from the Museum of Contemporary Art website:

Maurizio Cattelan's giant cat, named Felix after the famous cartoon cat created in the early twentieth century by Otto Messmer (American, 1892-1983) draws on popular culture and delves into our collective imagination and desire for spectacle. Measuring more than forty-six feet in length with a tail that extends twenty-six feet in the air, the cat skeleton dwarfs a human being, playing with scale to shift the power relationship with the viewer.

As in his other works, with Felix Cattelan experiments with how viewers must suspend their disbelief in order to succumb to the fantasy of his vision. In 2001, when visiting Chicago in preparation for a commission at the MCA, Cattelan was inspired by Sue - the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered -at the Field Museum of Natural History. Cattelan designed Felix for a particular space, the MCA atrium and wanted his work to become a popular museum attraction, like Sue.

Cattelan's work, involving distortions of scale and reality, probes issues of originality, popular culture, humor, and fear. Inspired by the public's fascination with the origins of Sue, the popular Tyrannosaurus rex on view at the Field Museum, Cattelan has transformed a household cat into an ominously gargantuan figure. While challenging viewers' perceptions of the subject matter and its scale, Cattelan also questions notions of both artifact and exhibition. Naming the skeleton after the cartoon character Felix the Cat, Cattelan jokingly undermines historical fact with fiction to reactivate the realm of childhood wonderment within a contemporary art public space. 

Post a response to this question:
Considering these ideas, and the kind of dialogue Cattelan was creating with the Field Museum,if you were to submit your sculpture (the skeleton) as a proposal for a large public monument somewhere in Chicago, where would you have it  placed, and why?

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

 HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION

                                                         Alas, those lazy days are over.

Kristen Petersen is an artist and journalist who covers the art scene in Las Vegas, Nevada.
She's been making these pipe cleaner sculptures for the past few years, and as time goes on her forms and techniques have become more complex. These little sculptures delight me with the intimacy of their miniature scale, the colorfulness of the materials and the quirky humor that pokes fun at middle America.

dioramas

Sandy Skoglund makes very large dioramas.  I love their eerie and surreal quality, especially Radioactive Cats (ya gotta love that title). She taught photography at the Hartford Art School, where I went to college. Fun fact: The woman and boy in Revenge of the Goldfish were my teacher and her son! click here!
Post a response about one or more of her works. Be sure to include the title of the piece you are referencing.

old school

Hi sculptors-- take a look at these two websites, and come to class prepared to respond . First go to Crazy Horse. Click on the link to "Carving the Mountain"and explore the contents. Then look at Mt. Rushmore. Click on the link to "Photos & Multimedia", then "Photographs by Charles D'Emery" . View this slideshow documenting fourteen years of the carving process.
Read the following and come to class prepared to talk about your thoughts . On a notecard I will give you, write two or three comments or questions regarding these quotes:

Lame Deer, a Lakota medicine man, said, " The whole idea of making a beautiful wild mountain into a statue of him is a pollution of the landscape.
 It is against the spirit of Crazy Horse."

 The Lakota activist Russel Means said, "Imagine going to the holy land in Israel, whether you're a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim, and start carving up the mountain of Zion. It's an insult to our entire being."

  'We're promoting all cultures of America. That's what this place is . This is Mount Rushmore. It's America. Everybody's something different here.We're all different. And just maybe that gets us talking again as human beings, as Americans."

Fischli and Weiss

the way things go

Best Bag Contest

we tried making inflatable sculptures. some success, some failure, some revision, much frustration. I asked for photos, and here I will post some. Please weigh in with your vote : post the #s of your top 2 choices. Winners of the Best Bag contest will get a prize that is not packaged in plastic nor wrapped in tape.

                                                                 1.Giant Panda

2. whale

3.Mountain Gorilla

                                                                4.Sea Lion

                                               
                                                                   5.Black Rhinocerous

6. Grey whale

7.Black Footed Ferret

                                                    8. Vaquita

                           
                                                    9. Leatherback turtle

                         
                                                              10. Whale tail

                                                         
                                              11. Hawksbill Turtle