November 22, 2009
UTNE READER

"Found Art" and Finding Yourself

(Page 2 of 2)

July/August 2002 Issue
By Jon Spayde, Utne Reader 
Article Tools
Print
Comments
RSS
Bookmark and Share
Yet it’s obvious to everyone who comes into contact with it that found art goes deeper than these ironic acts. A torn, broken, abandoned "real" piece of our culture sends a very different message from Warhol’s artifacts, which were meticulously and even reverently painted. Time, chance, and natural decay, these fragments seem to tell us, will have their revenge on the products of corporate culture.

RELATED CONTENT

Yet it doesn’t feel wholly accurate to explain away the fervor for found objects as nothing more than a return to the real, a desire for direct experience in a hype- and media-saturated world, a craving to pick up something fascinating for free in a world of commodities. The experience of the found, at its deepest, is a lot more complex than that. The desire and delight associated with found objects feels somehow archaic—a return to the prized collections of childhood, when we loved to scrabble in the dirt for pennies, arrowheads, pretty rocks, snake skins, and other surprises. It may go back even further, to primal cellular memories planted within us by hunter-gatherer forebears.And let’s not diminish the literal content of found objects. The most compelling are the ones that communicate the most: the letters and snapshots and flyers. These acts of earnest communication allow accidental entrée into a private world of desire, delight, disappointment, anger, hope. ("Girl, when I left your House I tried to Go to the Study and Got arrested in the parking lot, I didn’t Even Get to Get in the Club" reads a note preserved in the zine Found.) Objects that say less on the surface prompt us to make up stories: the empty plastic half pint of Bellboy vodka ($2.49 according to the bright orange price tag) on the cathedral steps; the discarded report card, inscribed with "needs help working with others"; the single playing card (a 10 of clubs) left on the street. Such things create a powerful fusion of the immediate and factual—here I stand holding this object in my hand—with the forever unfathomable. I’ll never know who the skinny child in the dog-eared snapshot is, or what he’s looking at with such delight; and yet, by holding his picture, by claiming it and owning it, I enter his mysterious, out-of-reach life forever.The excitement that comes in discovering some profound find is exhilarating, yet almost any relationship with found objects has tragedy in it too. Most of these objects are testaments to loss: They’re on the ground thanks to anger, inadvertence, disappointment, or boredom. They testify to concerts that are over, drinks that have been drunk, relationships that are broken or hopeless. Many of the hand-lettered posters and leaflets to be seen on found-object Web sites are scary rants: "Thanks for parking so close. Next time leave a fucking can opener so I can get my car out." "If you took my detergent Im sure it was a mistake so Im not mad YET but your pushing me and I push back."AS I IMAGINE STORIESabout things I find lying around, I realize that these objects reveal me to myself in positive and negative ways. I love filling in a tale around the broken toy or the lost shoe; but when the object is stranger or more painful, I can’t escape the suspicion that I’m a voyeur. I can’t evade my attraction to stereotypes (what kind of person drinks cheap vodka ?). I can’t shake the feeling that I’m seeking thrills by collecting the traces of others’ trouble, that I’m a tourist in the lives of people who don’t spell or punctuate very well.So the discovery of a found object is a challenge as well as a pleasure. The object asks me to declare to myself what kind of person I am. If it’s innocuous—a little red ball, a deflated balloon, a plastic soldier—it offers me a return to the pleasures of childhood. Do those pleasures matter enough to me for me to bend down and pick up these unpretentious treasures? Or would I rather wait for the grown-up stuff, the raw emotion and pathos waiting in crumpled-up notes? When I find them, will I be satisfied to be titillated? Will the experience simply renew my membership in the club of clued-in connoisseurs of the really weird? Or will I be able to read past the rage, the bad grammar, the sheer strangeness, into an absolutely unknown but totally recognizable human heart? It’s a decision I have to make if I’m going to feel right about my found treasures. So in a very real sense, the abject little object that I find on the street discovers me.

Jon Spayde is a senior editor of Utne Reader.
Page: << Previous 1 | 2 |
Bookmark and Share
RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print

Comments

Add Your Comment

We’d like to know what you think. To comment, please use this form. E-mail addresses are never displayed on comments, but they are required to confirm your comments. First time registrants: You will receive an email confirming your email address. Once you confirm, your comment will be posted. Questions about our comments policy? Click here.

Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br> tags.

New to Utne Reader?
Sign up to share comments.
Asterisks(*) indicate required fields.
Name*
Your name appears next to your comment.

E-mail Address*
This will be your login ID.

City State Zip Code

Password*


Confirm Password*

Comments
1500 character limit (Offensive materials and/or spam will be removed, no HTML allowed)
Please Note: Your sign-up must be verified via e-mail before your comment is published.
FEATURED ARTICLES
MOST POPULAR


Pay Now & Save $6!
First Name: *
 Last Name: *
Address: *
 City: *
State/Province: *
 Zip/Postal Code:*
Country:
 Email:*
(* indicates a required item)
Canadian subs: 1 year, (includes postage & GST). Foreign subs: 1 year, . U.S. funds.
Canadian Subscribers - Click Here
Non US and Canadian Subscribers - Click Here
Want to gain a fresh perspective? Read stories that matter? Feel optimistic about the future? It's all here! Utne Reader offers provocative writing from diverse perspectives, insightful analysis of art and media, down-to-earth news and in-depth coverage of eye-opening issues that affect your life.

Save Even More Money By Paying NOW!

Pay now with a credit card and take advantage of our Earth-Friendly automatic renewal savings plan. You save an additional $6 and get 6 issues of Utne Reader for only $29.95 (USA only).

Or Bill Me Later and pay just $36 for 6 issues of Utne Reader!