gee-whiz?

thought about the gee-whiz thing some more. I think Kentridge definitely fits that category, developing a sense of wonder in the viewer to hold their attention, and it seems to work on large and small scale. Ann Hamilton is another, for me at least, using the quantity thing to captivate the viewer- I didn't find many good images online, look up the book about her by Joan Simon.

Another version of this in the photographes of Thomas Demand- he does these large-scale photos of seemingly mundane things in a William Eggleston way, but as you look closely you can see that they are all constructed sets- in fact, the photos are the product, he never shows the constructions, as the lighting and how they are photographs are part of the illusion. They are also usually related to some places and time in particular, the first one below is from the Florida recount room, I don't know about the plane, but there is another of Hitler's bunker, another of the hallway in Jeffery Dahmer's apartment.





Another one I thought of was Tim Hawkinson. I've never actually seen his work, but saw it on the art21 things from pbs, I think that would explain it better than I could. Basically the bladder and the tubes play music throughout the whole space of the MassMOCA





The other one that comes to mind is James Turrell, the play with projected light vs. cuts in the wall, or the skyspaces, are very simple but definitely hold the viewer and alsohelp him deal almost directly with his subject, the perception of light. the crater project in arizona is supposed to be amazing too, though i don't think it's done yet.



Another one I was thinking of, on a different scale, is Vija Celmins, and a good example of virtuousity working in a good way, actually in a similar way to Agnes Martin. The images here are nice but when you see them up close, especially the large night star-scapes (oil paintings), the layers and density again work like some of the other examples here, to capture a sense of wonder...