Unmonumental: Going to Pieces in the 21st Century
by Laura Hoptman explores the routes of assemblage and its progression throughout
the early 20th century to the 21st century. Hoptman starts with the history of Dada and
the re-emergence of assembled forms in contemporary sculpture. The contemporary
artists used the method of juxtaposition forms to define
the ready-mades. She mentions artists such as Picasso, Duchamp and Cage and
explains how much of their work is left up to chance and randomness and the use
of the found object which, (especially in the cases of Duchamp and Cage)
“sealed the Dadaist alliance between the old and new avant gardes.”
Rauschenberg’s series of Combines stresses that “the magic in his work was the
ability to turn familiar objects into mysterious ones through juxtaposition.”
In other words, his found objects are separate in their singular and
individuality, but when assembled together they become something different, an
artwork in its entirety. The question of how much chance played a role in the arrangement
of the Combines is answered by the response that Combine, and even assembled
art, is “actual evidence of an irrevocably shattered society”.
The new millennium changed the way we viewed art. New
technologies were possible and the internet became a flood gate that opened and
provided us with so many new possibilities as well as art. These new sculptures
are hostile with a specific meaning. They are not random like the ready-mades
and Rauschenberg’s Combines. The re-emergence of assembled forms came early
into the 21st century. The neo-neo-avant-garde approaches to
assemblages resemble appropriation primarily of minimalist forms. Contemporary sculptors
such as Hammond, Noland and Lowman are products of an object culture, where the
ideas of Duchamp’s readymades are just as obvious material and utility for art
as paint. Today’s sculptures focus on the issues of the contemporary, the
here-and-now and there is a focus on the content of their work. The 21st
century assemblage is highly organised and composed into something that is both
considered contemporary as well as having a political stance.
Un-monumental can be described as intentionally lacking
certain aspects (massiveness, timelessness, public significance) that make an
artwork extraordinary. Contemporary sculpture exists with the 21st century
style of assemblage and the artists own diverse style.
Summary
ReplyDeleteUnmonumental
Going to pieces in the 21st Century
Laura Hoptman, 2007.
After a long hiatus, Assemblage/Quotidian Sculpture is once again at the forefront of contemporary art. Practiced by a wide age range of artists it differs from its predecessors by its use of found objects and how they are constructed or attached. The use of Assemblage in the 21st century draws attention to what has been left out, rather than what is being used in art practice . Objects are not simply being used for the form they create when juxtaposed together or the effect they have in situ. Today they refer to a new language that is immerging due to the technological revolution that we are living in. Audiences now read images the way they once read words. This new vernacular is adept at abbreviating images and words into an Internet language. Eg: Laughing out loud= LOL = J
No longer is art history taught or learnt in a continues time line but rather it spurts information in all directions like a fountain of knowledge. When we see a picture of a multi coloured Marilyn Monroe today we do not immediately think of the actress, instead we see the words Andy Warhol. With Assemblage today the artist takes this new language into consideration when referring to previous works, themes or movements. 21st century assemblage is about a clear narrative based visual sentences. It engages the viewer about times now. It makes social commentary that is easily understood. No longer just the domain of the artists’ world and its processes. Each part of the assemblage has its own story and by placing them all together a visual reference to a pre-ordained and agreed upon significance can be strung together to create a statement. An easily recognizable dialogue about the audience and the significance it places on the every day popular mass culture that has become the visual language of the 21st century.
Assemblage sculpture today is a personalized collage of appropriated meanings chosen by an individual artist. Like music dj’s they may take samples from earlier works, however these samples are used in another way. It is taken for granted that the artist is aware of the original meaning however they no longer are interested in quoting the historical content or cannon. These elemental mediums in the hands of the artist become unrecognisable because in the modern or present day they have already been used and flooded in the mass market where the earlier intent was lost years ago. Today the meaning of each element has been clearly defined by the audience.
We are now looking at art and its histories from a new paradigm- we are in a post- post –modern world which can no longer be defined, labelled or boxed in like its predecessors.