John McCracken – Plinths

Swift (left) and Vision (right), 2007

Interval, 2004

Minimalist artist John McCracken plinth like sculptures, visually tick all the boxes for a work of minimalist art: solid geometric shapes, flawless surfaces, impersonal, looking for an “alternative descriptions of art (Rian 1996)”. As with much minimal art McCracken’s “planks” as he referred to, hold a presence in the white cube of the gallery. McCracken’s work may hint to industrial fabrication,  however, McCracken hasn’t taken the production out of the artist hand which is characteristic of the work of his compadre’s, Dan Flavin and Donald Judd, “he laboured as a craftsman to reproduce the finish of mass-produced objects (McNay 2011).” McCracken worked intensively the sculptures relating the process to surfboards, working the pigment onto the structures. “For each work, McCracken constructs a rectangle in wood and covers it with canvas. He then saturates it with coloured resin which he sands and buffs to perfection (Rian 1996).”

It is this notion that McCracken’s work visually looks like it is machine-made, however he has to work and rework the pieces to achieve this finish, achieving a pure form which many minimal artist’s achieved through removing the artist’s hand from production and using elements of industrial fabrication.

Jeff Rian (1996) John McCracken. Frieze. http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/john_mccracken/

Michael McNay (2011) John McCracken Obituary http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/apr/19/john-mccracken-obituary

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Rubber Mould

I made a rubber mould of the crystal ball so I could experiment using different materials. I wanted to try using butter, using the heat lamp to melt and therefore destroy the cast, like the ceramic casts but a far more ephemeral process. This didn’t work, the butter didn’t set and it all just became a mess. Using the crystal ball in such a way where it was dense, hinted very much to the work of Ryan Gander, which wasn’t so apparent with the ceramic work. Going down this route also became very messy conceptually, as I could not explain why I was doing any of this work or why I had made any of the choices I was making.

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Installation – Kiln Plates

Experimented using kiln plates as platforms for the casts/sculptures. The light worked really well, I, however don’t think one is enough to effect anything, or show that the heat lamp is a central part of the work. The kiln plates work really well but I think this would only be relevant if I was to carry on working with ceramics, if I was to carry on using them with other materials there would be no relevance – maybe to process? – I still think there are other methods of display which would portray the ideas as a whole installation, which is where I am looking for the work to go.

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Coloured Film Experiment

Experimented using scrunched up film, which i had stiffened by sticking sheets together with PVA glue. This might have look really interesting if the cast had begun to break, but the cast was very solid and heavy when i took it out the mould, so I think the slip would have to be really thin when it was poured in to work. I might re visit this, with new slip, but at present it still does not tie in with the ideas central to the work.

 

 

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Coloured Wire

Using coloured electrical to make sculpture forms which would essentially break through the ceramic cast. The sculptures were made simply by repeating the knotting action with the wire, to create a continuous form, which appears to have no start or finish. – I felt this idea had a clear connection with my reasoning with casting the crystal ball.

Using the electrical wire might have been really effective if I could work out how to get the casts to completely break away and reveal the inner sculpture, but this wasn’t happening. I also feel that the use of such material makes notions of mass production and technology (in terms of my influence from Walter Benjamin’s essay The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction.) to literal, so I feel I next to look more at creating a piece of work which degrades, or distinguishes completely, or in terms of changing states, and for it to relate to the idea of the original, and questioning when a something becomes a piece of art.

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Ephemeral Work

Coiled Wire

Using wire inside the spheres is only causing slight breakages and deformities to the casts. The ephemeral quality which is essential to the work is not portrayed without the cast completely decaying.

Making a piece of work which only lasts a certain period, questions the ideas of time and space in art, experiencing the work is heightened as it will not exist in form continuously. The idea of  making and remaking the work, questions the idea of the original in art, the importance it holds over art, and if making and remaking work, where does the work become art? The idea? Once it is exhibited? Only when it is exhibited? – How does this effect the selling of the work?

The notion of the ‘readymade’ has always been present at the foundation of my practice, with the designation of an object and reconfiguring it in terms of using different materials.

Using the crystal ball as the foundation of the objects, hints at the concept of time and space and the continuing changing of states. The notion of looking into the unknown, predicting the unpredictable. – This is something i find very interesting and a reference to the way in which I work. It is the changing state between the idea and the realisation into object which I find fascinating, it can not always be predicted how the materials will project the ideas which lie at the foundations of the work.

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