More Cats
The "flap" on the back was intended to read like a shadow...The cat is becoming its own shadow. Or something. My main concern was taxidermied pets, that someone will stuff their dead animal (usually in this kind of sleeping pose) and take comfort in this, and not be creeped out. Again, more holding on vs. letting go. Does this empty shell hold any power, or is it like a photograph of a loved one? I don't know. I do know that this is in my studio and i still do a doubletake every single time i see it, like Dada is actually there. (clarification: Dada is not dead, she was just my model for this piece)
For the final piece i wanted to learn a variety of actual upholstery and sewing techniques. I pretty much ran out of time to do everything i wanted, but the concept i think was the strongest part. I wanted to re-create my grampa's stuff. Basically next to His Chair he had this orange vinyl ottoman with various things on it that he needed close by. (crossword book, enormous ashtray, Camel unfiltered cigs, TV remote ca 1980, and coffee cup which i still haven't finished.) I did these things from memory, and the fabric i used was my own clothing.
Look! i made piping! It's a real thing!
And fabric covered buttons!!
And embroidered my life away!!
The weird thing to discover was that it was actually harder to choose to cut up my clothes than to experience my grandfather's death. Maybe that's oversimplifying....He died seven years ago. It was not a surprise at all. It was not MY CHOICE that he died. But, i realized that being attached to your clothing is not just being materialistic and shallow. We have extremely intimate relationships with and powerful memories related to our clothes, so much that they become a part of us. I feel like this is as close as i've come to the balance of Truth and Communication that i've been struggling with. While i was working on this someone came in my studio and and said that he as a viewer didn't care if it really was my clothes or if i "cheated". i had for a long time been wondering about that kind of thing, if honesty really mattered. Like, if art is illusion anyway, as long as it "appeared" that it was my clothes, for example, and the audience believes it, does it really matter? I'm starting to feel like, in my work at least, the truth is everything. But what does everyone else think?
posted by niki at 4:24 PM
4 Comments:
I really like the cat. Imaginative isn't the right word. But to be able to take what you see in your head or even right in front of you and translate it into another medium is a gift I don't have. A 3-D rendering in something as normally shapeless and lifeless as fabric is wonderful.
Here I was looking at the pretty pictures and I missed the entire point of the extibit! Truth vs. perception. Well that seems to be the debate right now nationwide. We've got people on trial in Houston for telling us not to believe our lying eyes. That dude went on Oprah a couple of weeks back for fudging the truth. And don't get me started on that cat in the White House.
But even with those three examples, I think it's still a valid question. Truth vs. illusion. People *say* they value the truth, yet they turn away from it every day, prefering their illusion. And as much as I try to say I'm not, I know I'm not immune to it either. And don't get me started on THS. But we're not here to talk about him.
Like, if art is illusion anyway, as long as it "appeared" that it was my clothes, for example, and the audience believes it, does it really matter?
Yeah, it does. Here's another question for you though. How much does it matter to you that your audience understands the truth? Truth has been so devalued in this society that I would argue it's worthless. Perhaps that's the artist's role here. To help reestablish the role of truth.
I dunno. Just thoughts off the top of my head. I keep typing because it makes my boss believe I'm working. See? Truth vs. illusion....
thanks man! i've never been that good at 3D stuff, so this class really helped me with some practical issues. the inside is foam, carved with an electric turkey carver, and occationally took too much off so i had to even the rest out. Making the cat smaller than real life. anyway
I've been thinking about truth and deception RE current events lately too, along the same lines as Christoph- that Million Little Pieces dude, in particular, and how Oprah brought him back on her show to publicly humiliate him (I didn't see a clip of that but I can only imagine) for lying. (I am convinced Oprah is piloting the secular church of the USA, and thank gods somebody has taken up the reigns) I think so called spiritual/moral values have gotten devalued all the way to the end of the pendulum swing, at least here in the U.S. and just hope they're coming back into fashion. There seems to be a permanent suspension of disbelief, it's easier to believe what you're told than to question or think, that way you're not responsible for anything. But I way digress! If it's important to you, Niki, that the work is made out of your clothes, then it is important. If it were my piece, the fact that it is Used Clothes (and all of the psychological human/history shit attached to them just by virtue of the fact that they are used) would be the point, not the fact that it's Michele's Used Clothes, but we aren't talking about me and my piece, we are talking about You and Your Work, and this is an obviously important part of it to you, and, to quote Niki Kriese, "EVERYTHING is important". The fact that it's made out of your clothes comes out in some way, it effects your decision makings throughout the creation process. You could choose to um, let go of that, it's your call. Perhaps you treat the fabric more tenderly or have to patch this piece to that one because you Had To make it out of This but This isn't quite big enough. I'm tempted to say A million little pieces make up your work, and one of those pieces is the fact that it's your clothing, but that would be kind of sickening, so I won't say that.
The world will never know it's your clothing unless you tell them, but that's like... hm.. it's like I don't know what a moth is made out of, I don't know where the caterpillar came from or what it looked like, but I see that the moth is what it is because it is made out of that caterpillar and not a grub.
Love the work honey!
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