Clean-up! Sculpture in aisle nine!

September 16, 2003 7:40 PM

Unnanounced art in Home Depot. Artist Stefanie Nagorka has created sculptures in ten states in the last year, and aims to bring her work to Home Depots in all fifty in the coming 18 months. She uses materials, mainly concrete slabs and bricks, from the stores, assembles the sculptures in the aisle, snaps a picture for herself, and leave the rest there for customers to enjoy or puzzle over - and for the employees to disassemble and re-stock. I think I like it. (From this month's ReadyMade.)
posted by majcher (89 comments total)

Yeah, she is stealing from those stores. Employee time costs money.
posted by jon_kill at 7:49 PM on September 16, 2003

That's prime productivity going down the poophole there, son! There's plenty of customers the employees could be ignoring instead.
posted by Busithoth at 7:51 PM on September 16, 2003

Wynona Ryder should've triedf this defense first.

"It's not shoplifting! It's an art installation! Now take my picture, you philistine!"
posted by yhbc at 8:00 PM on September 16, 2003

Have you actually been inside a Home Depot, jon_kill? Or, any large store, for that matter? Or worked at one? Let me tell you, if I was still a high school or college kid working some crappy corporate retail job, I'd climb over the dead bodies of my co-workers to take apart some wacky lady's little project, rather than deal with the usual mind-numbing madness that's the usual order of things around there.

Was this guy stealing from our munificent home improvement overlords, too?
posted by majcher at 8:02 PM on September 16, 2003

I think it's great...it's a fabulous fusion of performance art and modern sculpture. Plus, it's funny. If I were Home Depot's marketing VP, I can guarantee I'd be trying to figure out how to leverage this.
posted by dejah420 at 8:05 PM on September 16, 2003

First off, I'm for any kind of public creative expression that 1) doesn't hurt anybody and 2) shows up where you'd least expect it. With that said, I can't believe there is now yet ANOTHER reason for me to not go to Home Depot. I'm ecstatic.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:23 PM on September 16, 2003

I thought it was a great idea for public guerilla art until I saw a shot of her with a piece that looked kinda dangerously stacked in the middle of an aisle.

Somewhere an OSHA employee is freaking out knowing she's out creating these potentially deadly works of art.
posted by mathowie at 8:46 PM on September 16, 2003

Yeah, I've been there. And yeah, I've worked at one. And yes, it's boring, and yes, I longed for distraction.

However, that didn't mean customers could lead me on high speed chases, or have me solve a series of riddles, or waste my time with a bunch of other shit, without it being a waste of my time and, consequently, the store's money.

And just to round out my pissiness: ooh! Stacks of garden tiles! How artistic.
posted by jon_kill at 8:49 PM on September 16, 2003

".......I thought it was a great idea for public guerilla art until I saw a shot of her with a piece that looked kinda dangerously stacked in the middle of an aisle." Yep. Exactly what I pictured:

1) Young and idealistic art student erects huge, unstable brick sculpture in middle of aisle at Home Depot.

2) Exhausted everyman/woman (picking up supplies for home renovation project) bumps sculpture and is crushed by an avalanche of bricks.

Then again, who said Art was safe? Art constructs dilemmas and paradoxes, and provokes questions. It is, for these reasons, perilous.
posted by troutfishing at 9:09 PM on September 16, 2003

I rather like the sculpture in the first linked news article.
posted by notsnot at 9:14 PM on September 16, 2003

Good post. There is comfort, eventually, in witnessing the unexpected. Even if staged or erected (as she does, IMO, well).
posted by G_Ask at 9:21 PM on September 16, 2003

Years ago (I think I was in junior high) I was leaving a Blockbuster Video with my friend and parents when he excitedly pointed back to the store. This odd kid we went to school with named Roger was taking all of the video cases and turning them sideways and lining them up at the end of the shelves and then scooting the stack/line of video boxes towards the right from the row above them and he was making this weird pattern with them.

He moved on to the third aisle before we drove off, I do not know if he finished/got caught or what happened afterwards. This thread reminded me of that for some reason.
posted by bargle at 9:26 PM on September 16, 2003

Can't she just buy her own materials and make her art projects at home like the rest of us? Home Depot isn't a lending library last I checked.
posted by fatbobsmith at 9:30 PM on September 16, 2003

Why do so many people hate Home Depot? I don't understand. It's just a hardware store, right?

I've never been to one, we have Lowe's, here.
posted by nyxxxx at 9:32 PM on September 16, 2003

So. Does this mean guerilla art can only exist out in the middle of nowhere so no one gets hurt? Well. Actually what may have been just silly creative expression at one time is beginning to become quite the seasonal cottage industry. ..Or would that be called a service? And it's definitely possible people might get hurt at a place like that. Anything can happen. hamstrings. exhaustion. food poisoning.

Death can happen in a Home Depot just like anywhere. The way I've seen stuff precariously stacked in that place, it's a surprise people don't die more often than they do. The problem is you can't do stuff like that in a public place anymore, cuz if the wrong kinda people walk by, they'll find something wrong with whatever you're doing. Loitering. Public nuissance. Defacing property. Littering. Not cleaning up your dog's poop. Somethin'. They'll get ya for something. And then there's private places which can just get ya on trespassing. I mean civilized society is just taking all the fun out of self-expression.

On tv earlier I saw this 'man on the street' moment where some guy was saying something like, "sure I believe in freedom of speech but those Dixie Chicks shoulda known to just keep their mouths shut."

So you can have a right to express yourself. Just don't exercise that right. Anywhere. It's not safe.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:36 PM on September 16, 2003

This would be like me walking into a museum and installing plumbing on Marcel DuChamp's Fountain.


Which would completely fucking rule. I'm going tomorrow.
posted by Stan Chin at 9:36 PM on September 16, 2003

fatbobsmith: ".Can't she just buy her own materials and make her art projects at home like the rest of us?"

According to the article, she started doing these projects after the financial fall-out of a divorce made her lose studio space. Therefore, no, she can't.

Nyxxxx: "Why do so many people hate Home Depot?"

I refer you to homedepotsucks.com.
posted by arielmeadow at 9:43 PM on September 16, 2003

Hmm. How very odd. I guess I should come out of the closet here as Stefanie's dealer. (No, not drug dealer, kids.) I've shown her work in my gallery in New York since 1997.

After this NPR piece aired, we got one amazing piece of hate mail. The writer's first objection was that it wasn't art; his second complaint was that she was an annoyance to Home Depot staff. He was really nasty. (I'm pretty sure his third complaint was that she's a woman, but never mind.)

I'd originally been a bit concerned about the people who had to dismantle her work too. But over time we found employees of Home Depot responding really well -- store managers inviting her to their stores and the like. I think they understood something that many contemporary art lovers got too -- that the unexpected is art, that the long history of public and land art is intimately bound up with consumerism and commerce and the history of ourselves as citizens -- so that a chain store can be a perfect venue for discussing these issues -- and maybe even that minimalism isn't necessarly a brutalist reduction of human experience or enjoyment. In short: that art, when made FOR people and WITH people, not just shown in some snotty gallery, might have a lot more meaning, and, even if it involved complicated art-world histories, was totally comprehensible -- and enjoyable, or at least worthy of inspiring a conversation -- to people like me who didn't go to no college. And on the flip side; big stores, like big companies, can get dreary, monolithic, oppressive. Intervening there can bring a lot of pleasure.

She's pretty good with physics and gravity. I'm fairly sure nothing's going to topple on a toddler.

One of the reasons she started doing this -- besides finances -- has exactly to do with why she doesn't work at home. Stefanie's both a respected artist with her work in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the museums at Yale and Harvard, but she's also a New Jersey soccer mom. She worked in typical Manhattan studios; she graduated to working in her backyard, and then to sculpture parks. I think there was something about this male tradition of this history of artwork that made her seek out that totally guy place, Home Depot. I know she certainly felt a lot more free being out with people than crammed away in some musty isolated studio or at home with the dog and the neighbors peering over the fence.

I believe she thinks as a lot of us do; that the current practices of contemporary art are SO far removed from anyone's experience, and the language used to discuss it SO alienating, that, well, taking it to the streets is the only human thing to do. So she's out meeting people, having a great time, and making a lot of friends at Home Depot. I think it's sweet.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 10:18 PM on September 16, 2003

This would be like me walking into a museum and installing plumbing on Marcel DuChamp's Fountain.

Stan Chin, you are my new God.
posted by dorian at 10:33 PM on September 16, 2003

If you REALLY feel compelled, you can read our stuffy statement on her work and see more pictures here.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 10:34 PM on September 16, 2003

Dear Mathowie:

Please to be side blogging RJ Reynolds' wonderful post, yet another example of insider expertise.

And thanks, RJ.
posted by frykitty at 10:49 PM on September 16, 2003

Thanks for the backstory, RJ. It's much appreciated.

(this is the stuff that makes Metafilter so cool, if you ask me.)
posted by The God Complex at 11:04 PM on September 16, 2003

I thought it was a great idea for public guerilla art until I saw a shot of her with a piece that looked kinda dangerously stacked in the middle of an aisle.

Like my mother used to say to me, "If you don't touch it, it'll probably sit there a thousand years."
posted by Witty at 1:23 AM on September 17, 2003

how did those stupid peasants managed not to get crushed by stone henge - could be the missing link i suppose.

crushed phillistines anyone?
posted by dprs75 at 3:52 AM on September 17, 2003

RJ, I think the motivation for the hate mail is a very deeply seated fear of any violation of social rules and order. Especially in the US but in virtually every culture, there are people who grew up in very rigidly, strictly controlled environments. The rules they have been forced to obey must be projected onto everyone else for them, and therefore their worldview, to remain valid. Any violation of rules and conventional thinking is anathema to them.

That being said, I still feel sorry for the employees who have to clean the mess up. I think she should do it herself after a couple of hours or so per piece. You write that some managers appreciated the art -- they sure did, they aren't the ones who have to remove it.

I think they understood something that many contemporary art lovers got too -- that the unexpected is art, that the long history of public and land art is intimately bound up with consumerism and commerce and the history of ourselves as citizens -- so that a chain store can be a perfect venue for discussing these issues -- and maybe even that minimalism isn't necessarly a brutalist reduction of human experience or enjoyment.

Yeah. Now clean up the tiles, Joe. And don't break anything or you'll pay for it.
posted by Eloquence at 4:36 AM on September 17, 2003

I like. And I'll add to the thanks to RJ & I'd like to ask a few questions if I may...

So what happens if, say, a clued-up Home Depot patron spots a Stefanie Nagorka work & buys the pieces (in the case of this work a steal at $79.65) before it can be taken down? Obviously there are the logistics of moving the work(s) but I'm sure there are ways.

Would Stephanie sell the art in plan form a la Damien Hirst & his spot paintings?

How would/does she feel about others copying her approach?
(I'm tempted to try something like this in the UK as I've frequented far too many building supply stores over the past few years than is healthy. However, copying another artists approach might not be the best approach. But, hell, I'm a graphic desitgner. We rip-off our peers all the time ;-)
posted by i_cola at 4:47 AM on September 17, 2003

You write that some managers appreciated the art -- they sure did, they aren't the ones who have to remove it.

So what. If you work the floor at Home Depot and the manager tells you to "move that stack of brick from aisle 4 to aisle 5", you do it.

"...and when you're done with that, move it all back to aisle 4." Quit if you don't like it. Point out to customers where the mulch is kept and move stacks of stuff. That's the job.

Does it make any difference if the stack is a big cubic rectangle or one that twists and curves a little to one side? We're not talking about cleaning up a mess here... it's a stack of bricks.
posted by Witty at 5:25 AM on September 17, 2003

how did those stupid peasants managed not to get crushed by stone henge

How do we know they didn't?
posted by deadcowdan at 5:26 AM on September 17, 2003

I work at a HD as an order puller. This woman is creating huge (albeit beautiful) safety hazards everywhere she goes. There are always a few teeny little kids walking around, and, having handled plenty of those stones, I can tell that most of these stacks would be very easy to topple. One customer trying to squeeze by with a loaded flat cart would be enough to send it flying.

My wife and 3 year old son shop at my store from time to time, and if I spotted one of these sculptures, I would dismantle it immediately.
posted by Scoo at 5:46 AM on September 17, 2003

How do we know this isn't some insidious guerilla/viral marketing ploy by the Depot to take over that coveted art-school-dropout market niche?
posted by gimonca at 5:50 AM on September 17, 2003

And just to round out my pissiness: ooh! Stacks of garden tiles! How artistic

My sentiments as well.


The bricks are forever changed because they were a piece of fine art


BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA !!! Whatever she is smoking is pretty potent stuff.
posted by a3matrix at 6:09 AM on September 17, 2003

...but probably not as impotent as your stoopidity...
posted by i_cola at 6:21 AM on September 17, 2003

...to take over that coveted art-school-dropout market niche?

Wait wait... I've got an idea. Let's all get together and arrange a FLASH MOB to get this, go out to some poor-ass neighborhood and BUILD A HOUSE! After that we'll all disperse like nothing happened! Oh man can't you wait to see the look on the faces of the people we give our readymade sculpture to? It'll really challenge the status quo and break the norm!

On second thought, nevermind, it's already called Habitat for Fucking Humanity.
posted by Stan Chin at 6:33 AM on September 17, 2003

I started out completely skeptical, then I looked at the photos of her "pieces" on RJ's link and thought, "OK, that's kinda cool," and now I'm sorta stuck between hostility and liking the idea. On the one hand, going into a Home Depot and making art guerilla-style appeals to the latent culture-jammer in me, but on the other hand, the pieces, while interesting, aren't that great, and a lot of their appeal is dampened by the fact that they're sitting in the middle of a big, ugly Home Depot store. Not to mention statements like, "The bricks are forever changed because they were a piece of fine art," which strikes me as extremely pretentious. The bricks are changed back to regular old bricks when someone buys them and takes them home and uses them for a sidewalk or a basketball goal. So yeah, it's art, of a (somewhat gimmicky) kind, and the pieces are sort of interesting, but I hope this doesn't trigger a movement of artists going into stores and making art out of the wares.
posted by RylandDotNet at 6:34 AM on September 17, 2003

I think this woman's real achievement is getting a bunch of intellectual-wannabees discussing a pile of bricks as if it's something other than a pile of bricks.

I'm all for the guerrilla art or a random goof or whatever the hell you want to call it but this... is a stack of bricks, and a potentially dangerous one at that.
posted by bondcliff at 6:46 AM on September 17, 2003

You know who's good is that Michelangelo guy.
posted by Outlawyr at 6:47 AM on September 17, 2003

Beats flash mobs. More art in more places! I want to be surprised. Beauty is convulsive, as the surrealists say.
posted by kozad at 6:50 AM on September 17, 2003

My wife and 3 year old son shop at my store from time to time, ...

Hardware stores and warehouses = not a good place for a three-year old to be. How 'bout that? But I suppose it might be a good place to teach him/her to "touch with your eyes, not your hands".

...and if I spotted one of these sculptures, I would dismantle it immediately.

Go get 'em Tiger.... and here's a piece of "flash" for your official HD worker's vest.
posted by Witty at 6:57 AM on September 17, 2003

I like this quote, from the second linked article:

“I think it’s kind of kooky. It opens the possibility of using the material in new ways,” she said. “There’s a lot of humor in my work. You can’t be too serious or it doesn’t work.”

She doesn't take it too seriously. Neither should we.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:01 AM on September 17, 2003

My wife and 3 year old son shop at my store from time to time

Won't someone please think of the children?
I can't believe no one said that already...
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:03 AM on September 17, 2003

Ryland: There is a pretty big market out there for stuff owned/touched by the famous & interesting or just things that have a story attached. Is the pen used to write a great work of fiction just a pen? A lot of people would pay big money to own one of, say, Mark Twain's writing implements.

Same with bits of the Berlin Wall. Same with the guitar plectrum I still have (somewhere) that was salvaged from the stage at a Fall gig in Newcastle c.1988. And so on. Even some bricks that were part of a particularly transient artwork.

Also, I think the main point is that the works are sitting in the middle of a big, ugly Home Depot store.

And what MrMoonPie said. Both times.

It made me smile & think for a while anyway. But then folks on MeFi do that all the time so maybe we're all artisists [sic] ;-)

Stan Chin: In a similar vein...
posted by i_cola at 7:05 AM on September 17, 2003

I rather like the idea of calling flash mobs to assemble - in random, incongruous locations in the middle of the night (as with some of the Crop Circles) - large, well built monoliths out of cinder blocks and fast setting mortar. With enough people you could, for example, completely entomb a Burger King or a Pizza Hut.

That would be real Art.

I recall a legendary guerilla art installation put up in the middle of the night in (I believe) Northampton, Mass: a television playing a video loop of something disturbing to the public decorum ( like a talking head proclaiming the advent of Orwell's 1984, or some such )was bolted 8 or 10 feet up on the side of a building on Main Street. A metal cage over the TV prevented easy removal, especially because the contraption was rigged to throw off showers of sparks if disturbed. It sucked power off a line coming directly from a pole. The fire and police depts. eventually gave up and called the electric company to cut the line. It was quite a public spectacle.

That's good art too.

Statements like "The bricks are forever changed because they were a piece of fine art," make me gnash my teeth - but I'm still sympathetic to art which confronts people with the unexpected.....Just as long as no one gets crushed, killed or hurt in the process.
posted by troutfishing at 7:08 AM on September 17, 2003

Okay:

I still feel sorry for the employees who have to clean the mess up. I think she should do it herself after a couple of hours or so per piece. You write that some managers appreciated the art -- they sure did, they aren't the ones who have to remove it.

From the NPR article:

Since Home Depot staff members sometimes ask Nagorka to take her sculpture apart when she's finished, they live on in photographs

The other article does give the opposite impression, but then there's this:

Her plan -- already well under way -- is to build sculptures in Home Depots in 50 states, using the basic supplies she finds in the stores.

So it's not as though she's coming by the same store every week to visit quirky bourgeois plague upon the beleaguered staff or anything. Anyway, I like it (and thanks RJ Reynolds!) though I've got to admit I rolled my eyes at the "bricks are forever changed" bit. I think both of the articles were pushing the "subvert! subvert!" angle when the nonconfrontational angle is much more interesting.
posted by furiousthought at 7:25 AM on September 17, 2003

Y'know, if some folks here who are calling these sculptures "just piles of bricks" saw one of them in a gallery or perhaps an outdoor sculpture garden area, and didn't know the context of what they are made of and where/how - I doubt you'd be calling them "piles of bricks." I think they are actually quite nice. Compare for instance these pieces which were in Chicago recently - would you call them just "piles of burnt wood"?

Eloquence: "I still feel sorry for the employees who have to clean the mess up. I think she should do it herself" - Did you read the articles? One of them said that she is sometimes asked to dismantle the works herself.

I guess I'm just a little surprised at the reactions here. This is some pretty nice looking art, made with such simple materials. Most of it doesn't look all that precarious or dangerously placed to me. If a passing customer can't tell that it's something they probably should be careful around, then they deserve a concrete paver on their foot for being stupid.
posted by dnash at 7:29 AM on September 17, 2003

I think it's an amusing concept. I'm not much for most contemporary art, really. I don't seem to understand it. But this, I find interesting. I actually think the installations themselves are quite pretty, certainly much more attractive than a simple pile of bricks. I also think the location is particularly apt. Home Depot, Costco, et al have eschewed any kind of decoration or beauty in favour of lower overheads. To suddenly have art spring up in the middle of a concrete wasteland - a deliberate concrete wasteland - makes a very interesting statement.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:35 AM on September 17, 2003

It is amazing that most of the people who commented in this thread are boring stuffed shirts who like to attack anything that is out of the realm of normal for them.

"Stores are for shopping only! It's not a sculpture if it's not made out of marble! The world should be child-proof so I can take my 3 year old anywhere and not watch what he is doing! How dare she express herself outside of her home like the rest of us do!"

This is not what I would expect from Metafilter, bunch of boring prudes.
posted by adzuki at 8:04 AM on September 17, 2003

would you call them just "piles of burnt wood"?

I would call then the UPN logo.

What a thread, I agree with everyone.
posted by thirteen at 8:08 AM on September 17, 2003

With enough people you could, for example, completely entomb a Burger King or a Pizza Hut.

Genius.

I, for one, would pay real money to see that happen. If entombing a building turns out to be too big a task, I'd suggest building a wall across a major street.
posted by aramaic at 8:18 AM on September 17, 2003

I think that art should be more dangerous.
posted by drobot at 8:22 AM on September 17, 2003

Witty: Hardware stores and warehouses are OK for 3 year olds... provided there are no towering wobbly stacks of pave stones threatening to crush them. As for your "Go Get 'em Tiger" remark, I'm not bleeding orange here, just doing my job.

dnash: If a passing customer can't tell that it's something they probably should be careful around, then they deserve a concrete paver on their foot for being stupid

It's not supposed to be there! If an unstable pile of merchandise at any retailer fell on your head, it's the retailer's fault. It's unreasonable to have to be on the look out for death traps while shopping for tomato seeds.
posted by Scoo at 8:27 AM on September 17, 2003

Something just occurred to me.

Many moons ago I knew this guy who got hired by a local Tom Thumb grocery store to use his expertise as an artist to make endcap displays and big elaborate seasonal aisle displays. He laughingly called it selling out at first, but after awhile he really got into it for awhile. I think he quit after he graduated college, moved on to greener pastures, but it kept him in black trenchcoats and silly hats, as was his inclination.

He'd use this weird stuff that was a cross between foam and cardboard, and airbrush everything from artsy price signs to caricatures and mockup buildings that were like fifteen or twenty feet tall and he'd hang stuff up from the ceiling of the place over aisle five or whatever. Tom Thumb paid him to do all this. Sometimes his efforts were really more than just the kinda crap you usually see. Y'know the corporate gunk that gets shipped to store managers which they put up when they're told to by regional managers. His work was more inviting and his style was a bit surreal so it clashed with the supermarket feel of the place in a way that was wholly unique. I recall no complaints. It was a welcome change of pace in the store. This friend of mine did a Halloween design one year that spanned several aisles giving the place a sorta haunted house motif and really incorporated itself in with the shopping experience. It was fun and artsy at the same time. Great work which didn't take itself too seriously.

Tom Thumb paid this friend of mine to do all this. He was majoring in art at a local college at the time. His more serious work was getting shown in local museums and stuff, but he did this grocery store thing to pay the bills. The real difficulty was blending what he personally wanted to express with what the store would actually tolerate. He kinda had to censor his muse a bit, but the end result seemed to please everybody.

This lady's doing all this stuff for Home Depot for free? No wonder so many artists starve. No wonder we have to take tax money and apply it to NEA grants and -- does that still happen at all by the way? How's that work? Anyway. Artists shouldn't have to do this kinda stuff for free, but some do, which makes it harder for others to get paying gigs, and is that the fault of the artists or the fault of patrons, be it individuals or corporations? I mean is Home Depot taking advantage of this lady, or is she opening herself up to being used? Sure it's a mutual beneficial thing perhaps, but how does this affect other artists who have bills to pay and couldn't afford to do what she's doing?

It's like when Microsoft made Internet Explorer eternally free. Kinda took the wind outta Netscape's sails. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
posted by ZachsMind at 8:48 AM on September 17, 2003

I think Scoo and aacheson should get together.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:48 AM on September 17, 2003

Wait wait... I've got an idea. Let's all get together and arrange a FLASH MOB to get this, go out to some poor-ass neighborhood and BUILD A HOUSE! After that we'll all disperse like nothing happened! Oh man can't you wait to see the look on the faces of the people we give our readymade sculpture to? It'll really challenge the status quo and break the norm!

Wow, what a great idea. Once this whole election/war stuff is over, FlashMobbing for public service will be great. Take all the friendster / deanspace / a.n.s.w.e.r. / moveon / flashmobbing models and use them to mobilize people for public service. Just dandy, I tell ya.
posted by VulcanMike at 8:50 AM on September 17, 2003

Bargle: I had to put all the movies back where I found them and was grounded from Dungeons & Dragons for three weeks.
posted by rcade at 8:50 AM on September 17, 2003

I have to say that eloquence's paragraph above about social rules and order just demonstrated his total entitlement to his username.

Well done!
posted by Irontom at 8:51 AM on September 17, 2003

So what happens if, say, a clued-up Home Depot patron spots a Stefanie Nagorka work & buys the pieces (in the case of this work a steal at $79.65) before it can be taken down?

It's all yours. I'll write you a certificate of authenticity. Get a truck, they're damn heavy.

...and if I spotted one of these sculptures, I would dismantle it immediately.

That's probably wise. I can't deny that they might be considered a nuisance. (I like nuisance though. Although I don't like bothering people at work. I'm torn between anarchism and politeness, frankly.)

And in the unlikely event that Home Depot ever gets sued, I don't know any of you. We never had this MeFi thread. ;) FYI, Zachsmind, we have notified Home Depot's home offices that this is going on, and haven't heard back. So they're an unwitting or unwilling or unknowing partner to her project.

And as for artistic worthiness, I have no comment. We could have a long talk about art market forces, or museum seals of approval, but really, eww. We like what we like, we like what cracks us up, we like what has meaning to us. I personally hate the Mona Lisa, so I hear ya.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 8:51 AM on September 17, 2003

The sculptures are prettier and more boring than I expected. They're nice, but if I came across one, I think I'd have imagined it was created by bored kids/teenagers waiting for their parents to finish stocking up.
posted by mdn at 8:51 AM on September 17, 2003

It is amazing that most of the people who commented in this thread are boring stuffed shirts who like to attack anything that is out of the realm of normal for them.

I think it's a fantastic concept, I love the mixture of art within our normal lives at a place like home depot. I actually thought the pieces looked pretty cool when I first saw photos of them a couple weeks ago, but there's a little voice inside my head that sounds like my mother, warning me against anything dangerous.

She saw this photo and said "look how precariously stacked the top is! and how are people supposed to get their cart around that?!"

I love art that tweaks with your emotions, your preconceptions, and your worldview, but a small part of me thought some of the works could be a little dangerous. For what it is worth, I love Christo's dramatic public works, though it was a bummer when one of his umbrellas killed some unsuspecting person.
posted by mathowie at 8:52 AM on September 17, 2003

And as far as the sculptures go, I think it would be in Home Depot's interest to acknowledge that she's doing it and that she'll inspire others and provide a forum for the art and a system in which to display it. For example, let people select their materials, display them in the store in a safe area and just have them sign the art over to the store at the onset of it all. Then Home Depot can sell them to recoup the cost of materials and generate some good press for themselves.
posted by VulcanMike at 8:52 AM on September 17, 2003

It is amazing that most of the people who commented in this thread are boring stuffed shirts who like to attack anything that is out of the realm of normal for them.

This isn't out of the realm for me at all. I use to do stuff like this all the time when I worked at a grocery store.

The newness of her work is probably related to doing it at a home depot. Home Depot has much more building materials to work with then say the soup isle in your grocery store. However, I was always conscious of not blocking an aisle. Not only does it piss customers off, it's also a fire hazard. If the fire department decided to make an inspection, the store would be fined (or at least warned) about the blocking of exit routes.

What she's doing might be interesting for some people, but it doesn't have to be interesting to everyone. I personally don't like a lot of "modern art" but it doesn't mean I'm going to decry those that do as "dangerous free thinkers".

This is not what I would expect from Metafilter, bunch of boring prudes.

And I don't expect metafilter to consist of people with very narrow vision of what people should appreciate. Metafilter is full of people with different views and ideas and thoughts. That is never boring or prudish.
posted by Stynxno at 8:55 AM on September 17, 2003

It is amazing that most of the people who commented in this thread are boring stuffed shirts who like to attack anything that is out of the realm of normal for them.

Most? Hardly. Most of us like it. A few don't. Count up the comments. I count 6 clear negatives, 17 clear positives, and the rest either ambivalent, neutral, or off topic.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:14 AM on September 17, 2003

Maybe she should switch her medium from heavy infant-squishing bricks to harmless PVC elbows or sheets of rigid insulation. That would make a nice fort or spooky tunnel to walk through.

That would squish one argument and leave only the time-sucking angle.

HD should hire artists to build elaborate sculptures from copper piping and such. Make it fun.

Just avoid the infant-squishing tower of concrete.
posted by billder at 9:15 AM on September 17, 2003

Well I for one am boring and prudish, but I like her little sculpture thingy. That said, if I stubbed my toe on it I'd sue Home Depot so fast it would make their hardware spin.
posted by Outlawyr at 9:30 AM on September 17, 2003

Metafilter is full of people with different views and ideas and thoughts. That is never boring or prudish.

Well, those people whose ideas and views are boring and prudish are, though.

In any case, I did not mean to sound so mean, and I apologize. I was surprised not at dislike of her work, but at the continuous attacks on the whole concept. Really, world could use being a little less boring, and it is stuff like this that shakes it up. She is not building her sculptures in the middle of an intersection, after all Home Depot lanes are extremely wide.
posted by adzuki at 9:30 AM on September 17, 2003

Off topic - can a person who leaves out definite articles be taken seriously? Only time will tell...

Also, by no means I actually think that Mefites are a boring and prudish bunch. Although, I am happy to provide a new Metafilter tag line, as it seems on preview.
posted by adzuki at 9:37 AM on September 17, 2003

Just avoid the infant-squishing tower of concrete

Great possible sig file! May I?
posted by Scoo at 9:49 AM on September 17, 2003

Just avoid the infant-squishing tower of concrete

Great possible sig file! May I?

Yes, as long as you cite its original source, Chaucer. It was in the Canterbury Tale, The Sculptyr.
posted by billder at 10:02 AM on September 17, 2003

Nifty idea, but it probably wouldn't kill her to use some of those handy Home Depot supplies to build a little wall or something around her sculptures. Might reduce the chance of someone bumping into one (the sculpture, not the wall), or taking bricks out of one because they mistook it for a display and turning it into a big, dangerous game of Jenga.
posted by melimelo at 10:06 AM on September 17, 2003

Come on - are people really that afraid of being crushed by the bricks? If you happen upon one of these death towers, go down another aisle and alert the nearest Depot employee to deconstruct it.
posted by drobot at 10:53 AM on September 17, 2003

RJ Reynolds, very well put! Thank you.

Those that think the sculpture will topple [and crush their kids], tells me you don't sculpt. I don't sculpt, however, one of the lessons is about balance and no doubt physics and engineering. Is that too obvious? This wasn't the artist's first piece so we'll give her credit that she has experience with her medium.

That is the beauty of sculpture; for the common man to think, how can that thing stand up and not fall over in a breeze. It may look like it'll tip over easily, but I'd bet it wouldn't.

Ah, art, makes one think.

As for the wage slave at HD having to dismantle it because the manager thinks it's a hazard, well, whatchagonnado? You do it. Any manager who invites a sculptor to do a display piece with their products would see sales go up of that product. It would also increase traffic in your store from word of mouth. [not from flash mobs, huh] What does that translate into? More sales. Companies fight for aisle position in a supermarket. Much is spent on designing the display cases themselves. You can't just plonk down a product, stacked to the roof and expect it to sell.

This is brilliant. Loved it.

"RJ, I think the motivation for the hate mail is a very deeply seated fear of any violation of social rules and order. Especially in the US but in virtually every culture, there are people who grew up in very rigidly, strictly controlled environments. The rules they have been forced to obey must be projected onto everyone else for them, and therefore their worldview, to remain valid. Any violation of rules and conventional thinking is anathema to them."–Eloquence

You started off right. As for feeling sorry for someone with a job, well, it's called the job description. See: Witty's comment... move it from aisle 4 to 5. When you're finished that, move it back to aisle 4, the manager thinks it should remain in aisle 4...

The bricks are forever changed because they were a piece of fine art.

ah, it means you'll never look at bricks as just bricks if you've seen them as a sculpture or maybe in a cool formation. Which leads to the joke, when is a brick not a brick? when it's a wall *honestly, sorry* Maybe you'll start thinking, what is sculpture? Unless you're smoking that potent shit yourself and fail to see what's in front of your face, it could be something of beauty. Some people think Bud is a fine fine beer. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Some people who bring their kids to home depot let them run amok. HD isn't a playground for kids, keep 'em in their strollers and away from all sharp objects and please don't brush into displays!

BTW, I think HD sucks! Overpriced, no stock, I prefer Rona.
posted by alicesshoe at 11:13 AM on September 17, 2003

Oh dear. After all that it looks like there has been an infant fatality.
posted by i_cola at 11:16 AM on September 17, 2003

Being that the sculptures look a lot like mid-century archtectural embellishment anyway, the main office should just hire her to do large scale versions as part of the store design. Of course she might not care for the non-subversiveness of that kind of commission, but it would get a lot of bricks transformed.
posted by marzenie99 at 11:17 AM on September 17, 2003

To follow on from alliceshoe's excellent comments: Bricks & art. Remember Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII?
posted by i_cola at 11:25 AM on September 17, 2003

posted by gluechunk at 11:56 AM on September 17, 2003

As an aside, I think it's interesting that she sees herself working in the same vein as Andy Goldsworthy, whose work I fell in love with after seeing the magnificent documentary Rivers and Tides. A different kind of 'environmental art', but similar in that they both work with found materials in a temporary context.

In general I'm a fan of public art, and site specific art, and any art that takes place outside the hallowed confines of a museum. It's the same spirit that motivates a lot of people at Burning Man-- take your art out into the world and make it part of ordinary life! I would love to come across a sculpture like this at Home Depot; or at a Safeway; or anywhere really. It would brighten my day for sure.
posted by jcruelty at 12:03 PM on September 17, 2003

gluechunk = Genius
posted by Witty at 12:11 PM on September 17, 2003

posted by gluechunk at 11:56 AM PST on September 17

Give that man a MacArthur fellowship!
posted by sennoma at 12:26 PM on September 17, 2003

???
posted by soyjoy at 12:52 PM on September 17, 2003

Oh. All it took for me to get it was clicking "Post." (Of course.)
posted by soyjoy at 12:54 PM on September 17, 2003

gluechunk, you take that down right now, before someone squashes a baby with that thing!
posted by mathowie at 6:09 PM on September 17, 2003

The pixels gluechunk posted are forever changed because they were a piece of fine art.
posted by RylandDotNet at 7:48 PM on September 17, 2003

Bravo, gluechunk!
posted by kayjay at 8:57 PM on September 17, 2003

I'd be tempted call it art if I saw her do anything other than cement/patio/garden tiles and if the story was a rash of impromptu sculpture of stock items at home depots, but no one knows who it was.

I don't see anything particularly groundbreaking in the forms she's making, just a lot of morphed shapes out of geometric tiles. The fact she's doing it in homedepot and is getting all this press just smacks of self promotion and opportunism.

Oh yeah, and gallery sales. If you can't get there on talent, get there on fame.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 4:46 AM on September 18, 2003

Gee, how come I always have to be on top?
posted by ZachsMind at 7:57 AM on September 18, 2003

hey, gluechunk, I'll buy that off of you for......fifty cents.
posted by angry modem at 10:07 AM on September 18, 2003

Regarding all the people complaining about the time and money being wasted... as Jay (not Silent Bob) would say, "Screw you Whiny Little Bitches".

I think making art in Home Depot is a beautiful idea.

I think being scared of art because it hurts a soulless corporate machine is idiotic.

I think saying her work sucks just because it's stacks of bricks is dense (pardon the pun). Art is more than the materials used to make it. Think context. Open your mind.

Some people just can't open their minds enough to go beyond the common and the safe.

Pity.
posted by hurkle at 10:08 AM on September 18, 2003

Oh, and I haven't smoked a cigarette in 10 days. That's why I'm so bitter. And I up the bid on gluechunk's art to $0.51.
posted by hurkle at 10:32 AM on September 18, 2003

I think this woman's real achievement is getting a bunch of intellectual-wannabees discussing a pile of bricks as if it's something other than a pile of bricks.

I hear ya, bondcliff. Frankly, most things fail to impress me these days. After all, virtually everything around you is just another arrangement of atoms. I guess stars are kinda cool, since they convert one type on atom into another. Subatomic particles are alright, but they're starting to get a little played-out too.
posted by Eamon at 8:55 PM on September 18, 2003

i_cola: Remember Ana Mendieta?

To those of you who are obsessed with the poor employees having to disassemble the sculptures: what, you think if they weren't doing that they'd be having a high old time, swigging beer and playing skittles? I've worked retail (knock on wood it never happens again), and my bosses were always finding meaningless activities to keep me from sitting around idle. Like majcher, I'd have been grateful for this kind of distraction. And if it's the whole "stealing from the company" thing, I imagine if Home Depot felt that way, they'd stop her. If they don't care, why do you?
posted by languagehat at 9:36 AM on September 22, 2003