A-R-T Weekly Newsletter: A Rotting Shark, Cupcake Liner Flowers, and The Contrast of Preservation VS Replication
At this point some of you are probably starting to know what’s happening here, but for those of you who are new, welcome to A-R-T, our weekly newsletter! Each week we hand pick an article, a recycled project, and a thought to ponder for the week, delivered right to your inbox. We hope this will leave you feeling inspired, intrigued, and introspective.
This week is a weird mix, so get ready, and let’s jump in!
Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991). Photo courtesy of Oli Scarff/Getty Images.
I’m not gonna lie to you guys, I’m sure this one is going to be a little controversial, but then again a lot of art is. In this brief article written by Richard Whiddington, he discuses the slightly graphic and decently gross reality and journey of using an actual dead 14 foot tiger shark for this famous art piece. Not quite a shark POV, but an interesting, odd, and alarmingly decaying aspect of this art piece.
On a very different note, our project this week will not involve preserving something dead, but replicating something fresh that will last.
photo credit: The Little Dove Blog
How many times have we purchased a huge pack of cupcake liners, to use them once, and then let them sit in our baking cabinets for years? I know I’m definitely guilty of this. These sweet cupcake liner flowers give a new life to our forgotten baking items, and give us a cute spring decoration all without leaving home.
What you’ll need:
colorful cupcake liners
small twigs
scissors
hot glue gun
green pipe cleaners, or other stem option like wire or dowel rods (optional)
Check out the how to instructions from The Little Dove
Preservation VS Replication
Our Thought for the week is regarding the contrast between preservation and replication, and the impact that they carry. There are many examples, including the shark in The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, where choosing to replicate a shark artificially to get the same aesthetic outcome of the current finished project, would probably have been more ethical, but potentially have a significantly different impactful emotionally for the viewer in many ways. Because the shark is preserved, it may conjure, awe, amazement, terror, disgust, or a wide range of other emotions from the view, that might not have hit the same way if it had been a fully artificial project. Similarly, preservation of sentimental objects in our lives is generally more important to use than replication is. We dry flowers from weddings and funerals to preserve them, as opposed to creating plastic or paper replicas to recapture the memory.
There is also such a huge place in our lives where replication just as, if not more, beautiful and valuable, and can transcend the medium limitations that certain artists experience. Stephanie Shih (ceramicist) and Deborah Czeresko (glass blower) are both great examples of people who create hyper realistic food replicas in permanent mediums to immortalize these objects that will otherwise degrade.
Does the replication of these items lead to their preservation, but in a different way? Are the motives behind preservation vs replication the same? How in your mind and experience does preservation and replication differ?
We hope you enjoyed this odd and interconnected mix of topics.
Happy Monday, we hope the end of April treats you well, and we will catch you next week!
– Danni