YOU DON T HAVE TO CARRY IT AROUND IF IT S ON WHEELS

Transcription

1 YOU DON T HAVE TO CARRY IT AROUND IF IT S ON WHEELS A thesis submitted to the College of the Arts of Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts by Derek A. Gelvin May, 2013

2 Thesis written by Derek A. Gelvin B.F.A., Cleveland Institute of Art, 2006 M.F.A., Kent State University, 2013 Approved by!, Advisor! Paul O Keeffe!!!, Director, School of Art! Christine Havice!, Dean, College of the Arts! John R. Crawford ii

3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS! First and foremost, I would like to thank my entire family for their love and support throughout my academic pursuits and endeavors.! I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Paul O Keeffe, and committee member Isabel Farnsworth for allowing me to study at Kent State University. Their wealth of knowledge, support, and patience is much appreciated.! I would also like to thank committee member Sean Mercer for his technical knowledge and for pushing me to explore new avenues in art making. iii

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...iii TABLE OF CONTENTS...iv LIST OF FIGURES...v YOU DON T HAVE TO CARRY IT AROUND IF IT S ON WHEELS...1 FIGURES...14 iv

5 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, detail ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number ! You Don t Have To Carry it Around If It s On Wheels, Number ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number 2, detail ! Image of the only place I will call home ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number 3,! detail ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number 4,! detail ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number ! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number v

6 1! I grew up watching my grandfather work on a car that he saved up for, while working 12 hour shifts in a tire factory for 47 years. He did this while raising a family and instilling the belief of the American Dream to my father. My father has worked hard to do the same for his family. Despite this, I have bounced around from job to job, school to school, studio to studio, apartment to apartment while chasing an almost unobtainable dream of my own. I own a truck that I can barely afford, a fancy smart phone, and battle with the desire for these versus the necessity of these. I am the hand truck that carries its material possessions around from place to place. I am the crate that never gets unpacked. I am mobile. I have no roots to plant, no kids to feed, no walk-in closet. I am afraid to remain in one place too long, for fear of the monotonous and mundane. I am not my grandfather or my father. They worked hard to remain planted, while I m working hard to move around.!! My recent body of work investigates the difference between a traditional American ideal, more specifically the American Dream, and my belief in the notion of remaining mobile or transient. There are many different perspectives that intersect with notions of mobility and transiency versus settling down in one place and establishing a home. I was raised in a family that whole-heartedly believed in the American Dream, and has accomplished this by following traditional guidelines- get a good job, start a family, and settle down. My father

7 2 chose a slightly different path that led to his American Dream- He joined the military, then went to college, then got a job and bought a house and settled down. The end result was the same for both generations before me. This sensibility has been adapted to changing circumstances over the years but strives towards a common goal. The goal was to settle in one place and raise a family, although this might not be as attainable now given societal changes. Times change, of course, and economies fluctuate, but the commonality of this ideal stays the same.! Every branch of my family tree has striven towards this common goal, except me. The most important items I own are a pick-up truck, a cell phone, a hand truck, and my tools. I certainly didn t buy a truck because of the fuel efficiency that it doesn t have- I bought the truck because I knew that every couple of years I would be loading all of my possessions into it and relocating them to a new temporary place of residence (I am hesitant to call any dwelling my home ). In fact, while I m talking about decision-making and personal possessions, I must mention that all of my toolboxes and most of my machines are on wheels as well. The furniture in my apartment is from charity organizations or given to me by friends, and will be filtered back into the system once I move, yet again. While I understand that this may not be the most economically and financially wise situation, I also understand that my choice of career as an artist isn t either. Be it as it may, I continue to push forward.

8 ! 3 Even if you fall on your face, you re still moving forward.!!!!! -Victor Kiam, American entrepreneur! Moving from place to place, dwelling to dwelling, allows for many situations and experiences that I value as important points of influence on my work. The very thought of being tied to one place or one environment for too long strikes fear in my heart- I don t want to miss an experience in life that could be beneficial to my own goal of being a working artist, on wheels. I want to travel and interact with all levels of society, and allow the experiences gained from these different cultural interactions to influence my work, and be able to make the artwork in the setting that has influenced it. My goal is a mobile studio / dwelling / lifestyle. The idea of bringing my studio with me from place to place is my American Dream. I am challenged to examine my own lifestyle, and the everpresent topic of contemporary culture versus traditional ideologies.! I utilize the experience gained from never getting too comfortable in one place (being able to pack-up and ship-out in one day) to inform the decisions I make within my work. My work is on wheels. The casters and wheels used are signifiers that hold true to my interest in mobility, as well as being elements that hold true to their intended function.! Much of my decision making in terms of material, subject, and issues of craftsmanship also relate to my upbringing. My grandfather was a ridiculously hard-working blue collar man who wanted so badly for me to emulate the things

9 4 he did. He would have me help him work on his beloved 1951 Kaiser-Frazer, but I was too under-skilled to be of use. I was too distracted by drawing in the dirt or misusing a tool, to understand his goal for me. It took years for me to realize that he wanted me to develop a firm set of skills that I could use later in life for employment, stability, and peace of mind. He was trying to instill into me the way of life that he knew, just as he had done for my father. It was about learning a skilled trade, and sticking with that to be able to buy a home, and raise a family.! I choose to work with common construction materials and the like, because they relate to my history of growing up in, and around, industrial environments. I have learned to use them both creatively and practically, and it is evident by the choices made throughout this body of work. I like to think that my grandfather would be proud of me for mastering the tools of many trades, and that is always in the back of my mind when I m in the studio. I have regretted not having an interest in learning skilled trades when he was alive. When I was introduced to making three-dimensional work, to making sculpture, something sparked in my mind. I realized I could do both- learn materials and processes that would be useful in everyday situations as well as allow my creative stance to be satisfied as an artist.! Combining working class trade skills and materials with art is obviously not new- it was the artists of the early twentieth century that opened the door to that. There are other influences on my work, but I would say the beginning of

10 5 conceptual art in the early 1900 s with Marcel Duchamp, all the way to 1960 s Minimalism with works by Richard Serra, Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt are at the top of the list. Much of my previous work offered commentary on everyday, contemporary situations in life ranging from self-centered statements of what it is to be an artist in today s society to broader more generalized evaluations of contemporary topics like economic downfall and consumerism. The actuality of experiencing something is the very best point of departure for research and my work has always been deeply personal. I make work that communicates personal experiences that people can relate with because they are everyday occurrences in life. The moment of stepping outside yourself and assessing your own situation is interesting to me because I suspect most people do this consciously or intuitively. I also want the everyday working person to see the everyday situations that are visually and physically imbedded in my work. I use everyday building materials in their intended form and function to create images of specific situations in contemporary society. I see this as an important bridge between my concepts and any viewer. I have had plumbers, carpenters, and bankers, alike, approach me to express appreciation for my work because they understood what was going on.! My own transiency and overall discomfort with the idea of settling down is the primary conceptual influence on my current work, but definitely not the only source. As mentioned before, Minimalist practices of the 1960 s have always been an influence that is somehow pulled into my work. I define objects by

11 6 giving just enough information to allow for interpretation and recognition of the subject. There is an elegance and sophistication to the straight forward design principles of Minimalist practice that has always been attractive to me. I am not interested in excessive decoration, although it sometimes is employed in my work as an element to contrast with certain simplified forms. The materials and processes used are commonplace and industrial. The link between Minimalist practice and my work lies in the use of reduced or simplified forms to clearly communicate my subject matter. The forms I create are hard-edged and geometric and could be seen as stylized images of existing objects. There is a functionality, a level of craftsmanship that is of utmost importance to me, along with a clear and concise communication of form. Another visual influence that isn t at the immediate forefront of my creative process, but should perhaps be mentioned, is Russian Constructivism s self-evident use of materials. Many of the structural components in this body of work are fabricated with steel. I don t try to hide this other than with a coat of paint or welds that are ground down.! Another underlying influence in my work is consumerism. As contemporary consumer culture shovels the importance of material possessions our way, and links them with social identity, we are spiraling away form our core roots as a society. We have turned into a society that believes more in happiness through material possessions than the value of family, health, and well-being as a community.

12 7! The forms I create resemble basic utilitarian vehicles- hand trucks, carts, and dollies. I also utilize shipping crates and boxes that almost serve as vitrines, showcasing objects and interior spaces of varying value. Combined, these signify a sense of mobility and transiency, and present a blending of social classes. They communicate the notion of not being steadfast, or planted, and the vulnerabilities of remaining temporary.! I have chosen to title my works in the order of their creation and under the title of the exhibition, itself, because of their direct relationship with each other and with the overall concept. There is a duality in regard to the title of the exhibition paired with the concept, and to the actual act of installing the works for the exhibition that I found to be a part of my own sense of humor. As I was fabricating these forms in the studio, and after one the more important acts within my process of attaching the wheels or casters, it became much easier to move the unfinished works from place to place. It was the moment when it became clear to me that every piece should share the title. It made perfect sense.! The very first piece of this body of work, titled You Don t Have To Carry It Around If Its On Wheels [Fig. 1], which is also the title of the exhibition, offers a minimalist form with hard lines and utilizes open space. The overall form is intended to communicate the standard shape of a U-Haul truck, complete with their signature Mom s Attic space. There is an interior space, like that of an empty residence, displaying a bare wood floor that joins with floor moulding, and then a piece of painted drywall. The viewer immediately recognizes these

13 8 interior forms, and is able to begin an assessment of the work, or even begin their own narrative of what it might represent. The two casters on one end do exactly what they are meant to do, all the while reinforcing the idea of mobility within the work. There are many elements that are recontextualized throughout this body of work, although their function remains the same. My decision to put everything on wheels, or utilize casters and wheels to suggest mobility within the work, is crucial for the communication of my concept to the viewer.! The second piece, titled You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number 2 [Fig. 3,4,5], is in the form of an over-sized hand truck with what would appear to be two stacked crates on it. The interior space resembles that of another empty rental property and constructed using cheap interior building materials. I chose to construct this interior with small, and almost unnoticeable, flaws to reference the commonality of rushed work within almost any rental property that I have lived in. There are flaws in the craftsmanship as there are flaws in my idea of remaining mobile, but they are both seemingly livable. The scale of the hand truck itself was increased to add an awkwardness. While it might seem anchored despite having wheels and handles, I can assure you that it is, in fact, moveable and difficult to navigate through standard corridors and doorways. This adds to the peculiarity of the form and to my concept. The wheels used for this piece are over-sized inflatable wheelbarrow wheels that offer a sense of utilitarian purpose. They are painted black to unify with the black

14 9 painted steel form, bringing the suggested form of a hand truck together as a whole.! In three of the five pieces in this body of work, there is an image of the house that I grew up in embedded into the form. Within Number 2, I chose to simply frame the original photograph and hang it on the interior wall of the form. This image [Fig. 6] is relevant to my concept because of the year it was taken This is the year I was born and also the year my parents bought the house. This is the house I refer to when I state that I am hesitant to call any dwelling a home except for this one, so I found it necessary to include this image in several works. The third piece under this concept is titled You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number 3 [Fig. 7,8]. My decision to partially break away from the direct visual relationship to the previous two pieces was to address other issues within the idea of moving around from place to place. I allowed myself to stray from my usual practice of precise planning and execution to making decisions based on the singular idea of being ridiculous. This idea came to me as I thought about how uneconomical, both financially and physically, it is to move around from place to place every couple of years. Number 3 is the form of a crate on a hand truck that is positioned horizontally on the floor. The crate is cracked open in a very stylized, almost cartoonish manner, as is the form of the hand truck that it rests upon. My decision to portray this as a stylized break in the material as opposed to a more realistic one is to convey a

15 10 sense of individuality in the work and the partial concept. There is a lamp on the interior of the crate with an ornate lamp shade, and the lamp is lit. The idea that surrounds the decision to have an ornately decorated lamp shade is to provide a contrasting element to the raw wood of the crate, as well as to contrast my own taste. It was difficult for me to shop for an ornate object and decorate it myself. This decision was made to take me out of my own comfort zone, and provide an awkward experience for myself in having to shop for lace, beads, and tassels. The lamp cord that provides the power to light the bulb is functional and is an absurd length of eighty feet long. It is wrapped around the crate and hand truck to suggest an abnormal means of securing the crate to the hand truck, and also creates a slight level of viewer interaction as they must step over it to walk all the way around the piece.! Within the fourth piece of this body of work, titled You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number 4 [Fig. 9, 10, 11], the formal decisions I chose to make closely follow the overall aesthetic of Number 2. There is a defined interior space that is unified with the forms of utilitarian objects- a four wheel cart, and stacked crates. The floor of the interior space, that is treated with carpeting, sharply contrasts the deck of the four-wheel cart, despite sharing the same spacial plane. I chose to visually meld these two flat surfaces together to further suggest the notion of mobility, in that the deck of a cart relates to the floor of an interior space in this context. The wallpaper was digitally constructed using the same image of my family s home that is utilized in Number 2. It was

16 11 reproduced and sequentially inverted to create a pattern and the image is only recognizable once the viewer is close enough to study the wallpaper in detail [Fig. 11]. My decision to include this image in several different pieces brings to light the nostalgia within my concept. The house, itself, is common enough in terms of Midwest-American architecture that it can be related to by the everyday person. It is crucial for my work to be related to or understood by a broad audience, as well as by my peers and colleagues.! Another formal decision within Number 4, was to stack these sections of an interior space in such a way that the viewer is drawn to walk around the piece. They are precariously staggered to suggest a separation that contrasts with the visual unity of an interior space. The composition moves the viewer around the piece, with open sections that are cut off by the flat planes that resemble crates. It shifts the attention from one element to another, which further emphasizes a notion of movement throughout the piece.! The use of casters in this piece holds true to the overall theme, as with every other piece in this body of work. However, instead of painting the surface of them in such a way to visually connect with the rest of the piece, I chose to leave the galvanized surface alone. This decision allows the casters to stand apart from the rest of the form and draws the attention of the viewer to their metallic surface. After much contemplation of whether or not to paint them, I decided to allow this very important element of my work to be exactly what is, right off the shelf. This is a significant move in the development of this piece and

17 12 allowed me to further explore the idea of utilizing products and objects directly from their point of purchase and exactly how they are sold. It made me consider the expectations we have in a such a consumer-based society.! The next object I chose from right off the shelf was a flush-mount ceiling light fixture. Again, I had considered finding an ornate and somewhat expensive chandelier, but realized that in my experiences in and out of rental properties, almost every item in each interior was the cheapest, most generic product available. It only seemed right to adhere to these expectations as well.! The final piece, titled You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels, Number 5 [Fig. 12,13], is the interior wall of a residential space that is strapped to a conventional hand truck. This work is the result of thoughts about my experiences with moving around every couple of years, and the hardships and nuances of doing so. I chose to utilize the idea of another uncanny situation- a large object to be moved by a tiny one. This could have been pushed to an absurd point by using an extremely scaled-down hand truck strapped to an enormous object, but I chose a slightly more realistic approach. The hand truck is life-sized, and the so is the wall. The objects used are all life-sized- the vanity, sink, mirror, and so on are all exactly what they are. My intent to leave everything true to scale was to further the reality within my concept. It starts to become clear that something is awry when the viewer understands that you re not supposed to bring the walls with you. You are not supposed to strap a hand truck to a wall. This speaks of my acknowledgement of the illogicality within my

18 13 decision to remain mobile and transient, and tells a story of the difficulties therein.! All of the forms in this body of work that represent utilitarian vehicles are stripped of any unnecessary visual information. They are integrated with common building materials and everyday items and become sculptural objects. The intent of these sculptures is to convey the reality of changing times, the weight of deciding which path in life to take, and what that means in contemporary society. My work has evolved from singular situations that the everyday person cannot relate with, to everyday situations that most everyone can relate with, to a combination of both.! You Don t Have To Carry It Around If It s On Wheels depicts one person s viewpoint on an issue that has been growing and changing as our society does. The American Dream is an ideal that can only be communicated as something that is ever-changing. There are many who still believe in the traditional idea of settling down in one place. There is also a growing number of people that, as the times change, are content with the notion of remaining mobile and free to explore the diversities within our shifting culture. I am one of those people, and this body of work solidifies my belief in the American Dream on wheels.!!

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