Description of Visual Art Assignment

Introduction

Anna Sew Hoy, an American artist born in New Zealand, has long worked with found objects and discarded materials, including metals, jeans and tree roots. The Beta Space sets Sew Hoy a challenge: to join with GreenMouse Recycling of San Jose, and create a sculpture made of the discarded computer parts common in the Silicon Valley, provided by the recycling project (Morgan, pp. n.d). Thus the exhibition is a demonstration of both recycling and creative transformation.

Sew Hoy says she started by working in ceramics and knew nothing of sculpture but Rodin. But she began experimenting, finding herself creating personal and abstract constructs: one such installation was a rock-shaped, shining form, made of silver beer cans. Another called POW presents two oversized casts, one a leg-cast and another wrist-cast, which viewers sign.

Discussion

It seems fitting that the San Jose Museum of Art - a cultural institution located in the heart of California's Silicon Valley - would pay an artistic tribute to the computer. Her latest exhibition, "Beta Space: Anna Sew Hoy", does just that, with a little help from San Jose-based e-waste collector / recycling GreenMouse recycling.

After commissioning the project and selecting artist Anna Sew Hoy, the museum approached GreenMouse owner Evelyn O'Donnell to provide a selection of e-waste collection among other "firsts" materials, such as GreenMouse already houses a permanent exhibition of information technologies and early dark depicting the history of obsolescence in both industrial design and information technology (Beta Space: Anna Sew Hoy, pp. n.d). In developing this new work, Sew Hoy was asked to visit and meet the technological culture of San Jose and Silicon Valley, said it made sense to look at e-waste as a reflection of those start-ups in Silicon Valley that boom and then bust.

Set to run until February 2012 as part of the gallery of the museum being tested, "Beta Space" focuses on new uses, interdisciplinary and creative non-traditional media and materials from internationally renowned artists from the Bay Area of ??Glass' Institute, which - under the direction Sew Hoy of - created a new group of sculptures in large, custom blown glass vases containing the "electronic detritus" provided by Recycling GreenMouse (Morgan, pp. n.d).

O'Donnell reported that he was happy to help artists in the creation of this work, the involvement of society in initiatives such as this - as the "mini-museum" in the office and their work GreenMouse fundraising with local organizations and associations charity - part of how the company helps to distinguish itself from most industrial recyclers of electronic waste.

The second installation was in the San Jose Museum of Art's experimental exhibition gallery “Beta Space” the new work by Anna Sew Hoy. Beta Space: Anna Sew Hoy was on view August 27, 2011, through February 26, 2012. Sew Hoy was collaborating with San Jose's GreenMouse Recycling and the Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI) to create a new group of sculptural works entitled “Nothing All Day” (2011) (Hodge, pp. n.d). The installation incorporate custom-blown glass vessels made by BAGI ...