After my completing my first shoot, I had to think of ways I may display the outfits I wear in my exhibition. One artist in particular was suggested to me, Joseph Beuys. Joseph Beuys was a German Fluxus, happening, and performance artist as well as a painter, sculptor, medallist, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist, and pedagogue.
'His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social sculpture as a gesamtkunstwerk, for which he claimed a creative, participatory role in shaping society and politics. His career was characterized by open public debates on a very wide range of subjects including political, environmental, social and long term cultural trends. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century.' Tate.
The ways the work is displayed has given me some ideas to how I can display my outfits. The first one, 'Felt Suit' is a neat and tidy way to display the work. However, the other pieces, 'Model for a Felt Environment' and 'Untitled (Vitrine)' are more interesting. The items are contained/trapped. This may work better with my subject matter and help build the narrative. I especially like 'Untitled (Vitrine)' because it has a range of objects within the glass case and for this project, I plan to make a number of smaller models as well as outfits.
I could perhaps combine the two ways and hang up my outfits in a display case, this may make it look eerie draw the viewer in. They may question why the outfits have been contained and they may come up with their own stories as to why the outfits have been trapped.
Felt Suit, 1970.
Online/Display Caption: Felt Suit 1970 is a two-piece suit comprising a jacket and a pair of trousers made from coarse grey felt. It is number seventy-seven in an edition of one hundred identical suits, all produced in the same year by the German artist Joseph Beuys. The artist has stated that work can be displayed in any way, although it is usually shown hanging from a wooden coat hanger. The jacket has lapels and three pockets – one on each side of its lower portion and one right breast pocket – and the trousers feature belt loops. There is no lining inside the jacket, nor does it have any buttons, and the seams are machine-woven with grey cotton thread.
Model For a Felt Environment, 1964.
Online/Display Caption: The neat rolls of grey felt on painted wood inside this vitrine are intended as a model for an 'environment'. Felt insulates and absorbs, representing protection but also a sense of constriction, like being suffocated. The same type of felt rolls are seen in the 'environment' 'Plight' (1958/1985), now in the Pompidou Centre, in which the walls and ceiling are covered with felt to create a stifling atmosphere. Beuys used felt in an infamous 'action' performed the same year this model was made. 'The Chief' saw the artist being wrapped in a felt blanket, fighting claustrophobia to lie practically still, as if in a coffin, for a nine-hour period.
Untitled (Vitrine) 1983.
Online/Display Caption: These objects reflect Beuys’s concern with the generation and storage of energy. Many include iron, which Beuys associated with slowness and the gradual accumulation of energy; copper, which he associated with lightning conductivity and speed; or felt, which insulates and absorbs. On the left are two pieces of felt with a razor blade attached, and Samurai Sword, a knife sheathed in felt. On the right are a piece of tram rail, relating to Beuys’s childhood memories of the tram stop near his home; Magnetic Rubbish, a razor blade held upright on a magnetised plate; and a battery.
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