Benjamin Dyson: September 2013

Thursday 19 September 2013

I chose to look at the work of Alexander Calder. We had been experimenting with The use of wire to make both 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional work. I was making my 3d piece using a sort of coiling method, where I coiled the wire around a long spool and then slipped it off leaving it in a spring shape. I made several of these springs, attached them using the spot welder and made foot for them to make the piece self-standing.

My tutor had shown us a method where you adhere tissue paper to a wire shape using PVA glue and a hair dryer. This makes a semi opaque panel within the wire; I found that the use of wire and solid geometric shapes reminded me of some of Calder’s work I had seen previously.

I really like Calder’s work. Although some would say it may at first appear very basic they are exquisitely crafted and that's where i found there merritt. The Mobiles in particular are exquisitely made. Unlike my response Calder would create simple chain like loops between each piece of wire. They are simple but that is what makes them beautiful, the stationary self-standing pieces often employ weighting and counter weighting mechanisms to keep the piece sturdy these are equally beautifully made. He uses basic shapes on the end of long wire arms that are often coloured only using the primary colours and occasionally a dark green apparently inspired by the abstract paintings of artists such as Joan Miro. They are seen as sculptures by a professional artist making them a niche as they are now worth a lot of money and are not something for the average consumer. Calder’s works can seem dwarfed in size and mediocre to some in comparison to the gigantic sculptures created by Anish Kapoor, who is now perhaps most famous for the work “Orbit” ( the Red twisting tower at the London 2012 Olympic park) which I think is a shame because I find that particular piece quite horrible to look at when compared to his stainless steel works. Both artists were attempting similar ideas ,but in different ways and indeed in different times. They both created pieces that were designed to be interacted with by the viewer and had elements within them that moved. In the case of Calder’s works, figurines or mobiles were often mechanically moved via pulleys, levers or motors. Anish Kapoor on the other hand uses polished stainless steel or convex mirrors that when viewed cause visual illusions which can often make the viewer feel disorientated. Truth be told I like both artists work, but there’s something about the more old fashioned techniques used with Calder’s wire mobiles that I find more endearing.