#untitledprojects

[conradbakker]

Untitled Project: COPY SHOP, Oil paint on carved wood, dimensions variable, 2025. >> Untitled Project: Copy Shop takes on the subject of making copies, performing labor, and finding forms of resistance through the guise of a carved and painted copy shop. On view at The Weather Station in Lafayette, Indiana 

[swiggityswaggityimkswizz]

Untitled no.1

Although I’m not new to tumblr, I am a new blogger. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved reading and writing. I was never really good at mathematics but hand me a book and I won’t put it down. I’m not quite sure what it is that I’ll blog about, probably a combination of things. Ultimately, I just want a safe space where I can voice my thoughts and opinions. “Untitled no.1″ is the first of many pieces yet to come. I know that I have a lot to offer the world, so I guess this will be my first attempt at getting it out there. If any seasoned bloggers come across this, please please please, feel free to send me any suggestions, tips, or even constructive criticism! I hope to be back tomorrow with a new piece ready to go :).

[conradbakker]

UNTITLED PROJECT: MOUNTAIN/ROCK SHOP, Oil paint on carved wood, 2019  >> Untitled Project: Mountain/Rock Shop is an investigation of a particular place through objects and images — in particular, hand-carved and painted rocks based on real rocks collected in and around Sun Valley, Idaho during the summer 2019. All of these rocks have been constructed as contemplative objects—specific things that are slowly seen and/or held in order to help one connect to a knowledge of another thing. All of these rocks have also been intentionally produced and positioned as curious commodities /strange souvenirs of a specific landscape. 

What does it mean to interpret a place or value a landscape as a commodity? Unfortunately, over the past two centuries this particular Idahoan landscape has been repeatedly objectified, its value reduced to pelts, minerals, and mountain views––its capacity has become complicated. In the end, these hand-made sculptures of local rocks and paintings of mountain real estate aspire to be oblique, desirable products that move awkwardly from inception to production to transaction to display—at once imitating the commodification of place but also providing a momentary pause for considering our location in a landscape that is always changing.

Untitled Project: Mountain/Rock Shop was part of the exhibition “Marketplaces: From Open Air to Online” curated by Courtney Gilbert at the Sun Valley Art Museum  in Ketchum, Idaho. During the exhibition, all the carved/painted rocks were made available for sale at an established low price point for local buyers, and also online, at a price determined by the distance in walking hours from the online buyers physical location to Sun Valley, Idaho. 

>> LINK TO PROJECT WEBSITE <<

[untitledprojects]

UNTITLED PROJECT: NEW MUSEUM BOOKSTORE [ARTFORUM /APRIL 2008], Oil paint on carved wood, 2009  >>  a carved/painted sculpture of a shopping bag from New York’s New Museum Bookstore containing Artforum magazine from April 2008.

www.untitledprojects.com

[conradbakker]

Untitled Project: À la Recherche du Temps Perdu [Vintage Proust], Oil paint on carved wood, 1:1 scale, 2018 >> Untitled Project: À la Recherche du Temps Perdu [Vintage Proust] is a carved and painted set of recent paperbacks of Marcel Proust’s epic novel: In Search of Lost Time published by Vintage Books. 

[conradbakker]

Untitled Project: Costco [Orchid], Oil paint on carved maple, 1:1 scale, 2024  >> Upon visiting Costco for the first time and in a stupor from warehouse shopping and considering objects/products according to virtues of quantity/affordability, I came across a long shelf of beautiful orchids and quickly added one to my cart. It wasn’t until I was out of the store and in the parking lot that I realized the orchid I had purchased was in fact, a plastic plant. The decorative intention and economy of materials/labor that went into the production of this fake, plastic product was still impressive, so I decided to construct my own plant out of wood and oil paint, slowly, by hand, to better understand (or even make strange) my relationship to the original/real/fake orchid.

[aokosu]

beauty @marysekye wearing our ✨world famous✨ Dagger Earrings in @utpmag ~ styled by @carolyn_claire666 photo @im_chadmeyer ⚡️// #aokosu #untitledprojects #editorial #bandw

[conradbakker]

UNTITLED PROJECT: SCIENCE FICTIONS, Oil paint on carved wood, installed, 2009  >>  a site-specific commission for the University of Illinois Institute of Genomic Biology featuring a carved/painted wall section of science-fiction dvds, showcasing a range of genetically oriented narratives that critically engage the strange and creative histories of popular science fiction films and scientific research.