We visited the Chambers Hotel on Tuesday. It was both classy and fascinating. Most of the art was awesome, and I felt very underdressed. Cheryl asked the class to write about a piece that spoke to us.
The piece that I chose was called, "Other Thing" by Subodh Gupta. Other Thing was a massive sculptural piece. It intrigued me so much for the most part because it's something beautiful created from something so ordinary, kitchen tongs. It almost looks like an eight-foot tall silver pine cone protruding from the wall.
It was able to create a pattern using simple objects that transformed them into something not of this world. The concept of creating something truly beautiful from something so plain is an idea that fascinates me. Given the luminosity of the metal, the artist seems to have created a duo of pieces. The first aspect of the piece being the actual structure of the metal object itself, while the second half of the piece transforms the stark, white walls into something beautiful, by using the light that dances off the piece itself.
I also love pieces that pull the viewer in. The viewer is definitely drawn into this piece- mostly because the lines start in all different directions, and converge in the center.The vast enormity of the piece also plays a role. It could be a metaphor referring back to the peasantry- or rather that the lower class is small, unimportant.
The artist used the small, unimportant tongs to create something larger than life. He made it so the tongs surpassed the class that the tools were originally used for. It's always intriguing to see what will happen when something one wouldn't take a second glance at is transformed into something a person can't take his / her eyes off of.
