performance art

I am increasingly interested in performance art and art that simply blends multiple categories. Nowadays I think it's safe to say that;

• Art is no longer created specifically to be hung on a wall (naturally we have seen different spaces utilized to showcase Art for a while).
• The distinction of disciplines is continuing to diminish even further.
• What Art will continue to be is Expression, whatever way you look at it.

Via MoochMagazine I found Daniel: http://www.danielarsham.com/

From the Moochers: "Daniel Arsham is new type of artist, his work brings together multiple

mediums which include performance, dance, architecture and art. His forms are pure, linear, elegant and, curiously, three-dimensional. Arsham uses illusions to make his masterpieces feel magically alive. Born in 1980 in Cleveland Ohio, USA. Daniel lives and works in New York and Miami."


Other works Daniel has made or worked on in collaboration:

That Daniel is one clever talented cookie also shows in his commercial work. He set up Snarkitecture with Alex Mustonen: 

Snarkitecture is a collaborative practice operating in territories between the disciplines of art and architecture. Working within existing spaces or in collaboration with other artists and designers, the practice focuses on the investigation of structure, material and program and how these elements can be manipulated to serve new and imaginative purposes. Searching for sites within architecture with the possibility for confusion or misuse, Snarkitecture aims to make architecture perform the unexpected.

Snarkitecture was established by Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham and is represented by Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.

MOOODLIES...

Yay!! Today I can finally share with you the uplifting groovy news that I have been working with design star Joi Murugavell, of Joidesign in Melbourne, to create a very snazzy and most intriguing batty collection of work. Our collaboration name is MOOODLIES. Joi is a Pop-art artist, illustrator and web designer. Like me she has an art degree and many entrepreneurial years behind her. Her website is: www.oodlies.com

We have developed our first range of art designs. They are a Social Object, a story. They are cushions. The theme of our first collection is "Tea party": the getting-to-know-each-other phase, that works like an initiation ritual. The designs are brimming with whimsy as it is play, a poke for reminding us all not to take life too seriously. (Top picture shows a montage of small parts of our designs - we will show the full designs at a later stage...)

The cushions will have a hook on the back to actually physically hang them on walls. Therein lies the difference, the common place home decor accessory becomes the art work, the art work can also become integrated into daily lives instead of a more "revered" (and usually also hugely expensive) piece. Our designs are printed in a limited edition. We are currently in communications to organize an ideal Art Gallery in Dunedin to hold our first MOOODLIES exhibition. These are exciting times!

Mooodlies is about exchange, about ideas, innovation and... a lot of attitude.

(More on why our collaboration worked so well: read this fascinating theory here, a snippet below:)

"But now, thanks to the Internet, ideas can meet and mate globally and instantaneously like never before. What else is crowdsourcing but working with one another? The cross-fertilization of ideas between, say, Asia and Europe that once took years, decades, or centuries can now happen in minutes while Australia, the Americas, and Africa eavesdrop. The cloud is for everybody, whereas in the old days the sharing of ideas was reserved for the privileged elite. There is, as Stanford economist Paul Romer has argued, not even a theoretical limit to the number of combinations of atoms and electrons we can devise, and the rate at which we devise them is bound to accelerate.

Fasten your seatbelts."

And here is an Oodlie by Joi:

A moo design by me:

social object

Currently my screen printer is working her way through printing a collaboration project. It's an exciting time for me and my fellow designer (who for now shall remain Miss x). I was thinking about the product that we are creating and how it will most certainly become a Social Object in the hands of buyers. (Trust me it looks nothing like the bovines above)


The difference in our approach is that we do not look at our created product as a commercial number, but see it as being both a story as well as an art piece. So even when saying that; why would what we make be ANY different from the gazillion other creations "out there"? Well we'd like our oddball pieces to go viral, to multiply like the Gremlins. As Henrik Werdelin puts it: 

"Virality is all about making your users look awesome in front of their friends". 

So in a nutshell: we make you look good by making you look "different and interesting".

How right Henrik is. We do not see our "work" as just another Art gig, nor as a practical item, it's is actually meant to be a funny focal point in the home, a Social Object. This is where it gets more fascinating.

Hugh Macleod, winemaker and pofessional cartoonist and artist:

"The Social Object, in a nutshell . . . . Human beings are social animals. We like to socialize. But if [we] think about it, there needs to be a reason for it to happen in the first place. That reason, that "node" in the social network, is what we call the Social Object." (via gapingvoid.com)

In essence we have decided to turn what normally would be considered an Art work on its head an integrate it quite literally in the space where the buyer lives. So even-though we didn't create our work to be just practical pieces, not specifically to generate conversation, they most certainly will create a lot of talk, without a doubt.

What we are currently working on is this: (Henrik again:) 

"A good exercise is to spend some proper time making a good story about your business/endeavor and try it on a few people. Then wait a few days and ask them to explain to you what your business is doing--and see if you like what you hear. If the story is good, it should become a social object. From there it can be shared easily with everyone from new customers and investors to your mum. Happy storytelling."

And by golly it's a lot of fun!