Tetris 3-D

Jan Christensen and Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen
2010

I started out wanting to describe the brain activity of imagining Tetris long after a game is over. Eyes closed and trying to sleep, Tetris colors and blocks descend, rotate, and accumulate still. Awake, things appear rigid and inefficient; it's as if cars, people, sidewalks, everything could get by a little easier if only they could rotate like Tetris blocks. As far as brain activity goes, what's been found is a counter intuitive learning curve. As the Tetris game gets harder, the brain requires less energy to play it; this suggests that the brain becomes more efficient at handling the stimuli.



Artists Jan Christensen and Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen have created extra-large 3D Tetris blocks. By placing the large sculptures outdoors, it's as if the artists are referring to the inescapable quality of the blocks, but also turn them into conquered standstills. Another side of the work could be folding the insular Tetris game unto itself, making the overall piece something to be shared in public and that requires multiple hands to move.

Mantra

Stefano Arienti
2007

Much of Arienti's work involves reinterpreting and resurfacing various covers, from refrigerator doors to album sleeves. Mantras are recited to help with focus and meditation, and in my favorite piece, the Italian artist took cue from the record. Here, Arienti transcribed his own mantra with the one already there.

Variable Piece #34

Douglas Huebler
1970

I imagine it went like this:

DH: May I photograph your face?
W: Me, my face, whatever for?
DH: Why, you have a beautiful face.

BOOM.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Les articulations

Gilles Barbier
2008

Flags and speech bubbles babble between two articulation surfaces of a simple joint.

It's literal, and it's hilarious.

Stadium

Maurizio Cattelan
1991

Cattelan built an extra long table-football game that would accommodate as many players as an actual football/soccer game requires. I like it just as it is, ignoring the politics of the piece: art world as a mini society, but more sobering (Cattelan's home) Italian team played by Senegalese immigrants who suffered racism in Italy versus another team wearing a Nazi slogan on their shirts. Yes, those points and the game/war comparison make it a more serious piece, but in all honesty, the resounding groan of a lost victory in a World Cup game is far more beautiful to me.

Please water the plant and feed the fish

Juliette Blightman
2008

I would water and feed the hell out of these.

Thinking About Someone Special Who Lost Someone Special While Listening to Dolly Parton

Tad Hozumi
coming soon

I was looking for Tad's soccer paintings in honor of World Cup, since it is the only sport thing that conjures a warm fuzzy feeling for me. Something about many countries, one simple problem, quick recovery from loss, united rooting, and rooting for a country not one's own that does it. Instead I found a more recent work that, far from sport, radiates warmth in itself.

Thinking about meditation or yoga, it's not uncommon for one to hold an idea or person in mind, essentially sending healing energy to it. Thinking About Someone Special Who Lost Someone Special While Listening to Dolly Parton operates similarly, I would imagine, and does so in two ways. First, the consideration that thinking about someone special can help said person heal*. Second, music as a tool to conjure up a certain feeling, and music as a therapy**.

* There have been studies on this. I'll prove it in a forthcoming entry.
** There are studies on this too, but most people have experienced it firsthand.