Assemblage

Featured image: Rosie Robot

I just sort of fell into creating some assemblage works of art for my exhibition at the Campanile. I started doing one, discovered I loved it and was having fun doing it, so I did another one. And another.

Then I began to think I was receiving a message and started to listen, to take the message seriously, and to research the concept of assemblage. Naturally, the idea of assemblage took hold in the 60’s with Duchamp and the rest of the abstract group, as I will call them for simplicity’s sake. But I really shouldn’t—they are all some of my very favorite artists, and they did so very much for art history, both good and bad.

Today I began to wonder differently about them. I used to think they were the ones who opened our minds to new ways of thinking about art. I have always thought that this was good. But today I began to wonder if it wasn’t also bad, because look at what we have for art today: nothing precious, nothing unique, nothing original.

Look at assemblage works of art—the work I am currently involved in. Much of it is social commentary. Is art now social commentary? Has social commentary won the battle and claimed art, the definition of art, and what art is today? Has art as social commentary offered a major shift in the artistic definition—from unique, individual expression to the discarded and overlooked? Art is no longer created, carved, or molded by the artist’s hands. In fact, the artist’s hands no longer need to be in the work, other than in the assemblage of the so-called artwork.

I can remember when the question came up about the artist’s hand being in the artwork when Jasper Johns was creating work, and that is why hands appeared all over his work for a long time. The question of what art was, and whether it was real art, flourished during the 60’s.

I prefer to think of my work as collage, and therefore more as art—but it is hard. I personally have to work very hard and think very hard to make sure I can call it art. I believe our culture is slowly losing its aesthetic, and I don’t want to contribute to that. But it is really hard.

Perhaps I think of the found objects as bringing that older culture back—remembering, and asking the younger generation not to let go of that aesthetic. Perhaps it is a futile task. Perhaps I should try to figure out what the new aesthetic is going to be. History, as it moves forward, is always a combination of the old and the new. I wonder what the message is that I am hearing?

You still have time to visit my exhibition, The Real, the Imagined, and Freedom. It is now on view at the Campanile Center for the Arts, Campanile Gallery in Minocqua, Wisconsin, and will remain open through March.