The World is One. The Human is Two: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Objects
with John Preus
SCULPTURE | 684 001 | 1.5 credits | $50 Lab Fee
July 28 - August 3, 2024
This course will challenge students to work across two hand-made designed objects, one chosen and one randomly procured, to create a third sculpture which creatively considers form, function, destruction, and collaboration. Students will provide the items, which must be made by a human and no bigger than 3 feet on any side, and participate in an object swap to secure their second subject. Demonstrations including chop saw, band saw, jig saw, and other basic building tool usage will introduce students to a variety of processes they can utilize in constructing/deconstructing their object. Throughout the creation process we will discuss the object as sacrament, fetish, scapegoat, and as matter of hermeneutics. We will look at the work of contemporary artists such as Brian Jungen, Edra Soto, Amanda Williams, Theaster Gates, Doris Salcedo, and others. Because of the short length of time we have together, some short limited readings will be assigned, but a more extensive list of resources and texts will be made available. Susan Sontag, Laura Kipnis’s Against Love, Joan Didion on desire, Peter Rollins on the Lacanian subject and the church that believes in nothing. Colby Dickinson on the Sacrament and the Fetish object, Rene Girard on the scapegoat and mimetic desire. Students should be prepared for a robust collaborative experience as this course will dedicate significant time to the ritual and performance of the object exchange, so as to set the stage for considering the relationship between forms. This course will culminate in a final presentation of sculptures thoughtfully installed indoors or out.
John Preus works with broken things in 2-dimensional, sculptural and functional formats. His earliest memories are of running barefoot dodging cow pies in Tanzania, child to Lutheran missionaries. His work reflects on the nature of trauma and memory, the capacity of material to store psychic and emotional content, the history of religion and its use of imagery to convey meaning and influence. He is currently thinking about the relationship between the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Psychological Disorders used by psychiatrists) and its relationship to demonology. He studied at the School of the Art Institute, and received his MFA from the University of Chicago. He shows currently with Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco.
John Preus, The Beast, 2014, felt, wood, chicago public school furniture, 20 x 20 x 18 ft.