Following on the “This is America” thread and video what is the most thought provoking art you have seen and why?
This is Tim
[url=https://flic.kr/p/21H7oTQ]IMG_0595.jpg[/url] by Mike Smith, on Flickr
The first time I saw him was about 6 years ago, walking through the gallery there were some incredible Pig Skins with intricate tattoos on them mounted in frames
After looking at the detail you moved into the next room and there was Tim looking out of the window, sat perfectly still listening to music through his headphones. As you read the description
Tim has agreed to carry the tattoo and after he dies it belongs to a collector as a piece of art. He has sold his skin.
Boom – it started to hit all sorts of thoughts about our attachment and sentimentality over out bodies after death, weather that be organ donation, medical science, art or simply how what is left is disposed of. How does 80kg or human meat differ from 80kg of Pork?
I’ve seen Tim exhibited for want of a better phrase off and on over the last 6 years, always just sat there staring into space.
The other is Sidney Nolan’s the Snake
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JUGuKB]IMG_1041[/url] by Mike Smith, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/23RCj5x]IMG_1037[/url] by Mike Smith, on Flickr
Simple, beautiful and carrying so much depth, it’s has an effect on me every time I see it, partly with the scale and impact it has from a distance but the details and subject up close are moving
At first glance it’s just a sculpture of a whale, nice enough. Then you realise it’s made of bits of plastic collected from the ocean. It’s at the Monterey sea place.
Sorry it’s probably a bit ‘easy access’ for this thread, but I still find Gormley’s Angel of the North one of the most startlingly moving pieces I have ever seen.
SaxonRider it’s had a big impact on my as it was the sight that I associate with returning home, was on the wrong side of the plane last time. coupled with Another Place at Crosby http://www.antonygormley.com/sculpture/item-view/id/230 they are both powerful pieces just to be absorbed by
Mrs Stoner and I always wanted a Prentice having seen his work in a gallery in Malvern years ago. Unfortunately at the time, starting a family and working on the new house we couldnt stretch to it. Some years later he passed away and his works became even more expensive. But a final retrospective by his gallery a few years ago was an opportunity we couldnt miss. We finally could get hold of one.
well in that case post something that provokes a reaction from you and tell us why. It’s good to see why things mean something to people – no wrong answers in art really.
Quite a few for me… a couple spring straight to mind. One at the Tate – photos of a year in confinement. Artist took a photo a day – displayed them on a wall… er the whole thing from the performance art of the confinement to the display of the photos.. pretty special and stuck with me. Just looked it up! Still there, saw it ages ago..
Many years ago I saw this in the flesh at the Palazza Rosso in Genoa. I was dumbstruck and sat in front of it for an hour. This is a terrible photograph of it. The reds were intense. It’s a 5′ x 8′ piece of work.
Giovan Francesco Barbieri il Guercino – Cleopatra morente
I was in Glasgow 2 years ago and there was an exhibition with a reconstruction of the Dutch Lockerbie trial court room and some items from there. I found it very disturbing.
I dont have a favourite, not sure if possible. But The Stonebreaker’ by Henry Wallis provokes many thoughts. When young I first saw it in person, assuminot to be simply a snoozing man after a hard day’s work. I was lucky enough then to have someone explain the significance of the weasel at his foot. Then it all came rushing in.