Exercise 5.0

Read the first three pages (at least) of Arthur Danto’s essay ‘Works of Art and Mere Real Things’ in his book ‘The Transfiguration of the Commonplace.‘ Then conduct your own ‘thought experiment’ by choosing a picture or object that is, or you can imagine it to be, a work of art. Give the ‘work’ three or more different titles, then reflect on the effect of the title on the work and the work on the title.

This Exercise took me back to part one of this course when in Exercise 1.3 we were asked to suggest how a Dyson vacuum cleaner can be seen as a work of art. This had led me to reflect upon the ‘ready-made’ art object such as Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’. It is a big question to ask why a ready-made object when outside the gallery is just an object but when it is inside the gallery walls it becomes art. I considered that the title attached to an object when in a gallery can prompt a new perspective in the viewer or act as a gateway to a new conceptual thought. Later in the course, I stumbled across the work ‘New hoover convertibles, Green, Red, Brown, New Shelton wet/dry 10 Gallon Displaced Doubledecker.‘(1981-1987) by Jeff Koons. I hadn’t realised that an artist had already placed some ready-made vacuum cleaners in a display and called it art!

I decided to follow this ready-made idea and selected another of Koons’s art works titled ‘Encased- four rows’ (1983-1993).

Koons’s title for this art work is very literal although there appear to be four columns not rows? Koons has organised the balls in a similar way to how they would be presented to us in a shop. By keeping them in a glass display case he is denying them of their purpose and almost treating them like precious objects (Tate online, accessed 28/06/2020).

Alternative titles for Encased – Four Rows

1. Welcome to Sports Direct – This title creates a new effect on the piece of work. We, the viewer, are now looking at the basketball in the context of the capitalist consumer system. Our attention is drawn to the way that we, the consumer, access and purchase objects to enable certain activities. The effect the work has on the title is one that illuminates the mass production and repetitive nature of objects in a consumer society.
2. Prison Life – This title brings a symbolic dimension to the encased basketballs. We now think of the glass case as the prison walls and the basketballs as the prisoners. The work of art has an effect on the title as we can see the basketballs describing prison life. Lives and identities frozen for periods of time, potentials unrealized and purposes unfulfilled. The packaging resembling restrictive small cells in compacted living spaces.
3. Untitled – If Koons’s basketballs were Untitled we would assume that the artist is intent on not revealing their own thoughts or intentions. This would allow us, the viewer, to take the opportunity to interpret the art in our own way.

List of Illustrations

Fig 1. Koons, J. (1981-1987) New hoover convertibles, Green, Red, Brown, New Shelton wet/dry 10 Gallon Displaced Doubledecker. At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jeff-koons-2368/jeff-koons-banality-decadence-and-easyfun (Accessed 28/06/2020)

Fig 2. Koons, J. (1983-1993) Encased – four rows At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jeff-koons-2368/jeff-koons-banality-decadence-and-easyfun (Accessed 28/06/2020)

Bibliography

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jeff-koons-2368/jeff-koons-banality-decadence-and-easyfun (Accessed 28/06/2020)