"It's just an object."
West used this phrase when describing the inspiration behind her newest installation (currently on exhibition in the Fine Arts Building) What a Doll: The Human Object as a Toy. Her examination of the history of dolls and toy culture led her to create this piece, in which miniature porcelain sculptures, whose anatomical cores are held together with fabric and stuffing, are placed in a room together in precarious positions. This quote was important because West was describing the inanimate quality of dolls, even when they represent a human form. Also, the quote is important when considering the viewers response from experiencing this work. I viewed the exhibition on Wednesday, and was confronted with a feeling of comfortable voyeurism, because the sculptures were stiff and smaller scale, like dolls, however, humanistic in facial emotions. Dolls stacked on top of one another showed pained expressions, like the ones held on the wall by their armpits. I almost had to remind myself, when tiptoeing carefully around the masses of "dolls" that they "are only objects."
3 Words
1) Voyeurism
2) Interactive
3) Relational (Narrative)
About West
An interesting thing about West I learned at the lecture was the disclosure of the artists from whom she drew inspiration. West didn't reveal much about the relationship her work, or making it, has to her personal experience or personal questioning. However, seeing the work she looked at for inspiration was very telling, because I could imagine her frame of mind when reacting to her conceptual situations and also what types of work informed these reactions. I think this disclosure is a very personal one for professional artists, or it must be, because none of the others I have seen seemed to included this.
The artists West discussed were
Paula Rego
Sandy Skoglund
Answers to Questions
1) My first question referenced sought to understand the materiality and process of West's work and how these things informed the concept. (Scale/fragility of sculptures.) West explained that the scale of her sculptures is important because she can very much control the relative distance the viewers experience with the installations and also the relative distances between the interacting bodies. For example, in order to create the illusion of increased space between sculptures or between the sculptures and the viewer, West alters the scales within the piece, either by making the whole installation down-scaled, or by creating different scales within the installation. She is also referencing classical sculpture with her work and channels hyper-realism into the form of the bodies. However, West seeks to contrast the realism with surreal qualities, such as scale and color. West didn't directly mention the fragility of the sculptures, however, she discussed her material choices in some works. For example, she uses rubber and play-dough to inform the pieces respectively. (Rubber represents "bodily discontent" and "lack of control/strength" in one of her installations.)
2) My second question regarded the voyeuristic quality of West's work. I wondered if scale, positioning, color, material choices sought to create this quality with the viewer. West mentioned that positioning has a lot to do with the voyeuristic feeling the viewer can get from the work. For example, some of the installations span multiple rooms, however, the sculptures are still interacting through sight. In order for the viewer to react to this work, she must get very close to the sculptures and follow their sight lines into adjacent rooms, which may be an uncomfortable act for some, due to the individual body positions in which those sculptures are cast. I already mentioned what scale does to the viewer in relation to the act of looking and voyeurism. Also, color and material choices inform such a reaction in West's installations because they confront traditional notions of realism and manipulate the viewers sense of comfort/normal.
Compelling Piece
I think the most compelling piece of West's is No Exit which is based on a play and depicts the characters relationship to the installation space and lack of exit. I think this work is so compelling because of its site specificity and also material. West used rubber in this piece to portray a lack of bodily control, and vulnerability within space and bodily situation, which created an almost dream-running, Alice in Wonderland-esque, element within the work. The work is site specific because the characters interact to structural elements like beams, angles and sky lights within the gallery. On a more conceptual level, this work, for me, really plays with the idea of animation and sculpture. Like the above quote, "it's just an object," this piece manipulates the sense of animation of sculpture by being so site specific, interactive and relational. The viewer is left with a clear sense of narrative and personification through inanimate objects in an inanimate space.
Images from No Exit An exhibition at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, November 2008
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