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KAARINA KAIKKONEN
Kaikkonen is a leading Finnish artist who uses simple, everyday objects to create huge installations that reflect the spaces in which they are placed. She is best known for using second hand clothes, often men's shirts.
"Kaarina Kaikkonen uses simple, everyday objects such as second-hand clothing, toilet paper and women’s shoes, to create large-scale installations that articulate the architectural or open space in which her works are sited. She is best known for several major works using hundreds of discarded men’s jackets, which have a highly charged and personal significance for her. Though ambiguous in meaning, her works evoke associations of personal loss, collective memory, and local history."
I can admire the work for exploring the use of unusual materials within sculpture. The sheer size and quantity is impressive and shows how the multiplication of an object can install beauty into something that isn't normally considered that. The problem I have with the work is that I cant help but see wastage, and wonder where the clothes came from, and what's happening to them after.
I can imagine her thought process behind the sculptures. Collectively clothing can be fascinating and attractive, but each individual shirt holds a personal story. I think if there was an ecological side to her sculptures I would be more excited to read into the connotations.
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JIM ARENDT
Arendt is an artist that uses old and worn clothes to create portraits of people he knows. He chooses to represent family members, not as they are now, but how he remembers them.
"Denim was created to be abused, worn out, patched, stained, and burnt through with hot sparks. Its characteristics are mirrored in the individuals I choose to represent."His work I find incredibly inspiring. My whole life I've collected old clothes, especially ones that carried a memory or were made from a material I liked. I see them in uses other than clothing but I struggle to cut them up and detach the items from their former purpose. This work has made me think about ways I can now use these hoardings to develop their meaning and use as clothes, but within a 'painting' instead of on a body.
"I use art making as a way to investigate how the division of labor and alienation from work has impacted individual lives. My early engagement with work that was whole and undivided has left me with a persistent feeling that our present economic configuration has disenfranchised most of us from the finest use of our skills."I prefer the style of making he's used in the top image. By showing the seams and full pieces of jeans, it's more explanatory of the method he's used and feels most like a finished piece rather than a solitary figure. I've chosen the three images of his I feel are most interesting. The rest were just solitary figures made from jeans, but these three have more of a story within them. He's been more adventurous with composition and content which makes you want to learn more about the characters portrayed.
Yvette and Ainsley
Firecracker/Harper
