27.9.21 - What is Fine Art?
Angela de la Cruz makes artworks about the process of painting, an idea, rather than depicting a certain tangible thing. I can tell this isn’t a piece of design because it is not made with the audience in mind, it does not accommodate their needs or consider usability because it is not meant to have function. The piece shows a solidly painted canvas with magenta and dark brown, which is creased and held together with a wooden peg while seemingly breaking free from its frame. She has turned a process that would normally result in a 2D piece into a sculptural work that literally breaks the boundaries of the traditional canvas painting, it questions why we follow certain norms in the art world when we can truly create anything we want. The thick layer of paint on the folded canvas creates a leather-like texture which I find quite uncomfortable, but this only emphasises the jarring composition of the work.
This is an example of a piece of design with artistic properties. The unconventional spiral shaped bookshelf is designed to hold books but clearly not in the most efficient way since books are rectangular while this is round. It isn't peak function and it offers aesthetic value so I think the ideas of art and design cross over in this case, I think if it was full of books it would look quite precarious, and they wouldn't slot together nicely like on a flat shelf, some might even fall off. The materials are crude and it has a contemporary feel which is a stark contrast to traditional bookshelves which haven't really changed much since they first entered the home. Though bookshelves have often been very decorative items of furniture throughout history, with carved wooden details and intricate patterns, they have become more simplified in modern times, an IKEA bookshelf for example will be made of very plain materials without all the extra embellishments. It costs 589 euros, and since it is made of PVC which is not a particularly expensive material, much of the price must account for the artistic elements put into it - we are paying for Arad's skill and ideas, whereas designs that are purely functional will be priced with more emphasis on covering the cost of the materials and manufacturing.
Personally I think this piece is certainly eye-catching but I can't imagine it in the domestic environment. The use of plastic doesn't really work in conjunction with the essence of books which are made from natural materials and are traditional objects. The fact that you can't store books on much of this shelf's surface makes me think it is a waste of material.
I asked a graduate designer from Nottingham Trent University for their thoughts on the piece:
"The spiral pattern makes me think of fossils, and the fact that it is a bookshelf is cool because I think books can be likened to fossils, in that they contain stories from the past - stories that never age and can be preserved even though the book itself becomes brittle and old. It's the same thing with a fossil, the story it tells is untagging while the creature itself has aged to the point of being a brittle husk."
- Matthew Smith
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