Remaking, criticizing and re-contextualizing someone else's art is not the most easy thing to do. At least because the way we perceive an artwork is built upon our own background, perspectives on the topic and on the ways to approach it. Therefore, for this blog entry, I decided to pick up an example of a monument that, subjectively, is a highly questionable realization of an idea. That monument was my long-term pain, as it is located in my home-city - Odessa - I used to pass it by numerous times and still never got used to it. The artwork is a memorial to Steve Jobs which commemorated the first anniversary of his death and opened to public in 2012. The project was commissioned by the city council and designed by young Ukrainian sculptor Kirill Maksimenko. Yet it is unclear why exactly was the monument dedicated to the person who had never visited Odessa and has no direct connection to the city.
The sculpture consists of several strong visual and conceptual elements, that, however, either do not correlate with the concept or with each other. Let's start by considering, the primary figurative element of the sculpture - the figure of a hand. The author comments this choice as it was a reference to Job's manner of active gesticulation during his public talks. The act of gesticulating itself is quite a frequently occurring thing during performances and talks in front of the audience. The offered association thread of the gesture act and the person is so slight that a stronger signifier had to be added. Here, on the contrary, we have a sign that has inseparable strong bound with the persona of Steve Jobs - the apple-shaped logo. Somehow the connection has been established. However, nowadays the logo of the most globally acknowledged corporation implemented into a work of art acquires a form of kitchy symbol of technological innovations and consumerism, rather than remind people about a mastermind behind Apple corporation. The Apple sign is cut through the middle of the hand, which establishes an even stronger connection between two objects.
The choice of material is also a bit controversial. Maksimenko specializes on the metal-recycling in his sculpting. That means the materials for the monument consist of auto/moto parts and industrial metal waste. Such choice of materials in this case, even though it is the sculptor's specialization, is questionable. Steve Jobs was definitely a person who strived to the progress, technological innovations and broadening the horizons of design. The material has nothing to do with those characteristics of the honored persona.
Those are the basic features of the sculpture that I would like to re-make in my project. I would like to start with a different choice of a basic shape. Because there are hardly any abstract sculptures in Odessa, I would suggest to have something non-figurative. Here we can turn to the story of Steve Jobs and remember one of the most significant innovations he popularized - touch screen. For the material I would suggest to make it of some industrial plastic/acrylic. The dark semi -transparent 'screen' will be a layered wall of rectangular shaped blocks. The surface of the sculptures will be covered with sensors that react on touch by producing some soft light. Such detail emphasizes both the concept of touch screen and amazing personal abilities of Jobs to connect and communicate. This is a rough draft of the possible sculpture project.
Since the sculpture is planned like an interactive one, the location for it should respond to this feature. The size of the sculpture will stay relatively similar to the old version: 1.60 heigh, 150 -width. Therefore, the best place for mounting the work will be the one where the audience can freely interact with it. Undoubtedly, it has to be mounted in a lively or ,at least, in a walk-through place.
Digital version of the sketch:
The choice of material is also a bit controversial. Maksimenko specializes on the metal-recycling in his sculpting. That means the materials for the monument consist of auto/moto parts and industrial metal waste. Such choice of materials in this case, even though it is the sculptor's specialization, is questionable. Steve Jobs was definitely a person who strived to the progress, technological innovations and broadening the horizons of design. The material has nothing to do with those characteristics of the honored persona.
Those are the basic features of the sculpture that I would like to re-make in my project. I would like to start with a different choice of a basic shape. Because there are hardly any abstract sculptures in Odessa, I would suggest to have something non-figurative. Here we can turn to the story of Steve Jobs and remember one of the most significant innovations he popularized - touch screen. For the material I would suggest to make it of some industrial plastic/acrylic. The dark semi -transparent 'screen' will be a layered wall of rectangular shaped blocks. The surface of the sculptures will be covered with sensors that react on touch by producing some soft light. Such detail emphasizes both the concept of touch screen and amazing personal abilities of Jobs to connect and communicate. This is a rough draft of the possible sculpture project.
Since the sculpture is planned like an interactive one, the location for it should respond to this feature. The size of the sculpture will stay relatively similar to the old version: 1.60 heigh, 150 -width. Therefore, the best place for mounting the work will be the one where the audience can freely interact with it. Undoubtedly, it has to be mounted in a lively or ,at least, in a walk-through place.
Digital version of the sketch:
No comments:
Post a Comment