Wednesday 7 March 2012

Deconstruction scultpure

Thinking more about deconstruction and my final project, I looked up the work of Mexican artist Damien Ortega who has done some recent installations where he has taken things to pieces and assembled the parts in a disaggregated, disconnected but orderly way.

The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston has a short description of his work on their website, thus:


Damián Ortega is known for taking things apart and putting them back together again

Born in 1967 in Mexico City, Ortega is one of the most prominent artists of the new Mexican generation. This exhibition, the first-ever survey of Ortega’s work, shows the arc of his artistic output with a range of sculpture, installation, video, and photography. 
In Ortega’s work, objects are never allowed to rest—they are pulled apart, suspended, or rearranged, calling attention to the dynamism of the world around us and the hidden poetry in the everyday. A former political cartoonist, Ortega brings a subtle, incisive wit to his surprising manipulations of familiar, humble materials—bricks, old tools, Coca-Cola bottles,  tortillas, and even a Volkswagen Beetle are assembled and reassembled in playful and imaginative ways.



"Cosmic Thing," 2002.

I also came across another current artist, Canadian Todd McLellan, (website here) who dismantles and 'explodes' smaller objects such as phones and typewriters.  Sometimes he photographs the results as neat catalogues of all the parts.  Sometimes he captures the sense of explosion in photographs showing the pieces scattering outwards.  In these different ways he references both Ortega and Parker's approaches.









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