Key Points & Reflections:
- Themes of beauty, aesthetics for pleasure, making and viewing art, market forces and Jameson, raising issues of taste, how creative work for decorative purposes may be deemed less important, and how art perceived as decorative appears less profound.
- This chapter speaks of the process of pouring her sculptures, how it was a 'balance of spontaneity and precision' p16.
- Talks mainly about latex sculptures, pouring , plastic
- Page 28 - plastic tensions - speaks about her liquid polyurethane sculptures. This material for some people 'it invoked mass consumerism and cultural excess, while for yet others, it was manifold formal qualities that proved most attractive"p.29
- speaks about placement of art on the floor, then moving to the walls.
- the Book & Benglis' work covers issues such as feminism, of which doesn't apply/appeal/connect to me.
- page 138 - 144: The decorative impulse. This section talks of how she used gold leaf on her sculpture.
- Gold as a "product of global political and economic instability and pressures, the drastic inflation of gold prices during this period epitomised for the artist the volatility of other value systems serving to uphold cherished aesthetic and cultural binaries" p139.
- Comments on markets through use of material.
- "with her extravagant use of gold leaf, Benglis playfully manipulated perceptions of both the literal and perceived preciousness of her sculptures" p139.
- this chapter covers these issues surrounding a reaction to the gold market in the 1970s, and this could be compared to my own use of gold and silver tones- a reaction to the art market.
- She speaks of using materials for textured surface effect on page 140: "the sculptures shiny aluminium exterior intensifying the impression of movement and energy... Up close, Eclat's rippled surface reveals a variety of textures, with some areas polished to a mirror-like shine, others left rough and granular".
- This quote above reveals how Benglis has used surface texture, and it reminds me that even though I may be concerned now with painting as well, it still involves texture. My metal pieces and design ideas still focus on my surface in a similar way.
- A guilt surrounding art that is not 'profound' or only for decorative purposes "Arts Magazine critic Amy Jinker-Lloyd admitted to some uneasiness in finding pleasure in works she worried 'might turn out to be merely decorative rather than profound" p.140.
- Benglis's work in some peoples opinion (Peter Plagens), evidences 'girlishness' or 'native craft' for the "more decorative (and feminised) aspects of Benglis's art." p.140.
- Frederic Jamesons point
- The text speaks a lot about the enjoyment of beauty, art and beauty/ aesthetics.
- Gilbert-Rolfe's point: "the enjoyment of beauty and decoration becomes no more or less provocative or meaningful than a trip through Bloomingdale's, a conclusion that, in echoing Jamesons contention that the aesthetics of beauty has been thoroughly assimilated by market forces, nonetheless differs in finding something laudatory in this process." p.142.
- Dave Beech: "Beauty enters us into a world of dispute, contention and conflict at the very moment when we feel ourselves to be at ease". p143.
- - reasonins behind using 'beauty/ connection with aesthetics within my own work
Lynda Benglis, Wing, 1970/75
- On her urethane surfaces: "These differences, subtle as they are, invite close looking, not least of which because they shift and transform under different ambient conditions: soft gives way to hard; rough yields smooth; matte becomes shiny." p.143.
- This quote above really connects with my work, and what I was saying about why I create work and what inspires me, especially the surface differences that consume the viewer into having a closer look, which is what the details within materials is all about.
- A 3D object with a shiny surface that contorts the way you see the world and yourself, that has so many fluid lines and details within that you get lost in it, and the curves and lines of its reflective surface change depending on the lighting conditions and what is being reflected in it, so it will never really be the same sculpture twice, and it wont be seen in the same way for everyone because when one person looks at it in that moment in time it cant be repeated. I think this is what inspires me most about the details within the materials, or the details within the artwork - it is the thing that engages you as the viewer - it captivates you.
- Richard Serra: "Any exaggerated emphasis on surface for the sake of itself is decadent" p.146.
- Benglis wanted to transform her sculpture into a material that was more opulent so chose aluminium for its silver effect. 146.
- Benglis has personified the material in her sculpture 'wing' 1970/75 by its context and placement and form- coming out of the wall.
Conclusion Chapter
- Page 149: "Benglis's work generates highly elusive and subjective desires and associations that are nonetheless conditioned by specific socio-cultural practises of making and viewing art."
- This quote seems important because it suggests her practise is strongly influenced by the viewing of art which is where my own inspirations have risen from.
- Benglis is very materials and process driven.
Lynda Benglis, Contraband, 1969
- This piece by Benglis is one of her Latex Pour's, where she would pour pigmented latex to create a marbled pattern. This is increasingly inspiring to me as I begin to unpick the connection with details within materials, and how objects can create texture and consume the viewer.
Further research:
- Eva Hesse, Robert Morris for process art
- Carry on investigating details, explore this concern further.
- Richard Serra
- Frederic Jameson's 1995 essay 'Transformations of the Image in Postmodernity" - "All beauty today is meretricious and the appeal to it by contemporary pseudo-aestheticism is an ideological manoeuvre and not a creative resource.' p.141. effect on decorative resource.
- Dave Beech -beauty
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