The Writers' Circle

An investigation in to the philosophical questions that materials poses in the development of the subjective experience in artwork. 


Introduction



This piece of writing explores Materials in conflict of and integration with the surrounding environment. In their altered state they represent potentiality, transformation and the ability to change the environment. Materials also highlight universal problems with excess;  when adorning installations with phenomenal extravagances, the context of materials can convey catastrophic consequences or convey themes, which project the notion of illusion or depict a precious substance. 

Absurd, excessive or minimal, quantity or quality, mass or dimension. Materials can reinvigorate a failing environment, or oppositely abolish the notion of the natural environment ever existing. By taking that which is familiar and placing it in an uncanny environment, unusual space or unlikely situation, what is demonstrated is an act of movement, a displacement of things. This could describe a devised religiosity in acting out a cathartic ritual in which some form of spirituality exists between human beings and objects. How shallow it is to focus on things. What I am implying is that there is something gained through and lost by an obsession with material things.
 
Sartre infers that:

"the passion of sculpture... is to make oneself totally spatial, so that from the depth of space the statue of a man may sail forth in the search for the absolute' (Sartre 1948, in Wood,J 2009pp180-194)

Primary experience is fundamental in achieving effects, yet it is too intricate a task to base all experience merely on secondary resources. These only allow for literal meaning; to fully contribute to a result, a collaboration of a rather complex set of subjective ideas is required. The significance of commodity and consumerism as a discussion based around the subject of materialism are therefore inseparable. In this instance, one exists to complement the other, as  do ridiculousness and the grand spectacle of materiality.

This dissertation will move in to a far orbit beyond the encyclopaedic definition of materialism to explore these notions as revealed in artworks and philosophical thought. Although the state of materialism appears to be complex and ever-changing, I propose that our social perception of materialism has been altered by our perceptions of the exterior surroundings and the object in its three dimensionality/image and mass/inertia. This has been challenged by historical shifts in sculpture, which history has transformed in stages; this may be observed both formally in terms of function, and synthetically in terms of the sensory experience the materials provide.

Therefore the image shall be discussed in its totality, as a three dimensional form, labelled with no specific identity as philosophical influence has impeded on the image greatly.
There has been a shift from an emphasis on 'folding', as "a single effect produced in architecture...to integrate unrelated elements in a new continuous structure," This 'shifting' described in his take on Deluezian philosophy, gives an insight to the dynamic properties of materials throughout an exploration of the environmental space, shaped by external influences of science, social structures, culture and psychology. Cache, B (1995).

The visual influence of architectural entropy has also contributed to formal modification in design;by disrupting the boundaries of functionality and affecting material dexterity, non-constructive examples of architecture underpin a visual style. This conveys some boastful  visual design elements, and when referring to 'baroque' as a visual style in order to describe the flaws of 'biomorphic' structures and elaborate shapes I believe it is an appropriate analysis of post modernity's 'conjugulated' visual language which gives an impression of form over function, reflecting on the visual language of materials of the every day  complex, chaotic and often disposed of.
It is important to note that when such visceral outcomes are conveyed, they somewhat exist  to symbolize a fetishistic object, as they exist for no apparent logical reason and refrain from aiding the functionality of the three dimensional structure any further than a less elaborate design; such is true in Frank Gehry's architectural sculptures (figure1 ). 

 Delueze observes that in order to be "actualized the virtual can proceed by elimination or limitation". This is an excellent philosophy to apply to our fabled  thought processes in order to realize the potential in things, but does it apply to the social limitations in life that can prevent creativity? We are also confined by environment and council legislation, which could affect attempts to fold urban cities into 'fifth element' style utopias. 
Cache (1995) p xiv

Throughout the examples of art and architecture within these classifications. my enquiry centres on the value of materials, and the aim is to show that it can be equated to what Joëlle Chitterlings termed as:
' when artworks provoke a sense of perturbation between object and space they become sculpture. '  Tuerlinckx,J (2002p) (686)






   Fig.1




Chapter One
The significance of material function: Exploring a philosophical art historical context


"The nineteenth century shifted the area of plausibility to factual empirical reality, a notion that has undergone considerable change during the last hundred years and always in the direction of a narrower conception of what constitutes as an indisputable act of experience."  
(Greenberg,C(1949)in Wood,J p160)

Greenberg's critique reads as a useful insight in to the significance of the Arte Povera movement provides an account of the shifting of literal demands of the 'aesthetic experience', defining how:
"painting's place as the supreme visual art is now threatened." He described sculpture as "at a lesser remove than any of the arts from that which it imitated."

This therefore implies that the transformation of sculpture endows it with greater possibilities. Three dimensional form becomes the only quenchable medium because of its 'fangled positivist sensibility,' this labels 'sculpture' with many future possibilities. It has never been limited to a specific medium, like paint or chalk; instead sculpture, in its sheer mass, allows for greater experimentation in the development of the creative process. Whereby the manipulation of the three dimensional image that takes many different angles of appreciation as something observed, experienced, touched, explored, sensed and listened to. The list is endless, but the relationship between the qualities the viewer experiences and the artist encounters in the process of creating are greatly focused on the senses.      

Greenberg encourages us to think about the differences in structure between the varying mediums. This could be inclusive to the application of painting, film and sculpture as an expressive medium. It predisposes the notion that there is a specific discipline constrained to only one form of media in contemporary art. It changes the artists approach to a style of working to a way in which one is able to diverge in to new forms and demolish barriers of definition; the partisan approach seems to be rather antediluvian nowadays, especially when  the dynamics of society operate on such a vast and complex scale. It would appear that in order to transgress there has to be a co-operative understanding of the deficits of limitation in order to develop new foci and to make improvements. This is reflected in shifts and styles throughout art history.

In describing this shift in styles and ideas, I am primarily concerned with the use of material as  a separate entity, and the developmental changes in materialism; the consuming and disposal of 'things'; also the way in which materials are described by certain language which affect the exterior of the material image identity. 

"Greenbergian modernism was an 'apotheosis' of fetishism in the visual arts in the modern period." (The University of Chicago 2003)5 Greenberg discusses the importance of "simplicity", and enforces those modes practice as centrally important to modernism when he focuses on the invention of the 'new sculpture' describing it as having "no historical associations whatsoever." This evokes rather more sensual ideas about the visceral image as a show piece, materials developing a psychological significance  because of  environmental factors having such a massive impact on the everyday, leading to an overexposure of advertising, which is just all too familiar. Therefore nothing really appears to be very special at first glance, especially as just another flat image. This is why three dimensional art continues to challenge familiarity and to create new experiences for audiences. What is often overlooked can contribute to a fetishistic representation of material. Material can evoke quite sexual tones because it incorporates many inertly tactile elements. 


In Joseph Beuy's Fat Chair (1964) and Mona Hatoum's Grater Divide (2002). 
 both share instances, which explore the ambiguity of the material and concerns with the non-functioning elements of the sculptural form. The potency of material in these instances appears to explore an essence of preciousness, or to devise, through them, a narrative. In adding to this what both the objects depicted in this instance achieve are an imitation of the banal, everyday object, but potentially serve to create rather subversive fantasy scenarios for the viewer. Neither of the pieces serve to function for an actual purpose nor do they appear serenely, but both depictions have absurd connotations. A grater is not a particularly pleasant edifice, it cuts and it is rather large at 204cm tall and wide. A chair seating fat seems to associate any human relationship to the object with a usually purposeful function as extremely sinister. The chair and the grater are personified, because they impose on the human being. Material in these examples become a very threatening fabric.

The Arte Povera movement highlights a subjective experience of functionality. Joseph Beuy's and Marcel Duchamp commodify the development of an era of mass modernization; further more, by highlighting the loss of ideals of civilization and by non-specializing the chosen every day object as subject matter which in every sense shares some similarities for its impending ugliness and potential damage incurred to the banal object. The heterogeneousness of these objects, brings in to focus the imagination to reflect more on the possibilities and diverge in to a certain perspective on the value of Art; the acknowledgement of, and the need for understanding varying dimensions of perspective, the objects narrative,and it's psychological and physiological familiarities. The Arte Povera movement therefore stands to protest against the constraints of the modernist sensibility, as what it communicates is fragmented, and appears to be affected by the construction of the environmental space.
 
 The continuous representations of everyday objects as sculptures are important, and to explore the basic materials of living is frequented throughout art history. The modernist form depicting an entirely different outcome conveys a simplified autonomy of the object
 
The notion of  a modernistic "perfect society" opposes the commodity of the banal image, which is seen in an every day routine of events. This vision attests to being such a restrained image, a design for the  urban city, which seeks to homogenize in to spaces creating zones of functionable living and for better greater prosperity. Boesiger,W (ed)(1970)

Sculpture made by removing daisy heads from a field, Richard Long, (1945) figure( ).By contrast this piece of land art makes "a shift from the sculptural emphasis on 'actual' materials" J walker,J.A (1975) pp36-37 although it is inclusive of sculpture with its absolute spatial depth and documents dimensional experience besides illustrating notion of scientific possibility in drawing two non- parallel lines, which cross directly within the centre of the picture, as if to suggest some existing polarity within the natural environment, suggesting significance to this action, to this experience, in this process of being living within something, a graphical indentation on the earth. Yucel Donmez snow paintings (1993).(figure 2). Paint pigment marks the desolate space, portraying  space as an essential tool in the artists medium this highlighting positivity of a wider understanding in the context of materials. 

A question of the boundaries of formality guiding to explore beyond the limitations canvas in painting, to question the structure in seeking a poetic adventure on natural land. Materialism in this sense exists as the raw earth, it is an expedition of the sensory capabilities of the environment; however the naturally re-occurring mathematical patterns appear to disrupt the formal mappings of the universe as, a natural occurrence is perturbed by non organic forces; and the object refrains as a part of the environment, because it is in conflict of and integration with the environmental space or situation. It is the event of some uncanny scenario that we encounter the powerful value of this object as an artistic form.

The subject of the sculpture in refrain is documented in Gert Verhouven's The Blob (2001)(figure.3) in support of this Adler(2002) states that:

             "The pumpkin, with its propensity for accelerated growth and diverse appearance, led the artist towards allegories about weight, sculpture and the process of artistic production." 

In the trailers the colours of the pumpkins, the ingenious knot work of ropes and leather belts nipped in which they move about the screen, the endearing variety of pallets, mattresses, carpets and blankets on which they are displayed; The comments and dubious questions of the voice-over in the distant background mainly serve as white noise. Yet, after some guesswork the viewer can make out he is watching a narrative in which the pumpkins are put forward as artworks in progress, whereas the bizarre ritual of the contest is a reference to the machinations of the accompanying art market. Strangely text and images are so far apart that the pumpkins remain essentially ponderous, these plump objects comically refuses to act as a metaphor for sculpture ideas or other manageable concepts.

The dialogue in the trailer reads:
"From this vast space of circulation in the world, in the field of original thought matter, he or she may have an idea;
A set of abstract norms that you carry around in your head.
A mind stretched by an idea, (Verhouven, the blob 2001)
or the flesh of your mind stretched by an idea."

This notion of conflict and Integration representing the idea the notion of commodity exists around objects and by using materials in a context that abandons any familiarity usually associated with the object. The edifice having a significant place in the context of a gallery, when it is portrayed as a 'sculptural' object. The alteration of its context serves to change the objects identity. The relevance of composition in this event seems obscure, but the displacement of the images are  a significant quality in the trailer, and the whole scenario questions ideas about the current discussion of sculpture as identified as a sculpture or  object according to Cleant, C(1969)p  "Animals, vegetables and minerals take part in the world of art" 

Mansoor J (2009) writes of Piero Manzoni in referring to the "Achrome"(a form of non-painting and non sculpture disrupting the classical narrative.)
"Conceptual art in its retreat from object to idea. If this putative dematerialization is often read as an indictment of traditional artistic media for their promiscuous conjugation with the commodity fetish, Marzoni reroutes the story",Mansoor, J(2009), which would define the 'merda d'artista'(artists shit, 1961).(figure4), the piece therefore explains a multiplicity of possibilities conveyed through the artist experience which tainted with irony is clearly aware of a substantial amount of existent materials, that he  begins to play with his own indecisive humour. This  implies that the product, the manufacture in the artist's creation is judged profusely by his dialectical means, this unconventional and scatological presentation of ideas ultimately amounts to a can of shit, a parody of justice perhaps, or the artist becomes an activist, losing sight of the autonomy of the object.

Klein stated that "Air, gas, fire, sound odours, magnetic forces, electronics and materials...as materials Perrin,F (2004p9). 
This emphasizes that in media the development is continually seen as an opportunity to elaborate on the malleability of materials through the propensity in artistic practice. It is not so much that structure is being lost in the work, but it is the varying qualities in materiality that influences the objects autonomy. 



































       
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Fig.4




Chapter Two;A discussion on the dynamics of materials used to shape three dimensional form

A discussion on the object identity

"We see then that we may construct a work of art with the given of geometry.
...There is no need to express art in terms of nature. It can perfectly well be expressed in terms of geometry and the exact sciences"(Vantongerloo,G (date unknown)in Rickey,G(1967)p145)

Control and order using the the probabilities of logic to construct a concrete landscape in order to achieve by mathematical logic which forms and achieve solutions. Shaping infinite Does an irrational error necessarily constitute an act of pure madness. In an attempt to discard the 'sensibility' of the form. 

The possibilities of "folding" that allow for "continuous structures" as Delueze emphasizes via the mental picture in describing the mathematical properties of the 'cartisan variant' whereby the image is perceived as an internal or mental picture of an external object in "zones of indetermination" sculpture moves, possessing qualities of the internal and external and is therefore no longer fixed by a static geography, instead it belongs to a dynamic of both internal and external variants in realizing the actual possibilities. Rather than a uniformed homogeny as a disarray of varying geometries, a fragmented reality. (Cache (1995)viii

"One does not receive a gift in order to satisfy a need and thus to minimalize stress, but to establish a relationship that places people, places and things within a frame that makes them stable and measurable" Cache, B(1995p59) 

The Delueze monument (2000) exists as a monument in the centre of a community in Avingdon France. Hirschorn pays tribute to philosophers that he believes have a representational quality in encountering the potential in people. It is in these artworks that he involves the public, as the conscientious observer in pondering what the artist chooses to expose the people of the everyday to. Ideas about philosophy in art become an active part of the works intention to present ideas and to change the way people readily exposed  to mass consumer culture identify with the messages of complex installations, and the  too "vulgar and easily communicated images." Basouldo,C(2002)

 Hirschorn's work conforms to a style, which is unavoidably associated with the graphical image:"In the midst of my ambiguity I had always wanted to be a graphic designer."p9  Hirschorn,T(2002) 

In some instances the visual images Hirschorn conveys are quite anarchistic, unintentionally the visual image is likened to graffiti and street art. What defines Hirschorn's intention as an artist and serves to be among the most interesting elements in the work. The mistakes, the loss of the object's autonomy is transformed by a poetic mess of ideas and questions and the space is consumed by material things. Philosophy reflects the compositional and structural elements situational to experiences in his work, as they are experienced by the viewer who can interact with the work.
(Laundrette 2001)figure()The object is far removed from the perturbation of the environment and instead becomes the disturbance as a whole part of the environment, as an event a replication of things that could or should of happened. 

Applying Delueze's logic of folding to Art therefore removes barriers of impossibility removing the limits of history therefore the subject of sculpture/ object to what is most familiar in intercepting both art forms, as the world outside and its variants adorning the living room of life belong together as one mechanism, baring an insight in to our experience of the social space. Architecture provides a solid reality of the importance of design for improved functioning of life. Interior and exterior influences the dynamics of the functioning structural  properties. Order of arrangement and 'esthetic delectation' Duchamp,M (1966)in Obrist,H (ed)2004)  Highlighting structure and the capability of materialism in its wealth and dexterity and oppositely the. Architectural forms are constituted by a consistent understanding of materials, the structure and the function. Conforms to an autonomous model and emphasizes influences of growth and industry.

The deconstruction of social spaces are explored in architectural buildings.(figure 5) 
"All hail the new puritans"  the recent development to Nottingham, cites a Contemporary Art gallery, referred to as "radtrads" (radical traditional) "muted not day glo colours." "Paul Smith not Jean PaulGaultier." The article discusses clearly, the emphasis on materiality as opposed to function, but in digesting this article it appears to be the function that is the main signifier of strength, however it is documented that there is a shift in incorporating through styles, and the materials therefore form an identity reflected by their consumer descriptions. Dycroft (2009)

The building is personified, labelled by generic styles describes what it becomes representational of artificially, that in this instance incur a label identifying it with stylization, in notifying the importance of dematerialization, this critique documents an encounter with the problems that post modernity poses on the structural elements of architecture responding to obstacles created by economic shifts, culture, and climate. The article reads that second place to Caruso's piece was oppositely an architect with an outstandingly different identity. Zaha Hadid,in her use of often elaborately futuristic blob-like shapes the 'biomorphic' structures Cole,Ina(2007). Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry, similar shapes and styles are reflected in Anish Kapoor's large scale sculptures these blob-like designs, For example: turned in to interior (2000) evokes an ambitious element of a futuristic depiction
. Curusos approach appears to be more appropriate in design aiding to improve the current environmental state.

It is the material elements that are influential in shaping and moulding of the image, therefore the 'object/sculpture' creates problems in the possibilities of the materials. In determining a relationship with function determining the capabilities of a structure it is in devising some contrast to the possible material outcomes.


















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Chapter Three

(A Commentary on Roger Hoirns: Seizure exhibition (2009) A sensory guide.) 

Just up the road from Old Kent Road, in a derelict council flat at the fore of the Harper Road estate, flat number 159 is Roger Hoirns blue copper sulphate crystal lined exhibition Siezure(2009)figure (). 'Consisting of more than 70, 000 litres of the solution... and held up with enforced steel'. The flat is pumped full of the solution and as you enter the boarded up door and walk through the hall way and stumble in to the completely sublime show piece of a room blue crystals spark incessantly with lucidity. Its like something out of a sci-fi movie, a scene on a bizarre newly discovered planet. Creators like holes in the floor appear to , surreal and uncannily familiar. What the viewer forgets to be a visual importance in the works contrasting elements. There are two rooms before the crystals, connecting the very different experiences as one. Wall paper torn from the wall. Some frumpy boarders of wall paper. In abandoned flat number 159 Harper road stands an empty bottle of Lucozade on a Formica table in the old kitchen. Adjacent to that a bare room with an old, frumpy wall paper boarder, grubby, disused and derelict. A child and two women walk in to the blue crystal room, not noticing the other rooms connecting it, preferring to seek something better, more amazing than just debris and dust.
Upon entering the room there is a splendid kind of ambience, a visceral, spiny wall and a cool airy iced effect, it is fragmentated by sharp, pointy points protruding out of the wall. Splintered, lining the walls, growing, spreading, glinting, with artificial light from all corners of the room. When the lightbulb's reflect on the ceiling there is a fine white powder forming, contrasting greatly with the coarser elements of the room. Touching the wall feels positively negative. If you were to catch your clothes they would definitely rip; voices of parents shrieking "no darling don't. Its VERY SHARP!" reminds one of the dangerous, spiky material adorning the walls is viciously reflected throughout the whole inertia of the room.

touching it is is putting in to action a desire to explore the unfamiliarity of something shiny and new that you cannot have and that if touched it somehow becomes a bit like a toy kaleidoscope or a piece of tacky jewellery, it loses its preciousness and becomes a commodity after long. It is cold in the room and not very comfortable really.
The room has sensory properties, which are most pleasing when in company, and each time I revisit the space an increasing amount of smaller details appear from this giant abstraction, and it works as just a place in which you can do that, to chill out and just stare for a while, the reflections of light and this alien setting.

The perception of others is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the piece, it evokes a collaboration of architectural influences. These are continually enforcing ideas and developing the practice of new sculpture. Because Hoirns crystals grow the sculpture forms itself, it reminds me of honey combs formed by bees, as it adjusts in mass and form, continually changing because the material is incessantly being effected by the visitors to the space who experience it. The crystals are not altered however,  as there is a notice saying please do not break or damage'., It is more a case of the process by which the materiality has been challenged by its surroundings. The derelict flat's interior gleams. It is in its entirety it inspires the possibility of continually homogenizing on such a phenomenal approaches to the urban, social space. To inspire and alter the state of things, to transform a perspective of what is often over seen. It certainly has the potential of being described as sculpture or architecture. it stands as a separate entity, it becomes perturbed by the surroundings and what is created is merely a significant amount of fabulous gems lining the inside of a once derelict, mundane space.

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Olafur Elliason, Thomas Hirschorn and Roger Hoirns
Depicting the material object in the environmental space

Despite emphasizing the sublime elements of his work Olafur Ellison depicts scenes of an artificial nature, by artificial I mean that not only is his work conforming to the image of the sublime, like Anish Kapoor and Roger Hoirns, but it is also a depiction of reality translated in to something of scientific significance. It is in the experimentation of light, air, and shape within the space that the natural elements, with a given familiarity of beauty belong in everyday existence.
Ellison emphasizes the phenomenal experience, which attests to being materially profound, yet seemly to depicts something familiar, something already encountered before, a mirroring of our existence, observing the reflection, by which we ponder to question existential beliefs within the atmosphere that exists as a potentially unexplored environmental space, a phenomena.

"It is a reality more over, in which the organic order conquered by modernism has conceded to the digital computer systems and the dynamics of the physical movement to the flux of web communication." Bek, L (Peter Weibel graz(ed) (2001) pp77-79)

Elliason's installations do not amount to an intricate illustration of events, his work tends to communicate a larger plane of vision, and questions the capability of science and its ability to mould the future of art for those "cherished people who consider themselves to be living in the hurricanes eye of present day events."Searle, A(2009)

Perhaps then it is this sublime imagery is not entirely a new mode of practice, for it has been clearly informed by modernism, to have led to such complex large scale works dominantly featuring obsessively repetitive notions of artificiality by recreating this dynamic representation depicting series of events. Communicating somewhere "between the poles of objectivity and subjectivity." (Weibel,P. G(ed) (2001)(P81). There is this relationship to architecture throughout Elliason's work. It is a question of development in technology that draws on such importance with the need to recreate something that can be universally depicted.

From the everyday to the autonomy of the object indeterminable from sculpture, through to the impartial scatological representations of the subject matter, the loss of the objects identity, as an object, an inability to determine any autonomy in the abstract representation, or even to define the objects inability to communicate anything concrete. (Betsky inWeibel,P .G(ed) (2001) compares this era to  a "matrix- defined by codes." This interest in blending between the creative poetic and science in art becomes a feature in the work as driving force for contrasting the influence of nature, in which we see the earth's polarity as a canvas for the paint. There is growth, there is aesthetic iand the juxtaposition of the scene or picture where living materials such as air, agriculture, mould, water, chemical, gas acts as a painterly form of media. What Ellison does not do is to recreate this earthliness in its entirety, but instead he diverges in to some what already exists and takes to recreating examples of smaller representations, collecting the experiences like compact phials homogenizing  the sublime elements  which already exist in environments, and are often overlooked in the banality of everyday life.
Moss Wall (1994), Waterfall (1998)The titles of these artworks suggest somewhat of an association with serenity within the vast environment, and prove to be naturally experiential.

Hirschorn oppositely presents this information as a literal version of the concept of a 'dynamic communication', as an intricate and complex collaboration of objects, almost growing as separate object entities interacting with the homogenic processes in the replication of familiarity, and similarity continued through each work, as a style which is authorized by the heterogeneity in the final outcome of the composition, which is intricate and often a catastrophic outcome, as is evident in Thomas Hirschorn's Laundrette (figure.9).Depicting a contrast between the urban everyday in including the relevance of this to a philosophical understanding of things. 
It is the result of philosophical overload, affected largely by social external forces becoming a representation, not so much a replication of that which is already present visually, nor does it encounter the beauty of natural resource, rather indicative of an affected space. He conveys commodity in the same essence as the Dadaists sharing similarities to the Arte poveraists in separating from idealistic visions, but connected with modernity and also so distant from modernity's sleek functionable shape of minimal, neat, aunomnity of objects.

 This connection to nature and environmental concern opposes the visual outcomes and has a relationship to and the realization of the density of the urban city, what has been depicted here make a vast commentary on the flaws of communication, the viewer experiences and oppositely to Hirschorn, Elliason's is an outcome which measures the capability of technology to measure the already existing splendour in things.

There is this awful irony in Hirschorn's work evoked by the deliberate mistakes in the rebellious composition, and expressive decisions in making, which are so prominent in these multiplicity depictions. Indefinitely there are visceral elements of the work , which seem to convey something very boldly, in relating these images to high fashion, pop culture and media, all arenas of expression inextricably link to a social foundry of a vast subjectivity, which often is incredibly common and unassumingly has been derived from banality. Involving in the media, in contrast with this the artists precludes a classical knowledge of philosophy, which in acting as a literal and visual foundation from which to develop and resolve the problems and questions the installation poses.

Ellis son's installation of the gaping sunset icon in the Turbine Hall, London (2003)(figure.8) depicts the perfect quasi- religious' experience. Our conscious perception and the conditions of our conscious perception are assumed to point of pure knowledge, not to action, but now suppose that this homogenous space concerns not only our action, being like an infinitely fine network, that stretches beyond material continuity in order to render ourselves matters of it.

Hirschorn limits his media in order to create an scene, which could be best described as communicatively catastrophic. The basis for this judgement is reflected on through the   formations of debris and remnants placed in to some like the work of Mark Dion's Tate Thames Dig (1996),there is evidently some obsessive and repetitive focus on the arrangement of the appropriateness sources throughout the exhibition process, 'Mark Dion sets out to use the procedures of the archeologist' Renfrew,C (p17).

 the the deconstructed experience in the process of making an artwork prevails in Michael Landy's Break down (2001) in which the artists deconstructs all of his possessions. indirectly reflecting on mass media and consumerism, art becomes little more than a commodity. Stallabrass,J (2001)
The rubbish found or previously discarded and then used has not collected anything other than dirt, dust and scrapes and in its altered state it is just a combination of cleanliness and through refinement. It is a failure of both of these elements that therefore exists as the medium,(as paint does on a canvas).

    Fig. 8





      Fig.9


Conclusion

Olafur Elliason, Thomas Hirschorn and Roger Hiorns all share similarities in the way that they are all focused on achieving a material effect through a transformation in order to create a transformative experience. This progression in their work amounts to achieving in presentation something which in its entirety becomes an altered material state, this is is a questionable act which may address the reason for particular compositions, layouts and colours, which are upon reflection, some of the most apparent qualities evoked in the display elements of the exhibition. Elliason artificially recreates the natural experience using light, space and artificial material to express something, which is both at the same time uncanny as it is familiar- a reflection on the power of natural ambience as a relaxing and sensuous experience, adjusted by juxtaposition and contrasting of the elements (sound,colour...). This achieves an arena of experimentation, in which the viewer gains something through the experience and also becomes affected by the conflicting elements of the natural environmental space with the displays of artificiality. The attempt to integrate these conflicting elements somehow fuses them together to blend, complimenting the whole piece.

Technology, science and art attributes to the structural qualities of architectural design.
 Hirschorn re-evaluates the notion of the creative process, by creating something which appears less perturbed by the naturalistic environment than it is the media age. In developing complex structures and mirroring images of a consumer society and indicating an over stimulated view of the the zeitgeist, conveyed by the of 'conjugulation' of ideas. This appears to be art conforming to the idea of catastrophe Development of the imaginatively complex structures reflecting an overly complex media age, a repulsion of modernity

In comparison these artists are very different in their working approaches, but there is some indication of an inability to liken to the functioning of things and instead to emphasize the themes which prevail outside of that. The external image is appropriated rather more. There is a strong emphasis on the materials used and their  ability to develop the structures through malleable forces, in becoming a kind of skin. Visceral elements dominate the outcome. Hoirns emphasizes the potency of the visual experience, but in Seizure (2009) its functionality creates problems for its location and it somewhat deceives its outer shell, for it exists as something to be marvelled at, but not necessarily something to conclude to, like in Eliasons work there seems to be something in conflict with something else. Inversely Hirschorn appears to do the same, except by taking an extensively literal approach and using things that are invariably familiar like household objects and paper clippings, mannequins- (things associated with art school really) instead.
The environment allows for transformation to occur in nature, and it appears that in order to create new experiences we must imagine the possibility of developing a practice in to an obsolete area where the notion of change becomes apparent. Experience does not just serve to contrast sources. It  provides a foundation of which we are able to develop the worst effects of deterioration in order to integrate and blend opposing ideas together in a purposeful conflict with one another to inspire  for a very pleasing aesthetic of new experience. It is in the process of basic, intuitive actions that can lead to the elaboration of thought processes as  consequential in enabling transformative events to form a vision.

These artists works are transgressive to this era, there is a considerable dependency of material either manufactured, naturally occurring or altered to some extent, which aids our understanding of the capability in the materials dexterity. To construct and deconstruct, to serve for both decorative and structural purposes. Society is keen to disregard the prominence of materialism, but material questions the advancement construction and progression in the social setting by realizing the potential in the everyday experiences.






































Bibliography


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Boesiger,W (ed)(1970).Le Courbusier (1887-1965) oeuvre complete The complete architectural works: London Thames and Hudson.
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Cache,B(1995) Earth Moves, The furnishing of territories:Cambridge MIT Press. 

Celant,G(1969) Arte Povera Conceptual Actual or Impossible Art?London:Studio Vista.

Hans Obrist (ed)(2004)Do it Vol 1Maria Abromovic NY eflux.

John A(1975.) walker Art since pop: London, Thames and Hudson,. 

Lea,V(2007)When Trash becomes art:London Thames and Hudson

Peter Weibel graz(ed) (2001) Olafur Ellison Surroundings Surrounded Essays on Space and Science: Germany, Austria /ZKM centre for art and Media,.

Renfrew,C( )It may be art, but is it archaeology? Science as art art as science 

Stallabrass,J (2001) Michael Landy Breakdown: London Tate Britain.
Rickey, G (1967) Constructivism Origins and evolution:New York : Braziller.

 Tobias R, Tuerlincx J, Wilson K( 2002)The Object sculpture: The Henri Moore institute Leeds. 

VertlagVertlag,H.C(2004)Air Architecture. Yves Klein:Germany MAK for Art and Architecture LA. 
Wood J, Potts A, Hulks D,(2007) Modern Sculpture Reader:Oxford University press: HMI Publications.




Articles/ electronic journals

Aropos of ready-mades (1966) Art and artists, London 1,no 4, July, p47

Cole, I(2007) The modern Sublime In conversation with Anish Kapoor

Dycroft, T (2009) All hail Puritan Architecture. The Times. 14th November, p5.

Little, H (2009) The Turner Prize nominees [Roger Hoirns]:London Tate gallerypp12-15

Searle, A(2009) In to an age of uncertainty The Guardian 7th December pp17-19.

M,Jaleh (2003) Material value Jaleh Mansoor on Piero manzoni at Gagosian Art Forum International 

Source unknown(1949) The new Sculpture partisan review June, pp 637-42S

The University of Chicago?Critical Terms for Art History(2003) http://www.credoreference.com/saved.do?dest=email&format=full&id=8188426[cited 14th November 2009]

websites
Www.credoreference.com/entry/chambdict/monolith
[cited November 2009]


DVDs
The Blob (2001) Gert Verhouven [DVD]

The Fifth Element (1998) Directed by Nicholas Coquard [DVD] France: Gaumont Multimedia

Exhibitions
Subversive spaces (2009), Sainsbury's Centre for the visual arts Norwich 
Roger Hoirns (2009), Seizure London 
Material Gestures (2009)The Tate Modern
Abstract America(2009) The Saatchi Gallery London
I
Essay plan

What are you writing about?
ABSTRACT

This essay is about 

Talk about the representation of materials in art work.

' Materialism'

The artwork of Olafur Elliason, Thomas Hirschorn and Roger Hoirns presents materiality in a particular way, but all of the above artists take very different approaches in the way that they express their subject matter through material. My research focuses on the philosophical approach the artist employs in an attempt to materialize ideas, (inspired by Joseph Kosuth's idea paintings (1969) because it questions the creative process) I shall analyse the various depths the materials achieve in terms of the synthetic and aesthetic representations it evokes.

Essay introduction


Chapter One

Material significance. The function of materials in a historical context.
The influence of modern philosophy on the functionality of three dimensionality.

Chapter two 
The flaws of Materialism. The problems material creates in forming three- dimensional  structures

Chapter Three
The importance of autonomy in three dimensional art and architecture.
Olafur Elliason, Roger Hoirns and Thomas Hirschorn, how these artists depict material objects, specific focus giving context to the environmental space. 

Title 
An investigation in to the philosophical questions that 'material' poses in the development of the subjective experience in artwork. 


DVD

The Fifth Element (1998) Directed by Nicholas Coquard[DVD] France: Gaumont Multimedia