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Historical Abstract: CPI
1995
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'Historical Abstracts' is a series of sculptures whose form and content is determined by information (artistic, historical, political, social) from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gallup Organization, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and many other sources. |
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Humdef, 1995
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The first one, CPI, was investigated in 1994 and fabricated in 1995. I was elated and nervous: I knew only one other artist who had used statistics directly in an artwork and he didn't know of anyone else. Undeterred, I went on to investigate other subjects: the historical relationship of defense versus social spending; marriage and birth rates and other issues. |
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Love & Marriage, 1998
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The situation has changed. Many others now combine art with statistics: Komar and Melamid produced Painting by Numbers, based on interviews on peoples' preferences in art as to color, size, subject, and so on; Danica Phelps charts her daily travels, earnings and expenses on maps she draws of her Brooklyn neighborhood; in an 8" wide by 30' long scroll Miranda Maher lists all wars recorded from the inception of writing - there's one blank line; David Diao makes paintings which track his sales and income.
My projects are all called "Historical Abstracts" as they depict events unfolding over time and can be taken - if a viewer cares to ignore content - simply as abstract art. But I want a maximal art experience, which includes the cerebral along with the visual.
To the best of my knowledge, these are the only sculptures which can be used to settle bar bets.
For more information on any of these pieces, please click on the photograph.
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Pipes, 1998
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