Finding a piece of artwork similar to Flarf has been the most difficult part of this project. Although Flarf poetry has evolved into a collective, a movement; Flarf art is hidden from view. While exploring the Internet I discovered a blog entry from Greg Cook. In it he speaks of his own struggles to name this recent style of sculptures.
He then says, “what this new process most resembles is a style of poetry that’s developed in the past decade or so: flarf.” Flarf collages words and phrases while this type of sculpture collages “fragmented forms, torn pictures and clashing sounds.” His ideas led me to an exploration of the New Museum. In April of 2008, the New Museum opened an exhibition called “Unmonumental.” Each piece in the show is Flarfy. They are described as layers of images, sounds, and Internet-based art. Now I will actually to explicate a piece from this exhibition.
full view seen HERE
This is probably the most simple collage piece in the gallary, however, it exhibits the most Flarf qualities. Jonathan Hernandez’s collage, Mural was created in 2006. This is a collage of approximatly fifty photographs. Each picture represents a different aspect of culture. Although each picture is unique, together a chain of similarities are shown and that is what Flarf is all about. Most pictures are juxtaposed next to a picture with similar aspects. For example, a picture of a raindrop into a puddle is placed next to an image of an object splashing into the ocean. Another example, that is quite humorous, is the poster with the word “Shit!” juxtaposed next to the “Parental Advisory” sign. For Flarf to work, sentences must be placed in an intelligible order. Otherwise Flarf poems would be nothing more than choppy, edgy obscure sentences only trying to make sense.
Over the whole collage is a painted image of, what looks like, a fly. This fly is the main connection of these pictures. In most collages images overlap to create a large picture. In Hernandez’s piece none of these pictures overlap, each is given its own space to contribute to the overall image. But, this fly over laps all. This reminds me of the saying, “the fly on the wall.” No one notices the small fly on the wall, but that fly sees everything, it sees CD covers, animals, nature. I believe this is the least Flarf-like aspect of Hernandez’s work because Flarf usually doesn’t have an over lying image that ties the piece together.
Here are some other pieces in “Unmonumental” that are worth looking at:
Mark Bradford - Helter Skelter I, 2007
Kim Jones – Untitled, 1994-2004
Jim Lambie, Split Endz (wig mix), 2005
He then says, “what this new process most resembles is a style of poetry that’s developed in the past decade or so: flarf.” Flarf collages words and phrases while this type of sculpture collages “fragmented forms, torn pictures and clashing sounds.” His ideas led me to an exploration of the New Museum. In April of 2008, the New Museum opened an exhibition called “Unmonumental.” Each piece in the show is Flarfy. They are described as layers of images, sounds, and Internet-based art. Now I will actually to explicate a piece from this exhibition.
full view seen HERE
This is probably the most simple collage piece in the gallary, however, it exhibits the most Flarf qualities. Jonathan Hernandez’s collage, Mural was created in 2006. This is a collage of approximatly fifty photographs. Each picture represents a different aspect of culture. Although each picture is unique, together a chain of similarities are shown and that is what Flarf is all about. Most pictures are juxtaposed next to a picture with similar aspects. For example, a picture of a raindrop into a puddle is placed next to an image of an object splashing into the ocean. Another example, that is quite humorous, is the poster with the word “Shit!” juxtaposed next to the “Parental Advisory” sign. For Flarf to work, sentences must be placed in an intelligible order. Otherwise Flarf poems would be nothing more than choppy, edgy obscure sentences only trying to make sense.
Over the whole collage is a painted image of, what looks like, a fly. This fly is the main connection of these pictures. In most collages images overlap to create a large picture. In Hernandez’s piece none of these pictures overlap, each is given its own space to contribute to the overall image. But, this fly over laps all. This reminds me of the saying, “the fly on the wall.” No one notices the small fly on the wall, but that fly sees everything, it sees CD covers, animals, nature. I believe this is the least Flarf-like aspect of Hernandez’s work because Flarf usually doesn’t have an over lying image that ties the piece together.
Here are some other pieces in “Unmonumental” that are worth looking at:
Mark Bradford - Helter Skelter I, 2007
Kim Jones – Untitled, 1994-2004
Jim Lambie, Split Endz (wig mix), 2005
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