Yayoi Kusama.
Cornelia Parker.
Kait Rhodes
Ernesto Neto
Rachael Wong Red Effect
Rachael Wong Blue Affect
Amanda Dumas
Jillian D'Abramo
Excavating the Arts of Alfred
Show Curation
Exercising Emotional Stimulus
In·stinct (ĭn'stĭngkt') n. An inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and is often a response to specific environmental stimuli. A powerful motivation or impulse. (The American Heritage, 2004) Instinct and emotions are one of the most basic tools that living beings are born and equipped with. Instincts and emotions are separate, yet they influence each other. Instincts are natural urges and feelings that can not be controlled. In our society many people try to suppress and control their natural urges and feelings. Not enough people in our society embrace their emotional stimulus and let their feelings and urges take over. No one is saying that every instinct and urge should be put into action, but there are healthy ways people can let their emotions, instincts and feelings take over.
One way to exercise emotional stimulus is through art, the creation or action of making art, or the viewing and consumption of art. The emotional stimulus of making art could be to evoke emotion, or to rid oneself of emotion or a natural instinct, whether it is a positive or negative emotion or instinct. The artists chosen for the exhibition “Exercising Emotional Stimulus” each either use the act of making work or the end product of their work as a way of releasing or embracing their emotions and natural instincts. The intention is to not just evoke feeling and emotions, it is to psychologically immerse oneself into the work through physical and emotional senses.
Yayoi Kusama's work has been grouped with such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dali because her work at the time was experimental and out of the ordinary. Kusama is an artist of many trades and styles. She is a painter as well as a 3-D artist in many mediums. Kusama came to the United States, and settled in New York City sometime before the 1960's where she had an easier time showing work then in Japan. Her work has been compared to New York artists of her time and describe as avant-grade.(Chadwick, 1998, 48-49) Kusama does not prefer labels and has claimed to paint “”only as I wished“” and to ””rely on my own interior imagination” (Hoptman 2000, 10)
Throughout her life Yayoi Kusama suffered from visual hallucinations in which she expresses and uses in her work. “”One day I was looking at the red flower patterns of the tablecloth on the table, and when I looked up I saw the same pattern covering the ceiling, the windows and the walls, and finally all over the room, my body and the universe. I feel I had begun to self-obliterate, to revolve in the infinity of endless time and the absoluteness of space, and be reduced to nothingness. “”(Chadwick 1998, 159-60) Kusama uses her hallucinations and her feelings of self-obliteration in her work. Due to her illness, her natural instincts and urges push her towards repetition and pattern in her work.
In her work in 1998 Dots of Obsession, the use of inflatable vinyl in both pieces (one in white and red, the other in yellow and black.) Covering the ceilings and walls, and the matching ameba-like forms with dots, are repeated with mirrors when the space is entered by the viewer. The red room covered in white dots is mirrored on the walls putting the viewer in the piece itself. The yellow piece has black dots covering the space in a long rectangular room with the matching vinyl on the walls instead of a mirror. Kusama is also standing in the piece in a matching dress with matching heels and hat. (Hoptman 2000, 126-127)Kusama is putting herself into her work physically, emotionally and mentally. “”Become one with eternity. Obliterate your personality. Become a part of your environment. Forget yourself.”” (Hoptman 2000, 124)
“”The fact is that we can't escape our own body. Thats all we have.””- Ernesto Neto. (Clausen, 2002, 47) Ernesto Neto creates a space where objects engage all senses. Soft and touchable forms can be jumped on explored though. The sculptures are made to feel “larger then life” and the viewer can interact with the sculpture by touch, sight, sound and smell. Ernseto is known for his aromatic substances that are sometimes filled inside the sculptures for a more sensual experience. Nato wants to create“”...a place of sensations”” (Clausen, 2002, 47) The collection in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen uses soft pinkand blue nylon. The interaction is mostly physical between the viewer and the art. Neto wants the interaction to consume people in every aspect. To have the viewer rely on their instincs and primal senses, Nato wants not to “”escape our own body”” but to embrace our body by letting your senses consume you.
Amanda Dumas, Pink Feeling #333 takes over the gallery space. At first glance the piece is pleasing to the eye, soft white and pink. It gives the viewer a false sense of comfort. Upon closer view, the soft white material is identified as pantyhose, and the pink objects hanging on the inside are not to be identified. The pink objects seem to have feelers or limbs, which are trapped inside the bottom of the long, stretched pantyhose. Imagine people walking around the gallery to observe the repetitive "feelers" which are trapped inside the pantyhose, one would assume that the viewer could feel somewhat uneasy. Dumas carefully plays with the viewers emotions by finding the fine line between her soft material and colors, and the up close view of a trapped eerie feeling.
Dumas uses the color pink for the viewer to identify with. Dumas believes that color pink can evoke strong feelings from the viewer, either comforting or “revolting.” Dumas claims that the she can identify well with the color pink, as a female and feels as though it can be a color loaded with controversy or comfort. (Dumas 2003) Either feeling, controversy or comfort will evoke instincts and emotions from the viewer that are important in understand the work. The piece is there to engage the viewer in the space and to overcome the viewer with their natural emotions.
Cornelia Parker manages to also convey the feeling of a surreal comfort to her viewer from a distant look in her piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View. The lighting of her piece gives it a warming glow in which would draw the viewer closer. Again, upon closer inspection the viewer might feel the need to take a step back. Looking into Parkers piece, there is a sense of violence or angst, as if somebody's world, or a room has been disassembled or exploded. Parker uses the pieces of a room, or in this case a shed, for mapping. Parker uses a shed that the British School of Ammunition had controlled an explosion for her. (Ferguson 2000, 22) Her interest in dimension and space is far beyond the pieces she had created. The use of materials decontextualized to change the history and the iconic image relates to the artists shown. (Furguson 2000, 45-46) Parker not only reconstructs a space that had once existed, she also constructs a place that does not exist in the physical sense, a place where the viewer can go mentally and emotionally a place where “the cycle of inhaling,exhaling, forgetting,remembering, living, and dying carries on.” (Tronzo, 2009, 94)
Rachel Wong and her pieces The Red Effect and The Blue Affect. Wong uses playful forms and playful colors against the gallery wall to invite the viewer in. The colors which draw you in, help the viewer ignore the fact that the material is glass and anchored to the wall. The forms seem playful and soft yet can not be tossed or bounced around. The colors are ones which “effect” or in this case “affect” the emotions and natural instincts of the viewer. The pieces are very pleasing to the eye. The artist is also toying with the idea of communication with the viewer, the objects seem to be having a conversation with themselves and the wall in which they are morphing into and out of. The forms are round and have soft contours and ridges. Upon closer view in The Blue Affect you can see through some spots of some of the white objects that have a coating of color beneath the surface. These forms have layers of color that can not always be seen. The colors beneath the white coordinate with the blue and red paint. Rachel Wong lets her instincts and emotions run free when creating her work and she lets “Imagination, memory, and emotion take hold.” (Wong 2009)
Kait Rhoads, an MFA Graduate of Alfred University stimulates emotion and uses her personal instincts while creating her work. In Her slide talk presentation Rhoads discussed her affinity for the water and organic forms. Growing up on the water literally, on a house boat and always living near the water Rhoads instincts are to make work that symbolizes things such as seaweed and seaweed forms. Not all of her work consists of these forms and ideas of water and sea-forms.(Rhoads 2009)
Similar to Kusama, yet not as extreme, Rhoads has an instinctual desire for repetitiveness. She becomes overwhelmed and almost consumed with the shape of circular forms such as the murrini rings which in her case are hallow. Rhoads spends an enormous amount of time obsessively sorting by shape color and size of murrini. Then the murrini can be assembled into her work, where she spends countless hours systematically weaving them together.(Rhoads 2009)
Along with pattern, Kait Rhoads piece Sideweed, uses diverse material to sculpt out of. The use of the murrini (the hallow rings of glass and color) and copper wire, which is systemically weaved through the glass is a repetitive controlled chaos. The murrini is not weaved flat, it is weaved in an organic form resembling seaweed. The ring like objects, although organic in shape is controlled and organized in pattern. The piece is hung by protruding away from the wall seeming not connected in theory. The connection of the pieceon the wall can not be seen from the front view nor is it important to see the connection of this piece to the wall, unlike Wong's work.
These artists are very diverse yet there are many connections between. All the artists from Yayoi Kusama, Rachel Wong, Amanda Dumas, Ernesto Neto to Cornelia Parker have running themes pop up through their work. A play between chaos and order, successful use of gallery space. A play of materials and color, and feelings, intuition, emotions and instincts are strongly put out and absorbed by the viewer.
Through their ironic use of materials, and sleek display Wong and Rhoads pieces work well together. Controlled chaos is shown in their shapes and patterns and methods of a clean piece. The communication that Wong and Rhoads send out to their viewer is precise. Wong and Rhoads objects transmit the concept of play and communication through their use of working with the gallery wall as a space to connect or protrude from.
Dumas and Neto use methods of display in a similar manner to Cornelia Parker in her piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded view. Dumas and Neto compared to Parker have very different choices in materials and colors, Dumas and Neto with soft materials and soft colors, and Parker with hard rigid found objects and wood, yet the construction of their pieces and the feelings derived are similar. Dumas, with her sewn together pantyhose has created what seems to be a web, where the pink "feelers" have fallen and become trapped. Neto has utilized every sensation counting on sight, emotions, touch and smell which makes the viewer feel as thought hey have entered their own world. Parker has constructed her piece in such a way that her found objects are protected behind the pieces of her jagged wood, which seems to be a sort of controlled chaos. The choices in material for both pieces may seem ironic. The pantyhose used my Dumas, nylon also used by Neto and the found objects used by Parker have lost their identity or purpose. Dumas has deconstructed, then reconstructed (by sewing) the pantyhose to fit her web like structure at the top of her piece, losing their identity and purpose. Neto has stuffed and created a large bed-like forms which makes no reference to the material other then for its sensation. Parker has exploded domestic household objects and used them in the construction of her piece, in which they have also lost their purpose and are used as an idea or symbol of what they once were.
Sometimes as art critics or viewers we are very quick to slap categories on to someone else's work. Words such as functional or non functional can be meaningless and categorizing work in such a manner can create a boring exhibit. Many artists try not to categorize themselves in such a way that restricts them. As an artist Yayoi Kusama feels very strong about not being categorized and speaks out about not enjoying labels. (Hoptman 2000, 10)
In creating the exhibition Exercising Emotional Stimulus, the work to be shown will be work that creates a space for the viewer to become engaged and overcome either physically, emotionally and or mentally. The work may be viewed alone or with a crowd depending on each artist. The work that may be viewed alone (if chosen by the viewer) is the work by Yayoi Kusama, Amanda Dumas, Ernesto Neto and Cornelia Parker. These works will have their own rooms which extend off the main gallery. A small open doorway will be the only entry to each room in which security will stand allowing viewers in one at a time unless asked otherwise. The works by Ernesto Neto and Yayoi Kusama are interactive in the sense that they may be handled and touched.
In the entry way to the gallery the first view os a wall blocking the exhibition. The wall will have simple black text stating the exhibition's purpose:
In·stinct (ĭn'stĭngkt') n. An inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and is often a response to specific environmental stimuli. A powerful motivation or impulse. Instinct and emotions are one of the most basic tools that living beings are born equipped with. The artists chosen for the exhibition “Exercising Emotional Stimulus” each either use the act of making work or the end product of their work as a way of releasing or embracing their emotions and natural instincts.
Each work will be labeled by artists name,title of work, year, and materials used in small vinyl print on the gallery walls. Above the works by Ernesto Neto and Yayoi Kusama, vinyl lettering will inform the viewer that they may interact with the work physically as well. Above the artists names and titles a mini biography will also be put in vinyl lettering.
Object Check List:
Yayoi Kusama:
Vinyl for floor wall and ceiling in red with white polka-dots.
Vinyl red and white ameba like objects to match and fit into the space.
Ernesto Neto:
Large pink nylon shaped bed.
Blue nylon stuffing for inside the bed shape.
Blue floor to ceiling covering with tube-like structures hanging.
Calming herbs to put inside pink pillow like forms that hang from the blue tube like structures for the aroma.
Rachael Wong:
Red paint
Blue paint
White objects with blue and red windows, for blue wall
Red objects for red wall
Kait Rhodes:
Sideweed sculptue with steel wall attachment
Cornelia Parker
all wood fragments
all metal fragments
all objects identifiiable and fragmented
wire to hang objects
single light bulb for middle of sculpture.
Amanda Dumas
pink painted porcelain “feelers”
sewn together pantyhose
Works cited
1. Chadwick, Whitney . Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self-Representation. London: The Mit Press, 1998.
2. Clausen, Barbara, and Carin Kuini. Thin Skin: The Fickle Nature of Bubbles, Spheres, and Inflatable Structures. New York: Independent Curators International, New York, 2002. ]
3. Dumas Amanda, Master’s thesis, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, 2003.
4. Ferguson, Bruce, Jessica Morgon, and Cornelia Parker. Cornelia Parker. Second Edition ed. Boston MA: Ica Boston, 2000.
5. Hoptman, Laura. Yayoi Kusama (Contemporary Artists). London: Phaidon Press, 2000.
6. Instinct. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/instinct (accessed: December 01, 2009).
7. Karia, Bhupendra. Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective . New York, New York: Center for International Contemporary Arts, 1989.
8. Rhodes, Kait. Slide talk and presentation. Binns Merrial Hall. Alfred, NY. October 8, 2009
9. Tronzo, William. The Fragment: An Incomplete History. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2009.
10. Wong, Rachael . "Rachael Wong | Artist Statement." Rachael Wong | Welcome to Rachael Wong's Artworks. http://rachaelwong.ca/artist_statement.php#lock (accessed November 6, 2009 and December 7, 2009).
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