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Towson University MFA Theatre Inspiration

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“Let’s Pretend” by Tim Etchells

Neon lights are a vintage material that can feel outdated, but requires much precision in the way the glass is handblown to create the shapes of the letters.  The sheer brilliance of this type of light is also very attention grabbing.  In this piece in particular, the situation to which Etchells refers is not completely implied and is instead up to the viewer to interpret.  

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Akinori Goto

Akinori Goto digitally creates kinetic light sculptures from data of silhouettes traced from actual dancers.  Through this process, the original source material recedes into the background as the light blends together to create new forms and moving shapes.  

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Video Stills from “The Comet and the Glacier” by Alexis Gideon

In this animation, Alexis Gideon explores the faulty nature of memory by creating surrealist landscapes and environments for the characters to interact.  The heavy use of contrast and primary color through light aids in the surrealist feel.  

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“Night Writer” by Darren Pearson

Darren Pearson creates site-specific light drawings using long-exposure photography and devices of his own making.  He evokes the feelings of memory through his use of line and light. 

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“At Night” by Andreas Levers 

In this series of photographs, Andreas Levers captures the solitary landscapes at night allowing the haze late night/ early morning communicate mood and place. 

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Ben Rubin, Vectors

Florescent bulbs display text in real time from a chat room, which is simultaneously spoken or sung by a voice synthesizer.  He often uses data from the web and data processing to create his images.  What caught my eye in this image is the light reflection on the floor and the haziness quality to the word as if the word is surfacing from another world.  

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Jim Campbell- Scattered Light

When visitors walked by this net of over 2,000 LEDS, lights turned on and off in response to their silhouette.  

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Tang Yau Hoong

Tang Yau Hoong tells stories through the use of negative space creating unexpected relationships between images contained in one another.

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Tawlst- Ring Boxes

Tawlst uses recycled materials to create expressive and textured miniature sculptures.  In this series he explores misinterpreted narratives and the non-linear complexities of history.  

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Jim Doran

Doran uses recycled objects and illustrations on paper to create really intricate miniature sculptures.  Through layering he is able to achieve a great sense of depth in such a small space.  

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Jerome Bel- Shirtology (excerpt)

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Joseph Kosuth- “One and Three Chairs”

This piece consists of a chair, a photograph of a chair, and a dictionary definition of the word chair.  By placing them side by side, he’s asking the viewer to explore how the functioning of two descriptions of a chair (the photo and definition) compare to that of the actual chair in the space.  Each representation of the chair uses different parts of our sensory and reasoning to create the overall experience of the chair.  The question becomes: which way of describing the chair gets down to its essence or does each description provide a different insight into the chair? 

"The art I call conceptual is such because it is based on an inquiry into the nature of art," Kosuth has written. "Thus, it is . . . a working out, a thinking out, of all the implications of all aspects of the concept 'art,' . . . Fundamental to this idea of art is the understanding of the linguistic nature of all art propositions, be they past or present, and regardless of the elements used in their construction."

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John Baldessari- “I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art”

A year after his “Cremation Project”, a systematic destruction of his previous work, Baldessari proposed to a student group at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design that they cover the walls of a gallery space with the phrase “I will not make any more boring art”, like a grade school punishment.  He was never on site to supervise the process and what remains is a reproduction of Baldessari’s handwriting of this phrase.   In this piece, he questions the ideas of authorship and the role of the artist.

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In 1967 Sol LeWitt wrote, “In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” 

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Yoko Ono- Instructions for Paintings

These instructions for paintings explore the language-based aspects of the art beg the question: Does the work even need to be constructed if everyone sees and describes their experiences differently?  What is there to gain by having the audience imagine as opposed to simply view?  It leaves the interpretation of the work up to chance and opens up the discussion of if it’s even possible to accurately describe things to one another.  Is the idea of the work enough?

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Lawrence Weiner- As Far As the Eye Can See

Challenging traditional assumptions of what can be art and how the audience receives a work.  Weiner left room for the audience to interpret and imagine images through the use of text.  What’s striking in this piece is that the words draw attention to and provide context for the space between doorways causing the viewer to rethink their assumptions and considerations (or lack there of) of that space.  

From his "Declaration of Intent”:

“The artist may construct the piece; the piece may be fabricated; the piece need not be built. Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.”

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Gary Petersen- “Stacking Up”

Modern urban feel due to irregularity of stacked shapes and angularity.   This irregularity contributes to the very hazardous nature of balance between the shapes.