Sometimes when we think of sculptures we can think of ancient gods carved out of giant pieces marble, or delicate ceramic figures, but beautiful and high quality sculptures can also be created out of unconventional materials. Everyday objects that would usually be perceived as useless rubbish like bottles, pencils and really anything, can be recycled into great works of art. This is called Junk Sculpture and has become increasingly popular. This is because the materials themselves can be used to send a message or strengthen it. In this essay, the work of two influential artists; Guy Laramée and Nicholas Jones, who both create sculptures using books, will be analysed and the way in which they use everyday objects to create 3-dimensional sculptures
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Laramée was born in 1957, in Montreal and went on to receive a BFA and an MA in anthropology from Concordia University in Montreal as well as an MA in visual arts from UQAM in Montreal. Guy Laramée is well known for his landscape sculptures carved from vintage books. His artworks are housed in the public collections of Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven Museum of Art and Design in New York, Acor Library in Amman, Jordan, Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec, Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec and numerous private collections. Guy Laramée takes vintage books and transforms them into mind blowing sculptures of landscapes. In his artworks is the theme of cultural erosion, the idea that cultures are constantly forming, being replaced, and destroyed. Guy Laramée was “very upset with the ideologies of progress” when he was younger, and believed that human beings were still primitive and that as a species we were not evolved. Laramée came to see that people’s obsession for changing how we access culture is a manifestation of our fascination with the content of consciousness. His artwork is inspired by the concept that one gains knowledge through erosion, in his sculptures, mountains of unused knowledge are worn down into mountains then nothing but …show more content…
The purpose of this artwork is to represent the erosion of cultures, books are read to gain ‘mountains’ of knowledge, so in his sculpture Guy Laramée transforms that knowledge into mountains that are slowly wearing away, to show how knowledge gets lost, and becomes irrelevant over time as cultures change, and are replaced. I believe that Guy Laramée was successful in conveying a strong message through this sculpture. His use of material, books, plays a large part of this of course because books are usually seen to be very important possessions, they house information that is sacred and useful, and so ‘wrecking’ them in the first place sends a strong message that they are no longer needed as times
Laramée was born in 1957, in Montreal and went on to receive a BFA and an MA in anthropology from Concordia University in Montreal as well as an MA in visual arts from UQAM in Montreal. Guy Laramée is well known for his landscape sculptures carved from vintage books. His artworks are housed in the public collections of Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven Museum of Art and Design in New York, Acor Library in Amman, Jordan, Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec, Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec and numerous private collections. Guy Laramée takes vintage books and transforms them into mind blowing sculptures of landscapes. In his artworks is the theme of cultural erosion, the idea that cultures are constantly forming, being replaced, and destroyed. Guy Laramée was “very upset with the ideologies of progress” when he was younger, and believed that human beings were still primitive and that as a species we were not evolved. Laramée came to see that people’s obsession for changing how we access culture is a manifestation of our fascination with the content of consciousness. His artwork is inspired by the concept that one gains knowledge through erosion, in his sculptures, mountains of unused knowledge are worn down into mountains then nothing but …show more content…
The purpose of this artwork is to represent the erosion of cultures, books are read to gain ‘mountains’ of knowledge, so in his sculpture Guy Laramée transforms that knowledge into mountains that are slowly wearing away, to show how knowledge gets lost, and becomes irrelevant over time as cultures change, and are replaced. I believe that Guy Laramée was successful in conveying a strong message through this sculpture. His use of material, books, plays a large part of this of course because books are usually seen to be very important possessions, they house information that is sacred and useful, and so ‘wrecking’ them in the first place sends a strong message that they are no longer needed as times