What is Assemblage Assemblage the bonding of shapes
What is Assemblage? • Assemblage - the bonding of shapes or objects by gluing, soldering, pasting, nailing, etc. These objects tend to be mainly found objects. • Incorporation of three dimensional, non-art materials and found objects into a work, originally inspired by the techniques of collage. play with definitions; play with materials, play with the audience … basically a form of 3 -D Sculpture
• objects that qualify for assemblage can be anything organic or man-made. Scraps of wood, stones, old shoes, baked bean cans and a discarded baby buggy - so many possibilities • Whatever catches the artist's eye, and harmonizes in the composition to make a unified whole • The important thing to know about assemblage is that it is "supposed" to be three-dimensional and different from collage, which is "supposed" to be two-dimensional
HISTORY ● early part of the twentieth century; Picasso began using real objects in his cubist constructions – adding a spoon to his sculpture Glass of Absinthe, 1914. ● technique became popular in the late 1950’s, when artists, such as Arman and Jim Dine, made assemblage works using various materials including food and junk into painting and sculpture: Bateaux Papiers (Paper Boats), 1961 and Wheat Fields, 1989.
What is Found Object? • Found Object - An everyday object, found by the Artist and incorporated into a work of Art. It often forms part of an assemblage, or is displayed on its own. • originates from the French objet trouvé, describing art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects or products that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a nonart function. • Artists have been salvaging materials from car parts to kitchen utensils for decades, for inclusion in sculptures, paintings, drawing, collages and other examples of ‘found art’. Spatulas, measuring cups, serving forks and spoons come together in this awesome found object sculpture of an eagle by Japanese artist Sayaka Ganz. Despite these highly unusual materials, the eagle’s shape is accurate, down to the claws and the spoon-and-knife feathers of the tail.
Robert Rauschenberg
Rauschenberg • enthusiasm for popular culture and rejection of the seriousness of the Abstract Expressionists ● embraced materials traditionally outside of the artist’s reach. Example: covering a canvas with house paint, or ink the wheel of a car and run it over paper to create a drawing ● By 1958, his work had moved from abstract painting to drawings to what he termed “combines. ” This meant to find and form combinations of three-dimensional collage. The idea of combining and of noticing combinations of objects and images has remained at the core of his work. ● One of his most famous combines was entitled “Monogram” (1959) and consisted of an unlikely set of materials: a stuffed angora goat, a tire, a police barrier, the heel of a shoe, a tennis ball, and paint. This pioneering altered the course of modern art.
“Monogram” Robert Rauschenberg Monogram, 1955 -59, mixed mediums with taxidermy goat, rubber tire and tennis ball, ca. 42 x 63 x 65 in. , Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Robert Rauschenberg. Canyon. 1959. Oil, pencil, paper, metal, photograph, fabric, wood, canvas, buttons, mirror, taxidermied eagle, cardboard, pillow, paint tube and other materials, 81 3/4 x 70 x 24" (207. 6 x 177. 8 x 61 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the family of Ileana Sonnabend © 2014 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
• created an assemblage of objects and images that invoked the knowledge and myths that represent the night sky. Joseph Cornell • Cornell was interested in scientific discoveries, astronomy, art, and storytelling, and made his works to distill and combine his thoughts on these subjects. Joseph Cornell, Celestia Navigation, 25. 4 × 41. 6 × 9. 8 cm, Assemblage of painted wood and printed papers, aperitif glasses, marbles, plaster head, painted cork ball, metal rods, brad nails and painted glassc. 1958, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Melissa Pokorny • contemporary American Artist who uses found objects in her elaborate sculptures • explores gender roles, the public and private spheres, and the nature/culture divide. • interested in the connection between “things” as potent containers of memory, capably representing loss and estrangement, and the deeply haunted landscape of the everyday. Ether, 2011, archival inkjet prints, polystyrene, aluminum, aquaresin, renaissance wax, fabric, pins, silicone, Platform Gallery
Melissa Pokorny Kabinett, 2011
David S Mc. Curry “By looking, which is too simplistic an answer; maybe “seeing” is a better word. Something catches my attention, and I am drawn to it. I start to envision it as a painting. In Gospel Essentials that triangle of light on the building is really the center point of the composition. Everything kind of revolves around that. It was my inspiration. I’m fascinated by light and color. ” David S. Mc. Curry, Gospel Essentials, 2009, Oil on wood panel, found object assemblage on board, 30 x 4. 5 inches, property of the artist.
"Fertile Ground“, David S. Mc. Curry, 2009, Oil on wood panel, found object assemblage on board, 23 x 47 x 5 inches, property of the artist.
Box assemblages by Audra Kohout Perchance to Dream by Audra Kohout • some people compare Audra Kohout's box assemblages to those of the great surrealist Joseph Cornell, while noting that hers are "more personal" or even "emotional. " • Kohout seems to be a shapeshifter in the guise of a middle-class Mid-City mom, and her boxes, like the phone booth in Doctor Who, are vehicles for her travels to other worlds. • Kohout meanders between the sweet and the sardonic “ like a mythic Earth mother who knows that without the darkness there is no light and, try as we may, the two can never be sundered but only balanced. “
Rosalie Gascoigne • Born in New Zealand, she worked in Australia from 1974 to 1999. She established a reputation as one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists • Gascoigne worked mostly with found materials: drinks crates, road signs, floral lino, enamelware, galvanised tin, corrugated iron and masonite. • Rosalie Gascoigne, Ledger, 1992 sawn/split soft-drink crates on plywood 80. 7 × 43 cm Some of her most iconic works are abstract grids of letters and word fragments - black text on yellow backgrounds, found on wooden softdrink crates and reflective road signs.
Kris Kuksi • His “works are so intricate; mighty, gothic element to them being his strong point • heavily influenced by ancient art periods: The Rococo and the Baroque strongly color his pieces • best known for assemblages that range from mechanical to old toys, sourced from all over the world • They are then hand painted, usually in an aged bone color, to create monochromatic scenes worthy of ancient times.
Christine Saurer • abstract, mixed media artist who uses an intuitive and improvisational approach to working with materials and image. • inspired by an interest in nature, science, and the cosmos. • Stitched textile art, paintings and photographs are part of her work. "Circulate“, Christine Saurer, 40"diameter, 2012 mixed media, property of the Artist
Fiona Hall • engages with contemporary life in intriguing ways, created from an Australian perspective. • deliberately transforms ordinary everyday objects to address a range of contemporary issues such as globalisation, consumerism, colonialism and natural history. • core theme is the relationship between nature and culture. Within each half-opened can sits a naked human body part, while plant life sprouts above. Beneath these top two layers, Hall adds language. The three systems make us consider what we share with plants.
Janet Lawrence • echoes architecture while retaining organic qualities and a sense of instability and transience. • her work represents meeting places of art, science, imagination and memory - profoundly aware of the interconnection of all life forms • often produces work in response to specific sites or environments using a diverse range of materials. Alchemical transformation, history and perception are underlying themes in her exhibition work. Cellular Gardens (Where Breathing Begins) date_ 2005 materials_ stainless steel, mild steel, acrylic, blown glass, rainforest plants, dimensions variable collection_ MCA
Vaughn Bell • interested in the many ways we can interact and connect to our landscape • Village Green is comprised of suspended greenhouses that allow visitors to pop their heads inside the structure to experience a worm’s-eye view of the plants within. “How can I take care of this landscape around me, knowing that every action I take may or may not be actually detrimental to the place that I live? ” Village Green, installation at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, 2008 five biospheres: acrylic forms, native plants of the Berkshires, soil, water, hardware
Emille Faif • French visual artist and a scenographer. • focusses on texture and various fabrics, to create these unique sculptures. • secret landscapes, floating dreamlike meadows, red flowers, huge heart, body, skin and the tissue woven between the two Emille Faif, Red, Printemps Haussmann, sculpture textile, Paris, 201
Freya Jobbins EURYDICE 2014 Plastic Assemblage H 50 cm x W 20 cm x. D 35 cm SOLD • Australian based sculptor and printmaker • assemblages, like the unusual portraits of the Milanese painter Guiseppe Arcimboldo with a hint of the Toy Story Trilogy • she creates humanoid busts and portraits using a very non-traditional material, discarded children’s toys. • An artistic exploration, of the relationship between consumerism and the culture of up-cycling and recycling.
Xu Bing • Drawing inspiration from the contemporary realities of his fastchanging country- China , he spent two years creating his work, Phoenix. • installation features two monumental birds fabricated entirely from materials harvested from construction sites in urban China, including demolition debris, steel beams, tools, and remnants of the daily lives of migrant laborers. • At once fierce and strangely beautiful, the mythic Phoenixes bear witness to the complex interconnection between labor, history, commercial development, and the rapid accumulation of wealth in today's China.
• • uses thousands of triangle forms wrapped in Korean mulberry paper to create textured canvases and spheres with lunar-like surfaces, all with poetic color gradations. Chun Kwang Young the landscapes are full of expression, taking viewers on an aesthetic and cultural journey. “When I was young, I was a sickly child, and my mother used to take me to the Chinese medicine doctor in the neighborhood. While the doctor felt my pulse, my mother held my hand, and I fixed my eyes upon the ceiling … I remember that numerous packages of mulberry paper were hanging from the ceiling, each holding a name card of the medicine wrapped inside. The image of my old memories of the drugstore lasted in my head for a while. I always had a desire to communicate my art through a Korean sentiment, and the image of the medicine packages hanging from the ceiling became a new theme in my art since that memorable afternoon. ” Chun Kwang Young, “Aggregation 12 -AU 042, ”, 2012, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper
Vik Muniz • born into a working-class family in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1961. • incorporates a variety of unlikely materials into this photographic process. • has used dirt, diamonds, sugar, string, chocolate syrup and garbage to create bold, witty and often deceiving images drawn from the pages of photojournalism and art history. • His work has been met with both commercial success and critical acclaim, and has been exhibited worldwide. His solo show at MAM in Rio de Janeiro was second only to Picasso in attendance records; it was here that Vik first exhibited his “Pictures of Garbage Series” in Brazil. “Wasteland” is the movie about the works: inclusion of the “garbage pickers’ lives.
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