Joseph Beuys

Joseph Bueys used a lot of different materials to create his artwork such as food, fabric, animal fat, honey and bees wax. He studied sculpture at Düsseldorf Academy of Art and graduated in 1952. He used war as an inspiration for his art work to respond to the current events going on around him. Eventually, he met up with video artist Nam June Paik and joined a performance group called Fluxus. The group performed concerts and it were these that Beuys used as inspiration for his performance and installation art. 

He planned a project in Baltimore called the Tree Partnership Project. A project to plant 500 trees. He focused on energy conservation and global awareness in Carol Park, Patterson Park, UMBC, and Wymen Park Dell. This was an ongoing project first started by a sculpture called 7000 Oaks.

He did a titled project 30 Oaks which is a concert of performance artists and local Baltimore musicians. This art work was only meant to be performed at this space. He wanted to create a strong human relation with the forest and greenery around the performers. There was singers, dancers, sculptures, artists and dreamers participating in this project. 

One performance art included > How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare. In this performance Beuys sat in a corner of a gallery and held a dead rat in his arms for the duration of the time. He carried the dead bunny around like it was very special to him. He spoke to it and treated it gently. Holding a dead hare was trying to create a radical statement on society. Sometimes people need to let go of the idea of something or someone being there all the time. Sometimes you have to give up things that you don't want too. But carrying around it's memory is just a lie to yourself that what you desire is coming back. In my life, the hardest thing to do is let go. That is what I take from this piece without reading a prior description explaining Bueys' true motives.

In his piece Infiltration Homogen für Konzertflügel (Homogenous Infiltration for Grand Piano), 1966 Beuys covered a piano in felt fabric to hide the musical instruments true purpose and sound. He used a thick covering to show that the object has been taken away it's original use. This is no longer a piano, but a wrapped object that underneath could only appear to be one. I believe Beuys was following Marcell Duchamp's Dada ideas for the de-contextualizatoin of this object.  

http://feltworks.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/joseph-beuys-felt-metaphors/

http://www.walkerart.org/archive/2/A84369EE5A576E446161.htm