Monday, November 22, 2010

What An Eye Sore

The Piece I chose for the Walker piece that we hated was by Alan Saret called "The AF World" from 1988. It was constructed from stainless steel, magnetic wire, and teflon-coated wire.
The first thing I need to say about this is: Dear Alan, were you blind when you made this? This piece of "art" looks like the mystery hair ball you find under your couch, yuck. This piece is appalling, I want to take a rag and soft scrub to it, it looks like a dirty little ball of nastiness. I literally gag every time I see this. Alan Saret messed up art like Yoko Ono messed up the Beatles. This piece looks like pubic hair.

I couldn't find this on the internet, I guess everyone hates this as much as I do. Heres a picture I got off my phone, oops I know its bad. Heres my response:
1. When I initially saw this piece, I saw hair. I saw a mess of hair tangled as if it were caught in a shower drain. The piece is actually made of wire, but it appears as if it were hair.
2. It reminds me of a mess of hair tangled in a shower drain.
3. It makes me want to wash my eyes, my eyes hurt from seeing this. I want to throw this piece in the trash.  So it makes me feel upset that someone hasn't come along and say it isn't art.
4. Why would Alan be compelled to put this together and hang it up for people to see? Why would his friends allow him to put this up?
5. The content is super sketchy to me. I have no idea what he meant.
RESEARCH:
Alan Saret was born in 1944 in New York. Alan's art has appeared in many exhibitions around the world. Alan Saret was an important figure in the postminimal art movement of the late 1960s who subsequently dropped out of the art scene. He is best known for enigmatic sculptures in chicken wire and similar materials that create dense yet airy forms, and are often suspended. <http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/alan-saret/articles-and-reviews/> 
Many people find Alan's designs very beautiful and graceful. After looking at Alan's other creations, I absolutely love his designs. Granted Alan's The AF World is still really unappealing to me, but his other designs show both graceful or staccato lines. Many pieces Alan does make look like hair balls, and look really simple to make, but someone had to do it first right? Many of his designs look crazy weird but, theres something in the way he executes his designs that makes me very interested. He really kind of amazes me now. 
<http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/18>

3 comments:

  1. potential content:
    -mess
    - bad hair day
    - public hair
    - violence?
    - Perhaps a joke?
    - what is the purpose of the primary color fuzz?
    - kinda like a coccoon
    - instant repulsion
    - seemed small
    - Feels confused
    - dooesn't feel political
    - types of materials:
    stainless steal & magnetic & teflon (1 attracted to 2 substances that reple magnets)

    - Fuse technology and wire - and art together?
    Futureistic art


    What do we know?
    - 1988:
    Regan era
    cold war
    being repulsed was in "Anti-asesthetic"
    art for arts sake


    What don't we know
    - Sexual orientation of the artist?
    - Art for art's sake /or/ political, sexual, cultral, / Anti aesthetic?
    - what is he trying to say?
    - context of the name
    - waht does AF stand for?
    - where was the artist from?
    - who was his artistic friends?/social circle
    - previous work

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  2. EEEWW! I couldn't agree more, this piece is nasty and totally looks like pubic hair, I can't think of one reason why someone would want to make this!

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  3. No one has the power to "mess up art like Yoko Ono messed up the Beatles."
    I'm glad you came around to the work, just think about what kind of talent and vision it would take to make a huge piece of wire look as light and weightless as hair.

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