COLOR CODED

Public space is often designed using color to assign function or use.

Frank Bruggeman is a Dutch artist who applies nature as his main material. This also means that which is not nature, our self-designed environment, in contrast is equally important. The varieties in the latter are equalized by using a typical kind of blue color. In this manner the sculptures, installations and design objects by Bruggeman usually consist of plants or organic material in combination with blue sprayed objects, quiet often tools or industrial furniture. They results in a magnified tension between nature and man-made object.

Frank Bruggeman, 'The Everywhere Tooltrolley' (2011)

Frank Bruggeman, 'Dutchscape Nomad #3' (2007)

Frank Bruggeman, 'Catalpa' (2007)

NUCLEAR DIY

Last week Richard Handl from Ängelholm, Sweden was arrested for trying to cook up his own nuclear reaction on his kitchen stove. He posted reports on his blog Richard's Reactor.

In his blog Handl reassures us that he's not the first one trying to build a DIY nuclear reactor.

The result he was going for must have been something like Olaf Brzeski's installation 'Little Boy': a livingroom nuclear explosion.

Olaf Brzeski, 'Little Boy' (detail) (2006)

[Brzeski's work 'Dream - Spontaneous Combustion' (2008) can be seen in the exhibition The Power Of Fantasy in Bozar in Bruxelles at the moment]

However, homemade nuclear exlosions seem to be 'the thing' at the moment:

SEALING KIT

To make our modern buildings look like tight minimalistic objects and our cities as transparent as air, sealing kit and mirrored glass are the architects and city planners favourite materials. Of course - and maybe in consequence - the DIY-er knows his way around with sealing kit and glass foil - the new idiom of the art of building - as well.

The Turkish artist duo :mentalKLINIK reflects and questions our relation with the surrounding objects. In the 'Silver' series they have made panels of foiled glass, sealed with kit in their frames. The series 'Bias' and a work like 'Turnup' consists of anodic oxidised aluminium strips kitted togther with pink sealing kit.
These objects remind us of minimal art like Dan Graham's or Donald Judd's. On the other hand they might just as well be glass panes from a modern office building, with green polymer sealing kit pouring out of their frames.

:mentalKLINIK, 'Silver (06,07)', 2009

:mentalKLINIK, 'Turnup', 2009

TOOL BOX

Dan Peterman, conceptual DIY-artist with an ecologist's mind, makes sculptures and installations mostly from recycled consumer plastic.

The 'Carrying Case', an early work, is from before the use of recycled plastic. The 'Storage' sculpture refers to storage space in wholesale hardware stores, while the 'Nailless Bench' is proof of the designer's mind.

Dan Peterman, 'W/ Carrying Case 500 Series - Red, Handle On Case, Unidentified' (1988-1989)

Dan Peterman, '4-Ton Vertical Storage' (1996)

Dan Peterman, 'Nailless Bench' (2009)

Find more on Dan Peterman's work in the Fitness Feedback blog.

POWER TOOLS

The Power Tool, as everybody knows, is an extention of masculinity and manhood.

Rubén Ortiz Torres, a Mexican artist living in L.A., U.S.A., portraits stereotypes of the Mexican immigrant in his Pan-American relation to "the American citizen".

Mexicans in California are usually destined to manual labor like gardening or window washing. The macho Chicano is also known for his lowrider: the shiny pimped classic car with hydraulic suspension, sitting low above the ground.

Torres's sculptures and installations combine the power tool of the low-income job (like leaf blowers and lawn mowers) with the hydraulics and polished chrome of the lowrider. These sculptures not only portrait Mexican culture within the U.S.A. but also comment on their political-social relationship.
To read the interesting story behind the pimped leaf-blowers on Torres's own blog follow this link.


Rubén Ortiz Torres, 'Power Tools (detail)', (1999)


Rubén Ortiz Torres, 'Power Tools (detail)', (1999)


Rubén Ortiz Torres, 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' (2002)


Rubén Ortiz Torres, '1492 Indians vs. Dukes' (1993)

SELFMADE/READYMADE

What if every subject has been turned into object? Nothing left but to turn the tools used in this proces into subject themselves.
This might be a simplified explanation of the installation work 'Tisch' ('Table') by Swiss duo artist Fischli/Weiss.
Fischli/Weiss's work is known for their relativism: photo's of non-descript airports, cause-action videos, objects in dangerous balance, concrete moulded 'landscapes'.
'Tisch' looks like the content of their studio being transfered 'as-is' to the museum floor. However, every bit in the installation is a polyurethane reproduction of these objects.
Leaning towards the readymade, the existentialism in their work goes further then that. The bold reflection in a work like 'Tisch' or 'Airport' questions our surroundings deeper then just their superficial easthetics.
In 'Tisch' the readymade is reproduced to represent the tools and materials used in the making: a mirror inside a mirror.




Fischli/Weiss, 'Tisch' (1992-ongoing)

HOME IMPROVEMENT

Gordon Matta-Clark's installations of cut-up buildings could easily have been mistaken for a do-it-yourself home improvement project wrong.

Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978), who had studied architecture in university, knew exactly the possibilities and restrictions of his unorthodox sculptural material. Interesting to see how in one project he would only touch the skin of the architecture leaving the structure in tact (e.g. 'Conical Intersect') and in another cut through structure (e.g. 'Splitting') leaving an unbalanced building.
Whatever approach he used it altered both the concept of building and surrounding in his own urban interpretation of "Earth Art".

Being a member of the Anarchitecture group Matta-Clark's work is filled with social engagement. Not only in the use of derelict buildings and leftover urban spaces but also in works like 'Garbage Wall': a homeless shelter, or 'Fresh-Air Cart': a sculptural pamflet about air-polution.

His diy-approach can further be seen in projects like Food, a restaurant run be artists and a cultural meeting place in Soho, NY.


Gordon Matta-Clark, 'Self Portrait' (1972)


Gordon Matta-Clark, 'Conical Intersect' (1975)


'Splitting' (1974)


Gordon Matta-Clark, 'Fresh-Air Cart' (1972)