Trophy I (for Merce Cunningham) (1959), collection: Kunsthaus Zurich
Robert Rauschenberg incorporated objects and materials he found on the street to make his early combines. Trophy I (for Merce Cunningham) (1959), for example, includes a beat up sign, poster fragments, and scraps of wood.
Volon (Cardboard), 1971, is my favorite among many [image via]
In the early 70s, Rauschenberg made a series of works out of used, altered, or dismantled cardboard boxes. He created editions with Gemini G.E.L. that meticulously simulated used cardboard, which he called Cardbirds. The Menil showed these Cardboards and related works, many of which had remained in the artist's collection, in 2007.
David Hammons, Bliz-aard Ball Sale, 1983, photo: Dawoud Bey, via group a ok
In early 1983, David Hammons laid out several dozen snowballs on an Indian blanket and sold them, priced according to size, alongside the junk merchants and fences of Astor Place. Dawoud Bey came along to document the event, which, everyone seems to have reproduced the one shot over and over ever since. Here is a different angle that shows more of the work's original context. It's not clear that Hammons got any takers, or what happened to the snowballs and other materials from the piece.
via wnyc's feature tied to Orozco's 2009 MoMA retrospective
Before his 1998 show at Marian Goodman Gallery, "The Free Market is Anti-Democratic," Gabriel Orozco had already been making artworks from shit he found on the street for several years. Mostly, he'd find or make a work, and then just take a picture of it. Like Island within an island, 1993 [above]
Penske Work Project installation shot, Marian Goodman Gallery, 1998-99
For the Penske Work Project, he rented a truck and drove around Manhattan, pulling things out of dumpsters and assembling them into a sculpture on the street just long enough to take a Polaroid. Then he'd throw the stuff in the truck and drive off. The photos served as instructions for reassembling the pieces in the gallery.
Here is Penske Work Project: CD Tube, 1998, a length of scrap pipe and a stack of CD jewelboxes, from Jerry Saltz's review of the show. 1998-99 was a very tenuous time for digital imaging, it turns out. Our web history does not age well.
All of this was in my mind last night when I caught up with @therealhennessy's tweets about making a sculpture on the street and trying to sell it via Instagram. He started out straight, with a found object.
I'm gonna start selling garbage I find on the street through my Instagram. Anybody wanna by this paper... instagram.com/p/ZEEc4ZLmu9/
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
I just dropped the price to 20$.
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
Then he did something to it.
C'MON I'LL TOSS IN THIS MINIMAL PLANK TOO. $20! SIGNED BY ME instagram.com/p/ZEFpWvrmgt/
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
Powhida wanted to get a piece of that minimalist goodness, without the messiness of authorship:
"@powhida: @therealhennessy I'll buy a minimal plank sight unseen for $20.Don't sign it though." FANTASTIC. IMA FUCKING LEO CASTELLI
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
Marina was readying to start dealing in pure, uncut aura:
Can I get in on that, @therealhennessy? I'll find you art buyers and you just touch their stuff. Ok, I'll pay you to touch stuff, basically.
— Marina Galperina (@mfortki) May 8, 2013
@mfortki "I'll Touch For Money."
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
Jayson remembered Jasper Johns' dictum, that after you do something, you do something else:
C'MON SOMEONE BUY THIS. YOU GOT TA FEEL ME. $20. SO MANY VISUAL COMPUTATIONS. instagram.com/p/ZEHcwcrmjI/
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
Youngman is his own Dawoud Bey:
IM STILL HERE instagram.com/p/ZEH98uLmjv/
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
"@chocolatebobka: @therealhennessy future R. Kelly sculptor in Barbour? Swerrrrrve"😉
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
To no avail. Not even a Vine can help move this thing. But now we know the location:
20$ SCULPTURE. COME TO LAFAYETTE AND 4TH TO COP vine.co/v/b2Fm5Vr5FFA
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
IF SOMEONE DOESN'T COME AND BUY THIS SOON IM PROBABLY GONNA BE STOPPED & FRISKED
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
LIKE, YOU CAN SAY: " I JUST BOUGHT ART FROM THE VOICE ON HARLEM SHAKE." IMAGINE THE SEX YOU WILL ATTRACT FROM THE GENDER YOU DESIRE
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
Lmao @therealhennessy really out here hustling
— Alex Costanza(@MASKEDhooligan) May 8, 2013
He finally gave up.
OKAY IM GONNA GO HOME AND WORK ON CVS BANGERS VOLUME 2. PEACE Y'ALL
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 8, 2013
I was about two hours late to the Twitter scene. [The kid had ballet.] And I am stunned. The man has millions of YouTube views and 11,000 Twitter followers, and not one of them has the critical sense to get off their ass and ante up a twenty to enter his discourse?
@therealhennessy wait, what happened? You just left the sculpture there on the street like a piece of trash? what about the denouement?
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
Words cannot describe the pain I feel, imagining @therealhennessy's 20$ sculpture sitting abandoned on Lafayette like 2 abject pcs of trash.
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
someone swing your Escalade by NYU on the way from Koons's Zwirner dinner and pick up that @therealhennessy please? it's cold!
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
@gregorg I can feel your concern for @therealhennessy through the Internet.
— hydeordie (@hydeordie) May 9, 2013
srsly, I'm about to call Delancey myself, send'em @therealhennessy's Vine, and tell them to bring the sculpture inside for me til this wknd
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
The fate of @therealhennessy's street sculpture's giving me more twitter anxiety than trying to buy that disco ball off Martha Rosler.
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
a man can dream RT @drunkwillmcavoy @gregorg gawd, could you be Hennessy's bitch anymore than you already are?
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
Finally, Jayson takes a twitter break from editing. I didn't know if Powhida had made his move or not. I see there is hope. I scramble the troops. Powers is in Brooklyn. Everyone else is at Zwirner's. But Kyle has just finished installing NADA, and so he hops on the train for me.
@gregorg The sculpture is here if you really want it. twitter.com/therealhenness...
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 9, 2013
Hennessy's suddenly publishing maps and shit, and I'm like, NOOO, this is not a DM, man! Ix-nay on the ap-may! My people are not in place yet!
@therealhennessy alright, I'm sending someone over right now. will paypal you the dough if it's still there.
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
Price drop:
@gregorg it's 19.99
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 9, 2013
@therealhennessy my guy's en route.
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
BTW, did you see that map? That is Rauschenberg's studio, people. Just down Lafayette Street from Hammons' snowball stand.
@therealhennessy no sweat, I NCIS'd the Vine.
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
Anyway, Kyle get there, and the piece is there. And so he loads it into a cab. Kyle is basically amazing, and Powhida is bummed, and Musson is eating, and I am stoked. I'm picking that thing up this weekend, and will add installation shots when it gets back to its new home in DC.
BAM. Got it. sending you the cash now, @therealhennessythx man on the street @kyle_petreycik for the hustle. twitter.com/gregorg/status...
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
@gregorg @kyle_petreycik YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 9, 2013
@therealhennessy @kyle_petreycik Paypalling now--oh wow, if I sign up for BillMeLater, I get $10 off!
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
Conservation notes with not so latent erotic connotations:
uh, @therealhennessy @kyle_petreycik widen out the bottom and your good. It looks a bit crushed on the bottom
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
it'll come w/my Frieze merch @powhida @therealhennessy @artfcity @kyle_petreyciknow we wait for Greg's big reveal. May take a few weeks.
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
Shoulda asked for -20%, but I made it $21, so you didn't get hit with those PayPal fees @therealhennessy @powhida @artfcity @kyle_petreycik
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
I get this way every Frieze week. @therealhennessy @kyle_petreycik
— gregorg (@gregorg) May 9, 2013
"@gregorg: I get this way every Frieze week. @therealhennessy @kyle_petreycik" I should probably hit the streets then
— Hennessy Youngman (@therealhennessy) May 9, 2013
In my Paypal note, I asked Jayson if the work had a title. He said yes. It is Punk is dead. Art was never alive. If I said I never stressed about money that'd be a lie.
This is basically the best Frieze Project ever.
