February 6 – June 5, 2005

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Including work by 20 Los-Angeles-based artists, THING uncovers the most innovative contemporary sculpture from the up-and-coming generation. Probing the formal and conceptual trajectories of sculpture in Los Angeles, THING includes a broad selection of works and addresses a wide range of sculptural practices, attempting to make sense of new materials, forms, methods, and concerns of this promising generation of emerging Angeleno artists. THING offers viewers a chance to examine how the vital and provocative sculpture being produced by L.A.’s younger set extends local traditions and lineages, and also taps into and shapes broader cultural streams. As Los Angeles has become a defining force in international contemporary art, the exhibition, though focusing on Los Angeles, provides a compelling view into the state of sculpture today.

Taft Green
Reaction Facets: International Seaport; Port 1 of 2; energy distribution, holding light, memory of Vermeer
2004

Domestic and imported hardwoods, paint, steel, fabric.

Nathan Mabry
A Touching Moment (Tooting My Own Horn)
2005

Terra-cotta, wood, paint.

LINK: Exhibition website 

Midwich (for John Wyndham), 2005
acrylic on canvas
42.5″ x 37.5″

The Divine Invasion, 2005
acrylic on canvas over panel
54″ x 96″

So Long El Dorado, 2002
mixed media collage
22″ x 30″”

Tantric Debt, 2006
acrylic on canvas
16″ x 12″

LINK: http://www.scotthewicker.com

UbuWeb is a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.

All materials on UbuWeb are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights belong to the author(s).

UbuWeb is completely free.

Juggernaut, 2004, 24″ x 36″ 10″

Many of the artworks that I make are created through the design and construction of controlled environmental spaces. In these environments I nurture and transform a variety of living species into sculptural artifacts, much as one might train the growth of a Bonsai tree. My desire is that a person encountering this living artwork will consider biological phenomena and entities within a frame of social and historic contexts.

Below is an image of a recent project, Juggernaut, which is a self-contained survival capsule for one living plant. Three blown glass enclosures provide a controlled hydroponic environment; the plant’s roots are submerged in nutrient-infused water, while LED lights supply the necessary illumination. I have drawn on two culturally divergent traditions for Juggernaut: Chinese scholar’s objects and Victorian glass conservatories, which share the belief that nature is best understood when seen through the lens of human artifice.

Jarred In, which was on display in 2002 at The Exploratorium, is sixteen feet tall and twelve feet wide. In this garden pairs of plants are housed in life support pods suspended from a chandelier like armature. The roots of the plants swim in illuminated, water filled boxes. Water is pumped up from tall Plexiglas reservoirs resting on the ground. The reservoirs are attached to a central pod on the ground, referred to by the folks at The Exploratorium as “the mother ship” and housing six Dwarf Impatiens. Cushioned settees, covered with a Victorian floral print fabric and sealed in clear vinyl, surround this floor pod.

These autonomous growing containers are modeled on the techniques and aesthetics of the Wardian Cases that were used to transport living plants from one continent to another during the 18th and 19th centuries. They are effectively isolated from the environment of The Exploratorium, demanding a great dedication of electricity and materials to remain healthy. I also wanted them to look like the swarm of alien ships that appear at the end of Close Encounters of The Third Kind.

 LINK: artist website

Suzanne
Three days after I obtained my MFA in France in 2000, I moved to CA. My new-age roommate convinced me that after getting an intensive massage therapist training, I could make a lot of money. Wanting to be able to support my art practice without having to work a lot, I did the training and became a massage therapist for 2 years. I was very good and very popular, and yes, i do think it…

LINK: Helena Keeffe: “Living Proof“

Materials: paper, wood, foam, plants, thread
Dimensions: 26″ x 28″ x 13
Collaboration: Amy Franceschini, Michael Swaine
Photosynthesis Robot is a three-dimensional sketch of a possible perpetual motion machine driven by phototropism- the movement of plants towards the direction of the sun. The motion of the plants upon this four wheeled vehicle would propel slowly over a period of time.

Bay Area
Djerassi Foundation
Kala Art Center
Headlands Center for the Arts*

National
ArtOMI
Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown*
MacDowell Colony
Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation*
Millay Colony
Roswell
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture*
Vermont Studio Center*
Yaddo

International
ARCUS (Japan)
Banff

Links
Res Artis: the largest existing network of artist residency programmes, representing the interests of more than 200 centers and organisations in 50 countries worldwide that offer to international artists facilities and conditions conducive for making art.