SVA THESIS 2009 by Theodoros Zafeiropoulos

Plea se

School Of Visual Arts. Master in Fine Arts (MFA)

Please me Theodoros Zafeiropoulos Fulbright, Alexander S. Onassis and Gerondelis Foundations Scholar.

Thesis Advisor: David Row

NYC 2009

Index Inventory Introduction “The sense of Material”. “The process of transformation”. “Choosing the material”.

The 4 projects Please Insulate me Please Moisturize me Please Participate me Please Maintain me

Synopsis-Epilogue The process of formulating an idea.

Bibliography

PLEASE ME Introduction “The sense of material”. <Every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns, threatens to disappear irretrievably. Walter Benjamin,” Theses on the Philosophy of History”>

The ontological distinction between “Material” (nature) and “Creator” (humans) is basically related to the constructive dialogue that they can build, in order to establish and identify the differences between “Verity” and the importance of a contribution to a series of practices that are revaluating the contemporary methodology1 of producing an Artwork. My intention is to identify and develop the meaning of ‘sense to the material’ as the essential message and focusing field of my work during the last two years pursuing the MFA in the School of Visual Arts. Preserving “Verity to material” is initially a modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the significance of a set of practices that adapted cultural movements and tendencies of Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The artistic perception and activities that derived from wide-scale aesthetic and perceptional changes in the modernist period affected and prevented a reevaluation to the approach of "traditional" forms of art. Modernism revised its relationship or dialogue with the past and displaced dialectical efforts, which reflected, through art works and practices, the dynamics and the prosperity for new economic, social and political conditions occurring in an emerging fully industrialized world. I prefer the term “sense of material” to “verity to material” since verity to material implies conclusions describing more the results of examinations derive solely from the ontological examination of the material. “Sense of material” is a set of tendencies that can be identified culturally and biologically within the creative process. The material is not a inert follower, it is an active tool (a carrier). To my mind, the creator is not working with materials but instead interacts with them. <The most important relationship is, between the creator and the material that he is processing. Nietzsche> 1

“Hegel first determined that “An artistic quality created when the completed piece of art remains within the boundaries of the chosen branch of art and genre, while preserving the natural structure of the materials used in the creative process to the greatest possible extent.” The current paradigm is based on the assumption that the human is active and the material passive in the creative process”. (Füzesi Zsuzsa, p: 3, University of Pécs, Hungary. Department of Music and Visual Artshttp://www.art.pte.hu

The manner and meaning of working with a material, as well as its social status and ideological baggage vary across cultures, time and space. In our time the immaterial and virtual worlds created by digital technologies and the establishment of cyber society had fundamentally rearranged the artistic perception by the end of the 20th and beginning of 21st Century. The impressive technological and social advances that occurred in the industrial sector in the last 50 years affected and enriched possibilities, vocabulary and the range of use of “the medium” as an expressive tool. The contemporary artistic practice, now more than ever, continuously requires self-fulfillment through phases of self-discovery. The evaluation of this action as an artistic procedure must undeniably follow and reverse similarities of aesthetic, formal and conceptual qualifications that constantly transform and adapt to the needs and demands of the contemporary era. The use of media in Contemporary art must be a product of responsibility, refined reasoning, clarified hierarchy and structured intentions on behalf of the creator. The methodology of using a specific material must always be the primary referential example, the task of performing an ontological examination on itself in order to determine its social responsibilities and aesthetic functions. Based on the above variability I will try to determine, contributing in the vitality2 and guidance of vision through the use of personal experience and practice as the major (focus) example. My recent body of work, that is conditioned by a continuous reformulation, regarding the nature and the possibilities of transformation of matter, will always be the main point of reference. My practice, characterized by continuous research and the ambition to adapt accidental and conscious results while attempting to broaden its vocabulary, will be the base for each corresponding theoretical, aesthetical and conceptual placement.

“The process of transformation”. All four consequential projects produced during the last two years were designed and characterized by the same notion; to adapt a critical dialogue between materials and utility, substance and subject while exploring the meaning of existing space (artist’s studio) and adapting the methodology of evolution. Each project is the result of modification of a material from prior use with refined intentions and specific handling. Particular manipulation and transfiguration turned my process into an action of continuous recycling and arranging a great variety of formal, conceptual and aesthetic aspects. It is extremely difficult to analyze in advance (or predict the reasons) that prompt me to contribute to the development of this situation. What is absolutely certain at the current point is my general interest in observing and familiarizing my practice with specific aspects that are created through progressive research and continuous modifications on my ideas. I am observing and documenting each stage of my process in order to evaluate and put together the pieces of the puzzle into a narrative. This aspect of progressive modification stands under the narrative of a 2

“The allegorical function of art ought to be to provide a mechanism by which the conflicts that confront societies -”individual well-being vs. general wellbeing may be proposed and then indefinitely deferred”. (Craig Owens, The Allegorical Impulse, Toward a theory of Postmodernism Part 2, "October" 13, Summer 1980, reprinted in "Beyond Recognition", Craig Owens, U Cal Press, 1992, p 80).

“poetic”3 manner –with the Greek meaning of ποιω = make, create- that refers linguistically to the epistemology of an action with time line, plot, main characters and an ending. In all four different stages of transformation my main concern was to engage viewers as active collaborators and “eyewitness martyrs” of my practice. The developing interactive artistic procedure has become my guideline and the womb where the references and input construct a broad structured platform, which is able to embed my practice and embody a clear definition of how the failure of material can be translated into the beginning of a new idea. As initial starting point, my decision to use duct-tape, (a common commercial material, related with a wide variety of applied human activities) focused my practice to relate the artistic production with a number of similar sources of facts and evidences (writings, newspaper articles, essays and criticisms) in order to reach further areas of interest and build a connection with related scientific fields (anthropology, sociology, architecture). All four projects are intended to create a dialogue with the viewer using multiple layers of perspective data while attempting to cover allegorically4 certain enigmatic areas (permanent housing, smell of ruins, social contribution, socialization, maintenance, law and order. Some of the questions that these projects are intended to answer are how the process affects the content and the substance of a materialized thought. In each particular project the use of the material is closely related with specific research and referential examples5 that derive from the form and content. The primary material through continuous transformation becomes a tool and carrier of multiple, diverse human and natural characteristics. Each particular handling of the material reflects the agony and the desire to contribute with a series of performing activities and compose different viewing angles in order to create a significant dialogue with the viewer and determine its motivations and conceptual background. The importance of constant 3

“Adopting an indication of Paul Valery and generalizing it in the entirety of arts, even in the human behavior, Ramon Passeron proposes to name poetic “the total of the studies that deals with the consolidation of work” (Passeron, 1989, pg. 13). According to the virtue itself, poetic (poietique) ensures the “philosophical promotion of the sciences of art ”pg.16), contrary to those that are satisfied to admire or to analyze their final products. (Matters of Aesthetics, editions Nisos, Athens 2000. pg.107) 4

Allegory is consistently attracted to the fragmentary, the imperfect, the incomplete -- an affinity which finds its most comprehensive expression in the ruin, which Walter Benjamin identified as the allegorical emblem par excellence. Here the works of man are reabsorbed into the landscape ["Place"]; ruins thus stand for history as an irreversible process of dissolution & decay, a progressive distancing from origin."(Craig Owens, The allegorical impulse, Toward a theory of Postmodernism "October" 12 Spring 1980, reprinted in "Beyond Recognition", Craig Owens, U Cal Press, 1992) 5

“Everything” assumes initially a structure and shape that allow it to adjust to changes and hence continue to exist. This is a characteristic common to everything, a general “will” that aims to preserve matter. Therefore, whenever I say “matter”, I am also referring to “life”, and vice versa. The work makes public something other than itself; it manifests something other; it is an allegory. In the work of art something other is brought together with the thing that is made. To bring together is, in Greek συµβαλειν; the work is a symbol. (Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Art," in "Poetry, Language, Thought", trans. Albert Hofstadter (New York -Harper and Row 1971) 19-20; quoted in Craig Owens, The allegorical impulse, Toward a theory of Postmodernism "October" 12, Spring 1980)

transfiguration in previous projects is based on my general interest in ephemeral environments and un-monumental constructions that are made not to remain but to exist. The great variety of ways in which material is organized and manipulated through my process is due to its sensitivity to starting conditions common to the function of the “random order”. The random processes and the relation that it has with my work determined by the starting conditions that are present in the evolutionary development of living beings6. "Sense of material" is created by the co-relational quality, the specific use and the multilayered possibility that a piece of art can imply. Within my process, all the information that has been transferred regarding the material developed the general concept and determined the importance and the hierarchy of each particular project. Each stage of the process of transformation attempted to categorize a specific symptom of the evolutionary process that occurs in the physical world by intensifying and making visible a variety of features that interact actively within the fundamental “rules of matter”. My constant desire to diagnose and make visible “internal characteristics” lead my practice to a series of thoughts and actions, -even call them metaphysicalwhere visual and physical connections create a transcending resonance relationship. The transformation that occurred during each stage of transfiguration of the particular material created a circular behavior. The material lost its primary use and characteristics becoming a tool of metaphor and allegory. We can call it at this point a desire to bring to light an “inner sight”.” The inner sight” is the relationship between forms and actions that cannot be explained solely and individually by transmission of information. Our failure to identify them and categorize them is initially related on the phenomenon of the complementary principle. <According to the Copenhagen Interpretation of the complementary principle (Niels Bohr), particles are, when not observed by humans, in a superposed position, whose location can be expressed by a complex condition function. When an artwork is being observed, the function collapses, and is replaced in the physical world by the real and objectively experienced particle. (Füzesi Zsuzsa, p: 3, University of Pécs, Hungary. Department of Music and Visual Arts.http://www.art.pte.hu. >

The rational problematic that my work is being exposed to and the entire hypothesis that I am stating here stands under the question: Is the view and the experience of the physical world solely independent from the human mind? Although this question cannot theoretically be answered, it demonstrates my main field of interest and concerns the very foundations of my creative processes. 6

“Darwin, who grappled with the issue of "species undergoing change," contrasted how animals and plants would change in a situation where they were growing naturally and in a situation where people were raising them. He examined the way plant breeders did their work, and concluded that the key element lay in selection. Breeders artificially selected species for several generations, saving those they considered appropriate and discarding the one they considered inappropriate for their purpose. Darwin took notice of this "artificial selection." The fundamental rules of human behavior also follow the universal laws of how matter works”. (Socio-biology/Wilson, 1975,Génevolució és mém metaphor/Dawkins p:189, 1986 and 2005).

Image 1 (www.rsvppost.com)

Choosing the material. (Image 1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape: <Duct tape is a vinyl, fabric-reinforced, multi-purpose pressure sensitive tape with a soft and tacky pressure sensitive adhesive. It is generally silver or black in color but many other colors and transparent tapes have recently become available. With a standard width of 17â &#x201E;8 inches (48 mm), duct tape was originally developed during World War II in 1942 as a water resistant sealing tape for ammunition cases. It was also used to repair military equipment quickly, including jeeps, firearms, and aircraft because of these properties. In Canadian military circles, this variant is known as "gun-tape", typically olive-green, and also known for its resistance to oils and greases. Duct tape is also called "100-MPH tape" in the military because soldiers often refer to something that exceeds expectations as "High Speed." After WWII, the housing industry boomed and people started using duct tape for many other purposes. The name "duct tape" came from its use on heating and air conditioning ducts, a purpose for which it, ironically, has been deemed ineffective. Its strength, low cost, and remarkable versatility make it a household staple throughout North America and Europe for temporary repairs and general-purpose use. As might be expected from its widespread use, duct tape has featured in many references in popular culture. Its image is one of "make-do", or "cheap fix", and it is particularly associated with men. Duct tape's widespread popularity and multitude of uses has earned it a strong place in popular culture, and has inspired a vast number of creative and imaginative applications. As a quick fix, duct tape can be used also as a temporary bandage, until proper medical treatment and bandages can be applied to a wound. >

Tape was always a method to separate or join two different areas, surfaces, and layers. Tape used as insulating bandage (masking) between coats of colors in painting, mounting and protecting edges and corners in a great variety of artistic practices. It was one of the most useful and significant tools for many artists (Frank Stella, Sol le Witt, Thomas Hirshorn) in all eras of Art History including the Pop Art, Formal and Geometric abstraction, Arte Povera, Minimalism and Conceptual Art. The diverse handling possibilities that the specific material could give me attracted my attention and activated a series of acts that finally turned my artistic production into a mechanism of endless recycling. Tape functions temporarily and is a method to

protect-preserve a surface due to its ability and durability to stick to almost everything. Tape is not a permanent solution but a middle step, an ephemeral condition that can help to accomplish for a short period of time a progressive action. Taping is an endless process.

The 4 projects Please Insulate me Duct-tape dwelling installation tent, capsule, cave resembling on both the walls and the floor. The viewer had the opportunity to explore the interior part and feel the insulating ability both of the architectural construction as well as the material. The installation allegorically can be the model for permanent emergency housing possibilities after hurricanes or unpredicted menaces.

Image 2 (Please Insulate me External View. 2007. 250 rolls of duct tape 50 cubic m.)

The project was motivated by the idea of a permanent tent all made by a material whose insulating abilities are described in the above section. The idea and my major concern involving this project was created in response to the notification that the selling price of duct tape was to be increased tremendously after the forecasted rumor announced from local broadcasts and daily press on September 25th 2007, indicating that a hurricane was about to strike the metropolitan area of NYC. Millions of citizens in response to the menace were sealing and securing the safety and durability of all fragile glass surfaces on their property and to protect their belongings using primarily Duct-tape, further inflating the price, and occasionally leading to the phenomena of black marketing and empty selves in many local hardware stores.

Image 3 (Please Insulate me Internal View. 2007. 250 rolls of duct tape 50 cubic m.)

Constructed thinking of a model of a “safe” area that can host you and provide you shelter also motivated my interest in a series of parallel referential examples added into the content of this symbolic action. By constructing a dwelling (image 2) composed of over 250 rolls of Duct tape and sealing an area of my studio off, resulted in a separation of an inner, private space from the public sphere. The external Form (image 2) of the installation referred to the common shape and size of a military tent that is often found in temporary first aid camps built from the army in order to provide help and shelter to citizens and personnel. Abstractive organic forms composed the internal part (image 3) of the installation. The viewer had the impression of entering into a cave. Into a grotesque environment. Into an “UN known”7 world.

Into a spatial Form (outside the world) and a temporal (outside time). Temporal means that it does not exist within any time period. It did not start, there is no duration in time, and it will not end. It is neither eternal in the sense of existing forever or mortal, of limited duration. It exists outside time altogether. I consider it as non-spatial form because it hasn’t no spatial dimensions, and thus no orientation in space, although have a location. It is a non-physical extra-mental simulation of an environment that recalls memories from the archetypes of early civilization on earth or a reminder of two diverse meanings. The perception of what this really is, or the ideas that we perceive while entering into something unknown or unfamiliar. Plato, & Jowett, B. (1941). Plato's The Republic.p: 202 New York: The Modern Library. OCLC: 964319.

Image 4 (Please Insulate me Internal View. 2007. 250 rolls of duct tape 50 cubic m.)

The “appearance of something” changes according to the question of what the things changing “really” are. The answer lies closer to the meaning of “essence”, which stands under the experience of the actually not visible things being seen. But what is a “form of the cave” and particularly the form of a structure that crumbles between a cocoon that surrounds you and an internal plastic environment (image 4)? The definition can probably be found under the hypothesis of Plato who is asking what “Form” itself is. He supposed that the object of perception was essentially or "really" the “Form” and the phenomena that surround it were mere shadows mimicking the Form that it is, momentary portrayals8 of the Form under different circumstances. Under that proposition the familiar objects and their representations or images are illustrating the relationship between the visual world as a whole (visual objects and their images) and the ritual world of forms as a unit. The recalling information that the installation proposes is made up of a series of passing, particular reflections of the virtual, which is eternal, more real and "true. This materialized environment 8

In Republic, the things we ordinarily perceive in the world are characterized as shadows of the real things, which we do not perceive directly. That which the observer understands when he views the mimics are the archetypes of the many types and properties (that is, of universals) of things we see all around us. The Greek concept of form precedes the attested language and is represented by a number of words mainly having to do with vision: the sight or appearance of a thing. The main words, εἶδος (eidos) and ἰδέα (idea) come from the IndoEuropean root *weid-, "see”. Both words are in the works of Homer, the earliest Greek literature. Equally ancient is µορφή (morphē), "shape", from an obscure root. The φαινόµενα (phainomena), "appearances", from φαίνω (phainō), "shine", Indo-European *bhā-,was a synonym. (Plato, Republic Book III pag.402-403 Allegory of the cave: struggle to understand forms like men in cave guessing at shadows in firelight).

initially guides the archetypical perception of the viewer that enters a post-familiar interior while attempting to distinguish between entrapment and safety. The particular installation was above all a reminder that humans could stand active in front of unpredicted physical and causal phenomena. It is an architectural model; a proposal that humans can built fast (using a common material) a permanent shelter that can host their existence that delimits the private from the public.

Please Moisturize me The biggest problem living and working in Manhattan is the lack of storage space. After completing the previous project my major concern was to find an area where I could store this huge amount of material. This aspect activated a series of thoughts concerning the meaning to preserve, reinstall or maintain a “Form” that was created under certain circumstances and reflected a series of thoughts that now have to get compacted, lose their primarily shape and wait until a new capable space and time will be found in order to reinstall and reshape the particular material based on the proper spatial demands. The fragileephemeral character and the limited preserving possibilities that applied to the material was the starting point that retriggered my intension to modify it into a new piece. The Duct-tape was melted with the use of a heat-gun (1). The primary cubic size of the material turns into compact-biomorphic pieces that stretch into a web of yellow acrylic yarn. The abstract form is now floating (3) on a yellow background lit from above. The missing moisture of the material returns through the enigmatic smell and skin treating capability of baby-powder (3) that covers the entire structure. The visual perception and the lack of accessibility (4) to investigate each corner of the space keep the viewer attracted to the smell and the thermal optical illusion that the installation implies. The formulating stages (sections 1-4) of the project are based on collected external material (magazine’s articles, testimonies, user’s manuals and various scientific web sites). Analyzing and linking these four sections, I am assuming that these four categories that were used as technical terms for Plato (in Republic II.11—II.16. 369b—376e. Genesis of the Polis) occurring in the soul-intellection of reasoning similar to this particular process: interpretation-intuition (noesis) for the first (!), understanding (dianoia) for the second (2), belief (pistis) for the third (3), and (4), picture thinking or conjecture (eikasia) for the last. I am arranging them into a proportion, considering that they participate in clarity and precision to the same degree that their objects partake truth and reality. The metaphysical and epistemological edifice that supports these English (or Greek) meanings and interpretations must undeniably follow any significant or allegorical meaning that these words have. (1) <9The ability to control fire was a major change in the habits of early humans. Making fire to generate heat and light made it possible for people to cook food, increasing the variety and availability of nutrients. Fire also kept nocturnal predators at bay. Archaeology indicates that ancestors or relatives of modern humans might have controlled fire as early as 790,000 years ago. The 9

(Human control of fire, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire.)

Cradle of Humankind site has evidence for controlled fire from 1 to 1.8 million years ago. From the Neolithic Revolution until the introduction of grain-based agriculture, people all over the world used fire as a tool in landscape management. In terms of Chemistry, fire is the oxidation of a combustible material releasing heat, light, and various reaction products such as carbon dioxide and water. >

Fire transforms, burns, compacts and modifies completely each inflated object or material. Fire is the symbol of catharsis, an archetypical method to dematerialize and preserve an object (dead human body, livestock, waste). The following instructions were the general guidelines for using the Model HEAT PRO PLUS (image 5) hot air tool, a device used to emit a stream of hot air. Image 5 (products.foot.com) < It is superficially similar in shape and construction to a hair dryer, though it runs at much higher temperatures. It is often found in physics, materials science, chemistry, engineering, and other types of laboratory or shop settings. The balanced, lightweight, ergonomic design provides comfortable handling, and dual temperature settings offer versatility. Two-speed-switch provides temperature settings of 500 deg. F and 1000 deg. F. Includes a 6 ft. cord. Heat guns can be used to dry and strip paint, apply heat shrink tubing, dry out damp wood, bend and weld plastic, soften adhesives, and thaw frozen pipes. They typically output air at temperatures ranging from 100550째C (200-1000째F) with some hotter models running around 760째C (1400째F). (http://www.steinel.net/products/heatguns/electronic_heatguns.cfm). >

I followed carefully these instructions, to determine the best heat setting and distance, in order to accomplish my project. The tool gave me a wide range of possibilities to compact and manipulate the material into solid chunks of plastic. The primary shape of the Duct tape transformed into pieces of melted plastic (image 6). The new material is now transfigured into plastic, abstractive, massive, biomorphic10 forms.

Biomass is part of the carbon cycle. Carbon from the atmosphere is converted into biological matter by photosynthesis. On death or combustion the carbon goes back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). This happens over a relatively short timescale and plant matter used as a fuel can be constantly replaced by planting for new growth. Therefore a reasonably stable level of atmospheric carbon results from its use as a fuel. It is accepted that the amount of carbon stored in dry wood is approximately 50% by weight. Though biomass is a renewable fuel, and is sometimes called a "carbon neutral" fuel, its use can still contribute to global warming. This happens when the natural carbon equilibrium is disturbed; for example by deforestation or urbanization of green sites. When biomass is used as a fuel, as a replacement for fossil fuels, it still puts the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. However, when biomass is used for energy production it is widely considered carbon neutral, or a net reducer of greenhouse gasses because of the offset of methane that would have otherwise entered the atmosphere. The carbon in biomass material, which makes up approximately fifty percent of its dry-matter content, is already part of the atmospheric carbon cycle. Biomass absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere during its growing lifetime, after which its carbon reverts to the atmosphere as a mixture of CO2 and methane (CH4), depending on the ultimate fate of the biomass material. CH4 converts to CO2 in the atmosphere, completing the cycle. (Environmental impact, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass)

Image 6 (Please Moisturize me installation Detail. 2008. Thermal Installation.50 cubic m. Melted duct tape stretched on a web of acrylic yarn covered with baby powder. Lit from above with thermal fluoresces. Glossy yellow acrylic background.)

(2) I have previously referred to the importance of a backbone structure behind every idea. Each art piece needs a structure that puts each individual piece together in order to create a solid unit (formally and conceptually). Considering that thought, the next step of this project was to recompose the traces that were produced, by putting them back together and even making visible the cubic modification that occurred from the previous form. I stretched and returned all those chunks of material to their initial position by sewing them together with yellow acrylic yarn in order to distinguish the “old” from the new added medium. The acrylic yarn entrapped the pieces into a complex web. The chunks of melted plastic were floating on the space creating an abstract biomorphic form, traces and random remains of an unknown and unidentified “preexisting” creature (image 7). The multiple spatial yellow lines reformulated a visual cursor that composes a simulation of a site-specific exhibit with unknown identification, origin or historic identity. The installation encompasses the meaning of “contemporary archeology”, a term that describes objects with unidentified background and historical values without informational sources.

Image 7 (Please Moisturize me installation View. 2008. Thermal Installation.50 cubic m. Melted duct tape stretched on a web of acrylic yarn covered with baby powder. Lit from above with thermal fluoresces. Glossy yellow acrylic background.)

(3) The above two stages described how the material transformed by losing its moisture (primal shape) and recomposed into a new structure (abstract web) with a new character (biomorphic). The next element that added to the context of the piece was ”a live bait”, a further layer that would attract the attention of the viewer not through its visual impact but through its smell. The smell and the texture of baby powder (Image 8) are closely related with skin treating ability and specifically are often used as a cosmetic powder. Baby powder potentially carries the meaning of “pureness” since it brings memories of babies, soft skin surfaces while recalling the meanings of intensive care, softness and motherhood. The use of this medium in relation to the petroleum based chemical or hazardous material created an ambiguous and paranormal conceptual relationship. The following article11 might help us to visualize and convey how the information and the knowledge we believe we have regarding something can be nothing but a conceptual failure.

Is talcum powder safe for babies? Article from the I.village http://parenting.ivillage.com/baby/bsafety/0,,3q5k,00.html.

web

site:

Image 8 (www.unipackinc.com) <“ The use of baby powders is rather common although many parents have switched to using ointments. Reasons most parents give for preference to powder is the feeling that the powder absorbs moisture better and prevents friction between the baby's bottom and the diaper. However, after decades of use, powders have fallen out of favor by the medical community for a few reasons: 1. Talcum powder is usually made up of various combinations of zinc, magnesium silicates, as well as other silicates, which are finely ground. The size of particles is so small that they are both easily carried in the air like dust and can reach even the smallest areas of the lung. 2. There have been numerous reports of babies having lifethreatening episodes from inhaling the powder. And in fact, there have been many deaths reported from aspiration of the powder. The feeling from many dermatologists is that there isn't much advantage of powders as compared to ointments when it comes to preventing and treating diaper rash. So, clearly talc can cause pneumonia, inflammation (or swelling) of the airways of babies, and even death. When the link to asbestos and cancer came to light, it was noticed that a lot of the exposure to asbestos was accompanied by other infallible fibers and dust including talc. However, a specific link to talc exposure and lung cancer has not been established. On the other hand, there has been some interesting research into a possible link of talc to ovarian cancer. For a number of years now, epidemiologists (scientists who try to establish cause and effect relationships in diseases) have been interested in trying to find some link to the environment and ovarian cancer.

(4) The background (the studio walls) painted with yellow, glossy, reflective, acrylic paint. The lighting of the space succeeded with the use of yellow thermal fluorescence. The space is transformed into a bright light box that both hosts and demolishes the new substance. The combination of direct warm colored light and flat background distorted the spatial dimension creating a flattened visual illusion. Additionally, the liner orientation of the yellow acrylic yarn web faded the clarity and obscured the attached edges on the surrounding walls. The combination of color, light and optical illusion characterized the visual impact of the Installation as a “Diorama”. A “2 dimensional” sculpture, (Image 9) where the viewer had limited access but a multi-angle comprehension of each detail and spatial dimension. The baby powder covered the entire layered surface and unified the structure while it presented an enigmatic co-relation between visual attraction and senses.

Image 9 (Please Moisturize me installation Detail. 2008. Thermal Installation.50 cubic m. Melted duct tape stretched on a web of acrylic yarn covered with baby powder. Lit from above with thermal fluoresces. Glossy yellow acrylic background.)

Please Participate me Isolating the left over material from the previous installation and turning my studio into a photo booth (Image 10), the material transformed into an object of experimentation and multiple handling in the hands of the 61 students of the MFA program. The community-socialized material now creates a series of documented performances. The material is now becoming an expressive tool12 in the hands of others and the artist turns into passive observer who organizes and establishes the rules of the process.

Image 10 (Please Participate me installation View. 2009. 61 documented performances. Dimensions Variable. Melted duct Tape, Baby Powder 61 participants, Dolby Surround Sound, 10000 JPG, HDV projector.)

The most important challenge of the project was to create a very refined theoretical and structural platform in order to coherently inform each participant concerning the rules, the length of his or her freedom and responsibilities, thus the importance of getting involved in such an action. The most difficult part of the project was to negotiate and advertise my intentions individually with each one of the participative Artists. I had to convince them, earn their respect and explain to them how important and crucial it was to evolve and donate their time, ideas and practice to a person who is trying to see the world through their eyes. Additionally, to release their rights to me and the responsibility to modify their ideas (material) into something social-into something common. The following lines describe the rules and a useful guidance that were presented to each participant prior to each documented performance:

Michel Foucault and Louis Marin do not interpret works of art, if to interpret then is to assign them a meaning. They are interested less in what works of art say, and more in what they do; The work of Art is a per formative view of cultural production. (Craig Owens, "Representation, Appropriation and Power," Art in America May 1982 9-21, reprinted in "Beyond Recognition", Craig Owens, U Cal Press, 1992, p 91).

The main idea of the project is to use all the students in the SVA, MFA program as active collaborators of development and transfiguration of my art practice. Participation has to be mandatory since

it refers to all the MFA students

with no

exceptions. In case someone has a specific reason for not wanting to participate, he/she must sent me back a small statement (up to 300 words) indicating the reasons for refusing which automatically waives any further active arrangements. The procedure of the project: 1) Each participant has to confirm that he/she is willing and is available to have an individual appointment with me. Lists with all the appointments will be posted after completion of each individual agreement. The duration of each appointment won't last more than one hour. The preferred days and times of each appointment can be anywhere between each personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classes, lectures, seminars and personal activities from Monday to Friday 10.00am to 10.00pm. 2) All participants should, Read very Conditions of the Release Contract Form.

carefully,

Fill

and

Sign

the

Terms

and

3) What each participant has to do during this hour is to use the material found in my studio. 4) The use of tools or extra materials is prohibited. 5) During the appointment each participant has to answer the following four questions: 1) What do you think of me as an artist? 2) What do you think of the particular project? 3) What you think has to get changed in order to make the project more interesting? 4) Have you ever seen something like it before? 6) Before or after the scheduled appointment each confirmed participant must send me via e-mail a small written statement and in a few lines (up to 300 words) using their native language should describe how, what and why they are intending to do during this hour.

Socializing the material (image 11) involves other people, reflects a desire to create a social project, involving ideas and actions of others regardless of who they are, what they do and where they are from as long as they ARTicipate13. 13

Some political scientists believe that governments and their civil servants have a responsibility to engage with society and to help people develop their capacities as active citizens. Taking a broad perspective can help to narrow the gap between the professionals, with their technical expertise, and other stakeholders, with their own local or specialist knowledge. Framing policy issues in the broadest possible terms also maps out all the issues and obstacles, providing a more comprehensive definition of the problem. Participation should improve decision-making by encouraging participants to establish common ground, rather than taking adversarial approaches, which create winners and losers. Allowing multiple stakeholders to define the problem may also help ensure a fairer outcome that takes account of different values

Image 11 (Please Participate me Installation detail. 2009. 61 documented performances. Dimensions Variable. Melted duct Tape, Baby Powder 61 participants, Dolby Surround Sound, 10000 JPG, HDV projector.)

Contemporary Artistic production has a major responsibility to engage with the social construction of our globalized world and more than ever before to build bridges with further scientific areas such as sociology, anthropology and the humanities. Contemporary art has the objective to connect and relate diverse realities, generating unexplored spaces of communication. Art today is constantly facing the challenge to create a broad platform able to embed not the sense of closed borders between artist and audience but a space for interchange and dialogue between cultures, languages, opinions, perspectives and identities. My intention is to involve diverse perspectives and a specific group of people that can generate fruitful interaction involving imagination, intuition and a practice based on my curiosity regarding a critical and opened-ended look at the evolution of communication in terms of code, language, engagement and social dynamics. The project is intended to create a reflective place of practical and effective procedures making a virtual topography, inlaid and needs. Decisions that are based on mutual understanding and an agreed way forward are more likely to last than those based on a ‘win-lose’ trade-off. As one workshop delegate put it, participation in decision-making is a way to achieve ‘compliance without coercion’. Participation in the decision-making process can also aid with implementation. Evidence, much of it from the developing world, suggests that locally based, locally owned decisions are often the most effective in the long term. This is the principle behind the drive for subsidiary in environmental decision-making. Furthermore, broad ownership of a decision makes it more likely a range of stakeholders will support that implementation. The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible p.89 By Jacques Rancière, Gabriel Rockhill, Slavoj Žižek Translated by Gabriel Rockhill Published by Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006

in the relationship between the cultural backgrounds of each participant. This experiment gave me the opportunity to explore and investigate careful observations concerning the meaning of a collaborative experience. Each participant carried his/her personality and manipulated the space and the material bringing a wide range of individual possibilities that composed a new concrete example. This is an example of a communalized based creativity that can reevaluate the meaning of positioning of the new creator and the new spectator. The project above all managed to merge, describe, delimit and outline the cartographies of possible attitudes that occur within a closed system with common rules and equal responsibilities. My greatest goal was to identify emergent creative and productive agents who put emphasis on constructing a socialized material experience creating a space that can as much public as private.

Image 12 (Please Participate me Installation View. 2009. 61 documented performances. Dimensions Variable. Melted duct Tape, Baby Powder 61 participants, Dolby Surround Sound, 10000 JPG, HDV projector.)

A referential example at that certain point of a common practice that affected and inspired my intention to contribute with a participatory experience can describe more coherently how the project transformed the material and the space into a social arena: <I started to make things so that people could use them ... [My work] is not meant to be put out with other sculpture or like another relic to be looked at, but you have to use it... Rirkrit Tiravanija. Thirty years after the birth of Fluxus in 1962, artist Rirkrit Tiravanija presented Untitled (Free) at the 303 gallery in New York, a work in which he decided to put all the things he found in the storeroom and office into the gallery itself, using the storeroom to cook Thai curries for the visitors to the gallery and leaving the leftovers, kitchen utensils and used food packets

in the gallery when he was not here. This work is typical of what Nicolas Bourriaud called a new 'relational art,' which requires a new kind of 'relational aesthetics' in order to account for its emergence and to describe its characteristics. Relational art, according to Bourriaud, is characterized by the fact that it takes 'as its starting point human relations and their social context, as opposed to autonomous and exclusive art. Hence, relational aesthetics must be 'an aesthetic theory consisting in judging artworks in terms of the inter-human relations which they show, produce, or give rise to. Bourriaud's relational aesthetics could be seen as an alternative to Danto's transfiguration of the commonplace because it seems to focus precisely on the terms, which the latter excludes. Bourriaud for example explains that contemporary works such as Tiravanija's should not be considered as spaces to be walked through but instead as durations to be experienced, where the per formative aspect of the work is more important than either objects to be viewed in space or the space of the gallery itself. Focusing on the relations between the artist and the gallery visitors, the interactions between the guests, and the atmosphere created by Tiravanija's cooking obviously shifts the emphasis away from the finished object towards the process, the performance, the behaviors which emerge from the artist's everyday intervention.> http://www.variant.randomstate.org/22texts/Dezeuze.html.

Although It is much more difficult to define what the form of the work actually consists of, I will try to define it as ontological entities, which describe 'form' as nothing more than a 'coherent plane'. An area of heterogeneous entities that is capable to stay open to exchange and dialogue. The artist’s studio became an exchange space that can escape from the closed borders of an institutionalized area which hosts an artistic achievement and becomes an arena of multiple and diverse approaches to a common issue. An experimental model that is part of social system but nonetheless suggests the possibility of alternative changes and exchanges. The main idea of the project is to identify a system with particular aspects of the social life which art can refine and examine by multiplying new 'social interstices'. The final presentation of the project (Image 12) made possible with the use of a multi channel Audio and Video installation that converted and layered all the documented digital material. The viewer had the possibility to recall and convey all behavior of 61 participants through a post-performance documentation in which each participant is now an equal part of a concrete unit. The studio space became a theater, a black projection room, all the opinions, actions and behaviors edited together into a 30 min video and audio projection. The 10.000 JPG images that were captured during all the performances are composed into a fast forward animated sequence. The video was documentation and the same time evidence of constant transformation of the material by each participant.

Please Maintain me The questions that I faced after accomplishing the previous project were how I would be able to continue working with the same “material” and finally turn it into “something” (into a new form) that would resist time. In other words to be able to restores and preserves its character and substance from any further decomposition. What is actually the meaning of maintaining a materialized thought that through the previous series of transformations and performances has been turned into a materialized activity? Why do we (artists) feel responsible for maintaining our pieces to eternity? Do the pieces of Art deserve such a

treatment in order to exist and remain in time or should they be allowed to age and die in the natural environment? What is that mystical desire that pushes the constant desire for collecting, owning and preserving objects that are carrying a series of memories and a loaded background? The challenge that these questions are imposing was my main field of research that formulated this particular project. My main concern and responsibility at the certain point was to diagnose and impose an ending in this circular behavior and at the same time to bring to light possibilities for a further (new) existence. After being used in various ways from the 61 participants the new left over were nothing but a pile of shredded pieces of â&#x20AC;&#x153;overusedâ&#x20AC;? melted plastic combined with a layer of dried solid baby powder (plasticized). The cubic size further compacted and the primary character still was now more than ever before demolished. The initial content of the material has being totally destroyed and my only option at the certain point was to continue a process of fundamental destruction, cremation through intense and systematic hardware manipulation. The material is demanded a further step of transformation in order to erase and discard every morphological aspect that would refer to or recall its former shape and utility. The material in this final project passed through several stages of manipulation including further melting, drying, chopping and mechanically shredding. A series of kitchen and hardware appliances (food developers, blenders, grinders, drill grinding brushes and paint strippers) gave me the opportunity to grind the material into tiny pieces (image 13) and finally with the use of a heavy-duty professional pulverizer14 it transformed into powdery particles. This series of actions lead my process and transfigured the material, - into a final stage with similar characteristics of the complementary principle15, -into an ontological dematerialization, -into a new 14

# powder: a solid substance in the form of tiny loose particles; a solid that has been pulverized # grind: the act of grinding to a powder or dust # annihilation by pulverizing something # The act of pulverizing # pulverize - powderize: make into a powder by breaking up or cause to become dust; "pulverize the grains" # pulverize - demolish: destroy completely; "the wrecking ball demolished the building"; "demolish your enemies"; "pulverize the rebellion before it gets out of hand" # pulverized - powdered: consisting of fine particles; "powdered cellulose"; "powdery snow"; "pulverized sugar is prepared from granulated sugar by grinding" # A pulverizer is a mechanical device for the grinding of many different types of materials. For example, they are used to pulverize coal for... # pulverize - To crush; to render into dust or powder # pulverize - To reduce to powder or dust by pounding, crushing or grinding. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&hs=lAt&defl=en&q=define:pulverization&ei=1oS5SYXcApHIM9qD9KoI&sa=X& oi=glossary_definition&ct=title). 15

In physics, complementarity is a basic principle of quantum theory closely identified with the Copenhagen interpretation, and refers to effects such as the waveâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;particle duality, in which different measurements made on a system reveal it to have either particle-like or wave-like properties. Niels Bohr is usually associated with this concept, which he developed at Copenhagen with Heisenberg, as a philosophical adjunct to the recently developed mathematics of quantum mechanics and in particular the Heisenberg uncertainty principle; in the narrow orthodox form, it is stated that a single quantum mechanical entity

physical existence that follows (“everything returns to dust”).

the

rules

natural

decomposition

Image 13

The new material (Image 14) now created was a “fine powder”, a refined dust, similar to ash16, not a product of chemical reaction but a hand made concoction. The new material is extremely light, numeric and genetically neutral since it lost any formal or objective relationship with its origin (Duct Tape). The process of cremation erased every single aspect of its form or qualities, becoming an object with limited objectiveness. A “raw essence of the former material” that could now be used in multiple ways, a new left over that contained all the previous stages of transactions and formulations, a carrier of the history and ingredients of all the previous projects. Although it consists of the actual (chemical) ashes of the material, what now remains is the ultimate stage of compacting through a process of grinding pulverization.

Image 14

can either behave as a particle or as wave, but never simultaneously as both; that a stronger manifestation of the particle nature leads to a weaker manifestation of the wave nature and vice versa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementarity_(physics) 16

3 In analytical chemistry, ashing is the process of mineralization for preconcentration of trace substances prior to chemical analysis. Ash is the name given to all non-aqueous residues that remains after a sample is burned, and consist mostly of metal oxides. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_(analytical_chemistry).

People in a great number of Cultures around the world adapted sacred relationship with the ashes of dead bodies. Ashes are the archetypical symbol of memory for beloved persons and relatives, the ultimate stage of cremation and the endless obituary of living beings that passed away- transferred into a different stage of existence. The manner of storing and preserving ashes (image 14) varies by civilization and combines many different local symbolisms, cultural and spiritual importance and signification. < Some people believe that preserving the remains of the loved ones in this way is better than just burying them or having them cremated and put in an urn. Some people even specify in their wills that they wish to be converted into a diamond. Artificial diamonds are a less expensive,” ecological" choice for many, but some of them are highly unusual: for example, diamonds made from the cremated remains of a loved one. There are companies that offer special "funerals". They turn the ashes of the deceased into diamonds and the costs are said not to surpass those of a gravestone. To produce the "human" diamond, ashes are purified; the carbon is converted into graphite, then pressurized and heated. The process takes up to 16 weeks. The resulting diamonds are elaborately colored --- bluish or yellow-tinted and of a high quality, reaching the VVS (very slightly occluded) clarity level. A name and a date can be invisibly laser-engraved on the stone upon request. http://www.loveanddiamonds.com/news/diamonds-of-human-ashes.html. >

Image 15 (containers for human ashes after cremation at Buchenwald- Germany. www.pbase.com/arodri3/image/72699241)

The final project based its spatial formulation and conceptual input on recent ontological questions and technical procedures that occurred in the process of dematerialization. The existing space (artist studio) once again became the vessel that hosted the substance of “the new essence”. The space turned into a hermetically sealed room, a dust container that preserves and recalls the memories of the 4 previous projects. A dust-proof closed environment that is delimiting any evaporation or escape of its content. The dust is now floating into a closed “box” with a use of high-pressure air fans (turbines) that are circulating the air (Image 16) and distributing the molecules of dust throughout the room. The continuous distribution of air and dust allows the viewer to enter into a “cloud”, into a dusty floating environment with limited lighting (image 18) and visibility. The room is a simulation of a tomb, an “empty” space filled with floating unidentified particles. The viewer is required to enter the room wearing a dusk mask (Image 17) since the tiny particles of dust can cause several lung and respiratory malfunctions if breathed or even to cause allergies and asthma attacks.

Image 16,17,18 BKF 50 Panel Fan www.agromatic.net/ventiliation.htm

The mysterious and unpleasant experience that the project demands to the viewer undeniably consists of a series of parallel thoughts concerning the meaning and definition of maintenance. The new form and substance of the material does not exist solely in this closed environment. The viewer carries away from the installation tiny quantities of the dust. Bits of floating particles stick to hair, skin and transfer to the environment. The viewer is the new and ultimate participant that observes, carries and releases the material. The observer interacts unconsciously and becomes a carrier (bee). The installation is a dynamic area17 (Image 19) of mechanical and conceptual circulation, a metaphor of a paranormal ecological activity, a tool for relational perception between nature and human intervention. It proposes a number of possibilities and collateral comprehensive concerning the meaning of preservation through diverse existence and continuous dematerialization.

Image 19 17

FIRMAMENT, the ancient name for the night sky, brings to mind an assembled matrix of volumes that map a celestial constellation, while also implying the form of a body lost within it. Literally a drawing in space, the non-regular polygonal structure of FIRMAMENT looms over the viewer, giving a sense of both claustrophobia and landscape, testing our experience of space. Anthony Gormley.2008-2009 http://www.antonygormley.com/viewproject.php?projectid=71&page=1

Synopsis-Epilogue The process of formulating an idea My greatest metaphysical desire is already explicit in the conflict between symbol and allegory on the level of the process itself. My work encourages a critical attitude toward normative processes of perception while at the same time offering viewers opportunities to expand their ability to envision. Each project was a further step in the way of ideas arising, at least in part from the use of the term "idea", to cover both the representation percept and the object of conceptual thought. This might be a method to distinguish "concrete ideas verses abstract ideas", as well as "simple ideas verses complex ideas". Flat ideas, for my humble opinion are experimentation without background, forms with no content and information that are not derived from an explicit knowledge or specific identification of their references. The “Real ideas” occur when we set a starting point and from that position we can invite options for a step beyond. Pure “ideas” are the intention for a constructive development and an open-minded observation of the phenomena that surround us. I am putting a lot of effort into building a strong argument and defending my expressive territory while constantly attempting to enlarge my vocabulary. My intention is to use further media and get familiar with “rare” techniques and formal experimentation that has its roots in my constant curiosity to bring more elements into my research and enrich my procedure with new input. These have always to be evaluated, transformed, adapted and personalized. Strong ideas are creating after an explicit approach of the object of interest and a broad comprehensive of the frame and the context that it consists in. Through this continuous process18, the most direct dictation to isolate and examine individually each project from the other is supposed not to lead to an arbitrary, but to a motivated sign. I am attempting to turn my work into an experience of the symbolic, a spatial and conceptual decomposition, an implication for epistemology where the measure of time would be Walter Benjamin's "mystical now," and "where the symbol would absorb sense” into its hidden and, if you will say so, its plastic-flexible-fragile interior of the particular material. This attempt, even on its most basic level of creating and staging, does not produce transcendental symbols but, merely, traces of allegoristic waste. What it mimetically documents is the phenomenon of my unconscious drive, the symbiosis of the unconscious.

Arthur Danto’s Transfiguration of the Commonplace explains that the artistic practice is essentially a contribution to the ontology of art, in which two necessary conditions emerge as essential to a real definition of the art work: that an artwork must (a) have meaning and (b) must embody it meaning. After presenting an account of his first viewing of Brillo Box and how that affected his understanding of the philosophy of art, he claims that a valid critical practice can be derived from two necessary conditions and attempts to draw a distinction between works of art and artifacts that had questioned. (http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=508 Presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Aesthetics Symposium on Arthur Danto's Transfiguration of the Commonplace on the 25th Anniversary of its Publication)

According to Paul de Man, the "allegory of Art " is an irreducible part of any common artifact, which can only impose the "impossibility of readingâ&#x20AC;?. Under that thought, the particular text and my current art practice in general can be interpreted as allegories of a permanently frustrated metaphysical desire, a craving for presence, meaning, completion, and transcendence of earthly existence, which can never be fulfilled. Although, this failure is a frequent motif on all levels of signification, my intension focuses to examine phenomena and conditions, so that the spectator has to undergo an effort comparable to that of each materialized project and finally integrate the offered information into a completed picture. My endless will is to accept the inevitable failure of human perception. (Ephemeriality).

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-Nauman Bruce, Coosje Van Bruggen, Rizzoli, New York, 1988. -Newman, Oscar, “Defensible Space”, Crime prevention through Urban Design. Collier Books, New York, 1973. -Neutra, Richard, “Survival through Design”, Oxford University press, New York, 1954. -Parsons, T, 1980, «Nonexistent Objects», New Haven- London, Yale University Press -Perin, C., “With Man in Mind, an Interdisciplinary prospectus for Environmental design”, Cambridge, M.I.T. press, 1970. -Wallenstein Sven- Olov, «Essays, Lectures», ed. Axl books, Stockholm, Sweden,2007. -Zhang Huan, «Altered States», Asian Society, New York, Charta 2007. -Zhang Huan, «Blessings», Pace Wildenstein Gallery, New York, 2008 -Zhen, C, « Invocation of washing fire », Gliori. 1997.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank:

• • • • •

David Row and the SVA Faculty for their valuable guidance. Laurel Lueders who helped me edit the Thesis. All my 61 MFA classmates who participated in the ‘Please Participate Me” project. My family for their financial and moral support The Fulbright, Alexander S. Onassis and Gerondelis Foundations that sponsored me.