Manifesto Drawing
The main thing I believe about contemporary art is that literally anything is and can be art. My particular approach is not very regimented. I like to trust my instincts. The beginning idea for a project is merely a departure point. As I lay down new lavers in my drawing I like to respond to what is already established. My particular field of art is drawing. It is as important that I enjoy creating my art as it is that someone else also enjoys it. If they enjoy it enough to purchase it then in turn I can purchase liquor. A long time ago a wealthy art patron would purchase a work of art for entertainment purposes. This was necessary in that televisions had not been invented. A work of art would be something they could think about. They would spend tedious amounts of time pondering the meaning of the art in front of them. As such I believe art doesn’t need a complex meaning. It just needs to look like it does. This ensures that upon viewing it people immediately think “what the hell is going on here?”. As long as people think that about my work I will consider myself successful.
Thomas Steiner Selects
This is a selection from a conversation with a Colleague responding to the talk at the Indianapolis Museum of art.
Thomas: Eh, I believe it was filmed in Chicago On a busy main sidewalk. Her performances of this type seem to relate to ideas of personal space, or something like that.
Adam: I’ve got to be honest, performance art seems annoying to me.
Thomas: It depends on how well thought out the performance is. There was a Japanese game show I watched where large groups of people would interact with a person on the street. A example would be they would surround a person at a buss stop and all duck at the same time. The person would instinctively follow the crowds action. In my opinion this is more viable as art then what the other artist, Kate Gilmore, presented.
Adam: Oh yeah what did she do?
Thomas: She piled chairs on top of each other trying to reach a camera suspended above the ground. In another she broke through walls of sheetrock.
Adam: That is like a type of art where the performance is a physical challenge. Like the piece where Matthew Barney creates the weird obstacle course in his studio. He is tethered and it is difficult to reach his drawings. It seems that these two works are comparable to each other.
Thomas: Of course, but Gilmore’s work seems sort of hollow. Have you ever personally hung sheetrock?
Adam: Yes at my parents house.
Thomas: I bet you noticed that it was in fact hard not to break the sheet rock right? In fact after she breaks through the last panel she mentioned a “what know kind of feeling” . That’s because what she did was pointless. All the components she mentioned about it gave no meaning to what she was doing. The side of the walls facing the camera were grey the side she broke into were yellow the same color as her shoes. She was wearing the kind of cloths one doesn’t wear while tearing up Sheetrock.
This essay was selected because my conversations are like my artwork they are never just about one thing.
Thomas steiner selects
Action is a piece that apparently is no longer on view at the IMA. But when it was there it was the most fascinating aspect of the contemporary art level. Something about a void like space that appears to be a canvas painted flat grey is mind boggling. The first time I saw it my first thought when I walked into the room I thought to myself , why does a piece of shit like this get its own room? I mean it takes absolutely no talent or creativity to paint a canvas one flat color. As I approached disdainfully I became aware that the Flat canvas was actually an opening into another room. This particular artist works with light to create these strange illusions. I chose him because he has a awesome beard but also because his artwork inspires me to think outside the box. I think it is important to be experimental. I chose this because it is different from my particular approach to art. It is similar only in the fact that they both call into question how we look at things. For instance my manifesto drawing was originally a picture of someone who works at my apartment complex. People will question what they are looking at when they see what I have done to his picture.
5 comments:
It has always seemed to me that your art portrays a strange sense of comical cynicism, and i believe that you achieve your ideas through your drawing as it does seem that I quiet "don't know what the hell is going on." That being said I think the figure could have been even more abstracted with drawing, and it would have conveyed this strangeness even more so.
You have always had such a great talent for drawing, so I was hoping to see some of your mad skills. However, the edited image is really funny, nice job. Your sense of humor shows in your artwork and in your writing, it made me laugh to read this. However, I have to disagree with your comment that art doesn't need to mean anything, just look like it does. All artworks have a concept, even if the concept is to look aesthetically pleasing to a targeted audience in order to afford booze and ramen. That artist is still thinking about who will look at their piece of work and enjoy it, so they market to those people, and create work aimed to that demographic, i.e. Thomas Kinkade makes work for old ladies. So shallow as it may be,it still has an idea behind it, although I always find a good concept more important than aesthetics.
I've always enjoyed your approach to art, especially in the way that it's made fun of the traditional sense of a portraiture as well as poking fun at art. I somewhat agree with what was said by Laurel; good art does have a concept but it what is great about art is that anything can have a concept if you aim to make it so. It's good to have a concept in order to make a piece worth looking at versus just making it full of aesthetic.
I like your approach as it is light hearted and doesn't have to have a meaning as long as it makes the viewer wonder "what the hell is going on." I also agree that that the Gilmore works were lacking in several areas. I think the human nature works like the bus stop game show has more to say, and is more thought provoking. I was unaware that the action room had been taken down. It was still up a month ago. That was always one of my favorites too. That was actually a piece that was donated to Herron when the IMA and Herron were both at 16th and Penn. According to Jean Robertson, the IMA basically just took it with them when Lilly donated the land where the IMA now resides. They also left Herron to fend for itself, almost putting our school under. Luckily Indiana University picked us up and kept our school alive.
First of all Thomas I want to say three cheers for the liquor comment. I enjoy your light-hearted approach to art and your drawing manifesto proves how dedicated you are to the subject, humor is what I'm talking about. Your chioce of artist in the I.M.A is also great. I remember the first time I experienced this piece. I thought to myself I must be in a room presenting a video. Until the curator said this was the actual work of art I was also amazed at what comes off as art these days until I walked up to the big grey cavas. I literally had to put my hand through the opening before I realized there was another room.
Post a Comment