Cody & Relatable Artists

What I find most interesting about Bruce Nauman is when he talks about his drill video piece. He says he doesn’t know if anyone will take this work seriously as art, though he makes it clear that he does. He doesn’t offer up much of an explanation but says blatantly, “It is because I say it is.” This inspires many questions about the first question we were asked as freshmen in college, “what is art?” Nauman’s pieces all utilize the aspects of his lifestyle (ex// studio, ranch, etc.) and turn them into artwork. His most interesting pieces are the ones in which he doesn’t create, but uses daily existence to comment on the viewer’s interaction with the piece. This is reminiscent of Duchamp’s work in the Dada movement, in the aspect that they both take found objects, or “found actions” in Nauman’s case, and turn them into art.

Mike Kelley brings his past into play when it comes to creating artwork. He is both internally and externally inspired in his art, fusing his memories and childhood experiences along with tangible sources to develop concepts for his work. He talks about his ritual fascination, which is incredibly apparent in his work. Kelley’s painting featured in the video, The 13 Seasons, made me instantly think of De Kooning in the style of paint application, brushstroke and color usage. Both artists’ works feature abrasive stroke and saturated color with use of heavy black.
After doing further research, Kelley’s work directly relates to the De Stijl movement in the early 1900’s. His paintings utilize collage in a Dada-esque fashion, but the overall composition, minimalism and structural properties mirror those of Mondrian and Huszar. The compositions also mimic Modern architecture.

Mark Dion’s rat and tar piece about the introduction of rats to an island is a little vague. Although the concept is sturdy, the piece does not necessarily portray the idea behind it. I feel his botanical piece, entitled “Neukom Vivarium” is much more successful. He has created and controlled his own space by building a large greenhouse holding plants and a watering system to mimic nature. This directly comments on artificiality, human interactions with nature and need for control. Dion’s affinity for nature reminds me of Emily Clark instantaneously. He collects samples and details from nature just as she does with insects.

Laurie Simmons is very interesting with her theory on inanimate objects, especially ventriloquist dummies. She explains how they are a metaphor and I feel that concept could go very far and have many possibilities for work. She takes the inorganic object and adds humanistic qualities to it, whether it be speech, movement or body parts. Her works can coorelate with the Surrealist movement in the fact that she gives inanimate objects the ultimate air of anthropomorphism and stresses the objects non-human quality through giving them body parts. Also, the mixture of these objects and human properties directly relates to Max Ernst and his “figure” paintings created from household items.