COMMENT: A discussion about Roger Hiorns artwork in different
thread (Artist to Bury an Airbus Underground) inspired this whole topic in the first place. The question arose, if such a project really was art or not.
I'm not a big fan of Roger Hiorns but what startled me about the following project were the totally different explanations given for the same project.
- The first exhibition (in Chicago) was sponsored by Boeing and states that the 'engine apparatus [...] is no less culturally important than the other artworks'.'
- The second exhibition took place in Edinburgh. The focus is quite different: 'The work makes reference to the creation and alleviation of anxiety on both a global and individual level.'
The same artwork, two different ideas depending on location and/or sponsor? What is an artwork worth that is open to interpretation as it fits the presenter as Conceptual art is about ideas in the first place?
"In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” - Sol LeWitt
Well, let's enjoy some nice photographs
Roger Hiorns
1.
Untitled (Alliance), 2010 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
London-based artist Roger Hiorns’s captivating sculptural objects, installations, and performances exploit unusual materials to disquieting ends. Among the artist’s principal preoccupations is the form of the engine—extracted from both automobiles and airplanes. In the most general terms, the engine is, for Hiorns, a metaphor for networks both inert and, potentially, threateningly alive.
For the artist, the project is a representation of a dominant 20th-century object within the context of art and the art museum. The engine apparatus, Hiorns argues, is no less culturally important than the other artworks displayed with it; many works in the Modern Wing were, in fact, created under the shadow of the security the engine assembly once and still provides.
Major funding is generously provided by BOEINGhttp://www.artic.edu/exhibition/Hiorns2.
Untitled (Alliance), 2010 National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
EC-135c aircraft engines, Effexor, Citalopram and MannitolSculpture is displayed throughout the grounds of Modern One and Two. Roger Hiorns’ Untitled (2010) has been installed in the grounds of Modern One especially for this exhibition. In Untitled, two decommissioned aircraft engines from a military surveillance plane which saw service over Afghanistan, are shown side by side. Concealed inside the engines is a prescription of crushed pharmaceuticals used to treat depression. The work makes reference to the creation and alleviation of anxiety on both a global and individual level.
Untitled was originally commissioned by the Art Institute of Chicago and this is the first showing of the work in the UK. We are very grateful to the Arts Council Collection for their generosity in supporting this display.http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/368/the-sculpture-show/roger-hiorns#.UHMfJk0xpuI
Chicago Critical - Review: Roger Hiorns @ Art Institute of Chicago
