Molly Anderson
9/21/17
ARTS 651.01
Artist
Talk: Willie Cole, On Site
On
October 20th I went to a presentation by visiting artist Willie
Cole. Mr. Cole is a contemporary African-American
artist who exhibited and discussed some of his works at the PCAC. He is best known for his work converting regular
household objects (like shoes, plastic bottles, irons, hairdryers) into sculptures
as a way to explore and critique pop/consumer culture. Mr. Cole has been greatly influenced by
African Art and culture and has used shoes to create masks resembling
traditional African Art, and ironing boards made to look like the inside of
slave ships bringing Africans to America.
One of his most interesting pieces is called “Loveseat”, made of
hundreds of colorful shoes, discussed in more detail below.
Mr. Cole
discussed himself and his art, noting that he also has great interest in music,
writing, and magic (he told us that magic was involved in creating his shoe
sculptures, which is almost believable when you see the complexity of the
pieces). “Loveseat” is comprised of
women’s high heal shoes, formed into what looks like a flower: it is very
colorful (the shoes are in many colors) and the upturned toes of the shoes are
very much like flower pedals. Part of
the value of this is that it reminded me of how good artists are able to
visualize a finished piece of art, using materials that most of us would never
associate with the finished artwork (I would not think that a shoe could look
like a flower). A flower made from shoes
is a little strange but I liked it and appreciate the creativity that went into
it. It made me think about photographing
things in a way that you could not very easily identify them (where people
might say “I like that but what is it?”).
I recently took photos of the inside of a spotlight, and of a staircase
winding up to a ceiling which people thought were very cool even though they
could not tell what they were. So I can say I both enjoyed this presentation
and learned something helpful to my own work.
