t/ Hi I am reluctantly back in Melbourne, but happily posting on Fruity again. The trip was great - first proper holiday in about three years. No doubt you will hear more about it in the coming posts.
Firstly, I just had to share with you an artist I discovered whilst visiting
The Whitney Museum of American Art (easily the best gallery I went to during my stay).
Born in 1960, Charles LeDray lives and works in New York, creating these small-scale sculptures of astounding detail.
I could have wandered around the exhibit all day, finding new things every time. Miniature hand-painted pottery filled a few glass cabinets in the exhibit; another room contained pint-sized garments carefully laid out like a store with dingy fluorescent lighting, and even dust purposefully scattered on top of the light-fittings. The clothes are distressed to look worn, so you get a very real impression that tiny people actually owned and lived in these clothes. He also had a few sculptures made out of human bone, the most incredible one being an old-fashioned model of the solar system.
Not too much is known or published about LeDray. Apparently he is a bit of a recluse, but I feel like you get a sense of who he is after viewing the work. The amazing detail, plus the fact he has absolutely no help during the process, points to quite an obsessive nature. He is a probably quite eccentric too - who else would spend years crafting tiny items of clothes?! I could imagine him working away in his studio, hour upon hour, labouring over his tiny creations. The love for his craft was self-evident.
Knowing nothing about this artist, I felt like I had discovered a secret treasure when I first walked around the exhibit. It was so refreshing to see well-crafted work, when so many young artists today seem to be making pieces that are highly conceptual but lack actual skill. I wondered what inspired him to make miniatures. There was something really poetic about the works. Like he was creating a whole world. At the same time though, it wasn't a fantastical world. It all seemed very real. I often found myself imagining what the people were like that used to own these clothes! I felt like he was commenting on the objects we surround ourselves with - how we attach ourselves to these things, customise them, attribute meanings and unintentionally create life-stories in the process. It wasn't overly sentimental, it was just like LeDray was saying "This is life. This is what we do. We're small but fragile. Things are important and unimportant at the same time. It is the people that own, and inhabit things that give them meaning." He literally put it all into perspective for me.
Watch a video about the exhibit 'Mens Suits'
here
