FOS (DK)
Carlsberg Tap E
FOS
Born 1971 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Lives in Copenhagen
Can a table be socially responsible? According to the artist FOS, it can. For him, social commitment and design are interfused. Since the mid-1990s, this approach has resulted in art projects which, in virtue of their design, act as communicative inputs that relate to the social texture of a men's hostel, bars, the art scene and society as a whole. For FOS, a chair, a bed, a cup or a tie are not merely physical objects. Design is partly responsible for how we think about the social world. This connection between design and sociality is the key idea informing FOS's Social Design.
In the 2004 sculpture Nothing Disappears Only Your Amnesia Arises , FOS illustrates in concrete terms the interaction between the social realm and the physical setting through a work comprised of two connected birdcages. In each birdcage sits a mynah bird. By reproducing the sounds in the space, the mynah birds spark off a kind of social dialogue and mutual attunement. And do so despite the clear demarcations that exist between animals and humans, confinement and freedom. It is the social interaction between what seem to be two entirely disparate worlds that FOS brings into focus here. Although the cages prevent direct contact, even between the birds, the work opens up opportunities for reflection on society and dialogue across classic divides: between sociality and materiality, art and viewer, you and me, bird and Homo sapiens.
"Design creates solutions, but art creates possibilities," FOS contends, and when
he combines the two approaches in his art, it is to point out that the form is only complete when the objects in question are used in a social context. Ultimately FOS's thrust is to debate social responsibility, and so to some extent his approach is politically informed. As he puts it: "Society is irresponsible, and so art must be responsible."
-MHB
Lives in Copenhagen
Can a table be socially responsible? According to the artist FOS, it can. For him, social commitment and design are interfused. Since the mid-1990s, this approach has resulted in art projects which, in virtue of their design, act as communicative inputs that relate to the social texture of a men's hostel, bars, the art scene and society as a whole. For FOS, a chair, a bed, a cup or a tie are not merely physical objects. Design is partly responsible for how we think about the social world. This connection between design and sociality is the key idea informing FOS's Social Design.
In the 2004 sculpture Nothing Disappears Only Your Amnesia Arises , FOS illustrates in concrete terms the interaction between the social realm and the physical setting through a work comprised of two connected birdcages. In each birdcage sits a mynah bird. By reproducing the sounds in the space, the mynah birds spark off a kind of social dialogue and mutual attunement. And do so despite the clear demarcations that exist between animals and humans, confinement and freedom. It is the social interaction between what seem to be two entirely disparate worlds that FOS brings into focus here. Although the cages prevent direct contact, even between the birds, the work opens up opportunities for reflection on society and dialogue across classic divides: between sociality and materiality, art and viewer, you and me, bird and Homo sapiens.
"Design creates solutions, but art creates possibilities," FOS contends, and when
he combines the two approaches in his art, it is to point out that the form is only complete when the objects in question are used in a social context. Ultimately FOS's thrust is to debate social responsibility, and so to some extent his approach is politically informed. As he puts it: "Society is irresponsible, and so art must be responsible."
-MHB