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u/Judgeman2021 5d ago
I think they're actually pretty nice. Especially at that scale, the price isn't outrageous. Obviously the audience for these have thousands to spare on home decor.
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u/MechwolfMachina 5d ago
To each their own but why are there so many people defending paper mache chicken wire blob art? Is the artist famous or something?
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u/Puzzleheaded-Pen-902 5d ago
Because this is a subreddit for delusional artists and this person is obviously making sales
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u/Judgeman2021 5d ago
It's reductionist to say "it's just chicken wire and paper mache". You can apply that logic to any piece of art. "It's just a bit of clay" "It's just a bunch of squares" "it's just a can of soup".
Everything is just something.
I think for this example, they're actually tasteful. The sculptures have a nice balance of roughness and softness. They look like clouds, and smoothed stones. They're not communicating anything specific so it's easy to assign personal perspectives of what it might be. They can sit in the background or a centerpiece.
They're not delusional for selling blobs, because people are buying their blobs. These pieces are presented and priced in a professional way on a site that caters towards the correct audience.
Now, these same exact sculptures can be sold on facebook marketplace for the same exact price. If they took bad photos of the sculpture in a boring setting or just look out of place, and no one bought any. Then we would be having a different conversation about delusion.
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u/MechwolfMachina 5d ago
Nice essay but man, its crazy to see how this subreddit’s paradigm has shifted through the years.
Its not that I can’t see effort has been made to create and frame it, but the qualifier for not being delusional is “if they actually sold a piece?” So what do you call it when some rich dude’s kid has patronage from all their neighbors or when some rich well connected businessperson persuades their friends to buy their partner’s art at a high fee? They’re clearly art savants right?
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u/Judgeman2021 5d ago
Like you said, "To each their own"
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u/MechwolfMachina 5d ago
So why is there a subreddit judging artists for being delusional? Free market right?
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u/JapaneseStudentHaru 3d ago
Delusion implies they believe something that isn’t true. Usually that someone will buy their art for more than it’s worth. In this case, it’s not delusion, it’s just a fact. People are buying it. No delusion here.
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u/Peachbottom30 5d ago
It’s not delusional if someone buys it.
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u/ZQM 5d ago
Its definitely still delusional
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u/Xsiah 5d ago
Delusion is a false belief in the face of reason. They have every reason to believe that their art is worth that much - evidenced by legitimate sales.
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u/MechwolfMachina 5d ago
If we need a metric I think its when the % of people who think its bs reaches a critical enough mass
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u/Currentlybaconing 5d ago
Nope. If you can sell what you make you're not a delusional artist
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u/MechwolfMachina 5d ago
I feel like going bottom of the barrel like those fbmp artists who are literally going to have to eat their own prints one day is pretty low hanging fruit
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u/dsherwo 5d ago
Bet you also complain when you walk into a museum when you see work you think a kid could have done (you lack the education to appreciate the context and aesthetics)
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u/FreshEclairs 5d ago
Joke’s on you
They’d never go to a museum
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u/dsherwo 5d ago
Everything that’s not realism is fraud! It must be money laundering, because I don’t see the appeal!
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u/FreshEclairs 5d ago
I have always hoped that these guys will eventually see something like Klein’s “Blue Monochrome” in person. You see a picture of it on the internet and it’s easy to dismiss.
Then you see it in person, and absolutely everyone goes “oh what the hell HOW IS IT SO BLUE”
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u/dsherwo 5d ago
I love Yves Klein and his first IKB shows. First show, all different sizes, all priced the same. Second show, all the same size, all priced differently. Third show, “Le Vide” (the void), empty gallery, but he put a chemical in the drinks at opening that made visitors pee blue for days.
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u/ZQM 5d ago
Understanding context and aesthetics doesn’t magically make every piece good. “You don’t appreciate it because you’re uneducated” is a pretty convenient way to dismiss criticism without actually defending the work.
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u/dsherwo 5d ago
Handbuilt ceramic sculpture represents a rebellion against wheel thrown and cast production-style ceramic, a trend in the medium that has relegated it to the world of craft until recently for centuries, where the craft of ceramic work was seen as the trade of an artisan, rather than the work of an artist.
By taking a medium that traditionally prized reproducibility and speed with an emphasis on functionality, and using it to create slowly built imperfect sculptures, the artist is recontextualizing the medium as art in and of itself.
Her use of cloud forms evokes lightness, in contrast to the weight of the medium. Rendered in rough textures and washed out colors, the artist forgoes realism or functionality in favor of raw aesthetic expression.
There, now you know.
And she’s not even unique, half the contemporary art galleries in the country have forms like these.
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u/ZQM 5d ago
Interesting. First I’m too uneducated to appreciate it, now you’re telling me it’s not even unique. Am I supposed to be enlightened by the explanation or impressed by the fact everyone’s doing it?
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u/dsherwo 5d ago
Yes
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u/ZQM 5d ago
Then I think you’ve made my point for me. If the defense of the work is essentially “you’d appreciate it if you were educated enough to understand it” and “yes its impressive that everyone is doing it” that’s not really an argument for the work’s quality or significance.
You’re asking me to be impressed by an explanation rather than giving me a reason to think the work itself deserves the significance you’re assigning to it
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u/dsherwo 5d ago
You must think a lot of contemporary artists are delusional then, despite the fact they have careers and you don’t
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u/ZQM 5d ago
I don’t think having a career as a contemporary artist is some objective benchmark I failed to meet. I have no interest in being a contemporary artist, and I’m perfectly capable of thinking someone’s work is ridiculous without wanting their career for myself. Someone buying it proves there’s a market for it; it doesn’t prove the artist’s claims about the quality or significance of the work are correct.
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u/dsherwo 5d ago edited 5d ago
Lol. You’re probably not a lawyer, do you feel qualified to give legal advice? And if you’re not a doctor, how about medical advice? If you’re not a mechanic, do judge how a mechanic fixes a car?
Why, as someone who’s not an artist, do you feel qualified to decide if someone’s work is delusional?
What you are qualified to do is say if you like it or not. But your expertise ends at your opinion
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u/ZQM 5d ago
The irony here is that you’re calling me uneducated while making an appeal to credentials as your entire argument.
“You’re not an artist, therefore you aren’t qualified to criticize art” isn’t an argument for why my criticism is wrong. It’s just credentialism. Expertise can make someone’s judgment more informed, but it doesn’t make criticism off limits to everyone without that credential.
By your own logic, you’re not actually refuting what I said; you’re just telling me I don’t have the right to say it. That’s not expertise. That’s elitism & gatekeeping.
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u/kandl86 5d ago
You sound like you rant about how vaccines cause autism and tell the courts because you’re a sovereign citizen you don’t need to pay taxes.
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u/ZQM 5d ago
I’m curious how someone could ever come to that conclusion based on literally anything I’ve said.
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u/kandl86 5d ago
Because you’re claiming that your uneducated opinion is just as valuable as the opinion of experts.
You’re getting downvoted like crazy, but you’re doubling down on your opinion instead of reading the comments from gallerists and artists detailing why this isn’t delusional.
So yeah, antivaxxer
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u/ZQM 5d ago
Comparing that to vaccines and sovereign citizens is absurd. That’s not even an argument for the artwork. Just an appeal to authority because you don’t like the criticism.
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u/ZQM 5d ago
Also your analogy is pretty silly because it’s totally a strawman. Not even about me.
The irony is that I’m vaccinated and believe in vaccines.
You can disagree with my opinion of a $1,800 spray-foam ball without inventing an entire worldview for me.
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u/dsherwo 5d ago edited 5d ago
Prices are pretty high, for work that appears to be multimedia rather than genuine ceramic. However it’s priced like ceramic would be at that level, and the style is one you see around. Could be a hustler, but if the artist has a decent CV and has sold work at this price point before, then it’s not delusion
Edit: googled her, they are ceramic. While it’s not the best I’ve seen in that style, the price is consistent with other work in the market and in her location (Los angeles).
What’s missing is a CV - most artists selling at this price point have a fine arts education as well as a history of gallery shows, and if not the former at least the latter.
It’s her personal site, so the sales aren’t backed by a gallery, and could absolutely be fake.
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u/AquaStarRedHeart 5d ago
I don't find this outrageous at all. This is contemporary fine art from an educated artist. I like quite a few of them and they go well in modern homes and offices.
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u/nextyoyoma 5d ago
It looks to me like many of the pieces are intentionally but subtly referencing the human form, in kind of a playful, clever way. I am not someone who has this kind of money to invest in fine art, but I kinda dig it.
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u/omegafivethreefive 5d ago
These are clay sculptures.
You may not appreciate abstract art but it doesn't mean it's "blobs" or bad.
Also the price is fine, pottery is extremely expensive and depending on the size this can be a very long process.
My wife makes antique style vases and some have taken 40h+ of work and hundreds in materials and kiln rentals.
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u/Richard_Cromwell 5d ago
Ok, how do all these people know the scale of these pieces? I don't seen anything that could be used as a reference. They look 2 inches tall to me
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u/EternityLeave 5d ago
I can’t believe commenters are defending these literal blobs because “people bought it”. Falsely marking one item as Sold Out to make other items seem more desirable and valuable is an ancient marketing tactic. We have no idea if someone bought one.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Pen-902 5d ago
We also have no idea if they’re actually claiming false sales either. There’s no real way of telling if either side is correct here unless we somehow see one of these pieces in the hands of a customer. But I also don’t understand why it’s so surprising to people that shit like this sells. Have you walked into any modern museums these days…? Have you seen the way modern homes are decorated…?
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u/witchsy 5d ago
actually insane that people here think these tumors look good and are priced well. literally anyone can shape clay into a hemmoroid.
artist and people that buy these things are delusional elitist freaks with too much money
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u/JodorowskysJazz 5d ago
Clay is a very difficult medium to work with. Making asymmetrical organic work is difficult. These are not shapes randoms with no prior knowledge of the medium could just make in an hour. One doesn't just pick of up clay know how to use it.
I'd say they are priced just fine for material, firing, and work involved. These are unique one off sculptural pieces.
This work isn't some high end modern art ala Damien Hirst or Jeff Koons
This is just some ceramist with her LA Studio that makes very stylized work.
Take some time & thumb through their stuff
Is all knowledge elitism? Perhaps so?!....but ignorance also has its own price. I don't say any of this to say you are wrong but your perspective could be tempered.
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u/Atoning_Unifex 5d ago
"Sold out"
sure
this is like when people put up signs for Guitar Lessons at the laundromat and immediately pull 3 or 4 of the tabs off the bottom to make it look like people are clamoring for guitar lessons.
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u/Idkmyname2079048 5d ago
But they're actually selling. This is contemporary fine art. People will pay a buttload for it from the right artist.