Visual Art The Crystal Is the New Cube
posted by on June 20 at 15:39 PM
One thing the new Violet Hour show at the Henry brings up: Crystalline forms are everywhere.
I’m thinking of the fake rocks immobilizing the cars in Maljkovic’s videos,
the designs on the bellies of Liu’s creatures, the shatter-pattern of Jackson’s windshield, a navigation chart painting using pennies the world over as stars by Jackson (also brand new and at the Henry), Oscar and Eli,
Eli Hansen and Oscar Tuazon’s Solar Cooker (2008), at Howard House
Susan Robb,
and Noam Gonick and Luis Jacob at the Belkin at UBC.
Everywhere! The crystal is the new cube.
In an interview this morning (that will be posted as a podcast next week), Jackson said he said the form is “a protest against linearity” that reflects the way the Google-era brain really works. (Liu said she thought that was a fantasy, that she wasn’t so sure it was an apt metaphor for the brain. After we stopped recording, they both said they thought the other one was right.)
Hansen and Tuazon have said the crystal is a cross between an organic and an inorganic form, which is why they like it—and naturally, it represents the cheesy/sweet New Age utopianism of the ’70s they also like, while maintaining those particular geodesque charms that made it such a kitschy totem in the first place. To crystal!
They're not "crystals", they're polyhedrons. Jesus.
Personally, I prefer dodecahedrons myself.
Fnarf, some days you deserve to be told: Shut the fucking fuck up.
Will, they're only dodecahedrons if they have 12 sides.
Jen, I'll take that from you and no one else. But, you know, the art is ugly.
I know, that's why I said I preferred dodecahedrons.
You may settle for their lesser children, but I'm all about sweet sweet dodecahedrons.
as the world wanders towards the aquarian age, the complex systems of the man-made computer machines are slowly unifying with the complex systems of the heaven-made nature machines. the crystalline forms are both a reaction to and evolution of this direction we're headed.
Uh, don't crystals form in the shape of polyhedra? Aren't crystals often referred to as "crystal polyhedra"? Can't I do a quick web search and find stuff like this:
How are coordination polyhedra arranged ?
Crystals are formed by linking of coordination polyhedra:
Imagine building a crystal by linking the building blocks (tetrahedra or octahedra) into chains or frameworks.
Example: silicate polyhedra may be linked by sharing of oxygen atoms (corners) between two adjacent silicon tetrahedra.
Not required, but for your information: other polyhedra (e.g., octahedra) may be linked by sharing edges (e.g., two adjacent oxygens are shared between two octahedra) and faces (e.g., three adjacent oxygens are shared between two adjacent octahedra).
Yes, but that doesn't make most of these art pieces crystals, does it? Or even representations of crystals? Or even representations of ideas crystals represent for New Age boneheads? It just makes them badly-made polyhedrons ("polyhedra" is a terrible word).
They're not crystals but... Some of these art pieces seem to be some kind of grouping of polyhedr...ons. Such grouping of polyhedr...a suggest crystalline structure. And, as everyone knows, crystals have the power to make your mind brighter and create a happy and rewarding life for you and others around you.
You're a very funny commenter, Umvue. Unfortunately, I'm well into the wine and have nothing clever to say here. Except that, for instance, Susan Robb's crystalline thingamabob looks like something that's waiting for the garbage truck to take it to the dump. If that's not too mean to say. I guess it's good enough that it's not full of pee.
Oh, Christ, it's not full of pee, is it?
Nothing is too mean to say. I'm beery and whiskeyed (it was on the barkeep) so I'm perfectly competent to render an opinion on art. Agreed, the photos of the Suan Robb thingamabob tell me a little story. The story is: Here's a pile of stuff you may just drive by so I stuck a flag in it. Back up the truck.
Full. Pee. Piss. Christ. SLOG. Movie?
I second that; shut the fuck up Fnarf. YOU are always so negative. And you don't seem to know fucking shit about art so I don't understand why you always piss on these on posts.
"Piss on these on posts"?
I like some stuff, I don't like other stuff. It's a free country. If you don't agree, bring it. I'd love to hear an explanation of why a bunch of stuff in a pile is good art.
I won't defend pilist art (Yes, I just made that word up. Pilist: a movement in art characterized by the piling of stuff) but it sure is as common as crystal art. And to make matters worse, I can't even count how many times I've seen "pile of crystals" art - Definitely a fad.
Crystalline structures always remind me of Victoria Haven and Eric Eley.
www.vichaven.com/html/archive/paper_trails/red-asteroids.html
www.ericeley.com/drawings.html
I don't know much about art, but I sure know my A2 chassis Volkswagens!
At first glance, I thought, those don't look like rocks, they just look like sloppily fabricated fake rocks, the seams are too obvious.
But my curiousity is piqued. Are those fake rocks covering tires? Or are there jackstands with plates bolted to the hubs hidden inside those things?
Because that ride height, it's a little high. Even if that actress is a petite woman. That's a lot of sunshine under there.
Maybe it's Bilstein HD shocks.
Maybe it's Bilstein HD shocks and tires a little larger than spec (195/60-14)... or tires much too large...
Odds of it being a Golf Country are basically nil...
Okay, that's my limited perspective art review.
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