Artist Entry-> John Feodorov

·      Feodorov was born in L.A., but spent a lot of time in New Mexico on his family’s land on a Navajo reservation. This dual existence has influenced he and his work. He earned his BFA in painting and drawing from California State University, has been an exhibiting artist for years showing his work that attempt to unite the spiritual with the modern to create a new mythology that works in our contemporary world. He works in the form of multi media combining painting, sculpture, video, photographs, etc creating works that range from installation to painting and everything in between. He is currently an assistant professor of art at Western Washington University.

·      In a general sense I chose John Feodorov because he directly deals with the subject of a modern spirituality as well as the contemporary search for meaning and connection both of which are concepts that I’ve had to deal with in my current work. Though he often makes fun of this search he realizes that there is a legitimate need and struggle to bridge the gap between current cultural views and concepts, and our innate need for the spirituality. He creates pseudo sacred spaces and objects through the combination of the spiritual and the objects of the everyday in order to create a new “hybrid mythological iconography”. His use of these everyday often manufactured objects to convey the new spiritual struggle and the pitfalls that exist on the path to a truly modern spirituality, or to question our relationship with both new and old icons and idols is another reason I found that Feodorov interested me. These modern objects have already infiltrated our spiritual senses and outlets. One just have to look around from the release of Jesus action figures to the manufactured items left on modern burial altars. Feodorov sites this exact phenomenon in the second quote below.

·      In particular sense, I am keenly interested in his installations pictured above. In particular “Forest at Night” (Photo 4) and “Temple”(Photo 3). In both installations he creates sacred spaces where the viewer is met with a feeling of entering a sacred space in spite of the fact that they are constructed from everyday secular objects. In “Forest at Night”, Feodorov creates individual altars for trees that have been cut down for clear cutting causing the room to take on the feeling of a memorial or an altar to the dead. In “Temple”, once again he creates a space reminiscent of a place of worship, but this time he addresses the possible need to connect the sacred and secular together by incorporating manufactured objects and popular icons and experiences to create spirituality suitable for the modern day. We see this connection on modern memorials and graves in particular. This transformation of the gallery space into a sacred space is something I want to incorporate into the final form of my current work. I have never been one to just put photographs on the wall, and with this project I began thinking creating a spiritual space to think and contemplate the images I am presenting, and Feodorov’s transformation of his spaces with the use light, architectural hints, and form has influenced me deeply in reference to my current body of work, and I will continue to study his work.

·      “While my works do not embrace any one belief or theory, I see them as artifacts of contemporary desperation—a search for a Something, an Other, that may or may not exist.”- Feodorov

·      “Perhaps what is needed is a new “spiritual” iconography that utilizes everyday manufactured items and materials to merge the concepts of sacred and profane rather than segregate them. Of course this idea is not original. For example, throughout the U.S., impromptu shrines of flowers and teddy bears spring up after the death of a child, relative or even a celebrity. In numerous cultures, shrines to dead relatives and friends frequently incorporate “kitsch” items to memorialize the departed. Cheap plastic gods, saints and idols can also be found in markets and dollar stores around the globe. In these examples, any material can be transformed into a temporal “sacred object”.”-Feodorov

·      PBS’s Art 21 Interview with Feodorov-> http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/feodorov/clip2.html

·      Artist Website-> http://www.johnfeodorov.com

·      The John Ericson Museum of Art-> http://www.jema.us/pages/jemaintro.html

 

Beth Campbell Response

·      The most interesting quote from Campbell’s lecture was the term, “the veneer of everyday”. This came up multiple times in reference to multiple pieces of her work, including “House”, “Never-ending Continuity Error”, and the “Following Room”. It is technique of using mundane objects and situations, for example bedrooms or storefronts in order to imitate the look of the everyday. This creates a seemingly real phenomenon. These mundane objects lull the mind into what seem like a state of normalcy before this security of mind is broken through a visual realization. These realizations, such as not having a reflection or reaching out to touch non existent panes of glass, snaps the mind out the average thought process into questioning not only what is placed in front of it, but how the mind takes in the world around them. They lead to questioning our basic perceptions and conceptions, how much of the world we experience is our experience and how much is our thoughts.

·      Three words to describe Campbell’s work: Experiential, Jarring and Psychological.

·      Through listening to Beth Campbell speak I learned that her work seems to be deeply influenced by Buddhist philosophy and epistemology. Her work often functions as a koan as she stated they are made with “the intention to unravel expectation”, breaking people out of their comfort zone of thought to think of deeper more abstract concepts about their mind and the world around them. She spoke of “constantly being ticked in everyday… there is a veil between you and the objects… that interaction isn’t really happening.” This is eerily similar to the Hindu and Buddhist concept of the creative force of prakriti, which tricks us all into believing what is around us, is real and permanent. I never got the opportunity to ask, but both concepts are similar.

·      I did not have two original questions because there was very little online. I could not find enough to formulate intelligent questions ahead of time.

·      I found “The Following Room” the most compelling because it was the more complete and detailed illusion. At first it appears to be a single mirrored room, but if you reach out to touch, or observed it long enough you realize that it is multiple room built at different perspectives with lines imposed on the scene to look like the crack between mirrors in order to mimic reflections. This is the most jarring because there are no other clues as to the fact that it is an illusion, such as with the “Never-ending Continuity Error” where each level is a little different. Campbell also stated this was the most physical realization because viewers were constantly reaching out to touch the mirror only to realize it is not there, and then having to make sense of what is in front of them. This is the most powerful experience in my eyes.

·      Two New Questions:

o   How much does Buddhist epistemology and philosophy informs your work?

o   Do you think of your work as visual koans?

o   Have you ever thought of making an illusion large enough to surround the  viewer, like “House” but with you current concentration?