Artist Research

Jeff Koons

Koons was born in 1955 in York, Pennsylvania to parents Henry and Gloria Koons. He grew up around art and later studied painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Whilst here he met the artist Ed Paschke who became a major influence to Koons, who worked as a studio assistant for him in the late 1970s. 

Puppy 1995-1996

'Puppy' was based on a much smaller wooden sculpture of a terrier that Koons and produced in 1991. Koons chose the terrier because he believed that no matter the scale, it wouldn't be threatening, but instead inviting and charming. At 12.4 metres tall, it dwarfs the tiny 52 cm tall wooden sculpture he had originally made. It supports 55,000kgs of soil and 60,000 flowering plants which change every season. 

Due to the living plants, the piece is and will always be evolving, growing and changing. I love this idea because it represents the fluidity of life and death present in the world. For example, we as humans, are born fragile and helpless. We then grow into more adaptable and capable people, just like a flower blooming. Then as we get older we start to wither, we loose our bright colours and become fragile once again. 

Sophie Ryder

Ryder was born in London in 1963 and later studied Combined Arts at the Royal Academy of Arts between 1981 and 1984. Whilst obtaining her diploma i painting, she was encouraged by Sir Hugh Casson, the then director of the Royal Academy, to develop her sculpture. She primarily produces images of mystical creatures, combining animal and human body parts into one.

Sitting 2007

'Sitting' is a 5m tall sculpture made from galvanised wire. This particular piece is also bisected vertically to allow the viewer to see the surrounding landscape through it. 

Ryder's recurring character known as the 'Lady Hare' combines a female body with the head of a hare. This idea of a hybrid is what interests me the most about Ryder's work. It is human nature to distance ourselves from the other animals on earth, but in reality, we are just like them, animals. Hybrids are the ultimate metaphor for outsiders, they can't 'fit in' to either category, in this case, the Lady Hare is neither a human nor a hare. Instead, to me, it shows how we need to move away from the typical ways of identifying ourselves in our society, and instead make our own identities. 

Cornelia Parker

Parker, born in 1956, is an English visual artist, best known for her sculpture and installation art.

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View 1991

By request, the British Army exploded a garden shed, and Parker collected the surviving pieces to create an installation suspended from the ceiling, holding it in a state of perpetual stasis. The room is also being lit with a singular light bulb, allowing for these huge dramatic shadows. 

For me, the very fact that the shed was actually exploded, and not just torn apart gives it a heightened sense of doom, but also one of life. If these objects and pieces had been laid out as if in the aftermath of an explosion, it would seem bleak and honestly, not that exciting to look at. The way the pieces are 're-animated' brings them back to life, it gives them purpose. 

I also like the imagery of the shed, it is a place where many people 'dump' their old lives. Filling it with once loved but now useless or worthless. I believe it's metaphor for our lives. We hide away our regrets and desires in order for us to lead a relatively normal life, pushing down our desires for something new or different, just like hiding our old items in an old shed in the garden. 

Wolfgang Buttress

Buttress is an award winning artist who works within public and private spaces, but based in Nottingham.

The Hive

The Hive is a 17 metre high structure consisting of 170,000 pieces of aluminium suspended from the ground forming a hive-like structure of latticework. The Hive is connected to an actual hive at Kew in London, which controls the intensity of sound and light within it. 

I love this piece as not only does he imitate the look and feel of a natural beehive with the repeated hexagonal shapes and direct connection to a hive, but he uses this to bring the viewers an experience they could never otherwise have. The vibrations that can be felt by biting a wooden stick connected to a conductor, are messages that the bees are sending to each other. These include tooting and quacking signals (that virgin queen bees make when they are challenging each other), begging (when a bee requests food from another), and the waggle dance (which communicates the location of a good food source). 

The idea of incorporating the animals which you are trying to emulate or are inspired by is very interesting to me as this is not something that is done regularly, or often at all. The combination of artistic skills and knowledge of bees are crucial for this piece, and I hope to one day be able to do something like this. 

My Take

These artists have all inspired me for my piece, but I take something different from each of them. I like 'puppy' because it shows how an idea can start off as a simple design but can evolve into something new. It not only changes through its creation, but changes even years after it was placed. Every year the flowers bloom differently, and its life cycle changes with the seasons, never returning to its starting point. This connects to my work in the way that I can plan the bees to be in their set places on the dowels, however, a slight breeze or push from a viewer, and the bee finds itself in a new position or orientation. It is also forever changing.

With Ryder and her piece 'Sitting', the way she manipulates the wire, and at such a huge scale, is inspiring. She recreates such natural movements and curves with such an unforgiving media, to perfection. It is something I hope to emulate with my own sculptures. I also love the way she includes mythology into her sculptures, something I am very interested in myself and I would love to include it in one of my future projects. 

Parker's piece 'An Exploded View' is a perfect example of how to suspend items in stasis. It both captures the items in motion, but retains the life behind them. I tried to find the material she used to suspend the items but unfortunately it wasn't listed anywhere. However I can learn from her and gain the skills and knowledge needed to hang my bees in an artistic but practical way.

My inspiration from Buttress is directly related to the bees, however he worked on a magnitude I can hardly comprehend. The way he was able to work with live animals and give the viewers and almost impossible viewpoint into a living hive is amazing. The scale of his piece is also extremely impressive, especially when you include how the structure amplifies the sounds, lights and vibrations being controlled by the bees. It's a truly one-of-a-kind piece of work and I believe it's something I will return to for inspiration in the future.