Saturday night in Chinatown:
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While all the hipster art kids hop from gallery to gallery in Chinatown,
the locals collect their empty Tecate cans and place them into their
recycling bags, to take the center and cash in...
I still am not 100% certain on what the focus of my blog is exactly...I just write about things I do, things I like and things I want to do.
This weekend I went to Chinatown for a few art openings, one of which was at the Fifth Floor Gallery where William Stranger's Second Life exhibition is on view. The artist works on a sustainability platform as well as with the idea that he is saving, in this instance, a floor that would otherwise be thrown away by creating two wall hangings and also a functional table out of the reclaimed wood, thus breathing into it a second life. These are "nice" in a design and furniture kind of way, but I felt like he could have made these so much more meaningful. The most interesting aspect of the wall hangings were the scuffs made from the hundreds of bowling shoes that marched their way down to the arrows before releasing that big ball down the lane into the pins. The finished pieces were too lacquered, too pristine, and the scuffs, rivets and what would be holes were filled in by either the maintenance department of the bowling alley or more likely the artist himself. Being a furniture maker I am assuming, perhaps wrongfully so, that Stranger just didn't try or have the forethought to really expose and archive these salvaged lanes as they should be (weathered and worn) as artwork and not as a function of design or furniture. It is risky business to step away from what you know...it requires courage and the ability to completely rip apart your old ways of doing things, but in the end its worth it.
the locals collect their empty Tecate cans and place them into their
recycling bags, to take the center and cash in...
I still am not 100% certain on what the focus of my blog is exactly...I just write about things I do, things I like and things I want to do.
This weekend I went to Chinatown for a few art openings, one of which was at the Fifth Floor Gallery where William Stranger's Second Life exhibition is on view. The artist works on a sustainability platform as well as with the idea that he is saving, in this instance, a floor that would otherwise be thrown away by creating two wall hangings and also a functional table out of the reclaimed wood, thus breathing into it a second life. These are "nice" in a design and furniture kind of way, but I felt like he could have made these so much more meaningful. The most interesting aspect of the wall hangings were the scuffs made from the hundreds of bowling shoes that marched their way down to the arrows before releasing that big ball down the lane into the pins. The finished pieces were too lacquered, too pristine, and the scuffs, rivets and what would be holes were filled in by either the maintenance department of the bowling alley or more likely the artist himself. Being a furniture maker I am assuming, perhaps wrongfully so, that Stranger just didn't try or have the forethought to really expose and archive these salvaged lanes as they should be (weathered and worn) as artwork and not as a function of design or furniture. It is risky business to step away from what you know...it requires courage and the ability to completely rip apart your old ways of doing things, but in the end its worth it.
1 comment:
"It is risky business to step away from what you know...it requires courage and the ability to completely rip apart your old ways of doing things, but in the end its worth it."
well put, my friend.
xoxo
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