Objects and Daily Routines

With my project for this class, I wanted to explore the realm of the routine; dealing with objects we see and use everyday and the daily practices we are a part of. I mainly wanted to focus on objects or routines what most people found mundane and have an unappealing aesthetic upon first glance. This is what I tried to capture with my photographs. I believe that the most successful images I shot were the spiral notebook, bristly mat, inside view of a toaster and dirty scrub brush. I felt as if my first set of images were not as effective as my second set, with the exception of the spiral notebook. They were described more like stock photos (which is a compliment, but not exactly what I was looking for with this project idea). With my second set I tried to go farther in-depth into the objects and I chose different vantage points and tight close-ups. Which made it harder to comprehend what the object is that you are look at. I found this attempt more successful because you are seeing these objects from a view that you might not have seen before and it really brings beauty into these mass produced, unappealing objects.

My second and third pieces I found, afterward, became more related to each other. The video “Out of Place” (which I have edited and taken out the still images of the items) took objects we tend to use everyday in our daily routines and placed them out of context and used them in ways that they were not meant to be used. It cast a humorous look upon these objects and created a dichotomy where you could see what these objects were originally used for and how they could be used differently for a whole other purpose. My performance video had a camera sitting in one spot and watched me and my family partake in different routines. My father drank a beer and ate chips with my dog bugging him, my mother did taxes, I baked and my mother and I ate dinner. This is the exact opposite of my other video and I enjoyed this contrast. The performance video looks at exactly what the routine pertains to and the other video takes the objects and routines and forces them out of their regular context.

For my last assignment, I decided to take an object and enlarge it into a monumental form. I am creating a disposable razor out of cardboard and enlarging it to about 20x its original size. Because it is an object people do use a lot and it is also and object we throw away frequently, I thought it really spoke to what I wanted to achieve. It is an interesting object because of its shape. There is a lot of negative space and many cut outs. It is durable and even though it was not created to appeal aesthetically (it is just a plain blue razor), once it is in a monumental size, you begin to see all these interesting details and angles. For some reason the object needs to be right up in the viewers face for them to start appreciating it as a work of art and see its charm. I decided not to paint the object and leave the cardboard showing because I did not want to hide the material. To me it is not just about the shape of the razor, but also about using cardboard, a product that is used daily in many different places. It is also a disposable object like the razor.

I think my theme connects to the reading “What Is Not Contemporary Art?: The View from Jena” by Dieter Roelstraete. This article talks about contemporary art and how we try to define it and then how it becomes something that is undefinable. Also how everyone has a different opinion on what art is and what art is not. This is something I think becomes associated with my theme because I want people to take a look at these mass produced objects that we consistently use and then try to appeal to these people that this is art. But is becomes a weird dynamic because I feel as it is have to make these objects look “artsy” or “more appealing” for others to appreciate this as art and leaving them in their plain form would not create them same sense of awe. Near the end of this article, the author states that:

'Art' is not just a maddening crowd of images, objects and pictures of objects... art is not just that which is shown or talked or written about in various spaces of art... it certainly is not just subject of art history, art criticism and/or art curating... art is the word, or, better still, the name of a great theme... the name of hope and of something that has yet to come.

What I take from this is that art can be anything, and that it is not just what the mainstream has decided to define as art. If you create what you perceive as art, then who is to tell you that is not art. This is what I am trying to achieve what my theme. These objects that we are surrounded by, these objects we see everyday, and then things we do everyday can be seen as art, if we choose to look at it this way.

Article source: Roelstraete, Dieter. "What Is Not Contemporary Art?: The View from Jena." E-flux 11 (2009). E-flux. Dec. 2009. 24 Mar. 2010. .