Process Piece - Building the Snowman

Artist Statement

In our increasingly materialistic society, we often overlook the benefits of processes and often focus our attention on the end product. As we discussed the importance of process in class and in our project partnership, we came to the realization that, as opposed to childhood when our ideology was to do something for the sake of having fun, adult life has caused us to shift focus to results as opposed to experiences. Due to these observations, we wanted to find a process that we could not only document, but participate in and engage with in order to rekindle an untarnished, child-like outlook on process. For inspiration, we looked towards art mediums in which the final product is temporary similar to the monk-drawn sand designs we observed in class.

In our research, we found an account of one of the earliest exhibits of process art, a 1969 presentation called “When Attitudes Become Form,” curated by Harald Szeemann at the Berne Kunsthalle. The exhibit featured artists who, rather than produce aesthetically pleasing, “commercialized” works, sought to visually create “seeds of ideas” in the form of works that were stacked on the floor or hung on the wall. By rejecting conventional aesthetics (tacking felt to the wall, creating steel structures that could be walked through, substituting clay for uncommon materials) the exhibit’s pieces emphasized the tactile, human quality of such work and encouraged the audience to reflect upon process instead of the art itself. One aspect of the exhibit that caught our eye was of ice sculptures that melted as the audience observed. These sculptures reminded us of another form of temporary art: the snowmen we used to make as children. When we built snowmen in our youth, we did so because it was fun to be with friends and engage in the process. Much like the melting ice sculptures, we knew the snowman would not last; but the end product was not the priority. As such, we decided to document our experience with building a snowman and emphasize our candid, personal experiences with the process.

In terms of artistic execution, we drew inspiration from the short film by Smith Journal called Smokehouse, which documents a simple hunter who decide to build by hand his own smoke house in order to live a more organic lifestyle. What differentiated this film from the other homework viewings was the use of careful editing of process insightful commentary, which helped the audience understand the impact of Rohan’s experience (which probably lasted for months) in context. We wanted to mirror that execution in our audio piece, leading us to integrate the commentary of our experiences along with just enough process sounds that the audience could follow the snowman’s progress. By cutting the process sound against our commentary, we hoped that the audience would not only gain respect for the process itself, but understand that we too grew from it. We included sounds of the process within our commentary in order to further strengthen the correlation between our experience and the building taking place; much like Smokehouse juxtaposed Rohan’s commentary with images of him constructing. In a way, we were not just building a snowman, but building our own appreciation for organic process just like Rohen. Ultimately, it did not matter that our snowman lasted (we checked, it was kicked over the next day), what mattered was that we did it, had fun, and reconnected with our inner child.