“What happens When Nothing Happens?” – Paul Virilo
“The everyday might be the common ground experience that allows museum visitors to understand the effects of history on the private lives of those who were usually overlooked.”
“The desire to confront things in the world at large rather that the world of art.”
Linked to this is the assumption that the everyday is both authentic and democratic; where ordinary people creatively use and transform the world they encounter from day today.”
“A turn to the everyday will bring art and life closer together.”
“Most of the art presented here or discussed here may aspire to directness and immersion but it does not approach the everyday in any straightforward documentary way, most of it uses ruses and subterfuge to find ways of representing and engaging with the quotidian.”
Authentic = genuine, real, bona fide
Democratic = equal, classless, open
Transformative = change something dramatically, undergo total change
Subterfuge = something designed to deceive
Quotidian = commonplace, done daily, recurring daily
For me seeing and using the everyday in art allows the objects or subject to be instantly recognizable and relatable but also every surreal and strange depending on the context in which I put them. I enjoy taking something safe and familiar and changing it to make it less usual. It draws people in and I think in some ways it helps people see the everyday in a different light. Things you see everyday aren’t boring or bland at all like many people might think, they become more extraordinary in my opinion.
Annette Messager
Messager is a French painter, photographer and sculpture.
‘I like to tell stories… children’s stories are monstrous,’
“I like to use material that you have in the house, for me the material of the house could be very strange and very dangerous too. it depends how you look at it.
Gabriel Orozco
Mexican Artist Gabriel Orozco had uses a range of everyday object ranging from cat food tins to bits of rubber tires. For these two works he has used cars, and even though I see cars everyday i can’t stop looking at these works. On the left the car has been dismantled and suspended on wires to show how much of it would go together. Right the car has had the middle section removed and the two sides welded together. By taking something so familiar and changing it it becomes more interesting and as Messager said it can be unsettling and strange.
Sardine Cans & Camembert 