Artist Lecture (05-04-10): Ted Noten

Todays lecture was another great one by an artist from Holland, named Ted Noten. I wouldn't necessarily say that his work is only jewelry & sculptural but also a bit of performance, but I will get into that later. He called the lecture Once a bricklayer, Always a bricklayer and began by describing the town where he grew up which was a brick-making town. As a kid working in the factories, he discovered he liked to work with his hands which spawned his career. He said, "Discover what you liked as a kid - that will be the closest to happiness [you get] as an artist." His early work began with the pieces constructed out of the Mercedes-Benz cars, which in Europe he described as a symbol of hard work and accomplishment. He would remove bits of the cars and mold pieces out of them so people could "wear their car."

However, the Mercedes company did not purchase the piece so Noten went to art school where the idea of "concept" was forced and Noten willingly accepted. He said, "When you make a move with your hand, you have to explain [that move] to your teacher," a frustrating I think every art student encounters.

A couple of his pieces really struck me. First, his early work where he would fashion rings that had a purpose/function based on one's profession. I, of course, want the photographer ring which is a band and a square with a cube sized cut out in the center so the artist can walk around framing pieces. Noten said he moved on from this series because it only related to certain groups and he was interested in the many subcultures within subcultures. To make his art more interactive (and a performance) his project Chew Your Own Brooch where the art buyer would chew their gum, send it to him and he would cast it, creating one of a kind jewelry (unfortunately, I could not find any of the final pieces online). He is also known for the "gun bags" which I included below.

My favorite project he showed went back to the rings, however he created them by first crafting these magnificent sculptures. The project is called Haunted by 36 Women. He moved away from his methodology because he said "artists tend to fall into a successful formula" and he felt it was too early in his career to do that. With these pieces, he finds things (online or on the street), composes them and then does something extraordinary -- he used a 3D scanner to create the image into smaller scale replicas which is how his jewelry is sold.

The Muse