For this week’s case study I have decided to look at the work of Michael Beutler in more detail. I will be looking at his work in the exhibition 80° Yoga at the Christian Nagel gallery, Cologne, April 22 – May 29, 2010.
“Michael Beutler's expansive sculptures are usually created directly on site in relation to the given architectonic arrangements. In an experimental process that concentrates more on the logical sequence of mutually conditional decisions than on preconceived planning, Beutler develops structures and forms from conventional building materials - such as wood, plaster or glass - that question standardization”.
(http://www.secession.at/art/2002_beutler_e.html, no date, Accessed 19/3/2012)
So actually he uses his instinct and makes it up as he goes along. I like to do the same thing – grab something, throw it together, see what works and what doesn’t. Similar to how the shanty town buildings at put together, there is no plan or blueprint only what happens as they build.
“created on-site in relation to given architectural arrangements. In an idiosyncratic experimental process”
(http://www.friezefoundation.org/commissions/detail/michael_beutler/,Frieze Projects 2005, Accessed 16/3/2012)
“At Frieze Art Fair 2005 Beutler presented Next To Center (2005), a site-specific sculptural installation that responded to the ordered formality of the fair’s internal grid. Beutler constructed a social space that made use of lo-fi resources found in and around the fair environs.
First he builds a wooden frame work on which he layers different coloured fabric. The fabric looks stretched tight over the frame but raw at the edges – unfinished. While the fabric is brightly coloured it has a weathered washed out and faded feel. This is not covered with one large piece of cloth but lots of different sized pieces – a collage or patchwork of scraps of fabric found.
When I look at the piece if gives me a feeling of shelter – it might protect me from weather like rain – but from something like a hurricane it is too unstable.
I really think it has a shanty-town look to it. It reminds me of some of the shelters I saw on my visit to Sierra Leone. This is one my photographs. Here we can see how the simple framework and the layering of found materials is the same. However the colour palette is different as are some of the materials – but I like the techniques of layering and different sized material pieces in both Beutler’s piece and this shanty home.
Beutler’s piece communicates a place of shelter and living and even comfort by using similar building processes to shanty town building.
“Beutler explored alternative ways of inhabiting this very particular landscape, resulting in a playful interrogation of form and function, private and public space.”
“...temporary, playful structures and forms constitute “a serious continuation of 20th century sculpture and architecture traditions”
(http://www.sternberg-press.com/index.php?bookId=58&l=en&pageId=1158 Michael Beutler Pecafil, Sternberg Press, 20/03/12)
But they are also opposites - Beutler’s piece communicates bright colour, playfulness and happiness where as my image is dull, dangerous and sad. Layering is key – this is a really important process for me and will be a big part of my project where I will be experimenting with fabric sampling in the next part of the design process.
80 degrees yoga will inform my FMP most but I will take most inspiration from my primary images because they will give me more ideas for silhouettes and textures. Beutler’s patchwork construction links with the shanty town images I have taken and I will use this mainly as a colour reference. It will also inform possibly the joining technique – raw edges and the flimsy, unstable nature of his work. Harold Kensington’s miss-match of things you wouldn’t normally put together which seem to be opposites will also inform my final piece. I want it to be a completely idiosyncratic approach. My piece will look it has been thrown together without much thought from whatever was found lying around. I want different vibrant colours unlike much of the shanty town construction but like it in that every piece of material used is a different texture, size or tone.
Bibliography
(http://www.sternberg-press.com/index.php?bookId=58&l=en&pageId=1158 Michael Beutler Pecafil, Sternberg Press, 20/03/12)
(http://www.friezefoundation.org/commissions/detail/michael_beutler/, Frieze Projects 2005, Accessed 16/3/2012)
(http://www.secession.at/art/2002_beutler_e.html, no date, Accessed 19/3/2012)
No comments:
Post a Comment