Mike Shaffer
Object Works
Lake Hebeeb, Rocky Gap State Park near Cumberland, MD
Hangers On, 17 x 17 x 4 inches, 1992
Hangers On, 17 x 17 x 4 inches, 1992
Tick Tock Green Box, 16 x 15 x 3 inches, 1996
Like many artists, I accumulated an enormous variety of smallish objects, things and doodads over the years and could not help but work up this group of medium sized creations. Most contain, a milieu of acrylics, oils, polymers, adhesives and who-knows-what-all and several have working clocks with batteries, thermometers, calculators and containers for fresh flowers etc. All range from 8 to 48 inches in height by maybe 8 inches in depth. The group was started in 1988 and is usually added to each year or so.
Blue Spoon, 14 x 14 x 4 inches, 1996
Off-white Knight, 16 x 16 x 5 inches, 1997
Push Button Light Beep, 48 x 32 x 12 inches, 1997
Auto Care Nightmare, 22 x 16 x 7 inches, 1992
I was impressed years ago by the way Raushenberg used objects in his paintings but most of his early works and those by others such as Schnabel had a "mostly paintings" quality about them. I suppose the works in this series could be considered to be reliefs but the forward material is applied to a dissimilar background if that matters and they are all abstract.
They could
The big Push Button piece at left was designed to be plugged into an electrical outlet via an attached extension cord. It jumps to a brighter state when approached and is interactive allowing the lights to be dimmed or turned on or off and cause sounds to be produced.
Target Ten, 23 x 23 x5 inches, 1996