Bruce Conner was a vital artist within the underground art movement. Personally, I find his work fascinating and incredibly intriguing. Born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, Conner began to study art at Wichita University in which he left to go to Nebraska University where he received a BFA. He later went to study at the Brooklyn Art museum where he only manage to stay for a semester because he did not enjoy it. He left it for the University of Colorado where he met Jean Sandstedt, the women who later became his wife and a huge influence within his art work. From early on Conner had started to work with a variety of different mediums, such as tights, old bikes, fur, costume jewellery and candles. I really enjoy the range of work Conner produces, because he a has vide range there is so much you can study and so much inspiration you can take from his work. Conners early work didn't always contain a real meaning but he would mainly show his discarded opinion of the beauty of a American women and the way society impacted on a individual. A large section of Conner's work were films, he made powerful films from very early on in his career which would last up to twelve to fourteen minutes. He would create compilations from old newsreels an film that he had shot himself. Conner began to develop artistic identity when he showed his work at the Spatsa Gallery. Instead of inviting people to come, Conner made small black cards with the comment "works by the late Bruce Conner". This really sparked an interest within Conners work for the public, his humorous yet disturbed way of inviting people to his exhibition really gained interest in his work. Soon after this, Connor created Child, a sculptured shape of a child made from wax and bound together by stockings sent Conners work straight into the spotlight of the media. Whilst many people were mortified by this piece Conner simply stated that "it's art not murder". From 1960 to 1961, Conner had three main exhibitions and received a lot of positive comments from them. This really boosted Conner's work into the limelight, I personally feel that the creation of "Child" allowed Conner to start to creating really powerful pieces of work and it also gave him the recognition he deserved for these pieces. Connor carried on to gain more and more attention for his work throughout the 1960's, however in 1964, Conner announced that he would stop producing assemblages, which was a great shock to many people involved in the art world. Since the announcement of this, Conner began to produce many forms. In addition to that Conner began to produce more films such as Looking For Mushrooms, a purely colour driven film which lasted for three minutes. Throughout the 70's, Conner began to produce more photography and drawings, many of them focused on the stunning punk rock scene. Working with the photographer Edmund Shea they created a series of life sized photos called "Angels". I adore these pieces created by Conner, I could talk about them for hours. They fit the topic of indistinct perfectly, as does most of his work, but I feel that this series of photographs inspires me the most. They were created by using large sheets of photo paper, Conner would stand in front of these in different positions. Once the photos were taken they were quickly exposed to light, this left the light imprint of Conner's body on a completely black background. Throughout the 80's and 90's Conner had been creating a chain of contrasting collages, many using religious imagery which had become a main theme that has ran throughout the work of Conners within the 80's. It shows the visionary nature that is within all of Conners creations and made him stand out from the crowd. I feel that Conner Bruce has really helped my to develop the topic of indistinct, I have had many contrasting ideas about where I wanted to take the topic but I feel that Conners work has helped me narrow it down.
Bruce Conner- Guadalupe, (1962) assemblage, 27-20-5
Bruce Conner- Looking Glass, (1964) a sculpture made from, paper, mannequin arms, cotton cloth, nylon, beads, metal, twine, glass, leather, plastic, fur, dried blowfish, silk, feathers, elastic, wood, nylon stockings and costume jewellery.
Bruce Conner- Sound of Two Hand Angel, (1974) gelatin sliver on print photogram
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