Anxious Objects: Willie Cole’s Favorite Brands
October 3, 2007 through January 6, 2008
Public tours: every Thursday at 12:15 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Group tours: Call 650-723-3469 or reserve online at: http://museum.stanford.edu
This packet provides background information and activities that will support greater understanding for
your visit to the Cantor Arts Center, introducing Willie Cole’s work as well as other, related art on
view at the museum.
The exhibition “Anxious Objects: Willie Cole’s Favorite Brands” was organized by the Montclair Art
Museum (located in northern New Jersey). We gratefully acknowledge the staff of the MAM for
educational materials and advice that informed this packet.
WILLIE COLE
•
is a contemporary African-American artist (born 1955) who grew up in post-industrial Newark,
NJ and sees himself as an “urban archaeologist”
•
has been practicing art since 1965, when he began taking art classes, and has been exhibiting
since 1986
•
draws from traditional African and Asian art, as well as contemporary art, to create works in
many media, and is best known for his found-object sculptures
•
transforms everyday mass-produced objects into precious icons or symbolic representations that
explore ideas of diversity, identity, and commercialization
•
uses methods of free association, repetition, spontaneity, and improvisation
•
believes in the core spirit of an object; all of his work revolves around and emphasizes spirituality
Sunbeam, 1989.
Iron parts and wire.
Cantor Arts Center,
#1996.27
G.E. Mask and Scarification, 1998.
Sandblasted glass with wood. Collection of
Catherine Woodard and Nelson Blitz Jr.
Mother and Child, 2002.
Sheet metal and plastic.
Collection of the Montclair
Art Museum.
Willie Cole is inspired by Asian art
Asian Art refers to art created across the entire continent of Asia, spanning all time periods, societies,
and political borders.
Cole looks to Asian spiritual art, drawing primarily from Hinduism and
Buddhism, for inspiration. For example:
• Mandalas are symbolic circular figures with symmetrical divisions used
in Buddhism and other religions as a representation of the universe and
as an object to aid meditation. (See Pretty in Pink and Air in Remission in
the exhibition.)
• Masks in Asia have been used for many purposes: ritual ceremonies,
healings, and theater. Masks often represent demons and gods in the
retelling of stories and ritual ceremonies. Cole calls his works “Wind
masks” or “Air masks” because he uses hairdryers to construct masks
influenced by Asian predecessors. Asian masks are normally named
after the decorative elements they depict, i.e. Mask of a Spirit
Representing a Hornbill. (See Wind Mask East in the exhibition.)
Cole also uses Hindu and Buddhist deities as influences on his artwork.
For example:
• Ganesh is one of the most recognizable Hindu deities because he has
an elephant’s head. He is the god of beginnings and of removing
obstacles and therefore related to success and pleasure. Ganesh is
the patron of arts and sciences and the god of intellect and wisdom.
(See Cole’s work Pleasure.)
• Mahakala is the Buddhist deity who governs the movement of time.
Mahakala is usually represented all in black and is the god who
represents the ultimate or absolute reality. He is viewed as a
protective figure. Mahakala is always depicted with a crown of five
skulls, often shown in a ring of fire and redemption, and can have
various numbers of arms. (See Sole Protector in the exhibition.)
Mask Representing the
Hornbill Spirit, 20th
century. Wood and
pigments. Cantor Arts
Center, #1998.135
Mahakala, 12th century.
Cast iron with traces of
polychrome. Cantor Arts
Center, #2003.86
Cole’s work focuses on a respect for nature and the power of divinities, as much of Asian art does; at
the same time, by using consumer materials, he criticizes Western attachment to mass-consumer
culture.
Cole’s flowing shapes of deity figures and the rhythm and sound used in the shapes and materials of his
mandalas echo the movement and dance and the ever-changing qualities of Asian art that influence on his
work.
Willie Cole is inspired by African art
African Art refers to art created across the entire continent of Africa, spanning all time periods, societies,
and political borders
Cole bases much of his artwork on the idea of the power contained in African artwork by imbuing
pieces with double meanings or using transformations to turn one object into another: the significance
behind a mask, a sculpture, or art on the body shows the spiritual power in all of these art works.
African masks inspire much of Cole’s art work. African masks are given
animalistic qualities to serve as simplified yet specific representations in
ceremonies. Example:
Tji wara [or: chiwara]: a mask that represents an antelope, signifying
the deity of agriculture who taught the Bamana people of Mali how to
farm. The tji wara mask is worn during ritual ceremonies to call back
the spirit of the tji wara. (see Cole’s Sears Ross tji wara).
Dance Headdress,
(chiwara), 20th century.
Wood, metal, and fiber.
Cantor Arts Center,
#1969.53
Cole also uses repeated patterns that mimic the patterns on African cloth. The symbols and signs used
on cloth are repeated decorations that can also carry significant meanings.
Shields are both functional and aesthetic. Shields act as a form of identification and as an instrument of
protection. Cole uses the idea of shields as a marker of identification and an aesthetic object in his
series of Domestic Shields.
Scarification is a form of art that is displayed on the body by making
patterned cuts in the skin that heal as visible scars. Cole uses the idea of
scarification in much of his artwork, specifically in the symbolism of the
iron scorch mark. Scarification is a significant part of initiation rites and
display, religious beliefs as well as acting as markers of identity. (See G.E.
Mask and Scarification, Man, Spirit, Mask, and Silex Man, Ritual in the
exhibition.)
Mask (chihongo), 20 th
century. Wood, fabric,
feathers and hair. Cantor
Arts Center. #2003.20
African sculpture takes many forms that range from the sculptural qualities
of masks to the polished wood female fertility figures to fetishes, objects
that are given specific spiritual power and covered in different materials that are also considered
powerful (see Cole’s House and Field). While these objects all look extremely different from each other,
they all demand a similar type of respect and are viewed as objects of religious power.
Willie Cole is inspired by western artistic influences
The phrase “Anxious Objects” comes from The Anxious Object: Art Today and Its Audience, a collection of
essays by Harold Rosenberg, a prominent American art critic of the mid-20th century. Cole chose the
phrase for this exhibition’s title in part as an homage to the artist Jasper Johns and Johns’s use of objects
in his artworks. (Read below about Johns under “Pop Art.”)
Modernism: The early 20th century was a time in which modern art in Europe and the United States
ventured beyond representative, descriptive realism and began to explore the concept of art and the
ways in which subjects could be depicted. Modern art places emphasis on depicting emotions and new
ways of seeing through abstractions.
• Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist who is considered one of the most prolific of the 20th century.
Picasso explored many art formats and media, and is most famous in his early career for creating
the style known as cubism, which led to creating the technique of collage as well. Picasso is also
well known for “Africanizing” his artwork; he spent time studying African art and bringing similar
elements of abstraction into his own artwork.
• Dada was an artistic movement in the early 20th century. Protesting World War I, Dada artists
tried to embody nonsense and anti-art in their work. Dada artists rejected traditional aesthetics
and pushed the boundaries of art in forms like collage, where they used materials from everyday
newspapers and magazines. Dada later influenced Surrealism and Pop Art.
• Marcel Duchamp was a French artist associated with Dada and Surrealist movements. Marcel
Duchamp created ready-mades by taking found objects and presenting them as art. He is famous
for his piece Fountain, a urinal he found, labeled as art, and sent to an exhibition. Sometimes
Duchamp would modify these ready-mades in one way or another. But often, he would leave
them as he found them.
The American Civil Rights and Black Power Movement was a reform movement of the people of the United
States towards equality, to remove racial discrimination from social and working life. Though the
movement’s beginnings were marked by nonviolence, some leaders in the Civil Rights Movement
believed that more militant tactics were necessary in order to achieve this equality. Cole was greatly
influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and creates many images influenced by the Movement’s figures
and ideas. (See Rosa Parks in the exhibition.)
• African Diaspora defines the movement and relocation of
Africans and their descendants throughout the world. Much of
the African Diaspora is descended from those who had been
enslaved in the period before the American Civil War. Cole
focuses much of his artwork on themes related to the African
Diaspora. (see Cole’s piece Stowage, at right.)
• Lawn Jockeys, cast iron figures that were once popular lawn
Stowage, 1997.
ornaments, are both symbols of racism and resistance in the
Woodblock on kozo-shi paper.
African American culture. Their story originated during the
Collection of the Montclair Art
American Revolution where General George Washington asked Museum
a jockey boy to watch his horse. Washington returned later to
find that not only was the horse frozen, but the boy had stayed on duty and was also frozen to
death. Cast-iron jockeys displayed on a lawn signified to many African Americans that a racist
person lived at that address. However, during the Civil War, Harriet Tubman helped bring
slaves to safety using lawn jockeys as secret sign posts. The complexity of mixed associations
with these figures is reflected in Cole’s work (see House and Field in the exhibition.)
•
•
Malcolm X was an American Black Muslim minister who in his early years was a significant
supporter of the Black Power movement. Malcolm X later broke with the Nation of Islam and
began to preach human rights and cooperation among mankind. (see Cole’s piece Malcolm’s
Chickens.)
Rosa Parks became famous for disregarding segregation law in Alabama by ignoring a bus driver
and beginning the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the largest acts of civil disobedience
movement in the Civil Rights Movement. (see Cole’s piece Rosa Parks and look for the roses at
her “ears”)
Pop Art is an art movement (1950s–1960s) that borrowed images from mass popular culture to
emphasize the garish and gaudy elements of society. Its emphasis on commercial items and repetition of
iconic imagery influenced Cole in his use of commercial items as materials and repetition of these items
in his own work.
• Jasper Johns (b. 1930) is an American artist who uses classic iconic
imagery, like the American flag and map of the United States to present
paradoxes and contradictions not criticizing the subject, but merely
neutralizing it by questioning it. Cole expands on Johns’ method of
distortion in his own technique and by using similar imagery as Johns.
(see Cole’s How do You Spell ‘America’? #2 and America I)
• Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was a central figure in Pop Art. His work
revolves around icons and mass production. Warhol focuses on
making his work look as though it was factory produced without any
Jasper Johns (U.S.A.,
artist overseeing the project. He used repeated imagery to create a
born 1930): 0-9 (1960).
commentary on how commercial culture could affect a subject. Cole
Lithograph. Cantor Arts
drew from Warhol’s method using shoes to make a chair, called Made
Center, #1978.228
in the Philippines, commenting on the reign of Marcos, or a gas hose in
Gas Snake with Blue Nozzle as a commentary on US action in the Middle East.
• Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) and Coosje van Bruggen (b. 1942) make large-scale artworks that are
displayed in all sorts of public, accessible locations, including the Floating Peel in the Cantor Arts
Center’s courtyard. Oldenburg is famous for taking everyday objects and magnifying them to
colossal sizes, creating soft objects to resemble normally solid materials, or creating rigid
sculpture to resemble normally soft items. Cole imitates this aesthetic in his reconstruction of
giant irons, though Cole uses found materials to create his sculptures. (see Cole’s 600% and
Mother and Child).
The following projects are suggested to introduce students and groups to Cole’s techniques, influences,
and ways of thinking as well as expanding their own knowledge of what to look for in Cole’s work.
Students can work on these projects before or following a visit to the museum. Doing projects both
before and after a visit can generate deeper reflection and understanding of Cole’s works individually
and collectively.
1) Found Objects: Cole began making art by using discarded objects given by friends or found in
garage sales (“found objects”) to assemble a piece. Cole related these pieces to his own personal
experiences or history. (For example, irons represent the domestic sphere of his mother’s home as
well as his childhood job as the household handyman.) Collect a number of “found objects” and
create an assemblage that relates to both the objects and your own experience.
2) Transformations: Shapes and objects in Cole’s artwork obtain multiple
meanings. He transforms discards into art: an iron represents a ship,
ironing boards act as shields, and bicycle parts resemble African-inspired
headdresses. Guide your group through the process of transformation,
each taking a simple everyday object and turning that object into
something else. To take this project further, let each person give his/her
transformation a message: for example, a soda can becomes an overweight
person, a cigarette becomes a gun, an iron becomes a slave ship. Older
groups may develop this transformation into many steps and then simplify
their transformation into one piece.
* Look up the word “abstract” in a dictionary and discuss how Cole’s
transformations are abstractions.
Sears Ross tji wara
(mother and child), 2002.
Bicycle parts. Memorial
Art Gallery of the
University of Rochester
3) Repeated Shapes: Cole repeats shapes to emphasize their physical quality or to form a
completely new object. He uses the repeated shape of the iron or shoe to imitate the mandala
form. He gathers shoes to create a chair and hair dryers to create a mask. Give each person in
your group a set of the same shape (or have them create one of their own) to form their own
compositions by combining the same shapes in different ways.
4) Influences: Cole has been inspired by traditional Asian and African sculptures. Online or from
magazines, find a number of images to mix and match to assemble your own version of the card
game “Memory,” relating artwork from elsewhere with Cole’s. Consider how these traditions might
influence your own work. Choose a picture or ad from a magazine and re-create this image based
on traditional African and Asian styles.
* Take a docent tour of the Cole exhibition (“Anxious Objects”) at the Cantor Arts Center.
Also, explore other galleries at the Cantor Arts Center to find other artistic traditions that
relate to Cole’s art.
5) Creation and Inspiration: Though Cole’s work relies heavily on African and Asian influences,
strong influences also come from the modern art world. Cole looks to the early modern art of
Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp as well as to styles closer of his own time: Pop Art and
Minimalism. Cole especially draws from Jasper Johns, a contemporary American artist whose work
borders on Pop Art, who once described the artistic process by saying:
Take an object
Do something to it
Do something else to it
“
“
“ “ “
Take a canvas
Put a mark on it
Put another mark on it
“
“
“ “ “
Make something
Find a use for it
and/or
Invent a function
Find an object
Have individuals or partners choose one of these three instructions and have them create their own
art piece inspired by Johns’ quote and Cole’s visual representation of this technique.
6) Wordplay/Acronyms: In America I (1993), Cole listed the letters
“AMERICA” across the top of an American flag. He then used the
letters of the words AMERICA as the first letters of a series of
sentences that, for Cole, capture the diverse and radical components
of the American identity. Choose a word that helps define the group
you are working with (DIVERSITY, ART, CREATIVITY, etc.) and have
How do you spell AMERICA #2,
each participant come up with a sentence, using the letters of the word 1993. Oilstick and latex on
Masonite and wood.
as the first letters of each word in the sentence. Have participants
Collection of the Bronx
create a sentence, and another, and another, as quickly as possible.
Museum of the Arts.
Much of Cole’s artwork comes from improvisation and random
associations.
* Find a similar activity on the website of the museum that organized this exhibition:
http://montclairartmuseum.williecole.org/
7) Follow-Up Writing Activity: (during or after the museum trip) The title of this exhibition,
“Anxious Objects,” refers to the state of transition that Cole takes his materials through. The
materials for Cole’s work, rescued from discarded items, are now admired in art museums.
Furthermore, what once was a shoe is now part of a chair! Objects Cole uses are individually
identifiable but in assemblage become something else. Have your group imagine what it would be
like to be a selected object. Then, invite each person to write a paragraph or short story about a
certain object or material that Cole has used as though the object were speaking for itself. Some
questions they might want to consider are:
* How does this object feel about its identity and changing function? Where did that object
come from? How does it feel now? What does it think about its new function? New place?
What does it think about all the people who come and stare at it everyday?