Born Under Punches

photo project idea

I find the concept and manifestation of scale fascinating. Anish Kapoor’s sculpture is arresting because of the way it overwhelms the spaces it occupies. Similarly, Edward Burtynsky’s photography is affective because of the way it elides or sharply emphasizes scale; the immensity of his canvases, and the concomitant immensity of his subjects, envelope the viewer in his images.

With these ideas in mind, I want to create a print series which will envelop and overwhelm the viewer. I imagine multiple canvases, around two and a half by six feet each, featuring extreme closeups of firearms. I want to overawe the viewer with symbols of aggression, and I want every little detail, down to serial numbers engraved on slides and bits of grit in handgrips, to be available for absorption.

To put it bluntly, such a project won’t be cheap. Edmonton people, if you know any galleries who would be interested in this kind of work, do put me in contact.

I don’t know why this idea came to me, but it feels right, in the way that some things just do.

01/28/12

When I was in high school, I was a head-up-my-ass art kid.

I was full of ideas and had very little actual knowledge to go with them. For my final project one year, I made a very silly, complicated sculpture out of some old TVs and a huge quantity of duct tape. It was a very satisfying sculpture, because part of the process involved smashing one of the TVs with a sledgehammer. They shatter like plate glass, did you know? I expected it to explode.

The middle TV in my little TV tower was painted with the words “Don’t Deify Art” in acrylic paint, which stood out starkly against the background of static when the TV was plugged in and turned on. This seemed like a commonsense-enough aphorism at the time; I was just getting into Duchamp and the Dadaists and felt smugly convinced of the validity of my sentiment. Interestingly, however, people viewing the sculpture uniformly misread it as “Don’t Defy Art”. At the time, this misinterpretation only made me feel more smug about my “fuck you, art world” attitude. Thinking back on it, however, I realize that what I interpreted as a mistake is an entirely valid engagement with the piece. It might be “wrong” in absolute terms, but the space between viewer and piece is theirs to occupy however they like.

I guess I still have my head up my ass.

01/21/12

uncertaintimes:

Wayne Martin Belger, Yama, Front [Yama camera] (side view)

Yama is 4x5 in stereo camera made from Aluminum, Titanium, Copper, Brass, Bronze Steel, Silver, Gold, Mercury with 4 Sapphires, 3 Rubies, Asian and American Turquoise, Sand, Blood, and 9 Opals and a 500 year old human Skull. The film loading system is pneumatic. A 300psi air tank in the middle of the camera powers 2 pneumatic pistons to move the film holder forward and lock it into place. The switch to open and close the film chamber is located under the jaw.

01/21/12

$claresophiet: Brian Jungen is a Canadian artist who, in his Prototype series, transforms commercial objects, such as Nike trainers, into faux-aborigine masks, playing on the fetishisation of the Canadian Aborginal people, and similar trends worldwide (see: appropriation of Native American headdress for cool Western kids). He also references the slow death of traditional ways of life as capitalism becomes the driving force of many corners of the world. There is an underlying commentary about the division of labour too, where developed worlds consume at an alarming rate products which were made in the developing world for a fraction of the final selling price. Click through on the image to see a collection of Jungen’s work on the National Museum of the American Indian website.$

claresophiet:

Brian Jungen is a Canadian artist who, in his Prototype series, transforms commercial objects, such as Nike trainers, into faux-aborigine masks, playing on the fetishisation of the Canadian Aborginal people, and similar trends worldwide (see: appropriation of Native American headdress for cool Western kids). He also references the slow death of traditional ways of life as capitalism becomes the driving force of many corners of the world. There is an underlying commentary about the division of labour too, where developed worlds consume at an alarming rate products which were made in the developing world for a fraction of the final selling price.

Click through on the image to see a collection of Jungen’s work on the National Museum of the American Indian website.

12/3/11

curate:

Debra Baxterm Crystal Brass Knuckles (I am going to realign your chakras motherf*****), 2009 Quartz crystals, sterling silver (via Crystal Brass Knuckles (I am going to realign your chakras motherf*****) - Debra Baxter) fyeahwomenartists

11/28/11

Anish Kapoor

via

11/2/11

uncertaintimes:

Collection of Grotesques, France

I didn’t know that Dreamworks Animation did 14th-century architecture too

06/8/11

(via geneticmutations, gulligcrazybimbob1tch)

i don’t understand it, but it’s beautiful

04/15/10

youmightfindyourself:

larssss: Self Edge Feather Ring: The Feather Ring starts out as sheet silver and is first cut to the shape of the feather and then bent using a wooden board with a depression cut into it and a leather mallet to round it to shape. Then the artist takes a small file and cuts each of the lines representing the separate fibers of the feather.

i want one

04/1/10

ecotone:

Damian Ortega

03/13/10

crashinglybeautiful:

samsaramotel:

Buddha with lotus

tremendous

02/3/10

canfuckwithit:marcusprice:Naoko Ito, killin it.

took you a minute, didn’t it

01/15/10

Born Under Punches

photo project idea

When I was in high school, I was a head-up-my-ass art kid.

I'm a tumblr.

My name is Dan. I live in Edmonton. Sometimes I take pictures. Sometimes I draw things. I like cars and photography and science. You can talk to me on Twitter or ask me a question.

My god, what have I done?

Born Under Punches

photo project idea

When I was in high school, I was a head-up-my-ass art kid.

I'm a tumblr. My name is Dan. I live in Edmonton. Sometimes I take pictures. Sometimes I draw things. I like cars and photography and science. You can talk to me on Twitter or ask me a question.

My god, what have I done?

I'm a tumblr.

My name is Dan. I live in Edmonton. Sometimes I take pictures. Sometimes I draw things. I like cars and photography and science. You can talk to me on Twitter or ask me a question.