“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
— Francis of Assisi
How do you understand the relationship between art and labor?
Here are a few activities and materials that elaborate on ways we can think about art and its relationship to labor.
Yoruba people
Dog Figure, 19th-early 20th century
Wood
19 in.
Gift of Evelyn A. and William B. Jaffe, Class of 1964H; S.972.19
Alexander Pope
A Setter Pointing a Quail, 1914
Oil on canvas
30 x 35 7/8 in.
Gift of Alice and M. R. Schweitzer; P.968.13.
Jeff Koons
Balloon Dog (Magenta), 1994-2000
mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating
307 x 363 x 114 cm.
Château de Versailles, France, 2008
© Jeff Koons
This video from Tate showcases their installation of Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds. Although Weiwei is the artist, he did not contribute to the physical labor required to make the individual porcelain pieces. Does seeing all that is involved in the installation’s production change how you view the artist or his work?
“Artist Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain. Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen.”
Try creating Yoko Ono’s Painting for the Wind
Cut a hole in a bag filled with seeds
of any kind and place the bag
where there is wind.
1961, from the artist’s series of instruction paintings. © Yoko Ono
