In Sculpture magazine, there is an advertisement for AZB, an art atelier that casts bronze, makes molds, etc., etc. Their promo picture is one of Tom Sachs' 18' tall Hello Kitty sculptures. The atelier is based out of Tempe, AZ.
While on a walking tour of "curtain wall" buildings along Park Ave., I saw five of these sculptures in the courtyard of the Lever House. I don't know much about Mr. Sachs, but if I had to describe his work in one word it would be "fun".
In front of the Lever House were more large, public sculptures. This time by Japanese ceramic artist Jun Kuneko, who had his own exhibit at the KMA last fall. Kuneko makes large heads, roughly 5' to 6' tall, which are one piece fired in a large kiln. The firing takes several days. Kuneko's pieces are also kind of "fun"!
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Well I went back to that area and discovered more sculptures.......large scale replicas of a once famous lamp by le Corbusier, and skateboard quarter pipe ramps, all out of bronze. I also found a statement taped to the window. It talked about how he replicated common objects that represent consumerism, etc......but by making them large scale it changes the context and way we look at them. So basically it's pop art in 2008. I was a little disappointed by his ideas, personally, I guess because that seems to be SUCH a frequent conversation among art. While i was standing there a woman came up to me and asked if I understood the work. I said sometimes the point is just to ask questions, whether or not you like the image. She proceeded to talk about how the role of the curator is to educate and lately with what she'd seen at that location there was none of it happening. She told me how she is a student at Columbia for archeology and they really push completing the ....rationalism? (they want to make sense of everything)....anyway she talked to me for about 15 minutes about art and New York and exhibits. Whether or not I enjoy Mr. Sachs' work, looking at it drew a stranger in to want to talk about it and holy shit if that isn't the wonderful thing about art then I don't know what is.
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