Artist that use the Art of instruction in their work:
The artist we were inspired by to make our sculptures was Erwin Wurm. We looked at some of his one minute sculptures and then had to come up with ideas of our own. Wurms art is used to suggest that anything can be a sculpture and art has no limits; he does this by using everyday objects but interfering with them by giving people instructions to turn these objects into art. Wurms work was exhibited at the tate and this meant that the public could not only go to view art but by reading a brief instruction or looking at a video become the art. They then had to stay like this for 60 seconds; this brought out the variety of ways a brief passage of text can be interpreted as many people preformed the instructions just in different ways. His work is primarily based around humor but it also gets the audience to look at things more carefully to fully perceive what is going on and to come to a conclusion as to what the sculptures are about. Wurm was inspired by Ernesto Neto's immersive installations and Joseph Beuys ideas around social sculpture. While he is inspired by these two artist his main inspiration is everyday culture and ordinary objects such as, a chair or piece of furniture.
Hans Ulrich Obrist is the creator of the books "Do it", he invited 12 artist to send instructions to him which were then translated into 9 different languages and send internationally around. This book eventually ended up being featured in 50 different locations and the idea was that everytime a new person read the instruction, it would be created in a different format. This was also put in exhibitions all over the world and Marcle Duchamp, one of the many artists, states that "art is a game between all people of all periods". This suggests that as time changes and as the exhibition moves somewhere else people will always come up with ways to create the instruction differently to everyone else. This is because everyone views things differently and so hundreds of different sculptures can be made from the same instruction.
Yoko Ono had two exhibitions at the tate and created one book called "Grapefruit". I really like the name of this book because it does not necessarily have anything to do with the content inside but it shows that art can be called or made of literally anything. Ono's book was published in 1964 and it states loads of instructions that people should follow. Some are hard and some are easy yet each takes you on a little adventure that you can document and make a piece of art out of. This book is a good example of the art of instruction as each person would create a different scenario out of each instruction.
All of these artists work are similar in the way that they all use instructions to tell their audience what to do and this helps them to create sculptures. However, they are all different because there instructions are completely different this shows that any idea can be turned into art.
I started by taking notes on "Do it" the project itself to get insight into something I was going to have to try to recreate. Do it features in over 50 different places world wide and each exhibition leads to the next one. There are 12 instruction books and they are translated into 9 different languages. The main aim of these instruction booklets and exhibition was to express that every instruction can be interpreted in an infinite of variety so if a different person got the instruction they would make something completely different to the sculpture you might have made. In pairs we then had to come up with an instruction for someone else to follow and once this was done we was given an instruction we the had to create. The instruction we were given was to rip up the instruction and then stick on different parts of our body so I decided to stick it all over my body and we decided to just focus on Joe's face; this then gave us two completely different sculpture.
We then photographed everyones pictures put together in a exhibition and could see everyones instructions come to life. The instruction I came up with was to use the exercise ball and and hold it up with one arm whilst standing on one leg. This was my instruction as I believed you could make a variety of sculptures out of this. It was very interesting looking at everyones sculptures as everyone had very different ideas which created a visually entrancing exhibition on the wall as you want to look close at what everyone is doing. One thing I would change about this exhibition is the way I layed out my images as I believe it would of looked a lot better if they were cut up and then stuck back together as it would of continued the instructions from the paper without them having to state to do that.
Take a small object on a trip with you and take 15 photos of it:
My instruction was to take a small item on a trip with me and take 15 photos of it. I started by choosing a teddy bear to take on a trip with me and I then took a picture with it on my bed where it would originally sit. This instruction was quite simple and I took it with me on a day out with my friends. I placed the bear in ordinary and also unique places so that my photos would be interesting. I believe the bear looked interesting in unordinary places such as on a bench and on steps as it is something that is not normally there and so your eyes are drawn directly towards it. However, I believe that I could of taken more captivating photos if they had more movement in them. For example, if I threw the bear into to air then there are endless possibilities as to what could happen when the bear was in the air therefore my images would be more indecisive and random leading to them being more engaging.