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Alan Baker, Untitled 1,2, 2013, Animal Trace Drawings
these are two drawings which have been created by other creatures through leaving a piece of plastic bored outside with black pigment covering the board and allowing nature to take its corse by leaving a trace. the first drawing is a pigeons foot prints and the second is a worm trail, when displaying i would have them with the bird one first and the worm last as if you have the predator chasing its prey which in this case creates a narrative within these particular works.
Tony Cragg, Stack, 1975, Cube made from found objects and materials
The inspiration for the bug house came from looking at one of Tony Cragg earlier works called Stack made in 1975. Most of Craggs earlier works are made from a wide range of found objects and material found around the house and construction sites and sometimes even buried, which raises important questions on mankind’s impact on nature. The piece (Stack) is made from a multitude of found objects and matireal, for example wood, concrete, brick, plastic, paper, card and bits of textiles, which have been tightly packed together to form a solid cube. When I first came across this particular work, for some reason it was screaming out to me that this could be a habitat for small creatures like insects and rodents, but the situation of the piece being in a gallery seem to be more focused on the geometry of the objects and the materials. However in the construction of my piece, Untitled, constructed insect house I have focused on the wildlife interest at heart first and what materials and object will best suit their needs. but there seems to be know reason from looking at Tony Craggs work that it to could be a house for creatures.
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Alan Baker, 2013, Insect House
As well as my Bird Houses, I thought about creating an insect house made from material found around my garden and house. The structure is made from cut timber and is hollow through the centre. In-between each gap of the timber there a verity of different objects that have been reorganized to fit between the spaces, for instance, bricks, stones, tiles, wooden logs and bamboo to recreate the perfect environment for insects and other small creatures.
Henrik Håkansson
An Introduction to the Birds
In his former works Henrik Håkanssons (born 1968 in Helsingborg) focussed on unspectacular behaviour patterns of hardly noticed insects or small animals and uncontrolled growth. The exposition in Esslingen now puts into perspective the observation of exotic and endangered birds species. Around the Indonesian Balistar, for instance, Henrik Håkansson is developing a composition of cinematic and acoustic circuits, photographs and text documents and thereby establishes a complex system of artistic reality. A strategy of observation mostly supported by machinery and of performance prevents each kind of nature sentimentality and rather picks out subversive controlling policy in modern societies as a central theme.
“An Introduction to the Birds” completes an open series of projects in Villa Merkel (Mark Dion, Lois & Franziska Weinberger), which scrutinised the questions if we are basically able to conceptualise a picture of nature.
The exposition “An Introduction to the Birds” arose in co-operation with the Bonner Kunstverein and Stichting de Appel in Amsterdam. It is supported by IASPIS.
http://old.likeyou.com/archives/henrik_hakansson_merkel_04.htm#english
http://www.themoderninstitute.com/artists/10/selected-solo-exhibitions/2002
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Alan Baker, 2013, Luxury Bird House 2, Bird House made from Canvas Stretcher Parts.
Alan Baker, 2013, Luxury Bird House, Bird house Made from Gold Framming
I thought about reintroducing some of these animals into my practice, in particular birds that prey upon insects, by creating a few bird boxes, which are works of art in them self’s. With this in mind I thought about creating them out of other materials that are used in other art mediums from around the art school, for instance wood from canvas stretchers or cut-offs from gold picture frames. I also started to construct a bird’s nest out of frames as well but I found it hard to construct as it kept falling apart when I tried to build it. Maybe I need to actually construct the nest within a tree as if I was the birds them selves? I find myself interested by the whole transformative aspect that surrounds these two pieces of work, the idea that I have taken a material that might be to do with a painter and then transforming it into something like a bird box, its almost like I have taken on the role of the scavenger like a bird for example searching for material to build my home.
Francis Alÿs, Gringo, 2003
Francis Alÿs (born 1959, Antwerp) is a Belgian artist. His work emerges in the interdisciplinary space of art, architecture, and social practice. After leaving behind his formal training as an architect and relocated to Mexico City, he has created a diverse body of artwork that explores urbanity, spatial justice, and land-based poetics. Employing a broad range of media from painting to performance, his works examine the tension between politics and poetics, individual action and impotence. Alÿs commonly enacts paseos—walks that resist the subjection of common space.[1] Alys reconfigures time to the speed of a stroll, making reference to the figure of theflâneur, originating from the work of Charles Baudelaire and developed by Walter Benjamin.[2] Cyclical repetition and return also inform the character of Alÿs’ movements and mythology—Alÿs contrasts geological and technological time through land-based and social practice that examine individual memory and collective mythology. Alÿs frequently engages rumor as a central theme in his practice, disseminating ephemeral, practice-based works through word-of-mouth and storytelling.
Alan Baker, Untitled, 2012, Living Worm Sculpture
the first thing i wanted to do with this particular sculpture is remove the compost sculpture and the worms from there natural environment which is why the sculpture is in my studio.how ever the piece didn’t particularly stay all within the shape of the rectangle before i put the worms the compost fell of the sides, in many way this act, sort of reminds how human beings are trying to simplify things when it comes down to nature in particular within our urban environments like cities for example but in many ways nature and particularly animals have there ways of bouncing back.
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