I visited one of the exhibitions “Singular Spaces” at Fowler Museum, UCLA for my last even blog. First, I could not find where the exhibition was, then I found out that this exhibition was displayed all around the wall so I looked at them as I walked around the museum. According to Fowler Museum, “Singular Spaces” presents photographs by Jo Farb Hernandez documenting eight self-taught artists from Spain. These artists works are all unique in design, color and material they use. They were created based on each artist’s improvisation without formal architectural or engineering plans.
According to SJSUToday, Jo Farb Hernandez is a Professor of Art at San Jose State University and who is the director of SPACES, an organization that helps preserve work by outsider artists.
Jo Farb Hernandez
SPACE’s mission statement says that they area nonprofit organization with an international focus on the study, documentation and preservation of art environments and self-taught artistic activity.
Now, let’s take a look at the artwork at Fowler museum. I was especially interested in the The shell houses below which locates in Montro, Spain and was produced by Francisco del Rio Cuenca (1926-2010). It is hard to see in the photos but these are the houses which surface wall is decorated by shells. The story of how this house came to be made was very interesting. According to Fowler Museum, Cuenca was an illiterate field-worker. When a truck, loaded with clams,accidentally discharged the clams near his village, he took advantage of it and decided to decorate his house which was under construction with shells. More than 116 million shells cover not just the walls but the floors, the ceiling, the stairs, the flower pots, and nearby trees.
Here is the closer look of the outside of the house. The trees and the pillars are completely covered with the shells.
Cuenca used shells in different colors to make patterns on the wall.
I was amazed by the story which says that it took Cuenca for two years going back and forth just to bring back hundreds of bags of shells on his motorcycle.
After I saw Cuenca’s and other artists’ work at “Singular Spaces” and learned about the organization, SPACE, Jo Farb Fernandez organizes, it made me think about the Ken Robinson’s lecture we saw in Week 1. Whether being educated in art or not does not really matter when it comes to the creative idea and the way of thinking. Anyone, art major or not, can express their artistic ideas if they want to and, most importantly, if people around the person does not stop it. Consequently, the organization such as SPACE will protect and support those creative imagination of the people around the world.
"SINGULAR SPACES." The Fowler Museum. 1400 S. 308 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, CA 90024 .3 June 2015.
"SPACES Board Members." SPACES Blog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 June 2015. <http://www.spacesarchives.org/about/board/>.
"Francisco Del Rio Cuenca, Casa De Las Conchas ("House of Shells")."SPACES Blog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 June 2015. <http://spacesarchives.org/explore/collection/environment/casa-de-las-conchas-house-of-shells/#callout_1>.
"SJSU News." SJSU News. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 June 2015. <http://blogs.sjsu.edu/today/2012/kpbs-art-professor-shares-outsider-art-expertise/>.
"RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 06 June 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U>.
