Postmodern Plurality: Rothenberg, McCollum, Barney
1) After looking into their work further, how would you characterize the ways in which these artists think about the creative process and the production of work?
2) What are these artists concerned about communicating through their work?
3) Can you find any commonalities amongst these artists, even in a general way?
1) After looking into their work further, how would you characterize the ways in which these artists think about the creative process and the production of work?
2) What are these artists concerned about communicating through their work?
3) Can you find any commonalities amongst these artists, even in a general way?
Allan McCollum’s idea of his work is in his head that he could explain to anyone how to do easily. It is mass produced and singular which takes a vocabulary of parts and puts them together. It is not about himself at all. He produces work that anyone can make. He is known for utilizing the methods of mass production in his work in many different ways, often creating thousands of objects that, while produced in large quantity, are each unique.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Barney made a group of films of body-based performance art. His work was about a mythical realm of sexuality, self, otherness and death. The films themselves are a grand mixture of history, autobiography, and mythology—an intensely private universe in which symbols and images are densely layered and interconnected. “Barney’s exploration of the body draws upon an athletic model of development, in which growth occurs only through restraint: the muscle encounters resistance, becomes engorged and is broken down, and in healing becomes stronger. This triangulated relationship between desire, discipline, and productivity provides the basis for Barney’s meditation on sexual difference.”
Susan Rothenberg is about the physicality of the paint; about body, space and movement. Expression through simplified form and textural marks were her primary reasoning on her work. She is interesting because she revives painting in this era. Her work reminisces scenes from daily life, highlighting an event or a moment.
It appears these artists are communicating the human psyche, the deep inner thoughts that form us. McCollum works in a more mass produced way, paralleling the rate of human being are on earth. Each piece he works with is unique, like everyone on the planet. Barney makes films about our deeply private thoughts that few are keen to express. He is concerned with our restraint system that we so easily suppress. His triangular relationship of: desire, discipline and productivity provides a basis for his work. Rothenberg is concerned with living and breathing her work. She wants to take the beauty out of one moment in time, and heighten it by using that scene in her work.
-Peter
Susan Rothenberg is very involved with her work. Through expressive movement and brushstrokes and innovative techniques like using the end of paint tubes straight onto the canvas, she depict scenes of ordinary life, figures, and animals. I believe the primary intent for her art is for self meditation; she incorporates art into her daily routine. Because of the physicality of the work, she throws herself into her art and her art represents a part of her, as you can really feel her presence when you see her brushstrokes on the canvas.
ReplyDeleteAlternately, Allan McCollum's works are products of others' hands. McCollum creates the patterns then sends them to various craftsmen to put the idea into reality. His works interestingly remark on mass-production; the works resemble mass-produced items (like cookie cutters) but are actually unique from one another. Also, McCollum changes the creative process. Usually, the innovative process is the unique aspect while the actually creation of the object is mechanical, but McCollum has a very uniform, mechanical way of coming up with designs while the works are individually made in the hands of craftsmen.
Matthew Barney's process is a mix of that of Rothenberg and McCollum. He creates extravagant performances in which he has direct influence on every aspect while others aid him in the process. His hand is heavily present in the works but so are others'. Barney's works are expressions of his personal ideas through fantastical performances that manipulate his own body, others' bodies, and other aspects of the world around us (as we saw in the Art21 video, he even puts costumes on horses).
I completely agree with Peter in that the connection between the three artists resonates in each artist's connection to human qualities. Rotherberg's work displays a component of the human condition because, as I've already mentioned, she is so involved with her work and pours her heart and soul into each painting. Also, she depicts illustrations of regular scenes from her own perspective. McCollum's works relate to the idea of uniqueness within a whole. As we discussed in class, it's hard to think about the existence of billions of people on earth with each have his or her own life and individuality, so we tend to think of the human race as a whole. Similarly, McCollum's works are grouped together as a compilation of a single type of object, but each possesses uniqueness from the next. Barney's performances are expressions of Barney's inner mind. Individuals do not often express their deepest thoughts and curiosities, but Barney does so, in a way, he represents humanity in that everyone has their own crazy ideas and dreams, even if they are consistently locked away in a far corner of the mind.
Rothenberg obviously views the creative process as a form of meditation. Her routine that was shown in the Art21 video showed the calmness and fulfillment Rothenberg found in her process, from her daily walks to her sitting in her studio until inspiration strikes in the form of a singular stroke of paint. Her creative process emphasizes her art as her work, that regardless of how much she may hate something on any given day, she must do something to it. Rothenberg is a glowing example of how hard work and perseverance results in success. Rothenberg also mentioned how that she strives for a message of truth to be conveyed through her works, whether that be in their artistic representation of a work or in the viewer’s interpretation, which Rothenberg seems to count on to complete the dialogue of her works.
ReplyDeleteMcCollum views the creative process as a collaborative effort. His commissioning of complete strangers residing in Maine to construct his work Shapes From Maine, shows how he is much more concerned with the concept and process of a work and how these two components can send a message to the viewer. I think he wishes to unite people in a way through his work. McCollum spoke frequently about the billions of people on earth and how unfathomable that amount of people and distinct personalities is. Through his works with shapes and the productions of hundreds of hundreds of unique shapes, I think McCollum seeks to try to convey the vastness of humanity.
Barney considers the creative process as a means to delve deeper into his inner self. By creating intricately layered films full of meaning, Barney seeks to use the creative process as a means in which to better understand one’s self. I think that all three artists inject an aspect of truth into their works. Rothenberg states out right that truth is the motivation behind her work while Barney’s intricate and complicated art theories and works convey the artist’s search for meaning. I think that McCollum, by his attempting to convey the vastness of humanity can also be categorized as attempting to find a truth in his work, a truth borne out of the overwhelming realization that the world is full of individuals each with distinct personalities.
Clareese, Nicole, and Peter both point out that Susan Rothenberg’s art process is all about meditation of self and the work. Rothenberg is all about repetition in life and her work; in life she will go on long walks every day, not just for exercise, but for a more meditative practice, and in her work, she thought much about a series of works with the same subject. Rothenberg spoke in the Art 21 video about how she would consistently use the same colors, but never it its purist form. If she is stuck on one painting, she mentioned how she would sit as stare, or makes at least one mark a day before going on with life.
ReplyDeleteMcCollum is even more involved in the repetition process than Rothenberg. He’ll create thousands upon thousands of little stencils and designs, and in turn, will send them to someone else to create in a different, mostly odd medium (such as cookie cutters). He strives to make sure his designs can be followed and explained so that anyone could make them.
Barney’s work, like most everyone already touched on, is about the inner dialogue and constant search for self. His works are not straight forward, but layered with meaning and thought. He definitely brings to light between all three artists. Each of them have a process about the self; whether its though meditation of the work and of life (Rothenburg), the theory of self human individuality and unity through grouping (McCollum), or the journey of discovery of the inner self and thought (Barney).
From the Art21 videos we saw in class on Susan Rothenberg, Allen McCollum, and Matthew Barney, it is apparent that they all share similar thoughts on the creative process in that each views it in a unique way, separate from other standard processes. Rothenberg's process, as others have stated, is meditative and reflective of her daily life. How she differs from most other artists is the substitution of the paint tube for the paint brush. It is clear that Rothenberg understands the imperfect nature of the universe and intends to reflect that in work through her use of muddied colors which she applies with the packaging that they come in.
ReplyDeleteMcCollum's process is better characterized as industrial mass production rather than artistry. How he differs from the consumer industry is by mass producing thousands of unique items, not thousands of the same item. For him, the creative process begins and ends in his mind, the rest relies on the craft of other individuals as well as a mathematical equation carried out by the computer.
Matthew Barney's creative process is that of a Hollywood producer, without the end goal of massive profit margins. He is essentially a movie director, but his films are artistically based in both form and content.
I agree with PC in that I think the main idea these artists are trying to communicate is that of the human psyche. McCollum's work embodies the idea that we might all look similar as human beings, yet we are still all unique due to our inner make up. Barney tackles the suppressed sexual ideas and emotions we feel but are unwilling or unwanting to truly face. Rothenberg's work is more personal because it directly reflects her own psyche, but is still relatable to many other lives through the common theme of meditation.
PC did a great job of explaining how each of these artists, though different in medium and process, ultimately create works that comment on the condition of the human psyche and act as some sort of creative meditation. Outside of those similarities, however, these artists have very little in common.
ReplyDeleteSusan Rothenberg is an adorable but somewhat looney artist who creates paintings about her life using ungodly amounts of oil paint and a tube as her paintbrush. Her work is not about growing as an artist or pleasing anyone but herself--it is purely meditative. Its what makes her happy and gives her life meaning regardless of whether or not it effects anyone else. Other people's attraction and relation to it is just an added bonus.
McCollum's work, on the other hand, is all about speaking to the audience and identifying with other people. Unlike Rothenberger who spends months of time on one work, McCollum spends only seconds. Using predesigned plates, he stitches "cookie molds" together, creating thousands of unique shapes which he then turns into wood cuts or ink blots. His work is also a form of meditation, but in an entirely different way. Its not about himself as much as it's about others and the fact that we, as a human race, are both wonderfully alike and entirely different. His work is a collaborative process, dependent on a large group of workers to achieve the final product, which is only appropriate given the content of his work. Similarly, Matthew Barney works with a team to create his artworks, but in a very different way.
Matthew Barney is a Hollywood producer who works with a small team of close friends to create his productions. His work is not about making a ton of money or becoming the next Steven Spielberg. Instead, it is a process, much like Rothenbergers, that is meditative and ultimately about coming to know himself.
Susan Rothenberg seems very passionate about her artwork, as she spends the majority of her time in her studio working on it alone. She does not seem to rush her work (some pieces sit in her studio for months or years until she feels they are completed) and I find it interesting that she uses the end of her paint tubes as brushes- it gives the paintings an interesting look. I also was intrigued by her choice of color and preference to dull the colors down and not adhere to any "rules"- she mixes whatever colors she wants with whatever she wants and paints it with whatever she wants. She differs from McCollum and Barney because she produces all her artwork herself and does not incorporate anyone else in the process. Her process is rather meditative but focuses on life, which can relate to McCollum's work a bit (though very different, they both convey their own interpretations of it in their work).
ReplyDeleteAllan McCollum comes across as a genuinely kind, curious and passionate artwork. He puts a lot of research into his work and thinks about the meaning in ways that stretch the imagination of the viewer and ends up making powerful statements by doing so. I was particularly fascinated by his "cookie cutter" series, and it made me think about all the different people in the world and also how differently we see people individually in contrast to being part of a group or some sort of sub-category. I also thought it was nice that he was able to work with local craftsmen in Maine and boost their business by doing so. By creating these large bodies of work, his pieces can be seen as "performances", similar to Matthew Barney's films. Although he hires others to produce the majority of his work, he is the mastermind behind it all and could be seen as a "conductor" or "producer"
Matthew Barney is a film producer whose passion for his work I have difficulty relating to. A good word to describe Matthew Barney's films is "twee" (the opposite of simple, authentic and true). He tries so hard to be ornately exceptional that he ends up looking like a clown, and his films are so self-involved and obscurely referential that they seem about to burst and disappear in a multidimensional clench. To me he seems like one of those artists who is trying so hard to get recognized or stand out that he is being so bizarre/ridiculous it just seems stupid. For many this may be enticing but for me I find it desperate and almost a cry for help. His intentions are not to create work he is passionate about but to generate a larger audience and gain profit.
Allan McCollum is known for his mass-produced work that can number tens of thousands of individually unique objects in one artwork. His works examine, uniqueness, originality and the philosophy of mass production. McCollum uses the art process to involve other artists and laborers to help create his work to make works that expresses them as being made by a group of people.
ReplyDeleteSusan Rothenberg creates engaging paintings that showcase her unique agitated brushstrokes that she creates with paint tube paintbrushes. Her works are usually compositions of everyday life and her own “domestic situation in the house”. For Rothenberg, the art making process is a means of relaxation and contemplation.
Matthew Barney is an American artist who works in sculpture, photography, drawing and film. His works are complex and layered with imagery and symbols that explore the creation of form and the development of self-identity.
As everyone has concluded these artists create work that is visually quite different but all reference the individual and its development and uniqueness.