“Colorful Elephant”

 

Subject v. Content

 

This piece was a shampoo bottle and the heal of a boot put together.  One can describe this as a long cylinder with an extra leg coming off the top.  The cylinder is painted in rainbow colors and the extra leg is all grey.  You can find red, purple, blue, green, yellow and orange in the cylinder.

 

This piece could represent a gay elephant.  This is the first thing I thought of after completing it.  The elephant could be the happiest one in the zoo or in the wild and the colors painted show his happiness.

 

This piece could also represent gay pride in America.  Recently gay marriage rights have been getting passed throughout different states.  This could resemble the gay marriage rights being passed and everyone being happy about it.

Artist Report – Evan Holloway

Alicia Silverman

Artist: Evan Holloway

 hendeca stack

 cool branch

dark and light

 double david

The Arrangement of ten

Pictures: 

1. Arrangement Of Ten – 2013 – Bronze and Dark Patina
2. Double David – 2012 – Bronze
3. Dark and Light – 2012 – Bronze and Patina
4. Cool Branch – 2012 – Bronze and Paint
5. Hendeca Stack – 2012 – Powder coated aluminum, electronics, wiring and light bulbs

 

Please share a statement from an art historian, critic or journalist about your artist:

Sally O’Reilly describes Holloway’s work: “Evan Holloway’s work requires the viewer to crouch, peer or circumnavigate each piece.  The reward is a glimpse of a spatial, optical or notional somersault.  His objects are like compounds with a long-forgotten use, outlandish yet made up of tantalizingly familiar components, all twisted or going off at angles in a most obstreperous manner.  Holloway sprinkles Modernist reference throughout his work like cheap cologne and these welded formal structures act as branches or shelves on which to hang his set of perceptions.  Yet it is difficult to pare the residue of Modernism away from the scatter of contemporary culture references.  It is not easy to see which came first, as he managed to the intertwine the two in a seamless, symbiotic coupling.”  

 

Please share an idiosyncrasy about your artist here:

Evan Holloway is a sculptural Artist.  He enjoys creating simple and fundamental transactions between people and objects.  Evan wants his work to be understood by a contemporary society and its values.  He likes to play on allusions and materials while experimenting with his ideas.

 

Please choose one of the 5 pieces above and write a subject v. content statement about the work here:

The Arrangement of Ten caught my eye the most.  The piece of art looks like cans stacked on top of each other in a pyramid way.  However, they are not cans, he used brick like shapes.  Starting with the bottom, there is a play form that then has four brick like shapes, standing straight up next to each other.  On the top of the four, he than put three brick like shapes, than two on top of the three and one solo brick on top.  On the front of each brick like shape, a chicken shape appears to be on each one.  The bricks are a dark blackish/gray and remains the same color throughout the whole piece.  

The first piece of content this could symbolize is the food pyramid in life.  All the faces of the bricks have chickens on it.  So it could mean the food pyramid for chickens only eat other chickens.  It could be a mean way of life for them.  The farmers of these chickens could be making turning them into cannibalism.

The second piece of content this could symbolize is the bottom being the strongest and getting more weak as you get up to the top.  It could be an opposite way of our social life.  Usually the people on top in our society have lots of money and are the strongest versus the people on the bottom who are the weakest and poorest.  But in reality if you get to know the people on the bottom of the pyramid and what they have been though in life, you will see they are the strongest and most hard working people.  An example are some I work with.  This one lady is from Camden and has a hard life but she comes to work and works hard everyday.  She has to be strong to get through the stuff she has been put through in this city which is one of the worst in America.  

Plant Project

Artist Report – Nina Katchdorian

Nina Katchdorian

Pictres:

Mended Spiderweb #8 – red sewing thread

1. Mended Spiderweb #8 – red sewing thread
2. Mended Spiderweb #19 – Laundry Line
3. Lavatory Self-Portrait in the Flemish Style #4
4. Talking Popcorn 2001
5. Operating the Talking Popcorn machine

Statement by Nina: “A lot happens just by moving these things around to show what’s been there the whole time” (7/3/13) Art News

About: Nina Katchadourian was born in Stanford, California and grew up spending every summer on a small island in the Finnish archipelago, where she still spends part of each year. Her work exists in a wide variety of media including photography, sculpture, video and sound. Katchadourian is on the faculty at NYU Gallatin School of Individualizd Study and she is represented by Catharine Clark gallery in San Francisco.

Subject vs. Content statement for one piece: Mended- Spiderweb #19

This piece of artwork is two spider webs coming off a tree. In between the top spider web Nina intertwined two laundry lines between the webs. This makes the viewer able to see the web more because it’s a redline between them. In the bottom spider web, Nina intertwined three of her own webs into the real one. Making the three webs stick out the most.

This piece resembles nature made vs. human made. The spider webs are naturally made from an insect and Nina added human input to the web. It is neat to see the difference between the spiders web and a laundry line. The spiders web is more interesting to see because everything is a line perfectly. As to Ninas input, the web is all crazy and not a lined perfectly.

This piece can also resemble nature and catching your prey. The web catches bugs so they can be able to eat. By Nina adding her own web into theirs, it makes the web stronger and harder for bugs to get out of the trap.

Artist Report – Tom Friedman

Artist Report

Tom Friedman (toothpick, wooden chair, aspirin carvings,

hot balls, box balls, “open” sculpture)

1. Huddle – 2013 – Stainless Steel

2. Untitled (Sun) – 2012 – Wood, styrofoam and paint

3. Open Black Box – 2006 – Black construction paper

4. Untitled – 1992 – Wooden school chair

5. Big Big Mac – 2013 – Styrofoam and paint

Please share a statement from an art historian, critic or journalist about your artist:

Talking about Tom Friedman’s book, “The boldest, best-executed and most far-reaching publishing project devoted to contemporary art. These books will revolutionize the way contemporary art is presented and written about.” (Artforum)

Please share on idiosyncrasy about your artist here:

Tom Friedman enjoys using everyday materials such as toothpicks, sugar cubes and paper to create his art work.  He likes to intricate geometric arrangements with these items to create balls, boxes, etc.  He likes to make extraordinary work that explores ideas of perception, logic and possibility.

Please choose one of the 5 pieces above and write a subject vs. content statement about the work here:

The Untitled Sun caught my eye the most.  This sculpture is made from wood, styrofoam and paint.  It looks like he put thousands of tooth picks inside a styrofoam ball to create a big ball like object that has thousands of points coming out of it.  Its kind of like a porcupines back but in a ball/ circular shape.

This Untitled Sun could represent our living sun and the flames that come off it.  It has thousands of points coming out of it.  The depth going inside the points could be into the sun since it is so big and you would get stuck in both and not make your way out.

This Untitled Sun could also represent tumble weeds from the desert.  It reminds me of something you would see down south blowing around on a dusty, windy day.  All the toothpick needles could have got stuck to the ball while blowing around all day.

Brown Nipples

Subject vs. Content Statement

“Brown Nipples”

This project was made from plaster and chocolate. Each baby bottle was filled with a different amount of plaster and laid on its side to make the bottle appear like it is sinking into the ground. On the end of each bottle where the nipple is located, they were dipped in chocolate to give it a twist. When you aline each baby bottle next to each other from biggest to smallest, it looks like they are gradually getting smaller.

This project can represent the usage from an infant. As they get older they use a bottle less and less and graduate to an adult cup. It kind of looks like the bottles are getting smaller and sinking into the ground and eventually they will disappear.

This project can represent the taste that comes off the nipples of a baby bottle. Since the nipple is the only hole to get liquid out of the bottle, that is where a baby is tasting the deliciousness of milk, juice, etc. In this project the nipples were dipped in chocolate, making it an enjoyable end to suck on.

project 1

Subject vs Content Statement

This image reminds me not to litter.  It could be described as a stick, wiffle ball bat and fishing pole all leaning on one another.  They are bonded with finishing line from the rod.  The fishing pole is coming out of a plastic watering container and the stick is standing from a block of styrofoam. Hanging off the branches from the stick is a pink dirty sock, empty bag of chips, a plastic water bottle with an acorn in it and an air freshener can.  These items are all hanging by a line of fishing string.  Hanging onto a branch by its handle is a green laundry detergent.  It looks like the detergent got stuck on the branch by accident.  Lastly, at the top of the tallest branch coming off the stick is a wire twisted in circle shapes around the stick.

This sculpture could represent our pollution and litter problem in New Jersey.  Since all these items were gathered from the world, they were all thrown out in the wrong place.  This could represent how life will become if we don’t stop littering.  In the future there might be bottles on tree branches and bags of potato chips.  This isn’t much different from the surroundings by us.  If you are walking down the street you will see trash on the side of the roads.  So this sculpture could also represent the cities near us.

 

Another thing this sculpture could represent is life.  The water container and bottle could be the water we drink.  The potato chip bag and acorn could be the food we eat.  The tree branch could be the air we breath.  This is what keeps us going in life and the necessary things we need, water, food and air.  The sock isn’t a necessary item but adds in life as well.  Most people wear clothes, socks, etc. to keep warm.  The wiffle ball bat and fishing rod could add in happiness to life.  When people are doing either, they are usually happy and with family and friends. All these items combined expresses life and happiness.