Art Hound

You may know Chad Wys from the beautiful, small-scale abstract landscapes he sells on etsy. Little did I know but he’s also been working on some other really cool projects, including this series of readymades* entitled, Brutalized Delights. For the series Wys acquires discarded decorative objects by way of thrift stores and gives them a new life with bright paint. I personally love when artists rework traditional elements of art and design. I think it’s the feeling of surprise and the little rush of adrenaline that comes with it that I love most. Check out more of Wys’ projects here.

Wys does a fabulous job of contextualizing the series: “In many ways our possessions define us. The bric-a-brac of our lives becomes a unit of measure of our own worth… The ‘art’ and the ‘cultural objects’ we chose to engage with in our own living spaces becomes a physical part of ourselves.”

“This series of readymades investigates the themes of ownership and object history, as well as the relationship between kitsch and art…  By altering these objects I am introducing a second narrative into their histories as cultural artifacts.  By acknowledging their status as objects of kitsch consumption, I am suggesting the capability of transcending the barriers of high and low art depending upon the act of interpretation, awareness, and purpose.” Enough said!

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* Readymade or “found art” is a term for art objects that once had a previous life. In some cases the artist leaves the object untouched, but in others the object is altered in some small or not-so-small way. One of the most famous example of this kind of art is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) which was an ordinary urinal that he signed R. Mutt. Readymade is also the name of an awesome magazine.