The Cabinet of Curiosity

“Derive ideas from the world around you, from your own background, from your childhood, from relationships with others, from the social and political environment. Don’t be confined to a pond...in which the water is always in danger of becoming stagnant”Ken Garland

Joseph Cornell was not a sculptor, a draftsman, or a painter. This internationally renowned modern artist never had professional training. He was first and fore-most a collector. He loved to scour old book shops and secondhand stores of new York looking for souvenirs, theatrical memorabilia, old prints and photographs, mu-sic scores, and French literature.

By collecting and carefully juxtaposing found objects in small, glass-front boxes, Cornell created visual poems in which surface, form, texture, and light play together. Us-ing things we can see, Cornell made boxes about things we cannot see: ideas, memories, fantasies, and dreams.

He was a kind of magician, turning everyday objects into mysterious treasures. In Homage to the Romantic Bal-let, plastic ice cubes become jewels when set in a vel-vet-lined box, souvenirs of a famous ballerina’s midnight performance on the frozen Russian steppe. A small glass jar filled with colored sand is transformed into pow-dered gold from a Mayan temple, carefully preserved in Cornell’s Museum.

A symbolist, Cornell used the found materials that inhabit his boxes—paper birds, clay pipes, clock springs, balls, and rings—to hint at abstract ideas. A metal spring from adiscarded wind-up clock may evoke the passage of time; a ball might represent a planet or the luck associated with playing a game. Although his constructions are enveloped in nostal-gia—the longing for something that happened long ago and far away—their appearance is thoroughly modern.

Joseph Cornell

Untitled (The Hotel Eden), 1945

L’Egypte de Mlle Cleo de Merode, cours élémentaire d’histoire naturelle, 1940

Kurt Schwitters• Kurt Schwitters – German painter, sculptor, typogra-

pher and writer (1887 – 1948)

• Influenced by Expressionism and Cubism (1917 – 1918)

• 1918 created his own from of Dada in Hanover called “Merz”, using rubbish materials such as labels, bus tickets and bits of broken wood in his collages and constructions.

Whereas the raw material of most of the Dada montage of the times was photographic and relevant, Schwitters took his from the streets. The montages, collages and assemblag-es that he constructed from all this gathered refuse have an extraordinary integrity of vision, but they are certainly not in any way political, and it is easy to understand how Schwitters’ comfortable artistic sensibility may have alien-ated the likes of Heartfield and Grosz.

Kurt Schwit-ters, Merzbild 46 A. Das Kegelbild, 1921

Construction for noble ladies (1919)

Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau, reconstruction by Peter Bissegger 1981–3 (Sprengel Museum Hanover)

Kurt Schwitters, The Cathedral of Erotic Misery - Merzbau - Hano-ver - 1924

Brendan Lee Satish Tang• Brendan Lee Satish Tang – was born in Dublin, Ire-

land of Trinidadian parents and is a naturalized citi-zen of Canada (1975).

• Tang dedicates his full attention to his professional art practice, where he continues to explore the inter-face between culture and material.

For his exuberant creations he is deeply inspired by the idea of transformation and inter-cultural exchanges and interpretations. ”I’m kind of playing with looking at how history is really malleable and how it can really shift. We almost think that history is this kind of static story that’s unchanging, but it’s not.” says Brendan. And it’s true that static is not a word that you would use in order to describe his creations. On the contrary, Tang’s work leave you quite overwhelmed, without being sure what exactly is that you are looking at but still finding it totally attractive.In his Manga Ormolu series Tang enters the dialogue on contemporary culture, technology and globalization

tradition (using the form of Chinese Ming dynasty vessels) and techno-Pop Art. The futuristic update of the Ming ves-sels in this series recalls 18th century French gilded ormo-lu, where historic Chinese vessels were transformed into curiosity pieces for aristocrats. But here, robotic prosthetic s inspired by anime and manga subvert elitism with the accessibility of popular culture.

My Project “TROBA“TROBA - is Lithuanian old traditional house

1. I am gong to make Lithuanian house which represents my country traditions, culture, famous artists etc.

2. I want to show contrast between English and Lithuanian house.

In the beginning of the project I bought English house ,which I am going to transformFirst of all I changed roof. In Lithuania people used to have oat roof.

SIAUDINIS STOGASSIAUDINIS STOGAS - oat roof

LANGINESLANGINES - Lithuanian traditional windows

JUOSTAJUOSTOS - stripe with Lithuanian tradicional ornaments

STRING ART

Lithuanians are very industrious people so I deco-rated wall using string art.On this wall you also see ladders, broom, which also represents diligence.

ORIGAMI

I also looked at Origami and I decided to make chairs from paper. Lithuanians mostly have wooden chairs that is the reason why I chose conrete texture.

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, also known as M. K. Čiurlionis was a Lithuanian painter and com-poser. Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau and was representative of the fin de siècle epoch. He has been considered one of the pioneers of abstract art in Europe. During his short life he composed about 250 pieces of music and created about 300 paintings. The majority of his paintings are housed in the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Mu-seum in Kaunas, Lithuania. His works have had a profound influence on modern Lithuanian culture. The asteroid 2420 Čiurlionis is named after him.

MIKALOJUS KONSTANTINAS CIURLIONIS

KRYZIUSKRYZIUS - it is cross. Lithuanians are Christians so in old houses you can find crosses hanging on the wall. Also some people have cross in their garden.

KUCIOSKUCIOS - Christmas Eve. In Lithuania traditions are very different from England so we celebrate Cris-tmas Eve otherwise.

• Advent candles• 12 dishes on the table (you can also have 6 or 24,

but all meals have to be without meat and dairy products)

• The communion wafers - PLOTKELES

MY FINAL WORK “TROBA“