Life sized 1:1 figure kits.

[Ritual]

\"Shock tactics\" can be a very effective way to provoke thought and discussion among people who would otherwise not look at art (or at least not look at art in any further way than purely judging its aesthetical value). If you have something important to say you might want to reach those who aren\'t already on your \"side\". To get them to bother you must find a way to MAKE them bother. It might seem like an arrogant tactic, but in the end people chose if they want to bother or not. Funny thing is, people ALWAYS seem to chose TO bother.

Also, I find it important to remind people about the darker sides of humanity and our history, as we have an unfortunate tendency to forget and make the same mistakes over and over again. We also have a problem of thinking \"outside the box\" and seeing how some phenomenons can have effects on very different levels (some of which not that obvious). I\'m not saying that artists have all this information that the rest of us lack, but by challenging ones values and opinions they can make people think in new ways, and at least I find that useful.

 

[matty1001]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
In my opinion depicting females as a victim is almost as contemptuous as the \"Media\'s\" attitude.

Then, IMO, he has a point well made.

Unfortunately I know what I want to say, but i\'m rubbish at putting in writing. And i\'m tired and can\'t be bothered.
But Ritual and Jake make good points.

Friar: But regardless I respect your view on it matty, and seeing as you had some sincere thought provoked by his work then maybe that can redeem my opinion and acknowledge the artistic merit that may lie in this fellow just that I\'m unable to see it.

As i respect yours :beer:
Not everyone is going to like it, but thats the beauty of it!

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by matty1001

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
In my opinion depicting females as a victim is almost as contemptuous as the \"Media\'s\" attitude.

Then, IMO, he has a point well made.

Sorry About the brevity of my original comment but my boss walked in and I had to stop the post there.

What I should have said was:
\"In my opinion continuously depicting females as a victim is reinforcing a stereotype as females being targetable to be victims, which is almost as contemptuous as the \"Media\'s\" attitude\".

And in consideration of this; Yes Matty he has made a point, one I\'m not happy with, but in hindsight a very valid one.
And Ritual and Friair have also made clear that he has acheived a possible intent by making this a topic of some conversation.

 

[matty1001]

O and il just say, that these were my views and opinions from looking at it, and I have no idea what the artists thought process behind it was. It could be completely different.

But I\'v looked at some of his other stuff, and I wasn\'t keen on it. This is the only one that provoked any thought from me.

And it\'s interesting to see that no one has mentioned his plastic kit of Eve, any religious folks fancy sharing their views on that one? I\'d love to hear them

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by matty1001
And it\'s interesting to see that no one has mentioned his plastic kit of Eve, any religious folks fancy sharing their views on that one? I\'d love to hear them

As a non-religious person..........I\'d hate to have to fill in any gaps in the molding on that one.
But on the other hand painting the eyes would be easier.

 

[airhead]

There is an artist here that makes life casts. He did a sleeping stranded traveler at the airport. Very lifelike - I had to look several times to see that it was not one of the manaquin impersonators.

I was much more impressed with his art than with this.

Although the Jesus Christ would be an easier way for a new church to get their own Christ on a Cross if his production run was big enough to make the costs cheaper.

The Traveler
Duane Hanson
Main Terminal - Airside 2 Security Checkpoint

 

[veggiemanuk]

Originally posted by matty1001
Personally I think the rape one is a good one to show. Yes it is macabre, but not asinine.

To me the exhibition is portraying modern lifestyles (in Western civilisation anyway) plastic products which are used once and thrown away the next day.
Each kit resembles some aspect of popular culture, music, religion, art etc... with the raped woman (IMO) being the media.
[The media] Quick to take something disastrous and turn it into a money spinner, each story a throwaway success. No feeling just another headline.
Banksy did a good painting of news reporters blocking paramedics from getting to a child which had been in an earthquake or something similar. Also reminds me of the photographer who took the photo of the starving child.

And I notice he did an Artist, quite ironic i feel. And show whoever did the exhibition knows what he is doing and recognising his art for what it is. Another throwaway success in plastic culture.

Well...I hope some of that made sense! It\'s getting late and I am tired, but thats my 2p.

Thats assuming the artist had these or similar ideas before they actualy made the models but i doubt it. Dragonsreach has it spot on, why not a knife victim?

Myself im not religous in anyway but I fail to see the throw away symbolism that the Jesus model has on \'Western society\' or even the Rock star for that matter.

And do I take it that Eastern cultures dont have these very same values? Or did Japan suddenly become a western culture, or any of the other eastern cultures that are very much the same of ours.

See, this is the problem I have with arty farty stuff like this, the EXCUSE for making this crap is thought of after the actual so called art is made.

 

[mud duck]

The sad thing for me is that the minute that I got over the rape/murder victim idea, and on to the artist, my mind started to figger out where to make the cuts to put a paint brush in his hand to make it look like hes painting himself. Maybe use the microphone arm off the rock sprue? ???

 

[Avelorn]

@Airhead: what does that make you think?

I go wow that\'s amazingly well-done... but not much more. Placing him in the terminal made me go \"haha\" but not much more either.

While the artist in the topic while also welldone made me reflect about it. And Mike helped me reflect some more. Should he picked something else or is it purely descriptive? Does he only reproduces values as women as victims or does he makes us think about it? I\'m not sure he reflected about this choice, but I can\'t be sure. Anyway I don\'t think that was his main focus, Matty describes my feelings better.

That is a problem we sociologists face. When we describe things as \"gendered\" for example we risk reproducing these differences at the same time.

 

[mud duck]

I just realized something, these models don\'t come with bases. Cheap Bastard! I bet you have to buy a bag of 10 or 20! :flame::flame: Well I guess the nice thing about that is one can get square or round ones lol

 

[matty1001]

Originally posted by veggiemanuk
Thats assuming the artist had these or similar ideas before they actualy made the models but i doubt it. Dragonsreach has it spot on, why not a knife victim?

Posted by me earlier in the thread
O and il just say, that these were my views and opinions from looking at it, and I have no idea what the artists thought process behind it was. It could be completely different.

Myself im not religous in anyway but I fail to see the throw away symbolism that the Jesus model has on \'Western society\' or even the Rock star for that matter.

And do I take it that Eastern cultures dont have these very same values? Or did Japan suddenly become a western culture, or any of the other eastern cultures that are very much the same of ours.

See, this is the problem I have with arty farty stuff like this, the EXCUSE for making this crap is thought of after the actual so called art is made.

So (a lot of) pop music isn\'t manufactured now? Look at all the reality shows, people are picked out given songs to sing, reach number one and are never heard of again. Then the whole thing repeats.

Religion (IMO) should be all about beliefs and what peoples own connections to, say, the Bible. But look how much money religion as a business is raking in. It has been packaged and sold. I watched a program about young evangelists and this 7 or 8 year old was rolling in cash from his preachings, but then you had his dad standing right behind him with dollar signs in his eyes. They were even selling autographs. To me that is not what religion should be about, but (from what I have seen anyway) this is what it has become.

And how do you know that the artist didn\'t think of any of this? And that he just woke up one morning decided to make 1:1 scale sprue\'s of different subjects then once done make people figure out the meaning.
And I didn\'t comment on Eastern values, because, quite simply, I don\'t know that much about them.

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by Avelorn
@Airhead: what does that make you think?

Much like the old Norman Rockwells, he takes a slice of our modern life and puts it on \'canvas\'.

 

[mud duck]

Originally posted by airhead

Originally posted by Avelorn
@Airhead: what does that make you think?

Much like the old Norman Rockwells, he takes a slice of our modern life and puts it on \'canvas\'.

But Rockwell painted \"idealized\" slices of American life, where\'s it would seem that this fellow is being more...... Damn I can\'t think of the word. Depressing, negative, goth, chicken little, hippie/ liberal...

 

[mattrock]

Originally posted by airhead

Originally posted by Avelorn
@Airhead: what does that make you think?

Much like the old Norman Rockwells, he takes a slice of our modern life and puts it on \'canvas\'.

I am quite a religious person and I have to agree with you on the commercialization of religion (christianity in particular).

That said, while I see some of what you are saying about the statements this \"art\" makes, I still think that it is inappropriate and has a hard time qualifying as \'art\' in my book. Like I said in my earlier post, this and other works like it remind me of the forum trolls: display something just to get a reaction. (I like to call it attention whoring)

As a social commentary, I think the Simpsons is more \'artistic\' than this is...it makes it\'s point but in a way that makes people think and laugh...it\'s not overly objectionable.

I\'m not saying that art has to be nice by any means, and I\'m not preaching the art of the Simpsons either so don\'t get me wrong there. I\'m just saying that so much of what is lauded as \'art\' these days revolves around controversy and disturbing images. We probably should be disturbed every now and then, but we should also recognize that there\'s a point when things go too far. Dead raped women and defecating on pictures of religious icons are not artistic expressions, they are disgusting and should be by no means be praised. Of course, these are just two examples among many, but if this is art, I want no part of it. :~(

Hope I made sense...like matty...I\'m having some trouble putting words behind my thoughts at this point.

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by mattrock
Like I said in my earlier post, this and other works like it remind me of the forum trolls: display something just to get a reaction. (I like to call it attention whoring)

If the reaction consists of people starting to think about important matters in new ways (or even start thinking about them period), isn\'t that a good thing? I\'m not saying anything specifically about the artist in question here, but more in a general way.

Originally posted by mattrock
We probably should be disturbed every now and then, but we should also recognize that there\'s a point when things go too far. Dead raped women and defecating on pictures of religious icons are not artistic expressions, they are disgusting and should be by no means be praised.

That is your opinion and you\'re entitled to it. But be careful about making your opinion to a set of rules everyone should follow. Take Andres Serrano\'s \"Piss Christ\" (which I assume was what you referred to above). That work has caused a lot of outrage, but also a lot of positive reactions. I know people who think the work in itself is beautiful. I know people who have made good insights about religion (from their point of view, that is) after thinking about what Serrano meant with that work. Personally, I am rather uninterested in that particular work. But, as you see, the work has caused all sorts of reactions, some good, some bad. Who\'s to say what\'s right and wrong here? You can always conclude that you don\'t agree with this particular artist and ignore him. Just like if someone calls you an asshole, you will probably ignore that, right?

Originally posted by mattrock
Of course, these are just two examples among many, but if this is art, I want no part of it. :~(

The good thing is you don\'t have to! You chose for yourself.

 

[cfwheeler58]

Random observations....

What do you use as a bitz box ? a dumpster ?

It\'s hard to imagine calling a 1/6 figure a \"garage kit\" after this.....

I\'m thinking the local auto body shop for the primer

Temporary mount using Blu-Tak on top of a baby jar isn\'t going to work this time.

NMM or traditional metallics ?

One word....Freehand !

Finally....some eyes that you can actually paint!

If you converted the artist figure to a beastman shaman, could you enter him at GD ?

What do you use on mold lines ? A belt sander ? cold chisel ?

I\'m thinking pinning the joints is a must. I\'d suggest 1.5\" diam dowels.

Anybody know where one can get a good deal on dullcote by the case ?

We\'re going to need a new photography article for these bad boys.
The good news is you don\'t have to fuss with your macro settings.
Good luck with the background paper and lighting, though.

If these turn out to be popular, how long till he decides to offer to only offer them as pre-paints ?

How do you start down this road and not have an \"Alien\", \"Predator\" or \"Maximus\" ?
Helllllllo ? \"Frankenstein\" ? \"Terminator\" ?

How much do you suppose Nano, Beltane or Automaton would get for one of these on EBay ?

Where\'s Scibor when we need him ?

How do you offer Jesus and not include Mary, weeping bystanders or at least a decent centurion for a good diorama ?

( I have nothing clever for the rape victim scenario. I find that image disgusting.....)

and...most importantly....

Does Eve have a belly button ?

 

[wiccanpony]

Art is so subjective, what is or isn’t art..........the beautiful cave paintings for example, I doubt early man was thinking art the way we think of it today, but it still is some of the finest in the world and using only a few simple tools and colors. .

dead raped woman or Rape of the Sabine Women, by Giovanni Bologna ... I couldn’t tell you which is art, only which I would prefer to have in my house.

( I do find the subject matter distasteful but I’m thankful he didn’t do one on an abused child).

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

I agree with WiccanPony.. what is art.. what is the definition of art.. as to me art is really subjective.. art can be a canvas painted pure white and hung on the wall.. or it can be Da Vinchis Mona Lisa..both were done to get a reaction from the audience. I feel this is the same way. The figures were created to get a reaction..To open discussion as to what is the meaning behind the project. Good or bad, love it or hate it..I do feel it is art plain and simple.

 

[Amazon warrior]

Originally posted by cfwheeler58
<snip>
and...most importantly....

Does Eve have a belly button ?

lol You know, I wondered the exact same thing!

 

[mattrock]

Originally posted by Ritual

Take Andres Serrano\'s \"Piss Christ\" (which I assume was what you referred to above). That work has caused a lot of outrage, but also a lot of positive reactions. I know people who think the work in itself is beautiful. I know people who have made good insights about religion (from their point of view, that is) after thinking about what Serrano meant with that work.

I understand your points here and I respect them, but I have to respectfully disagree. I\'m not a big believer in moral relativity and thus I believe there is a such thing as going too far.

I wasn\'t referring to any work in particular but the piss christ would be one that would fall into the correct category. I\'d also include the work in which the artist took a crap on the paintings of Mary and other religious icons. I\'d feel the same way if the icnoography depicted buddha or any of the hindu pantheon. The point I\'m trying to make is that I believe if anything, the biggest statement about society is made in that a certain contingient among us can look at human excrement (let\'s get real here people, we\'re talking piss and crap) and call it \'art\' and \'beautiful.\' It\'s absurd. In my opinion, art requires talent of some sort. My infant son can create crap art all day long.

I\'m just saying I think it\'s a bit silly. I\'d have a hard time arguing for the artistic merits of urinating or defecating on canvas and calling it beautiful with a straight face.

Like I said, I respect these people\'s rights to their opinions, but I won\'t pretend that I can identify with them. The mere concept of seeing crap as art is absurdity to me.

All that said, I\'ve never argued someone into a differing opinion on a web forum and don\'t anticipate I ever will. Arguing here is a little like competing in the special olympics...even if you win you\'re still retarded (and see some will not like my brand of denigrative humor(like my wife)).

... the conversation is interesting though.