Saturday, May 13, 2006

Mountain Festival Sculpture Trail 2006


When is quality sculpture? To me- ephemeral, outdoor installations... they require long amounts of time spent outside in bushy areas, where I can explore, dig, see, wee, hunt (for truffles and magic mushrooms of course)...
Of course, many would object to this argument. Aesthetics, concepts... blah... enjoy the open air, let YOUR dog join us. Its the only way to make art.

Anyhow, this is an image of my human's work 'Arboreal'. Im not in it (I think I was chasing ducks in the rivulet next to the work at the time. Yes, they WERE bigger than me... but I could still make them fly away [smirk]). Apparently when 'recording' artworks, they are to be void of all distractions... including me.
I still got into the catalogue though! [See photo]

Good art?
In the sixties and seventies an art movement started called 'Conceptual Art'. Works by Duchamp -his readymades- although made at the start of the twentieth century, kickstarted this movement. Ideas rather than aesthetics are the bones of the argument; to have aesthetics was at the expense of the concept, and it was argued that they could not live together. Nowadays, it is not a matter of aesthetics over concepts; all art is assumed to have a concept (isnt it craft otherwise?).

My human works with the concept first.

'Arboreal' looks at the relationship between the natural and built environments:
'A desire to reconnect with the natural and pristine would appear to be the motivating force which is driving people to seek their "sea" or "bush change". As a consequence the design of eco-friendly housing is rampant; however, it is often the case that these houses are constructed from materials which have undergone elaborate manufacturing techniques. 'Arboreal' seeks to highlight the contradictions and absurdities created by the above mentioned phenomena and emphasise the discord created between organic forms from the natural environment and the straight lines of dimesioned timber used for building.'

My human collaborated with a mate of hers who is also studying at the University of Tasmania. They won first prize for this work. [of course it was my input that made the difference...]