Kim Jones has a very interesting outlook on sculpture. The fact that he can transform into an alter ego is not something that you see/hear everyday. I thought that it was interesting that he uses mud from wherever he is. Mudman takes sculpture to the next level. It makes himself the art work which is a very intense thing to do. I thought it was crazy that he walked around from sunrise to sunset in this costume. It was probably very hot at times and very uncomfortable to carry around 150 pounds all day long. Jones says "...this is the way the world usually works: first it is my turn to eat something and kill something, then it is someone else's turn to eat me and kill m. I have my individual experiences. They seep out of my art." While this statement is very interesting it is also very creepy. I think that it is a very morbid way of looking at the food chain. In turn, its probably just a blunt and bold statement.
Michele
4 comments:
i meant do not see an alter ego everyday.
I agree with you, Michele, in the article. I really enjoy reading or finding out artists that think or create things in this way. I found it really interesting that he could become a part of his art. For most people, art is something done, or used as a tool to express something, but when the person becomes a part of the art, that is something entirely different. By him doing this, he also showed something about his art and art in general, and where it could be going. The fact that he walked around all day in this outfit, says something...it was probably hot, as you said, and uncomfortable...but he was taking his art to a new level, making it more than just a statement, but a burden to carry, a peice of him and he a peice of the art. He made me think about art in a different light. Art can be meant to be beautiful, or to say something, but it can also be an emotion, a feeling, a thing you put on, a reaction to something. It can be uncomfortable and hard to do, and his dedication to art in this sense is so different from what you normally see in most art. He was making a statement in his work, and by you writing that quote in, that is a part of what his art is doing, but he takes it past that level of making a statement and thus using art as a tool, but also making a part of his life, the very way of his thinking and how he views society today.
--Catie ("In the Making Reading")
Initially when I read about Kim Jones, I wasn't sure if what he was doing was well supported let alone convincing. I'm not saying that art need be supported by reasoning and explanation. Once I continued reading, things began to make sense.
The depth of his alter ego beyond perpetrator and victim, beyond good and evil; to the stories of Vietnam, were what captivated me most. His alter ego seemed to possess more layers, beyond the mud and symbolism, all thanks to his biography. His life really does "pour" through.
He was most certainly justified in doing his Mudman. Of course an outsider may not know why he's justified, may not know what he's been through.
Whether or not the audience knows, he is effective in bringing that "wildness" (be it "derangement, innocence, passion or hostility") into everyday normality. The messy, unsymetric, out-of-control embodiment is hard to miss, and very symbolic of what he has personally experienced.
I liked the reference to David as well. It's like Kim Jones is angry that there has been historical conquest of the weak. He seems to be against this idea, but was forced into it by becoming a soldier. The conquest was required. Because of this he battles himself, for becoming something he never wanted to become. It's that "pervasive battle" mentioned on 212.
I disliked his Rat Piece. There are many ways to capture vivid reality through creative means; burning rats isn't reality, it's cruel.
---stacy
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