Dave Poole Artist References

The majority of my work to date has been centered around character, narrative and context, with an attempt to give the viewer a different perspective on the subject matter. (i.e. – aliens and robots in human society)

Currently, I’m interested in how these things apply to the gallery environment, and specifically as it relates to sculpture and installation pieces, as I think there are added levels of context to be considered with work like this. 

In the interests of developing some references for a thesis track I’ve started to put together a collection of works by artists who’ve influenced me.

David Ho

As a 3d computer artist I look at a variety of work by other computer artists. This image, by David Ho, shows a combination of juxtaposing human limbs and some mechanical forms with a pig, both of which are interesting ideas.

 

Charlie White

I had an initial attraction to the work of Charlie White, simply because of the exaggerated use of non-human characters in what might be seen as "normal" human situations.

Ray Ceasar

Ray Ceasar is another still image artist who uses scale, context and juxtaposition in his work, making the heads of child subjects a little bigger than normal, or adding a tail to a baby in a stroller, etc... The notion of a slight alteration to a character, be it through exaggerated limbs or facial features seems to be used by a lot of artists

Vito Acconci

Vito Acconci also uses this notion of context and perspective with some of his pieces, such as this miniature tableau of figures on field hockey masks. 

Paolo Ventura

Paolo uses GI Joe dolls to make up scenes depicting wartime themes. I think some of his images (such as the nighttime shot of the man and the dog) attempt to invoke the feeling of photographers like Steiglitz, Atget and Brassai.

Lawrence Argent

This is a favorite of mine, and the only piece I know of by Lawrence Argent. It creates a relationship between the environment and the figure by having the five story bear peeking in the window of this building.  Great use of scale, character and context.

Ron Mueck

Ron uses scale to make an impact with his work, and the most effective photos of his work often show people viewing it or working with it, which gives us a sense of the difference in scale.

(One of the pieces I've wanted to make for a long time is that of a large, benign-looking monster sitting in the corner of a room, with the same demeanor as this figure of a man, and theres's a little old lady sitting nearby doing her knitting)

Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio has a variety of things at play with his work; narrative used in a scene of a recently dead squirrel, scale in the use of a huge figure hitting an elevator button, as well as in the use of a small doppleganger of himself sitting on a book case. 

He also addresses the notion of a figure intersecting a wall, in this case with a reference to a stuffed animal, only we’re seeing the back end as opposed to the traditional head sticking off a wall.

Altered scale used in his reworking of a shopping cart (do we need more space to put our purchases in?)

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm also uses scale and context in his work, forcing viewers to ask things like, “Why is that house upside down and stuck into the side of this building?” Other scale works include a massive rubber ducky in a harbor, a bloated car, a sagging boat or a truck that is bent to ride on perpendicular surfaces.

Interesting reference to being drawn and quartered

Also uses figures intersecting walls

The Glue Society

The Glue Society is a collection of artists who band together on a variety of different projects, and this melted ice cream truck is their entry in an outdoor sculpture show. Great reference of having the truck behave in the same manner as the materials which it contains.

Jean-Luc Cornec

This is another great twist on context and form and material, as the artists uses telephones and phone cords to construct a flock of sheep.

 

Banksy

And finally, another couple of twists on context via the artist known as Banksy, who creates little terrarium type scenes with chicken nuggets posing as chicks, fish sticks posing as fish, etc…  some interesting referencing going on in this work.