Ack! This is hard! I had to choose a drawing to be destroyed by someone else. Talk about heart-wrenching!
Why on earth would I send one of my drawings to someone else to be destroyed?
I've been reading "DeKooning: An American Master" by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan as part of a Twitter book club organized by Alyson Stanfield.
One of the stories is about when Robert Rauschenberg approached Willem DeKooning and asked if he could have a drawing. Rauschenberg intended not to frame and enjoy the drawing, but instead to erase it.
The request from the young artist was bold and admittedly insulting to the middle-aged artist. DeKooning granted the request, although not without making Rauschenberg swirm. It's fascinating to hear Rauschenberg reminisce about the event and the resulting artwork himself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCWh3IFtDQ
I've been tweeting with Liz Crain (@lizcrain) about this story. We both can destroy our own work when it doesn't live up to our standards. But letting someone else ruin one of our own artworks? Hmmm...
After some thought-provoking discussion, we decided there's only one way to find out -- give it a try. We agreed to swap artworks and re-make them into our own.
Now, I haven't met Liz in person and don't know how old she is, so there's none of this "young upstart vs. established master" tension to our swap. For me, it's about giving up control and letting the artwork have a life of its own.
For my piece, I chose "Purple Music", shown above. It's a small drawing done with Sharpie marker, acrylic paints, and colored pencils on patterned paper. If Liz tries to erase it, it will give her plenty of trouble. ;)
It's a drawing I did this spring and I'm fond of it. DeKooning was fond of the drawing he gave to Rauschenberg, and deliberately chose something he would miss.
I also like that it has a music theme. Music played a huge part in DeKooning's life (remember the $700 record player?) and is a big part of mine.
Knowing that I've sent it off to its demise is tough. It's entirely different than mailing off an artwork to be loved and enjoyed. So, goodbye, little friend, I'm sad to see you go.
Now that it's in the mail, I'm excited to see what Liz is sending me. I'll post pictures of it as soon as it arrives.
So what do you think? Could you let someone erase, alter, or remake one of your artworks?
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Goodbye Little Friend
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12 comments:
I think the key for me is that I get to pick the piece...if the other person got to pick which one gets destroyed I couldnt do it.
Of course, once you sell something you have no control over its future either.
Oh, the thought of letting someone else choose -- no...! This swap is different than selling. If I sell an artwork, I can believe that it will remain as I made it and will be enjoyed. No guarantees of course, but at least I can hope.
Karen: You're not sending it off to its demise. You're sending it off to its new life.
I think art takes on a new life whenever it leaves the artist's studio. Especially when it enters a museum collection with lots of strange (unrelated) work around it. Your work is just taking a different path to the new life.
How exciting! And how wonderful to see a collaboration of this sort. You can bet I'll be watching and writing about it.
I once accidentally walked over a classmate's drawing, leaving dirty footprints all over it... Not a good feeling. I don't think I could destroy an artwork on purpose however. Yikes.
Alyson -- it feels like my art is going to its demise. Liz has the freedom to do whatever she wants: she can shred it, erase it, soak it in water and turn it into pulp. I haven't a clue what she will do.
Maybe it will be like a phoenix rising from the ashes of her kiln. :)
Fresh - YIKES! What an awful story! I hope your classmate forgave you.
One New Year's Eve I was in Trafalar Square, London, and walked along a crowded sidewalk to cross a side street entering the square. Before I realized it, I had stomped across a sidewalk artist's chalk drawing that I had not seen in the dark and crowded street.
Did I feel bad? You bet, I still remember it nearly ten years later. I hate to ruin someone else's hard work.
UK
Yes, Karen, you can be sure the kiln will be involved....but how? Still deciding.....Now that I really see my piece in obviously YOUR hands, well, I feel protective of it. Did not see that coming. I also think it is interesting that we both traded purple-ish things (!)
Liz -- the kiln, oh, the kiln! That's a scary thought. Go for it! Do what you need to do!
I fail to see the reasoning behind this exercise. Is it conceptual? Would it be considered colaboration? To what end?
Is it dada? Is it simply to show the impermanence of creation? Vandalism?
In an interview Robert Rauschenberg said it was poetry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCWh3IFtDQ B.S. ?
William -- good questions. There's no malice here; I'm doing this with Liz's permission and blessing.
There's also no "Grand Artistic Statement" -- Rauschenberg erased his drawing 50+ years ago. I'm not breaking new ground.
For me, it's educational. I'm not young, but I consider myself a young artist. I still struggle with calling myself an artist at all.
I'm learning the boundaries of my art: just because I made something and called it "art", is it untouchable? What can happen when it begins a life of its own? I get inspiration from other artists, but can I actually use someone's art to begin mine?
More questions, which I will continue to try to answer.
Karen,
The URL for Rauschenberg video URL is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCWh3IFtDQ
The (B.S. ?)at the end is not part of it. Sorry about that.
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