Processions, Giants, Spectacle

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TOY AND SCALE

PROMT 1

The refrigerator involves toys given by Chad and bought from thrift stores.  I consider the toys as art work because they have peculiar experiences of the past by people who are now the adult audiences in the exhibition space. The installation expresses my interest in objects that have signs of history and Susan referenced the doll in the context of nostalgia in terms of terms how one’s childhood experience is relevant to them in their adulthood. 

PROMPT 2

I want to quote Susan Stewart,  "30 minutes would be experienced in 5 minutes at ½ scales and in 2.5 minute at 1/24 scale"(Susan). In this type of scale Susan is referring to the miniature which is the small scale work there is a sense of intimacy. Within that moment of experience is where the viewer takes time to see the detail the work thus the color, the finish and texture. According Robert Morris mentions in his Notes on Sculpture part 2, "the intimate mode is essentially closed, spaceless, compressed and exclusive.” Here there is an inter-dialogue between the work and viewer and no other world is included. Susan also added that mention "whereas speech unfolds time, the miniature unfolds in space". The large scale is always public and inclusive, there is always openness and everyone sees the work simultaneously, like a monument. Consequently, both the miniature and the gigantic may be described through metaphors of containment, the miniature as contained the gigantic as container. Yayoi Kusama's Dot Matrix and where color dots have occupied the entire space even the objects within, you imagine the experience of the viewer in terms of movement whereas in Meret Oppehein 's Object one has to get closer to the object and see the detail. The viewer feels the desire to hold it in his or her hands and experience the texture.

Go Big or Go Home

Chad Serhal - "Nothing New" -  2019 - 4"x4"

Prompt 1

There is a definite “play” in my small collages.  The size alone is playing with scale and the miniature.  The repetition of working within the same square at the same size is a form of play, dealing with creativity in how many different ways can I arrange paper in this space.  The fact that I am using paper to paint images, and my use of figures in other scenarios, thrown into my own created environment, is playful.  The text in the collages is always playing with the scene or image in the collage with a wit or humor.

In the book Stewart says, “The toy is the physical embodiment of the fiction: it is a device for fantasy, a point of beginning for narrative.”  A figure cut from a book about movies is a point of beginning for narrative, as well as a sheet of old paper, or just an irregular shape with an irregular stain.

Jeff Koons - "Seated Ballerina" - 2016 

Prompt 2

When I think of gigantic art, I think of Jeff Koons.  His “Seated Ballerina” sculpture made of stainless steel could possibly be a response to this book when it says, “We can not have a mammoth petite and graceful ballerina unless we want a parody” (p94).  Koons is taking something that is traditionally small, controlled, petite, and light, and making it strong, heavy, gigantic and public.  The challenge being, to not make the ballerina a parody, but to give it grace.  I believe because she is to scale, and the technique of the mirror polished stainless steel transparent color coating, and the beautiful colors used, he accomplishes this.  The piece still evokes a sublime freakishness, due to the large scale, but also because she is not standing in attention like the statues we’re used to.  She is sitting, leaned forward in the middle of a daily act, playing on natural and unnatural.  I personally wish Jeff Koons never existed.

SCALE

In the two videos I realized how scale was portrayed in terms of detail. He zoomed in several times so that the viewer sees the difference between being closer to a work or being in a distance. The use of large scale has become a sort medium for many contemporary artists such as Ibrahim Mahama. Yayoi Kusama, El Anatsui, Richard Serra and Subodh Gupta. My work is intentionally sometimes enlarged to articulate my obsession with the material. I also expect labor to be interpreted in my work as a form appreciation by the audience. With Ibrahim Mahama's jute sack installation above, the viewer is compelled to walk through the work to see the totality of it. Scale is also associated with the immediate space around the viewer, thus  the distance between the viewer and the work. In comparison, my work is not as large as that of Ibrahim and the viewer doesn't necessarily have to move around it, yet in front the installation makes one realize the size of his/her body. From a distance, it seems like painting but when you get closer to it, you see the details as old metals with patterns and holes in-between.

Prompt 1

I am very interested by the representation of "play" in this chapter. Play is discussed but in reference to giants at play, it has a terrifying connotation.  Here is an interesting quote from this chapter, page 73

In one Germanic legend, a giant girl comes down from the mountains

into a valley. Here she sees a plowman at work in a field. She

puts the peasant, the oxen, and the plow in her apron and takes them

home as toys. When she shows these playthings to her parents, they

are displeased and tell her she must take them back, "for these men

are not playthings for giants, but belong to that race of people who

will some day do great harm to giants."l0

The idea of giants playing is has a terrifying feel, but the concept of play and large monumental sculpture can have a completely different feel. It can invoke play and exploration 

Jesus Soto

My work has yet to successfully incorporate a sense of play. Maybe play exists within the opportunity for people to play and explore the body using my surgical training models, that could be a rich avenue for me to explore bringing those objects to a wider audience to allow the viewer an opportunity to explore and become more familiar what the materialty of the body. 

Prompt 2

Prompt 2:

Scale is something that I often consider in my work.
It seems that I am either working on a miniature scale or a large scale. I do not often explore a middle area. There seems to be an interesting relationship between the large scale pieces and the smaller scale. It often seems that the larger pieces evoke associations with architecture, confrontational experiences, immersion, and full body participation. Whereas my smaller pieces, pieces where I have created miniatures toros or even moquettes for larger pieces take on a different understanding and sensibility. These pieces are often seen as objects to be manipulated whether that be through surgical procedures, drawing, or just play.

Here are some images of an artistic who's work is incredibly impacted by its confrontational and monumental scale. The work of Magdalena Abakanowicz

Magdalena Abakanowicz

I want to begin by quoting Susan Stewart, “Nostalgia, like any other form of narrative is always ideological: the past it seeks has never existed except as narrative, and hence, always absent, that past continually threatens to reproduce itself as a felt lack”(Susan). I think that narrative is the mediated process through which a story or concept is articulated especially, a nostalgic experience. Narrative has become a familiar terms in an artistic practice since all concepts emanate from various experiences, be it political, social or nostalgia, which then also becomes a communicative process. According to Susan (1993) “The personal experience story is most impersonal in its generic conventions and may be compared to the novel in its continuing involvement with and transformation of previous performances of its genre.” (Susan Stewart) It’s very fascinating why Susan mentions that nostalgia in terms of its narrative does not have to relate to an individual person. It is supposed to connect with other people. 

Here, there is also the use of the signifier, signified and the sign where the narrator of the story or the artist who produced the art is require to use certain components s that would d contribute to the reader’s conception. In this case, the experience is your but again not yours. The narrative is then expected to  be experience shared equally with the readers by using the conventional genre.