I got a variety of different ideas from the presentation by Anya Kavarkis on Tuesday. She brought up many concepts, but what I found two things especially interesting. On one hand, she mentioned that a major part of an artwork and what it means is the production of the piece, or how it was made. You can see this especially in the work of Robert Gober. He hand sculpts pieces that are traditionally produced in a factory by machines. This juxtaposition brings the artist back into the equation and highlights the making of the product instead of the product itself.
Another interesting idea is the production of something 'precious'. As artists, they should be creating something unique and precious. So with the works of Allan McCollum for example, it is interesting to see that although each work of "Over 100,000 Individual Works" is technically unique and one of a kind, you still see the overwhelming similarities and assembly-line style production of the work as a whole. How can something that is produced in such large quantities 'precious' or 'unique'?
John Feodorov also had interesting things to say. I enjoyed his somewhat sarcastic and yet sincere approach to his upbringing and the juxtaposition of religions he experienced. He brought up an especially interesting argument in the simplification and the production of sacred objects. When you look at a religious or sacred object, how it is made is irrelevant because it supposed to be all about what it represents and what the object means. But Feordorov, like Robert Gober, puts the artist back into the equation by putting objects, generally plastic, easily produced children's toys, into religious connotations. Viewing Feordorov's art, you are reminded of the artist behind most everything and also of the interesting connotations of religious objects and their apparent mass production. It reminds me of Cai Guo-Qiang's 'Reflections', where the broken religious statues were all piled together. It is hard to consider a statue an icon of religion when you know it has been mass produced in a factory with millions of others.
Generally, when I make these outside connections, I attempt to pick something obscure, but this time, I'm going to forget that and introduce you to Andy Warhol, who relishes the mass produced preciousness. Andy Warhol's art is screen printed, which can be easily duplicated, and shows produced or easily recognized idols such as a Campbell's soup can or Marilyn Monroe.
