Author: Joe Meiser

examples of woodworking and steel fabrication

Dear Sculpture 2 students,

Anytime I’m about to begin a big studio project of my own, I spend some time looking at other artist’s work.  This helps me come up with better ideas. As you’re working on your sketches this week, I think you’ll find it helpful to look at some examples of sculpture created with woodworking and steel fabrication processes.  I just looked through the files on my computer and collected some images from the web that will, I believe, help to illustrate some of the various ways that artists put these materials to use. For most of the images I’ve included the artist’s name so you can do a google search and learn more about their work. You may also want to check out Tim Hawkinson’s work.  There aren’t very many really good images of his work online, though, so you may want to visit this site and watch the videos on his work.
 
Best,
JDM

Roxy Paine – Distillation

Roxy Paine, Distillation, 2010.

The title evokes both the process of alchemy (to distill metals into gold), as well as processes of making alcohol and other drugs. Indeed, the work includes elements such as a large glass vile filled with dirt, and various tubes, that suggest chemical laboratories. The press release indicates that the work is also a “metaphor for the artist’s mental process,” in the way that ideas go through a similar process of distillation and refinement. In an interview with the artist published in BOMB magazine in 2009, Paine discusses an interest he has in “this drive that humans have to constantly break things down into their component parts and isolate them further and further…I have a desire to constantly break things down in a critical way. I’m trying to examine it, why do we need to constantly break things down into component parts?” It appears as though this interest in components and isolation has manifested itself in Distillation. The installation provokes open metaphoric situations for processes such as oil refinement, forcing nature to bend to technology, the creative process itself, as well as the way that ideas move throughout the world and our bodies.

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Selecting an artist for the Art Report and Artist Presentation

Please select an artist from the list that Professor Meiser put together on Google Docs

Requirements:

  • The artist should be contemporary (still living).
  • The artist should work primarily in a three-dimensional medium such as sculpture, kinetic art, installation, etc.
  • Please choose an artist who you are not yet familiar with.

Once you have made your selection, add the artist’s name to this document—each student should choose a different artist and selections will be made on a first-come-first-serve basis.  

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Selecting an artist for the Art Report and Artist Presentation assignments

To find an artist, go to Bertrand Library and page through either the collection of books Professor Meiser has on reserve at the circulation desk  OR  the collection of Sculpture Magazines available on Level 2.

When getting a reserved book from the circulation desk, consider checking out one of the following titles—each of which has 100s of artists to choose from:

  • Vitamin 3D: New Pespectives in Sculpture and Installation Art
  • Sculpture Today
  • Art and Today
  • Art Now
  • Cream 3
  • Defining Contemporary Art
  • Fresh Cream
  • Ice Cream
  • No 1: First Works by 362 Artists.

When you go to the circulation desk, be sure to mention that you’re in class ARST 250.  Apparently it’s easier for the student workers to find reserve books by looking for ARST 250 rather than the professor’s name or the title of the course. To see the full collection of books that Professor Meiser has put on reserve, you can refer to this list.

To be relevant to our course, your artist should work primarily in three-dimensional media and be contemporary (still alive and making art today).  Before selecting an artist, do a preliminary search on the web to make sure there’s sufficient information available.  When you prepare for the Artist Presentation you will want to learn what the artist has said or written about their work by reviewing some interviews with the artist and/or articles about their work. These materials will help you learn about the artist’s particular agenda, set of influences, and way of working. If you can’t find any interviews or articles then look to see if the artist has written any statements about their projects.  If you have trouble finding information on the artist then you’ll want to choose someone else.

Once you’ve made your selection, email the artist’s name to EVERYONE in the class, CCing Professor Meiser.  Please note that each student should select a different artist.   First come, first serve.   Your classmates’ email addresses are posted on the “contact info” page of the class website.

The NYPD Is Investigating This Giant Bust Of Edward Snowden Erected In A Brooklyn Park

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Posted: Updated:
The New York City police department says its Intelligence Division is investigating a giant sculpture of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden that was installed in a Brooklyn park early Monday morning.Snowden-Sculpture
A group of unidentified artists wearing yellow construction vests erected the 100-pound, bronze patina bust atop a stone column at the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park before dawn Monday. On the bottom of the column, capital letters spell out Snowden’s name in a font similar to one often used on war memorials.The artists, with the condition that they wouldn’t be identified, allowed Animal New York to tag along and film the covert installation of what they call “Prison Ship Martyrs Monument 2.0.”“Fort Greene’s Prison Ship Martyrs Monument is a memorial to American POWs who lost their lives during the Revolutionary War,” the group told Animal in a statement. “We have updated this monument to highlight those who sacrifice their safety in the fight against modern-day tyrannies. It would be a dishonor to those memorialized here to not laud those who protect the ideals they fought for, as Edward Snowden has by bringing the NSA’s 4th-Amendment-violating surveillance programs to light. All too often, figures who strive to uphold these ideals have been cast as criminals rather than in bronze.”(For more on the artists that erected the statue, head over to Animal New York.)Mashable reports that as of 11:55 a.m. Monday morning, the “Snowden” part of the monument had been removed by the Parks Department, and a video posted to Vine at 12:12 p.m. shows unidentified officials placing a tarp over the sculpture.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/06/edward-snowden-statue-brooklyn-park-nypd_n_7011834.html

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Eno

unnamed

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Project 1: “Accumulations” – research assignments & reference material

PROJECT OVERVIEW:

In this project you will create molds of found objects, and then create multiples from your mold(s), and assemble these multiples into a larger sculpture.

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PART 1: WRITING ASSIGNMENT

At its best, sculpture is just as much about exploring ideas as it is about crafting objects.  To develop the conceptual aspects of your project, please complete the writing assignment outlined below and post your work to the “research binder” section of the class website by following these instructions.

Please write a response that addresses all of the following questions in 100 – 200 words:

  • What is your object in a direct, literal sense? (e.g. I have chosen to work with an urn, which is a metal vessel designed to store cremains.)
  • What does your object denote –what does it signify, symbolize, or represent?  (e.g. I think the urn denotes the human desire to preserve the deceased.)
  • What connotations does your object carry — what undertones or associations?  (e.g. The urn reminds me of ancient Egyptian canopic jars that held organs removed during the mummification process, and by extension it makes me think about hieroglyphics, pyramids, the sphinx, and other ancient Egyptian constructions that are intriguing because of their cryptic nature)
  • How do you want your project to conceptually relate to the literal, denotative, and connotative ideas you’ve outlined above?  Are there any particular ideas you want to explore or resist?  Please explain.

Why we write about ideas: Every decision you make in the planning and execution of a work of art has meaningful implications.  When one begins a project by thinking about what they want to accomplish in the end, it enables the artist to have more control over the final meaning in their work, AND it provides the artist with a useful tool for editing their work during the process of creating.  While one could employ many methods for thinking critically, writing is especially helpful for developing this skill because it forces one to be precise and clarify ideas.

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PART 2: COLLAGE ASSIGNMENT (NOT REQUIRED IN SPRING SEMESTER 2025)

Create 5 different collages that demonstrate 5 distinctly different ways of bringing your cast objects together to create a finished work.  In these collages, please strive to explore the concepts you’ve written about in a way that is inventive and thought provoking.

As you’re getting ready to create your collages, consider the particular ideas you addressed in your writing assignment– then think about the best way to arrange the objects you’ll be casting in order to address those ideas.  Consider incorporating found objects and/or building some additional elements to produce a more dynamic finished product.  In sculptural projects, ideas are often developed slowly over time through a process of making, reflecting, making, experimenting, reflecting, making, experimenting, etc.  This collage exercise is a means of reflecting and experimenting that will help you create a stronger finished project.

Why collage? While sketching is generally a good method of working through ideas, since you’re working with multiples in this project, it would take a very long time to actually sketch out five detailed drawings of different solutions.  However, on the computer you can easily create a number of images of whatever object(s) you’re molding, and then print these out.  This is easy to do with Photoshop or even with Microsoft Word by just cutting a pasting a small image over and over again.  Then, by printing and then cutting these images out and arranging them in various configurations, you can quickly visualize some possible end products.

The playfulness and easy experimentation of the collage process is highly conducive to the consideration of various possibilities.  Writing will always have a place in the clarification of ideas, but the collage approach is valuable because it is a visual method for working through a visual problem. Collaging will allow you to quickly and vividly SEE what your end product may be, and I think you’ll find it quite useful. Feel free to simply bring hard copies of your collages, or if you prefer, you may submit your work digitally via the class website on the “research binder” page.

Examples – The collages included below were created last year by Sculpture 2 students to ideate for this project:

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PART 3: SKETCHES

So far you have done some writing to facilitate your critical thinking about the object you’ve selected, and you’ve created collages to help with the early stages of brainstorming; these steps have helped you find a direction for your project.  However, in any sculptural project there are a lot of issues to figure out about how everything will come together in the end.  Please create at least three detailed sketches of three distinctly different solutions for your project.  Use these sketches as a means of visually thinking through the decisions that you still have to make, and further refining your vision for how the project will be resolved in the end.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Professor Meiser’s guide on casting materials

GUIDE ON CASTING MATERIALS

A selection of artists who work with multiples:

Katherina Frisch

http://www.designboom.com/art/katharina-fritsch-at-the-deichtorhallen-part-i/

Antony Gormley

http://www.antonygormley.com/

Matthew Day Jackson

https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/2827-matthew-day-jackson

http://hyperallergic.com/86125/matthew-day-jackson-too-big-too-failed/

http://www.grimmgallery.com/artists/matthew-day-jackson/

Images of past student projects

As you’re working to come up with ideas, it may be helpful to take a look at what students have created in previous semesters for the Accumulations project.  Follow these links to see examples:

examples of past student projects mega-post

http://sculpture2.blogs.bucknell.edu/2018/02/25/project-1-accumulations-spring-2018/

http://sculpture2.blogs.bucknell.edu/2016/09/24/accumulations-project-1-fall-2016/

http://sculpture2.blogs.bucknell.edu/2014/03/02/project-1/

http://sculpture2.blogs.bucknell.edu/2013/02/20/project-1-documentation/

http://sculpture2.blogs.bucknell.edu/2012/03/06/accumulation-finished-photographs/

http://sculpture2.blogs.bucknell.edu/2013/01/14/examples-of-past-student-projects/

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Re: Expectations of Email Etiquette

Re: Expectations of Email Etiquette

Dear Students,

Email is one of the most common means of textual communication in the professional world, and it requires a higher degree of etiquette than social media or text messaging. Over the past few years I have received many emails from students that were written in an unprofessional manner.  As a professor I feel a responsibility to prepare my students for the professional world, so I have decided to implement an official policy on email etiquette in all of my courses.  If I receive an email from a student that I deem to be problematic in some way, I will send a link to this message and request revision.  Please adhere to the following standards of etiquette when corresponding with me by email this semester:

– Please use a subject line that is meaningful and relevant to your message.

– Please begin your message by addressing me directly.  When I receive an email from a student, I expect something to the effect of “Dear Professor” or “Hello Professor”.   When a message is missing this crucial element it can seem impolite.  Launching immediately into the body of your message, or beginning simply with “Hey,” or “Hi,” is not up to professional standards.

– Before sending, please re-read and edit your message to ensure that it is clearly written and grammatically correct.

– Emails should end with a closing of some kind. It is suitable to end your messages with “Thanks” and your name, or “Sincerely” and your name, or if you’re in a hurry, at least include your first name or initials to indicate the conclusion of your message.

Thanks in advance for adhering to these guidelines.

Best regards,
Professor Meiser

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Joe Meiser
Assistant Professor of Art in Sculpture
Department of Art & Art History
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA 17837
studio phone: 570.577.3044
website: http://www.joemeiser.com

Instructions for posting materials to the Research Binder category

 

Log on to the site by going to: https://sculpture2.blogs.bucknell.edu/wp-admin/

Create a new post by clicking at the top of the page on the “+ New” button

Once the post screen comes up, check the “research binder” box to the right to put the post in the right category

Create a title for the post in the field provided.  Add any text you’d like in the body of the post.

If you want to upload photos then you can do so by clicking on the “upload/insert” button above the text field (remember to click the “insert into post” button while you’re on the upload screen).  Note: if you’re uploading multiple images you’ll want to post a gallery rather than a single image.  I believe this option is on the left of the screen.

If you want to post a video from youtube, simply add the video’s URL to the body of the post

If you want to add a link to the body of your post, you can do so by highlighting the text you want to be linked, and click the “insert/edit link” button (to the left of the spell checker). Then add the URL destination, and click the box that says “Open link in a new window/tab”

When you’re finished, click the blue “publish” button on the right

A message should appear at the top of the page that says “Post published. View post”… if you click on this it will show you what the post looks like on the site… at this point, if you want to make any changes, just click on the “edit post” button and it will return you to prior screen