This week was the last week of #artmooc: week 7. We thought that all we would have to do this week would be to peer
review at least two other Collections; *if* we had produced a Collection of our
own. You have to earn the right to peer review. And then – they threw a
critical evaluation at us! We had to find a piece in a real gallery or online, research it – and write our own critique. Well there was a new challenge
indeed – not least because I had booked a couple of days’ vacation – and away
from the Internet – so I did not see how I could get this task done.
Anyway – I sat down with Wikipedia – and I
got going…
#
12: You can use Wikipedia for research
So I chose a piece of sculpture that I
loved – and Googled it – and there it and the artist were on Wikipedia… So I
made notes – followed links – and made more notes. My trick is key word,
pattern notes – not taking down whole chunks of information – but snatching points of interest. When I had one A4 side of paper complete with
what I thought were good notes, I stopped… I did a quick free write upon my
sculptor and his piece just to get some words down on the page – and to prime
my brain for the real writing that was to come. Later that week, back in
contact with the web, I sat with my notes and numbered the different points
that I saw in there from 1-13… then opened my free write, ‘saved as’ version 2
– and I wrote in one go the first draft of my critique. I put together a draft ‘background’ and ‘influences’ part of my piece from my notes
– following the order of my numbering. Then I wrote my critique of the sculpture itself. I re-read and tweaked - and because of the time scale - and the target audience - I stopped. If I had been
doing this as a piece of University writing, I would not have stopped at one
source – and definitely would not have brandished Wikipedia around like a
flaming banner… But I thought that it was all okay for this piece and this time
limit.
So – instead of shunning Wikipedia –
perhaps we should set a timed writing exercise that allows the use of Wikipedia
– so that people can experiment with notemaking – thinking – researching –
writing… and then allow them to take away their drafts and improve with
additional research?
Below is the piece that I wrote… and below
that some last videos from Penn
State
A
critique of Richard Serra’s Fulcrum, Liverpool Street Station, London, UK
By
Sandra Sinfield
Fulcrum 1987, 55-foot free standing
sculpture of COR-TEN-Steel outside Liverpool Street Station, London , UK
Background
Serra is an American minimalist sculptor
and video artist – and I am writing a brief critical consideration of his
piece, Fulcrum, which is constructed from three nearly-60-foot pieces of COR-TEN-Steel
learning against each other. COR-TEN-Steel is also known as mild steel – and it
differs from Stainless steel in that it will oxidise and rust. This steel
therefore will interact to some extent with the elements; it does not just
impose on a space – but also interacts with it, changing slightly over time, as
does the space itself.
Serra was born in1939, San Francisco
Influences
and Connections
Serra is part of the Process Art Movement
the antecedents of which are ritual and ceremony (Ibid). Process Art is
connected with Performance art, Installation Art and with Environmental Art. It
is predicated on the principal of ‘intentionality’ – which is not about having
control over intended outcomes, but upon the acceptance of the mind’s ability
to create. Art is about the doing, about the journey and represents a pure form
of human expression. Serra has cited as an influence William Basinski’s
‘Disintegrating loops’ and the notion of ‘being destroyed’ (Ibid)
Process Art can be seen in the acts of
gathering, sorting, collating, associating and patterning – and in the
initiation of actions and proceedings. Serra’s work has been compared to
Dadaism and also to the Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollack (Ibid). The
performance of the artist in the production of the art work harnesses the
body’s movement, initiates improvisation and celebrates the realisation of the
random. Serra is known as a
pioneer of LARGE, site-specific sculptures/installations designed to challenge
our perceptions of a space and of our own bodies as we move around the spaces
he creates (Ibid).
From 1969 Serra experimented with cutting,
propping and stacking lead and timber to create sculptures held in place by their
own weight (Ibid) moving on to large steel sculptures in the 1970s. The
elements of his minimalist COR-TEN-Steel structures are produced in Germany
Wikipedia cites as influential upon Serra’s
work Marshall McLuhan’s (2005) Marshall
McLuhan: Theoretical Elaboration Vol 2.; where McLuhan elaborates on the
complex network of relationships between people and objects. It also cites the
modernist novel, Pynchon’s The Crying of
Lot 49 which is said to concern itself with the ‘waste’ in language,
focussing on the power that negative space has to determine outcomes (Ibid). In
this light, Serra’s minimalist steel constructions could be said to expose the
essence of a space or of our relationship to that space by eliminating all the
non-essential elements of the piece. In its simplicity it could be said to
embrace the Japanese aesthetic of Ma,
negative space (Ibid).
Fulcrum
I chose to write about Serra’s Fulcrum
before I had researched the piece – basing my choice upon the fact that it is a
public sculpture with which I have had a long term ‘relationship’ and which has
moved me in very real ways over time.
Fulcrum is a piece of Installation or Performance
Art placed just outside Liverpool Street Station, London , UK
However, this is COR-TEN-Steel and it weathers
with age. It rusts and mutates and changes. Perhaps if Fulcrum is making a
comment then upon big travel and big finance, it is that all is mutable – all
turns eventually to dust. It could be said to mock that which thinks itself so
powerful – so in control of our world.
And whilst Fulcrum creates a huge cathedral
like space, unlike a cathedral which imposes GOD and god’s will upon ‘man’ –
this space allows anyone to walk in and around and under. You can lean inside
against a wall and gaze up at a small patch of grey or blue sky and just dream
for a moment – swept away as though in a wood or upon a mountain. Ironically,
this vast piece echoes or recreates a Goldsworthy moment in the midst of the
urban. It should not be possible that something this huge and brutal could do
that – but it does. In this vast piece you can be for a moment Lost in the City
– and connected with the air and the sky – perhaps with the rain. You can be in
a very different mental and physical space to that created by monolithic
architecture and monitored-access Malls. *This* space grants a moment’s
reverie. This space welcomes everyone – and allows them to be – to connect with
air and sky (if they choose) – and to be different.
You might hide in Fulcrum to have a
solitary cigarette (there is no smoking allowed in doors anymore) and in this
space you are not shunned – you are not a pariah – just a fallible human being
– allowed to be. Some people complain that Fulcrum is used occasionally as a
urinal… but even that is human – and perhaps offers some refuge and respite to
a homeless person when no one and nothing else will. And the transgressive act
will soon be cleansed by the rain – no permanent damage done – no terrible
crime committed.
When I first spotted this enormous and
strange piece outside the station I used to walk swiftly by – it was obviously
‘art’ and therefore not for the likes of me. Just being ‘art’ set up a wall – a
‘do not touch’ feeling… Over time, Fulcrum itself dispensed with all that – and
enticed me in. Here it was in fair weather and foul – to be walked in and under
and around – and it took my breath away. I felt privileged to be allowed to
experience this wonderful, huge thing. This sculpture. This art. And the more I
could ‘take it for granted’ – the more it drew me in and gave me space to be. I
truly love this piece. It is huge and brutal – but it is welcoming and human
somehow. It imposes – and it welcomes. It stands guard – but it embraces. I
love that we the people are accredited the wit and wisdom to appreciate and
inhabit such a wonderful sculpture. I cannot imagine that these cruel,
neo-liberal times would ever again take a risk of producing this and letting it
loose amongst the public; I am so glad that Fulcrum exists – and that I got to
inhabit, experience and be within it.
(Word count circa 1330 - sadly – only
source is Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Serra
- accessed 08/07/13.)
Finally Penn State
Liking mistakes:
Personal reflection by potter/tutor and the
human element of art – and of teaching…
Drawing
as thinking
I especially love the first example where
he persuades people that they can risk drawing, by drawing with his foot!
That’s one up from ‘blind drawing’ – will try that next time!
How
do you grade art?
Objectivity and subjectivity in art… The
four Cs – craft: how it’s made, technical virtuosity – but more than that…–
creativity – the idea behind it – for example Duchamp’s found objects –
remember the horror at the fountain/urinal… content – composition… and the more
we know, the more we will see.
Throwing
a snowman – metaphors in art
Creating metaphors to engage children in
pottery – but that did bring the pottery alive… Everything an artist makes is a
metaphor: something that references something else; which can be brought alive
when we ‘notice what we notice’.
Can
you teach creativity?
Thinks that you can teach creativity –
especially if we let go of the concern of coming up with the wrong answer!
What
is art?
Collection of Faculty giving their quick
fire answers to the question…Magic – coming to know different things – and
knowing them differently…
Advice
for the young artist
Think about what frightens you the most –
then do that… Embrace failure again and again and again…
I have really enjoyed this MOOC - and I've enjoyed reflecting on this MOOC and blogging about my experiences. I hope that any readers out there have enjoyed this as well - and I'd love to hear your art and/or your MOOC experiences...
