but was recovered and will be repaired.
Figure \(\PageIndex{12}\): Red Pumpkin (1994, reinforced fiberglass, 3.9 meters high x 7 meters wide) by Yohei Yamashita, CC BY 2.0Figure \(\PageIndex{13}\): Orange Pumpkin (1994, reinforced fiberglass, 1.8 meters high x 2.4 meters wide) by Yohei Yamashita, CC BY 2.0
Kusama also made immense pumpkins from stainless steel (8.2.14, 8.2.15). The metal is shiny and reflects light and images like her mirror rooms. The dots on the pumpkins were made with long-lasting urethane paint.
Figure \(\PageIndex{14}\): Pumpkin (2010, stainless steel, urethane paint, 220 cm high x 220 cm diameter) by See-ming Lee (SML), CC BY-NC 2.0Figure \(\PageIndex{15}\): Pumpkin (2015, stainless steel, urethane paint, 173.7 x 182.2 x 167.6 cm) by art_inthecity, CC BY 2.0
Do Ho Suh (1962-) was born in Korea, the son of a famous artist who used traditional paintings in ink to create more abstract concepts. Originally, Suh wanted to be a marine biologist, failing to achieve the grades. He went to art school in Korea and earned a master's degree in art based on traditional Korean painting. Suh relocated to the United States in 1991, freeing himself from his father's influence and traditional art and studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. Here, he was interested in how space was used and how people interacted in different cultures. Suh explicitly studied houses' psychological and physical dimensions and the architectural structures.
Suh's major project was Home Within Home (8.2.16), a life-sized reconstruction of an actual home where he once lived. Suh also constructed a replica of his home in Korea, contrasting style and size inside the house. He used translucent fabrics to construct the houses, interior rooms, and different large appliances. He also displays hallways, doors, or specific rooms from various places he lived in other installation parts. Suh used a 2-D scanning machine to ensure accurate and exact specifications. Using the defined dimensions and outlines, Suh used a traditional Korean hand sewing method to make every part of the building or objects, adding precise details found in the actual item. The oversized home is designed for the viewer to approach the building and see through the walls before entering the door and walking through the spaces. The rooms in the building create a dreamlike environment; shelves, doors, fixtures, windows, stairs, or appliances are viewable while still looking through to other spaces.
Figure \(\PageIndex{16}\): Home Within Home (2013, fabric, 12 meters high x 15 meters wide) by 準建築人手札網站 Forgemind ArchiMedia, CC BY 2.0The bathtub (8.2.17) and the toilet (8.2.18) are created in exact sizes and placed in the bathroom. Suh used steel wire to frame the bathtub and toilet to hold the fabric properly. For the larger structures, he used stainless steel armature.
Figure \(\PageIndex{17}\): Bathtub (2013, fabric, stainless steel wire, LED, 34 x 150.1 x 76.5 cm) by 準建築人手札網站 Forgemind ArchiMedia, CC BY 2.0Figure \(\PageIndex{18}\): Toilet (2013, fabric stainless steel wire, LED, 34 x 150.1 x 76.5 cm) by 準建築人手札網站 Forgemind ArchiMedia, CC BY 2.0
Suh was raised in South Korea, the influence of North Korea and the ever-present threat in the lives of those on the Korean peninsula. The two countries were a display of conflicting social and political societies. The images of North Korean soldiers in precise and continued marching manifested in the concept of the control and collectivism of the state over the thoughts and activities of the individual.
Figure \(\PageIndex{19}\): Cause and Effect (2007, acrylic resin, aluminum disc, stainless steel frame and cable, monofilament, 120 x 295 cm) by foshie, CC BY 2.0The sculpture Cause and Effect (8.2.19) is made of 1,200 naked resin figures cast in different colors. Each small figure sits on the figure below it, portraying the relationship between the individual inside the collective or the concept of the individual supporting the larger society.
Figure \(\PageIndex{20}\): Cause and Effect closeup, by foshie, CC BY 2.0El Anatsui (1944 -) was born in Ghana, where his uncle raised him. As a child, he drew on a chalkboard and later trained at the University of Science and Technology in Ghana. His early work was based on traditional wood carving and sculpture and teaching at the University of Nigeria. His first entry into the international art world was in Harlem, New York, in 1990 when he entered a show about contemporary African artists. Anatsui found his art medium in the streets of the local towns, discarded liquor bottle caps. After collecting thousands of metal seals from the bottles and bottle caps, he must smooth and flatten them to be more malleable and workable. For his sculptures, he uses copper wire to attach the pieces. His work combines the concepts of traditional African imagery and the ideas of abstraction. Anatsui's work is moveable and easy to configure in different ways. His work does not have a fixed form, and when he sends a sculpture to an institution, he does not send any instructions, allowing them to decide how to hang and drape his work. Anatsui said, "I am interested in textile because it is always in motion. Anytime you touch something, there is bound to be a change. The idea of a sheet that you can shape or reshape. It can be on the floor; it can be up on the ceiling; it can be up on the wall, all that fluidity is behind the concept."[5]
Anatsui noticed walls worldwide and how they close space and stop the eye from traveling further. He wanted to create a wall the viewer can see, though fluid and moveable. The term Gli meant will, however with a different inflection, the word might mean story or even disrupt. Gli (Wall) (8.2.21) is an oversized installation hung from the ceiling representing a wall. However, it is a transparent wall, most of the metal pieces formed into circles, creating visibility through each small opening. Anatsui connected thousands of bottle caps and collars with thin copper wire. The reflective metal shimmers, giving the appearance of curtains moving in the breeze instead of rigid metal.
Figure \(\PageIndex{21}\): Gli (Wall) (2010, aluminum and copper wire) by gsz, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0AG+BA (8.2.22) is an example of Anatsui's selection and application of color. Each of the bottle tops was branded by different companies who bottled the liquor. Anatsui collected millions of the tops and sorted them by color in his compositions. In part of the sculpture, the red pieces were interspersed with gold and some black; the other portion is formed with gold and small amounts of gold and red. The bottle tops are relatively soft and easy to flatten. Part of this sculpture is hanging and draped, the pieces wired together; the sizeable golden section does not drape and is welded into a massive block. Anatsui started using bottle tops when he found three bags of tops. The liquor bottles could be recycled; however, no one recycled aluminum.
Figure \(\PageIndex{22}\): AG+BA (2014, aluminium (liquor bottle caps), copper wire, nylon string) by FaceMePLS, CC BY 2.0Drifting Continents (8.2.23) depicts a fragmented map of the world where the continents collapse into each other. The work displays the interconnectivity of the regions and the creation of restrictive, poorly defined borders. Wealth and gold flowed out of Africa for centuries causing economic disorder today. In the sculpture, the flattened gold tops flow down the walls, beautifully reflective and demonstrating the beauty of gold and why it is coveted. The discarded refuse of the bottle caps recreating the richness of piles of gold only the value is only in the art, not the materials.
Figure \(\PageIndex{23}\): Drifting Continents (2009, aluminum, copper wire, 151 x 410 cm overall) by Eva Blue, CC BY 2.0
Subodh Gupta (1964-) was born in India; his father died when Gupta was young. He was sent to live with an uncle on a remote farm, where children went to school without shoes or roads. He attended the College of Arts & Crafts in Patna, a place without even a library. When he graduated in 1988, Gupta moved to Delhi, starting his career as an artist. He always loved steel and metal, from the dull brass plates the family used for eating to the replacement stainless steel plates. Gupta started using the everyday kitchen utensils used at home, a material he uses. Line of Control (8.2.24) is a sculpture based on the mushroom clouds developed from atomic bombs and represents the dismaying deployment of nuclear war. Nuclear weapons are always an issue between Pakistan and India and the potential of their use in war. The sculpture also represents geopolitical borders, limitations, disputed territories globally, and potential nuclear warfare potential. The work was constructed with twenty-six tons of stainless-steel pans, thalis, bowls, milk pails, tiffin boxes, and various utensils. Each element was welded together to assemble the sculpture.
Figure \(\PageIndex{24}\): Line of Control (2008, stainless steel utensils, 10.9 x 10.9 meters, 26 tons) CC BY 2.0Gupta has always been interested in the migration or displacement in India, even why they travel to other places, carefully noting the changes in Indian society. The Silk Route (8.2.25) comprises stacks of an abundant supply of pots, bowls, and plates carefully arranged on a giant conveyer belt. He presents the growth of the middle class and its constant need for more. The reference to the old silk road defines the influence and threat of globalization changing local communities and the spread of consumerism. The towers of tiffin pots (stackable containers) move along the installation much like India's rapid pace of change. The tiffin pots were a standard method of carrying food when Gupta was a child, the objects now having a different meaning. Gupta said, "My work is about where I came from, but at the same time, the expansion of the art world means that to a certain extent, everything is shrinking together, and you have to be aware of international discourses in your work."[6]
Figure \(\PageIndex{25}\): The Silk Route (2007, stainless steel kitchen utensils) by Glen Bowman, CC BY-SA 2.0Gupta created the magnificent, stainless-steel banyan tree stating, "I'd like this sculpture to be a place where families gather and get photographed."[7] The structure has become a place for people to sit and pose and ponder the illusion of the sculpture. The tree, Specimen No. 108 (8.2.26), was exceptionally complex to construct. Gupta first made the metal trunk with the branches before the utensils were individually welded to the tree. The tree is shiny with the beauty of an actual tree, elegant and graceful, combined with the ubiquity of common household elements hanging like fruit. The banyan tree is incorporated into Indian culture as sacred and a center of worship; however, the number 108 is meaningful in multiple religions. The imposing tree is a symbol for other meanings. The mystical formation of the tree is further enhanced by the sun bouncing off the steel and the utensils softly moving in the breeze.
Figure \(\PageIndex{26}\): Specimen No. 108 (2014, stainless steel utensils) by gauravmishr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0Jean Shin (1971-) was born in Korea, where her parents were professors. When she was six years old, they moved to the United States. Shin graduated with a BFA from Pratt Institute and an MS in History. Her artwork is made from cast-off materials she collects and forms into installations. She is not particular in her accumulations, including one sock or a broken ceramic, discarded lottery tickets, and even old pill bottles. Shin creates large-scale sculptures and needs large numbers of any one element. She believes the object in an installation may all look the same until closer observation reveals individuality and variety. Shin wants the viewer to continually shift between the group and the individuals within the group, some things more intimate and others appearing excessive.
Huddled Masses (8.2.27) connects the idea of the environmental waste of technology and the desire from society for more and more technological products. The sculpture is made of old cell phones, obsolete by the following year's model. Meters of old, no longer viable computer cables encircle the structure capturing the phones into piles of meaninglessness. The toxic waste now sits, planned obsolescence forcing the new technology to the detriment of the environment from the masses of unusable waste. Large forms jut out of the middle like the ancient rocks of Chinese art, the purity of natural, long-lasting stones of the past, now covered by today's pollution. Oddly, the sounds on the phones made to carry the noise and discourse of society are now silent in their obsolesce. The most significant part of the sculpture is 2.28 meters tall. Shin collected over 3,000 different styles of phones, some as long as twenty years ago, for the sculpture.
Figure \(\PageIndex{27}\): Huddled Masses (2020, cellphones and computer cables) by Asian Art Museum, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Chance City (8.2.28) was constructed from thousands of losing scratch-and-win lottery tickets, discarded as useless. People purchase them hoping to make money; the losing tickets reveal the unfulfilled dream someone had when they bought the ticket. The worthless tickets are the blocks Shin uses for her colorful houses of cards; it too a temporary structure full of chance and optimism. She does not use any glue when erecting the house of cards, only balancing one on top of another. Although the sculpture looks fragile, gravity and friction hold the cards in place. Shin believes, "Picking up your life and moving to the city and giving I all you can, your dreams may change-transform. But somehow, I think all of us retain that memory of something that they really wanted to do, and against all odds, are able to succeed."[8] The ticket may not bring instant riches, but our odds of success are achievable.
Figure \(\PageIndex{28}\): Chance City (2001, raffle tickets) by nicknormal, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Figure \(\PageIndex{29}\): Chance City closeup, by nicknormal, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Anselm Kiefer (1945-) was born in Germany a few months before World War II ended. The city was heavily bombed, a difficult place to live. Kiefer attended the University of Freiburg, first studying languages before switching to art. In the first part of his career, he painted images based on themes from Nazi rule, the Holocaust, or spiritual poetry. Kiefer incorporated straw, clay, ashes, shellac, and lead in the mix of paint applied to the canvas. He used many of his painting concepts and techniques for the large installations. Seven Heavenly Palaces (8.2.30) was based on ideas from an ancient Hebrew writing. The seven towers were fourteen to eighteen meters high, and each weighed ninety tons. Kiefer used reinforced concrete for the towers. He inserted lead wedges between each level. The towers became a summation of Kiefer’s life-long themes of the ancient Hebrews, World War II atrocities, the ruination of Western culture, and the possibilities in the future. He also added large paintings to reinforce his philosophies. Visitors walk through the space to view the towers and paintings, moving between spaces and media. Kiefer added different meanings to each tower. On one tower, he placed an ark representing the ark believed to rest on Ararat. At the base of another tower are small sheets of glass labeled with paper to represent celestial bodies.
Figure \(\PageIndex{30}\): Seven Heavenly Palaces (2004, reinforced concrete, 13 to 19 meters high) by HeinzDS, CC BY-SA 2.0Breaking of the Vessels (8.2.31) is a massive installation weighing over seven tons. The bookcase is filled with forty-one lead book folios and interspersed with glass. The books reference Jewish culture and ancient mystical writings. A semicircular pane of glass is suspended above and is inscribed with Hebrew words translating to “Infinite Light .” According to the writings, the attributes of G-d’s light were divided among ten vessels that were not strong enough to contain them and broke, bringing the Divine into an imperfect world.[9] Kiefer frequently referred to the atrocities of the Nazis against the Jews. In front of the bookcase are piles of broken glass, referring to Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass). In November 1938, Nazis and civilians shattered the glass windows in thousands of Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues. The Nazis destroyed and burned all the books they found in Jewish homes, synagogues, schools, or businesses. The books are made from lead, impenetrable, hidden. Kiefer frequently used lead in his paintings and installations, lead representing a crushing, brutal force. He described lead as “the only material heavy enough to carry the weight of human history.”[10]
Figure \(\PageIndex{31}\): Breaking of the Vessels (1990, lead, iron, glass, copper wire, charcoal, aquatec, 378.5 x 836.9 x 518.2 cm) by clio1789, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Liu Wei (1972-) is from China and graduated from the China Academy of Art. At first, he created realistic paintings before working on installations. He moved to Beijing and was associated with other artists who produced exhibitions protesting the government. Their video, photography, and performances contained pictures of corpses, cadavers, or other gross and visceral images. Their concept planned on repelling Western audiences revealing their resentment of Western powers. However, as China expanded its trade globally, the artists opened to Western investors. Since the new millennium, Liu has been creating models of cityscapes using unusual materials. The massive construction of cities in China inspired him to create installations based on the continual change, decay, and construction found every day in cities. Today, Liu creates his image digitally before assembling an installation, continuing to change them over time.
Liu's installation Love it! Bite it! is made from the unusual material of dog chews. He tried to create buildings from across Western history. The work was exceptionally detailed, with ornate columns, domes, towers, and cornices. However, most of them resembled ruins of the dystopia of fallen empires. Liu made the construction from dog chews after seeing his dog gnaw on its chew as it was crumbled with saliva and dirt. He observed the dog's lust for food like a human's hunger for power, the city the representative of that power. Love it! Bite it! (8.2.39) displays the falling coliseum, a church, and other collapsing buildings.
Figure \(\PageIndex{39}\): Love it! Bite it! (2013, edible dog chews, dimensions vary) by mr.push, CC BY-NC 2.0Love it! Bite it! (8.2.40) is part of the United States capitol building exhibit eroded by greed and time.
Figure \(\PageIndex{40}\): Love it! Bite it! (2013, edible dog chews, dimensions vary) by mr.push, CC BY-NC 2.0In Library II-II (8.2.41), Liu constructed four sections displaying another dystopian city with seemingly familiar buildings, although anonymous. Some of the buildings are leaning at ninety degrees; a few resemble old New York skyscrapers. All the buildings were made and sculpted with books. Liu said, "I was drawn to books at first because of the uniform density; the morphology of books seems to give them the ability to replace all other architectural and urban features; books represent a real-world and expand wantonly."[12] Liu used iron and hardware for the basic frame covered by wood to assemble the books into buildings.
Figure \(\PageIndex{41}\): Library II-I (I2013, books, wood, iron, hardware, 290 x 140 x 170 cm) by nicknormal, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Urs Fischer (1973-) was born in Switzerland; his parents were doctors. At first, Fisher studied photography before opening his studio. Today, his work includes sculpture, drawing, painting, and his first interest in photography. Fisher's work is frequently classified as subversive and non-traditional, often creating oversized installations. Get Up Girl a Sun Is Running the World (8.2.42) is an installation based on 2,000-year-old olive trees found in the Italian countryside. He cast the trees in aluminum and covered them with white enamel. The natural trees' gnarled trunk and twisted branches are captured and frozen in time, then installed in an abnormal setting of concrete and glass, the beauty of the natural setting lost. Fischer said, "What interests me about the 2000-year-old olive trees is the fact that once they are cast bare naked, they become Memoriam of condensed time. Through a cast olive tree, you can not only experience the lapse of real-time, that is lived time, frozen in its given form but through this transformation also a different calibrated temporality."[13]
Figure \(\PageIndex{42}\): Get Up Girl a Sun Is Running the World (2007, cast aluminum, white enamel) by dalbera, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0Fischer invited 1,500 people to help make clay structures for his exhibition of Yes (8.2.43, 8.2.44). The clay was provided for the people, and they were able to use all the clay needed and create anything they wanted. The people were from all walks of life, no experience required, and the results from the people were varied; some sculptures were polished, others were crude; they were large and small, made by young and old. The exhibit covered all of the floor space, and some people even used the walls. Objects included an array of unfired clay skulls, humble pretzels, Batman's head, octopi, dogs, birds, life-sized nudes, a bathtub, a fireplace, a tiny smartphone, a tombstone for chivalry (hah), a bowl of ramen, and an impressively giant and accurate Jabba the Hutt.[14]
Figure \(\PageIndex{43}\): Yes (view 1) (2013, clay) by andydr, CC BY 2.0.Figure \(\PageIndex{44}\): Yes (view 2) (2013, clay) by andydr, CC BY 2.0
Fischer worked beside the people making his sculptures, including the immense wax sculpture Untitled (8.2.45), an image resembling Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women from the 1500s. Fischer placed wicks throughout the wax sculpture and then burned them to achieve the dripping and melted look of the statue. His oversized sculpture contrasted the smaller creations of the people, and the exhibition has the look of disparate pieces in a landscape of ruins, broken figures, and unassociated images.
Figure \(\PageIndex{45}\): Untitled (2013, wax) by andydr, CC BY 2.0Fischer used the concept of ordinary objects to create the absurd. His monumental work, Untitled (Lamp/Bear) (8.2.46), is an image of a child's bright yellow teddy bear as part of a desk lamp. The mammoth bear is about two stories high as it sits, flopping forward. The bear appears to be sitting on the lamp as the light sits above his head, the giant lamp providing light for the outdoor space. The bear is wrinkled and looks cozy, ready to be held by a child. However, the bear is not made from soft fur as it appears; instead, it is cast of bronze and weighs about seventeen tons.
Figure \(\PageIndex{46}\): Untitled (Lamp/Bear) (2005, painted/lacquered cast bronze, acrylic glass, LED lights, stainless steel interior framework, 700 x 650 x 749.9 cm) by Dan Nguyen, CC BY-NC 2.0Olafur Eliasson (1967-) was born in Denmark, although his parents had recently emigrated from Iceland. His father was an artist and moved back to Iceland after divorcing Eliasson's mother. Eliasson studied art at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and then moved to Germany. His artwork is large and complex, so Eliasson collaborates with a team of architects and engineers, and other artists. He is also a professor at Berlin University, where he works with spatial experiments. Eliasson is well-known for creating multi-sensory exhibitions and combining scientific phenomena, environmental concerns, and art.
The weather has always been part of everyday conversation, will it be hot or cold or when the rain might start. Eliasson created The Weather Project (8.2.47) to bring the experience of the sun and sky. A fine mist is felt throughout the day as though coming from outside. At the end of the hall, hundreds of mono-frequency lamps, as installed in a semicircle, reflected in a huge mirror. The lamps contain a light restricted to a very narrow frequency, so they only emit yellow and black; any other colors become invisible. The result is a perfect sun seemingly static and unmoving, its light turning viewers into small black shadows. Eliasson has constructed the exhibition so viewers can also walk behind the sun and view how the electrical wiring, sub-structure, and misting machines are assembled and function. Aluminum frames were lined with the mirrored foil to create the reflective sun with the 200 lights in the semicircle.
Figure \(\PageIndex{47}\): The Weather Project (2003, mono frequency lights, projection foil, haze machines, mirror foil, aluminium, scaffolding, 26.7 x 22.3 x 155.4 meters) by Istvan, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0The New York City Waterfalls (8.2.48) were a temporary installation during the summer of 2008 in New York City. The four waterfalls were situated on the East River at each bridge. The waterfalls were meant to enhance the public space and give people a sense of relationship with their surroundings. The basic structure was a set of scaffolding as the backbone for each separate fall, along with water pumps and hoses. The waterfalls were powered by electricity from "green power" and illuminated with LED lights. The fish were protected with special filters and intake pools to make the entire project environmentally sensitive. The cascading water brought a feeling of mountains and natural places in the middle of a congested urban area. The sound of falling water provides a softer sound among the harsh din of the city.
Figure \(\PageIndex{48}\): New York City Waterfalls (2008, water, scaffolding, steel grill, troughs, pumps, piping, pool filters, LED lights, ultra-violet filters, concrete, switch gears, electrical equipment, wiring, control modules, anemometers, 30-40 meters high) by epicharmus, CC BY 2.0Eliasson wanted to bring the experience of the perspective of the horizon. He didn't think of the horizon as a line; instead, he felt it was a dimension. Eliasson explained, "Questioning one's horizon requires us to question linearity and create a new horizon."[15] His exhibit Inside the Horizon (8.2.49) is a series of forty-three triangular columns with varying widths running beside a grotto. Two sides of every column are covered with mirrors, and one side is clad in yellow glass tiles. The columns are illuminated from the inside. Each column is a different size and positioned at a different angle. Viewers walk through the columns, and their reflections create endless diffracted reflections on the water, building columns, and even themselves. The space becomes filled and changes with hundreds of facets and surprising visuals, much like a kaleidoscope.
Figure \(\PageIndex{49}\): Inside the Horizon (2013, Stainless steel, aluminium, LED light system, colored glass, mirror, 5.4 x 91 x 5.2 meters) by beatrice.boutetdemvl, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0