Assemblage (art)

Assemblage (art)

above; 'Canyon',  1959,  by Robert Ruaschenberg

This week I’m going to show some examples of ‘assemblage art’.  Just prior to the Easter break the tutor from the art class I go to asked us to collect objects over the Easter holidays and create our own assemblage art with them after the break. I wasn’t familiar with the term, but I did know of art works that were made from different objects and images and so I had a rough idea of what was expected. I’ve really enjoyed the process, its not something I’ve ever tried before and its opened up whole new ways of seeing and thinking for me.
Anyway…………first a little of what Wikipedia has to say about ‘Assemblage Art and then a few examples of it.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects.

The origin of the artform dates to the cubist constructions of Pablo Picasso. The origin of the word (in its artistic sense) can be traced back to the early 1950s, when Jean Dubuffet created a series of collages of butterfly wings, which he titled assemblages d'empreintes. However, both Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso had been working with found objects for many years prior to Dubuffet. They were not alone. Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin creates his "counter-reliefs" in the middle of 1910s. Alongside Tatlin, the earliest woman artist to try her hand at assemblage was Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, the Dada Baroness. In addition, one of the earliest and most prolific was Louise Nevelson, who began creating her sculptures from found pieces of wood in the late 1930s.

Read more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assemblage_%28art%29

( above) Contemporary environmental assemblage art wall work, made from found driftwood objects. Abstract recycled art created from driftwood collected from Australian beaches by John Dalhsen.

(above) Art by Judy Vartan, Hand-cast paper assemblage


(above) Self-Inflicted Wounds
Social Political Assemblage; Mixed media assemblage by John Robertson
From the artist about the work;
‘’I've always loved black paint and have used
it a lot in my work. But I have never used it
for the whole object d'Art. Here it really adds
something to the political message of this piece.
Size is 11" x 11" x 1" , black paint, wood, plastic,
metal toys’’

more examples here.
http://fragileindustries.com/what_is_assemblage_art.html



And this is what I came up with, it’s entitled ‘Bringing the Holiday Home’. This is  made from a small suitcase that looks like any other small case suitable for traveling and taking on holiday. The idea is that; instead of coming home and opening your case to find dirty laundry and a half empty bottle of sun tan cream, you open it and find you’ve brought the holiday home with you.


I ripped out the lining of the case and covered the inside with images that I took while I was away. Once the images were dry I glued various objects from the holiday into the case.

The whole thing sits on a small block of wood that is covered in pages ripped from a French text book.

 The luggage ticket is actually a photo of the window in my sisters house and the wording on the ticket describes the work. This is the first time I've tried any thing like this but I think I'll be trying it again.

Song Saturday; Crosby Stills Nash and Young

Easy listening for a lovely sunny afternoon.

Garden 2012 no 9

Garden 2012 no 9

My cactus is flowering AGAIN, this is the first time it has EVER flowered twice in one year.

I think there was torrential rain for the whole of the three weeks I was away. Wetlands are a precious natural environment but not one I  expected to find in my garden.
By the time I arrived home, the water barrel was actually overflowing,

 my early potatoes had black and damaged leaves,

some of the pots were more suitable for aquatic life than seedlings

and the geraniums, which I grow as a pest deterrent and had put out  the day before I left, looked dead.

But on the plus side, the pond is doing well. There are tadpoles a plenty

and mother frog can be seen sitting at the bottom of the pond keeping an eye on things.

The wild area behind the pond has thrived in the wet weather. This is the area I intend to cultivate and use for more veg plus raspberry canes. Raspberry is the only soft fruit I don’t have and I’m running out of space which is why I’m reclaiming this little bit of land. I’m going to wait until all the bulbs have finished and relocate them before I dig this small corner of the garden. I love the way it’s so wild and does its own thing, but I need the space.

Not every thing suffered in the rain, the radishes are great,

delicious in fact and all the vegetables seem to be doing well.

The rosemary is in bloom,

you can smell it as soon as you enter the garden,

and the strawberry plants already have lots of flowers.

This plant, which I think is a Heuchera, is bigger brighter and all together better than when I left.

I missed most of these little guys ( fritillaria)

but looks like I’m in time for these  bigger guys (Allium).
In fact most of the spring flowers seem to be doing well,

some of the bluebells are out already,

the first forgetmenots have appeared, and the

primroses are still flowering. The London Pride is looks better already than it did during the whole of last year.

When I took this the honey bee was happily gathering pollen, it wasn’t until I saw it on the computer that I realised she had taken off and was heading for the next available pollen when I clicked.

Now all I need is a couple of dry hours over the weekend to sort those waterlogged pots and put some more bark around my soft fruit canes.

Art Sunday; Herve Loilier, French contemporary painter

Hervé Loilier.

I was wondering what to do for this weeks Art Sunday, I wanted something that was vaguely French but I wasn’t sure exactly what.
And then I came across this man. He is French, he works mostly in France and his work has a touch of the exotic.
His subject matter doesn’t seem to be at all French, but the feel of the work  is.

Hervé Loilier was born in Paris in 1948. From 1965 he studied at the  Jullian Academy, then  in 1967 he entered the  Ecole Polytechnic where he obtained his diploma in 1970.
After that he joined the third year students at the National College of Decorative Arts.
He doesn’t just paint what he sees…………he paints its soul.

16 year old twins defraud US investors out of millions.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-twins-charged-stock-fraud-020121337.html

Am I the only one who finds this mildly amusing?...............
A pair of 16 year old lads, twins in fact,  from Newcastle on Tyne, set up an online scam and defrauded American investors, including stock promoters, of an estimated 1.2 million U S dollars, plus at least an additional 1.86 million US dollars in fees from stock promoters, for their stock touting services.
I don’t know where these lads went to school, but where ever it was a whole lot of learning obviously took place. I mean, I can’t help thinking that those who deal and stocks etc, are pretty dumb, or the whole system is total crap, or the lads are pure genius.

Song saturday...........music from France

And, in keeping with my mood, here is some music with a distinctively French feel.............