Artists' Influencers: Katharina Grosse and Sarah Sze
Recently, I watched an Art Basel video that featured artists Katharina Grosse and Sarah Sze. They speak on their own and each others work while discussing how artists and art viewers gain influence, especially through the viewing of art.
Video Link: Artists' Influencers: Katharina Grosse and Sarah Sze, 1:19:38
Grosse is a German artist based in Berlin. According to the video description, she creates immersive site-specific artworks using architecture and landscapes with paint and stencils cut from cardboard and thick foam rubber. Her works use explosive colors and open up the space to multiple perceptual possibilities of the medium (Gagosian.com). Her work has influenced Sze, an American artist based in New York whose installations are composed of everyday objects to challenge systems of order. Sze's works are also explore the role of technology and information in contemporary life with everyday materials (Tanyabonakdargallery.com).
In the video, Obrist starts off the conversation with how influence makes one's identity more complex and mixed. I thought this statement was very true as gaining multiple influences over time can result in a person developing many viewpoints and ideas about different aspects of life.
Obrist asks the artists how art came to them. Grosse states how she saw pictures of art in a magazine in Germany, and they really hit her because they differed from her normal medium of art (paint on canvas).
For Sze, she had studied art and wanted to think about how we find value in materials. As a result, she left painting and began to sculpt. In one of her works, she placed small sculptures in a room with natural light. Because the room had natural light, the art was not contained or controlled. It showed how elements not synchronized with our structures can change the art and give it a new vantage point. I was really impressed by this point as seeing art in a certain way can affect the way one perceives it. If it cannot be controlled, then it the way that it will be viewed is unpredictable which is very intriguing.
Sze also brought up how we experience artworks differently when looking at images of them. She uses Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty as an example. She explains that we are familiar with the black and white, birds eye view photo of Spiral Jetty. We think of this photograph rather than the actual environment of the work itself. It is through images like this that one may have to experience a work of art and gain influence from it. Images represent moments in time that can evoke feelings and inspire something, but these feelings change over time. By looking at other artist's images, one can have a conversation in an indirect way and be influenced by a flow of artworks. This idea was very fascinating because we look at images of artworks all the time and might be influenced by them, yet images can stimulate so many influence that it cuts a work from its true context. Grosse says that artworks exist in the way we talk about it and reproduce it, so when we see it in person, in its original context, we are shocked.
Grosse discusses her influence in her work. She claims that influence can come in many different ways that change your perception. She describes how she would drive to her studio everyday with an anxiety that something was going to hit her window and smash it. Every now and then, she would see images of glass. One day, she was running late and locked her keys in her car, and she ended up having to smash it. After that, she said that her painting was better. She said that she followed the "signs" and got her influence from them. As a result, her work became unleashed. I thought this was very interesting insight on how one can gain influence.
Grosse's works are very immersive and strive to involve the audience in her studio experiences. When audiences view her work or any artist's work and they do not know what it is, or they stop thinking about the artist, they become truly influenced. This occurs especially when the art is located in a non-artistic space as many of Grosse's works are. One artwork of hers that is influential is The Horse Trotted Another Couple of Metres, Then it Stopped. She condensed and folded material, then painted it. It was then suspended so that viewers could enter it and experience the artwork in the same way Grosse did while she was making it in the studio. This is an example of trying to bring the studio into a space. While people view it, they gain different perspectives and are influenced in different ways.
This type of work inspired Sze who is involved in studio mapping with works like Images in Debris where she uses everyday materials like her video editing desk and combines it with moving images that seem as if they are traveling through the space. It is constructed in an interactive way to where it translates the work from the studio to a gallery experience. Similar to Grosse's The Horse Trotted, Images in Debris is set up exactly how it was set up in her studio to demonstrate how she works. This studio mapping is influential to audiences as it shapes their minds based off of a specific moment of a studio experience.
I thought this was a very interesting and thought invoking talk. It really makes viewers think about the different ways we are influenced and how the medium and space in which art is displayed can affect the ways in which people are influenced. However, the video was supposed to be about how Grosse influenced Sze, and I would have liked to here more from Sze how she was influenced by Grosse. Sze did discuss some of her influence, but I felt like it was not covered as much as Grosse's artworks. This video would be very valuable for those who are looking for insight on how artists and people are inspired in their everyday lives and viewing of artwork. The artists also discuss the importance of being exposed to art at a young age in order to get a better understanding of it. I think this would be very crucial in getting people to understand the importance of art.
Video Link: Artists' Influencers: Katharina Grosse and Sarah Sze, 1:19:38
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| (From left to right) Katharina Grosse (artist), Sarah Sze (artist), and Hans Ulrich Obrist (moderator) |
Grosse is a German artist based in Berlin. According to the video description, she creates immersive site-specific artworks using architecture and landscapes with paint and stencils cut from cardboard and thick foam rubber. Her works use explosive colors and open up the space to multiple perceptual possibilities of the medium (Gagosian.com). Her work has influenced Sze, an American artist based in New York whose installations are composed of everyday objects to challenge systems of order. Sze's works are also explore the role of technology and information in contemporary life with everyday materials (Tanyabonakdargallery.com).
In the video, Obrist starts off the conversation with how influence makes one's identity more complex and mixed. I thought this statement was very true as gaining multiple influences over time can result in a person developing many viewpoints and ideas about different aspects of life.
Obrist asks the artists how art came to them. Grosse states how she saw pictures of art in a magazine in Germany, and they really hit her because they differed from her normal medium of art (paint on canvas).
For Sze, she had studied art and wanted to think about how we find value in materials. As a result, she left painting and began to sculpt. In one of her works, she placed small sculptures in a room with natural light. Because the room had natural light, the art was not contained or controlled. It showed how elements not synchronized with our structures can change the art and give it a new vantage point. I was really impressed by this point as seeing art in a certain way can affect the way one perceives it. If it cannot be controlled, then it the way that it will be viewed is unpredictable which is very intriguing.
Sze also brought up how we experience artworks differently when looking at images of them. She uses Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty as an example. She explains that we are familiar with the black and white, birds eye view photo of Spiral Jetty. We think of this photograph rather than the actual environment of the work itself. It is through images like this that one may have to experience a work of art and gain influence from it. Images represent moments in time that can evoke feelings and inspire something, but these feelings change over time. By looking at other artist's images, one can have a conversation in an indirect way and be influenced by a flow of artworks. This idea was very fascinating because we look at images of artworks all the time and might be influenced by them, yet images can stimulate so many influence that it cuts a work from its true context. Grosse says that artworks exist in the way we talk about it and reproduce it, so when we see it in person, in its original context, we are shocked.
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| Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, black basalt, limestone rocks, earth, and salt crystals |
Grosse discusses her influence in her work. She claims that influence can come in many different ways that change your perception. She describes how she would drive to her studio everyday with an anxiety that something was going to hit her window and smash it. Every now and then, she would see images of glass. One day, she was running late and locked her keys in her car, and she ended up having to smash it. After that, she said that her painting was better. She said that she followed the "signs" and got her influence from them. As a result, her work became unleashed. I thought this was very interesting insight on how one can gain influence.
Grosse's works are very immersive and strive to involve the audience in her studio experiences. When audiences view her work or any artist's work and they do not know what it is, or they stop thinking about the artist, they become truly influenced. This occurs especially when the art is located in a non-artistic space as many of Grosse's works are. One artwork of hers that is influential is The Horse Trotted Another Couple of Metres, Then it Stopped. She condensed and folded material, then painted it. It was then suspended so that viewers could enter it and experience the artwork in the same way Grosse did while she was making it in the studio. This is an example of trying to bring the studio into a space. While people view it, they gain different perspectives and are influenced in different ways.
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| Katharina Grosse, The Horse Trotted Another Couple of Metres, Then it Stopped, 2018, 8,250 square meters of fabric, draped, knotted, painted, and hung across through architectural elements |
This type of work inspired Sze who is involved in studio mapping with works like Images in Debris where she uses everyday materials like her video editing desk and combines it with moving images that seem as if they are traveling through the space. It is constructed in an interactive way to where it translates the work from the studio to a gallery experience. Similar to Grosse's The Horse Trotted, Images in Debris is set up exactly how it was set up in her studio to demonstrate how she works. This studio mapping is influential to audiences as it shapes their minds based off of a specific moment of a studio experience.
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| Sarah Sze, Images in Debris, 2018, installation, studio desk, projections |
I thought this was a very interesting and thought invoking talk. It really makes viewers think about the different ways we are influenced and how the medium and space in which art is displayed can affect the ways in which people are influenced. However, the video was supposed to be about how Grosse influenced Sze, and I would have liked to here more from Sze how she was influenced by Grosse. Sze did discuss some of her influence, but I felt like it was not covered as much as Grosse's artworks. This video would be very valuable for those who are looking for insight on how artists and people are inspired in their everyday lives and viewing of artwork. The artists also discuss the importance of being exposed to art at a young age in order to get a better understanding of it. I think this would be very crucial in getting people to understand the importance of art.
did you know the Spiral Jetty was contracted to cost 9000 dollars i believe?
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