Architecture: Tara Donovan - Essay Sample

Introduction

Art covers a wide range of human activities. Any activity undertaken by an individual for purposes of showcasing their skill, imaginative or conceptual ideas qualifies as artistry. However, the term art has traditionally been used to refer to painting, sculpture, and architecture. Artists rely on a host of factors such as ideology or current movements when deciding on the artwork to produce. One of those movements is the contemporary art movement which refers to art pieces produced either in the later 20th century or 21st century. Contemporary art movement came after the end of modern art usually represented by the year 1970. The era coincided with the rise of an ideological philosophy known as post-modernism. Post-modernism focused on the present and living in the moment. The features of post-modernism such as subjectivism and relativism were represented in art through contemporary art forms. Tara Donovan is one of the most recognized contemporary artists. Her artworks, like other contemporary pieces, lack an organized, or uniform ideology.

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Contemporary artists like Tara Donovan explore ideas, practices, questions, and concepts of the past with the aim of understanding the present and envisioning the future. Tara Donovan is an American sculptor based in New York. She is well known for her site-specific installations that make use of disposable materials such as drinking straws, Styrofoam cups, scotch tapes, and even toothpicks. Donovan was born in 1969, in Queens New York (Tara Donovan n.p). The artist got her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Corcoran College Arts and Design in Washington D.C in 1991 and went ahead to obtain her Masters in Fine Arts in 1999 from the Virginia Commonwealth University. Tara Donovan's skills and creativity have enabled her to become accomplished in her career. She was the winner of Alexander Calder Foundation's first Calder prize in 2005 (Tara Donovan n.p). The sculptor also won the McArthur Fellowship in 2008. When it comes to exhibitions, the artist's works have been displayed in Pace Gallery in New York, Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.

Tara Donovan developed her preference for inexpensive materials while in grad school. She worked as a server while pursuing her MFA and had to rely on cheap materials to use in her sculptures. She worked in Ace Gallery in Los Angeles for some time before getting a break in the famous Pace Gallery in New York. Tara Donovan's sculptures are comparable to those of Scottish sculptor David Mach. Like Donovan, Mach uses ordinary objects that allows his artworks to be subtle and powerful at the same time. Some of Mach's famous art pieces include the Big Heids in North Lanarkshire. The artist uses thousands of steel tubes to create three figurative heads to represent the strength of character of the people of North Lanarkshire and pays tribute to the steel industry heritage in the area. Upturned freight containers support the heads. However, it should be noted that while Mach and Donovan are similar in their preference of materials, the two artists significantly differ in the selection of the venue. Donovan prefers to display to put up indoor public displays in museums and galleries. On the other hand, Mach is the kind of person that enjoys setting up large outdoor sculptures for public demonstrations. It also means that Mach's sculptures are permanent compared to Donovan's pieces, which will have to be removed to create room for new pieces.

In the Pace Gallery in New York, laid one of Donovan's essential art pieces. It is the Mylar, as displayed in Fig.2. The Mylar is a sculpture in the Pace Gallery that was showcased between March 4th and April 9th of 2011. The show was Donovan's first solo exhibition. The statue makes use of sheets of Mylar that are folded repeatedly to create spherical structural patterns that grew out of each other (De Llarena par.4). Like most of Donovan's sculptures, Mylar resembles a morphing microorganism. From afar, the three-dimensional sculpture resembles a micro-organism. However, on close observation, the folds are visible. The piece is supposed to be viewed from multiple distances, which is a typical Donovan style. The trick is to see the sculpture as a whole rather than as individual folds. However, an analysis of Donovan's technique in previous pieces will reveal that the Mylar shifted away from her traditional style. The sculpture rose from the surface more decisively by eleven feet (De Llarena par. 4). The artist seemed to be mastering the engineering aspect of her art pieces.

But one cannot look at Mylar and get the same visual effect in a different background. The background chosen by Donovan was an empty room with white tile flooring. Mylar combines light reflection and absorption to produce a bubble effect. The bulbs above the room provide the light that bounces off the inner surface of mylar to create a reflective effect. On the other hand, the plain walls help the observer to focus on the three-dimensional art piece solely. It is a show of talent and creativity for an artist to utilize a non-art material such as mylar and utilize its properties to produce a sculpture such as Mylar. The Mylar appears to be an event that is unfolding. "The sculpture evokes a sense of expansive growth, as well as natural phenomena such as ripples, undulating landscapes, haze and clouds (Indianapolis Museum of Art par. 1). The illusion of growth is an essential part of Donovan's art as she wants to depict as a continuous process. Rather than producing sculptures that are frozen in time, Donovan wants to make the observer understand that art is ever changing. The Mylar also reflects the tenets of contemporary art that have been borrowed from post-modernism. The sculpture shows both relativism and subjectivism. The perception of the art is relative. The interpretation of the piece is subjective. One cannot point out, with absolute certainty that their impression of the sculpture is similar to that of the other people in the room. A person standing at a distance cannot see the individual mylar folds while a person standing very close can see the mylar folds. On the other hand, the person observing from a close distance will be unable to get the illusion of outside growth that is perceptible by the person viewing from a distant. One can also see ripples, undulating landscapes or clouds depending on their viewpoint. All these features are what makes the Mylar so unique; because it challenges the way people perceive art.

Conclusion

Throughout history, there have been some remarkable individuals who have made significant contributions in the field of art. On only needs to take a walk around museums to view some historical works by artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci. With such significant figures, the contributions of artists such as Tara Donovan can go unnoticed. But, their contributions are just as outstanding, especially in modern times. Her sculptures have revolutionized museums and art galleries. Her art pieces enhance the aesthetic beauty of their environment because of their simplicity and creativity. Her three-dimensional objects such as Mylar invoke feelings and thoughts about the connection between art, organisms and their environment. With her style, Donovan is likely to continue being a key figure in the field of art.

Works Cited

De Llarena, Carlos J. Gomez. "Tara Donovan: (Untitled) Mylar." 02 May 2011. Shift. Website. 27 February 2019. <http://www.shift.jp.org/en/archives/2011/05/tara_donovan_mylar.html>

Donald, John and Catherine Terese. Tara Donovan. 2008. Digital image. McArthur Foundation. Web. 26 Feb 2019.

Donovan, Tara. Mylar. 2011, The Pace Gallery, New York. Westword, www.westword.com/arts/tara-donovan-makes-elegant-art-from-mundane-materials-at-mca-denvers-fieldwork-10970084 BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033

Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Tara Donovan's Untitled (Mylar)." 9 March 2017. Smarthistory. Website. 27 February 2019. <smarthistory.org/tara-donovans-untitled-mylar/>.

"Tara Donovan." 2018. Artnet. Website. 27 February 2019. <www.artnet.com/artists/tara-donovan/>.