Artworks Not Yet Conceived

[Hobbes' Choice]

I think you mean "Not yet realised". Conception of art is the easy bit, as you have demonstrated.

Your problem is getting off your couch and doing the work.

Here's one that I have conceived in my head as a sculpture, but do not yet feel I would do it justice.
It's from Walter Benjamin's essay's on History.
The Angel of History.

An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair [verweilen: a reference to Goethe’s Faust], to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky-high. That which we call progress, is this storm.

Since my sculpture tends towards realism and literalism this is going to be a big piece of work.

[Hobbes' Choice]

The pan of boiling money would be shown with other works which are conducive towards the same communication. One work doesn't explain the universe, but collectively the works point to (or inhabit) the place which the artist wants to make real.

And how can an artist be arrogant and fucked up for wanting to experiment with materials and concepts of register?

If the pan is literally boiling the money would soon disintegrate.
For myself, I'd use a real pan and hotplate (sprayed red) into which I would use clear resin infused with bubbles with a turbulent surface.

So, tell me. What does the metaphor of money boiling mean?

[Hobbes' Choice]

Not sure what your sculpture says about cloud cuckoo land?

The image is interesting but I'd reverse the cloud and have the anvil up in the air full of helium, with the solid cloud on the ground. That would at least hint at cloud cuckoo land.

fyi
I seem to remember that cloud cuckoo land is a reference to Aristophanes' The Clouds

[Pluto]

I think you mean "Not yet realised". Conception of art is the easy bit, as you have demonstrated.

Yes, 'realised' is also okay. As I started the thread I was reminded by the conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner. Why make the work when the words describing it create the artwork in the head of the reader. The reader creates the work in his or her mind.


Your problem is getting off your couch and doing the work.

Yes I am lazy, though one should think before 'doing the work', all action is no action without thought.

[Pluto]

So, tell me. What does the metaphor of money boiling mean?

That's what I've asked myself. But then realised that the thing (sculpture) in itself is enough. Remember we are communicating with materials, not words. The materials put together in such a way would produce a meaning or metaphor outside language.

Words would play catch-up to the thing shown

[Harbal]

So, tell me. What does the metaphor of money boiling mean?

That's what I've asked myself. But then realised that the thing (sculpture) in itself is enough. Remember we are communicating with materials, not words. The materials put together in such a way would produce a meaning or metaphor outside language.

This is a joke, right?

[Pluto]

Not sure what your sculpture says about cloud cuckoo land?

The image is interesting but I'd reverse the cloud and have the anvil up in the air full of helium, with the solid cloud on the ground. That would at least hint at cloud cuckoo land.

fyi
I seem to remember that cloud cuckoo land is a reference to Aristophanes' The Clouds

The normal world is cuckoo that is the idea. You by turning gravity on its head take the normal world (your world) as okay and correct, you think you must invert it for it to be cuckoo.

Yes, the clouds, I read a bit of the book, it is a utopian city I believe, which is never found.

[Pluto]

So, tell me. What does the metaphor of money boiling mean?

That's what I've asked myself. But then realised that the thing (sculpture) in itself is enough. Remember we are communicating with materials, not words. The materials put together in such a way would produce a meaning or metaphor outside language.

This is a joke, right?

Not totally, the words and metaphor play catch-up to the sculpture. The work creates new language and thinking. This is art.

[Harbal]

Not totally, the words and metaphor play catch-up to the sculpture. The work creates new language and thinking. This is art.

Right, I see, sort of like art for dummies?

[Pluto]

How so? The art I make sees the person who looks at it as the opposite of dummy.

[Harbal]

How so? The art I make sees the person who looks at it as the opposite of dummy.

If someone makes an effort to go and look at a pan full of money boiling away, under the belief that they are going to see a work of art, then I wood charge them a fortune for letting them see it because they would, very likely, be stupid enough to pay it.

[Pluto]

How so? The art I make sees the person who looks at it as the opposite of dummy.

If someone makes an effort to go and look at a pan full of money boiling away, under the belief that they are going to see a work of art, then I wood charge them a fortune for letting them see it because they would, very likely, be stupid enough to pay it.

Like I said somewhere before, the pan of boiling money would be one work of others. If you made the effort to go see an exhibition of mine, there would be other works, which would strengthen or weaken or do nothing to your impression of the boiling pan piece. As an artist the pan piece would hopefully work with the other works in broadening the idea of the whole. The pan piece is one actor in the play, a prop in the play, a chair.

What do you think is bad about the boiling money work?

I will describe again how I see it:

Plugged into the gallery wall and sitting on the gallery floor a single ring with a pan of boiling water placed upon it. The water boils and inside the pan you can see a handful of coins and notes (moving slightly due to the boiling) in the pan. The notes would have to represent the notes currently available within euro currency. So notes from 5 to 500 euro notes would be in there. But not too much money, there would have to be room to see the bottom of the pan, from time to time. The gallery staff would have to top-up the water from time to time, thus incorporating them into the work. Taking the creation away from the artist. Delegating tasks. Merlin Carpenter brings empty canvasses to the opening and gets the gallery staff to paint things he wants, he includes the staff. The gallery personnel are creators in the work. By adding water. How is this good?

[Harbal]

As an artist the pan piece would hopefully work with the other works

I can see what you're up to: It's gone from a pan of money to "the pan piece". What if I sneezed into my handkerchief then opened it out and placed it on a table? If I then referred to it as the snot piece, do you think I could pass it off as a work of art? It seems to me that, as long as you've got a plentiful supply of random objects to hand, you could churn out works of art to your hearts content. What about this one: Imagine a diamond ring placed on a little marble pedestal. Obviously, it would be referred to as the "Ring Piece".

[Pluto]

An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair [verweilen: a reference to Goethe’s Faust], to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky-high. That which we call progress, is this storm.

Since my sculpture tends towards realism and literalism this is going to be a big piece of work.

How do you prepare and plan before you start the actual sculpture? Drawings, notes, etc. Do you worry that the piece will just be an illustration of text? Can you make it relevant to the present somehow? Is that even important, etc.

[Pluto]

I can see what you're up to: It's gone from a pan of money to "the pan piece". What if I sneezed into my handkerchief then opened it out and placed it on a table? If I then referred to it as the snot piece, do you think I could pass it off as a work of art? It seems to me that, as long as you've got a plentiful supply of random objects to hand, you could churn out works of art to your hearts content. What about this one: Imagine a diamond ring placed on a little marble pedestal. Obviously, it would be referred to as the "Ring Piece".

Yeah that's funny, the 'ring piece'. But it goes no further. Snot on the artist's handkerchief is repeating the artist's shit, etc, and so would be seen as an out-of-date affront to the viewer. The snot piece would say hey dummy look at this. You can use everything to communicate what you want. Then we can talk about whether it's good or bad and why.