nauman, kelley, dion, simmons

This weeks selected artists from PBS’ Art in the 21st Century, features work that can collectively be conceptually postmodern. Bruce Nauman subverts the function of the simple structure of stairs and bleachers by deconstructing their form into something familiar but yet uncanny. Mike Kelley sources inspiration from memories of his past whist creating art that focuses on the commodity of culture. Mark Dion applies the evolution of natural history in relation to humans, different environments, and Western viewpoints. Laurie Simmons makes photographs and films drawing from pop culture. All of these contemporary artists share a common thread in their ways of applying culture and skewing the way society views it throughout history.
Bruce Nauman claims that there is no specific way to making art. In his interview with Art 21, he notes that in some ways, the accidents that happen while making art keep the process real and exciting. From my prior knowledge of and exposure to Nauman’s work, I was surprised that the video excerpt didn’t feature more of his radical neon light pieces or his gravitation towards working with words and text. While Nauman’s art is playful and mischievous, it still deals with serious concerns and communicates with the viewer on different levels. His interest in deconstructing language and definition can be closely associated with contemporary American composer, John Cage, and his conceptual approach to reconstructing music into something nontraditional, disorienting, unpredictable, and new.
Inspired by culture while playing with the “purposefulness of ridiculousness”, Mike Kelley’s artwork is full of materialistic objects and black humor. His films pull from his personal memories of the past, which other people can closely identify with, such as “Day Is Done”, shot within a high school gymnasium. His work is reminiscent of Dada assemblages of artist’s like Kurt Schwitters’. This Dada artist’s collages made from found objects and ridiculous fragments that often make witty allusions to current events. Kelley’s absurd video clips also remind me of filmmaker John Waters in that they both share a campy plasticity to their characters and settings.
Mark Dion re-creates the categorization and exhibition practices of museums. This area of concentration within Dion’s work can be compared to fellow contemporary artist’s Fred Wilson’s work, especially, “Mining the Museum”. Both artists obtain artifacts, whether they are organic plant forms or excavated man-made tools, and place new meanings to them according to their different arrangement and placement.
Laurie Simmons stages photographs and films with dolls, puppets, ventriloquist dummies, and costumed dancers as “living objects,” animating a dollhouse world submerged in nostalgia. Simmon’s work can be associated with Kelley’s memory-saturated work because her films and photos are very much colored by an adult’s memories, longings, and regrets. Simmons work also meshes psychological, political and conceptual approaches to art making, photography’s propensity to objectify people, especially women. With this being said, Simmons exploration into the media’s construction of gender roles can link her to feminist artists such as photographers Cindy Sherman and Lorna Simpson who also stage their photographs.
All in all, this week’s artists can be tied to other conceptual artists of the 21st century, or to those of the Fluxus or Dada movements. Bruce Nauman, Mike Kelley, Mark Dion, and Laurie Simmons are artists from different backgrounds and are unique in their own right. Though through this analysis of comparing these artists to other artists, I was able to see that many similar conceptual ideas and processes have been implemented/stolen/imitated/borrowed/ crossbred through and within every art movement.