billy o'bryan at motor city
Billy O'Bryan is crazy about buttons. If one couldn't figure it out by looking at all the media-wrappers covered with neatly sewn buttons, while chatting with him he revealed his compulsion for discovering buttons and harvesting them off people's clothes even while still on or going to thrift stores and becoming the "button bandit". First reaction is...ok, buttons on found objects...but as you think about the materials and the handmade feel of the buttons the works go deeper than initially predicted. Billy also is excited by color schemes and how the buttons play off the graphics. For some reason I also couldn't get this damien hirst image out of my head while viewing the works. Billy also mentioned that an influence was andy warhol's late works of sewn photographs and collages.
This one was my favorite...but then again I am always a sucker for a strange animal piece!
posted by art blogs are fun at 12:10 AM
10 Comments:
I even saw some buttons sewed to Ann's Ass!
hahahah! yes!
goodness!
The banquet chicken one is really great. cool work Billy.
I walked into the Brewery at 12:00. It was mostly empty except for Billy and a couple others. He walked up to me, pointed to one piece and said, "See? It's a quilt." I instantly fell in love with the work.
mm....I can't get into it.
what a nice signifier/activator... the buttons are a nice catalyst without pushing too hard. on top of that he manages to keep the arrangements pretty static and the supports for the buttons seem to be chosen more for size/color/availability, rather than a specific meaning or statement. im glad such specific/weird/good decisions were made and billy was able to resist encoding an easy read or a way out of the work for my convenience. good work.
What cant you underrstand, 333?
I'm curious.
I mean, they are found objects sewed to other found objects.....therre is a whole history to collage and mixed media.
It might help you if you read each component as having a kind of previous life, and used by somebody so the edge is taken off, then combined with a totally unrelated other object.
then again, maybe there is nothing to "get".
that is always a possibility with contemporary art.
This is the point where I often say "ok whatever you say". This is not a functional quilt or a political statement... My fixation with this work is that the same thing has been happening for some time. That is not always bad but for work with limited space like this I would like to see more expansion eventually with the materials and possibly idea.
not a functional quilt or a political statement. i'm quite sure that that's incorrect. there is obvious political content, and intent of commentary. subtlety and patience. more expansion materials and idea. it's been a while, i continue to make these pieces at a low production rate.
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