Highly Recommended: Emerging Sculptors

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1 Highly Recommended: Emerging Sculptors This is Meijer Gardens ArtPrize exhibition for Please note the extended dates. The Shed is on Fire (detail) by Katrin Albrecht September 19, 2014 January 4, 2015 Self-Guided Tour

2 Exhibition Overview This exhibition of contemporary sculpture highlights current trends and efforts of a new generation of sculptors from around the world. The sixteen artists in the exhibition explore materials and forms in unique ways. They also challenge the viewer with new ideas and subjects that are fascinating to discuss. Included in the exhibition are sculptures that represent the human form, collections of unusual objects, abstract objects, as well as experiential installations. Traditional sculpture materials such as stone, steel and bronze are represented as well as more unusual materials like feathers, copper wire, fluorescent lights and used clothing. Use the information included in this self-guided tour to guide your students through the exhibition and stimulate discussion, focusing on these six thought-provoking sculptures. A Gallery Guide can be found in the Sculpture Galleries with images, artist names and titles of the work.

3 The Shed is on Fire by Katrin Albrecht Made from recycled clothes and wallpaper glue Why would an artist choose to use discarded clothing to create a sculpture? Can you identify different textures of fabric in the bricks? What do you think the title refers to? How would you feel if this sculpture was all one color? This structure that the artist calls a shed contains more than 600 bricks made out of clothes donated from friends and family. Albrecht states, Using this personalised material turns The Shed is on Fire into a portrait of community. Every brick was fabricated by hand, using wallpaper glue and pressure to transform discarded clothes into building materials. Different colors, textures and prints can be made out and zippers, buttons, seams and labels reveal a previous history. The fashion industry encourages us to buy and throw away clothes The Shed is on Fire introduces the idea of recycling and transforming existing materials into something new. Clothes serve as cases for the body, so do houses. Both strongly connect to the human body and its elementary need for shelter, warmth and community. Katrin Albrecht

4 Wallwave Vibration by Loris Cecchini Made from polyester resin and paint Why do you think this is considered a sculpture? What do the forms and patterns remind you of? What do you imagine the wallwave vibration would sound like? How would you represent vibrations in sculptural form? How do you think this sculpture is attached to the wall? The Wallwave Vibrations series represents sound or vibrations in three dimensions. Although there is no permanent three-dimensional object present, the relief sculpture (that includes a visual pattern) highlights the concept of a sound wave repeated on the wall surface, like waves on a liquid surface. Cecchini designs the patterns with a machine and then molds are made to represent the final form. The artist says he installs his work in places that blend with the architecture and attaches the edges of the sculpture so that a visual continuum is created. The resin form is screwed to the wall and edges are blended in with light-weight spackle then painted all one color.

5 Feather Child 1 by Lucy Glendinning Made from duck and pheasant feathers, wax, jesmonite (resin) and timber What story would you tell about this sculpture? Try the pose. How does it make you feel to be in that position? How does the addition of feathers affect the figure? What if the feathers were all dark in color? If the figure was an adult size, would that change how you feel? Find another figurative sculpture in the exhibition and compare the two. How is Feather Child 1 similar and different? The artist notes, The Feather Child series originated from a fascination with visions of a future society. She imagines what would happen if we could change our physical appearance and abilities at will. Would we focus on vanity or on health? Would we think only about ourselves or about the world as a whole? Glendinning makes works in series developed around ideas which, for her, are the beginning of poems. She is fascinated with future society, medical information and psychological studies.

6 House by Osman Khan Made from fluorescent tube lights, aluminum, copper, electronics, wood Why do you think the artist chose to make a house out of blinking lights? What materials would you use to create a house sculpture? This piece is an example of an installation, how is it different from other pieces in the exhibition? Compare the atmosphere of this house to how you feel when you are at home. What does home mean to you? We immediately recognize the subject of this work of art as an iconic image. However, when viewers enter the space of the installation, it becomes unclear where the boundaries of the house exist because there are no walls or other structures. Khan notes the current mortgage crisis and other economic downturns as barriers to the American Dream of home ownership. He uses fluorescent glass tubes to create his house in order to highlight the fragility of the housing situation in contrast to the stable construction materials that houses are usually created from. This proverbial glass house flickers its lights on and off in what at first is a seemingly random pattern, eventually settling into blinking in Morse code alluding to contemporary forces that jeopardize the house, the home, the American dream. Osman Khan

7 Network by Tom Price Made from bronze, Perspex (acrylic glass) and wood What is the figure holding? What do you think the title refers to? Why do you think the artist put the figure on a pedestal? Why do you think the figure is this size? Why is the pedestal larger than the figure? Does the figure look contemporary or from the past? If this was a sculpture representing you, how would you stand? What would you be holding? Price presents his sculpture in a seemingly traditional manner, however, the sculpture focuses on body language and facial expression, which suggests a more personal meaning. His works are combinations and inventions of people he has observed on the street, images from magazines and press cuttings. The poses and expressions are taken from historic sculpture. Price notes that the facial expressions, gaits and postures he creates become a way to identify with the figures and to relate them to the viewer. The aim being to create work that is both traditional in materiality and progressive in its cultural and conceptual significance. Tom Price

8 Armonico CLXVII by Antonella Zazzera Made from copper wire What material do you think was used to create this sculpture? Does the form remind you of anything? Imagine the sculpture in a dark area or outdoors; would the meaning change for you? Why do you think the artist titled this piece after a guitar-like instrument? Why do you think the artist used the Roman numeral for 167? What do you think the sculptures #166 and #170 look like? According to Zazzera, Armonico is a sculpture that is made alive by light. Look at the way the light reflects on the copper wires. The copper wire allows for the creation of the dramatic shape and for the rhythmic lines that suggest vibrations. The sense of vibrations that is created in the sculpture is similar to that of a stringed instrument (an armonico is a guitar-like instrument). For the artist, working on the Armonico series (this one is number 167 in the series) relates to painting which was her first artistic endeavor. Instead of paint, here she uses the copper wires/threads with different color tones to create reflections and a sense of movement.