Artist Lecture

Molly Anderson

9/21/17

ARTS 651.01

Artist Talk: Willie Cole, On Site

            On October 20^th 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.