Plant

What is a plant? (Look up the many definitions).

What does it mean "to plant?"

Consider these various definitions and related questions:

1) a plant--a living organism of the kind exemplified by trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, ferns, and mosses, typically growing in a permanent site

-Consider the definition(s) of/associations of plant(s) as pertains to the animate world.

What is natural? Unnatural? What’s the distinction between wildness and cultivated growth? What are some examples of cultivation? What are the social/political implications of agribusiness, personal lawns, pesticide use, etc? What is the difference between desirable growth/species v.s. undesirable growth/infestation? How does growth relate to health and beauty v.s. implications of decline, death, decay? How does the state of our planet and/or species in 2018 inform our ideas about growth?

2) a plant as a place where an industrial or manufacturing process takes place

-How has manufacturing affected the nature or work and of objects? In what ways are we dependent on manufacturing? What do you buy/use that was created in a plant of some kind? How does manufacturing affect dependence/interdependence on other countries? How does it affect our health and environment?

3) a person placed in a group as a spy or informer; or a thing put among someone's belongings to incriminate or compromise them.

example:

http://www.newstarget.com/2016-03-04-corporate-espionage-seaworld-plants-undercover-spies-to-entrap-animal-rights-activists.html

Research shopdropping.

-Brainstorm materials/objects/imagery that pertain to the theme of this project. Determine a topic upon which you’d like to focus. In choosing your topic, remember to challenge yourself; find a subject that is new to you.

-Collect/generate at least 8-10 objects or images. You must take your own pictures if using source imagery (though you may borrow in part if it’s necessary for your concept. (See me in that case.)

-Create 8+ thumbnails to arrive at the strongest possible concept and composition. (Each thumbnail should be no smaller than a baseball card.) Consider the full picture plane, including your background.

-Choose the surface, dimensions and material for your project.

Other artists to research:

Alexander Ross, Spluth, Emile Clark, Henri Rousseau

Lee Bontecou

Lee Bontecou, Untitled, 1976. Graphite and colored pencil on prepared paper, 15 x 11 inches. The Museum of Modern Art

Kinke Kooi:

The Flower and Her Inner Focus 3, 2013 acrylic paint, graphite, colored pencil on paper; 53.75 x 53.75”

When Things Get Tense, 2013 acrylic paint, graphite, colored pencil on paper; 40 x 26.25”

Megan Greene:

Cyclops Suite, 2, 44” x 30”, colored pencil, gouache on black paper, 2008

Underbite, 30” x 22”, colored pencil, gouache on black paper, 2007

252, 9” x 12.25, mixed media on paper, 2010

Petah Coyne:

Petah Coyne, Untitled #1180 (Beatrice), 2003–2008

cast-wax statuary, taxidermy animals, taxidermy birds, silk flowers, silk/rayon velvet, specially formulated wax, felt, tree branches, tree bark, driftwood, cable, cable nuts, acrylic paint, black spray paint, chicken wire, metal hardware, pearl-headed hat pins, pigment, thread, wire, plywood, wood, and vinyl

136 x 109 x 121 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Lelong, New York

Amy Myers:

Charles Burchfield:

“The Four Seasons” (1949-60)

Kim Keever:

Kim Keever

West 104k, C-print, 44 x 72 in. (111.8 x 182.9 cm), edition 1/6, 2009

Diego Rivera:

Detroit Industry-3, 1933 by Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera, Detroit Museum of Art

Thomas Hart Benton:

Francis Picabia:

Joseph Stella:

Jon DeMartin:

Factory By The Railroad

Bernd and Hilda Becher

from Wikipedia:

"Bernd and Hilla Becher first collaborated on photographing and documenting the disappearing German industrial architecture in 1959. The Ruhr Valley, where Becher’s family had worked in the steel and mining industries, was their initial focus. They were fascinated by the similar shapes in which certain buildings were designed. After collating thousands of pictures of individual structures, they noticed that the various edifices – of cooling towers, gas tanks and coal bunkers, for instance – shared many distinctive formal qualities. In addition, they were intrigued by the fact that so many of these industrial buildings seemed to have been built with a great deal of attention toward design."

https://hyperallergic.com/511346/two-artists-ask-can-we-think-across-borders-like-plants-do/