All that was sitting on my young heart the day I found out that what was initially a fascinating sight was nothing but a heap of other people's cars - no doubt, then, a pile of someone else’s sad, contempt-consumed memories.
I liked the recycling aspect of “Grandfather’s Horse,” and could even appreciate the time and effort behind it, as well as the irony of a horse being made out of pieces of a car. But that's when I decided the very idea of "found object sculpture" — even though I wouldn’t hear that phrase for a few more years — was the biggest crock of poo; the ultimate in bait and switch, if you will.
As a child, I thought the idea of making do-it-yourself 3-D jigsaw puzzles and passing it off as art was deceiving, and kind of mean. If small feats of engineering and clever applications of physics constitute art, then McDonald’s has it wrapped up with their myriad of indoor and outdoor playgrounds. As an adult, I will never have much more artistic appreciation for found object sculpture than I have for a recreation of the “Mona Lisa” done in toast.
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Article comments
1 - Elaine
Love love love the horse!!
2 - Kevin Freitas
What I find interesting in your article Diana, is the contrast between your first impression, "I was utterly fascinated by what appeared to be a contrast of many smooth, intensely reflective surfaces and jagged lines that absorbed light. It was very much as if it might just run away in a flurry of magic" and your subsequent "disappointment" in seeing the sculpture up close. It seems to me, this particular sculpture, has successfully accomplished what any good piece of art should do, that is, stir the imagination. Other than a long history of artists "playing" with that fine line between what you see and what you feel when looking at art, the materials used in making it, either enhance the artist's intent or blur the perception (from a spectator's point of view) its physical reality or presence. It is not, for the most part, a switch & bait as you call it.
I probably wouldn't classify the chromed bumper horse as "found art" either - the difference is that the artist is not making do with what he found per say, but is intentionally looking for chromed bumpers to make the sculpture, they (the bumpers) are not things he found lying in the street. When I think of found art, I think of the greatest master of this genre, Marcel Duchamp or someone like Kurt Schwitters and his collages, which collage is, at its most basic form "found."
3 - Erin
I will always love the "bumper ponies" as we affectionately call them 'round here. As well as the goats, the pig, the giraffe (nicely placed inside a bank, right next to a tall potted tree), and the fighting bulls. I've always loved the smooth, shiny surfaces and to this day I still get up close to peek inside where there are gaps between the welded pieces.
In another art direction-aesthetic puzzles-, Kearney, still alive, is aware that these bumper creations are rusting from the inside out, the ones placed outside that is. He has said there is no way to repair them (since car parts were not manufactured originally to be art parts....art parts...hehe...I digress) and they'll have to simply be taken off display and done away with.
Are we really okay with that? Don't ask Diana, she'll attend the funerals ;) but really, should we let him let his artwork be destroyed?
4 - Teri Centner
Nice photo of the Heidelberg statue! ;-)