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final

14. QCQ #3: The Gravity of Levity

15. Contradictory Structures: Research

16. Contradictory Structures: Final

17. QCQ #4: X Marks the Spot

18. Lost Statements: Research

19. Lost Statements: Final

20. Self-Directed Manifesto: Final

I made a cast and mold of a rubber dinosaur i found on the street. The rubber toy was made out of itself in a way, fossil fuels.

I heated water in a big pot and had a separate container within the big pot to melt the wax in.

When the wax clearly melted, my wife poured the wax and After an hour it was cool enough to break out of its rubbery cast.

I presented this as the thought experiment of “Shrodingers Cat”. My project may or may not be behind the wall i built. Immediately people began trying to look for it. The invisible dinosaur became alive in their minds. Everyone wanted to see the possibility. They engaged with the situation. This feels like a fun direction.

I really enjoyed the readings this semester. They really got my mind moving.

I could have left this project to imagination but i would’ve felt like i let old Tom down. Thanks Tom for being awesome. I learned something.

“The wall” 2025

Cardboard boxes painted white.

As soon as my thesis project came down I instinctively began to construct this wall. Seeing the boxes on the ground brought me back 20 something years to where I was loading and driving trucks for UPS. It’s a memory of Boxes coming down a metal chute into one of those giant truck trailers. It was my job to make walls with these boxes from the back to the front of the truck. Monotonous laborious Tetris.

From pedestal wedged within the white cube to a wall within the cube.

I enjoyed this project, it allowed to me create big cumbersome works and watch people react to them . My initial thoughts are that i like people getting close to the work and in a way, i want them to touch ( i am confused about the rules on touch in gallery spaces) although i know this leads to accidents. Another thing is Lighting is the key. And so is documentation.

Id Like to explore other artists working in a way that encourages touch.

Fragile . This was an experimental piece, I asked fellow students to unknowingly reach inside and retrieve what was inside.

Through the exploration of expectation, touch, trust, and humor, I found everyone involved and onlooking was smiling and generally interested in the happening.

I was nervous about the reception, now I understand that was unnecessary.

Challenging expectations with absurdity is one of the central means by which humour “offers a short circuit that exposes our [perpetual] discomfort” with instability. This short circuit is directly linked to what I understand to be the critical function of art, or what Simon Critchley has called art’s ability to provide an “oblique phenomenology of ordinary life.”

Humour exposes an insecurity that is ultimately irrepressible. ‭ ‬Humour ‭ ‬and ‭ ‬photography share ‭ ‬the short-circuiting mechanism that exposes this insecurity. Such connections may account in part for the centrality of photography as a conceptual medium. On the one hand photography, like humour, allows human vision to access phenomena that would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye. On the other, it withholds the possibility of ever truly mastering the subject.

Levity : humor or frivolity , especially the treatment of a serious matter with humor or In a manner lacking due respect.

Gravity: suggests depth and seriousness, extreme or alarming importance.

Comment.

I chose those two quotes because I’ve never read anything so thoughtful . As a kid what attracted me to art was the DADA movement. Even though I wasn’t old enough to understand the conditions and motivations many of the artists making it were under, I couldn’t help but smile and be inspired. Reading this I get a deeper appreciation for Marcel Duchamp, who often challenged expectations with absurdity.

Phenomenology refers to the philosophical study of our lived experience, and Oblique (as in the military march command) refers to an angle. Arts ability to give life that pause and change of pace is why I create. That sentence is beautiful.

The second quote I chose hit home for me. Photography has allowed me to share things most people will never see or even care to look at. Concerning the issue of mastery, why would you ever to want to master anything? I can get behind, Getting better at something like drawing or painting or basketball where technique and time invested yield reward. But It is very different from Photography. It is a fickle art because as much as you know your camera, which takes time in its own rite, the world is uncontrollable, you can’t control the sun, people, or any other of the million variables around you. This is where zen comes in for me. I simply bear witness and do my best.

Question for the class. In what instances have you met expectations with absurdity?

I’ll go first, I got to spend a lot of time with my grandma for the last 10 years of her life. She had serious health issues. My goal every day was to make her laugh as much as possible. I’d walk in with my shorts rolled up, I’d say stupid things, make stupid faces , hug her longer than appropriate, blow and mess up her hair, mime weird things to her, crank call her, I’d even get my kids in on the absurdity which she called stupidity. Oh yes , group hugs were our specialty. I hope when I’m in that condition someone does it for me

LIMITS: MIDTERM INDEX

Manifesto: Research

Manifesto: Final

Artist Presentation: Research

Manifesto Room: Collective/Subjective

Manifesto Public: Research

Manifesto Public: Final

QCQ #1: One Place After Another

Museum Visit

QCQ #2: Das Sockelproblem

Kitchen Pedestal Sink Manifesto: Research

Kitchen Pedestal Sink Manifesto: Final

Radical Theory and Practice - Self-Directed

Practice: Final

Untitled.

Materials: cardboard, paint and Velcro.

As with the previous piece , this work takes inspiration from the constructivists, rodchenko and Op art. I wanted to play with light and shadows cast. When seen head on, it looks flat but walking around it reveals the parallaxes and its shape begins to distort. This is something I want to continue exploring

Untitled .

Materials:Cardboard boxes and paint.

My intention here was to create an object that engulfed the pedestal and overwhelmed the viewer. Im exaggerating the white cube as inverted pedestal and challenging the sterility of the cube by placing painted boxes on and around it . I drew inspiration from the constructivists for their use of basic shapes and ordinary objects. Most notably Rodchenko , for his architectural photographs.

QcQ

Urs Fischer

Ruben Valentim vs Marguerite Humeau.

I was drawn to the geometric nature Valentims sculptures and painting. Humeaus sculptures left me feeling uneasy and appreciative of the ability to explore its angles. The materiality of her work really drew me in to explore. She mixes blown glass , cast rubber, a number of resins and epoxies , fiber glass , cut steel and cotton and much more to create these invented organic life forms. This was created in 2024. Valentims sculptures were an evolution from his paintings which were inspired by the Afro Brazilian faith. His visual language began to express more totem or ceremonial like objects. It’s beautiful to see the 2d turn to 3d seamlessly.

Moving through spaces.

Marerials: massage table, car, coconut oil, person.

Info in video.

Urs fischer

Shell man.

Materials: shells and manakin.

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