Bruno Munari: Macchina Inutile

Munari’s Useless Machines are made of painted cardboard and held together with silk threads.

“The elements of a useless machine, by contrast, all rotate upon and within themselves without touching. They are geometric in origin and exploit the two sides of their rotating elements to create chromatic variations. The public often asks how this idea came to me. This is my response: in 1933 the first abstract paintings were made in Italy; they were nothing more than geometric forms painted in a realistic manner. Morandi, it was said, made abstract pictures using bottles and vases as a formal pretext. In fact, the subject of a picture by Morandi is not the bottles but the painting captured in those spaces. So, it didn’t matter whether he painted bottles or triangles – it was all the same – and the painting was born from the formal and chromatic relationship between the elements that made up the work”

– Pg 40, Useless Machines, Far vedere l’airia, Bruno Munari, Air Made Visible, A Visual Reader on Bruno Munari.

An Alternate Meaning – The Displacement of the Face

In Gombrich’s essay, The Mask and the Face: The Perception of Physiognomic Likeness in Life and in Art, masks are seen as “…crude distinctions, the deviations from the norm which mark a person off  from others.” Gombrich has revealed another way of seeing a mask. It might not necessarily take on conventional interpretations.

Action: Sculptural series

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I would like to interpret this series with illustrative pieces that are converted into various three-dimensional objects. The basis of these sculptures would still be a permanent aspect, which is the face – but altered by displacing the elements or reinterpreting them. These masks/objects would be hung, instead of being worn, the act of viewing serves as a reflection – masks are a reflection of our inner beings.

image found on pinterest:

I love the use of the veil as it shrouds the face without actually covering it. There is an added dimension on the face. The embroided features stands out from the rest of the face – exaggerating the actual features.

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Collages done by Trey Wright

The placement of the individual pieces works. Although each of them are flat cut outs, they look rather three-dimensional as they are being propped against a backdrop. I like the idea of using collage to represent the displacement of the face and how the elements could be seen as separate and as one.

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études
what was and will be i will never see
by Lou Benesch

These studies done by Benesch are very charming, making use of organic shapes, their placement and composition works somehow. The shapes could be converted into three dimensional objects and arranged physically.

Dali’s Mustache by Salvador Dalí, Philippe Halsman

With 101 Life magazine covers to his credit, Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) was one of the leading portrait photographers of his time. In addition to his distinguished career in photojournalism, Halsman was one of the great pioneers of experimental photography, motivated by a profound desire to push this youngest of art forms toward new frontiers by using innovative and unorthodox photographic techniques. One of Halsman’s favorite subjects was Salvador Dali, the glittering and controversial painter and theorist with whom the photographer shared a unique friendship and extraordinary professional collaboration that spanned over thirty years. Whenever Dali imagined a photograph so strange that its production seemed impossible, Halsman tried to find the solution, and invariably succeeded. As Halsman explains in his postface, Dali’s Mustache is the fruit of this marriage of the minds. The jointly conceived and seemingly nonsensical questions and answers reveal the gleeful humor and assumed cynicism for which Dali is famous, while the marvelous and inspired images of Dali’s mustache brilliantly display Halsman’s consumate skill and extraordinary inventiveness as a photographer. This combination of wit, absurdity, and the off-handedly profound is irresistible and has contributed to the enduring fascination inspired by this unique photographic interview, which has become a cult classic and valuable collector’s item since its original publication in 1954. The present volume faithfully reproduces the first edition and will introduce a new generation to the irreverent humor and imaginative genius of two great artists. – Goodreads Takeaway: These photographs by Philippe Halsman of Dali captures the very essence of the artist. Dali is almost distinguishable via his famous mustache, it is as if his mustache is a manifestation of himself. Like what I have read in E.H Gombrich’s essay, masks could stand for “crude distinctions, the deviations from the norm which mark a person off  from others.” which is exactly what Dali’s mustache is. It epitomises him. The last work which is of a mobile does not need Dali’s face but just representations of his face. It also supports what I read in Gombrich’s essay about the displacement of facial features, no matter how we rearrange them, they still are distinguishable.

Wotsit all about by James Ostrer

“Junk food dredges up some complicated feelings for James Ostrer. He vividly remembers his parents’ split as a kid. His father’s weekend routine of taking Ostrer and his sister to McDonald’s after bickering with his mother left his associations with Happy Meals decidedly…unhappy. Later, Ostrer found himself combating his stress with unhealthy food, which became more difficult to stomach as he got older.

So the British photographer decided to explore his relationship with junk food in a peculiar way—by dousing himself in it. Ostrer’s Wotsit all about project features close-up photographs of himself, friends, and even his father carefully glopped with a vast, rainbow assortment of fast food, candies, cold cuts, pastries, you name it, over their faces and bodies. The “portraits” are messy, fascinating, and comically creepy, like a cartoon roundup of childhood obesity culprits come to life, warning little kids to eat their vegetables. “I wanted to completely engulf myself in these food types to this extreme level,” Ostrer said to NPR. “The process of creating these was a kind of a cathartic experience.” – GOOD

images by James Ostrer

Takeaway: It is interesting to see how Ostrer explores his relationship with junk food through an artistic channel, creating monstrous portraits that reflects the quote “you are what you eat”. The process of placing these food items and covering the faces of his subjects is somewhat erasing these people’s identities where they hide behind the comfort of food without realising that they have manifested into a slave of food. The portraits have a very primitive almost mask like quality to them. Perhaps a ‘mask’ could be an actual reflection of inner desires and addictions that you can’t shake off.