The Weird in Sculpture

[MagnusTC]

I am trying to figure out if it would make sense to talk of a contemporary weird sculpture tradition next to weird fiction as a literary subgenre. What would be the characteristics of such a tradition, what artists would it include, what would be its historical background ... - if it exists at all? I am not aware of anyone who have made this connection very explicitly, although there might well be! Or there might be good reasons why weirdness in sculpture doesn't work as a category the way it does for literary fiction.

In any case, here is a short list of (mostly) contemporary sculptors who I would intuitively see as belonging to the Weird, despite obvious differences in materials and intentions; works engaged one way or the other in "some basic underlying horror or abnormality"...


Louise Bourgeois


Joseph Beuys


Paul Thek


Sarah Lucas


Franz West


Mark Manders


Bruce Nauman


Martin Erik Andersen


Mike Kelley

And so on ...

The list could probably be expanded to include many other sculptors as well. What do you think?

[Nemonymous]

Some of my photos of Vigeland Park sculptures:

[MagnusTC]

Thanks Nemonymous, this is actually a nice visual argument for one historical background - I am sure there are many - to the more recent weirdness in sculpture. And the works look extraordinary :-)

[gveranon]

Alberto Giacometti




Beyond weird sculpture into weird architecture:

Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau (beginning at about 2:00 there is great camera footage of the interior of the completed reconstruction)

MERZbau reconstruction - YouTube

MERZbau reconstruction - YouTube

Shusaku Arakawa

[MagnusTC]

Perhaps there are two basic directions within weird sculpture, if it exists :-)

One would be "uncanny figuration", and deal with unsettling or strange figurations of the body. This tradition could perhaps be prefigured in historical traditions such as tomb sculpture, waxworks figures, artificial dolls, automatons, mummies etc. Gustav Vigeland is clearly in this tradition, as is Bourgeois, Manders, Kelley etc. The magical aspect of this type of work, such as the confusions about whether the things are alive or dead and so on, seem very much at play here. Mike Kelley has actually written a great essay about this field, Playing with Dead Things (in Foul Perfection), where he also talks about Hans Bellmer, August Rodin and pagan idols, among other things.

The other direction might be called "uncanny architecture", and deal with scary or unsettling spatial structures; Bruce Nauman's Passages, Merzbau, Arakawa perhaps? I am not sure if this also relates to earlier historical models, probably it does. Perhaps Anthony Vidler's The Architectural Uncanny maps some of this space? Possibly this is also somehow related to mirrors... Michelangelo's Laurentian Library in Florence strikes me as a perfect example of weirdness in architecture, but I am sure there are other similar spaces. I think I am interested in finding out how far this relates to literary weird fiction. I feel intuitively that there is a connection, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to qualify this in words ...

[MagnusTC]

Geometry of Fear was a term coined in the 50's in Britain to describe a group of sculptors working around tortured and blasted figurations and states of mind. Here is a passage from a text written around 1952 by the critic and poet Herbert Read about the movement:

"These new images belong to the iconography of despair, or of defiance; and the more innocent the artist, the more effectively he transmits the collective guilt. Here are images of flight, or ragged claws "scuttling across the floors of silent seas", of excoriated flesh, frustrated sex, the geometry of fear."

I wonder if this sculptural production was not somehow connected, by personal relations or otherwise, to the supernatural and horror writing going on in Britain in the same period? Although mostly forgotten today (I think?), many of the works seem obviously connected to the Weird.


Bernard Meadows


Lynn Chadwick


Kenneth Armitage


Eduardo Paolozzi


William Turnbull


Geoffrey Clarke

[DoktorH]

Weird sculptures? I nominate Terminator Jesus.


This is the metal framework supporting the fiberglass-and-foam statue once known as Big Butter Jesus (aka Touchdown Jesus) in Ohio. A lightning strike burned away everything but the metal framework in 2010.

Big Butter Jesus (is Toast!) - Heywood Banks - YouTube

Big Butter Jesus (is Toast!) - Heywood Banks - YouTube

[Daisy]

Three works by Medardo Rosso (1858-1928):

Carne altrui (1883)

Ecce puer (1906)

Madame X (1913)

[hopfrog]

I love love love this thread--it makes me want to study up on sculpting so that I can write a weird tale about some sinister sculptor. This thread is a perfect example of why TLO remains my favorite forum and site--it is a study of, a celebration of, the weird in all of its aesthetic manifestations. There is simply nothing online to compare to TLO!

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[Michael]

Giacometti's Walking Man definitely creeps me out for some reason. I also immediately think of J Seward Johnson Jr's "The Awakening" out in Washington DC.

In addition Theo Jansen's stuff scares the holy s*#t out of me. I think the grainy film actually makes it worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZK4V...ayer_embedded#!