Objects of Art

Ritual Function

"It is significant that the existence of the work of art with reference to its aura is never entirely separated from its ritual function." -- Walter Benjamin

A few years ago I began a series of environmental works investigating the relationship of art to time and decay. The series began as performative interventions and collections from open areas and natural settings. The destinations for these sites were pre-determined from stories passed down to me by my mother and aunts – tales of travel and strange events from their past.

The secondary art pieces resulting from these interventions are a combination of documentation, audio, collections, and objects in multiples and combined – all as layers over time.

Bio-Art - Painting & Mix Media

Click on image to see enlargement ...

Brad Birchett, Pomegranite for the People, 41 x 48", 2006

Tea, detritus, pomegranite seeds, natural carbon charcoal, etc ... all working together with acrylic paint on a panel. The paint is non-active but at times serves as a base ... for other elements to work within .... you can NOT keep them away ...

Brad Birchett, xSublimex, 45x62", 2005 Tea and coffee continue to alter the molecular makeup of the canvas, as micro-infestations will eventually eat it all away ....

Brad Birchett, Site Seer 03: The Bleu Grotto, Ontario, Canada, 2004

Microorganisms eat away at natural materials such as cotton, as does entropy over time, while freeze-thaw breaks down ceramic compounds returning the earth to earth, and of course, most omnivores love local apples ...

Bio-art has been defined as "an art practice in which the medium is living matter" - Wikipedia. In these pieces organic matter has been used and allowed to "grow" or flourish in certain areas. Matter such as coffee, tea, and even detritus has long been used as staining agents but in certain climates micro-organisms will invade these substances ... and well, the process is definately an on-going aesthetic and molecular (if not olfactory) change ....

See more Bio-Art pieces in the Ritual Function exhbition and within the Transformation series where installations are left to endure climate ... and molecular change ...

Ana Mendieta

Urban Renewal

A grid of small paintings, each 7" x 5", hung together to form a multiple ...

Urban Renewal is a series of painting-pieces on mounted paper hung together to form one art-piece, created from discarded paintings, paintings in a state of decay, paintings saved from a fire ... The work is a continuum of my series entitled Ritual Function, after a theory by Walter Benjamin:

It is significant that the existence of the work of art with reference to its aura is never entirely separated from its ritual function.

Walter Benjamin

“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

Brad T. Birchett, Urban Renewal, mixed media on mounted paper - grid, 2008

Urban Renewal: A re-accountment of the visual and physical experience of walking, within a grid of formal-expressionist painting parts. Here are a few details ...

This multiple-piece will be hung, in its present state, mirrored to another piece, Action to Object, in the Other exhibition curated by Rob Tarbell at The Piedmont Virginia Community College Gallery in Charlottesville, opening April 25th ... See the review of the OTHER exhibition at PVCC in The Hook, by Laura Parsons ...

Brad Thomas Birchett, Action to Object, installation with bench, stone cairn, and audio, 2006

For more DECAY - RENEWAL - RITUAL - ENTROPIC behavior see the Transformation work that was up at Vanderbilt University last year: HERE ....

Conceptual Performative Interventive Moving Image = Time

My New YouTube Playlist ....

Letter to Heather

Oh, and I had an intense dream-vision that my mother crossed a road and went under a tree and laid in a puddle and turned into a dirt mound w/ moss and the puddle was gone and then just behind where she had been there was a little cat graveyard and the cats were slightly uncovered with their paws and heads pointing skyward and when I touch a paw it crumbled and felt like that cream candy-bar nougat that is in the middle of a Halvah bar ....

B.....
(Above image: Grounded by Heather Gray, 2008)

Me.

Mail Art Collaboration

Stacie and I were art-partners in the early 90's within another group called The Post Card Club. Every month we would make postcards and send each of the 9 members a card plus one unsuspecting person a card - the person was chosen by a different member each month and that person would receive 9 hand made post cards from unknown sources. (Mine went to my Philosophy professor at Virginia Tech - Dr. Joe Pitt.)

Champe Smith is now resurrecting The Postcard Club and generously including us in the upcoming exhibition Mapping Correspondence: Mail Art in the 21st Century opening April 11th at The Center for Book Arts in Chelsea.

Here are some images that came of Stacie and my collaboration ....

SANTA LUKA X02

We began with the idea that some people choose to have babies, and others choose to have dogs (we are of the latter) and how the "business" of being the "good" parent has become big - just look at all the silly "toys" out there for both!!!

SANTA LUKA X01

We are also interested in the amount of photos we receive every year at Christmas of our friends kids - its amazing to see them grow up from one photo a year - needless to say some of our friends are distant, and we don't see them as much as we would like ....

POSTCARD X01 (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

POSTCARD X01 BACK

I've always liked the greater than or equal to symbol ... and concept ... so we used it to speak about how we feel about our rescue-shepherd - Luka. Stacie did the drawings because she hasn't been ruined by art school ... I did the cut-n-paste and photo manipulation ...

POSTCARD X02 (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

This image was the front of the second card - the color image was the front of the first - with opposite images - color montage / pencil drawing - becoming images for the back of each ....

The show is up through the summer and just got a review in ARTFORUM ...

Transformation: Testimony of Existence in Time and Space

Site-Seer Installation Video

Site Seer from Brad Birchett on Vimeo.

Site Seer Images - Black and White Silver Prints, 8 x 12

Site 01

Site 02

Site 03

Oil vs. Art or You've Got To Be Kidding!!!

Robert Smithson, The Spiral Jetty, 1970

The date has passed to contact the Utah congressmen to complain about this insidious attack on one of the most infamous and important art pieces of the past century - THE SPIRAL JETTY ... And guess what -- I didnt even make the deadline, which was Feb 13th!!! Yes, like many, like even my students, I had the date in my "head" as Feb 22nd .... Too busy I guess .... (yes, that same old excuse) .... !#%#$^@$^$%^

But why not go ahead and send those guys an email and let them know that you care? Check out the NOW REPUBLIC article and link to these guys' emails .... Let them know that Pearl Montana Exploration and Production, LTD - from Canada (now that just blows on all fronts) - has no right to drill so close to a national monument (well, it SHOULD be!) that is also a symbol of "American" freedom, art, Earth, indigenous awareness, and well, anti-manifest destiny!!! Not only will these "exploration boreholes" disrupt the color, elevation, and floor-base of the beautiful Great Salt Lake it will also disrupt an important migratory bird ecosystem ... Now is the time to make it all STOP ... How long can this over zealous, money mongering, tight-assed society that the Bush's have reigned over keep tearing away at the earth and our art, = OUR FREEDOM ... ??? ALSO: SEE DIA ART SEE THE NEW YORK TIMES OPINION SEE THE DAILY HERALD AND THERE ARE SOME GREAT LINKS AND STORY ON TREE HUGGER

ArtStuff

If you have not seen this show you really should ...

FANATIC by Jillian McDonald ...

@ 1708Gallery / 319 W. Broad St. / Richmond, VA ....

Jillian proposes the artist as celebrity obsessor -- walking the line between voyer, stalker, or artist interested in jamming the culture -- ideas of the comodity of desire ....

See Jillian's Billy Bob Site for a walk through ... Billy Bob obsessions and the power of the female in general .... And for more info see the Screen Kiss site ...

And the article from the New York Times in 2006 tells it ALL !!!

AND SEE GINGER SPIVEY'S REVIEW IN THE MAY/JUNE EDITION OF ART PAPERS ...